McGill Tribune Vol. 37 Issue 13

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the mcgill tribune v o l . 37 i s s u e 1 3 | D e c . 6 , 2 0 1 7 published by the SPT, a student society of mcgill university

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NEWS

Editor-in-Chief Nicholas Jasinski editor@mcgilltribune.com

PAGES 3 - 6

Creative Director Noah Sutton nsutton@mcgilltribune.com Managing Editors Audrey Carleton acarleton@mcgilltribune.com Emma Avery eavery@mcgilltribune.com Selin Altuntur saltuntur@mcgilltribune.com

PHOTO PAGE 7

SSMU EXEC MIDTERM REVIEWS PAGES 8 - 9

News Editors Holly Cabrera, Domenic Casciato, Calvin Trottier-Chi news@mcgilltribune.com Opinion Editors Jackie Houston & Alexandra Harvey opinion@mcgilltribune.com Science & Technology Editor Izze Siemann scitech@mcgilltribune.com

OPINION PAGES 10 - 12

Student Living Editor Grace Bahler studentliving@mcgilltribune.com

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT PAGES 14 - 15, 18 - 19

Features Editor Marie Labrosse features@mcgilltribune.com Arts & Entertainment Editors Dylan Adamson & Ariella Garmaise arts@mcgilltribune.com Sports Editors Stephen Gill & Selwynne Hawkins sports@mcgilltribune.com

FEATURE

Design Editors Daniel Freed & Elli Slavitch design@mcgilltribune.com

PAGES 16 - 17

Photo Editor Ava Zwolinski photo@mcgilltribune.com

STUDENT LIVING

Multimedia Editor April Barrett multimedia@mcgilltribune.com

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Web Developers Daniel Lutes webdev@mcgilltribune.com Julia Kafato online@mcgilltribune.com

CARTOONS PAGE 25

Copy Editor Ayanna De Graff copy@mcgilltribune.com

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY PAGES 26 - 28

Business Manager Daniel Minuk business@mcgilltribune.com Advertising Executives Grayson Castell, Noah Cohen, Vincent Li ads@mcgilltribune.com Publisher Chad Ronalds

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TPS Board of Directors

Nicholas Jasinski, Daniel Minuk, Katherine Hutter, Julia Métraux, Anthony Kuan, Elli Slavitch, Holly Cabrera, Jeeventh Kaur, Katherine Milazzo, Becca Hoff

Staff Writers Julia Métraux, Fionn Adamian, Kendall McGowan, Cherry Wu, Grace Gunning, Gabriel Rincon, Avleen Mokha, Virginia Shram, Sophie Brzozowski, Kate Lord, Sam Min, Oceane Marescal, Miguel Principe, Emma Carr, Wasif Husain, Jordan Foy, Patrick Beacham, Winnie Lin, Cordelia Cho, Erica Stefano, Gabriel Helfant, Margaux Delalex

Contributors

Abeer Almahdi, Allegra Mendelson, Amin Guidara, Ana Mayne, Andras Nemeth, Arindam Das, Arshaaq Jiffry, Arvaa Balsara, Catherine Morrison, Daria Kiseleva, Emma Hameau, Ender McDuff, Felicia Chang, Gabe Nisker, Gabriela McGuinty, Gal Sandaev, Gwyneth Boone, Hana Shiraishi, Isabelle Oke, Janine Xu, Jitika Shah, Keating Reid, Krithika Ragupathi, Laura Oprescu, Lucy Keller, Maxime Scraire, Miya Keilin, Myriam Driss, Paloma Jacquet, Ryan Canon, Sam Wendel, Samantha Ling, Sunny Kim, Susan Gaskin, Taja de Silva, Tynan Jarrett, Zoe Yalden

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

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Bill 151 exposes gaps in McGill Policy Against Sexual Violence Constituents say McGill Policy is insufficient Audrey carleton Managing Editor

the procedures are still the procedures under the Code of Student Conduct, and that means that you automatically get transferred to procedures meant for academic infractions,” Spencer said. “It’s not trauma-informed, or survivor-centred, and it just doesn’t have those realities reflected in how those procedures are set out. For the policy to truly be stand-alone, it needs its own procedures as well.”

Further, Quebec’s Act respecting labour standards mandates that the university must keep many of its disciplinary processes confidential, keeping survivors in the dark about how the university handles their cases.

“If we really want to have procedures with professors, there needs to be a change in [...] Quebec labour law,” Spencer said. “That’s something that really can only happen at the provincial level anyway.”

Caitlyn Salvino, co-chair of Our Turn National Action Plan—a guideline encouraging student unions to adopt a pro-survivor stance at Canadian Universities—shares Spencer’s concerns about the importance of having a standalone policy. To ensure that action is taken, she believes that the provincial government should also provide formal channels for overseeing proper implementation of the bill at universities like McGill.

“The bill is not going far enough right now,” Salvino said.

“It needs to create minimum standards for the policies that they’re mandating [...] and there needs to be an oversight body that survivors can make a claim to or make a complaint to.”

NEWS

At the Nov. 1 sitting of the National Assembly of Québec, Minister for Higher Education Hélène David introduced Bill 151, which aims to prevent and fight sexual violence in higher education institutions. The bill would require all universities in the province to develop a policy against sexual violence that is separate from its other policies and includes guidelines for student orientations, training, and the handling of intimate relationships between students and faculty members.

“The purpose of this Act is to strengthen actions to prevent and fight sexual violence in higher education institutions and to help foster a healthy and safe living environment for students and personnel members,” Bill 151 reads. “To that end, the Act in particular provides for the implementation of prevention, awareness-raising, accountability, support and individual assistance measures.”

The proposed bill is the product of months of consultations between David and representatives of various stakeholder groups, including the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), Our Turn National Action Plan, and the Association of the Voice of Education in Quebec (AVEQ).

McGill Associate Provost (Policies, Procedures, and Equity) Angela Campbell was also present at a number of these consultations, though she is confident that the university’s current Policy against Sexual Violence sufficiently complies

with the bill’s proposed guidelines.

“The proposed legislation has symbolic value and stands to make a significant practical impact, foregrounding the shared responsibility that institutions, including postsecondary institutions, have to prevent and respond to sexual violence,” Campbell wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune.

“McGill already meets most of the requirements of the proposed legislation, notably a commitment to mandatory education for all members of the campus community, a stand-alone Policy against Sexual Violence, and an Office that dedicates resources specifically to the support of survivors and to education and awareness-raising about consent and sexual violence.”

McGill’s Policy against Sexual Violence explicitly states that consent cannot be given in circumstances where an abuse of a relationship of trust, power, or authority occurs, such as in the relationship between a professor and their student. However, student offenders are under a different policy than faculty, who are held accountable to the Regulations Relating to the Employment of Tenure Track and Tenured Academic Staff.

After working extensively on improving McGill’s Policy, SSMU Vice-President (VP) External Connor Spencer feels that its structure improperly defines sexual violence and is not “stand-alone,” which she says would require outlining procedures for discipline independent from academic regulations. “[McGill’s Policy is on] a separate piece of paper, but

Minerva schedules cause confusion over semester end dates Weekly schedules fail to match official approved dates for the end of the semester Faced with complaints and confusion, the administration instructed professors to follow the Calendar of Academic Dates 2017-2018 instead of their Minerva schedules.

“There was an email sent around on [Nov. 21] that said that there had been Every academic year, the Committee on Enrolment and Students Affairs some questions about when the last classes would be, based on the 39 [hours of (CESA) and the McGill University Senate approve the Calendar of Academic Dates, class required for every three-credit course], the Minerva class schedule, and the which stipulates dates for the start and end of classes and other important events key dates,” Associate Professor of History and Classical Studies Lynn Kozak said. throughout the semester. CESA and Senate approved the Calendar of Academic “I think that they knew that there was some gap [between those things]. There was some clarity the next day within [the Faculty of] Arts, [explaining] the dates approved Dates 2017-2018 in April and May 2014, respectively.

The Calendar determines the end date for each class depending on its schedule: by the Senate.”

Although professors have had to amend their course syllabi, Halevi-Wise feels Classes that met only on Wednesdays were scheduled to end on Nov. 29, while classes that met Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays ended on Dec. 6. Moreover, that the burden of the scheduling discrepancy has largely fallen on students.

“Students have very complex schedules,” Halevi-Wise said. “They budget their because Thursday, Dec. 7 followed a Monday schedule, classes that met only on time very carefully, and if all of a sudden Mondays ended on that day. there’s confusion, it affects them when However, according to Associate they’re studying for an exam, [working] on Professor of English and Jewish Studies projects that they have to get somebody Yael Halevi-Wise, this calendar is not to do, if they [have a job].” widely-used among professors, many Until being approached for an of whom instead preferred to use interview by the Tribune on Dec. 1, Minerva’s weekly teaching schedules Associate Dean (Student Affairs) for the which contain their class itineraries for Faculty of Arts Lucyna Lach remained each week of the semester. unaware of any errors in students’ “When I designed the course schedules. Despite gaps in communication syllabus before the semester began, over end dates for classes, the [the] first thing I did was consult my administration recognizes the negative personalized Minerva schedule,” impacts this mistake has had. Lach said Halevi-Wise said. “I planned all she has now brought Arts professors’ meetings and assignments accordingly. attention to the discrepancies in the It was therefore surprising to find out Although the system has been in place for years, inaccurate schedules caused confusion this semester.

Minerva schedules via email. that what looks like a personalized “It has now become evident that it is schedule on Minerva was actually not (Arshaaq Jiffry / The McGill Tribune) critical to resolve this issue so that all versions of offering correct information.”

As the end of the semester approached, many professors and students came to the Class Schedule and myCourses reflect the accurate end dates on each course realize that the class dates in the Minerva schedules did not match those approved section,” Walsh said. “Students and instructors should not be expected to look by the Senate for the Fall semester. While different courses end on different dates, elsewhere for that information. Enrolment Services will be working with IT early in only one final date, Thursday, Dec. 7, can be entered into Minerva. Thus, Minerva the new year to have special coding implemented to address this issue.”

Although Lach claimed rectifying the confusion is a priority for the McGill’s schedules display classes as if they would be going up until that date, when in reality administration, Information Technology Services (ITS) directors were not informed some of them were supposed to end before.

“The fact that courses on the Minerva schedules do not match the varying of the flawed Minerva schedules. When asked for comment by the Tribune, Chief Senate last date of classes is a system limitation in that there is no logic in the Information Officer and Associate Vice-Principal at ITS Ghilaine Roquet denied any system to automatically generate the specific end dates on each course based on the issues, and did not provide any plans for amending the discrepancies in Minerva various schedule patterns of the courses,” Interim University Registrar (Enrolment schedules.

“There were no issues with Minerva personalized schedules,” Roquet wrote.

Services) Anna Walsh wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune.

Marie LabrossE Features Editor

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Open Letter highlights gaps in pay for women and racialized research employees Letter says employment precarious for those on maternity and disability leave NEWS

Audrey Carleton Managing Editor

training professors in equitable hiring practices, and requiring that professors post job openings in varied locations that reach a range of demographics.

As part of the Association of McGill University Research Employees’ (AMURE) ongoing negotiations with the university, President Sean Cory published an Open Letter to Principal Suzanne Fortier on Oct. 25. The letter lays out four injustices that research employees at McGill face, which AMURE—a union of research associates and assistants at McGill—hopes to come to a collective agreement upon at some point in the future: Payment discrepancies, unequitable hiring, precarious employment for those on leave, and professor abuses of power.

Employability on Leave The AMURE letter also highlighted the precarious positions of McGill employees on maternity or disability leave. Given that those on leave lack time and resources to search for new employment, many companies of McGill’s size take extra measures to ensure their employees’ job security. McGill, however, does not, and Cory reported that some employees return only to find that their jobs have been filled.

“You’re not offered any [protection] at McGill,” Cory said. “Other companies will offer the person a comparable job to what they had before, or at least guarantee their salary if they find them a different job. For research employees, [McGill] does zip. A person can come back from a depression, an accident, cancer, maternity leave, and McGill is like, ‘Well, find your own job yourself.’”

Cory hopes to negotiate a policy for internal hiring with the university to ensure that former workers are prioritized when re-applying for a job.

Payment Discrepancies According to the letter, McGill retroactively increased pay for research assistants by 30 per cent last year, but this has only been applied to new hires thus far. Just two days after the Open Letter was published, McGill’s Human Resources department released a pay equity update confirming this gap and laying out plans to address it. In an email to the The McGill Tribune, Fortier reiterated the administration’s desire to fix payment discrepancies soon.

“In spring 2017 McGill entered into a conciliation process with three unions overseen by a provincially appointed conciliator,” Fortier wrote. “That process continues today, and the goal is to reach mutual agreement on the terms of our 2010 pay equity maintenance evaluation. Once this is achieved, we will move as quickly as possible to implement all pay adjustments, including retroactive payments, for those who are owed them.”

Fortier declined to comment publicly on the other three topics mentioned in the letter, citing confidentiality agreements in the bargaining processes.

Unequitable Hiring AMURE also claimed that the majority of casual employees—who work fewer hours on a shorter-term basis and are not given the same benefits as regular employees—are women or people from racialized groups. Cory attributes this homogeneity to professors having too much individual freedom when hiring research employees.

“There’s not a single way that McGill is trying to increase diversity,” Cory said. “In research groups, professors can hire who they want [...] and unfortunately because not all jobs are posted, it tends to be that they hire from their own social network, which tends to be white people.”

Cory interpreted McGill’s unequitable hiring as a violation of the Canadian Employment Equity Act, which says that employers have the duty to ensure representative hiring of marginalized groups. Cory promoted tactics such as providing incentives for diverse hires,

Abuses of Power The letter also called for a ban of student-professor relationships, citing a repeated issue with professors abusing their hiring powers to take advantage of student employees.

“Professors can exploit their power over people, their hiring ability,” Cory said. “We’ve seen [cases where] professors approach people, they ask the students to work for them, then the work that’s being provided for these people is almost, like, made up work. It’s not a research project, it’s almost like busy work, photocopying [...] arranging for the person to come to [their] office late in the evening.”

When reporting equity cases to the university, McGill’s Human Resources office bridges the gap between administration and employees. In an email to the Tribune, Diana Dutton, Interim Associate Vice-Principal of the office, noted that the claims in AMURE’s letter are unsubstantiated.

“It is difficult to assess these claims as no supporting data is included,” Dutton said. “I am not sure I am in a position to speak to other employees’ experiences, but I can certainly speak to my own. I know McGill to be a fair and equitable employer, highly committed to respecting employees’ rights and upholding all collective agreements and applicable labour standards.

We are committed as well to equitable hiring and employment practices, not only for research employees, but for all employees. And if an employee feels they have been treated unfairly, we have grievance and dispute resolution processes in place to help ensure a fair outcome.”

Quebec Studies minor program no longer under review A look into how the minor has been revamped Arvaa Balsara Contributor

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At the Nov. 8 Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) Legislative Council meeting, AUS Vice-President (VP) Internal Rebecca Scarra put forth a motion to establish a Quebec Studies Students’ Association (QSSA) in order to facilitate negotiations between the AUS and the Quebec Studies program administrators at McGill. This, among other measures, was part of an effect made to increase student retention in the program, which was at risk of being cut earlier this year due to low enrollment rates.

The Quebec Studies minor program provides an interdisciplinary approach to the study of Quebec history, culture, and society. The minor program continues to be one of the smallest at McGill, with fewer than 20 students currently enrolled. The low enrollment rates resulted in the removal of the major program in 2016, according to Professor Eric Bélanger, the director of the Quebec Studies Program.

“The numbers were simply not high enough to justify the major program,” Bélanger said. “So, we decided to focus on developing the minor program instead.”

Due to provincial budget cuts over the past few years, the Faculty of Arts was forced to terminate 50 courses in the 2014-2015 academic year alone. According to AUS VP Academic Madeline Wilson, enrollment is the primary measure that determines a program’s viability. Programs with low enrollment are placed under review by the faculty in

order to determine concrete strategies to increase enrollment.

If there is no increase in enrollment over a certain period of time, these programs are cut from the Faculty of Arts. The North American Studies program is currently being phased out for this reason.

“In the case of the Quebec Studies Program, the program was placed under review a few years ago,” Wilson said. “As enrollment did not increase, the [Faculty of Arts] decided to cut the major program. However, the minor has recently been removed from review because [its] enrollment has increased.”

Despite the increase, the Quebec Studies minor is struggling to maintain its current enrollment. Olivia Kurajian, President of the QSSA, hopes that establishing a student association will make the program more visible to Arts students.

“It’s our goal to attract enough people to the department to reinstate the major program,” Kurajian said.

Under Quebec law, all departments are guaranteed a student association to represent their interests in student government. Following the approval of the motion to establish the QSSA, AUS Council formed an executive committee comprised of a President, a VP External, a VP Events, and a VP Finance. These positions are currently held by Olivia Kurajian, Mary-Jane Roy, Sarah Dery, and Veronique Leblanc, respectively. Since the QSSA’s founding, the executives have been planning events for the Winter 2018 semester, including a trip to Quebec City.

In addition to the QSSA events, the Quebec Studies

The Quebec Studies Student Association formed to boost program enrollment. (Arindam Das / The McGill Tribune)

Program has implemented hands-on learning opportunities in an effort to increase student retention. In collaboration with the Social Equity and Diversity Education Office (SEDE), many Quebec Studies courses offer a community engagement option, which connects students to local organizations that offer internships and volunteer opportunities, thereby integrating students into Quebec society. “[The community engagement option] also caters to different types of learners,” Kurajian said. “You have the chance to understand the nuances of what you are learning about through hands-on experiences. There’s also something to be said about being a smaller program. [It] allows you to explore the material in a way that simply isn’t possible in a larger program.”

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Carbon neutrality and platinum sustainability ranking among University’s long-term goals Andras Nemeth Contributor On Dec. 1, McGill University launched its Climate and Sustainability Action Plan. As the product of the Vision 2020 Sustainability Strategy’s consultations with over 500 McGill community members, the Action Plan outlines two long-term goals for the university: Obtaining a Platinum Ranking from the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS)—an organization that assigns institutions sustainability scores based on their environmental performance—by 2030, and achieving carbon-neutrality by 2040. Last year, McGill earned a Gold ranking from STARS for increasing its integration of sustainability in curriculum, research, dining services, and purchasing.

Beyond these primary goals are a multitude of more specific action items, like the promotion of sustainable modes of commuting through the introduction of a new

bike centre, upgrading the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) and electrical systems in old buildings, and electrifying McGill’s fleet of vehicles. At the launch event, staff from the McGill Office of Sustainability outlined McGill’s sustainability strategy for the coming years.

When strategizing the Action Plan, McGill Sustainability Director François Miller strove for pragmatism. He intends to provide students, faculty, and administrators with recommendations to inspire community involvement, which is crucial for ensuring the Plan’s success.

“We’re both serious and humble in what we are presenting in this Climate and Sustainability Action Plan,” Miller said. “These are not just dreamy ideals that we are putting there. We have a concrete action plan to achieve those long-term targets, but we are humble in the sense that we know this goes beyond what the Office of Sustainability can do. We need the involvement of the students and staff and faculty members in order to achieve these targets.”

After years of consultation, Vision 2020 released concrete plans.

(Gabriel Helfant / The McGill Tribune)

Vision 2020 Coordinator Amelia Brinkerhoff hopes that students will be excited about the proposed changes, and continue acting to mitigate carbon emissions on McGill campuses.

“We’re going to have more green buildings on campus, a better waste system on a campus, a bike centre on campus,” Brinkerhoff said. “These are more immediate, visible things [but] I think the important thing to realize is that it is a long process. 2040 is 23 years away. I think this is about being aware that change takes some time, and that change management can be difficult.”

Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) Environment Commissioner Konstantina Chalastara sees her role in the Action Plan to be promoting small-scale sustainable practices among post-graduate students.

“What I will try to do is to show to graduate students that small things can make a big difference,” Chalastara said. “My goal for Vision 2020 is to promote [these small things]. It could be for your research, or how you travel. I think the main point here is that research and graduate studies have a big environmental impact. If you work in a lab, you have a lot of waste, so I’m trying to prove that you can recycle even in a lab.”

Brinkerhoff further hopes that McGill students will continue putting forth their own sustainability-related initiatives in the coming years. “[The Action Plan is] for us, but it’s also for [students] as a learning experience,” Brinkerhoff said. “So they should feel some sense of ownership and some sense of implication, and that they are free to get involved and get in touch with [the McGill Office of Sustainability] if they have an idea.

We have a lot of tools to help students who have ideas, so I hope that people do feel inspired to act, and to get more involved, and to learn from this system that is McGill.”

J-Board declines BoD case for lack of Referendum to raise GA quorum remains in effect Laura Oprescu Contributor On Nov. 19, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Judicial Board (J-Board) declined to hear a case challenging the Board of Directors (BoD) adding a question to the Fall Referendum. Several SSMU members initially criticized the additional question since its submission did not follow standard procedure. Ultimately the J-Board concluded that it has no jurisdiction over any BoD motion in general.

Following the events of the Fall 2017 General Assembly (GA), a number of SSMU members filed a petition calling to raise the GA quorum substantially. Although the petition received over 450 signatories, it was submitted too late to become a question in the online Fall Referendum. However, the BoD disregarded the Oct. 25 deadline and added a question to raise the quorum anyway, appealing to the Quebec Companies Act to classify online voting as a “general meeting.”

Historically, this term has only applied to GAs, enabling motions passed there to be put up for online referendum; if the online referendum

itself also counts as the general meeting, then GAs are effectively bypassed.

Shortly thereafter, Meara Kirwin, U2 Arts, and Gregoire Beaune, U3 Arts, filed a petition with the J-Board arguing that the BoD’s decision to move the motion was unconstitutional. On Nov. 8, the J-Board accepted jurisdiction to issue a ruling, but it later released a decision on Nov. 19 unanimously rejecting its jurisdiction over the BoD, reaffirming its inability to check the BoD’s power. “[The J-Board] finds that the SSMU Constitution compels it to decline jurisdiction,” the J-Board wrote in its Nov. 19 decision.

“Section 1.1(b) specifies that the jurisdiction includes ‘the interpretation of all motions and resolutions passed by the Legislative Council, including the authority to declare invalid any act of the Legislative Council or the Executive Committee which violates the Constitution or Internal Regulations’ […] A glaring omission from this enumeration is the [BoD].”

In the absence of the J-Board’s jurisdiction, there are no channels within SSMU through which to contest the constitutionality of the Board’s motions.

Further, no branch of SSMU has oversight over the BoD, which is itself currently composed mostly of unelected members-atlarge. The membership of its Directors is also currently in a transitionary status because, although their incumbencies were set to end on Nov. 15, the J-Board has extended their terms indefinitely while it considers the constitutionality of the Fall GA BoD ratification vote. To amend this, Kirwin and Beaune are calling for constitutional reform and restructuring of SSMU governance.

“There is currently no body within SSMU that can check the BoD,” Kirwin said.

“We would like to see extensive governance reform within SSMU to return the powers of the BoD to the Legislative Council, and to limit the authority of the BoD to formal approval of Council decisions.”

In an opinion piece published in The McGill Tribune, former Vice-President finance and director Arisha Khan cited the BoD’s disregard for due process and student consultation as one of her reasons for resigning. In an email to the Tribune, Khan explained that she believes the lack of checks and balances within SSMU has allowed the

BoD to abuse its power.

“SSMU executives really cannot do anything themselves to change [the BoD], as only four execs sit on the board,” Khan wrote.

At other student associations [...] the Boards of Directors [is] comprised of the executive team [and] other elected representatives.”

Khan is advocating for a third party to advise SSMU on potential reforms, an idea that was previously discussed at SSMU Council last month. She believes that a complete overhaul of governance structures is necessary to ensure that SSMU is kept democratic.

“I feel that SSMU needs to have a complete governance review done by an external third party to figure out how we can most efficiently organize our governance structures so they are legally compliant,” Khan wrote. “While also being cognizant of SSMU’s role as a student association and therefore prioritizing democratic participation in governance and decision-making.”

SSMU President and BoD Chair Muna Tojiboeva did not provide a comment by press time.

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McGill outlines plan to reach Carbon neutrality by 2040

Judicial Board hearing held on General Assembly BoD ratification Decision to determine constitutionality of board composition by Dec. 31 Kendall McGowan Staff Writer

NEWS

At a hearing held on Nov. 30, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Judicial Board (J-Board) committed to delivering a verdict in the case of Glustein v. Koparkar by Dec. 31. The hearing concerned a dispute over the constitutionality of a motion passed at the at the Oct. 23 Fall 2017 General Assembly (GA) that divided the ratification of appointments to the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Board of Directors (BoD) into a separate vote for each appointee.

BoD appointments are typically ratified by GAs as a single ticket, with members-at-large voting either yes or no to the collective ratification of all appointees. However, because of the motion to divide the question, only seven of the 10 BoD appointments voted on by the GA were ratified, with the remaining three rejected. While the seven Directors whose appointments were ratified at the GA were supposed to begin their terms on Nov. 15, a J-Board interim decision to extend the terms of the previous 12 Directors indefinitely remains in effect.

The Dec. 31 deadline for the J-Board’s verdict means that deliberations will last more than double the 14-day timeline that the J-Board typically allots for cases. At the hearing, Justice Samuil Stoychev explained that the complex nature of the case has delayed their verdict. All decisions made by the J-Board must be ratified by the BoD—who have already had their last meeting of the semester—a conflict which Stoychev acknowledged at the close of the trial.

“We’re worried the decision will be overturned by the BoD either way if it is rushed,” Stoychev said. “It’s very likely the decision won’t be actionable until next semester anyway.”

After protesting the motion to divide the BoD appointments at the GA, BoD member-at-large Jonathan Glustein submitted a petition to the J-Board which listed SSMU Vice-President (VP) Internal Maya Koparkar—who originally moved the motion— and former SSMU Legislative Council speaker Jad El-Tal— who, as speaker, allowed the motion to be moved and

voted on—as respondents. In his petition, Glustein alleged that the division of the ratification votes was unconstitutional, and requested the J-Board nullify their results.

At the hearing, Koparkar, who also sits on the BoD, explained that her motion was an attempt to increase the legitimacy of BoD appointments and alleviate SSMU members’ concerns about their undemocratic nature. Koparkar noted that, in response to these concerns, the SSMU Legislative Council also chose to vote on the Directors’ appointments individually.

“The motion was not targeted to remove specific Board members, and I didn’t think it would cease being more than a procedural matter, like the bloc vote,” Koparkar said. “I didn’t expect three Directors to be rejected. I had no way of knowing. My own spot was in jeopardy too.”

Noah Lew, a current member-at-large on the BoD and one of the appointees rejected by the GA, made a viral Facebook post claiming that the failure of his ratification was the result of anti-Semitic sentiment at McGill.

“I was blocked from being able to participate in my student government because I am Jewish, because I have been affiliated with Jewish organizations, and because I believe in the right to Jewish self-determination,” Lew wrote.

Glustein and his counsel Nikolas De Stefano, a McGill Law student from the Legal Information Clinic, argued that section 6.5 of the SSMU Constitution requires appointments to the BoD to be ratified as a bloc. They also argued that sections 6.9 and 6.10, which list the conditions under which a Director can be removed and replaced, do not include their appointment failing to be ratified at a GA. Additionally, De Stefano argued the Constitution does not require the BoD to be an elected body, and that splitting the ratification violated the Constitution.

“By splitting the vote, you mutilate the entire constitutional structure,” De Stefano said.

“You turn an appointed body that is supposed to be ratified by bloc into an elected one [....]

The people who voted at the GA knew next to nothing, saw no nominating papers, and were not campaigned to. For better or worse, the Constitution does not designate [the BoD] as an elected position.”

The SSMU Judicial Board announced that it will reach a verdict on Koparkar v. Glustein by Dec. 31.

(Kendall McGowan / The McGill Tribune)

Board of Directors delivers updates on Special Committee on Anti-Semitism Groups diverge on how to confront anti-Semitism on campus Jackie Houston Opinion Editor

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The Students’ Society of McGill (SSMU) Special Committee on Anti-Semitism is in the planning stages of developing its recommendation for the SSMU Board of Directors (BoD) and Legislative Council. On March 14, the committee will advise the Board and Council on how to best confront anti-Semitism on campus and make Jewish-identifying students feel safer.

At the Nov. 26 BoD meeting, Director Jonathan Glustein, a member of the committee, presented the progress made. The committee has held two meetings thus far, on Nov. 14 and 20.

“We agreed on a timeline for the recommendation to be presented to both Council and the Board,” Glustein said. “[The committee] set about five different goals that they wanted to pursue. One of them is a definition on anti-Semitism, another one is […] a review of anti-Semitism historically at McGill.”

SSMU Legislative Council approved the committee at its Nov. 29 meeting, per a motion moved by Glustein. While intended to combat anti-Semitism on campus in general, the committee was created specifically in response to allegations of anti-Semitism at the Fall 2017 General Assembly (GA) on Oct. 23, as well as an open letter. The committee was struck shortly after McGill University announced its own investigation into the events of the GA on Oct. 25.

The committee includes representatives from various

Jewish student cultural groups at McGill, including Hillel McGill, Chabad McGill, Independent Jewish Voices McGill, Am McGill, Israel on Campus, and the Jewish Studies Students Association, each of which have been given a single seat.

Although the committee has yet to establish how it will proceed with developing its recommendation, Noa Levin, the committee representative for McGill Am felt that establishing the body was an important first step.

“The General Assembly […] left a lot of people feeling very concerned and confused,” Levin said. “The fact that [the] committee exists [means] there’s already a lot of Jewish students in a room that are now being empowered to affect their experience on campus.”

However, not all groups represented on the committee agree with its methods. Tali Ioselevich, a member of Independent Jewish Voices McGill (IJV), an anti-Zionist Jewish student group, said that in IJV’s view, the events of the GA—namely, Director Noah Lew’s failure to be ratified—were not anti-Semitic.

“The claim that Noah Lew was not ratified because he’s a Jewish student […] is not substantiated,” Ioselevich said. “If you look at the people who voted against Noah Lew at the GA, a lot of Jews voted against him. And [that] was not only [because of] his stance on [Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions against Israel], but also the fact that he was not transparent in his dealings with

SSMU, which are totally legitimate reasons to vote someone down.”

IJV was given a seat when the committee was struck at Council, but only after IJV president Hani Abramson reached out to Glustein to have the group included.

“There are actual cases of anti-Semitism on campus, and those should be addressed,” Ioselevich said. “But the committee itself was created directly in response to the [events of] the GA, which were not in and of itself a case of anti-Semitism.”

Ioselevich nonetheless affirmed the importance of IJV’s role on the committee.

“It’s very important for us to have a seat at the table,” Ioselevich said. “Otherwise, […] it seems to me that there would be a homogeneity in the perspectives, and if we’re not there, it might as well be an open and shut case of, yeah, [the events of the GA] were anti-Semitism.”

Despite differences within the committee, Levin expressed optimism about its effectiveness.

“Obviously, people have different political opinions, but we are all committed to making this campus a safe and encouraging place for Jewish people, so I’m confident that we’ll be able to work together,” Levin said.

Chabad McGill, Hillel McGill, and Israel on Campus did not provide comment by press time.

Photos by Ava Zwolinski, Noah Sutton, and Gabriel Helfant

The Minimalist

PHOTO

THE DESKS OF FINALS WEEK

The Highly Caffeinated

The Snacker

The Klutz

The Sleeper

Wednesday, December 6, 2017 - 7

The Gamer

SSMU EXEC REVIEWS

FALL 2017 MIDTERM SSMU EXEC REVIEWS

V ISABE

President Muna Tojiboeva

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Prior to her election as this year’s Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) President, Muna Tojiboeva campaigned on a platform of increased transparency, accountability, and concrete action on behalf of student interests; however, she has failed to uphold these standards. Instead, her first semester as President has been defined by her inability to maintain a functioning executive team.

At SSMU Council on Oct. 19, five SSMU executives presented a motion of no confidence in the President.

Over the course of the semester, Tojiboeva has failed to resolve these conflicts internally, allowing them to impede the productivity of other SSMU projects. For example, Tojiboeva cites tensions with Vice-President (VP) Student Life Jemark Earle as the reason for a lack of progress on mental health initiatives. As President, the primary responsibility for resolving conflicts in her team falls on Tojiboeva, not Earle.

To increase transparency, Tojiboeva released missing 2015, 2016, and 2017 SSMU Board of Directors (BoD) minutes; however, minutes from this year’s meetings are often late or missing. Tojiboeva also neglected to announce the SSMU General Assembly (GA) until the deadline to submit motions had already passed, thereby impeding student involvement and voting power.

Tojiboeva has expanded the number of committees that the President sits on, and created a stand-alone Francophone Affairs Committee, separating it from Community Engagement. However, most of her successes as President have involved building on existing projects, rather than launching her own initiatives.

In order to make the most of the remaining semester, it is essential that Tojiboeva takes the initiative on both reconciliation within the executive and regaining the trust of students. Tojiboeva is judged by whether she can lead a productive and cohesive executive team that is able to work together to improve student life. Until this is achieved, all executives’ progress in their respective portfolios will continue to suffer the consequences.

VP STUDENT LIFE jemark earle The VP Student Life portfolio entails mental health programming, effectively communicating with SSMU clubs and services, and supporting and promoting students’ well-being. Earle has demonstrated enthusiasm and his ongoing efforts in first semester in the position are commendable, especially given his lack of relevant experience for the position prior to starting the role.

In light of the recent announcement to close the SSMU building for renovations starting in the Winter 2018 term, it is Earle’s duty to ensure a smooth transition for essential clubs, services, and independent student groups. Although out of Earle’s control, the building closure has gotten in the way of many of his previous plans. Communication is at the centre of this, and as such, Earle must continue to build on his internal communication with the dozens of groups that currently use the SSMU building.

At the start of Fall 2017, Earle organized a successful Activities Night with a record number of attendees, despite being short on volunteer staff. In Winter 2018, Earle will plan another Activities Night, as well as Mental Health Awareness Week.

After stepping up to become a member of SSMU’s BoD, he is currently working on an open forum to clear the air on tensions within the executive team and its relationship to the membership, as well as address what he describes as systemic deficiencies of the SSMU institution.

Ultimately, Earle has brought enthusiasm to the position, but going forward, the pressure will be high for him to continue to fulfill the responsibilities that fall under his role by communicating effectively with clubs and services, and organizing health-oriented activities to better support McGill students.

The positions of SSMU VP Finance and VP Operations and Sustainability are currently vacant.

Illustrations by Winnie Lin

VP EXTERNAL CONNOR SPENCER The publishing of SSMU’s Our Turn Action Plan was one of VP External Connor Spencer’s greatest successes this semester. The plan compares different Canadian universities’ sexual violence policies, and provides a list of recommendations for what constitutes an effective sexual violence policy. Spencer also worked to publish a survey on the Unité de Travail pour l’Implantation de Logement Étudiant (UTILE), which seeks to provide financially accessible housing for students. In addition, Spencer organized and demonstrated with the McGill contingent at the Nov. 12 Large Demonstration Against Hate and Racism.

Although she failed to implement four studentled questions in the Fall Referendum due to procedural difficulties, she is currently working on addressing the issue of constitutional reform for Winter 2018. Additionally, she had planned for the Indigenous affairs aspect of her portfolio to be more visible on campus this semester, but in the meantime has laid groundwork to improve on this front in the Winter semester.

Spencer has experienced the most tangible successes in her portfolio of any member of the SSMU executive. To keep up the momentum next semester, she should emphasize the need for provincial representation for SSMU, with AVEQ or otherwise. Regardless, students’ concerns must be at the forefront of any affiliation campaign. In the winter, Spencer plans on bringing SSMU’s Gendered and Sexual Violence policy to fruition, with the support of a full-time position and a task force dedicated to combating rape culture at the faculty level.

sexual violence and a Fall Reading Week, by holding consultations with students. She is also currently working with the VP External to survey students about potential reforms to SSMU. Additionally, she is continuing old projects, such as increasing the number of free course materials available for students, rather than abandoning them. At Senate, she uses her position to advance the projects of other student senators, such as plans to provide first-generation student care and implement the OneCard policy.

While it is difficult to measure Oke’s progress, given the lack of personal projects and slow timelines inherent to liaising with the university, her supportive, conciliatory role in student politics is important for SSMU’s functioning. With her mandate to represent student voices at the McGill Senate, one of Oke’s primary tasks is to encourage student voices to be heard, and she does so admirably.

VP INTERNAL MAYA KOPARKAR VP Internal Maya Koparkar has led several new Students’ Society Programming Network (SSPN) initiatives, including the training of SSPN members in consent, active bystander, conflict resolution, and accessible and inclusive events training.

Instead of 4Floors, the previous annual Halloween event under the VP Internal portfolio, Koparker organized a joint Halloween event with the Macdonald Campus Students’ Society (MCSS), hosted at Mac Campus. This event was extremely successful: Tickets sold out, and transportation to and from Mac Campus was efficient and well-organized. Furthermore, feedback from students who attended the event was positive, particularly in terms of students feeling safe.

This is the second year that First Year Council (FYC) has fallen under the VP Internal portfolio, meaning that there is a lack of institutional memory on this front. As VP Internal, Koparkar added sustainability, athletics, and off-campus representatives to the Council, positively increasing its representation. This fall, FYC elections were delayed until late in the semester, leaving only the Winter semester for members to have an impact.

Koparkar is working to establish FYC election timelines, but, especially in light of its recent fee renewal, it is essential that she provides the necessary support for the FYC to take full advantage of its remaining semester, and establish concrete suggestions and institutional memory for following years’ VP Internals.

In terms of communications, the SSMU website redesign was finally launched; however, listserv readership has declined since last year. Finally, Koparkar has gone beyond her own portfolio this year to work with the VP External on projects such as the Our Turn strategy. These extra efforts are positive, as long as they do not distract her from fulfilling the responsibilities specific to the VP Internal portfolio.

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VP UNIVERSITY AFFAIRS ISABELLE OKE

VP University Affairs Isabelle Oke ran on a platform of campus outreach, student rights, and accessible services. The unavailability of other staff over the summer set her goals back, and she resolved to improve SSMU’s accountability and finish the tasks of her predecessor. Since then, she has gone about achieving both these goals effectively and efficiently. Her biggest accomplishments this year are the successful 2017 Know Your Rights campaign—which did not present more originality than previous campaigns— and her work with former VP finance Arisha Khan to assist foster care students. She intends to submit a plan making campus a more inclusive space for such students to the Sustainability Projects Fund early next semester.

Oke’s primary strategy in tackling her portfolio is to collaborate with others. Next semester, she aims to continue addressing two pressing concerns on campus,

Internet killed the local Torstar Keating Reid, Contributor

OPINION

Historians sometimes speak of a “usable past,” a common narrative about the events that brought us here and why we’re a “we” at all. This commonality is seen as essential to creating a sense of community or nationhood. Frankly, Canadians should be more concerned about maintaining a usable present. With the ongoing decline of local newspapers, we are also seeing a decline in common sets of facts.

On Nov. 28, Canadian media corporations Postmedia and Torstar announced plans to swap ownership of 37 community newspapers in a game of financial hot potato. Of these, 32 are known to be closing, and the remaining five are hardly home free.

Some have blamed the massacre on Postmedia’s bottom line–focused management style. While it may have been a factor, Canadians cannot ignore the digital elephant in the room. The internet has led to an explosive growth in media outlets, to the

point of creating a news glut. The ensuing tight competition among news organizations means that casual readers can get their news fix for free online. This might please consumers in the short term, but there’s truth to the cliché, ‘you get what you pay for.’ The glut that’s shuttering local papers hasn’t yet offered a substitute for one of a newspaper’s key functions—creating a sense of community through common, accurate understanding of events.

The internet’s democratization of media is a double-edged sword: It has created platforms for unjustly marginalized voices by lowering the barriers to entry and access to mass communication, but that same factor has also allowed internet-only, agendadriven outlets, like far-right The Rebel Media, to exist—never mind the phenomenon of state-sponsored “fake news.”

While ‘old media’ have their biases as well, these are kept in check by the limitations of their format. Unlike strictly internet media— whose consumer base can be defined by political persuasion—markets for print and television are divided geographically. This

finite reach means local papers can’t afford to alienate segments of their consumer base with one-sided reporting. Their editorials can and do take political stances, and reporting can even show bias, but they can’t get away with distorting facts. As a gentler version of media theorist Marshall McLuhan might have said, the medium moderates the message.

Online news has no such limitations.

Anyone, anywhere with electricity and access to Wi-Fi is a potential consumer.

Not only can websites afford to cater to particular audiences, they profit from it: The Rebel’s YouTube channel has over 861,000 subscribers, even after its controversial coverage of the Charlottesville white nationalist rally in August.

That this level of attention paid to tabloidesque, partisan drivel persists in a generally moderate country points to a worrying silo effect: There is a growing group of people who distrust mainstream media, instead consuming all their news from a single chosen source, whether or not it is tied to their locality. This is the beginning of a harmful social gap.

Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams has an apt metaphor to describe what happens to a society that has lost its ability to find common ground: He describes it as “two movies [playing] on one screen,” with half the audience seeing one and the other half another, both thoroughly convinced theirs is the only one playing. While an individual local paper is hardly the glue that holds a nation together, the sense of commonality essential to a shared set of facts starts with one’s neighbours.

Stories, big or small, have power.

Communities are held together by their shared experiences. In small communities, local papers have long provided the platform for this sharing to happen. While some have proposed federal funding for print media, trying to turn back the media clock would be like protecting scribes from the printing press. Sites like MTLBlog and Narcity offer local coverage, but without newspapers’ journalistic rigour. The solution, as usual, may be bottom-up. If consumers don’t demand rigour from their news sources, they won’t get it.

“Bonjour-Hi:” The value of multiculturalism Abeer Almahdi, Contributor

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Valérie Plante, Montréal’s new mayor, has openly supported providing services to citizens in the language that they are most comfortable with, be that English or French.

Plante recently proposed promoting bilingualism in the Société de Transport de Montréal (STM) by providing emergency messages in multiple languages.

However, the current provincial government continues to resist bilingualism.

Most recently, Quebec lawmakers passed a unanimous motion that calls on businesses to scrap the beloved, “Bonjour-Hi!” and replace it with simply, “Bonjour.” Although this motion carries no legal weight, it demonstrates the rigid campaign to defend the French language that parties such as the Parti Québecois (PQ) continue to pursue. In the motion’s original wording, the PQ went so far as to call the bilingual greeting an “irritant.” PQ Leader Jean-François Lisée promised that, if elected in 2018, there will be a “French language crackdown,” through measures such as creating more language restrictions in the workplace. Where Lisée is wrong is that instead of being seen as an

“irritant,” multilingualism is one of the many gifts of a multicultural society and an asset to the province as a whole. The provincial government should see the value in Plante’s ambitions to make Montréal, and Québec as a whole, more inclusive for anglophones and other language minorities.

Montréal is Québec’s largest city.

Beyond that, it is a global hub, home to groundbreaking artificial intelligence research, and attracting international attention.

Tourists, students, and immigrants come from all over the world, and many do not speak a word of French when they arrive. The 2016 census found that the number of anglophones in Québec increased by 45,230 from 2011, with over 1.1 million native English speakers—9.6 per cent of the total provincial population— now calling Québec home. In Montréal, the English-speaking population is significantly higher: Only 54 per cent of Montréal households cite French as their primary language. It is becoming more and more evident that Quebecers speak English, too.

Eventually, the government will have to stop fighting this reality. Although Québec has a thriving francophone culture, it is not only unsustainable to continue to ignore

the province’s language minorities—it disregards the value of multiculturalism as a whole.

Economically, shunning English and other languages is unsustainable, especially if Montréal wants to see growth in the future.

Most international business is conducted in languages other than French, such as English. Bilingual workplaces are rising in Québec, and for the rest of Canada, nine out of 10 employees work exclusively in English.

In the 1960s, Montréal was booming and on its way to becoming the business capital of Canada. However, increasing regulations and political tensions due to language and sovereignty drove private investment and some of the most wealthy and educated people out of the province to cities like Toronto. This phenomenon is not unique to Montreal: Between 1971 and 2015, more Quebecers left the province than settled in.

By cracking down on English again, Québec is doing a disservice to its own citizens and businesses, effectively sabotaging their means to work or operate throughout Canada and internationally.

Furthermore, the narrative that francophone-focused groups routinely ignore is that of Indigenous languages

in Montréal. While Québec’s history has been filled with oppression, forced assimilation, and colonialism, it is unfair to position francophones as the only victims.

Indigenous populations have experienced cultural genocide at the hands of the government through oppressive policies like the residential school system. According to the 2016 Census, between 2006 and 2016, Québec saw a 37.5 per cent increase in people identifying as First Nations and a 149.2 per cent increase in people identifying as Métis. In 2011, 20.9 per cent of Canada’s 213,490 total Aboriginal mother tongue population lived in Québec.

The promotion of multiple languages should not be seen as an attack on francophone culture, but as a gift of multiculturalism. In a province where many languages are represented, it is irrational to restrict citizens to using just one, even if it has a strong historical tradition. Quebecers do not say “Bonjour-Hi” to attack Francophones—they say “Bonjour-Hi” to include those whose mother tongue is not French. If anything, Quebecers should add more languages to the greeting, and embrace the multicultural direction that the world is headed in, not actively resist it.

Evaluating gendered bias in course evaluations EMma Avery, Managing Editor

except engineering, “rude” is more frequently used to describe female professors.

Schmidt’s analysis may not represent a full picture of discrimination against female professors, yet, even seemingly neutral evaluation category responses—comparable to McGill’s scale of “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree” in its course evaluation system—are skewed, too. In a 2014 North Carolina State University study, students enrolled in online courses gave lower scores to professors who were presented online to them as female. Even categories like “promptness” drew lower scores if the professor was perceived to be female, despite the fact that the male and female professors being evaluated responded to students at exactly the same speed.

In contrast, when all professors were presented to students as male, all of their satisfaction scores increased, regardless of the actual gender of the instructor. What’s more, a recent study in the Journal of the European Economic Association of student reviews at the School of Business and Economics at Maastricht University found that while male and female students were both harsher in evaluating women, male students were much more so.

One possible solution to this apparent trend of discrimination, taken by McMaster University in July 2015, is to recognize that a discrepancy exists, and

then compensate for it accordingly. After finding that its female professors earned on average $3,515 less than their male counterparts, even when controlling for seniority, tenure, faculty, and age, the university raised each female professor’s salary by the same amount.

Albeit a band-aid solution to ingrained tendencies to view female professors as less competent, it at least ensures that in the meantime, women don’t suffer the financial consequences of sexism.

Furthermore, if such an entrenched bias exists against women, it’s not unlikely that visible minority professors face similarly—or even more—biased evaluations. An investigation into any university’s course evaluation results should therefore also look at the effects of race.

In three and a half years at McGill, I’ve been taught by 26 different professors. Of those, only six were female, none of whom were visible minorities.

Regardless of whether my experience is an anomaly, as part of its efforts to address systemic discrimination, the University must investigate whether course evaluations are putting its female and minority professors at a disadvantage long after they are hired full-time. Until then, without being aware of it, students may be perpetuating the gender gap among the highest-paid ranks of professors through their course evaluations.

EDITORIAL: McGill’s sexual violence policy lacking on professor-student relationships Quebec’s proposed Bill 151 requires all postsecondary schools to have a campus sexual violence policy by September 2019. Among other things, the bill stipulates that an acceptable policy must provide a clear code of conduct on relationships between faculty members and students.

In Fall 2016, McGill introduced a Policy against Sexual Violence (SVP), which applies to all members of the university community. It also has a blanket Policy on Harassment, Sexual Harassment, or Discrimination Prohibited by Law. When it comes to professor-student relationships specifically, however, both policies offer little on recourse and disciplinary measures. This is chiefly because both the SVP and the sexual harassment policy process complaints against professors differently than those against students, redirecting them to opaque, internal disciplinary procedures. Meanwhile, allegations of sexual harassment or undesired advances from professors often surface on campus—with no apparent recourse.

Quebec’s Bill 151 is a much-needed wake-up call: If it is truly committed to student safety and wellbeing, the McGill administration must update the SVP and related policies to explicitly restrict any faculty member from pursuing an intimate relationship with a student whom they are evaluating, with clear repercussions otherwise. Further, the SVP must include specific, transparent, and accessible means

of disclosure and recourse for students affected by these relationships and power abuses.

Whatever the situation, an intimate relationship between a professor and a student they are evaluating is a conflict of interest. Of more dire ethical concern is the question of consent in these relationships. The power differential between students and professors is enormous—whether acting as an intro-course lecturer or a master’s research supervisor, a professor has substantial control over their students’ success at McGill, and, by extension, their career prospects upon graduation. Given this compromised capacity to object to unwanted sexual advances, it is unethical for a professor to initiate any relationship with a student directly beneath them.

The McGill SVP barely addresses these relationships, and fails to lay out concrete guidelines for students who find themselves involved in them.

The SVP includes exactly one line about professorstudent relationships specifically. In its definition of consent, it identifies intimate relationships that coincide with “an abuse of a relationship of trust, power or authority, such as the relationship between a professor and their student,” as non-consensual.

McGill’s sexual harassment policy reiterates that a professor exploiting sexual activity as a condition of a student’s educational outcomes constitutes sexual harassment. Crucially, the definition fails to specify that every direct relationship between a professor

and their student unacceptably compromises consent.

At the same time, professors who have allegedly pursued such relationships continue to work at McGill with apparent impunity. Clearly, something is not working. To address these relationships and the unique harm they cause students, McGill must first recognize the gaps in its existing policy framework.

Yet, some members of the administration seem chronically reluctant to do so.

In a statement to the National Post published on Nov. 15, Associate Provost (Policies, Procedures, and Equity) Angela Campbell implied that McGill’s SVP and additional policies already cover professorstudent relationships. What Campbell failed to mention is an absence of accessible direction and support for students wishing to pursue recourse against an abusive professor. Students can report professors for sexual harassment, coercion, or violence, but what happens next is unclear. While complaints against students are processed under McGill’s Student Code of Conduct, complaints against professors are processed under the Regulations Relating to Employment of Tenure Track and Tenured Academic Staff. The regulations’ disciplinary procedures are confidential, due to Quebec labour laws. With no transparency in the handling of allegations against professors, nor information on the disciplinary outcomes of filing a complaint, it is

misleading to say that McGill’s sexual harassment and violence policy framework adequately applies to professor-student situations. Moreover, nothing in the regulations explicitly restricts professors from pursuing relationships with students. Perhaps this is assumed to be common knowledge. However, when allegations against professors continue to crop up on campus, and avenues for recourse are so unclear that students have mobilized a grassroots campaign against one professor accused of sexual misconduct, stricter guidelines are clearly needed. These should include provisions on acceptable conduct and disclosure of other hierarchical relationships, such as between students and teaching assistants.

Quebec’s Bill 151 provides concrete recommendations on developing more comprehensive and accessible policy. These include consolidating all sexual assault policies and procedures into a common and accessible document, and duly educating all students on them from their first year at McGill.

Per the SVP, the McGill administration recognizes the unique problem of consent within student-professor relationships. That means little if the University doesn’t also have the policy mechanisms to prevent such relationships, to take evident transparent disciplinary action against those professors who pursue them, and to provide clear steps for disclosure and support for affected students.

Wednesday, December 6, 2017 - 11

‘Tis the season—for course evaluations. At McGill, the online form asks students to effectively grade their professors, by identifying the degree to which they agree with statements such as, “Overall, this instructor is an excellent teacher.” These data are then made available to all McGill students, but openended feedback is reserved for professors. In Fall 2016, McGill implemented a policy for professors and teaching assistants to report hateful and discriminatory comments in course evaluations. This is a positive step, but the University has yet to sufficiently explore whether bias against minority and female faculty members in course evaluations goes beyond just hateful speech.

Course evaluations are extremely important avenues for feedback; however, universities also commonly use course evaluations to award tenure, raises, and other awards. If female and minority professors are paid less in part because they receive fewer glowing reviews from students—and as a result, less recognition from a university—administrators must address this.

Recent Statistics Canada data show that in the

2016-2017 academic year, women comprised about 40 per cent of full-time academic teaching staff at Canadian universities—a little over a three per cent increase from 2010-2011. However, after breaking down the category of “full-time academic teaching staff,” another picture emerges: Women represent 48.5 and 43 per cent of assistant and associate professors respectively, but only 27.7 per cent of full professors. At McGill, the salary gap between each of these titles for tenure-track professors is over $10,000 per year.

One positive is that in all professor ranks, the number of women has been increasing since 1970, when only 12.8 per cent of full-time teaching staff were female. Although at McGill women account for just one third of tenure-track faculty, the national trend would suggest that this number will continue to increase.

Perhaps it’s just a matter of time.

Yet, other evidence suggests there is more to the story. Search the word “smart” on a database of reviews from ratemyprofessors.com, compiled in 2015 by Northeastern University Professor Benjamin Schmidt, and you’ll find that it is used about 50 to 100 times more per million words of text in reviews of male professors than of female ones. In some departments, “funny” is used over 500 times more to describe men than women. But try “rude,” and, in all departments

Swipe right—for the right reasons Grace gunning, Columnist

OPINION

I recently re-downloaded the dating app Tinder. I was working on a difficult essay and, frustrated by my lack of success, found myself reactivating an old profile and swiping furiously. This was not the first time this had happened. When school becomes stressful and the pressures of McGill begin to make me feel inadequate, Tinder inevitably reappears on my phone, and then disappears a few days later. Upon reflection, I realize that I do not use the app to connect with others.

Instead, I use it for the fleeting sense of validation that will dissipate as soon as I put my phone down.

A 2017 University of Rhode Island study associating use of the app with low self esteem and negative body image suggests that my experience is not uncommon. It has been well documented that young people are undergoing a

mental health crisis. At McGill, student mental health is especially dire, with 65 per cent of undergraduate students reporting social anxiety and 44 per cent reporting depression. It’s also been established that this crisis is worsened by heightened social media use.

Social media is not inherently evil; it’s an easily accessible means of communication, but one with consequences when misused. Treating Tinder, or any other online platform, as a coping mechanism or a means of validation is just one such misstep. Still, it’s easy to see the appeal of these apps.

By allowing us to fracture our identities into a set of consumable personas online, Facebook or Instagram profiles can be used to briefly alleviate feelings of stress and inadequacy.

Tinder, with its built-in instant gratification, is one of the easiest ways to achieve this momentary validation.

Matches are a clear confirmation

that one’s online persona is not only acceptable, but desirable. Even better, the stakes are low, as there is no compulsion to message or even reply to those matches in the first place.

However, in terms of social media apps’ effects on self-esteem, Tinder may also have the most depressing consequences. The University of Rhode Island study confirms what many already know to be true: Presenting a simplified persona in the context of romance—traditionally one of the most meaningful ways to connect with another person—only underscores the sense of alienation common to college dating culture. If social media is used as a kind of self-medication, the result is often more loneliness, more stress, and more fear of inadequacy. Using Tinder this way is not a way to connect with others; it’s an ill-fated dialogue with the self, an externalization of a problem into an idealized persona.

It does not have to be this way.

Social media apps like Tinder are unprecedented connective tools that transcend physicality, and they should be used with care. Conscious social media use, defined by social connectivity and the intention to communicate respectfully with others, can create and strengthen relationships.

If Tinder users treat the app as an opportunity to meet like-minded people, they might find their lives enriched.

However, more often than not, young people’s Facebook, Instagram, and Tinder habits are unconscious bids for validation. Using social media in this way divorces social capital from social interaction, compromising meaningful communication.

Next time I re-download Tinder, I will ask myself why. If my answer is anxiety, or inadequacy, or anything other than the desire to connect with others, I will turn to something else.

A year after Hillary Clinton’s defeat: Becoming ‘that’ woman Allegra Mendelson, Contributor

Wednesday, December 6, 2017 - 12

The result of the 2016 American presidential election was, and still is, personal. Hillary Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump shook me to my core. Even now, over a year later, time has failed to heal the wound. Americans were given the chance to prove that sexism warranted no place in the political sphere. Yet, they elected a man who has actively championed the degradation of women, showing the world that sexism remains rampant in the United States, even in the highest office.

When initial analyses of the election began trickling in, many were quick to argue that voters did not reject Clinton because she was a woman, but because she was that woman. What many people failed, and still fail, to understand is how a lifetime of battling systemic sexism has turned her into that woman. Even more concerning for young women is the realization that we are all vulnerable to circumstances in which we, too, could become that woman. Our generation needs to change the ways in which women are viewed and treated, so that sexism no

longer sways future elections like it did in 2016.

Throughout Clinton’s career, superficialities—like her outfit and the tone of her voice—have consistently made headlines, ultimately overshadowing the rest of her platform. During the 2016 election, Trump did not shy away from abusing the sexist representations of his opponent, and used these gendered accusations to shape the election’s overall narrative. This was an easy task: Studies conducted by the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University indicate that Trump received, on average, 15 per cent more media coverage than Clinton.

Women working in the public sphere are stuck in a “double bind:” They are forced to adapt to a “man’s world,” but, in doing so, defy their pre-ascribed gender roles, thereby making them unappealing to many voters. Women are labelled as being unapologetically ambitious, a word that is—when used to describe women—laced with an accusatory undertone. In contrast, male presence and ambition in the political sphere are accepted as norms. Over time, these sexist labels build up social capital, leaving voters to question the credibility

and competence of women like Clinton who dare to fight against the status quo.

If a woman as accomplished and as capable as Clinton could lose an election simply because she lives and works within a system predisposed to rejecting women, I can’t help but question if my own hard work—and every other woman’s hard work—might be just as futile as hers.

For young women and students who are preparing to enter the workforce, the sexism shown during the election is, at best, emblematic of the barriers that they will have to face in gaining respect and authority, and at worst, extremely discouraging.

While I am still struggling to come

to terms with the results of the election, I have learned that, even in the face of defeat, there are millions of strong women, and men, around the world, who continue to believe in a future where a woman like Clinton could become president. In the last year, the country has already seen many promising examples of change, from the awareness raised by the Women’s Marches on Inauguration Day to the unprecedented number of women who have since stepped forward to run for office in the United States. But, there is still progress to be made. As Hillary Clinton herself has said, “the only way to get sexism out of politics is to get more women into politics.”

CAMPUS CONVERSATION Increasing representation among McGill faculty

Tynan Jarrett Office of Provost Employment Equity Advisor McGill is in action when it comes to faculty diversity and representation. At an institutional level, we have acknowledged that McGill’s 2007 Employment Equity Policy, while providing an important framework for the university, did not lead to meaningful progress toward closing important gaps in representation among McGill’s professoriate. Racialized and Indigenous scholars, scholars with disabilities, and women scholars all remain underrepresented in our faculty, and although our data is incomplete, LGBTTQ2 scholars are also likely underrepresented.

Over the past two years, McGill has taken a number of important steps toward positive change; these include the integration of specific employment equity targets into the Provost’s Strategic Academic Plan, the initiation of priority hires emerging from the Provost’s Task Force on Indigenous Studies and Indigenous Education, and, in Summer 2017, the creation of the Employment Equity Advisor position in the Office of the Provost—the first time such a position has existed at McGill—which is my current role. In addition to efforts made centrally, a number of Faculties have implemented their own successful Employment Equity strategies: The Faculty of Engineering, for example, has made strides in the past couple of years through a 2015 initiative that includes a series of checks and balances throughout the hiring search process.

The challenge for McGill moving forward is twofold: Firstly, we need to move the numbers. To do this, we need to have robust conversations about equity and hiring across the University. As an administration, we must increase the McGill community’s capacity to think critically about how we measure excellence, about what informs our institutional priorities for research and teaching, and about what role bias has in our evaluation of candidates for hiring and promotion. Moreover, we need to consciously build up underrepresented scholars in terminal degree programs and post-doctoral positions.

Secondly, we need to look beyond the numbers. We must also create space for scholars from underrepresented groups to inform the existing practices of the institution, including in research and teaching. Moreover, we need to take steps to address the service overload that negatively affects the careers of members of underrepresented groups.

Finally, we need to strengthen measures to address structural discrimination, and acknowledge that we can do better than we are currently.

McGill needs to approach the challenge of achieving equity and diversity within the professoriate in a manner that befits an institution of higher learning. We are facing a complex, real world problem that requires sustained effort, resources, curiosity, and determination, and that must be grounded in research, and in the spirit of innovation and experimentation.

Isabelle Oke Students’ Society of McGill University Vice-President University Affairs McGill’s Strategic Academic Plan sets expanding diversity as an institutional goal of the University. In the past six months working at the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) as Vice-President (VP) University Affairs, I’ve seen open discussions about the diversity of the composition of committees, initiatives from the Social Equity and Diversity Education (SEDE) office to change the way we talk about equity (such as café collabs), and a 2017 Senate report on data collected to evaluate employment equity on campus. In terms of where McGill should be headed in terms of faculty diversity, the Senate employment equity report shows a gradual increase in representation of women in academic faculty positions. However, the job isn’t done once more women and minority professors are employed. A diverse campus is a campus where traditionally underrepresented members are also able to thrive and accomplish great things, without having to face disrespect, lack of recognition, and lack of support.

Minority students at McGill need to see themselves represented among faculty in order to feel welcome on campus—to know that at least someone else has moved through the campus similarly embodied, and found a way to make sense of their surroundings and succeed. Furthermore, the few existing faculty members who have underrepresented identities are often in high demand and relied on to support minority students in a way that is often undervalued. As such, McGill needs to recognize that supporting students beyond the content of a course—such as through the institution, through academic careers, and through the challenges that come with being a student—is work that systematically demands more of some faculty members than others. We must continue to do better in supporting faculty members with this invisible, additional, unpaid labour.

There are other types of harassment and discrimination that, little by little, make both faculty members and students on campus feel unwelcome, which will ultimately lead them to look for greener pastures elsewhere. The insidious nature of this harassment and discrimination is something that policy cannot systematically manage on its own. The way members of the McGill community relate to one another, and the way we define success at this university, will have to change if we want to invite and maintain diversity in our faculty ranks. This isn’t achievable until we’re ready to let go of certain traditions and self-perceptions that dictate who we mark as the ‘average McGillian,’ and what constitute reasonable needs and aspirations.

Susan Gaskin, Brace Associate Professor, Civil Engineering Chair of Senate Sub-committee on Women The question of McGill’s faculty diversity is raised in the context of a university community with a significant international student body—30 per cent, from 150 different countries—located in a multicultural city, in a country which 17 million immigrants and their descendants share with First Nations groups. It can be explored by considering the opposite question: Should we aim for a homogeneous faculty, in terms of race, gender, sexual orientation, or ability? The answer to this is clearly no. In a diverse community, homogeneity implies exclusion or suppression of those not in the privileged group. History provides us with ample evidence that enforced homogeneity is motivated by the maintenance of a privilege that would be insecure in an equitable environment.

A university’s faculty needs to be representative of its community, and in McGill’s case, this is a very diverse community. It is a university’s role to extend the limits of knowledge and understanding in culture and science by challenging assumptions and unsettling complacency with questions. It should provide fertile ground for the exchange of ideas to drive a dynamic process of intellectual stimulus, enhanced by differences in experience, expertise, interpretation, and priorities. As research has shown, productivity and creativity improve with increased diversity.

To achieve faculty diversity and representativeness, action is needed to attract, hire, and then retain a diverse and intersectional faculty representative of our community.

Currently, 32 per cent of McGill faculty are women, which represents an increase from 23 per cent in 2000. Continuing at this rate, faculty gender parity will only be achieved by 2065.

To attract diverse faculty, McGill administration needs to show that we provide a supportive environment for academic pursuits that challenges the status quo, both in knowledge and social hierarchy. There is a wealth of excellent candidates who the university could hire, yet in hiring decisions, confirmation bias can still occur. Thus, we need to be proactive, through transparent hiring processes that involve decision-making participation from an intersectional representation of all ranks of faculty and from students.

Beyond the hiring process, retaining a diverse faculty further requires both support of their scholarly pursuits and diversity of opinion, and provision of a work environment accommodating their varied needs. A good approach can be found in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)’s 1997 Recommendation Concerning the Status of Higher Education Teaching Personnel. At McGill, we need to actively pursue greater faculty diversity.

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The McGill Tribune asked staff and student members of the McGill community to answer the question, “Where is McGill heading when it comes to faculty diversity and representativeness, and where should it be heading?” Read on for their responses.

Somewhere between starving and sellout On the changing nature of integrity in urban art

Sophie Brozozowski Staff Writer

Arts & entertainment

”Integrity” is a word that I have always had trouble defining.

It seems to imply something more virtuous than plain old honesty, but equally as earnest. When coupled with the word “artistic,” it becomes even more ambiguous.

It was an awfully ambitious endeavor, then, to try and define integrity within the contentious and nebulous world of urban art—but it seemed a worthy one nonetheless. As urban artists begin to transition from the streets to galleries, their work has started to take on a new meaning. Some see this change as a chance to finally legitimize street art and give artists the respect

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and recognition that they deserve. Others, however, see the popularization of the medium as something akin to betrayal.

Street artist Raymond Pilon, for example, otherwise known under his alias “Zilon,” is what you’d call a purist. In the age of information, self-promotion, and relentless branding, he’s achieved the kind of fame that is becoming increasingly unusual—the underground kind. Although he’s best known for the colorful depanneur he so artfully defaced at the corner of Marie-Anne and St. Dominique in 2015 for the MURAL festival, he’s been around far longer than that.

“People tend to think that life started in the ‘90s,” Pilon said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “I started to do my stuff on the street in ‘75 but people forget […] today, everything is a market, I never worked that way.”

Pilon believes that had he been in New York during that “Keith Haring, Basquiat moment” as he calls it, he’d be world famous. Instead, he was in Laval, running around at night, stealing cans of spray paint from his local hardware store. Still, Pilon hasn’t done badly for himself. In many circles, he’s lauded as an urban legend. The grandfather of street art, Pilon blazed

the trail that so many younger, more internet-savvy artists are travelling now.

“All I know is that, urban legend or not, I still have to pay my rent,” Pilon said. “I do murals, exhibitions here and there, little contracts [… ] I’m surviving, that’s about it.”

It’s not that Pilon is a poor businessman, and it’s certainly not for lack of talent that he remains underground. The problem, he says, lies within art galleries.

“Finding a good gallery is like [finding] a relationship—you have to go through a bunch of perfect assholes to find someone you can have a conversation with,” Pilon said. “They treat you like a machine in these galleries […] [your art] is a commodity, it’s an object. You’re like bubblegum that they chew on and then

spit out and then they take on a younger, more naïve artist and they sign him!”

At 63, Pilon has been around longer than most artists on the scene, and he has witnessed street art morph into something almost entirely unrecognizable—something his 17-year-old, spray paint-stealing self would not approve of. As a self-made man, he’s frustrated about what it’s become. He described being on welfare in the ‘70s, growing up with parents who didn’t approve of or believe in what he was doing, but forging ahead anyway, only to find his craft co-opted and warped by people who weren’t there in the beginning.

Amanda Brownridge, on the other hand, is a curator and art historian who works for one of the galleries that Pilon so disapproves of. Located on Saint-Laurent, Station 16 brands itself as an urban art gallery, featuring works from a large roster of artists working on and off the street. Brownridge says that urban art is changing; that people from within the community are working to remake it into something more modern, but still accessible.

“I don’t think that bringing street art into the gallery takes away from the integrity of the work, I think it enhances it and is really exciting!” Brownridge wrote in an email to the Tribune. “It gives the artists another venue to promote their artistic careers and often helps to finance some of their more clandestine adventures!”

Galleries play a major role in the distribution of art today: Establishments like Station 16 have enabled street artists to legitimize their work in the safety of a legal venue. Street artists used to work under aliases in order to protect themselves because their work was illegal. Although many modern artists still do (Stikki Peaches, Miss Me, and Whatisadam to name a few), they now have business cards and representation. They’re

supporting themselves; they don’t have to steal their spray paint.

But commercialization comes at a cost. My dad tells a story about being in a nightclub in the ‘80s and seeing that someone had written “FREE NELSON MANDELA” on the inside of a bathroom stall. Beneath it, someone else had Sharpie’d “With every six pack of Coors Light!” Although it hardly qualified as art, in many ways this is the illicit quality that street art loses when it is bought by a gallery. It’s no longer ephemeral, interactive, or taboo.

Nicholas Riggle, a street art enthusiast who holds a PhD in philosophy, thinks that the cool thing about street art is that it defies formalist critique. In a 2010 article entitled “Street Art: The Transfiguration of the Commonplaces” in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, he wrote that, “strictly formalist art criticism cannot handle street art, in spite of its often dazzling aesthetic qualities.” Traditionally, art criticism requires that the critic focus exclusively on the aesthetic elements of the piece. But there’s so much more to consider with street art—the context in which it appears is so integral to the medium that it’s easy to see why the transition into galleries is so difficult for some people.

“When you [draw] on a toilet cubicle in a nightclub, it’s like a ready-made installation!” Pilon said. “You cannot reproduce that in a gallery or whatever. A gallery is a shop. I mean, you take something I do, you put it over your sofa and it’s gonna be a conversation piece for your visitors. It’s not decoration I’m doing […] It says something.”

MU Montreal is a publicly funded organization that seems to have done the impossible and created a compromise.

The project aims to turn the city of Montreal into an “open air art museum” by working with building owners and artists, commissioning those murals you see everywhere. Each mural is project-based—meaning that artists are hired mural by mural.

“The process is as important as the result,” MU’s artistic director, Elizabeth-Ann Doyle, said.

Most are site-specific, meaning that they revolve around the theme of the neighbourhood. Artists and building owners have complete creative control.

Like it or not, art is evolving and Montreal has embraced it. The art world used to be an exclusive and elitist place, only accessible to a select few, but all this is changing along with the meaning of the word “integrity.”

Despite all the caveats, Pilon still very much believes in art, just as he did in the ‘70s.

“Art is living,” Pilon said. “You can have someone doing pastry and it’s art. You can go to a restaurant and it’s so damn good that it’s art! You see a lady dressed in something from a thrift shop or Winners or whatever, and she looks great! That’s art.”

(Photos by Margaux Delalex / The McGill Tribune)

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Video games, graffiti, and academics collided at the MSVAS’ interdisciplinary discussion panel Gwyneth Boone Contributor A street artist, a professor, a tattoo artist, a videogame designer, and a curator all walk into a bar— or rather, a McGill University auditorium.

On Nov. 30, the McGill Students’ Visual Arts Society (MSVAS) presented “Art à la Mode: Keeping Art Current,” a Q&A discussion panel questioning visual art’s position in today’s world. The panel focused on how visual art has moved out of its traditional arena and has emerged in fields like technology, pop culture, and social justice movements.

Montreal is a hub for technology, style, and visual art. The MSVAS took advantage of all the city has to offer in curating their discussion panel, which featured some of Montreal’s most interesting art personalities.

The panel consisted of Julia Skelly, McGill Department of Art History and Communication Studies Faculty Lecturer and feminist scholar; Rebecca Cohen-Palacios, videogame developer and co-founder of Pixelles, a non-profit organization for women in gaming; Fluke, a Montreal street artist; Robb Jamieson, the curator of Art Pop Montreal; and Katakankabin, a tattoo artist working at Minuit Dix Tattoo in the Mile End. The discussion covered a wide range of experience and disciplines, exploring questions about their unique disciplines, how they define art, and how their distinct scenes have changed over time.

Each guest began by explaining their origin story, giving the audience more insight into the way they think about their own experience with visual art. CohenPalacios began her career as a website designer, until one day she saw an advertisement for a six-week intensive program for women interested in video

game design. Two weeks after she graduated from the may be underrepresented due to race, gender, and program, she interviewed at Ubisoft Montreal, and has sexuality. been working there ever since. Fluke discussed his “As an art historian, I am deeply uninterested in the roots in the Montreal graffiti scene, and how his street question of money when it comes to art,” Skelly said. “I art saved him from a life of homelessness. He explained am thinking of the art I want to teach my students. Art that art for him began as a survival tool and blossomed allows me to write about things I find important.” into a career.

The speakers finished the panel by describing the Though each speaker’s artistic roots are different, future of visual art—a future in which they hope visual they share a common theme: Regardless of their niche, art can be used as a tool for both institutional and social they each described visual art as their chosen medium for change. In this vein, Cohen-Palacios highlighted the need self-expression and social action. Fluke commented on for the video game industry to address the inequality his experience in the Montreal graffiti scene, explaining between the number of women and men employed in how for him, street art was a means of self-expression. the field.

“It’s really about action,” Fluke said. “What causes MSVAS delivered a diverse and multifaceted panel. a 16-year-old person to risk going to jail? Or [being] The questions were pertinent and created an active killed? There’s a social need to be acknowledged, to debate among their guests. Together, MSVAS and the fight for space.” speakers created a thought-provoking dialogue about Each speaker passionately emphasized this need modern art and the many ways it can be used as a social to occupy space, to demand acknowledgement for tool today, and as we move into the future. themselves or others. Cohen-Palacios used the example of women in gaming. She explained that as resources for creating games become free to access, a more diverse population can create content.

As more people enter the industry and producers become more representative of the general population, video games’ ability to have a social impact increases.

The speakers discussed the future of visual art as a vehicle for new voices in existing industries. Professor Skelly explained how she uses her platform to teach students about the social structures that surround modern art, and to critically examine how artists “Art a la Mode” looks at what art will be in the future. (Emma Hameau / The McGill Tribune)

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McGill graduate Polina Grace releases first EP Grace recounts how she began her career in music Ryan canon Contributor McGill students are no strangers to talented individuals emerging from their ranks. Recently, another hidden gem revealed herself in the form of Polina Grace, a 2016 graduate. Boasting a beautiful voice and a commanding stage presence, she has proven herself to be one of the more impressive up-and-coming artists in Montreal.

Raised in Vancouver, Grace shifted her focus to a full-time music career after finishing her studies at McGill. With breathy vocals and a dark-pop sound, Grace is an independent artist who has self-financed her dreams. Now, she has set her sights on making a name for herself in Montreal’s music scene.

Bringing her closer to her lifelong dream of being a recognized artist, Grace officially released her first five-piece EP Down alongside a music video for the titular single, “Down” on Nov. 1.

“I truly started falling in love with singing and performing when I was in kindergarten,” Grace said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “I was always the most enthusiastic in choir, and always eager to take on a solo. My first real performance which I can recall was when I was six years old at my kindergarten graduation.”

From that point on, Grace knew that she wanted to be a singer.

“I sang every chance I could as a kid, on and off the stage,” Grace said. “I always recorded little demos and imitated the biggest, most iconic singers in the privacy of my room in my spare time, which is how I taught myself to sing in the first place.

Singing along to Whitney Houston tracks at the age of six may not have sounded very pleasing to others’ ears, but little did everyone know I was on the path to developing a bigger, better voice with each rehearsal. Throughout the years, I remained enchanted by big, soulful voices and it was always my aspiration to become as great as my icons, including Whitney, ABBA, MJ, and Steven Tyler.”

“Down” is the culmination of two years of hard work and dedication. Navigating the modern music industry is no simple task, and just like any up-and-coming artist, Grace has faced her fair share of obstacles.

“You would be surprised how many people approach you with false promises,” Grace told the Tribune. “Young artists need to be careful [of] who they get involved with.”

Despite these struggles, Grace never gave up hope, and now her path seems more clear than ever. Having recently signed a distribution deal with Sony and a number of music videos, new content, and live performances planned for the near future, the stage has been set for Grace to make herself known.

“Honestly, my journey so far has already been incredibly exciting and fruitful.

Working with great musicians and producers has been part of the dream come true,” Grace said. “Yet there is still so much I want to do. I want to leave my mark on the music world.”

Polina Grace’s EP Down is available on Spotify, and her music videos, “Down” and “Giving Up,” are on YouTube.

McGill graduate Polina Grace is self-financing her music dreams. (kavyar.com)

ESports enter the McGill arena What it will take for collegiate ESports to reach the next level Stephen Gill / SPORTS EDITOR Illustration by selin altuntur and arshaaq jiffry On Dec. 3, eight teams of students from universities across North America battled in the Tespa Collegiate Series: Overwatch quarterfinals. Tespa—”a network of college clubs founded to promote gaming culture and host the best college eSports events and competitions”—is one of many organizations dedicated to collegiate eSports, or competitive video-gaming. The Tespa Collegiate Series is the organization’s dedicated competition in Overwatch, one of the six games featured in the tournament. To an outsider, this organization and specific competition might sound like one of an endless number of video game challenges, but the US $120,000 in scholarship and prizes up for grabs would indicate otherwise.

ESports have increased in popularity in countries around the world and the number of formal competitions continues to grow. Organizations like Tespa facilitate this growth but the rise of collegiate-level eSports in North America is still a relatively new phenomenon. Canadian and American students are generally less familiar with Tespa and other collegiate eSports organizations than with traditional sport governing bodies such as U Sports and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

Nevertheless, the collegiate eSports industry has begun to establish itself in Canada and the United States. Tespa has amassed tens of thousands of social media followers and will distribute over US $1,000,000 in prizes across its competitions this academic year. Its “Heroes of the Dorm” competition—a joint venture with the American video game developer Blizzard Entertainment—has been broadcast on ESPN in the past, and is now moving away from the media giant to stream exclusively on its own Facebook page. And Tespa is just one cog in the collegiate eSports industry.

Recently, Canadian and American students have scrambled to put together their own teams. Major institutions like Georgia State University and the University of California, Irvine have gone as far as supporting their own varsity eSports teams.

As the industry continues to boom, it will benefit from an increase in viewership, prize pools, and the number of varsity teams in collegiate eSports.

McGill is no exception to the rule, and has also witnessed an increase in engagement with eSports. The McGill E-Sports Students’ Association (MESA) has grown immensely since its beginnings as a small club for students to play StarCraft—a real-time strategy video game by Blizzard Entertainment. Now MESA is a Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) club that runs eSports events and assembles teams that compete in games like League of Legends and Hearthstone at the inter-collegiate level. Despite already holding a small-yetestablished presence on campus, it remains to be seen just how collegiate eSports will solidify on Canadian campuses.

The first possibility to consider may be McGill’s own varsity eSports team. St. Clair College in Ontario, was the first Canadian institution with varsity eSports in 2017. In an interview with The McGill Tribune, Geoffrey Phillips, director of sports programs, Athletics and Recreation at McGill Athletics, mentioned that departments across the country have taken note. “[Varsity eSports teams are] on the radar,” Phillips said. “It’s been discussed at the national level, [and] it’s been discussed at the regional level.”

Between administrative support, athletic funding, and a formal endorsement from an institution, the advantages of being a varsity team are clear. According to Shaun Byrne, ESports coordinator for Saints Gaming at St. Clair College, these benefits are easy to achieve given how compatible collegiate sports and the world of eSports are.

“I think there is a fit for eSports on any campus,” Byrne said. “The college-age

demographic and video gaming [go] hand in hand.”

From an athlete’s perspective, there is little to lose from a varsity eSports program. Such a step would go a great length toward legitimizing eSports on any campus and would benefit university clubs like MESA. As they are a relatively small SSMU club, MESA President Andrew Tran (U3, Engineering) explained that his club faces a range of difficulties.

“The infrastructure of the whole campus makes it very difficult to run eSports events, [...] compared to other schools,” Tran said. “[McGill’s internet] connectivity is pretty bad across the board in most of the buildings [....And it’s] very hard to find computer lab space.”

In March 2017, the association’s major event, McLAN, was derailed as a result of internal conflict within the SSMU executive. SSMU and MESA were supposed to co-host the event and split organizational tasks between the two bodies, but the SSMU contingent could not fulfill its responsibilities after president Ben Ger and vice-president External David Aird resigned. For a club of MESA’s size, it was a hard blow to take.

Granting MESA a lower-level varsity status would go a long way in solving the issues of space and legitimacy the group currently faces. This sort of elevation has proven successful at St. Clair. After only 10 months of existence, Saints Gaming has garnered a good deal of attention through both viewership and recruitment. With deals like the acquisition of Esport Gaming Events—an act of vertical integration, of sorts—Byrne expects the progress to continue.

“We have sponsors that have already committed to five-year deals,” Byrne said. “This is only the beginning but we’ve gotten off to a very strong start.”

At least in the short term at McGill, the hurdles are too high to clear. Within McGill Athletics, there are hardly enough resources to maintain the status quo.

“Realistically, with budgets not going up, costs going up, demands coming from [McGill Athletics organizations, McGill Athletics] are challenged financially and on a human resources level,” Phillips said. “The people who have been hired [to handle McGill Athletics’ newer challenges] now have too much work [....] Right now, we’re looking like we’re going to run a deficit budget [....] You get to a point where you go, ‘How much more can we put on people’s shoulders?’ And the stuff that I can’t control is already escalating the workload.”

There are many other reasons to not participate in varsity eSports. Regardless of whether one believes eSports are really a sport, the competition’s compatibility with McGill Athletics and Recreation’s fitness pillar renders the creation of a varsity eSports team difficult to reconcile. “[McGill, the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ), and U Sports programs] are about health and wellness and physical conditioning,” Phillips said.

“Whether it’s a sport or not, in whatever definition, doesn’t really come into play.”

Byrne, meanwhile, outlined factors that make Canadian institutions, and McGill in particular, less fit for varsity eSports teams than their peers in the United States.

“I think Canada in general is just a little behind in terms of the eSports industry,” Byrne said. “Part of that [...] has to do with available internet infrastructure [....] On average, schools in the U.S. have a lot more capital [to invest in athletics].”

Finally, the varsity label simply isn’t that valuable. Canadian universities have fewer finances to invest in athletic ventures, so on a tangible level, there’d be little to distinguish a team run through the athletic department from one run through any other body, besides the varsity title—a label which carries less prestige on Canadian campuses than American ones. There is also a meager selection of competitions devoted exclusively to varsity teams.

“There is [only] one league that claims to only allow true varsity teams to compete,” Byrne said. “However, [Saints Gaming hasn’t] seen enough value in it yet to participate. Instead, we participate in [competitions that] are open to [...] college varsity and club teams alike.”

Creating a varsity eSports team would require considerable energy. McGill Athletics has yet to receive sufficient demand to prioritize such effort, Phillips explained.

“There has to be a demand through a formal structure, in the sense that we won’t just have a varsity team if there’s not regional or national [organizational demand],” Phillips said.

Tran agreed that the issue with raising support for collegiate eSports at McGill is a vicious circle. With minimal resources and without leverage to ask for more, it is near-impossible for MESA and other eSports fans to build up the demand that Phillips mentioned. However, administrative bodies like SSMU will not prioritize the eSports scene until there is more general interest.

Thus, the new wave of collegiate eSports will likely originate primarily from outside the university—without a McGill varsity eSports team in sight. However, fans shouldn’t be discouraged. Competitive eSports teams at McGill lose little without the varsity designation, and there is still plenty of potential for collegiate eSports to grow even if institutions like McGill aren’t ready to help the movement along. Phillips pointed out that there is much more potential for a larger Canadian eSports organization to gain popularity through a student or outsider-led movement.

“There’s probably a lot of people out there, who are students, who are getting involved in this, who have far more expertise,” Phillips said. “Generally, I think [nontraditional sports movements] don’t come from the top-down. They come from very active students with an interest.”

Phillips has seen students take a niche sport and run with it before.

“Ultimate [frisbee] is the prime example, where a game that’s played in pockets across the country finally had a couple of people take it to the next level,” Phillips said.

In ultimate’s case, students and recent graduates from across the United States came together to form the Ultimate Players’ Association in 1979. The club has since rebranded into “USA Ultimate,” and, as of 2015, boasts more than 50,000 members.

Similarly, the push for the Canadian eSports collegiate movement’s expansion will come from the bottom-up rather than from an older group of athletic department directors. Phillips was confident that the movement would be led by millennials.

“It’ll be a 20-to-30 year old, either an entrepreneur who’s just gotten out of [university], or a group of people who reach out to their peers at other schools,” Phillips said.

The precedent for grassroots success has been established in collegiate eSports, too. A group of three students at the University of Texas, Austin founded Tespa in 2012 as a school group not too different from clubs like MESA. In just five years, Tespa has grown exponentially. In the exploding eSports industry, there’s plenty of space for a Canadian collegiate organization to make a name for itself.

At McGill, even if it’s just a student club like MESA that competes within a new, Canadian organization, campus eSports will eventually flourish. The UBC eSports Association, for example, opened a gaming lounge in 2016. Any student at the University of British Columbia can use it to play a wide range of games any weekday. When the lounge is closed to the general public, the competitive team uses the space to train for matches.

Sponsors were integral to funding the lounge. It would be difficult—and has been impossible, thus far—to find a similar space for MESA at McGill, but Tran asserted that even a minimal dedicated space for eSports on campus would help establish a culture.

“As a smaller club, it’s hard to [even] get an office space [where] we can have people play [...] and hang out to make a community,” Tran said. “For eSports to be big, it needs to be more community-driven.”

If collegiate eSports had a greater presence in Canada, there’d be a greater collection of fans at McGill, and more leverage for MESA to request a space. Furthermore, a larger presence would increase the availability of scholarships for groups like MESA. Currently, MESA is largely self-funded, which holds many students back from participating in eSports and prevents many players from getting serious about competing.

With an athletics department that already appears stretched thin, it’s unlikely that McGill will follow in the footsteps of institutions like St. Clair College in establishing varsity eSports teams. Still, eSports fans at McGill shouldn’t fret: There isn’t much to lose from stepping down from a varsity team to a student association. With more support for collegiate eSports in Canada, clubs such as MESA can take real advantage.

“At a place like McGill, [...]

I think we’d be blind to think that [eSports] won’t find its place,” Phillips said.

2017 YEAR END tOP TENS

T

By: Selin Altuntur, Ariella Garmaise, Dylan Adamson, Virginia Shram, Sophie Brzozowski, Avleen Mokha, Maxime Scraire, and Domenic Casciato

Arts & entertainment

TOP FILMS

5

CALL ME

BY YOUR NAME

6

BLADE RUNNER 2048

TOP ALBUMS

1

Melodrama LORDE

Visually stunning and emotionally This moody collection of songs intense, Call Me By Your Name is a love showcases Lorde’s ever-evolving, story that distances itself from queer mature sound. A synesthete, Lorde can romance tropes. “see” sounds, so the album evokes deep blue, purple, and navy patterns, similar to its album art.

1

GET OUT

Get Out is rare because it is truly horrifying, utterly hilarious, and socially relevant, with no single effect compromising the others. The year’s best film has it all: Jump-scares, chilling lore, beautiful scenery, racism, and Jordan Peele.

2

lady bird

Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut has everything: The cast boasts Saiorse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf, the Sacramento setting is dreamily tacky, and the soundtrack features Dave Matthews Band’s “Crash Into Me” not once, but twice.

3

DUNKIRK

Wednesday, December 6, 2017 - 18

Dunkirk arrests you visually from start to finish. The grand sense of scale, enabled by Hans Zimmer’s grandiose scoring, delivers an immersive experience that places you right in the heart of the action.

4

THE FLORIDA PROJECT

Garish pinks, purples, sunburnt tourists, and forlorn children round out Sean Baker’s ode to childhood and America’s Sunshine State. The Florida Project is an empathetic, nuanced look at the margins of modern American life.

By pushing the limits of visual storytelling, Denis Villeneuve made a Blade Runner sequel that is not only worthy of its predecessor, but transcends it.

7

THE BIG SICK

2

DAMN.

KENDRICK LAMAR

Kendrick didn’t need to equal To Pimp A Butterfly to have released his fourth classic LP. DAMN was the best hip hop release of 2017, and a worthy addition to Kendrick’s catalogue.

3

Ctrl

4

Culture

A rare Apatow production that isn’t the story of a dopey white man-child who scores a girl way hotter than he is, but rather a thoughtful and witty exploration SZA’s fourth studio album of an intercultural relationship (Kumail is a sardonic ode to modern love.

Nanjiani is still charmingly immature).

Countering her moody bass lines with bold lyrics, Ctrl proves that scorned women make good music.

8

KILLING OF A SACRED DEER

SZA

MIGOS

This film is an art-house horror that succeeds in creeping terror rather than Only the second album from shocking scares. Scholars of Euripides Migos, this record boasts appearances will get all the references, but the novice from faves like DJ Khaled, Uzi, and 2 viewer will still appreciate the frights.

Chainz. If you thought they couldn’t follow up “Bad and Boujee,” you were wrong.

9

GOOD TIME Walking out of Good Time, I

physically flinched at a passing cop car’s sirens. The Safdie Brothers’ feature length adrenaline hit is a gut-punch of a film. My heart is racing writing this blurb.

10

CARS 3

After a near fatal accident, Piston Cup legend Lightning McQueen must tackle his fear of failure before he gets back on the track. Heartbreaking and inspiring in equal measure, Cars 3 is yet another Pixar masterpiece.

5

american dream

LCD SOUNDSYSTESM

Dance-punk devotees will remember 2017 as the year LCD Soundsystem made their comeback.

With its dreamy synth and witty cynicism, american dream answered the prayers of die-hard fans everywhere.

6

What Now Sylan Esso

Sylvan Esso’s second album marries delicate vocals with deep, reverberating synth. Listening to this album is like receiving a jolt of electricity in the best kind of way.

A Crow Looked At Me

7

Mount Eerie

Phil Elverum’s latest is a raw document of grief. Recalling the days and weeks after his wife’s passing, it stresses the impossible distance between art and life.

8

Rocket

9

Take Me Apart

Alex G

Rocket unites all the disparate aspects of Alex G’s songwriting under one roof. Dabbling in alt-country, autotune, and noise rock, Alex G’s seventh LP coalesces his limitless potential in enigmatic form.

Kelela

Kelela’s lyrics cut deep, and her sound mixing achieves the right balance between restrained and sharply probing.

Take Me Apart is for listeners who enjoy an unpredictable ride.

10

Mr. Finish Line Vulfpeck

Vuflpeck’s newest album features more old-school fun and nonsensical lyrics, my personal favourite being, “Doing the things as a young boy, can’t understand / Like speaking Yiddish?”

1

2

3

cu fo on po m

4

lo th vi

5

THE HANDMAID’S Women in today’s political climate face a dangerous future, and this adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s famous novel hits all the right notes with dreadfully accurate consistency.

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raw and sses and

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rate nder try, G’s less

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her nce ing. njoy

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1

6

RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE

NATHAN FOR YOU

Nathan Fielder graduated from one of Canada’s top business schools with really good grades. Only a misanthrope with those credentials could get a Michael Richards impersonator to save a local diner.

The only reality show on television that judges charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent. But, at its core, Drag Race is a show about loving yourself unconditionally.

7

TOP SONG

2

THINGS 2

8

Your favourite AV Club members are back with demagorgons galore, so if you haven’t yet, stock up on Eggos The CW’s moody adaptation of and get ready for a season almost as Archie Comics (engineered by a McGill good as the first. alumnus, no less) is an indulgent return to the teen drama of 2000s yore. Season 2 brings more love triangles and plot holes. Cole Sprouse still narrates.

3

BOJACK HORSEMAN The saddest satire of celebrity culture

currently streaming, Bojack Horseman’s fourth season is its best. Its unique take on celebrity culture and unromanticized portrayal of mental illness make it a must-watch.

4

BIGMOUTH

Big Mouth is a horrific, almostlovecraftian depiction of pubescence that is relentlessly entertaining. Best viewed with your parents.

RIVERDALE

9

BIG LITTLE LIES With a star-studded cast and a

melodramatic premise, Big Little Lies should have been a flop, but the performances from every actor, including the children, were so stark and nuanced that it became a classic.

10

BROAD CITY The girls are back and they’re

wackier than ever. Broad City’s newest season borders on slapstick as Illana and Abbi navigate adulthood with a misguided and endearing joie de vivre.

FRANK OCEAN

Remember when the world was wondering if we’d ever even see new Frank music in our lifetimes? Chanel finds him rap-singing with an R&B mastery we forgot was possible in our Drake-saturated era.

1

6

THE LOUVRE

DNA

LORDE

All grown up but just as fresh, Lorde’s “The Louvre” is a soaring anthem about summer lust. Self-aware yet self-destructive, Lorde hits the nail Opening with a Fox News sample on the head with her bubbly picture dismissing Kendrick’s Black Lives of youth.

Matter anthem, in “Alright,” Kendrick proceeds to somersault over a skittering beat, tackling everything from police brutality to his own fame with staggering urgency.

This feel-good anthem is the perfect dance-pop beat to declare your love of cute, adorable, beautiful, incredibly endearing, and lovable boys. Show some love.

KENDRICK LAMAR

IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN SLIDE PHILADELPHIA CALVIN HARRIS, The millennial Seinfeld gang QUAVO, FRANK delivered another understated but OCEAN STRANGER hilarious season of your favourite narcissistic screw-ups kicking each other down just for kicks.

5

CHANEL

2

“Slide” is the experience of bouncing on a trampoline, translated into a Calvin Harris song. It’s really hot out, but in a breezy, comfortable way. The sun is wearing Ray Bans.

3

XO TOUR Llif3

LIL UZI VERT

Uzi’s quadruple-platinum single thrust the young Philly artist into stardom. The blend of syrupy melodies and knocking trap drums made waves that Uzi’s peers will continue to ride into 2018.

4

BODAK YELLOW

CARDI B

BET Hip Hop Awards’ 2017 single of the year, Cardi B’s badass charttopping single will you make you go out and buy some Louboutins just to dance along in “them bloody shoes.”

7

8

BOYS

CHARLI XCX

HUMBLE

KENDRICKLAMAR

Urgent, upbeat, and unapologetic, Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble” kicked off the DAMN. hype parade with audacious lyrics and an abrasive beat.

9

PERFECT PLACES LORDE

“Perfect Places” encapsulates Lorde’s Melodrama in all its heartfelt contradictions. Her frustrated, impatient verse gives way to a signature bombastic chorus, but never lets us forget the melancholic irony at the centre of the party.

10

BIKING

FRANK OCEAN

“Biking” epitomizes Frank’s postBlonde victory lap. Featuring dense brag-rap verses from Jay-Z and Tyler the Creator, “Biking” luxuriates in complex metaphors before culminating in a triumphant Young Thug-esque freakout.

Wednesday, December 6, 2017 - 19

TOP TELEVISION

A short guide to active viewership

Maxime Scraire Contributor

Six tips for millennials who struggle with focusing on movies

Arts & entertainment

1

Illustrations by Arshaaq Jiffry

2

Throw your cellphone, food, and “friend” out the window You do not need a layer of distraction over your entertainment. Do one thing at a time!

4

3

Ask “Why?”

Suspend your disbelief

Take for granted that filmmakers know what they are doing, and that all things happen for a reason.

Questioning every artistic decision will force you to dig deeper into the work’s intent and meaning, all while keeping you on.

Each film or series introduces its own set of rules in its first minutes. Identify them, and understand that characters will follow these rules specific to their world. Fiction is about internal logic; thinking “that doesn’t make sense” will only distract you.

6

5

Watch teaser trailers only

Look out for themes in the craft

Pause series, never movies

I get it, Hollywood: the more people know about the product, the likelier they are to purchase. However, stories tend to be much more engaging when you don’t already know major plot points. Do yourself a favour and stay away from those long-form trailers.

Cinematography and soundtrack become stronger narrative tools than dialogues when successfully exploited. Identify the colour palette and recurring musical themes and try to make sense of them. It’ll prove rewarding.

Films and episodes are the length they are for a reason. Half of a series’ fun lies in the tension between two episodes, but pausing a movie destroys its rhythm. View the story as intended by its creator.

A short guide to active listening Listen with headphones

Wednesday, December 6, 2017 - 20

If you really want to give the album your full attention headphones will not only allow you to appreciate the sonic quality, but cancel outside distractions.

Allow yourself to conjure up images Explore the related sights, touches, tastes, and smells that a song conjures. Follow the impulse to create an accompanying narrative or a music video in your head.

Pay attention to (or look up) lyrics when listening Lyrics can help you understand what an artist is trying to express, and allow you to process an album as a cohesive, thematic work. Words take on entirely new meanings when paired with certain sounds, and vice versa.

Tips for getting the most out of listening to a new album

April Barrett Multimedia Editor

Learn more about the artist

Feel it

The more you know about a musician, how they approach songwriting or particular quirks they have when recording, the more you can appreciate the craftsmanship that goes into each tune. Try to examine if they have an identifiable sonic style or if they have changed album to album, song to song.

If you want to dance, dance!

Whether the music is making you drop it low or sob, you’re really listening when you feel your body responding.

Listen for composition/production Identify individual elements of the song that don’t stick out as much as the lead vocals. Search for the bass line and try isolating that for a portion of the song. Think about instruments or devices used, or if you hear a funky sample, where it could have come from.

Viewpoint: Me and my cultural fatigue How I adjusted to life in Montreal, past the honeymoon period of being abroad

student living

Wednesday, December 6, 2017 - 22

set of implicit norms and expectations, these norms are innumerable. I could spend years here and still be different from someone who was born and raised in Canada—and that’s OK. Now that months have gone by, I’ve gained more knowledge about Canadian culture: I know that the bus requires exact change, that you stand on the right side of the escalator to stand still, that “Timmie’s” is short for Tim Horton’s, and that “Hey, how’s it going?” is nothing more than a greeting.

I still make little cultural blunders. Once in awhile, I’ll say “see you!” to people I will never see again—like my Uber driver—but instead of cursing myself, I laugh. Every time I encounter something new in Canadian culture, I text my Turkish friend to share my confusion. Spending time with other international students and talking about differences with friends from both cultures has helped me live with the self-doubt I’ve experienced from moving 12,000 kilometres away from my comfort zone.

I wish I could say there’s a clear path for all international students to find their place in a new country, but there isn’t.

Having support on campus to cope in a new environment helps, but I’ve come to realize that there’s no point in resisting change—or forcing it. A drastic difference in culture can be difficult to adjust to, but remember that we all embark on journeys, and all our experiences will inevitably change us, no matter how big or small.

Wednesday, December 6, 2017 - 21

Every year, thousands of students move to Montreal to begin their journey at McGill. Although the university’s multinational student body is a blessing for international students, moving to a new place often comes with a cost that goes unnoticed by locals.

When I moved to Montreal from Mumbai, I was stunned by the novelty of living abroad. For the first time, I could spend my evening walking down promenades, switching sides of fries for poutine, or riding a Bixi to class. I was mesmerized by the architecture of the city, the bustling energy on campus, and the variety of accents and languages I’d hear in a day.

However, as I detached from my life in Mumbai, I had to ground myself in Montreal. Once the honeymoon period ended, I realized that finding a sense of belonging here was much harder than I had imagined. I soon became irrationally angry at myself for not adapting to my new environment as fast as I thought I would. In my residence, I was surrounded by predominantly North Americans, and it was difficult for me to keep up with their cultural expectations.

Cultural fatigue, also referred to as ‘expat fatigue,’ feels more appropriate in describing my experience than culture ‘shock’, because the latter implies that the experience of

revising cultural norms is instantaneous. The process is actually much slower; I felt isolated every time I’d learn something new about North American culture. I understood that cultures were different in their beliefs, but that left it up to me to decide what I believed in. I was afraid of embarrassing myself, especially in professional or networking contexts.

One of my biggest hurdles to overcome was realizing that my idea of punctuality was quite different from its Western counterpart. In India’s polychronic culture—where many things take place at once—it is normal for plans to change, and certain reasonable delays are tolerable.

However, in North America, this isn’t always the case.

I noticed that every time my friends and I would go out for dinner, someone would always make a reservation.

Reserving a table was efficient, I’ll admit, but largely felt unnecessary; I had many happy memories of my family passing the time for 20 to 30 minutes before getting a seat at a restaurant. Once, when my mum visited and invited my friends to go out to eat, both her and I showed up without having made a reservation, much to my friends’ dismay.

We had reached an impasse: While I expected her to have booked a table, she didn’t see the problem with my North American friends waiting for a few minutes.

I internally responded to the conflict by shaping my behaviour to be more like my colleagues: I began to walk faster, set appointments, and pay closer attention to my time. But I soon realized that while each culture has its own

student living

Avleen Mokha Staff Writer

Why you should trust your gut The surprising link between gut health and mental health Janine Xu Contributor University life can pose a challenge to maintaining healthy eating habits. From sugar-filled bars grabbed swiftly on the way out the door in the morning, to late-night cups of Tim Horton’s, the rigors of academia do little for the average student’s physical health. But stress-eating processed candy and grabbing rushed slices of pizza can be detrimental for mental health too, as research shows an important link between gut health and mental health.

While we may think of our bodies as belonging to ourselves, we are actually home to millions of microorganisms. These microbes, which include a variety of bacteria, viruses, and fungi, have tremendous potential to impact our physiology as they colonize many parts of the body, including the gut.

In turn, a 2017 University College Cork study suggests that gut bacteria may influence their host’s anxiety and depression. Increasing the number of ‘good’ bacteria in the gut can reduce stress, improve memory, and lower social anxiety.

Mariia Taguer, a third-year PhD candidate in Microbiology and Immunology, studies the community of diverse microorganisms living in the gut, which is collectively known as the gut microbiome. In addition to improving mental health, Taguer considers having a strong microbiome to be of great importance, as it impacts the immune system. “[The gut microbiome] helps to clean our immune system,” Taguer said. “A lot of diseases we’re finding now, like inflammatory diseases, [relate] to how our gut microbiota [work with] the immune system. This is really based on […] disturbances to our gut microbiota […] in our early years, which can lead to an altered immune system [.…] It helps to digest a lot of our food [by breaking down] certain foods down for us.

Fibre, which we can’t digest ourselves, is [broken down] by [gut] bacteria.”

For students looking to boost their mood, diet is an easy place to start. Instead of reaching for coffee when feeling under-the-weather, students should reach for a mango. Packed with healthy fibres that gut bacteria thrive on, the fruit is bound to improve stomach health—which can improve mental health, too.

Healthy eating habits are not a substitute for therapy or medication. If you are struggling with mental health, McGill offers both counselling and psychiatric care.

Mango and lime sorbet recipe Makes 4 servings Ingredients: 500g frozen mango chunks 1 lime, zest and juice 100ml coconut water 1 tbsp caster sugar (optional) 200g fresh raspberries 100g fresh coconut shavings Fresh mint to garnish Instructions: 1. Place half of the mango into a food processor. Add both the juice and zest of the lime to the mix. Process the ingredients until they are well mixed and the sorbet is formed.

2. Taste your sorbet for sweetness. Add sugar to taste.

3. In order to achieve the consistency you like, gradually add small amounts of mango and coconut water until you’re satisfied.

4. For a fun way to plate your sorbet, place a few berries in the bottom of a clear glass. Add a couple spoonfuls of your sorbet on top of the berries. Decorate with more berries, shaved coconut, and a pinch of fresh mint.

Recipe adapted from Love Your Gut.

Hot yoga: Bridging the gap between mind and body Sweating and stretching can calm students’ minds and bodies

student living

Ana Mayne Contributor

working out in extreme heat can lead to dehydration, fainting, and a higher potential for pulling muscles.

Syncing breath with physical movement in a 40-degree room can do wonders for the brain. In a room full of strangers, hot yoga offers the chance for practitioners to calm their day-today thoughts and engage in reflective thinking; it forms the ultimate connection between the mind, body, and spirit.

Deliberate, thoughtful movements in sync with the breath are at the heart of yoga. Yoga is ultimately designed to use and stretch one’s muscles, and by the end of a session, the body is often so relaxed—or exhausted—that the mind surrenders, too. Not just during exam season, but year-round, yoga provides practitioners with invaluable benefits.

Hot yoga offers even greater potential for reaching this connected state; the temperature increases mobility in the muscles, thus providing greater capacity to stretch. There are, however, some risks to the practice;

Yet, while sweating profusely and trying to conform into pretzel poses may sounds anything but relaxing, many people find great comfort in the practice.

Carly Ayukawa, U2 Management, has been practicing yoga for six years, and keeps up her practice to de-stress during exams. Often, leaving behind the stresses of daily life for an hour can help students be more productive when returning to their studies.

“I think yoga is really important, because you spend an hour being focused on what you’re doing and your breathing,” Ayukawa said. “It slows down your life for that time and when you leave you have a sense of calmness.”

For Ayukawa, each yoga session comes with a reminder to step back from the stress of university life.

“Mindfulness is really important,

especially for students and our generation, because we’re always bombarded with all this information, and distracted by social media and everything going on,” Ayukawa said. “A big part of yoga is being able to listen to yourself and making sure you are respecting your body.”

Alex Munro, an exchange student in the Faculty of Law, tried hot yoga for the first time earlier this term, and was excited to experience its positive effects.

“I think it’s impossible to go, and

Hot yoga is worth the sweat. (Bald Yogi) then come out more stressed,” Munro said. “It is probably beneficial to your studying in the long run, because it does relax you and you don’t think about the stresses of [university] when you’re in that environment.”

By making a restless brain calm, and allowing for natural intuition and creativity to flourish, hot yoga benefits practitioners in more than one way. The discipline of stretching, twisting, and breathing deeply connect the mind and body, and students should be quick to take advantage of this.

Make new friends and keep the old How some McGill students stay in touch despite distance Gabriela McGuinty Contributor University is an opportune time to make new friends—but sometimes, this comes at the expense of staying in touch with the old. Friendships naturally change over time, as distance and extracurriculars lead to new, and sometimes divergent, paths. It is already challenging for students to find time to catch up with local friends they don’t see on a daily basis—much less their friends in different cities, countries, or time zones.

As a result, many students tend to stay in touch with only their closest friends from years past, including Nicolas Roy, U2 Science.

Wednesday, December 6, 2017 - 22

Friendships change over time, and university can play a role. (Karolin Schnoor)

“It’s hard when you don’t see [old friends] every day,” Roy said. “[Since coming to McGill] I’ve kept in touch really only with my best friends [and] will talk with them through text and on the phone once in awhile. That’s about it, I can count them on one hand.”

For many students in their third or fourth year, friendships they make at McGill also go through their ups and downs. Friends students made in first year are not necessarily the same ones they hang out with down the road, and sometimes they, too, fall into the category of long lost friends.

“I was in engineering when I came in as a U0, so I made friends within that community, but then I moved to physics and kind of moved away from a lot of those friends,” Roy said. “I still have some that I talk to once in awhile, but it’s more like ‘hello,’ and we catch up when we cross on the street, because we don’t share any classes anymore.”

Many students find themselves able to communicate with old friends through social media. With the click of a button or the opening of an app, like Skype, Instagram, and Snapchat, students have access to platforms that make staying up to date with old friends much easier.

“One hundred per cent, social media plays a huge part in how I stay in touch with my friends,” Amina Magnin, U1 Arts, said. “If I see something cool or a post that reminds me of one of them, then I’ll definitely either tag or send it to them.”

For Hailey Evelyn, U0 Education, texting and Snapchat in particular play huge roles in staying up-to-date with her friends who are now scattered across the country.

“There’s five of us in a group chat, and then my best friend and I text every single day,” Evelyn said. “Some friends, I keep in touch with over Snapchat, because I love my Snapchat streaks, so I kept a streak with them throughout the summer and then into university.”

Additionally, as visiting distant friends is not always possible for the busy student, pencilling in time to reach out to friends can ensure an enduring friendship. Whether it’s by setting an occasional alarm to shoot them a text, or adding a FaceTime or phone date to your calendar, setting aside time each week can go a long way.

Any distance, small or large, can test friendships in completely new ways.

Still, students have found, and continue to find, ways to keep in touch.

“As a U0 [student], getting used to juggling schoolwork and friends you have here and at home is hard, but if I’ve had a good friendship while in high school, I’ve continued it [in university]” Evelyn said. “Just because we don’t go to the same school doesn’t mean we’ll stop being friends altogether.”

‘Anti-Colonial Evening’ revisits traditional Thanksgiving narratives McGill students opt for a decolonized dinner

On Nov. 23, Montreal’s Native Friendship Centre was filled with warmth, food, and historical lessons as McGill students and Montreal residents attended an ‘Anti-Colonial Evening,’ organized

by Le Frigo Vert and the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) at Concordia. Instead of partaking in a traditional American Thanksgiving celebration, over 100 people of all ages gathered to learn about colonialism and the importance of resisting land fraud when celebrating the holiday.

Filing in from the windy Montreal weather, the evening’s attendees enjoyed a variety of foods from local cooperatives, including Food Against Fascism and McGill’s Midnight Kitchen. Following the dinner, Submedia TV, a grassroots social justice film collective, presented clips from films on social justice and Indigenous issues. The videos provided a look into the harms of invasive infrastructure plans for Indigenous land, such as the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Alton Gas brine dumping site. These clips gave attendees a glimpse into the struggles many

Indigenous populations face, and the continued pervasiveness of colonialism in North America.

For Harley Roquentin, an organizer of the night and member of the Board of Directors of QPIRG Concordia, the mainstream acceptance of Thanksgiving as a peaceful celebration hides the history of colonialism that led to the holiday’s creation.

“The myth that people were kind to Native Americans [is] so ingrained within Thanksgiving, when really [colonial settlers] committed genocide,” Roquentin said. “That’s not something we should be celebrating. It’s an aspect of humanity and recognition of Indigenous peoples that we’re aiming to do here today.”

According to event attendee Sabrina Xuan, U3 Anthropology, early childhood education played a central role in her understanding of Thanksgiving as a holiday. Throughout her schooling, she repeatedly heard tales of settlerIndigenous cooperation and gratitude, and came to accept this as the truth.

The ‘Anti-Colonial Evening’ countered this narrative, sparking discussion about mainstream misrepresentations of North American history.

“I grew up going to an American

student living

Samantha Ling Contributor

Montreal’s Native Friendship Centre hosted the dinner on Nov. 23. (Emma Hameau / The McGill Tribune) school, and we were all given a narrative about Thanksgiving and Columbus Day being positive events intrinsic to national development,” Xuan said. “When you know there’s more to the story, I think you should do all that you can to support what it’s really like.”

By the end of the night, everyone left with full stomachs, open minds, and new motivation to get involved in decolonization efforts. Coco Graziani, a recent McGill graduate (in Psychology and English Literature) who attended

the event, reflected on the importance of understanding one’s place in the anticolonial movement.

“It seems to me it’s a special time in the evolution of the way people think,” Graziani said. “I wasn’t aware of the movement or history a few years ago, but I have a feeling that right now it’s reaching everyone. When supporting efforts for decolonization, showing up as settlers is important. It shows one’s effort in knowing more, and recognizing the resiliency of Indigenous people.”

Monthly Dignity bridges the gap between McGill and Montreal’s women’s shelters New organization provides hygiene products to homeless women in Montreal Emma Carr Contributor When Chloé Pronovost-Morgan, and Julia Coste, both U2 Arts, began planning the launch of Monthly Dignity, they didn’t foresee the initiative’s rapid success. Just two weeks after its launch on Nov. 16, the students had raised over $1,500 in donations for the program, which distributes menstrual hygiene products to homeless women in Montreal.

Coste came up with the idea for the initiative while traveling with her family this past year, when she unexpectedly got her period. Though she was in discomfort, she recognized that she had many resources at her disposal to cope with her menstruation symptoms, such as cramps and nausea—a privilege she feels that most women take for granted. This experience led her to reflect upon the challenges of menstruating while homeless, and thus, the idea for Monthly Dignity was born.

Upon returning to McGill, she told fellow student and friend, Pronovost-Morgan, about

Wednesday, December 6, 2017 - 23

Monthly Dignity founders Coste and Pronovost-Morgan didn’t expect such success.

(Emma Hameau / The McGill Tribune)

her idea for a non-profit. Soon after, the two began meeting twice a week to outline the project’s logistics. While in the development stage of the initiative, the two founders secured a distribution-delivery relationship with the Salvation Army’s Montreal women’s shelter, which provides services to over 550 homeless women in the city.

Around the world, menstrual hygiene products are still unaffordable for homeless and disadvantaged women. In Canada, it is estimated that the average menstruating person between ages 12 and 49 will spend $65.82 per year on basic menstrual hygiene products before tax. Though tampons and other menstrual products are still subject to luxury tax in many countries, the two founders viewed these products as a basic right and essential to promoting overall well-being.

“In a nutshell, it really is just a question of physical health and mental health,” PronovostMorgan said. “Women are actually more vulnerable to infections when they are on their period, and so if they are forced to use alternatives that they come up with themselves, and they are already living in insalubrious conditions, that just makes the risk exponential.”

For Pronovost-Morgan and Coste, their mission has a broader purpose: To challenge the stigma surrounding menstruation, and what people who menstruate experience.

“I think that it is uniting two things that are already taboo in society: Homelessness and menstruation,” Pronovost-Morgan said. “The combination of the two leads to this huge avoidance we have just been propagating for forever.”

Coste explained that this stigma stems from how difficult many people find it to think about the realities of public menstruation, especially those who have never experienced a period.

“It is assumed that women are going to deal with [their monthly periods] because it is a woman’s problem, and so it shouldn’t be something that everyone pays for through taxes,” Coste said. “I think that through sensitization and raising awareness, and just talking about what getting your period entails, maybe people’s visions can be changed [....] That’s where the name of [Monthly Dignity] comes from. It really is a question of dignity and how you perceive yourself.”

In the coming months, Coste and Pronovost-Morgan plan to expand Monthly Dignity’s reach. Among their long-term priorities, the founders want to reach out to transmen and noncis people who are not using women’s shelters. Ultimately, the pair view comfortable, safe menstruation as a right, not a privilege. “[Menstruation] shouldn’t be something you feel ashamed about ever, it shouldn’t be something makes you feel uncomfortable in your body,” Pronovost-Morgan said. “By providing menstrual hygiene products, we hope to alleviate that burden.”

A GUIDE TO MONTREAL’S BEST HOLIDAY MARKETS Emma Carr Contributor student living

Illustrations by Daria Kiseleva December is nearly upon us, and that means two things: Finals are just around the corner, and, perhaps more enticing, annual holiday markets are opening up around the city. These pop-up shops are one-stop spots for picking up unique gifts, enjoying cold-weather snacks, and experiencing live entertainment. Not sure where to start? The McGill Tribune compiled a list of the city’s most festive–and free–markets to visit before winter break.

Le Grand Marché de Noël Runs: Dec. 1 to 24 Location: 175 Sainte-Catherine street west

In the middle of Quartier des Spectacles, Le Grand Marché de Noël is one of the city’s largest holiday markets. This year, the venue will showcase products from a wide array of Quebec-based businesses, from vineyards to handmade clothing retailers.

Visitors can also participate in a number of activities scattered throughout the market, including a “tire d’erable” station and a tour of the festival grounds on the Via Rail Little Train. Additionally, guests can grab winter treats, like hot chocolate and maple taffy, from one of 13 food and drink vendors.

Noël dans le Parc

Runs: Dec. 1 to 25 Location: Parc des Compagnons de St-Laurent, Parc Lahaie, and Place Émilie-Gamelin This music festival-turned-holiday show has been a Montreal favourite since 1994, when it was founded by three Montrealbased musicians as a platform to showcase local talent. Over the years, Noël dans le Parc expanded its setup to include a campfire, a marketplace, and a petting zoo. Today, the event is staged at three spots across the city: Parc des Compagnons de St-Laurent, Parc Lahaie, and Place Émilie-Gamelin.

It’s the perfect place to grab a bite to eat on a winter’s night. Be sure to to stop by the food tents, where you can find hot drinks, sausages, and marshmallows to toast around the campfire, all while enjoying free live performances.

The Nutcracker Market

Runs: Nov. 30 to Dec. 10 Location: Palais des congrès, 1435 De Bleury street Located in the heart of downtown, The Nutcracker Market offers visitors the opportunity to give back while doing their holiday shopping. Organized by Les Grands Ballet, 10 per cent of all proceeds are donated to the Nutcracker Fund, which pays the transportation costs for sick and low-income children to see Les Grands Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker and attend educational workshops.

What makes this market unique is its variety and charityoriented nature. This year, 105 vendors will be participating, selling everything from chocolate to cozy sweaters. Standouts include quirky candy from Candy Labs, handmade alpaca wool goods from Alpagas des Appalaches, and winter accessories made out of recycled materials from Gibou.

Etsy Montreal: Holiday Market

Runs: Dec. 16 to 17 Location: Théâtre Denise-Pelletier, 4353, rue SainteCatherine Est Shopping at Etsy Montreal: Holiday Market makes for the ideal opportunity to support local artists and entrepreneurs. The brain-child of Etsy and the local business co-op Hochelag, this market is the place to pick up unique handmade gifts. This year, the craft show will feature the work of 110 artisans from in and around the Montreal area, making it the ideal spot to buy a little piece of Montreal to send to both friends and family. At the market, visitors can browse jewelry, accessories, ceramics, and clothing. Be sure to also check out the food display, where cake, chocolate, and popcorn will be for sale.

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CARTOON CARTOON

Cordelia Cho / A McGill Student’s Baggage

Ariella Garmaise and Arshaaq Jiffry / SSMU Burning Bridges

Winnie Lin / Horticultural Therapy

Erica Stefano / The End Game

Sunny Kim / Bridging the Gap Between Students and Profs

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Jitika Shah / Crossing That Bridge When We Get To It Daria Kiseleva / The Final Leap

Bridging brain circuits and musical taste Enhancing or disrupting brain circuits affects how much we like and respond to music Paloma Jacquet Contributor

science & technology

Humans are on the lookout for rewarding stimuli all the time. Our ability to experience pleasure from some of these stimuli is an evolutionary mechanism to ensure the pursuit of basic biological needs, such as eating, known as primary rewards.

However, humans also have the capacity to experience pleasure from types of stimuli that have no clear biological benefit—known as secondary rewards—including the pleasure of listening to music.

On Nov. 20, Researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital of McGill University published a study on Nov. 20 that examines the neurological pathways associated with listening to music. Previous studies emphasized the role of fronto-striatal circuits in primary and secondary rewards.

Fronto-striatal circuits are neural pathways that connect frontal lobe regions with the striatum, which mediates motor, cognitive, and behavioural functions within the brain. Although research using brain imaging has shown a correlation between listening to music and a rise in dopamine release in striatal areas, none had established causality.

The new study was spearheaded by McGill researcher and postdoctoral fellow Ernest Mas-Herrero and Professor Robert Zatorre of the Department of Psychology. Mas-Herrero and Zatorre established a direct causal relationship between the engagement of fronto-striatal circuits and different aspects of music reward sensitivity. They used theta burst stimulation (TBS) to modulate human brain activity. TBS is a non-invasive technique that involves placing a magnetic field generator on the scalp that sends pulses of electricity through the generator,

Listening to music elevates dopamine levels in the brain.

(Daria Kiseleva / The McGill Tribune) creating a tiny magnetic field that promotes a response in the brain’s neurons.

Seventeen participants were asked to come for a total of three sessions. At the start of each, participants received one type of TBS stimulation. In one session, they received intermittent stimulation (iTBS), in another they received continuous stimulation (cTBS), and in yet another, they received a fake stimulation (the control). Intermittent stimulation and continuous stimulation send the same number of pulses to the brain with the same intensity. However, iTBS sends these pulses in intervals, so the total stimulatory time is three minutes, while cTBS sends the pulses continuously. After receiving the stimulation, participants listened to excerpts from their top five favorite songs during each session. They also listened to 10 more excerpts from songs that the researchers chose, which were different for every session. While listening to each excerpt,

participants rated the degree of pleasure they experienced as low, neutral, high, or chills. They were also asked for the amount of money they were willing to pay for each song.

Relative to the control, participants liked the music more and offered more money after excitatory iTBS. They liked the music less and offered less money after inhibitory cTBS. By altering activity in the prefrontal-striatal area of the brain with TBS, the study provides evidence of the causal role of brain circuitry in musical pleasure.

An important issue in using TBS is that the physiological consequences of the stimulation are difficult to establish.

Although many TBS studies make the implicit assumption that the area targeted by the generator is the area affected, this need not be the case. For complex cognitive functions, interactions take place in many brain regions, as is the case for music. To solve this problem, Mas-Herrero and his team are currently working on a new study, where they combine TBS with functional Magnetic resonance imaging (MRIs). Their goal is to identify which exact regions of the brain are responsible for modulating the reward center when listening to music.

Mas-Herrero and Zatorre’s study opens avenues for research to explore how other processes in the brain may be altered by stimulation of fronto-striatal circuits, and help to further understand the neural mechanisms underlying pleasure in humans. The fact that TBS can affect our pleasure response to music has potential clinical applications. It could be used to treat psychological disorders in which a patient’s reward circuitry is poor, such as depression or addiction.the neural mechanisms underlying pleasure in humans. The fact that TBS can affect our pleasure response to music has potential clinical applications.

It could be used to treat psychological disorders where one’s reward circuitry is poor, such as depression or addiction.

Songbirds learn speech like humans do How studying bird speech patterns can explain universal grammar rules Sam Min Staff Writer

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In the 1960s, Noam Chomsky, a linguist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, observed that different languages across the world have common patterns. Chomsky postulated the Theory of Universal Grammar (UG), which suggests that humans have created languages and grammar rules that conveniently fit with how our brain is organized. McGill PhD student Logan Smith and his supervisor Jon Sakata, an associate professor in the Department of Biology, have found supporting evidence for this theory through studying the zebra finch, as a songbird.

If the UG theory is correct, all existing human languages, regardless of how many there are in total, would be constrained by a limited number of all the possible grammars in existence. UG states that language will always develop with a common set of structural rules and properties that are innate, such as verbs, nouns, and functional words. Sakata’s lab is one of many labs that study songbirds to investigate how humans process speech and music. In an interview with The McGill Tribune, Smith highlighted how songbird vocalizations parallel the structure of grammar rules.

“It turns out that the vocal learning process in birds is quite similar to the process in humans,” Smith said.

“Birds start by producing noisy, variable vocalizations akin to human babbling, and through practice hone their vocalizations into a species-typical song. Each individual male zebra finch will learn and produce only one song with a stereotyped sequence. Zebra finches are capable of learning [many] different sequences, and will mimic the [sequence of] their tutor.”

Smith took advantage of the songbirds’ capacity their intonation but not mimic their barks. We are [also] to learn multiple sequences by exposing them to each interested in exploring whether these learning biases are sequence at random, and observing which sequence they rooted in biases in motor function or auditory processing preferred to sing in the end. He found that the patterns (or a combination of both).”

The existence of learning biases could have produced by natural populations of birds were very similar implications for how humans learn new languages. to those of the laboratory-raised birds.

“We think similar types of processes related to Although our ability to pick up new vocabulary declines aspects of universal grammar may also occur in other substantially as we age, we may still be able to pick one animals,” Smith said. “Our study found that zebra finches up quicker than expected if the UG theory holds true. are predisposed to learn certain types of sequences over The Sakata lab has shown that language bias others, which we think could parallel how humans are exists even in songbirds. Apparently, there predisposed to learn certain types of language structures may be fewer gaps between different languages than once thought. over others. [It also] tells us that biological predispositions in vocal learning can exist in cases where an individual is capable of learning many possible sound sequences.”

Smith’s work also explores the connection between motor processes and speech production. He suggests that differential learning patterns could be attributed to processing in the auditory or motor systems.

“When learning a new language, our speech is modelled after what we’ve heard from a native speaker.” Smith said.

“Motor function and auditory processing are important in learning speech. We can only emulate certain accents, but only at the mercy of our motor flexibilities. Take dogs, for example. They seem to understand some of our verbal commands, but merely bark at us in response instead of speaking our own language. Likewise, we could tell apart the different meanings behind the barks by Songbirds experience vocal learning in a similar way to humans. (moziru.com)

How hypnosis and its many forms are used in different situations, to different ends Psychology studying hypnosis and hypnotizability at McGill’s psychological research Raz Lab, explained the difference between stage hypnosis and clinical hypnosis.

“Stage hypnosis is usually done for entertainment and happens in front of an audience,” Sandra said.“[So, participants have] social pressure on them, [leading them to follow the] hypnotist’s commands and pretend they are in a trance, even if they are not.”

However, clinical hypnosis can be used therapeutically to reduce symptoms of stress and anxiety, and to study the human mind and mental health.

“Clinical hypnosis is done in a private setting,” Sandra said.

“The hypnotherapist does not give ‘commands,’ [but rather] gives suggestions and invites the patient to experience [them].”

The hypnotic experience is purely internal; despite feelings of deep relaxation, the mind and body remain alert. The hypnotherapist cannot control an individual’s actions.

“If a person doesn’t want to do something in real life, [they] will not do it under hypnosis,” Sandra said. “There is no element of pressure in clinical hypnosis, unlike in stage hypnosis.”

Although being under hypnosis may offer similar feelings of relaxation as taking a nap, you never lose consciousness under hypnosis—making it a safe practice.

“Under hypnosis, the person is conscious at all times and is able to exit the trance [at any time],” Sandra said. “When a Hypnosis doesn’t typically function in the way it is portrayed in pop culture. person is hypnotized they are very absorbed in the task, but if (Taja Da-Silva / The McGill Tribune) something dangerous happens in their surroundings, they will be Myriam Driss aware of it and will exit the trance.”

Contributor Sandra explained that there are many steps involved in hypnotherapy for anxiety reduction.

When one thinks of hypnosis, images of volunteers on stage “A way to put a person in a hypnotized state [is through] responding to different names or stimuli come to mind. However, induction, a deeply relaxing [and] beneficial [state] to anyone stage hypnosis is often actually the result of someone “faking it.”

Dasha Sandra, a U3 Honors student in the Department of suffering from anxiety,” Sandra said. “[Next,] the hypnotherapist

will use suggestions for relaxation, [such as] feeling restful heaviness in the body or the use of imagination”.

The ability for a patient to become hypnotized depends on “hypnotizability”—which refers to how hypnotized a person can be. Absorption and “belief” in hypnosis are related to the amount of resistance the person may experience, and how beneficial the hypnosis session will be.

“Some people are naturally more hypnotizable than others,” Sandra said. “Research has found evidence that [the ability to be hypnotized] is linked with different traits and abilities. For example, people who tend to get more absorbed in their thoughts are more likely to be hypnotizable. Other studies have shown that imagination also plays a role.”

Ultimately, Sandra emphasized that those who are more hypnotizable have more efficient use of cognitive resources.

“Studies [have] shown that [hypnosis] may be related to better concentration and a more efficient use of cognitive resources when dealing with information.”

Scientists have yet to thoroughly investigate the the interactions and relationships between the placebo effect and hypnosis.

“Both placebo effects and hypnosis involve expectations [and] suggestion,” Sandra said. Hypnosis has been called “placebo without deception.”

However, there are key differences between the hypnosis and palcebo.

“When a person is entering a hypnotized state, they are told exactly what is going to happen,” Sandra said. “Whereas when dealing with placebo, we are giving the person false information.

While hypnosis [does have] some elements of placebo effects, such as expectations and suggestion, [it] is an honest technique that gives control to the participant.”

Ultimately, hypnosis offers a new gateway to exploring the complex networks of human minds.

The surprising benefits of breastfeeding Breastfed adolescents are less likely to develop eczema compared to non-breastfed Océane Marescal Staff Writer Since the 1950s, breastfeeding has been almost a taboo subject in the United States and Canada. A simple Google search of “breastfeeding” shows top news stories of women being shamed by strangers for breastfeeding in public. This negative response might help explain the low rates of breastfeeding in many developed countries.

In the United States, less than 49 per cent of babies ever receive breast milk and in the United Kingdom, only 34 per cent do. Even more striking, only 17 per cent of American women and one per cent of British women follow the World Health Organization’s recommendation to exclusively breastfeed for six months.

According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, women face a variety of barriers to breastfeeding beyond social stigma and disapproval, including workrelated issues, unsupportive partners, and concerns about pain.

However, a study conducted by scientists at King’s College London, Harvard University, University of Bristol, and McGill University have found that breastfeeding can provide a variety of benefits to the child, with no adverse health consequences to the mother.

The study, called PROmotion of Breastfeeding Intervention Trial (PROBIT), began in 1996 and followed 13,000 Belarusian babies from birth to adolescence to examine the effects of breastfeeding on health. Babies in the intervention group received much longer and much more exclusive breastfeeding than those in the control condition.

The most recent publication to stem from this research investigated two outcomes of the breastfeeding intervention—atopic eczema and asthma—analyzed in a follow-up of the subjects at age 16. The study found that the breastfeeding promotion intervention group saw a reduction in risk of eczema, but no difference between the intervention and control group for asthma.

Michael Kramer is a professor and researcher at McGill’s Faculty of Medicine and the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, and the Principal Investigator on the PROBIT study. He has been working on this trial for over 20 years and can attest to the wide range of benefits that breastfeeding accords.

“I’m surprised about the beneficial effect [breastfeeding] had on cognitive ability with no similar effect on behavior such as depression, problems socializing, and ability to pay attention,” Kramer said. “There was a general effect on brain development but not on behavior. Also, this [finding] in the paper was surprising to me because the kids that had eczema at age 16 were not the same [ones] that had it early in life.”

Indeed, as Kramer explained, other benefits to breastfeeding included higher verbal IQ at six and a half years old, significant reduction in gastrointestinal infection in the first year, and a reduction in the likelihood of developing atopic eczema in the first year of life as well as during adolescent years.

Researchers saw no negative health effects of breastfeeding on the mother. There was no difference in blood pressure, body fat,

or body mass index between the mothers in the control compared to the intervention group.

As to why breastfeeding could protect from eczema, even 16 years later, Kramer is not quite sure.

“There are many components in breast milk that affect the immune system and is responsible for protective effects against infections,” Kramer explained.

“Oligosaccharides, sugar molecules found in the breast milk, can bind to viruses and bacteria.

There are also antibodies, lymphocytes, and lactoferrins, but how these molecules might

protect against allergic disease including eczema is not well understood.”

The PROBIT study gives yet another reason, besides courtesy and respect, to not criticize women who breastfeed in public.

Women should not have to be ashamed of breastfeeding their child or have to hide in bathrooms to avoid negative remarks. Those who decide not to breastfeed should, however, also not fear the reprimand and haughty remarks of mothers who do. However a woman chooses to feed her child, her decision is her own and should be respected.

Breastfeeding has become a taboo subject in the United States and Canada. (Cicily Du / The McGill Tribune)

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Fact or fiction: What is clinical hypnosis?

Say ‘no’ to the nocebo

How public mental health initiatives may affect your mood

Krithika Ragupathi Contributor

science & technology

It’s that time of year again, when mental health initiatives are becoming more active. With finals looming ahead, it may seem like the pervading mood on campus is generally negative. However, it’s important that we question whether these initiatives themselves are responsible for subconsciously swaying our mood this way.

The number of McGill students seeking mental health or counselling services on campus has increased by 57 per cent over the last three years. While the implementation of a Fall Reading Week could work to combat this spike in demand, a nationwide mental health epidemic requires more systemic solutions.

Investigators have a plethora of suspects: Our sedentary, sunlightdeficient lifestyle, the prospect of graduating jobless, or the feelings of isolation brought about by superficial connections made over social networks. A psychological phenomenon called the nocebo effect could partially explain this post-modern mental health decline in students.

Known as the evil cousin to the placebo effect, the nocebo effect occurs when negative expectations result in negative consequences, which in some cases are tangible physiological changes. For example, when a physician warns a patient that a procedure may hurt, studies have found that the patient ends up reporting more pain than if the suggestion hadn’t been made.

In 1998, the nocebo effect led to an unnecessary evacuation at a high school in Tennessee. A teacher reported feelings of dizziness, nausea, and headaches after noticing the smell of gasoline in her classroom. The school was evacuated and 99 students and teachers went to the emergency room reporting similar symptoms. An investigation later found no evidence

of toxins in the environment, and no gasoline leak of any kind, concluding that it was a mass psychogenic illness.

Similarly, we can deliberate whether the mere suggestion of the symptoms of depression is partially responsible for this growing pandemic. Jay Olson, a PhD student in Psychiatry at McGill, agrees with this hypothesis.

“University students are often told that their program is difficult and that many of them will end up depressed,” Olson said.

“Promoting awareness of mental health issues is good for obvious reasons, it reduces stigma and increases reporting of symptoms.

But it could also help reinforce symptoms similar to the nocebo effect.”

While “Trying to Stay Afloat?” posters on campus play a significant role in destigmatizing mental health issues, it’s possible that they play a part in stimulating the symptoms through the nocebo effect.

Research on this topic is sparse; the broad effects are difficult to study due to the numerous variables that must be taken into consideration. Olson and his colleague, Samuel Veissière, an assistant professor in Psychiatry and Anthropology at McGill, are discussing ways to study the relationship between mental health initiatives and the nocebo effect.

With finals in sight, it’s important to be mindful of the nocebo effect’s impact on student well-being. Spend a minute sharing something interesting you’ve studied with a friend. Instead of taking lots of short interspersed study breaks scrolling through your newsfeed, save up and schedule a longer break to relax. Phone a friend, catch up on Riverdale, or buy yourself a cheesecake. Take up the activities that provide the positive reinforcement necessary to alleviate possible symptoms of the nocebo effect, and be successful this exam season.

The nocebo effect could explain the collective feeling of sadness that accompaines exam season. (Daria Kiseleva / the McGill Tribune)

Distinguishing science from sci-fi in the search for extraterrestrials Microbes in the Arctic might help study possible life on other planets, such as Mars April Barrett Contributor Astrobiology, the scientific study of life beyond Earth, was born in 1959 and pioneered by NASA’s Ames Research Center. Along with scientific research, public imagination of extraterrestrial life was broadening. In 1969, when Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins successfully landed on the moon, it reached new heights.

Since 1947, when in Roswell, New Mexico, witnesses reported sighting a UFO, the world was captivated by the possibility of aliens landing on Earth. During the 1950s, the science fiction genre exploded in comics, television series, and films. Given the tense political climate of the Cold War-era, it is no wonder that the alien was a poignant monster; it represented foreignness, hostility, and the threat of technological superiority as the crux of its horror.

On Oct. 19 2017, for the first time ever, astronomers identified a rock from another solar system flying past Earth. It seems today, humans are more excited about an unknown visitor than fearful.

At McGill, Lyle Whyte, a professor in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences and a member of the McGill Space Institute, is at the forefront of the search for extraterrestrial life. However, the potential extraterrestrials Whyte researches are a little humbler than those of retro sci-fi.

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Today, humans are more excited than fearful about the prospect of discovering alien life. (nationalpost.com)

“What we do is research into microbial ecosystems that live on the coldest places on this planet [and] try to understand how they survive in these extreme environments,” Whyte explained. “[We] try to develop [...] methods [that] could potentially be used [to detect signs of life] on future robotic expeditions to Mars, Europa, and Enceladus [moons of Jupiter and Saturn, respectively].”

Whyte has participated in several astrobiological projects. Most recently, he has been involved with the ExoMars 2020 mission, a robotic exploration mission led by the European Space Agency.

“The one thing that is very special about ExoMars is [that we] can drill a metre or two [...] into the subsurface [of Mars],” Whyte explained. “[The robot can] take a sample from the depth and pull it out and look for biosignatures of ancient or extant life. I’m on a group called the Landing Site Selection Working Group, which has about 15 scientists that basically are saying ‘We should land here.’”

Whyte supervised a recent study spearheaded by PhD candidate Jacqueline Goordial, which suggested the temperature limits of bugs that live in permafrost at the poles of the Earth. Although Whyte is personally doubtful about the viability of life on Mars, based on this research, he is still excited to look. He is also especially curious about Enceladus, an icy moon of Saturn.

“Cassini [Spacecraft] went to Saturn [from 1997-2017] and discovered these geysers [from Enceladus] shooting out into space,” Whyte said. “The spacecraft [...] was able to collect some of the molecules in that water, and what we know in 2017 is that that water is salty, it contains organic carbon, it contains nitrogen and methane. If I had some of that water put in a flask in my lab and I took some soil from the Arctic, I could get things to grow in it.”

Whyte values sci-fi depictions of aliens, mainly as thought exercises for a future where humanalien contact is possible. Whyte believes that a good story inspires the imagination.

“I find sci-fi films like [The Martian and Arrival] to be very creative and inspiring,” Whyte said.

“Imagination has to play a big role. The bottom line is we’re looking at these things for the first time, mostly the first time ever, and you have to keep your mind very open to what you’re actually seeing.”

When asked what advice he would give to those who are deeply curious about extraterrestrial life, Whyte emphasized the importance of expressing interest through the appropriate channels.

“Go with your passion,” Whyte said. “If you’re really interested in planetary exploration or exoplanets, you’re going to have to become an engineer or a scientist. [... I’m] good at studying polar microbiology, and that becomes useful to understand life on Mars.”

The current scientific stance toward extraterrestrial life is limited, but discoveries of extraterrestrial objects like the rock found earlier this year allow us to stretch the bounds of what we even thought to be possible. While we may not find little green martians, on the hunt for life beyond our planet, or even beyond our solar system, all we can do is flex our imagination and keep an open mind.

10 Things: Multisport athletes Wasif Husain Staff Writer

2.

Clara Hughes, a Canadian sport icon, was a dominant force at both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. She won two bronze medals as a cyclist at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and 10 years later, she earned another Olympic gold medal—this time as as a long track speed skater in Turin. Over her dual-sport career, she earned six Olympic medals in total, tied with fellow speed skater Cindy Klassen for the most ever in Canadian history, and is one of only five athletes to medal at both the Summer and Winter Games.

7.

5.

Gene Conley was a four-time all-star pitcher who led the Milwaukee Brewers to a world series in 1957. After his baseball career, he switched to basketball and won three NBA championships with the legendary 1959-1961 Boston Celtics, for a career total of four major-league championships.

6.

Lolo Jones was the brake-woman on the U.S. Bobsled team at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

Before bobsled, she ran the 100m hurdles at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games. Although she has never medaled in the Olympics, she has earned two gold medals in the 60m hurdles at the World Indoor Championships.

Herschel Walker was an NFL All-Pro running back in 1987 and 1988, competed in bobsleigh during the 1992 Winter Olympics, and had a brief MMA career. On top of these accomplishments, he earned a fifth-degree black belt in taekwondo and appeared in the Fort Worth Ballet.

Jim Thorpe became the first Native American to medal at the Olympic Games when he claimed Olympic gold medals in the 1912 pentathlon and decathlon, representing the United States. Additionally, he played professional football and baseball. He was named first-team All-Pro in the NFL in 1923. After his death, it was discovered that he also played basketball professionally.

His legacy lives on as each year the best defensive back in American college football receives the Jim Thorpe Award.

3.

Like Jackson, Deion (Primetime) Sanders mastered the gridiron and the diamond. Voters inducted Sanders— one of the best cornerbacks in football history—into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011. He is the only athlete to ever hit an MLB home run and score an NFL touchdown in the same week.

4.

Nate Ebner, current safety for the New England Patriots, became the first active NFLer to double as an Olympian when he made Team U.S.A.’s rugby sevens roster for the 2016 Summer Games. He

Pulling back the curtain

8.

SPORTS

1.

Bo Jackson is rightfully considered one of the greatest athletes of all time. He played baseball and football professionally, and was named to both MLB and NFL all-star teams in 1989 and 1990. Prior to his professional career, he won the Heisman trophy—awarded to the most outstanding player in college football—and even considered a career as a sprinter.

was also the youngest player ever to play on the American national sevens rugby team, debuting at age 17.

9.

American Babe Zaharias, born in 1911, paved the way for future generations of female athletes by embracing her athleticism in the face of restrictive beauty standards and societal norms.

She racked up two gold medals in the 1932 Olympics in both hurdles and javelin. After her track career, Zaharias became a professional golfer, winning an impressive 10 majors.

Altogether, she won six Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year awards in a span of 22 years.

10.

Jim Brown is known as one of the greatest football players of all time, but few know that he was also an excellent lacrosse player. He received his scholarship to attend Syracuse University for lacrosse, and was just a walkon football player at the time. However, Brown quickly showed his immense talent as a running back, placing fifth in Heisman voting in his junior season. Between nine Pro Bowl Clara Hughes was both a world-class speed skater and cyclist. (cbc.ca) appearances, three NFL MVP awards, and an NFL championship ring, his football accolades speak for themselves.

Thanks to social media, fans have greater access to their favourite sports superstars gabe Nisker Contributor

Philadelphia 76ers guard J.J. Redick appears frequently on podcasts. (clutchpoints.com) In the podcast, Embiid revealed some of the secrets behind his Internet fame and what lies behind his success with the fanbase. Although he’s just having fun, he is aware of his reputation as a bit of a troll on social media; he embraces trash talk through Twitter and Instagram, especially through creative use of locations. Thanks to social media, fans can enjoy a side of Embiid that would otherwise go unseen.

The way fans interact with sports is constantly evolving. Sports has turned into a two-screen experience with social media, and it looks as if ways to watch and interact with our favourite athletes will only get more dynamic. That’s the sports world we’re headed toward, and, as fans, we should be thrilled. The more fans get to learn about the magic behind athletes’ madness, the more they should know they ‘wanna be’ here— unlike Bledsoe in Phoenix.

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“I Dont wanna be here,” tweeted then-Phoenix Suns point guard Eric Bledsoe on Oct. 22. When he pressed send, Bledsoe had used a little over seven per cent of Twitter’s now 280-character limit to captivate the entire basketball world.

Within a few hours, sports news sites picked up the tweet and framed articles around it. Was Bledsoe requesting a trade? After a mess of drama, it turned out he was. Two weeks later, he was shipped to the Milwaukee Bucks. On Nov. 7, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN confirmed the details of the Bledsoe trade, finally putting an end to the rumour mill that began spinning as a result of Bledsoe’s own tweet.

Once upon a time, all sports stories broke through exceptional reporting. Sportswriters worked hard to accumulate sources, fact-check, and get a story to print or publish online.

But then came Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat, and the players themselves joined in, accepting the social media revolution with open arms. The wall between players and their fans broke down, allowing them to communicate with each other directly.

This has allowed players to break their own news. On Dec. 1, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported that minor league baseball pitcher Christian Binford had signed with the Orioles. His source was an update to Binford’s Twitter biography.

Athletes have even started their own publication of sorts, in the form of Derek Jeter’s The Players’ Tribune. Boasting an extensive list of contributors from the sports world, the website has broken stories as big as last year’s Kevin Durant free agency decision, and regularly posts content from players in order “to connect directly with their fans, in their own words.”

For some, the written word isn’t enough, giving rise to podcasting. After a season of co-hosting their popular podcast “Road Trippin’,” Cleveland Cavaliers players Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye were separated in October. With Jefferson’s release, the podcast rebranded as “Road Trippin’: Richard vs. Channing,” allowing the athletes to continue ushering in guests like Kyrie Irving with his flat earth theories. Fans can get an inside look at players’ lives through other podcasts from Golden State Warrior Draymond Green and Philadelphia 76er J.J. Redick. Redick’s podcast rebooted on Nov. 29 on Bill Simmons’ The Ringer podcast network, and the first episode features his Internet-famous teammate Joel Embiid.

Let Lonzo ball: A look at busts Expectations, statistics, and the importance of maturation for NBA rookies Ender McDuff Contributor

SPORTS

Entering the NBA as the 2017 draft’s second pick, Lonzo Ball was—whether because of his volatile father, comparisons to NBA greats, or a laughable signature shoe—one of the most talked-about players to ever enter the league. After a stellar Summer League in which he won MVP honours, Los Angeles Lakers General Manager Rob Pelinka called him “transcendent.” Fox Sports host Colin Cowherd dubbed him a future Hall of Famer who would do for passing what Stephen Curry had done for the three-point shot, proclaiming Ball was destined to “make passing cool again!” After the first 22 games of his career, however, NBA analysts, including ESPN’ s Stephen A. Smith, are “petrified” for Ball, the most recent in a line of young players to be considered a bust.

The term ‘bust’ has become ever present in the NBA fan’s vernacular. While it might reasonably describe a player, like Kwame Brown or Darko Milicic, who failed to reach their potential, it is instead applied ever-freely to rookies 20 games into their first season.

This premature representation is perpetuated by the often-cited argument that certain NBA greats excelled in their rookie campaigns: Michael Jordan averaged 28 points per game, Wilt Chamberlain won league MVP, and Magic Johnson delivered a Lakers championship.

For every Mike, Wilt, and Magic, however, there is a Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, or Gary Payton. For these legends, once-disappointing early indications have long since faded, as have memories of their horrendous shooting percentages and sub-double-digit point averages. Instead, what remains are their MVP awards, Hall of Fame inductions, and championship

rings.

Many of the players who have made an instant impact in the league spent four years in university, developing physically and mentally before entering the NBA. Alternatively, Bryant came straight from high school. His rookie play clearly reflected this. In the modern NBA, players often spend a similarly-brief single year in college before making the jump to the pros, skipping valuable opportunities for growth and maturation beforehand.

Draft picks are now selected with an emphasis on their ceilings—in other words, Lonzo Ball has been the subject of criticism from many NBA pundits after a slow start to his season. their best-case career scenarios (bleacherreport.com) many seasons down the line— the outcome is the opposite. A good game shouldn’t be yet the corresponding shift in the mindset of fans and analysts has failed to materialize. characterized by wins and losses, but by growth—of This disconnect frustrates fans and reduces their the team as a whole, but particularly of its individual enjoyment of the game, as the idea that entertainment players. While each extra shot a rookie makes may not is reflected in the wins column prevents them from rival the joy of winning a championship, appreciating appreciating the play of a 20-year-old still-developing individual improvement allows every good play to truly be exceptionally fun—a promise of successes to come. rookie.

Moreover, as the term ‘bust’ is used, it becomes It is a perspective that makes for better, happier sports a self-fulfilling prophecy, as the pressure and criticism fans.

And so, a year on, when—as with Lonzo’s all-tooit causes in the loud social media age can damage a player’s confidence. In this way, fans can force the loss similar second pick teammate Brandon Ingram—Smith of an exciting up-and-comer while perpetuating the and co. confess that “[they] may have been wrong,” true Lakers fans will enjoy knowing that they have an bust cycle.

When, however, the game is approached from a eye for real upcoming talent, which will make those mindset of excitement over new, developing players, eventual championships all the sweeter.

From the cheap seats: The Superclásico An up-close look at Argentina’s most contentious rivalry

(performgroup.com)

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Boca Juniors celebrate their 2-1 Superclásico victory over River Plate on Nov. 5. (soloboca.com)

Amin Guidara Contributor Though casual football fans might not be aware, one of the biggest derbies on the planet is the Argentinian Primera División’s “Superclásico:” River Plate versus Boca Juniors. The two Buenos Aires clubs have had a fierce rivalry since 1913. Though they are now the two wealthiest clubs in Argentina, River is considered to be the rich person’s team, with the nickname “Los Millonarios,” while Boca is seen more as a blue collar club.

Fueled by the demographic difference, the rivalry’s intensity boils over into violence between spectators from the two opposing sides. In 2013, the mounting tensions prompted the Argentinian Football Association to ban away supporters at all Argentinian football matches.

While in Buenos Aires, attending the Superclásico is a must for any football fan. A couple of friends and I bought tickets off an unauthorized dealer, since getting tickets directly from the club is impossible to do if you’re not a “socio,” a member of the club.

On our way to El Monumental—River Plate’s stadium—we had to pass numerous checkpoints controlled by anti-riot police. Some were armed with rubber bullets, as though they were preparing for chaos. As we got closer to the stadium entrance, it became clear that they were armed for good reason: We saw some fans scale the fence, pass through barbed wire, and jump two stories to enter the stadium.

However, these shenanigans were nothing compared to the “Barra Brava,” a term used to describe the hooligans who form organized fan groups for teams in Latin America. They ran toward the entry, where the police stood guarding the stadium. The front line was hit by police batons, yet they still pushed toward the entrance. The police threw tear gas, but the “Barra Brava” did not stop, and continued pushing until the police relented. There was another turnstile just before entering the stadium, but they were able to jump over it without too much resistance: The mob had already faced the anti-riot police, making the turnstiles mere hurdles.

Inside the stadium, alongside the River Plate “Barra Brava,” I understood why excitement for the game was so intense: There were already fireworks and smoke grenades, people chanting at the top of their lungs, standing on precarious walls, falling off and climbing back on as if it were nothing. Not a single person was sitting down, and joints travelled from hand to hand.

The mayhem never stopped, even when the visiting Boca Juniors scored: The fans kept chanting as if nothing happened. It was a complete mess, but a beautiful, somehow organized, mess. All the violence outside the stadium was gone. When River Plate finally equalized, the fans were absolutely ecstatic. A circle of men formed around every child to protect them from the crowd’s movements. Fans were in tears, hugging all those around them. Some never even looked at the game—they were the crowd leaders, pushing people to sing the different songs, praising River and mocking Boca. With the game almost finished and the Boca Juniors leading 2-1, the “Barra Brava” started a final chant that roughly translated to, “Whether you play well or bad, we stand beside you.”

Although the level of football did not rival the top European leagues, I have never seen fans so passionate or so united. The 61,000 people in the stadium felt like family.

The game felt more like Sunday mass than a sports game; football really is Argentina’s religion.

Game

Analytics and video analysis on McGill sports teams Jordan Foy Staff Writer If you’re a sports fan, you may have have heard the terms “analytics” or “video” thrown around. “Analytics” is usually accompanied by some numbers and acronyms that you might not understand, while “video” sounds like a simple highlight reel. But what exactly are analytics and video analysis?

In a 2015 article on NHL.com, Arik Parnass provided a succinct definition.

“Anything can be a statistic,” Parnass wrote. “Analytics are distinct, the study of statistics to find meaning. Analysts look for reproducible patterns in large samples which illuminate important lessons about the game.”

Video analysis has been used for training and coaching in sports for a long time. In analytics, video recordings of games are often used to help accurately and precisely collect data. Sports analytics combines mathematics and sport, bridging the gap between two seemingly-unrelated fields. In the professional sports world, the collection and analysis of data is extremely beneficial—many professional athletes are faster, stronger, and more skilled today than they have ever been, forcing teams to use creative tactics to gain an edge. Analytics and video are two instruments that management and coaching staffs use to tweak small details and detect underlying trends.

At McGill, many varsity teams also use video and analytics as tools to improve their game. The Martlet hockey team films and analyzes every game, noting certain stats that U Sports does not track, including shot differential, a metric used to better understand puck possession.

Thomas Côté-Miller manages video and analytics for the team, and explained the process to The McGill Tribune.

“We usually have someone that films the game and we connect it to our computer and I code during the game using some [custom] software,” CôtéMiller said.

This data is stored so that the coaching staff can access it after the games, and use it to analyze the play of the team. The data contributes to coaching decisions in a variety of ways—for example, it can be used to assess different player combinations. “[Say we] feel like these two defencemen are playing well together,” CôtéMiller explained. “[We can then] see what their stats are when they’re on the ice together […] and we can piece together things [….] We can go behind and go to the roots and see what’s happening.”

This analysis of the team helps reinforce coaching choices. Côté-Miller acknowledged, however, that it is by no means the sole basis for those choices in every situation.

“I wouldn’t say it’s the prime [way] to optimize lines or make lineup decisions,” Côté-Miller said. “But it’s definitely something that we look at with the coaching staff.”

For the Martlet volleyball team, detailed accounts of all possible statistics are kept. During games, several substitutes will keep track of a wide variety of stats for both their teammates and opponents. “[We count] every touch […] the blocking, the hitting, the setting,” Martlet volleyball Head Coach Rachele Beliveau explained. “And then we have the serve receive. Every touch of every player is recorded somewhere. There’s a lot of things [to keep track of] in volleyball. It’s a very tactical game.”

Similar to many other teams, Martlet volleyball players and coaches use the data they collect to not only examine their own play, but to also understand the tendencies of their opponents. In volleyball, this requires understanding where opposing players are most likely to play the ball. For instance, is a hitter more likely to hit crosscourt, or down the line?

Analytics and video analysis have been used in volleyball for a long time, but Beliveau explained that methods and technologies have changed in recent years.

“The breakdown is better,” Beliveau said. “Before, we used to watch a video

and we had to watch a whole game, rallies after rallies. Now, we can take only [one player’s play and analyze it independently]. This has been the evolution of what we’re doing. It’s not the video. It’s how we can analyze it, and how fast we can analyze it.”

Redmen basketball Head Coach David DeAveiro agrees that analytics in basketball have resulted in an evolution of the sport. “[The introduction of] analytics has changed the game completely,” DeAveiro said. “Some coaches, old-school guys who never used to do it, are getting fired because they’re not taking [the new approach to analytics], especially in the NBA.” DeAveiro uses film and analytics as valuable tools for coaching, but most of all, he employs them to evaluate other teams and prepare prior to matches.

Rebound percentage, plus/minus, and turnover-to-assist ratio are just some of the numbers he and the team analyze. Offensive efficiency is something the team pays extra attention to—particularly for their opponents. “[We look at what] the other team’s efficiency in certain offensive situations [is], who’s involved in those situations, and [we try to] figure out how we’re going to defend that,” DeAveiro elaborated. “[We want to] know, ‘what are teams’ offensive tendencies based on analytics?’ You know, ‘are they a three-point shooting team?’ [It’s] things like that.”

DeAveiro stressed that although analytics are a useful tool, tracking digits can sometimes be a fruitless endeavour. Numbers are essential, but so is standard video analysis.

“Your eyes don’t lie to you,” DeAveiro explained. “Sometimes numbers can be manipulated, and not be really important facts, [but] sometimes they’re very important facts. So for us, we use video [as well.…] We say in our profession the tape doesn’t lie, it exposes people.”

The rapid advancement of technology has played a huge role in the growth of analytics.

“We’re getting ready to start a new system where we’re able to have one of our coaches in the crowd tagging live […] events [and] situations from the game, and sending [them] to us on our bench via tablet,” DeAveiro said. “We can show guys during the heat of the game what’s going on [... by showing guys on the bench] clips during the game of themselves [....] There’s only a couple [of] teams in the country that are doing that now.”

Of course, coaches and staff are not the only ones who make use of video analysis and analytics. From a player perspective, both assist in development and improvement. For fourth-year Myriam Robitaille, Martlet volleyball team captain, the stats collected are an important general indicator for quality of play, but don’t tell the whole story. “[For defence], we just have a number, and sometimes, even if you got a zero on defence, maybe it was an excellent hit, the other team just won the point,” Robitaille said. “It doesn’t mean everything, but [the stats] give a good overview.”

However, video is something that has been much more beneficial for Robitaille as an athlete.

“Individually, [there are] few things you may like to watch [out for] better,” Robitaille said. “For me, it’s seeing the setter cause I need to make good decisions for the block [because] I’m the middle. It helps me a lot, but after that, once you have the information, you just play […] the game.”

The use of analytics in sport is a relatively recent phenomenon, but CôtéMiller believes that its contribution will only continue to increase. With the current speed of technological improvements, it will be fascinating to see how analytics and video further transform the sports we love.

“It’s just going to grow with time,” Côté-Miller said. “People are going to start using it more and more. [Right now,] a lot of the media […] doesn’t necessarily acknowledge its usefulness. People call it analytics, [but] it’s really not rocket science. It’s basic math that most people with an elementary school education can do.”

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Evolving THE

GAME REPORT: Redmen hockey vanquish visiting Voyageurs McGill maintain division lead to close out first half of the season Sam Wendel & Selwynne Hawkins Contributor & Sports Editor

SPORTS

On Dec. 1, McGill Redmen hockey (15-3-0) beat the Laurentian University Voyageurs (2-15-0) in a back-and-forth affair at McConnell Arena. After setting up a 3-0 lead in the first period, McGill briefly relinquished their control, but they still pulled away with a 6-3 final score.

McGill scored first in on a shorthanded goal—a nice backhand by third-year forward Jerome Verrier halfway through the first period. Five minutes later, second-year Redmen forward Samuel Tremblay doubled the lead, closely followed by another goal from third-year defenceman Dominic Talbot-Tassi. After 15 minutes of gameplay, the Redmen sat on a 3-0 lead, forcing the Voyageurs to pull their starting goalie.

Despite McGill’s dominant start, Laurentian stormed back in the second period, cutting the lead to just one point. A McGill power play goal by second-year left winger Guillaume Gauthier put the Redmen back ahead by two, but the Voyageurs managed a third tally, making the score 4-3. This time, McGill was forced to change goalies, putting in second-year Louis-Philip Guindon for the final period.

McGill’s struggles in the second period were uncharacteristic of the style of play that has so far led them to the top of the OUA East conference.

“They started strong,” Tremblay said. “They were good on their forecheck [...], and we tried too [many] breakaways and [...] fast plays, which is not our game, really. ” After the waffling momentum changes in the first two periods, the Redmen refocused their strategy in the second intermission and dug deep for the third and final period.

“We talked about our battle level needing to be greater,” Redmen Head Coach Kelly Nobes said. “In the first two periods, we were losing our one-on-one battles, and [...] it showed in races, it showed in 50-50 pucks, it showed off face-offs.”

This tactic paid off for the Redmen and their coaches, whose experience and skill were obvious in the third period. The Redmen

Dominic Talbot-Tassi added a goal and an assist to McGill’s six-goal effort. (Hana Shiraishi / The McGill Tribune) regained control to handily contain the Voyageurs, slowing down Laurentian’s game and out-shooting them 27-7. Another goal from Gauthier, and one from third-year forward Christophe Lalonde during another powerplay, gave McGill a 6-3 lead. The Voyageurs were clearly rattled, as they became more and more chippy late in the third period. Eventually, two fights broke out in the final seconds of the game, but they were little compensation for the Voyageurs, as the Redmen maintained a three-goal lead to close out the game.

McGill’s conference-leading squad has high ambitions for the season. As they continue their dominant play this year, pushing

MOMENT OF THE GAME

STAT CORNER

Third-year defenceman Dominic TalbotTassi launched a beautiful wrist shot from the point late in the first period. The puck, flying just out of the Voyageurs goaltender’s reach, bounced off the bar and into the net, giving McGill a 3-0 lead.

McGill more than doubled Laurentian’s shot totals, with the final count at 58-25 in favour of the Redmen.

their record to 14-3, they’re staying focused on the short term.

“We’re just trying to [take everything] day by day, and we’re building our identity as a team,” Tremblay said. “We’re focusing on every game, and then after [that] we’re going to look forward to the playoffs. Like every year, we’re trying to go to Nationals.”

On Dec. 2, the Redmen faced off against the Nipissing University Lakers (5-9-3). After topping the Lakers with a 4-3 regulation win, the Redmen are headed into a month-long break.

They return to play on Jan. 5 at McConnell Arena against the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees.

QUOTABLE “We talked to each other on the bench, and did not panic. We just get back to what we do best, we are very tight as a team.”

- Second-year winger Samuel Tremblay on McGill’s composure in the face of Laurentian’s attempted comeback.

Sleep, science, and sports Catching more zzz’s is the path to catching more W’s Miya Keilin Contributor

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One of the biggest factors contributing to a professional athlete’s performance is their sleep—or lack thereof. The intensity of constant training and competition wears players down, and considering the frequent travel across time zones in North American leagues, it’s evident that the other team isn’t their only adversary.

Take teams like the Vancouver Canucks and the San Jose Sharks, who regularly travel longer distances than most of the other NHL teams. They will likely have to play in at least two different time zones on every road trip; on top of battling lessthan-ideal sleep schedules, they must also constantly adjust to new time zones. As a result, sleep-centric habits have become common practice in elite leagues.

The circadian rhythm describes our internal clock that determines roughly when we’re energized and when we’re sleepy within a 24-hour period. When people travel across time zones, it typically takes them about one day per hour of

difference to re-synchronize their circadian rhythm. Circadian advantage is a concept used to compare two opponents’ acclimations to the current time zone. For example, if the Anaheim Ducks, in the last match of a five-game homestand, are facing the Bruins, who have just arrived from Boston, the Ducks would have a three-hour circadian advantage.

When players travel, their circadian rhythms are offset from their new time zone. As a result, their peak performance hours often don’t align with game times. A 2009 study of the MLB found that teams with a three-hour circadian advantage won more than 60 per cent of the time. A similar study from 1993 of the NFL found that West Coast teams travelling to the East Coast won 16 per cent less than when they travelled within the Pacific time zone.

In response to the overwhelming scientific support for the importance of sleep in high-performance sport, teams have started to bring in sleep specialists. These specialists advise coaches and players alike to maximize performance. Many coaches have begun designing training and travelling schedules to ensure that their players get enough sleep. Players are given

instruction on how to control their sleep environment and use sleep as a recovery mechanism from training.

For example, the Seattle Seahawks provide sleeptracking wristbands for their players. The Chicago Bulls recently renewed their partnership with Rise Science, the same company that provides under-mattress sensors for the Clemson University football team. The Boston Red Sox have a designated sleep room in their clubhouse gym, furnished with two bunk beds and a custom-fit pillow for each player, and the ageless Tom Brady lives by an 8:30 p.m. bedtime.

Though implementation varies between leagues, teams, and individual players, sleep science has taken on a central role in high-performance sports.

The importance of sleep isn’t a revolutionary idea at all, but as professional teams are increasingly turning to science for everything from sports analytics to diets, they are realizing the importance of sleep. Science is debunking the old professional sports mentality of ‘toughing it out’ through a late flight followed by an early training, instead popularizing the idea of ‘let your body rest’ for an ultimately better performance.