The McGill Tribune Vol. 36 Issue 12

SPORTS “McGill Redmen hockey dominates Brock Badgers in penalty-filled contest” pg. 16

FEATURE “Drowning in addiction: The social aspects of alcoholism at McGill” pg. 08-09

The McGill Tribune

EDITORIAL: STREAMLINING OF MCGILL COUNSELLING AND MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES pg. 05

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2016

VOL. 36 ISSUE 12

PUBLISHED BY THE SPT, A STUDENT SOCIETY OF MCGILL UNIVERSITY

McGILLTRIBUNE.COM

Opera McGill’s Alcina: A dubious experiment in orientalism Julia Loach Contributor

Florian Grond and Romain Dumoulin present during McGill Innovation Week. (Lauren Benson-Armer / The McGill Tribune)

SSMU passes global access to medicines, cost-free birth control

Two motions originally to be voted on at GA Julia Metraux Staff Writer

At its Nov. 17 meeting, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Legislative Council voted to pass the Motion Regarding Global Access to Medicines Policy and the Motion Regarding SSMU Support for Cost-Free Birth Control Coverage. Ac-

cording to SSMU President Ben Ger, Council voted on motions that were originally supposed to be voted on by students at the General Assembly (GA), but could not be because it did not meet quorum.

“As some people might know, [the] GA did not meet quorum, so we’re running an online ratification for [the]

two motions [Regarding Nomination of the SSMU Board of Directors and Regarding the Nomination of the Auditor for the Fiscal Year of 2017],” Ger said.

According to Ger, the Motion Regarding Global Access to Medicines Policy and the Motion Regarding SSMU Support for Cost-Free Birth Control were heard at SSMU Council

by the request of the movers. However, the motions regarding the composition of the Board of Directors and the nomination of the auditor were ratified online by the student body on Nov. 18 by 86.7 per cent and 89.9 per cent, respectively.

These motions were required to be passed by the student body, according to the SSMU Constitution.

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Smol puppers and fluffy doggos: A history of Dogspotting How the Facebook community became an international phenomenon

Calvin Trottier-Chi Staff Writer Taking pictures of dogs in public has been nothing but a casual activity for years; however, when humanity’s fascination with our canine companions merged with the reach of social media, the Facebook

group Dogspotting was born.

Dogspotting is the act of ‘spotting’ dogs in public, taking a picture, and posting it online for other members to score it. Historically, there has been some debate over the rigidity of the points system. Today, there is an official rubric for scoring, but members can still spontaneously

award non-official points.

John Savoia coined the term “Dogspotting” in 2006 on the Something Awful Forums, an online space for sharing hobbies and activities, usually with a comedic twist. Savoia then went on to create the Dogspotting Facebook Group in 2008. It continued as a small

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community of roughly twenty friends sharing pictures, until several Australian college students found it in June of 2014. Soon after, the social influence of Dogspotting increased exponentially and its membership exploded. Currently there are 350,000 members with about 7,000 joining each week.

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From the cultural stereotypes in Madame Butterfly to the racism in Otello, the intersection of race and culture with opera has a dark and problematic history. Given this legacy, the East Asian setting and the specific Chinese cultural influences of Opera McGill’s production of Alcina is confusing, especially given the European libretto.

The production of Alcina, was, without a doubt, impressive and meticulous. The vocalists were mesmerizing, the orchestra colourful, and the dedication and preparation were evident throughout. The director, professor Patrick Hensen, reflected that Alcina is a lengthy and demanding opera.

“The difficulties are the length of these Handel operas—for both the students and today’s modern audience, and the vocal demands of a few roles.” The difficulties were evidently overcome in this seamless and engaging performance. The design elements of production, however, are where the East Asian influences are clear.

Hensen’s unusual setting of the opera was inspired by the Italian poem, “Orlando Furioso”

by Ariosto, which inspired a 16th century Opera by Brochi, which later influenced Handel’s Alcina.

“In the Ariosto, there is a subplot concerning the saracen Ruggiero and his Christian girlfriend Bradamante. He is flown away by Hippogriff to Alcina’s island “east of India” where he’s enchanted by the sorceress Alcina,” Hensen explained. It was this location that provided the inspiration for the setting.

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Tuesday, November 22, 2016

2 news

McGill Innovation Week highlights necessity of collaboration in all fields Events encourage students to connect with Montreal community Chelsea Chen Contributor From Nov. 13 to 20, McGill Innovation Week (MIW) hosted 27 free events on campus and in the Montreal community to celebrate innovation and entrepreneurship and to connect local actors with the McGill community. The McGill Office of Innovation and Partnership joined with groups such as the Quartier de l’Innovation de Montréal and Centre d’Entreprises et d’Innovation de Montréal to showcase current innovations in various fields, including music, visual arts, urban planning, education, agriculture, and health.

Tony Mistak, U2 Arts and a student intern organizer for MIW, hoped to reach a large audience and share the relevance of innovation to McGill students.

“The whole point of [MIW] and practicing innovation is to create the next—or the next generation—of forward thinkers,” Mistak said. “That’s why I like [MIW] so much, because there’s so much happening with so many different topics, and innovation needs to happen in all these different disciplines [….] I think it’s becoming important for us to provide the kind of expertise that would be suitable for what McGill represents because we’re all about excellence.”

The McGill Office of Innovation and Partnership provided a valuable opportunity for innovators from several fields

Florian Grond and Romain Dumoulin present during McGill Innovation Week. (Lauren Benson-Armer / The McGill Tribune) to plan separate events under the MIW framework. “[We] reach out to people who want to create events and have expertise in certain topics, and we add them to our programming,” Mistak said. “Our partners are creating these events, and we are connecting them all together.”

The week opened with a panel discussion that included five female entrepreneurs who ventured into new fields to start their businesses. Panelists included Dr. Margaret Magdesian, a former McGill biopharmaceutical researcher-turnedentrepreneur. Magdesian spoke about her experience stepping out of academia in order to bring the research she did at

McGill on micro and nanodevices to the market.

“I developed hundreds of [micro and nanodevices] and they were all in my drawer, waiting for my next paper to be published [...],” Magdesian said. “[Then] a company asked me for 10,000 [of the devices I developed…] and then I thought, ‘Oh wow, […] either I become an entrepreneur now and make a difference in everyone’s lives by providing them with tools, or I keep on trying to publish one paper at a time.’”

Similarly, Dr. Eric Lewis, McGill professor of philosophy and director of the Institute for the Public Life of Arts and Ideas, commented on the link be-

tween collaboration and innovation at a panel discussion titled Art and Our Infinite Appetite for Innovation on Nov. 15.

“Innovation is in the nature of collaboration,” Lewis said. “Innovation is the process as well as the product.”

Mistak was glad to see students from faculties other than management attending the events. He explained that innovation is not restricted to any one particular domain.

“Innovation is something new and improved for a [particular] subset of people,” Mistak said. “Although the idea does not seem new to you, it does not mean that it is not new to the subset of people that you’re [addressing].”

The McGill Innovation Week Presents: ENERj event was held on Nov. 16 and highlighted a technology startup company founded by two McGill alumnae. ENERj seeks to address climate change from the bottom—up through fun and interactive household electricity monitoring. Marc Jarvis, U3 Science, attended the event and said that ENERj is an innovative way to engage and mobilize people to address the issue of climate change. “[The] innovation is either restructuring the problem so that it isn’t a problem anymore, or it’s finding a novel solution,” Jarvis said. “Or maybe there is a solution to something, but the innovation is engaging more people or engaging the issue in a different way.”

Study Saturday Parents and Kids Program now held in SSMU building Free babysitting service provides student parents time to study

Student parents have the chance to study while their children are taking care of on Saturdays.

(Jen Wang / The McGill Tribune)

Holly Cabrera Staff Writer On Nov. 19, the Post-Graduate Students’ Society of McGill (PGSS) held its first Study Saturday Parents and Kids Program (SSPKP) event of the 201620117 school year. The free service allows student parents to drop their children off with volunteer babysitters for up to five hours, assisting parents to study

on the weekend.

In an email to The McGill Tribune, PGSS Member Services Officer Jenny Ann Pura explained that the McGill Office of Religious and Spiritual Life (MORSL) initiated the program in 2004.

When MORSL no longer had the funds to support Study Sunday in 2014, PGSS took over the project. Although PGSS is the SSPKP’s main organizer, parents pursuing an undergraduate degree are also

free to use the program.

“The objective of the program is to provide student parents with an opportunity for quiet study time and is designed to better serve the McGill community,” Pura said.

Pura confirmed that PGSS has teamed up with the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) to move the program from Thomson House to the SSMU building.

“In its evolution, a collaboration was set out by the previous [2015-16] executives of PGSS and SSMU, and only now have the kinks been ironed out,” Pura said. “The plan is to collaborate with Midnight Kitchen to provide the snacks and food.”

SSMU Vice-President (VP) Student Life Elaine Patterson said that PGSS struggled to accommodate parents at Thomson House in past years.

“Thomson House [...] isn’t the easiest place to get to,” Patterson said. “[PGSS] reached out to SSMU last year to start hosting this program in the SSMU building. We’ve been working on integrating it more in SSMU and offering it to members of SSMU and PGSS alike. It’s a program that we can now offer to any student parent on campus.”

This Fall marks the second semester

that PhD candidate in Educational Studies Haleh Raissadat will use SSPKP to catch up on schoolwork.

“If [the program] happened in the summer, I would definitely be here,” Raissadat said. “I have a little kid and I work full-time. Basically, my only chance to study would be during the night after 10:00 p.m. when I put my kid to bed until 6:00 a.m. The program gave me a chance to study at normal hours and make sure that I’m not putting my child in front of the T.V. all day.”

Educational Studies PhD candidate Constantinos Yanniris noted that with daycare centres closed on weekends, student parents have little time to dedicate to their studies.

“It’s very important for us to find somewhere that, even for once a month, we have this place where we can study,” Yanniris said. “Our weekends are full.

For graduate students, there aren’t really holidays and so we really appreciate [the program], especially since we don’t see any other services like this for parents from the McGill administration.”

SSMU and PGSS are currently accepting volunteer applications for the six remaining Study Saturday events. During this academic year, sessions will be held until April 22, 2017.

news 3

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

New policy against discrimination implemented in Mercury Course Evaluations

SSMU passes motions regarding global access to medicines and cost-free birth control Two motions originally to be voted on at GA

Concerns of censorship raised Julie Guichard Contributor On Nov. 2, McGill Teaching and Learning Services (TLS) announced the introduction of a formal protocol which enabled professors and teaching assistants (TAs) to report hateful or discriminatory comments left on Mercury Course Evaluations.

According to TLS Director Laura Winer, comments that are deemed inappropriate will result in the removal of the entire evaluation response from the Mercury system. A pilot program was launched a year ago, but will officially come into effect Fall 2016.

“TLS have developed a protocol for addressing comments in Mercury end-of-year evaluations that are determined to be hateful or discriminatory on the basis of attributes such as [...] sexual or gender identity, race, ethnicity, religion, or disability,” Winer said.

The new policy also allows students to request deletion of the forms they have sent in by filling out a webform.

“Course evaluation data can also be deleted when a student makes a mistake, such as answering ‘strongly disagree’ instead of ‘strongly agree,’” Winer said.

Angela Campbell, associate provost (Policies, Procedures, and Equity), noted that the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Equity Commissioner will be responsible for making the decision on whether an evaluation response should be removed. “[The Equity Commissioner] will not be able to see the identity of the instructor or [the TA, and] if deletion is appropriate the student’s response in its entirety will be deleted from the evaluation for the course in question,” Campbell said.

The new sets of guidelines, however, raises questions regarding the importance of student feedback and whether other review websites that do not have such policies, such as RateMyProfessors.com, will become even more popular.

“This protocol is not intended to silence students or minimize the value of student feedback, which is crucial to curricular and pedagogical development at [McGill],” Campbell said. “[It] is more proactive rather than reactive to any specific incident.”

The aim of the policy is to make feedback more constructive and give professors and TAs responses that point to aspects of a course that can be improved on. The policy does not intend to punish students whose evaluation responses are deleted.

“The protocol’s objective is educational rather than punitive in nature,” Campbell said. “Since course evaluations are anonymous, sanctioning discriminatory statements is not possible.”

Professor Mark Brawley of the Department of Political Science receives an abundance of Mercury evaluations and finds that while many are useful, many are not productive.

“Evaluations often contain few specifics.” Brawley wrote in an email to The Tribune. “Positive evaluations may simply say, ‘The prof rocks’ rather than elaborating why the student found the class useful, [and,] since the evaluations are anonymous, the students can vent their anger, disappointment or frustrations, and it isn’t always pretty.”

However, the program may not be helpful in improving course feedback. According to Political Science Professor Philip Oxhorn, founding director of the Institute for the Study of International Development, there are concerns it will erase student voices.

“The best way to stop [negative comments] from being expressed isn’t to erase them as if they never existed, but leave them as they are in order to remind people that we should not be complacent,” Oxhorn said.

According to Oxhorn, isolated and insensitive comments do not carry much weight and students understand that these comments do not reflect the instructor’s teaching abilities. Therefore, there can be danger when entire evaluations are deleted.

“Once it is agreed that comments deemed ‘inappropriate’ can be eliminated, we will find ourselves on a slippery slope as people push to expand the definition of ‘unacceptable,’” Oxhorn said. “If student feel their comments may be erased, then they [may] stop participating in evaluations.”

Roughly a third of SSMU Legislative Council was absent from the Nov. 17 meeting. (Christopher Li / The McGill Tribune)

Julia Metraux Staff Writer Continued from page 1.

“Both [the Board of Directors and the auditor] are required to allow a company to function,” said Ger. “The Companies Act [of Quebec] states that in cases when the company must continue to function, legal reasoning must prevail over internal procedure. Thus, even though the GA didn’t meet quorum, due to Quebec Law those two motions still went to ratification.”

Roughly a third of SSMU Legislative Council was absent from this meeting due to previously scheduled events outside of Montreal, and therefore did not participate in voting for motions.

Motion Regarding SSMU Support for Cost-Free Birth Control Council also voted to pass the Motion Regarding SSMU Support for Cost-Free Birth Control Coverage, which proposes that SSMU works to expand cost-free birth control for non-Quebec resident students. This motion is intended to make changes to the SSMU Student Health and Dental Plan and McGill International Health Insurance Plan.

According to McGill Students for the New Democratic Party (NDP McGill) Policy Director Julian Benollo-Stauch, NDP McGill moved this motion because birth control is currently completely covered for Quebec residents, but out-of-province and international students must pay to fill their prescriptions.

“Other countries, for example Australia, have birth control covered in health plans,” BenolloStauch said. “Unfortunately, Canada has not yet covered it. It is covered for Quebec residents, we want to expand that to non-Quebec Canadian residents. We also ask that McGill seek to do the same for international students.”

Senate Caucus Representative Joshua Chin asked if NDP McGill explored other areas that might be presenting problems.

“It seems that here in Quebec, the overwhelming barrier to access is not cost but the lack of access to a family physician in order to get a prescription for birth control,” Chin said. “Have you explored this route to look at the access?”

Representatives from NDP McGill responded that they are currently looking into this option.

Motion Regarding Global Access to Medicines Policy Council voted to pass the Motion Regarding Global Access to Medicines Policy, which proposes that SSMU calls for McGill—a leading university for biotechnology patents—to help lower drug costs to increase accessibility for people around the world. The motion was moved by the McGill Chapter of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM).

UAEM Co-President Sonia Labri said that universities have leverage when working with pharmaceutical companies over prices and distribution.

This allows the university to negotiate on terms of accessibility to medications in the event of a crisis.

“This motion is specifically dealing with patents that go through the university,” Labri said. “Universities then send the patents to pharmaceuticals, who don’t really ask anything. We want to add a global accessibility framework [to McGill] that would say that in the event that this drug or this innovation is ever [needed] in an humanitarian crisis, it wouldn’t charge anything over the cost of using the drug. So if that’s a pill, that will usually be five to ten cents.

If it is a vaccine, it is usually around $2.”

Council decided to only vote on the second part of the motion instead of voting to pass or reject it in its entirety. Arts Representative Igor Sadikov clarified that the second part of the motion contained the point of the mandate, whereas the first part was more on policy. This leaves SSMU with a mandate to begin advocating for the implementation of a global access licensing framework for health-related technology transfers to the private sector through the McGill Senate, even though the policy has not been passed yet.

“The first part of the motion on global access to medicines is a policy, and there had been no notice of motion, so we realized that it would violate the regulations to approve it right away [...],” Sadikov said. “However, the second part of the motion is not part of the policy, so there is no need for a notice for that part, which is why we were able to divide the question and vote on the second part.”

At their next meeting on Dec. 1, Council will vote on the first section of the motion, which calls for SSMU to support increased access to medicines throughout the world as a public good and a human right.

4 news

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Students rally at “Love Trumps Hate” protest at McGill

Democrats Abroad event provides students with space to voice opinions Alexia Martel-Desjardins Contributor On Nov. 14, students participated in a protest organized by Democrats Abroad at McGill following Donald Trump’s victory in the American presidential election on Nov. 8. In Fall 2016, American students made up 11.3 per cent of the undergraduate entering class and 6.8 per cent of the graduate entering class.

The protest started around 5 p.m. at Milton Gates. Participants engaged in speeches denouncing the policies promoted by President-Elect Trump and calling for society at large to take action. The crowd then peacefully marched to the Roddick Gates.

Protestors had prepared posters with slogans such as “Love Trumps Hate” and “Respect existence or expect resistance,” as well as posters of the Palestinian flag and gay pride flags.

Vice President (VP) Events of Democrats Abroad at McGill Ella Hanson explained that the event aimed to provide a space for all students to voice their thoughts and opinions after the U.S. elections.

“I think we saw a lot of protests happen around the U.S. and we wanted to give American students and also international students at McGill the opportunity to express their opinions about the results in the election,” Hanson said.

Thomas Chroeter, a GermanAmerican U1 Arts student present at the protest, believes it is important to participate in such events in order to prevent Trump’s re-election in 2020.

“The one thing that we can do

in order to not let something like this happen again is to go in the communities, speak to people, [...] to join groups like Democrats Abroad at McGill, and to make sure that at the next elections we know that we fought our hardest, that we did our very best in the next four years to not give Trump a second term,” Chroeter said.

Chroeter recalled feeling deeply discouraged and disoriented when the election results were announced.

Students gathered at the Milton Gates on Nov. 14 to protest the election of Donald Trump.

(Coralie Delettre / The McGill Tribune)

“I was feeling lost, I didn’t know what to do,” Chroeter said. “It was probably one of the worst nights of my life.”

Beatrice Dimaculangan, U1 Arts, an American student also present at the protest, had an emotional experience on election night and in the following days.

“As I was watching the election, I was actually in a room full of international students where there was a lot of Americans and everyone was in tears,” Dimaculangan said. “I was in tears the next morning, […] I had friends hitting me up that were scared for their lives, for their futures.”

Dimaculangan feels particularly threatened by Trump’s program and policies due to a triple vulnerability.

“I am a woman, I am a minority, I come from a family of immigrants, so right now I’m feeling very fearful and anxious for my future,” Dimaculangan said.

Despite the apprehension, Dimaculangan remains optimistic about the future impact of her generation, who largely voted for Hillary Clinton.

“As a group of millennials we

are […] incredibly vocal about our opinions and very optimistic about the impact that we can make […] because if you do look at the distribution of votes for millennials, […] it’s predominantly blue,” Dimaculangan said.

Amanda Demers, president of Democrats Abroad, explained that due to the elections, participation in the organization’s events has significantly increased this year.

“This year has been, obviously, the most active year [...],” Demers said. “There’s been a big sense of concern and worry for a lot of Americans, especially being abroad, because you feel like you can’t do as much […] so we’re trying to provide them with outlets so they can become involved.”

Democrats Abroad intends to organize more events of this type if students’ urge to protest maintains the intensity manifested last week.

However, nothing is planned yet.

“We hope [that] if the interest is still there and, depending on what happens, […] we will definitely be organizing more events,” Hanson said.

Motion to support Notice of Seizure permanently struck from GA Agenda Motion lacked indigenous student and community consultation Jasmin Nicole Widmer Contributor At the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) 2016 Winter General Assembly (GA) on Feb. 22, a motion moved by petition was brought forward titled, “Support for the Kahtihon’tia:kwenio (Women Titleholders of the Land).” The motion called for SSMU to stand in support of the Notice of Seizure delivered by a member of the Kahnawake Mohawk community.

The Notice of Seizure asked for McGill University to immediately cease military research on campus and to pay debts owed to the Mohawk Nation. The motion in support of the seizure was first postponed from the Winter 2016 to the Fall 2016 GA, where it was then struck from the agenda by the Executive Committee–made up of the seven SSMU executives–according to SSMU VicePresident (VP) University Affairs Erin Sobat.

“Typically, the motion would have automatically appeared again on the agenda, but in light of the circumstances, the Executive Committee proposed that it be struck when the [Fall 2016] agenda was adopted,” Sobat said. “Christian [Quequish], [SSMU] Indigenous Affairs Commissioner, spoke to the reasoning behind this and members in attendance had the opportunity to ask questions or make comments. For example, if they wanted to argue that it should remain.”

Quequish consulted with members of the Kahnawake community before recommending the motion be removed from the agenda.

“In anticipation of this issue, I did consult with several community members of Kahnawake and was able to determine that the indigenous activist [who delivered the notice] is and continues to act in isolation of the governance systems within

Kahnawake,” Quequish said. “After further consultation with indigenous stakeholders in the McGill community, I made the recommendation to the SSMU executives that we act on this. The SSMU executives put forward the suggestion that we strike the motion from the agenda and release a statement explaining why.”

Quequish was critical of the lack of consultation with indigenous students and the indigenous nation when preparing the motion.

“It was found that the movers in question did not consult with indigenous students on campus, or anyone from Kahnawake, before putting the motion forward,” Quequish said. “This is especially problematic considering the tone and scope of the indigenous activists’ claim.”

A statement released by SSMU to members over email says the ‘Women Titleholders’ cited in the motion do not represent Kahnawake in any official capacity.

“The motion presented at the Winter General Assembly is misrepresentative of local indigenous perspectives and stems from selective consultation with activists operating in isolation from traditional governance systems,” read the statement.

“In particular, the ‘Women Titleholders’ are not official representatives of Kahnawake, nor do they have the support of the Kahnawake Longhouses or many indigenous students on-campus.”

Quequish was further concerned over events that followed the presentation of the motion at the 2016 Winter GA. “A further reason for the tabling of the motion is that an indigenous student in attendance protested the motion,” Quequish said. “It was found that following the tabling of the motion, the indigenous student was harassed by the indigenous activist, but only because the movers had

The SSMU Executive Council voted to the strike the motion from the Nov. 7 GA agenda. (L-A Benoit / The McGill Tribune) given [the indigenous activist] the student’s contact information.”

The 2016 Fall GA was held on Nov. 7 and the motion was not on the agenda.

“Notably, the GA also did not meet quorum, so if it had not been struck the motion would have been deferred to the Legislative Council,” Sobat said. “At this stage, however, the motion has been removed and is not up for future discussion.”

According to Quequish, in the aftermath of this motion, SSMU is looking to implement and better institutionalize consultative processes with indigenous students and communities for motions that will affect them.

“SSMU adopted a policy [...] on Indigenous Solidarity last semester [that was put forward by the previous Indigenous Affairs Commissioner],” Quequish said. “We will be using that framework

to address gaps in consultation between indigenous individuals, groups, and communities and the larger SSMU community. Also, per the statement, we will be distributing more resources and contacts to students and student groups where appropriate.”

According to SSMU President Ben Ger, the Executive Committee is now looking to update the Solidarity Policy to avoid similar situations.

“The Committee will be looking into ways to amend the Indigenous Solidarity Policy to add in some of those protocols. However, they have not yet been finalized,” Ger said. “The process of developing consultative protocols would primarily be handled by the Indigenous Affairs Commissioner and the Indigenous Affairs Committee, with support from [the VP External David Aird, the VP University Affairs Erin Sobat], and myself.”

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

OPINION 5

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 Jenna Stanwood, Sara Cullen, William Pang news@mcgilltribune.com Opinion Editors Emma Avery & 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 Zikomo Smith & Aaron Rose sports@mcgilltribune.com Design Editors Domitille Biehlmann & Daniel Freed design@mcgilltribune.com Photo Editor L-A Benoit 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

Streamlining of McGill Counselling and Mental Health Services leaves gaps in medical note procedures As part of the integration of McGill Counselling and Mental Health Services (MCMHS), medical notes are no longer available for students who use dropin appointments unless their case falls under the criteria for the newly designated “Safety Appointment.”

Although the change prioritizes support for students who urgently need it in order to be safe, questions remain as to what students are supposed to do if they do not qualify for a safety appointment, but need a medical note due to mental health reasons. While such growing pains are no doubt a side effect of the ongoing integration process, measures must be put in place to resolve this gap in services that adversely affects students now. Going forward, McGill must better disseminate information on what this change means, what support is still available to students, and how it will accommodate those who do not fall under urgent cases, but nevertheless require medical notes.

The safety appointment criteria are reserved for urgent cases, such as if a student is at risk of harming themselves, has recently overdosed or been hospitalized in a psychiatric ward, or has recently been physically assaulted. Medical notes still remain available to those who already have an assigned mental health

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do not fit the category unsure of their options. At the moment, students must wait two weeks for an appointment if they are not mentally well enough to take an exam or complete a project, and cannot acquire a medical note in time.

It is essential that the MCMHS be able to provide medical notes to any student in need on a timely basis, as students may have no other options off campus.

Private physicians can be expensive, as visits are not fully covered by SSMU’s Health Coverage.

In the interim, students may resort to methods outside MCMHS in order to get more immediate support. Student-run services—such as the Peer Support Centre, the Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society (SACOMSS), and the McGill Students’ Nightline—all provide support for both mental health and physical safety concerns. These services can also advise students on how to best approach their professors if they need an exam deferral. Additionally, as part of a transition towards a university environment that is more accommodating of mental health, the Students’ Society of McGill University’s (SSMU) newlyimplemented Mental Health 101 training may help raise the necessary awareness and understanding among professors about the diverse range of mental health

situations students may find themselves in. All of these student-led initiatives are essential to filling the gaps and to helping reduce the strain on MCMHS; however, crucially, these services do not have the power to provide medical notes.

Going forward, McGill should consider whether academic advising should play a greater role in helping students prepare for their course load and informing them of how best to acquire a deferral or extension.

MCMHS is looking into solutions to provide more equal access to medical notes, such as creating a case manager role; however, the immediate implementation of the integration without informing students of what it entails, and without having a contingency plan to avoid such gaps, seems short-sighted. As yet, students have not been formally notified of this particular effect of the integration, and many may not be aware that drop-in appointments with an intake clinician are still available to all students. While this may have been a necessary change in the care model, this oversight is disruptive and detrimental to students—especially with the Fall 2016 final exam period looming—who find themselves with mental health concerns and unable to get a medical note from MCMHS in time to have an exam deferred.

o f f t h e b o a r d Quality versus quantity: Questioning workload at McGill

Business Manager Mingye Chen business@mcgilltribune.com

Alexia Martel-Dejardins, Becca Zhuang, Chelsea Chen, Dylan Adamson, Ella Benedetti, Emily Szpiro, Gibran Haque, Grey Gunning, Jasmin Nicole Widmer, Julia Loach, Julie Guichard, Kate Lord, Miguel Principe, Natasha Michaeloff, Paige Mysliviec, Patrick Beacham Selwynne Hawkins

professional.

MCMHS is overburdened and understaffed relative to demand. Serving a student population of over 39,000 while grappling with budget constraints is no easy task. The integration of services is a positive step that improves efficiency and streamlines the care model, as students are no longer need to determine in advance whether they need psychiatric care or counselling. The single point of entry will reduce confusion in this sense; however, the effect of the integration on medical notes shows that gaps remain.

Any policy change—no matter how temporary—must recognize that mental health experiences vary between individual situations and that the criteria for a safety appointment are not the only criteria by which a student would require a medical note. Mental health and wellness cannot be predictably planned for, making it imperative that MCMHS develops a procedure whereby those in need, but not in such need as specified by the safety appointment criteria, may receive a medical note. This is not to say that all students who attend drop-in sessions unconditionally require a deferral or extension; that decision ultimately rests with the clinician. However, restricting access to medical notes to a certain category of students leaves those who

Nicholas Jasinski Managing Editor It seems like no matter what you study at McGill—English, Finance, Physics, or Nursing—you often find yourself with an infeasible volume of readings, practice exercises, pre-labs, or online quizzes. It’s hard to imagine that the professors assigning the work really believe that their students will be able to finish it all on time.

I’ve walked into multiple lectures, sat down, looked around the classroom, and thought to myself, “Who actually finished the readings?” My friends in Science have complained to me that the sheer amount of lab reports, quizzes, and problem sets compounded across all of their courses quickly becomes overwhelming. While being able to read quickly is certainly a worthwhile skill, and repetition

and practice may make perfect, the brute-force, volume approach cannot really be the most conducive for learning in university. It should not be natural for McGill students to be constantly drowning in assignments.

Our classes and our professors should certainly challenge us and push our limits as scholars. We all signed up to come to McGill for its promise of a rigorous education.

But, rigour does not necessitate colossal volumes of work. Plowing through hundreds of pages of readings or suffering through hours of busywork every night arguably does not promote understanding; it only encourages the student to work towards completion, not real comprehension. The result is a loss of depth, merely for the sake of volume.

Students complaining about their workload at McGill should thoughtfully question the purpose and goals of their assignments, as overburdening could seriously affect quality of education. Neverending, repetitive, or mindless assignments that must be completed simply to earn participation points discourage real learning—in the form of lasting and applicable understanding—and add more stress and exhaustion, physical and mental health problems, and a lack of balance to students’ lives. Profes-

sors should be able to make clear when designing their courses the purpose and benefit of each read-

“

While being able to read quickly is certainly a worthwhile skill, and repetition and practice may make perfect, the brute-force, volume approach cannot really be the most conducive for learning in university.

”

ing, lab, or paper assigned—and students have the right to know.

If the question, “Will I ever use this again?” cannot be answered affirmatively, question the assignment. If a reading is meant to be a starting point for a thoughtful discussion in class, make sure the

professor gives time to read and to synthesize the content.

Short of banning all assignments outside of class—an unrealistic and counterproductive fix—there is no blanket solution to McGill students’ excessive workloads. The problem is specific to each student, each course, and each semester. In order to voice their objections to excessive workloads, students must complete their course evaluations, and bring up the topic with their individual professors and TAs in a candid and thoughtful way during the semester. When a particular assignment appears utterly pointless or a set of readings feels especially unreasonable in its length, students should not hesitate to speak up. Professors seem to forget that their students are enrolled in other courses, engage in extracurricular activities, and still need to find time for their friends and families.

Though it may not seem so at times, professors are human, too, and can be understanding, especially when the discussion is about making their students actually learn better. The first step comes from us as students: We must invest ourselves in not just working more or harder, but in communicating with our instructors to shift the focus from quantity to quality for the sake of learning.

6 OPINION

C o m m e nt a r y

Jackie Houston Columnist I was at a café the other week, trying to decide between one croissant or two croissants, when I found myself confronted with an all-too-frequent crisis— I was faced with a familiar face, but no name to put to it. Luckily, she seemed to be in the same dilemma. We locked eyes, and without any immediately accessible fire exits or open windows, I smiled and waved tentatively.

In the requisite two minutes of small talk that followed, we concluded that yeah, we’d totally met at so-and-so’s party last month. At that point, I had to bite the bullet and say those five special words that have been salvaging burnt bridges since the dawn of time: “Sorry, what’s

C o m m e nt a r y

Grey Gunning Contributor The results of a trial for male birth control, published in the Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism, have sparked outrage and frustration. After 20 of 320 men dropped out of the study due to adverse side effects, the trials were discontinued. Altogether, the men participating in the trial reported 1,491 adverse symptoms, including mood disorders and severe acne. The cessation of the trials was not unjustified. The

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

The social hangover of McGill’s drinking culture your name again?”

Unsurprisingly, at so-andso’s party last month, we had both been drunk.

It’s a surreal experience to soberly encounter the people that you ‘met’ while you were drunk.

You may very well know their aunt’s middle name, or have an in-depth understanding about their recent break up, and yet still waver as to whether you should say “Hi” when you see them on campus. The dissonance between drunk and sober worlds is awkward at best and alienating at worst.

At McGill, this scenario is commonplace because much of social life revolves around drinking: This includes three faculty-run bars, Gerts, Open Air Pub, faculty Froshes, and a competitive drinking event for every possible charitable cause. Beyond its well-documented health and safety risks, McGill’s binge drinking culture has a more subtle—but significant—social effect on the ways students interact with each other, both during and after parties. In the long run, conflating the idea of being close to people with just being drunk with people hinders the establishment of meaningful relation-

ships.

There’s a reason that drinking and social life are so easily intertwined: In the face of a packed house party where you only know four people, a red solo cup can feel like a lifeline.

For many of us, alcohol is that extra nudge needed to get out of our comfort zones and strike up a conversation with someone new.

The problem is when conversation doesn’t carry over—as it often doesn’t—to the next time you see that person while sober.

Your drunk self was wearing a suit of armour when they jumped in on that chat with a friend-ofa-friend. Faced with the same situation, sober you feels sheepish and exposed. It’s hard to follow up on beer-fueled interactions when it feels like someone else—someone bolder, funnier, and probably better-looking— was the one making them. When you have a 45 minute discussion with a new acquaintance about the finer points of beer pong strategy but avoid eye contact the next time you see them, it’s as though you didn’t really meet that person at all.

In the short term, this isn’t such a big deal. Feeling awkward around people now and again

is a prerequisite of any undergraduate degree. But, over time, when alcohol is as central to social events as it is at McGill,

“

When alcohol is as central to social events as it is at McGill, being drunk can start to feel like a necessity to form meaningul connections— which aren’t so meaningful once everyone has sobered up again.

The future of birth control must include all genders developers were forced to conclude that the risks outweighed the benefits. However, the trial represents a stark contrast with the development of the female birth control pill. It reinforces what the history of the pill tells us: The bodies of women are burdened with more responsibility than the bodies of men. This does not mean that society should demand that men experience the suffering women have. Instead, this moment is an opportunity to remember what women have been through in pursuit of the pill and to call for a future where everyone, regardless of gender, can expect fair treatment from medical research and health care professionals.

A history of the birth control pill must acknowledge the women who—often unknowingly—participated in unethical experiments to test the drug. The fact that these women were not consenting participants points to an unfortunate medical reality for women: Their

bodies have historically been misused, devalued, and neglected by a medical field that caters to men.

In an interview with the National Public Radio, Jonathan Eig, author of The Birth of the Pill, claims it’s ironic that medical professionals have “treated [women] like lab animals so that [they] may find a form of birth control that frees them.” But, the fact that the pill’s developers took unethical routes by necessity does not erase the pain of the women who were mistreated as test subjects. In his book, Eig explains that beginning in the 1950s, several female birth control trials were held at the Puerto Rico Medical School.

When participants began to drop out due to side effects, the head scientist sought out women who would have no choice but to participate, in order to continue the trials. Puerto Rican medical students were forced to comply under penalty of expulsion. Women in an asylum in Worcester, Massachusetts were used as test subjects

”

being drunk can start to feel like a necessity to form meaningful connections—which aren’t so

because they were unable to say no. Admittedly, the situation was complex: Birth control was heavily regulated and test subjects were hard to find. However, the end does not justify the means when the means is the mistreatment of unconsenting women.

The dismissal of women’s pain still exists today, although it is more subtle: Women have a higher chance of being misdiagnosed when they exhibit symptoms of everything from heart attacks to ADHD. Their complaints are often minimized by healthcare professionals, and, sometimes— as has been documented in one Atlantic article—their pain is ignored. In terms of hormonal birth control, University of Copenhagen professor Øjvind Lidegaard told CNN that doctors have known “for decades” about the side effects of hormonal birth control, including mood disorders.

Women, it seems, are expected to live with pain—if their pain is acknowledged at all.

meaningful once everyone has sobered up. Rather than bringing people together, the net effect can be distancing and alienating.

This has even more troubling implications if students are looking to build life-long relationships at university. In the post-secondary context, individual self-esteem and capacity for intimacy are often still crystallizing.

There’s no simple solution.

So long as college students—and people beyond university, for that matter—use alcohol as a social lubricant, a social hangover is an inevitable result. But, seeing the correlation between the two is helpful: If you’re feeling disconnected from that person you were drunken best friends with three nights ago, you can then recognize that you’re not alone. Breaking the silence on that painfully awkward elevator ride or perfecting the passing-smile-and-wave on campus can feel like a Herculean task.

It’s useful to remember that the other person probably feels the same way. If you make that leap of faith between drunk and sober interaction, maybe you two can talk about it.

And if you can’t remember their name, it’s okay to just ask.

The facilitators of the male birth control study were right to shut it down, as the rate of adverse side effects was higher than that of women who typically use hormonal contraceptives. But, it is impossible not to contrast the sensitivity with which the men in the study were treated with the unethical treatment women have suffered in the development of the pill, and the continued devaluing of their symptoms of well-being today. There is no way to erase the injustices of the past. In order to heal this disparity in the future, society must recognize the history of the pill and the pain that women continually undertake to exercise their reproductive rights. Men can demand continued research on male birth control, thereby lessening the reproductive burden on women. By speaking out about the pain that women have faced in the past, and about the pain that they still face today, we can look forward to a world where healthcare is synonymous with equality.

Errata: - An article published in the Nov. 15 issue titled “SSMU Fall GA fails to meet quorum” incorrectly stated that the 2015 notice of seizure was brought forward by Kahentinetha Horn and indigenous students; in fact, it was brought forward by Kahentinetha Horn and members of Demilitarize McGill. In addition, the previous version stated that all motions from a GA that does not meet quorum go to online ratification when in fact this is only true for the motions that are essential to the functioning of SSMU. - An article in the Nov. 15 issue titled “Chabad at McGill event faces protest” incorrectly stated that the BDS Action Network at McGill lobbies to prevent university investments in Israeli companies that profit from the occupation of Palestine. In fact, the BDS Action Network at McGill does not exclusively focus on Israeli companies. Further, the Action Network lobbies for the university to divest from current investments as well as to prevent additional investments that contribute to the occupation of Palestine.

The Tribune regrets these errors.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT 7

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Moonlight lights up festival screens Natasha Michaeloff Contributor Moonlight, the long-awaited second feature from American director Barry Jenkins, is an adaptation of a play-cum-memoir

by Tarell Alvin McCraney. The film has already been playing at the TIFF Bell Lightbox theatre in Toronto, but on Nov. 18, the auditorium was full. Perhaps it’s to be expected—after all, it was 6 o’clock on a Friday—but the crowd likely amassed due to the special nature of this particular screening: Following the film, Jenkins was slated to answer questions from the audience via Skype. Already a hit with critics from its time spent on the festival circuit— the film first premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in early September and then made its way to the Toronto International Film Festival shortly afterwards—it is clear from the throngs of people who gathered at the theatre that Moonlight has gained early traction with moviegoers as well; as the opening scene flickers to life, it becomes easy to see why.

The story is divided into three

chapters, each providing a glimpse into the life of a young black man named Chiron who is growing up in a crime-ridden neighbourhood of Miami. Chiron is played at different ages by three actors (Alex Hibbert, Ashton Sanders, and Trevante

Ali, of Marvel’s Luke Cage. Chiron grapples with his sexuality during tender exchanges of affection with his best and only friend Kevin, also played by three separate actors.

Ultimately, he is torn between embodying everyone’s expectations

is dramatically transformed in innumerable, irreparable ways, and yet remarkably, a sense of hope–always simmering beneath the surface–is never lost. Fittingly, the movie ends on an ambiguous note, leaving it up to the viewer to

Moonlight is an immersive narrative that deals with family life and identity. (indiewire.com) Rhodes). He is bullied at school and often left to his own devices by his drug-addicted mother, played with gut-wrenching honesty by Naomie Harris of Skyfall and Spectre. He finds himself drawn to a benevolent drug dealer played by Mahershala

of him and becoming the person he desperately yearns to be.

The film is gorgeously shot and masterfully scored, taking care not to rush with its depictions of Chiron’s warring selves. From boyhood to adolescence and adulthood, Chiron

decide if Chiron is fated to become a casualty of his environment.

For Jenkins, although the film was challenging to make, it was more “manifest destiny” than anything else.

“I grew up in the neighbourhood

that you see depicted in this film […], it seemed like this massive place growing up […], it was our whole world, you know, in a certain way,” Jenkins fondly explained.

“Despite the limitations, there was so much possibility of experience and expression there.”

When an audience member inquired about the public reactions to Moonlight, especially in the wake of the recent U.S. presidential election, Jenkins became resolute.

“I’m not so much worried about the backlash,” he said after a slight pause. “I got a message today. I was tagged alongside Lee Daniels…about my attempt at the ‘faggotization’ of America. I’m used to it at this point and the only thing I think of is […], I don’t walk down the street holding my partner’s hand, I can’t imagine the horror and the aggression people who identify as LGBTQ just living their lives, how much they endure every day. So I can shoulder whatever backlash I get.”

In an America full of citizens recently made more aware of their identities and how they play out in the world, Moonlight will resonate deeply with audiences.

Opera McGill’s Alcina: A dubious experiment in orientalism Julia Loach Contributor Continued from page 1.

“So, it is from within this context that Vincent [Lefèvre, the set designer] and I sought to find a contextual setting in which to both experiment with marrying the flow and movement of Tai Chi with Handel’s music, as well as find what “east of India” might mean,” Hensen elaborated.

Many visual aspects of the production were influenced

by Chinese culture. The set included a large Chinese coin representing a compass, designed by a professional Chinese acupuncturist, as well as sky lanterns in the shapes of planets and stars. The cast performed in traditional Chinese dress and makeup, and props, such as swords and parasols. The movement in the Opera was inspired by Tai Chi, and the cast trained in the ancient art for the production.

Quick and short stepped motions by female characters, especially Alcina, appeared to evoke the ancient tradition of foot binding.

The setting and art direction of the production, however, has been the subject of controversy.

Many students, including some involved in the production, feel uncomfortable about the risk of perpetuating orientalism in art—where depictions of Asia are stereotyped in a way that risk

fetishizing and dehumanizing a particular culture. When asked about the issue of cultural appropriation surrounding the opera, Hensen acknowledges that appropriation is an issue, but explains that he does not see it as relevant to the production.

He sees the spread of culture as a vital component of opera.

“All opera, like all art, lives through a series of cultural exchanges that produce new art,” Hensen said. “For instance, Opera McGill’s production here in Montreal in 2016 is a remount of the original production in 2007 by a German composer’s Italian opera written for a 1735 English audience at Covent Garden that was based on a 16th century epic poem by the Italian Ariosto.

This is just one example of how cultural exchange over centuries helped to create just one opera performance here at McGill, and how complicated art is when looking at source material and/or influences.”

In the specific context of Alcina, Hensen views the production as an amalgamation of several cultural influences.

“If we look right at these sources, Alcina’s characters are not Chinese, they are—if I was pressed to describe—a combination of backgrounds,” Hensen said. “Saracen [Ruggiero], Christian Europeans [Bradamante, Oberto], Sorceresses who live on a magical and mystical island

Opera McGill’s Alcina featured Chinese-inspired costuming and set design. (cbcmusic.ca) somewhere east of India [Alcina and her sister Morgana], a wizard probably from Libya [Melisso], and Alcina’s general Oronte [probably a hired mercenary].”

Rebecca Jacobson, a violinist in the orchestra of Alcina, has opposing views on the setting of the opera.

“I guess I’m just trying to understand why,” she explains.

“Handel did not write the opera for that setting, and there are so many other options for the production, and people were upset, so I just don’t understand.”

Jacobson also describes issues of difficult relationships within the cast and production members.

“There’s a difficult power dynamic, and it’s hard to explain.

But no one wants to risk going to someone in authority. There’s really no way to talk about it,” Jacobson said.

When asked about resisting the opera’s artistic liberties, Jacobson emphasizes the integrity of the music.

“Many of my friends who weren’t involved in the

production asked me why I wasn’t protesting,” Jacobson said.

“But there are so many artists, especially the singers, who have been rehearsing for months, that it wasn’t fair to let the music suffer.

They deserve for their music to be recognized.”

Regardless of the questionable setting, Jacobson is correct: The success of the music in Alcina was readily apparent.

Race and culture in the production, however, were presented in an ethically dubious way, surrounded by conflicting discourses.

Drowing in addiction: The social aspects of Alcoholism at mcgill

By Audrey Carleton

“

We are we are we are we are we are the engineers! We can we can we can we can demolish 40 beers!’ can be heard echoing through the streets of Montreal during early September every year. This chant, along with others like it, serves as an introduction for many first-year students to McGill. This experience is a prologue for the social environment in which a large portion of students will participate during university.

On university campuses, where alcohol and substance use become integral to social life for many, students are placed at high risk of addiction, abuse, and overdose. Despite welcoming most students to campus with a week of binge-drinking in the form of Frosh, topics of substance abuse and alcoholism are largely left out of the conversation surrounding drinking on campus by the McGill administration and student body.

With Quebec’s legal drinking age being 18, most of the student body has easy, legal access to alcohol on and around campus. A 2013 study conducted at McGill University for the National College Health Assessment, revealed that 78 per cent of McGill students that were surveyed had used alcohol in the last month. The presence of student bars and the idealization of potentially harmful binge-drinking at events like Frosh and Hype Week make alcohol use an ingrained part of social life on campus. As a result, excessive substance use and addiction is normalized and enabled.

“At Frosh, or Carnival, or Science Games, or anything like that, it’s embedded in the culture [where] everyone’s drinking,” András Lénárt, second-year Master’s student in the Department of Family Medicine and member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy (CSSDP), said. “There’s so much social pressure, there’s so much peer pressure on people, and if you’re drinking six beers, it doesn’t feel like that much if your friend’s saying he’s had 10 or something like that. You see yourself in relation to the others that

are around you, and if everyone’s doing that, it’s just normal, it’d be abnormal to abstain, or to drink less.”

Not only does the prevalence of substance use on campus place students at greater risk for becoming addicted, it creates an unwelcoming environment for students who wish to remain sober, are in recovery from addiction, or are looking to cut back on their intake. Nina Hermes, U3 Social Work, is one of many McGill students who has struggled with addiction. She avoided signing up for Arts Frosh while in recovery and transitioning into university, but only through a literal flip of a coin between it and Rad Frosh—a dry alternative. She found little warning online about the heavy drinking that has become a part of faculty Froshes, and had she chosen to take part in it, she would have found herself at a higher risk of relapse.

“It’s interesting [...] looking at how many events are just centred around alcohol,” Hermes said. “An issue with Frosh is that obviously they’re not gonna put on the website, ‘This is a week designed for binge drinking,’ but for me, I mean, fuck, I almost did Arts Frosh. [It is] a safety issue, and I wish [the organizers would mention], ‘Hey [by the way], [this event is] binge drinking central.’”

Though Hermes has been sober for four years, when she first came to McGill, she was still in the early stages of recovery. When she was 17, Hermes sought treatment and got clean after over five years of struggling with alcoholism. Her addiction began after she moved to a new middle school, where she turned to alcohol to help her cope with feelings of anxiety and isolation.

“I started drinking when I was 13-years-old,” Hermes said. “I started [attending] this new school with no friends, not knowing anyone. I felt so deeply alone [....] That kind of sensitivity to emotions and discomfort in [my] own emotional state, that for me was what [led me to look] for alcohol and drugs to relieve [those feelings].”

With the help of friends at school who had easy access to alcohol, Hermes was able to continue drinking for most of her high school years. Despite being told by people around her that her habits were out of control, Hermes had trouble viewing herself as an addict, largely due to the stereotypes and harmful images of addiction which she did not identify with .

“We have this very preconceived idea of what [addiction] looks like, and I certainly did. I thought you had to be that guy on the street with the brown paper bag,” Hermes said. “It’s hard when you have a nice exterior. Like, for me, it was very easy to convince myself that I was fine because I had good grades [....] But, in reality, it’s like I had the same feelings as someone who had a much less nice exterior, you know, I wanted to die.”

The stigmas surrounding addiction make it difficult for many of those afflicted to come to terms with their condition, and to seek help from friends, family, and professionals. This leads many addicts to suffer in silence.

“I think there’s a lot of shame linked to using [....] It’s part of the disease in itself that people will feel like, ‘Oh, I’m a bad person because I’m using,’ and we don’t want people to know that because we all want to appear as awesome human beings,” Dr. Carine Hamel, psychiatrist at McGill Counselling and Mental Health Services (MCMHS), said. “A lot of the time, [...] the person will think, ‘Oh my god, if they know that about me, they will leave me and I will be alone, so I have to hide it.’”

While the stigma surrounding addiction can lead to social isolation, this correlation often goes both ways. Hermes, for example, attributes her vulnerability to addiction to her anxiety, which was exacerbated by her solitude when she moved to a new school as a young teen. Alcohol became her mechanism for escaping negative emotions.

“I was anxious, alone, moved to a new school, hated myself, was bullied,” Hermes said. “Had I loved myself and was confident in the person that I was, and felt like I had friends, and a community [...] I don’t think I would’ve felt the need. You know, maybe I wouldn’t have become an alcoholic.”

Hermes’ choice to turn to alcohol as a coping mechanism for feelings of anxiety and isolation reflects a common trend in society.

There is evidence which suggests that social confinement leads to higher susceptibility to addiction in different animals: In a 1981 study, psychologist Bruce Alexander of Simon Fraser University observed two groups of lab rats, those that were housed in a residential park containing other rats with whom to interact, and those who lived alone.

The researchers discovered that the rats living in groups were far less likely to consume a morphine solution over water when given the choice, compared to the rats who were living in solitude.

Social isolation in addiction cases is addressed through treatment and rehabilitation efforts. Despite the positive impact that increased interpersonal interaction can have on one’s urge to seek respite in substances, many individuals suffering from substance dependency find it difficult to live a social lifestyle and develop connections with others, resulting in a vicious cycle of addiction and loneliness.

“I do try to encourage my patients to socialize as much as they can, because I think it’s part of a healthy life, and it can help with a lot of things,” Dr. Hamel said. “[However,] it’s part of the illness that they feel like they cannot do it, or that they don’t have the energy, or it’s just part of it, so they will stay at home and do the drugs because they feel bad.”

The correlation between isolation and addictive

tendencies may place demographics of students on campus who are already more prone to being socially excluded at a greater risk of developing substance dependencies.

“Most of [addiction risks] depend on the social conditions or the environment that an individual is in,” Lénárt said. “Individuals who are under more stress, or have [fewer] coping strategies, or have access to [fewer] resources, that’s all going to play into it and make addiction more likely, or problematic drug use in general is more likely for them.”

While limited accessibility to resources and healthy coping mechanisms is more common for marginalized groups, these individuals are also more commonly subjected to bullying and isolation, which increases their likelihood of turning to substances for an escape. In Hermes’ experience, being tormented by her peers after coming out was a key factor in the development of her alcohol dependency.

“Statistically, more marginalized communities are gonna be more affected [by substance abuse],”

I WAS ANXIOUS, ALONE, MOVED TO A NEW SCHOOL, HATED MYSELF, WAS BULLIED. HAD I LOVED MYSELF AND WAS CONFIDENT IN THE PERSON THAT I WAS, AND FELT LIKE I HAD FRIENDS, AND A COMMUNITY [...] I DON’T THINK I WOULD’VE FELT THE NEED. YOU KNOW, MAYBE I WOULDN’T HAVE BECOME AN ALCOHOLIC.

Hermes said. “Dealing with marginalization and oppression on a daily basis, you’re gonna be more [likely] to use and abuse substances. I mean, for me, like, being bullied for being queer was a very big push to drink away my feelings.”

Creating safer spaces for students in recovery may begin with normalizing alternatives to alcohol and substances at social events on campus. OAP, Blue’s Pub, Bar des Arts, and other campus drinking holes are warm social environments for anyone with a cup in their hand, but are not very welcoming to students who cannot fill that cup with alcohol, and can be triggering for recovering addicts who are trying to go clean.

Furthermore, the services and resources on campus available to students grappling with addiction are limited in number. While MCMHS does offer a support group to students struggling with addiction, it will often simply refer students grappling with addiction to support groups and resources outside of campus.

On the one hand, going to off-campus services may help students retain a certain level of anonymity by allowing them to seek help away from the social hub of campus, whereas taking a trip to MCMHS may lead one to run into a friend or acquaintance. On the other hand, making trips to offcampus locations for therapy and support requires

time, energy, and extra finances, which might not be readily available to everyone.

The hands of MCMHS are tied in the quantity of support services they can provide to students. According to Hamel, students can play the strongest role in the push to create a more supportive environment for individuals struggling with addiction. “[Students] can challenge administration way more than [MCMHS] can because usually they listen to students becoming angry [...] more than if we bring up issues,” said Dr Hamel. “Sometimes— not always, but usually—the students complaining about something or talking about something is the biggest leverage that we have.”

In addition to increasing the addiction treatment services available on campus, students and administration can work towards increasing preventative measures to substance abuse. This could start with chipping away at the stigma behind substance addiction through panels, roundtable conversations, and other awareness events.

“I think it would be good if we could restart a group at mental health for addiction, but that would be more [focused on] prevention, because that’s more where you can act on,” Dr. Hamel said. “Anything that will help to sensitize people of the problem of addiction, [...] to break the stigma, and make people more aware.”

Addressing the stigma surrounding addiction also begins with providing comprehensive education on the topic. Much like abstinence-only sexual education often fails, leading to an increase in unsafe sexual activity, teachings that have harsh anti-drug agendas only place students at a higher vulnerability to unsafe use.

Focus should be shifted toward encouraging harm-reduction, which means providing students with practical strategies and information to avoid or limit the consequences of drug use. The Server Training Program, which aims to train responsible alcohol servers on campus, and the McGill Student Emergency Response Team, which is a student-run volunteer service providing emergency first aid services to the McGill University and Montreal communities, are examples of initiatives and groups that facilitate harm-reduction principles.

Further, with chapters across Canada, CSSDP mobilizes students to advocate for safetyoriented drug policies in an attempt to mitigate the irresponsible use of drugs through educational workshops and panels.

“Most drug education that you get in high school or in elementary school, it’s very much condemning drug use,” Lénárt said. “The easiest way for McGill to start would be to start to provide more comprehensive education. That balance on drug use and safer drug use, obviously not to encourage people to use them, but if they’re going to use them, what to do, [for example,] how to respond if someone goes into opioid overdose.”

Measures such as education and awareness campaigns directly address alcoholism and substance dependency on campus; however, in a broader sense, creating a welcoming space for all students— especially those who are typically marginalized—is needed to target the social determinants that cause addictions. .

“I think if McGill really wants to look at addiction popping up in university, look at [students’ social networks...] how are people feeling included or finding that home? Because that’s what’s really going to do it for people, it’s not actually going to be the alcohol. The alcohol doesn’t make you an alcoholic, it’s what’s going on up here,” Hermes said, pointing to her brain.

10 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Netflix announces new production of A Series of Unfortunate Events Emily Szpiro Contributor Netflix recently released a preview for a new upcoming series: A Series of Unfortunate Events. Now that it’s confirmed as part of the Netflix family, the surprisingy mature children’s series seems to be coming back into the public eye.

The original book series, written

by Daniel Handler under the pseudonym Lemony Snicket and illustrated by Brett Helquist, centres on the orphaned Baudelaire siblings (Violet, Klaus, and Sunny) as they seek safety after the tragic deaths of their parents. However, Count Olaf–a villain who stalks the children to steal their fortune–constantly thwarts their attempts and the children pass through the hands of several horrible guardians, who each meet grim ends at the hands of the Count.

The series is witty, dark, charismatic, and filled with a litany of historical and literary references. The prose of the series is neatly polished and Handler masterfully alludes to mature themes with surreal elements that echo Edward Gorey or Tim Burton’s gothic and whimsical fantasies.

In the first few books, the adult characters in the series are almost entirely corrupt. In response, the Baudelaires idealize their deceased

parents and transform them into allegorical figures of home and safety.

As the series progresses, the children realize that their parents were not entirely guiltless or greedless. In fact, they may have initiated the series of unfortunate events when they organized the murder of Count Olaf’s parents.

Count Olaf, in the later novels, becomes an increasingly tragic figure caught in a cycle of revenge. As the children mature, their experiences complicate their understanding of the world as a binary of good and evil. They realize that no one, not even themselves, is completely morally sound. Only once they make this realization do the children become self-subsisting and independent.

Netflix isn’t the first to adapt the stories to the screen. The 2004 film, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, heightened the comedic elements of the series, most notably by casting Jim Carrey as Count Olaf. The dark tale plays out well on the screen; Thomas Newman’s haunting score and the cast, which included Emily Browning, Meryl Streep, and Billy Connolly add gravitas to an otherwise light-hearted film. However, the movie only adapts the first three novels and as a result fails to touch on the fact that the crux of the siblings’ maturity comes not when they leave their guardians, but

when they realize that their parents were not without flaws.

The books hinge upon the question of what it means to be a child transitioning to adulthood, especially without parents. The Baudelaires never stop loving their parents; they do, though, stop relying on their memory as a guidepost and learn to make their way through life without them. The series represents the children coming to terms with the death of their parental figures and moral guides, and the path toward independence. Hopefully the Netflix production, with its increased screen time, will flesh out these themes where the film did not.

It is too early to discern whether or not the Netflix series will attempt to follow in the 2004 film’s footsteps or whether it will attempt to grapple with the darker topics that the books confront.

The series will star Neil Patrick Harris as Count Olaf. Harris is known for his comedic chops from his work in How I Met Your Mother and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. Undoubtedly, the series requires comedic and absurd tones in order to be successful—however, the extent to which Netflix will address the more sobering themes that the novels contain remains to be seen.

A Series of Unfortunate Events will premiere on Netflix on Jan. 13 2017.

Netflix is set to provide a new iteration of A Series of Unfortunate Events. (Alissa Zilber / The McGill Tribune)

ALBUM REVIEW

A Tribe Called Quest’ released a surprise album on Nov. 11. (genius.com)

we got it from here...Thank you 4 your service a tribe c alle d q uest Dylan Adamson Contributor

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A Tribe Called Quest (ATCQ) mean a lot of things to a lot of people. The group was formed in 1985 with original members Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad. Their status as a uniquely positive, innovative force in the “Golden Age” of rap is beyond reproach, which is why the death of Phife Dawg this year shocked many hip hop enthusiasts profoundly. On March 22, at only 45 years old, Malik Izaak Taylor was pronounced dead due to complications caused by diabetes, seemingly closing the door on an already unlikely reunion. It seemed improbable that an ATCQ reunion would survive the loss of one of the most influential MCs of the era, but the verses he recorded for the project before his passing show that, lyrically, Phife never lost his touch. Announced only a week before its Nov. 11 release, We Got It From Here . . . Thank You 4 Your Service arrived as a total surprise, and shows that ATCQ still has much to offer.

In large part tribute to the recently deceased Five Foot Assassin (aka Phife Diggy, the Di-Dawg, Donald Juice, The Five Footer, etc.), this long awaited reunion LP is capable of reducing listeners to tears and stirring rebellion. In a divisive time in American history, the Tribe’s voice of unity, peace, and love for one another carries as much weight as ever with some more explicitly political bars than in their early work.

In the dumpster fire of a year that has been 2016, We Got It From Here . . . emerges as both a comforting hand on the shoulder, and a voice urging protest. The interplay between bittersweet nostalgia and political outrage is readily evident in album opener, “The Space Program.” The song describes white people escaping an ecologically destroyed Earth for Mars and leaving PoC communities behind. As the cautious jazz rap keys kick in underneath Phife and Q-Tip’s acappella introduction, it’s tough not to feel emotional; however, the pair’s sure-handed and complementary flows quickly steer the song in a consciously political direction. Jarobi White, an intermittent contributor to ATCQ, outlines: “They planning for our future / none of our people involved.”

The Tribe’s innovative use of sampling is featured prominently on the album. “We The People . . .”, an instant

banger, utilizes a Metallica drum sample in its righteous fury against the rise of white supremacy in America. “Solid Wall of Sound,” featuring Busta Rhymes, expertly appropriates a classic rock staple in vintage Tribe fashion, looping Elton John’s vocals and the song’s signature swaggering drums. Despite its success in recapturing the jubilant cratedigging mentality of the early 90s, to call the group’s final statement “nostalgic” would be reductive. ATCQ’s style and contributions to the rap industry are timeless.

The introduction of Jarobi White—credited as Jarobi— to the microphone is one of many new pieces in play on the Tribe’s swan song. Jarobi’s verses serve as a breath of air from Tip’s sometimes smothering singular vision.

Alongside a plethora of contributors, he ensures the album’s essential collective spirit. Of course, there aren’t many artists who would decline an opportunity to collaborate on a final ATCQ album, but We Got It From Here...’s credits— including Jack White, Kanye West, Andre 3000, Kendrick Lamar, and more—instantly inspire excitement.

Looking beyond the star-studded cast, the album never loses sight of its purpose as the final Tribe record.

The ghost of Phife Dawg looms large over the album’s sprawling sixteen tracks. One can appreciate the cautious hand of Q-Tip in preserving the spirit of Phife’s rhymes throughout the lengthy mixing process preceding its release eight months after his death. The differences that once drove the pair apart are brushed aside. When Phife’s idiosyncratic Patois/Queens accent interplays with Tip’s perpetually cool, nasally delivery, it feels like 1991 again.

With so much expectation heaped on this unlikely comeback, there was ample opportunity for the album to disappoint. However, Phife, Tip, Jarobi, Shaheed, and the album’s myriad contributors ensure that it stands up with the rest of the Tribe’s seminal catalogue. Jubilant, tearjerking, and inspiring, We Got It From Here . . . Thank You 4 Your Service is an expansive and complete experience.

Though Phife gestures towards passing the torch to the next generation of rappers on standout track “Dis Generation,” this is not an album people will be forgetting any time soon.

STUDENT LIVING 11

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Smol puppers and fluffy doggos: A history of Dogspotting

How the Facebook community became an international phenomenon

Calvin Trottier-Chi Staff Writer Continued from page 1.

Nobody is more surprised by the surge in Dogspotting’s popularity than the founder John Savoia himself. Savoia credits the embrace of social media and technology for enabling what began as a simple idea to become a global phenomenon.

“The original vision for dogspotting was to gamify the act of seeing dogs,” Savoia said. “Simple as that. No community, no concept of cuteness, just a 20-year-old who had played too many RPGs as a kid and wanted to make numbers [add] up. It’s obviously changed in very fundamental ways since then, going from hash marks on a piece of paper in my wallet to a multimedia-based community across the globe.”

Dogspotting has since adjusted to its larger membership base, and aims to continue organically supplementing what was originally a simple idea. The Facebook group has recently expanded its activities through different avenues, including a merchandise store, raising donations for animal rescue shelters, and the release of the Dogspotting app, which allows members to post pictures and receive scores on their

mobile devices.

Savoia hopes that Dogspotting will continue to grow. The administrators intend to use the app to raise donations, but Savoia makes no concrete predictions about the logistics of this idea or the cause toward which funds would be sent.

“The future is not aimless, but more nebulous in a good way for me,” Savoia said. “There are goals and specifics, but generally speaking I want Dogspotting to go it’s own path, with myself and the other admins as guiding forces.”

The community appears to have a thriving sense of identity. Though members enjoy other dog-centric groups and popular memes, they take unique pride in Dogspotting’s original and structured content. Dogspotting President Jeff Wallen suggested that the group contributes to the creation of memes, but that what makes it unique from other online groups and forums is its sense of community. “[Members] make friends in comments, the more active users recognize one another,” Wallin said. “It is a very interactive place. Our members are loyal Spotters. It’s more than just belonging to a Facebook group. It’s being part of something bigger, something special.”

Coco Thorpe, an administrator of Dogspotting, claimed that some members

have over 100 friends in Dogspotting, and many of these connections are international.

Although she is proud of social media contributing to a global sense of community, she also addressed the importance of the unique nature of dogs in bringing people together.

“It never fails to amaze me, what a love humanity has for dogs,” Thorpe said.

“Seeing pictures of dogs from all around the world has fostered communication and friendships between people of many countries. I also have heard more times than I can count that this group is an antidote to depression for many people, and gets them through hard and sad times.”

Many members come to Dogspotting for the positive environment.

Dogs foster sentiments of positivity, and this is echoed in the group’s activities.

“My experience […] is that dog owners bond much more quickly and socially with other dog owners,” Savoia said. “A sort of ad-hoc club, if you will. I think that’s primarily [in real life], but translates to the net just fine.”

McGill Tribune: What’s your favourite thing about dogs?

Jeff Wallen: “No person will ever love you like your dog loves you. Their loyalty and love is unconditional.”

Coco Thorpe: “My favourite thing about dogs is of course their loyalty and unconditional love; and also I really like big furry ones.”

John Savoia: “My favourite thing about dogs would honestly be the points they have accumulated for me over the past 10 years. Being that I have played dogspotting longer than anyone else, I am the unofficial all time points leader.”

The Dogspotting Facebook group provides online community for dog owners and lovers. (Amanda Fiore / The McGill Tribune)

The Pomodoro Technique: A time management method to get you through finals How to reduce distractions and increase productivity while studying Flaminia Cooper Staff Writer Every student has their own study methods.

There are those who still haven’t opened their books, and probably won’t until the day of their final exam. There are the lucky few that inexplicably seem to understand the material with almost no effort or revision. Then there are the students that fall in between these two extremes; those that spend multiple hours in the library, typing up notes, playing catch-up with the readings, going over lecture recordings, and trying not to fall behind before finals season hits. This requires a strong sense of time management, and the Pomodoro Technique is a method that has proven to be successful in increasing efficiency, and effectively allocating time.

The concept is simple: Set a timer for 25 minutes—also known as one Pomodoro—and focus fully on a single task until the time is up.

Take a five minute break as a reward, and repeat.

After two hours—or four rounds of Pomodoro— take a longer break of 20 to 30 minutes.

This method breaks up study sessions into manageable chunks of time, reduces distractions, and increases productivity.

Makoto Rheault-Kihara, U3 Management, first discovered the technique one year ago.

“I was reading this book [that] talked about different productivity methods to get the most out of your time, and Pomodoro was [the] number one recommendation,” RheaultKihara said. “The more I looked into it, the more I realised that all these other people that I follow—whether it’s entrepreneurs or artists or

designers—also use the Pomodoro method.”

The technique was developed in the 1980s

by Francesco Cirillo when he was a university

The Pomodoro Technique for time management is especially useful for those with Attention Defecit Disorder. (Ceci Steyn / The McGill Tribune) student himself. The Pomodoro Technique is still popular today among university students because it is easy to use, adaptable to each individual, and can be followed as strictly or minimally as necessary.

“Usually, I’ll do 25 [minutes working], five [minutes break] and then 20-10 to make it a little easier,” Rheault-Kihara said. “25-5 for three hours gets really tiring, but if you do 20 minutes work then 10 minutes break [at the end of] every hour it’s [not too bad].”

In the long run, this study method helps one discover how much time they need to complete different tasks. It is an effective tool in creating a set schedule that increases motivation to finish tasks within a given time—whether it is in one

Pomodoro, or five. It also significantly reduces distractions.

“You’re super focused for the twenty-five minutes, then in the five minute break you’re totally guilt free,” Rheault-Kihara explains.

“Usually when I’m studying and I pick up my phone [...] I feel guilty about it, but those [breaks of] five or ten minutes are great.”

Kim Halle, U4 Arts, has been using the study technique ever since attending a workshop on how to get the most out it. ever since. Like Rheault-Kihara, Halle usually creates his own timing system based on his workload and his current state of mind.

“You need to time [your sessions] according to what you’re actually doing and how you’re feeling,” Halle said. “The 25-5 that’s recommended works for most people, but if you’re feeling particularly energetic, 45-15 is totally fine too. If I feel like I’m completely inattentive, I’ll do very short study periods and build up. If I feel like I’m really [focused], I’ll do longer study periods and then tone it down as the night goes on.”

According to Cirillo, it is also beneficial to one’s overall productivity to define the personal objectives you want to get from each Pomodoro session. For Halle, this part of the process allows him to reflect on his capabilities. “[One of the things] that was explained to me is to always, for every period of time, have an objective at the beginning and review it at the end,” Halle stated. “You have to figure out how much you can actually do, is it a realistic goal, that kind of thing [....] It really helps.”

The Pomodoro Technique has proven to be especially useful for students who struggle with

time management or focusing for long periods of time. At the McGill Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD), this method is highly recommended—especially for those with attention deficit disorders, such as Halle.

“I got diagnosed with Combined Type ADHD [a year ago], which meant that distractibility [was more prominent for me than in] the average student,” Halle said. “I was all over the place with my studies, I could never sit still, it took me forever to get in the zone when I was studying, and then get out of it when I was done.”

The method can also be advantageous outside of academics. On his official website, Cirillo elaborates on how it can be used in all sorts of professions, and both individually and in teams. The work-life balance that so many students seek can also be improved, as it enables the appreciation of time off after a productive work session.

The Pomodoro Technique is an incredibly simple, yet effective, way of increasing efficiency and boosting productivity. Its effects on time management can encompass a large portion of daily life, and though it may seem intimidating to begin with, Rheault-Kihara provides reassurance.

“The first cycle is the hardest [...], but I definitely know that if I spend three hours on Pomodoro, I get a lot more work done than three hours of just regular work.”

Visit the official website for the timer at cirillocompany.de/pages/pomodoro-technique or get started with an online Pomodoro timer at www.tomato-timer.com

12

STUDENT LIVING

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

TedxMontreal 2016 defines, inspires, and changes perspectives

12 experts from different fields come together to showcase Montreal innovation Ella Benedetti & Rebecca Zhuang Contributors TEDxMontreal, which had Perspectives as its theme in 2016, aims to stimulate curiosity by showcasing a diversity of viewpoints from the Montreal community. It is among the TEDx program of self-organized events, designed to bring a TED-like experience to local cities. This year, the conference was held on Nov. 12 at Espace DCMTL, located in ParcExtension. This neighbourhood is away from the spotlight of downtown, and was chosen to represent the uncovering of underground ideas and culture in Montreal.

Created in 2008, TEDx is a global event in which communities worldwide self-organize day-long TED conferences, all with a common mission to foster innovation and spread ideas.

The format is simple and effective: Experts in many different spheres– from artists to entrepreneurs–give 10to 20-minute speeches that engender thoughtful conversation among the speakers and attendees.

Katy Yam, coordinator for the conference, shares TEDxMontreal’s goal to enlighten and strengthen the Montreal community by shedding light upon all of the innovation and creativity

happening within the city.

“We’re all about discovering and showcasing, and finding those hidden pearls of what’s happening in Montreal,” Yam said. “We want people to change [their] perspectives.”

Half of the 12 total speakers conducted their talks in French, while the other half spoke in English. All of the presentations were focused on either ideas originating from Montreal or inspiring feats and works by Montrealers.

One of these innovators was Doctor Yoshua Bengio. Bengio is the head of the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms and a professor in Computer Science at the University of Montreal. Bengio is best known for his contributions to biologicallyinspired machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). During his speech, Bengio spoke about the steady integration of AI into everyday life.

“This new revolution, this second machine age, is going to expand our cognitive abilities, our mental power,” Bengio said. “Computers are not just going to replace manual labour, but also mental labour.”

On top of a research grant of $213 million given to various Montreal universities to push the boundaries of the AI industry and data science innovation, Montreal has become home

to the largest concentration of academic researchers of deep learning in the world. This project is just one among a multitude of remarkable projects occurring in Montreal of which many people may not be aware.

While more than half of the speakers were scientists, there were also presenters from the arts and social sciences. Speaker Alexis Charpentier, is a music archaeologist; he is among the small community of individuals who dedicate their lives and careers to discovering and refurbishing lost vinyl records. By searching the world for unique records—what he calls his “holy grail”—he gives forgotten music a second chance to thrive.

“Beautiful art deserves to be cherished, shared, and rediscovered,” Charpentier said. “Embrace curators, we are alternative voices to the mainstream music channels.”

In addition to speeches about scientific advancements and creative passions, there were speakers who told stories about their personal experiences.

Susan Wener was a crowd favourite, earning a standing ovation at the end of her talk. Wener is not only the author of a national bestseller, Resilience, she is also a therapist with a teaching degree from McGill, as well as a two-time survivor of cancer. Wener told her tale of recovery, and discussed the power

TEDxMontreal 2016 provided a platform for Montreal-born ideas.

(Photo courtesy of Tora Photography) of using stories to change perspectives.

Wener hoped that people would take away the central messages of strength and finding hope in difficult times.

“It’s not about the things that happen to you […] it’s what you do with what happens to you [...] that determines your quality of life,” Wener said. “The word ‘impossible’ simply means that it hasn’t been done yet.”

The attendees of TEDxMontreal came from a broad variety of backgrounds, professions, nationalities, ages, and talents, showcasing Montreal’s diversity. This speaks to the event’s role as a platform to bring people together expose them to a multitude of

unique Montreal-born ideas, all while encouraging creativity and innovation.

“It’s great for the community, for people to connect, […] and for innovation,” Matthieu Favre, a guest of TEDxMontreal, said.

Yam believed that TEDxMontreal accomplished its goal of showcasing the success and talent from around the Montreal community, along with reinforcing the general importance of diversity.

“We have so much to be proud of in this city,” Yam said. “I want more success, more Montrealers and Quebecers on the worldwide stage, and TED is a great platform for that.”

The Tribune Tries: Therapeutic adult colouring

Testing the effect of colouring on anxiety Paige Mysliviec Contributor In the Brown Student Services Building, there sits a small table with stacks of crisp colouring pages and endless tubs of coloured pencils. This table is a resource for stressed students who might be searching for a therapeutic activity. Art has always been a way for some people to express themselves, but has now been shown to be a good way to cope and heal.

The American Art Therapy Association describes art therapy as “the therapeutic use of art making, within a professional relationship by people who experience illness, trauma, or challenges in living and by people who seek personal development.”

Art therapy can also be used to “explore feelings, reconcile emotional conflicts, foster selfawareness, manage behaviour and addictions, develop social skills, improve reality orientation, reduce anxiety, and increase selfesteem.”

Marygrace Berberian, a certified art therapist and the clinical assistant professor and program coordinator for the

graduate art therapy program at NYU, however, warns that colouring alone misses out on the relationship between the client and the therapist, and as such, cannot be called art therapy.

Because I did not have access to an art therapist, I relied on colouring books, as they have nonetheless been shown to help reduce anxiety and improve focus, especially when designs challenge users to remain within lines.

With exams and a final slough of assignments, tests, and projects to get through before the end of the semester, I tried out therapeutic colouring for a week to see if it really helped with stress and anxiety.

Getting the materials was simple enough; I printed free colouring sheets from the internet and bought an inexpensive packet of coloured pencils. I sat down at my desk after a long, busy day, and began colouring. I found it calming to focus on a fun activity which allowed my stressed mind to relax. Colouring required no extra attention or thoughtprocessing; I was looking at soothing colours while letting my brain run free. If someone had asked me to talk about my feelings

in that moment, I would have been open to temporarily lowering my emotional guard.

About halfway through my drawing, I accidentally went outside the lines. The first thought I had was, “Well, I’m done. It’s ruined.” I stopped myself and wondered why it had to be perfect if no one was going to see it, and I reminded myself that mistakes are okay. So, I kept colouring.

When I finished, I was secretly very pleased with how it turned out—it looked like a pattern of a psychedelic T-shirt from the 70s.

Every time I coloured, it felt nice to focus on performing a single task—especially one that did not require a lot of work.

However, I found it was easy to become distracted or bored. I did not notice a change in my stress or anxiety, but at least now I have a collection of colourful pictures.

Despite my mundane experience, I do not discredit art therapy. I believe that if I had been working with an art therapist, I would have seen more direct results from professional guidance, interaction, and reflection. Colouring by myself was merely a fun activity—not a cure to my stress or anxiety.

Art therapy is found to help reduce anxiety. (Paige Mysliviec / The McGill Tribune)

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

science & technology 13

Hangovers: Everyone’s favourite weekend morning treat

Dr. Ariel Fenster explains the science behind the unwelcome weekend companion

Kate Lord Contributor With 77 per cent of drinkers reporting that they suffer from hangovers, wasting a weekend morning that was meant to be spent studying because of a splitting headache and nausea is no uncommon occurrence. While there is still no magical cure, scientists are coming closer to understanding the science behind the phenomenon that afflicts many of the McGill population.

“What happens when you drink alcohol is that it gets metabolized by the liver and converted to acetaldehyde,” Dr. Ariel Fenster, a professor in McGill’s Department of Chemistry, explained.

Acetaldehyde is a carcinogenic compound that is toxic to the body. While acetaldehyde can be broken down into acetic acid during excessive drinking––which is then further broken down into carbon dioxide and water––the enzyme that converts acetaldehyde to acetic acid is in short supply.

“If the concentration of this enzyme […] is not very high, then there will be a [buildup] of acetaldehyde in the body, which [can be] really nasty,” Fenster said.

Hangovers are a major productivity-killer for many McGill students. (Alejandra Morales / The McGill Tribune) Acetaldehyde toxicity is the primary cause of headaches and nausea the morning after heavy drinking.

In the bloodstream, alcohol is also a diuretic which inhibits the pituitary gland from producing vasopressin. Without this hormone, the kidneys send water directly to the bladder rather than reabsorbing it into the body. The result is the frequent urination that many experience when they drink a lot as well as the subsequent dehydration.

The dry, leathery tongue many people wake up with after excessive drinking is the body’s way of indicating that it’s extremely dehydrated. The diuretic effect of alcohol is also responsible for the expulsion of ionic salts, which, in combination with alcohol’s ability to break down and remove important energy stores in the liver, manifests itself in weakness, fatigue, and a general lack of coordination during a hangover.

“But it’s not just the alcohol

[that causes hangovers],” Fenster said. “One of the major causes of hangovers is a class of chemicals known as congeners. Congeners are a chemical generated at the same time as [ethanol] in the fermentation process [.…] The higher the concentration of congeners, the worse a hangover you will have. The greater the age and the darker the colour [of the alcohol], the higher the concentration of congeners, and therefore, the worse the hangover.”

Drinking cognac or a dark rum,

for example, would likely produce a worse hangover than drinking the same amount of white wine or vodka.

To avoid the productivitykilling effects of a hangover, there are numerous drinking guidelines that tend to be drilled into firstyears as they enter McGill and university life. Eating a heavy meal before going out, drinking plenty of water throughout the night, and not drinking anything at least 90 minutes before going to bed are all key. Additionally, as Fenster explained, there is some validity to the old saying, ‘beer before liquor never been sicker.’ The carbon dioxide in beer or other carbonated beverages causes alcohol to be more readily absorbed.

“If the beverage you drink is carbonated, it is more quickly absorbed,” Fenster said. “You’re going to get sick faster with champagne then with the same intake of white wine, for instance.”

The best way to avoid a hangover, though, is the most obvious one.

“The key is really to drink in moderation, to space your drinking,” Fenster said. “General common sense is the best way to express it.”

Predicting the next president

How polling works and why it went wrong in 2016 Miguel Principe Contributor Many avid media observers were shocked by Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 United States presidential election. For weeks, media outlets had reported on polls predicting a swift Trump defeat. On election day, FiveThirtyEight, a data journalism website, conservatively projected that there was 71 per cent chance of Hillary Clinton winning.

Even more confidently, Reuters, an international news agency, predicted a whopping 90 per cent chance of a Clinton victory.

Despite their convictions, the predictions were wrong. The inaccuracy of these predictions stems from the polls they were based on.

To understand how the

polls could be so inaccurate, it’s important to understand how polls are conducted. “[Polling is] probability sampling, that means that the polling company [...] will choose a random sample that is supposed to be statistically representative of the population as a whole,” McGill Assistant Professor of Sociology, who specializes in political processes, Barry Eidlin explained. “[The sample size] can be as small as 1,000 [people], but they’re usually around the 3,000 range.

Then, with that randomly generated sample, [...the polling company] will ask a series of standardized questions on a survey. Then, they use those to make estimations about the opinions of the populations as a whole.”

While many media sites like

Reuters conducted their own polls, FiveThirtyEight aggregated results from multiple state and national polls from across the United States.

FiveThirtyEight’s polling analysis was then put through its election simulator to test for a variety of outcomes.

Polling companies have different methodologies to generate randomized samples. The Pew Research Center conducts their poll by selecting a randomized group of landline and cellphone numbers in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. On the other hand, a NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll relies on a sample of the 3 million people who use the SurveyMonkey online polling system. These two methods of polling have different challenges and can yield different results.

“These days, the problem is [that ...] lots of people don’t have landlines anymore,” Eidlin said.

“There’s a bit of crisis in polling strictly at a logistical level in that response rates have collapsed so much, right at the moment when we have a lot of very sophisticated statistical techniques to make sure that our samples are good and the estimations [the polling companies] are using are good.”

While logistical and technological difficulties could have been sources of error, another possibility for why the polls incorrectly predicted the election was what is known as the “Shy Trumper” hypothesis.

“There’s nothing conclusive, but clearly all the polls severely underestimated the level of Trump support,” Eidlin said. “One of

FiveThirtyEight’s forecasts predicted a 71.4 per cent likelihood of a Clinton victory on the day of the election. (fivethirtyeight.com)

the ways in which that could’ve happened is by a lot of people who actually voted for Trump saying they were undecided [....] There’s always a problem in any kind of survey you are doing is what is called ‘appropriateness bias,’ [...] in that if you hold opinions that you know are not socially acceptable, you’re not that likely to tell a stranger on the phone your unpopular opinions.”

The final hypothesis as to why the polls got it so wrong was simply that there were many last minute swing voters that the pollsters never recorded. Whichever hypothesis is correct, one fact remains: The pollsters and their aggregates’ predictions were wrong across the board.

“Pollsters are well aware that the profession faces serious challenges that this election has only served to highlight,” Pew Research Center wrote in postelection article. “At its best, polling provides an equal voice to everyone and helps to give expression to the public’s needs and wants in ways that elections may be too blunt to do. That is why restoring polling’s credibility is so important, and why we are committed to helping in the effort to do so.”

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

14 science & technology

How surveillance works: Behind Edward Snowden’s revelations

Technological advances have changed the way governments spy Andy Wang Staff Writer Edward Snowden, former contractor for the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), spoke remotely via Google Hangouts at McGill University on Wednesday, Nov. 2.

Snowden’s notoriety has not waned since his leak of some 10,000 classified NSA files in 2013.

Snowden began with a few words about surveillance issues in Montreal. In a recent scandal, Patrick Lagacé, a columnist for Montreal’s French language newspaper La Presse, uncovered that police had issued “at least 24 surveillance warrants” on his iPhone this year.

The pace of government surveillance has increased dramatically worldwide thanks to technological advancements that have helped governments spy on their citizens. Highly trained teams of intelligence personnel have been outmatched and replaced in the modern era of mass information.

In traditional, James Bondesque surveillance, spies could physically follow a target, but could never be within earshot for fear of exposure. They jotted down the dates and times when an individual left their home, whom they met with, and their locations around the day. But traditional spying methods were incredibly expensive and labourious. In order to access an individual’s metadata—that is, information surrounding a message or phone call, including dates, times and locations—governments had to spend an incredible amount of money on a team of intelligence personnel.

Without the historical limitations of time and money, government surveillance has become a question of, ‘why not?’

Snowden highlighted the paradigm shift where government officials are no longer held accountable by the citizens they serve.

“Private citizens and public officials have morphed into this brave new world of public citizens and private officials,” Snowden said.

The checks and balances that have traditionally kept democracies free and private have now been outpaced.

In his talk, Snowden also discussed practical applications of the surveillance state.

“First of all, we have to begin to encrypt our data,” Snowden said.

There are a number of companies that offer encryption

Edward Snowden speaks remotely at a talk hosted by Media @ McGill on Nov. 2. (Lauren Benson-Armer / The McGill Tribune) services. Microsoft Outlook, the platform that McGill uses, has a built-in tool to encrypt all outgoing emails. There are also ciphers that encrypt a message using a “key” that can be a phrase from books, movies, or just random strings of letters.

But merely protecting the raw data is not enough. According to Snowden, the metadata must also be protected. To prevent the government from accessing this kind of data is much more difficult than protecting the raw content.

Metadata is not owned by the sender of a message, but rather by the company that provides the service, such as Google or Facebook—a detail the NSA’s PRISM program exploited.

Part of the reason Snowden came forward was to expose the American government’s surveillance programs, such as PRISM, and to protect the privacy of U.S. citizens.

The PRISM program was a clandestine protocol of the NSA to collect and store internet communications and metadata from U.S. internet and telecommunications companies.

Snowden’s document leak exposed the extent of the PRISM program’s access to private citizens’ metadata.

In Canada, the U.K., and the U.S., there are laws that prevent the government from accessing the private information of their citizens. The PRISM program utilizes a loophole where the information of ordinary citizens can be collected from company databases that are based offshore.

Even if correspondents are in the same country, their data could jump to another continent and back without their knowledge. The U.S. government can then collect this information and store it in their

database.

Snowden also leaked documents describing programs targeted at U.S. allies in Europe, including tapping into German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s personal line, as well as bugging the European Union’s office in New York, and spying on European non-governmental organizations.

The U.S. government addressed the consequences of Snowden’s leaks in several internal reports. In 2015, Vice News obtained some 100 pages of the Defense Intelligence Agency’s (DIA) internal reports about the ramifications of the Snowden files.

“The DIA’s report had been unknown until the White House secretly authorized the declassification of select portions of it so two Republican lawmakers could undercut the media narrative painting Snowden as a heroic whistleblower,” Jason Leopold wrote for Vice News in 2015.

According to Vice, the reason that the that they were aware of the report in the first place was due to clandestine government dealings to smear Snowden’s image. Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Vice sued the government for access to the reports.

The files were eventually handed over as a result of pressures from news agencies. Every page of the report was redacted to the point where the only writing on the pages were the titles and some subheadings.

With respect to his own personal fallout, Snowden said that, thanks to previous whistleblowers, he knew what could happen to him.

Snowden said he learned from former U.S. whistleblowers such as Chelsea Manning and Thomas Drake. Because of their actions, he knew more of what to expect in

terms of persecution and criminal convictions.

“I knew that if I got caught the government would use the Espionage Act against me,” Snowden said. “It’s one of the few laws that silences your story in court, it is designed that way.”

When asked why he came forward, Snowden gave his usual wry smile.

“We have a right to know,” he replied.

Recently, there have been campaigns petitioning the American government to allow Snowden to return to the U.S. without facing prosecution but this outcome does not look likely.

“I can’t pardon somebody who hasn’t gone before a court and presented themselves, so that’s not something I would comment on at this point,” U.S. President Barack Obama told the German newspaper Der Spiegel on Nov. 18.

Moreover, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for the head of the Central Intelligence Agency, Kansas Representative

Mike Pompeo, said that he would like to see Snowden executed.

Despite the international attention and media frenzy, Snowden insisted that individuals should look at the critical issues he brought to light instead of focusing on him as an individual.

“I am the least important part of the story,” he said.

Nevertheless, his actions and his message have continued to reverberate around the world.

Snowden’s disclosures gave citizens a glimpse into the inner workings of their governments.

His revelations have made many realize that Big Brother is not merely a construct of English prose, but is very, very real.

Snowden, exiled by the U.S., a rhetorical target of American officials, and living under temporary asylum in Moscow, Russia, closed on an optimistic note.

“Hopefully next year I’ll be able to see you in person,” said Snowden amidst a standing ovation.

SPORTS 15

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

The cautionary tale of Jon Jones Why discipline matters more than talent

In conversation with McGill bodybuilder Josh Diamond

From skinny high school kid to competitive bodybuilding champion Selwynne Hawkins Contributor

Jon Jones after a brutal fight against Alexander Gustafsson. (lowkickmma.com)

Gibran Haque Contributor UFC fighter Jon Jones is one of the greatest examples of wasted potential in all of modern sports. His various infractions outside of the Octagon—such as a hit-and-run charge, a DUI, and a doping ban—have curtailed one of the most dominant MMA careers. Sadly, Jones career did not have to end up this way.

In March 2011, at the age of 23, Jon Jones became the youngest champion in UFC history, defeating veteran fighter Mauricio Rua to take home the Light Heavyweight Championship. On paper, the 22-1 record fighter has been the most dominant athlete in the sport since Georges St-Pierre’s reign in welterweight and Anderson Silva’s dominance in middleweight. Jones has won almost every accolade worth winning in the UFC’s light heavyweight division—he holds the record for most successful title defenses—and is as close to unbeatable as any MMA fighter in history.

Yet, Jones also holds some shameful titles. He is the only fighter to be stripped of the UFC title twice. Fast forward to 2016, the now 29-year old faces yet another year on the sidelines after failing a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) drug test. The one-time number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world may never headline another UFC pay-per-view fight again.

Jones’ highly publicized downfall has been just as rapid as his hardfought rise. He isn’t exactly a poster boy as far as sports idols go. Jones’ weaknesses don’t lie in the technical areas of the sport itself, but rather his recklessness and lack of discipline. To see an athlete so technically gifted hindered by poor choices is truly disheartening for all fans of the sport. Jones has had numerous chances to redeem himself, but has failed to do so on all occasions. It could be argued that given his various incidents–including a hit and run in 2015–Jones shouldn’t even be allowed in the octagon.

The UFC might not even need to take a chance on Jones, considering their newfound Irish poster boy Conor McGregor is raking in more Pay Per Views (PPV) then Jones ever did. The rise of McGregor and Ronda Rousey have helped the UFC to sweep the Jones situation under the rug.

UFC commissioner Dana White was probably right to say that Jones can’t be trusted to headline another UFC pay-per-view, even though the fighter is still talented enough to be on the card of a main event.

Barring setbacks, by the time Jones’ suspension is over he’ll be 30-yearsold and entering into a light heavyweight division with improved fighters in Cormier and Anthony Johnson. He likely won’t get a title fight immediately on his return, and White would be wise to ease him back into the division and have him prove he can stay out of trouble.

Regardless of what happens, Jones can either change his ways or keep on making childish decision and go down in the history books as one of the biggest wastes of talent. Jones’ meteoric fall proves that talent and hard work without discipline can only lead to a career of unfulfilled expectations. Jones will have no one but himself to blame for his failure to become the greatest MMA fighter of all time.

Josh Diamond doesn’t hesitate when asked who his favourite athlete is—Tom Brady.

“He was picked in the sixth round, almost the last pick in the draft,” Diamond explained. “He wasn’t gifted, he’s not fast, he’s not strong, not big, but he was determined and he had heart.”

Diamond certainly emulates his sports hero in terms of discipline and work ethic. While studying pharmacology full-time at McGill, he also recently trained for, and won his first-ever bodybuilding competition–an International DrugFree Athletics (IDFA) competition on Oct. 1–in the men’s physique category.

Between school work and bodybuilding, Diamond is always busy.

“My gym bag is pretty much a second home,” Diamond said. “I have three meals, workout clothing, supplements, and then all my books and laptop.”

When he’s not in class or at the library, Diamond is at the McGill gym. He works out for two hours every day, taking only one rest day a week if he thinks his body needs it.

Maintaining his diet has been the most difficult part of his training.

“For the first couple months, [you eat] really clean,” Diamond said. “Closer to the competition […] you start eating things like tilapia and asparagus, like really not many calories.”

For Diamond, the preparations immediately before the competition were gruelling. He chose to go on a low-carb, “keto diet,” and ate almost no carbohydrates for two weeks leading up to competition day. To ensure he’d be in peak condition for judging, he also cut water 24 hours before stepping on stage. Once the competition rolled around, though, Diamond treated himself to a day of relaxation.

“If you get stressed out, there are hormones in your body that can start to put on fat,” Diamond said. “And, actually, the day of the competition, you eat more carbs than you usually do. Kind of gets your blood glucose levels higher, puts more blood in the muscles. Makes you look better on stage.”

Competitors also use other last-minute techniques to showcase their bodies, including, of course, the notorious spray tan. Spray tanning is important to keep the stage lights from washing out competitors’ muscle definition.

“Because I’m very pale, I had two sessions of spray tan,” Diamond said. “One the night before, and one right before I went on stage.”

To the average student, bodybuilding may sound like a substantial time commitment—and it is. Diamond was clear that it’s only worthwhile because he truly loves the process.

In fact, he thinks that the biggest misconception about bodybuilding surrounds the motivation behind doing it.

“I think at my level, [there is a misconception] that we [bodybuild] to make other people think we look good,”

Josh Diamond at the IDFA bodybuilding competition (Photo courtesy of Josh Diamond) Diamond said. “I do it because I enjoy doing it. I enjoy waking up and going to the gym at seven in the morning. I enjoy preparing meals, and all that kind of stuff [....] I don’t do it for other people. And I think when a lot of people see a bodybuilder, they think, ‘Oh, it’s an egomaniac, maybe a bit narcissistic.’”

Through all of his dedication and hard work, Diamond has certainly come a long way. Once a thin high school kid with ‘skinny kid abs,’ he never expected to get involved with bodybuilding, but his friend Behruze Perey convinced him to start working out.

“At first it was torture, and I didn’t ever want to go [to the gym],” Diamond recalled. “But he made me go every once in a while and then I got addicted to it.”

Now that he has a competition win under his belt, Diamond’s next step is a bigger competition in May, this time in his home province of British Columbia. Until then, he’ll continue to split his time between the McGill Fitness Centre and McLennan Library.

What’s your favourite muscle on yourself?

Abs. That’s an easy question.

Do you have a favourite cheat day food?

I don’t know if you’d call it a cheat day food, but I love any kind of like Basha, Boustan. That’s not a good answer, it’s kind of healthy.

What’s a really bad cheat food?

It would have to be like burgers and fries […] A&W is my go-to. When I’m really hungry, I’ll just order like three teen burgers. The cashier is always like, “three?”

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

16 sports

McGill Redmen hockey dominates Brock Badgers in penalty-filled contest Redmen put six goals past overmatched Badgers Hockey

mcgill

Patrick Beacham Contributor After a contentious first period, the McGill Redmen (102-1) exploded with three goals during the second and finished the game with a 6-1 victory over the visiting Brock Badgers (7-51) on Nov. 19.

Close opening periods have been the norm for McGill this season. A slew of powerplays in the second period shifted the momentum to the Redmen and allowed them to get three goals on the board.

“The more the game goes on, we get our legs back and the execution gets better,” McGill defenceman Dominic TalbotTassi said. “Then the powerplay gets us the momentum and we get going, then they can’t keep up with us.”

While the powerplays did generate scoring opportunities, numerous turnovers and penalties put severe strain on the Redmen

6-1

B ro c k

penalty-kill unit. This allowed Brock to slide a goal past a worndown Redmen penalt-kill team.

“Especially when you have the same guys going over the boards, it might take a toll,” Redmen defenceman Nathan Chiarlitti said. “But at the end of the day, we’re a team and we play as one group. If some guys need to contribute more one game, then that’s fine.”

The struggle of the first period was followed by the Badgers’ attempts to throw the Redmen off their game by starting fights. As McGill continued to pull away with a wide lead, multiple ejections ensued in the second and third periods as instances of roughing and fighting erupted in the corners. Brock racked up more ejections and penalty minutes from these aggressions than McGill and the resulting penalties only expanded the fivegoal lead that the Redmen held to the end of the game.

Dominic Talbot-Tassi anticipates the puck. (Photo courtesy of McGill Athletics) “Late in the game like that, when we’re up 6-1, they’re going to try and do stuff like that to get our guys out of the game,” Redmen Assistant Coach David Urquhart said. “We knew the other team was going to be a little chippy and our guys did a good job of defending themselves.”

The Redmen will face UOIT and Queen’s on Nov. 25 and 26, respectively. Having lost to UOIT earlier in the season, the team feels ready for a re-match.

“That was one of the games we had a slow start, so that’s going to be one of the focuses for that,” Urquhart said. “We’ve grown a lot since then, and we’ve been developing an identity since then, so this is a good chance for retribution for that game.”

Stat Corner 158 penalty minutes were racked up during the game with 130 of those minutes coming from the third period alone.

Quotable “It’ll be revenge for us.” — McGill defencemen Dominic TalbotTassi on the upcoming game against UOIT Moment of the Game Two back-to-back goals by the Redmen, the first from the slot

by Dominic Talbot-Tassi and the second by Nathan Chiarlitti, brought about the mid-game surge in goals that established McGill’s lead and accelerated the pace of the game.

McGill Sailing rules the waves in Canada Fundraising campaign wind in team’s sails Nicole Spadotto Staff Writer While most students are just trying to stay afloat academically, members of the McGill Sailing team must balance school with practices, competitions across the East Coast, and fundraising initiatives to finance their season.

“The McGill sailors on the team are the most dedicated group of athletes I’ve ever met,” McGill Sailing Vice-President Renee Torrie said.

The sailing schedule is intense, with practices held four afternoons a week and competitions every weekend. The team’s first-place finish in three regattas this season has sustained their spirits as well as their rankings.

“In Canada, we are first right now,” Torrie said. “We just won the National Championship. And in the U.S., […] we’re ranked 18th, which is right in the middle for New England.”

Their efforts paid off in the Canadian National Championship, taking home the first-place finish. McGill sailing’s high ranking in New England is especially admirable considering the high level of competition from American schools. American teams have varsity designation and are fully-funded by their schools.

McGill’s sailing team only has club status, meaning that while it is sup-

The McGill sailing team has performed among the best collegiate teams in New England this season.

(Photo courtesy of Luca Bartulovic) ported by the university, it relies on team fees and fundraising to finance its season.

“We recently have been purchasing new boats and that was a big logistical thing,” Torrie said. “The people at [McGill Athletics] have been really helpful [logistically] in helping us import the boats, buy the boats, [and] all of that.”

The purchase of 12 second hand from St. George’s School in Rhode Island has made all the difference for the sailing team. Formerly, the team had to borrow boats from the Royal St-Lawrence Yacht Club in Dorval,

where the team practices. The club has been very gracious in accommodating the team, but their boats were uneven, meaning that some were capable of faster times than others, which made inter-team competitions during practice difficult. Though perhaps not the epitome of luxury, the new boats represent an improvement over the old fleet as they are even, which has lent to the sailing team’s remarkable success this season.

“These boats have significantly improved our practices,” President Amanda Ivey explained. “Having an even fleet is extremely useful because

it allows you to better compare your boat speed […] while eliminating variables significant to the specific boat.”

The fleet of boats are expensive, costing over $40,000 to purchase and transport to Montreal. Without subsidies from McGill, the sailing team is forced to embark on fundraising campaigns themselves to acquire the new equipment they need to remain competitive. The team has fundraised successfully through “Seeds of Change” campaigns and by mobilizing members of the wider McGill and Montreal community. Seeds of

Change is a not-for-profit crowdfunding network where McGill alumni, friends, and family are able to make donations to help organizations reach their goals.

“We had no idea what our community could do for us until we launched our campaign,” Fundraising Coordinator Isaiah Riesman-Tremonte said. “I had the distinct feeling that we had started something really special.”

Indeed, the sailing team surpassed their initial fundraising goal with donations from friends and family culminating in $40,000 raised over two years. This process has brought the team and the Montreal community closer together.

“It’s a family,” Torrie said. “It’s the most supportive, loving group of people ever. I think being a club team makes us more cohesive, gives us something to strive towards. We always want to be improving together, trying to prove ourselves, […] it’s really more than just a sailing team.”

The McGill Sailing team has overcome a lack of funding from McGill by connecting with a wider community. Perhaps that is why they train so hard—they have a sense of responsibility beyond their own team.

“We have an [extremely] committed community that cares about us,” Riesman-Tremonte said. “We have them to thank for our success this year.”