McGill Tribune Vol. 35, Issue 10

The McGill Tribune TUesday, november 10, 2015 curiosity delivers

Volume No. 35 Issue No. 10

Editorial: fall 2015 referendum endorsements pg. 5

feature: student/soldier: the experience of students in the military pg. 10 - 11

PG. 18

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C o m vs. m e nPresent tary Past Why Demilitarize McGill should embrace Remembrance Day Albert park Columnist

Redmen rugby cruises to 15 th straight rseq finals Emma Vincent and Dr. Russel Jones of the Goodman Cancer Research Centre look on at their work. (Natalie Vineberg / McGill Tribune)

SSMU GA fails to meet quorum 4Floors runs deficit, possibility of seventh executive discussed sara Cullen Staff Writer Quorum was not met at yesterday’s General Assembly (GA), held by the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU).

With less than 100 attendees, no motions were brought forward from the floor that required voting.

The Winter 2015 and Fall 2014 GAs saw attendances of 550 and 700 students respectively. Kareem Ibrahim, SSMU president, commented on the low attendance of the GA, stating that promotional efforts were not prioritized.

“Admittedly, we could have done a better job of promoting,” Ibrahim said. “[With] the ab-

sence of the general manager and the [vice-president (VP)] internal and other tumultuous things in the SSMU office this year, we really had to put more emphasis on things that are very pressing.”

Ibrahim continued to mention that the abolition of the GA has been repeatedly discussed in past executive reports.

“People think that this

forum is defunct; they don’t really think it serves its purpose and that the only time people actually show up is for specific issues,” Ibrahim said. “In terms of my thoughts, I think it’s on the table to have one annual GA per year.”

more. Our players know what’s right and wrong.”

Recent events, however, contradict Bettman’s statement.

In an interview with newspaper Södertälje this off-season, Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Viktor Lööv said that, “In the NHL, there is a lot of cocaine [...] if you have money ,you probably have easy access.” A couple weeks later, NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly admitted that cocaine use is on the rise in

the league; New York Rangers centre Jarrett Stoll was charged for cocaine possession in April.

Former Los Angeles Kings centre Mike Richards was arrested at the Canadian border for possession of oxycodone in June.

Ryan O’Reilly, centre for the Buffalo Sabres, drunkenly drove his car into a Tim Horton’s in July. Most recently, Montreal Canadiens winger Zack Kassian was involved in a car crash and admitted into Stage Two of

Continued on pg. 2

As Remembrance Day approaches, Demilitarize McGill has once again been causing controversy on campus. This year, the group announced a campaign called #RememberThis, which calls for McGill students to physically disrupt or deface sites on campus that memorialize war. Their announcement has sparked both debate and outrage on social media, reminiscent of the backlash that emerged after the group’s silent protest at McGill’s Remembrance Day ceremony last year.

While the group’s controversial actions have helped it to garner more attention, the radical steps that Demilitarize McGill has undertaken in the past has discredited its movement by making its message less clear, and this has harmed the group’s relationship with the student body. However, in order to better engage the McGill community to support its cause of ending the university’s involvement with the military, Demilitarize McGill should take a cooperative rather than combative stance towards Remembrance Day.

Continued on pg. 6

Behind the Bench

The myth of character in the NHL Emily Wang Contributor Character” and “leadership” are terms thrown around a lot in professional hockey. Hockey culture expects players to fit into a specific mold of physical and mental toughness, applauding those who play through pain and injuries. Unfortunately, these expectations can condone violent, harmful behaviour while castigating players for things outside

of their control. It’s becoming increasingly clear that the NHL doesn’t have a clue what good character is.

“I’m not sure for us there is any need for any code of conduct other than our players, who overwhelmingly conduct themselves magnificently off the ice,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in a press conference last October. “We deal with it on a case-by-case basis. I don’t think we need to formalize anything

the NHL Players Association’s Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health Program. In the aftermath, Habs General Manager (GM) Marc Bergevin said that Kassian showed a “lack of character” when talking about the car accident.

Continued on pg. 18

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NEWS

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

SSMU GA fails to meet quorum Four Floors runs deficit, possibility of seventh executive discussed Sara Cullen Staff Writer Continued from page 1.

Ibrahim noted that more efforts would have been made to promote the GA had there been more pressing issues on the agenda.

“I’m not terribly upset that we didn’t meet quorum today because there wasn’t anything that we needed to get approved,” Ibrahim said. “If there were, I definitely would have put a much stronger effort into promoting this [....] With all the things that are on the table right now […] I don’t feel that as an executive, it would have been a wise way to spend [our] time to promote a GA where there’s nothing to approve.”

Despite this, the GA agenda was approved and continued as planned.

Frosh and 4Floors VP Finance and Operations, Zacheriah Houston, stated in his executive report that in terms of finances, the planning and execution of Frosh went well.

“Frosh […] took up a lot of time, and this year, we ran things a little differently,” Houston said. “I was a lot more involved with the VP Internal and [Integrated Orientation Committee (IOC)] in terms of planning Frosh,” Houston said.

“We don’t have the final numbers yet— we’re still waiting on the invoices from McGill—but it looks like Frosh is going to be a balanced budget.”

Houston also stated that 4Floors did not sell out this year, resulting in an overall deficit for the event. “[4Floors] went pretty well in terms of finances, until we didn’t sell out,” Houston said. “We were able to cut a lot of expenses, but at the end of the day 4Floors ran a deficit. Unfortunately, I don’t have the number yet, but it looks like 4Floors lost probably two to $4,000.”

VP External Emily Boytinck also mentioned in her report that 4Floors had low ticket sales. François-Paul Truc, U3 Science, asked Boytinck to elaborate on the reasons that the event ran overbudget.

“We started [planning] a little bit later this year,” Boytnick said. “It took us […] longer to pick the theme and get the event up [....] We also switched to online ticket sales this year [.…] We thought […] that this was a great idea—that the line was going to go away and that this would be so much more convenient for students. But we realized that the line itself was a major form of promotion, and so we found that the online ticket sales […] lost the urgency.”

Despite not staying within budget, Boytinck expressed that the event was a success overall.

“We ended up selling about 600 [tickets, when] last year, they sold about 900,” Boyntick said. “So it’s unfortunate that we didn’t [...] sell out, but I still think that everyone who came had a great time

Not enough students attended the GA and it failed to reach quorum. (Sara Cullen / McGill Tribune)

SSMU President Kareem Ibrahim addresses the GA. (Sara Cullen / McGill Tribune) and [the] equity complaints were zero.

There were [also] no issues with [McGill Student Emergency Response Team] MSERT. It was in general a very positive event even if it was less attended.”

Fall reading week VP University Affairs, Chloe Rourke, stated in her report that a possible change to the academic calendar to include a Fall reading week would not be made for several years.

“A survey was sent out to all undergraduate students last winter, and it came back that 71 per cent of students were in

favour of Fall reading week, and the majority preferred a five-day break in conjunction with Canadian Thanksgiving,” Rourke said. “So, that’s something that we’ll really be pushing for this year, and hopefully we’ll have it implemented by 2017-2018.”

Rourke expressed uncertainty over the timeline of incorporating the new reading week.

[It is] still to be determined if it can be [implemented] that early,” Rourke said. “That’s the nature of university— that things are often very slow-moving and decisions are often made about the academic calendar very far in advance.”

Proposal to restructure the SSMU executive committee The GA concluded with a discussion on the expanding roles of SSMU executives and the need for restructuring within the SSMU executive committee.

According to Ibrahim’s report, one of the ideas for change would be the addition of a seventh SSMU executive position.

Lauren Toccalino, U3 Music, inquired how the creation of new executive positions would affect the budget.

“It is unlikely that the executive salaries would be affected, because they

already make […] about five to six dollars an hour, if you divide the actual work they do by their salaries,” Houston said. “I was asked at Council if we could afford to pay a seventh executive, and the answer is certainly yes; the money is there if you want to start cutting other departments.

It becomes a question of priorities, and at this point in time, I am not confident in saying that we can pay a seventh executive the salary that we pay executives now without significant cuts that would affect the services that we provide to our members.”

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NEWS

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

QPIRG Culture Shock event series promotes anti-racism, indigenous Workshops highlight migrant, justice radical organizing Aislinn Kalob News Editor From Nov. 5 to Nov. 8, the Quebec Public Interest Research Group McGill (QPIRG) and the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) co-presented an annual event series entitled, Culture Shock: Envisioning alternative futures, with panels, writing workshops, and speakers discussing issues of racial justice, LGBTQ rights, and radical organizing.

“The theme, ‘envisioning alternative futures’ was inspired by the keynote address entitled Seers, Time-Travellers, and Intergalactic Trouble-Makers: A Keynote on Radical Organizing as Science Fiction given by Walida Imarisha, co-editor of Octavia’s Brood, a science fiction anthology authored by activists and visionaries,” said Arabella Colombier, Culture Shock coordinator.

The programming began with a workshop and training

called Anti-Racism 101, which gave participants a background in the theoretical and historical roots of racism, non-racism and anti-racism. Practical tools to actively deconstruct oppressive thought and language, and engage with personal identities were also taught.

“Identity frames the way we relate to one another, from how we see ourselves, to how [we] see other people,” said Nate Philip, a discussion leader. “This workshop aims to facilitate a dialogue about how our personal identities influence the access of power we have in our society.”

Among the exercises intended to explore identity relationships was a “step forward, step back” exercise.

“If either of your guardians did not graduate from college, move back,” Philip said. “If you believe the police would help you in an emergency, move forward.”

The series also included a cultural solidarity-building and

reconciliation workshop entitled Oh Canada, Our Home on Native Land: Discussing Decolonization, a round-table discussion on women of colour in the media, and an address on radical organizing as science fiction.

One of the series’ keynote speakers, New York City-based activist and organizer, Joshua Allen, spoke on Friday evening at the Comité d’éducation aux adultes de la Petite-Bourgogne et de Saint-Henri (CÉDA) at a joint event hosted by QPIRG and the Union for Gender Empowerment (UGE), as part of its two-day series called Trans/Formations.

Allen praised the work of Demilitarize McGill, expressing the importance of resistance against the military to LGBTQ rights movements with a call to action.

“The work of trans and gender nonconforming people, the work of people who deviate from normative gender is a demilitarizing project,” Allen said. “We have to realize the oppression

[...] is often times perpetuated by militaries all across the world. In order to end that, we must actively engage in struggles against the military.”

Allen cited the recent murder of Keisha Jenkins, the 21st transgender woman killed in the United States this year, as indicative of the need for continued activism.

“I think that [...] now is a state of emergency, we have different people dying every single month,” Allen said. “The way that I would personally characterize the trans movement in Europe and also in the U.S. and other places, is that it’s responding to crises and violence.”

Other events hosted by QPIRG McGill throughout the year include Social Justice Days and Israeli Apartheid Week alongside organizations such as QPIRG-Concordia, the Center for Gender Advocacy Concordia, RadLaw McGill, Demilitarize McGill, Howl Arts, Tadamon, and Cinema Politica Concordia.

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AUS Council approves referendum question on new VP Finance selection process Motion to endorse a Fall reading week approved Jenna stanwood News Editor On Nov. 4, the Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) Legislative Council approved questions for the fall Arts referendum and voted to support a proposed Fall reading week.

Referendum questions AUS Councillors were presented with three options for a referendum question pertaining to changes in the Vice-President (VP) Finance application procedure. A straw poll was held to determine which option would be presented to AUS members in the general vote. The options included a selection committee to screen candidates before they could run in a general election, a similar screening process with AUS Council making the decision of who was eligible to run, and hiring an outside bookkeeper to track expenses. The first option, a selection committee to screen candidates, was approved for referendum.

“Basically the idea here that we’re trying to accomplish is to make sure that future [VPs Finance...] meet some sort of criteria,” AUS President Jacob Greenspon said. “Whether or not

they meet that criteria will be determined by a two thirds vote of the screening committee [....] So what we’ve done in this [question] is actually allowed for the ability for council to have a say in what criteria [...] they have to meet to be able to [run] in the general election and the membership of the committee as well.”

Council also approved a referendum question to amend the description of the Arts representatives to the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) position via referendum. If passed during the general vote, changes would be made to the constitutional outline of representatives’ responsibilities.

The changes would include Arts representatives in the executive council as non-voting members, increasing their contact and cooperation with AUS executives. It will also call for representatives to sit on more committees. The motion was first presented because current representatives felt the description of their position in the AUS Constitution did not properly reflect their actual duties.

“We came up with this recently [because] after being in this position for a few months we noticed that in the constitution we are supposed to take a much more passive role rather than

an active role and we felt that certain [changes] needed to be made,” Arts Representative Lexi Michaud explained.

Three other questions were approved for the referendum.

The first was a question regarding a renewal to the Arts Undergraduate Theater Society fee—a student group that stages a major theatrical production every year.

The second was a renewal of the Arts Undergraduate Improvement Fund fee, which provides Arts-focused improvements to campus such as the Arts Lounge.

Finally, a question regarding a change in the dates of the AUS fiscal year from June 1 through May 31 to May 1 through April 31 to better align with annual AUS activity and McGill’s fiscal calendar was also approved for the referendum.

Support of Fall reading week Council was presented with a motion to endorse the creation of a Fall reading week, an idea that was first presented by student senators to the student body in a survey during the 2014-2015 school year, with the intention of reducing stress levels among students. While a proposal based on the survey results was first presented to the McGill Enrol-

(Infographic by Hayley Lim) ment and Student Affairs Advisory Committee this Fall, there has been little progress towards implementing the change, which was projected to take effect by the 2017-2018 school year according to Arts Senator Erin Sobat.

“What we’re seeing right now is some pushback from faculty members who I think are hav-

ing a little bit of trouble I think, conceptualizing [ the break...] and there are some things that we need to work out which I think are minor,” Sobat said. “Right now, we’re just looking for a little further endorsement from students to help push this along.”

The motion to endorse was approved by Council.

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NEWS

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

SSMU Council passes motion of support for Fall reading week Councillors updated on new student federations, proposed SSMU restructuring Josh Dimakakos Contributor On Nov. 5, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) held its fourth council meeting of the year.

Discussion focused on a proposed Fall reading week, SSMU representation at the provincial level, and reforming the executive positions within SSMU.

Fall reading eek The proposed Fall reading week was debated at Council. According to Arts Senator Erin Sobat, the proposal received a large amount of positive feedback from students. “[This project] was proposed to the university, [and when] Enrolment Services did a survey of students in April, it got over 5000 responses,” said Sobat. “[This indicated...] that students were in favour of some sort of Fall reading break, and [...] that, given some of the tradeoffs that would have to happen in terms of the academic calendar, the preferred model was to add two days to the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday weekend to give the five day break” Vice-President (VP) University Affairs Chloe Rourke noted that there has been some concerns raised at the faculty level.

“There’s been a little bit of pushback from faculty members.”

Rourke said. “Mostly [...] some ad-

ministrative concerns that we think can be resolved. Just some aversion to change, a little bit of concern over whether or not this is helpful for students, whether or not a majority of students were in favour of this.”

The motion of support for the proposed reading week passed with a majority.

New student federations VP External Affairs, Emily Boytinck, presented her work on joining two proposed provincial student federations: The Association for the Voice of Education in Quebec (AVEQ), and the Union Étudiant du Québec (UÉQ). She began with an overview of the history of SSMU’s involvement in creating the new, Quebec-wide student bodies following their disaffiliation from the Fédération Étudiante Universitaire du Quebec (FÉUQ) last spring.

“Spring was a time of really great flux and change for the student movement because FÉUQ, which was [...] the major university federation, actually collapsed in on itself,” Boytinck said. “So that left around 20 student unions disaffiliated from any association. This [...] April, we actually all met at SSMU and it was apparent at that meeting that there were two sort of different visions for how the student movement will go forward, and that is where UÉQ and the AVEQ formed and started on their separate paths.”

SSMU Council holds fourth meeting of the 2015-2016 academic year. (Lauren Benson-Armer / McGill Tribune) SSMU has not yet officially affiliated with either of the student federations.

“We did not give any money to any association,” said Boytinck.

According to Boytinck’s presentation, joining AVEQ would require levying a fee of $3.50 per student per semester, while joining UÉQ would be $4.50 per student per semester.

Structure of SSMU The meeting also drew discus-

sion on a potential restructuring of SSMU executive positions aimed at decreasing stress. As SSMU President Kareem Ibrahim stated, changes to portfolios have led to a problematic structure.

“Over the past decade, SSMU has seen enormous growth,” Ibrahim said. Just the executives alone, there have been [positions] added, additions to our portfolios.

Our roles have extended from not only political roles [...] but also managerial roles it’s made it to be quite unsustainable.”

Ibrahim brought forth a solution to alleviate some of the pressures associated with SSMU executive workloads.

“Something that we are proposing [...] is the addition of a seventh executive,” Ibrahim said.

“This year especially, the issue behind the workloads of each executive are amplified due to the resignation of our general manager, [and] the absence of our daycare director. In our contract, it stipulates that we work 70-hour work weeks. It can often be 80.”

Joint Senate BoG meeting addresses making a smart campus for the 21st century Community engagement, varied technology uses suggested as improvements Laura Hanrahan News Editor Designing a smart campus for the 21st century was the topic of discussion at this year’s annual joint meeting of the McGill Senate and Board of Governors (BoG). The governing bodies gathered this past Tuesday to discuss ways in which McGill could adapt its facilities to suit the needs of both current and future students.

Principal Suzanne Fortier opened the meeting with a description of what it means to be a smart campus.

“I believe that a smart campus […] is not simply about having state of the art digital structures,” Fortier said. “It is rather about how we can reimagine what we do in all aspects of campus life and learning, and in research and administration, taking advantage of the stateof-the-art technologies that are available to us [….] Our goal is to be more efficient and […] do what we do better, and at the same time save money—that’s the sweet spot that we’d always like to reach.”

The meeting was structured

around three points of discussion: Community engagement, technology, and the physical campus related to face-toface learning. Senate and BoG members were seated at one of 10 tables, with each assigned one of the three topics during a discussion period.

Community engagement Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Vice-President (VP) University Affairs Chloe Rourke summarized her group’s findings on how to foster community engagement within McGill.

“The first [suggestion] was to open McGill up to the global community,” she said. “[Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)] and online learning would be an important tool to facilitate that, but also opening our physical campus to the Montreal community through ways like allowing information that is available on campus to be seen through a mobile device, or [having] open lectures.”

Rourke additionally emphasized a need to properly prepare students to contribute back to the community upon

their graduation.

“In order to allow students to succeed in this changing global environment, you need to provide a supportive environment [for students] to personally develop and grow while at McGill,” she said. “That’s everything from addressing mental health issues to finding opportunities for experiential learning.”

Physical campus and face-to-face learning Post-Graduate Students’ Society of McGill University (PGSS) President Danielle Toccalino suggested modifying McGill classrooms into a more blended and fluid space—a concept that has not traditionally been emphasized in the past. “[This includes] using [classes] as a way to collaborate with peerbased learning and teaching, and taking the actual content of the class to more of an online setting, so you learn outside of the classroom and then come and discuss, collaborate and extend your learning in more social setting,” she said.

Toccalino additionally outlined a need to increase social spaces for students in campus.

“A smart campus [...] is not simply about having state of the art digital structures, [It’s ... ] about how we can reimagine [...] campus life and learning.”

“[We should increase] the amount of space that we have on campus where people can come to collect, to diffuse after a day in lab or at school and where there’s the opportunity to spark collaboration,” she said.

Technology

SSMU Education Senator Parvesh Chainani highlighted the importance of implementing technology in the classroom.

“Our teaching and learning practices should reflect what students do outside the sphere of the classroom,” he said. “When we go outside we are always on our phones, […] so why not apply that mode of communication into the classroom? Why not use text messages as a medium for students to participate in class?”

Chainani then brought forward an idea to create virtual labs in place of physical ones.

“There isn’t much funding to create more laboratories, so why not [have] several universities comes together, pool resources, and create a virtual lab,” Chainani said. “It could be used in the classroom as well because these days in the science classroom, […] your professors teach theory, and they don’t teach how the theory is derived. With a visual medium the students would be able to gain the practical data and apply that to the theory that they learn.”

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OPINION

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

editorial Editor-in-Chief Mayaz Alam editor@mcgilltribune.com Business Manager Sam Pinto spinto@mcgilltribune.com Creative Director Hayley Lim hlim@mcgilltribune.com Managing Editors Shrinkhala Dawadi sdawadi@mcgilltribune.com Morgan Alexander malexander@mcgilltribune.com Julie Vanderperre jvanderperre@mcgilltribune.com News Editors Jenna Stanwood, Laura Hanrahan, Aislinn Kalob news@mcgilltribune.com Opinion Editor Julia Dick opinion@mcgilltribune.com Science & Technology Editor Chloe Nevitt scitech@mcgilltribune.com Student Living Editor Hailey MacKinnon studentliving@mcgilltribune.com Features Editor Natalie Wong features@mcgilltribune.com Arts & Entertainment Editors Jack Neal and Christopher Lutes arts@mcgilltribune.com Sports Editors Elie Waitzer and Zikomo Smith sports@mcgilltribune.com Design Editor Cassie Lee design@mcgilltribune.com Photo Editor Natalie Vineberg photo@mcgilltribune.com Web Developers William Burgess webdev@mcgilltribune.com Matt Smith online@mcgilltribune.com

Fall 2015 referendum endorsements CKUT Fee increase: Yes

Safety Network Fee: Yes

CKUT provides invaluable services to students, as well as to the widerMontreal community. As the only radio show on campus, it is an invaluable space for training in all aspects of radio production, such as mixing and radio software, and is a source of quality journalism.

It is apparent when looking at the budget—as seen in Appendix A of the referendum question—that an increase in the fee will ameliorate CKUT’s financial position; however, the budget does not show whether alternative sources of revenue or cost-cutting measures have been explored. The cause for increasing the fee is left to the imagination as the motion itself serves to explain the mandate and accolades of CKUT without explaining why a fee increase is necessary. For an increase of $1.50 per student, such an explanation is necessary. Voting “Yes” is worthwhile owing to the role that CKUT plays on campus, but the organization must work to ensure that it considers ways to restructure to entrench its long-term viability as a media outlet.

The “Safety Network” is comprised of McGill Student Emergency Response Team (M-SERT), DriveSafe, Walksafe, and the Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society (SACOMSS). By creating a single non-opt-outable fee that includes a set amount for each group, all students will support the provision of these essential services. Regardless of whether a student uses the services, they will support their functioning for the entire McGill community. The new fee will also reduce the administrative strain on the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) by removing separate fees from the SSMU base fee.

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Since the emergence of thirdwave feminism in the ’90’s, feminist theory has become increasingly diversified into new categories, such as black feminism, liberal feminism, and radical feminism. But as different varieties of feminism emerge and intersect with other social issues such as race, sexuality, and class, the blanket term “feminism” has become increasingly obsolete. This is largely due to the fact that, from its inception, feminism has mainly addressed gender inequality as it pertains to white, cisgendered females.

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Plebiscite - Yearbook Fee: Yes to both questions There has been very limited interest in the Old McGill yearbook in recent years, perhaps owing to its high cost. Even with subsidies from SSMU, yearbooks cost $60.00 last year. The first plebiscite question asks students to consider whether the funding structure ought to be changed; if students vote “Yes,” the new funding structure will have to be approved in another referendum ques-

tion in the future. Adjusting the funding structure will make the yearbook more accessible to those who want one while reducing the deficit incurred by SSMU each year, which last year was nearly $20,000. It is a physical archive for the student life at the university, as well as a memento for graduating students.

A “Yes” vote for the second question, which would favour an opt-outable fee that will charge students $3.00 per semester, would lower the cost of the yearbook for all students who are interested in receiving one. This would ensure a sustainable fund to spend on the yearbook each year. The plebiscite will provide an indication of how many students are interested in the yearbook itself, and will be able to determine whether or not a new funding structure and introduction of an opt-outable Yearbook Fee would be worthwhile.

Plebiscite - SSMU support for student-run cooperative enterprises: Yes SSMU’s interest in developing projects to increase the financial accessibility of commodities for students is a commendable goal; however, the ambiguous wording of the plebiscite

itself leaves many questions unanswered. Specifically, the way that the motion relates to mobilization against austerity is suggested but not explained. In order to properly consult students, the details and plans of action for such projects must be delineated more clearly. Student-run cooperative enterprises would fall within the mandate of supporting students facing financial difficulty, and have already been implemented at other universities such as Concordia University and the University of British Columbia. Students should therefore enable the SSMU to go beyond the very preliminary conception of how such projects would fit into the McGill context. While implementing student-run cooperative enterprises would needlessly add to the responsibilities of SSMU executives—who already face various challenges that will impede their work on independent projects—the conversation should be opened.

Though the McGill community must not be deluded in thinking that this will lead to any significant changes within the 2015-2016 year; instead, it can be seen as an opportunity to begin a discussion that can crystallize in several years.

Criticizing white feminism for the sake of progress Now frequently distinguished as “white feminism,” this older, more homogenized version of feminism faces increased scrutiny. Criticism of the movement, however, is necessary to increase its strength. While it may appear to divide or detract from the overall movement, criticism spawns diversification, which makes feminism accessible to a larger audience.

As a white, cisgendered female, it is difficult to avoid falling into the white feminist trap; simply put, my experience as a woman cannot be equated to the experience of a person of colour or a member of the LGBT community.

Just as any male can’t pretend that one dollar of his income is equal to my 77 cents, I can’t pretend that my 77 cents is the same as a black woman’s 64 cents, or a Hispanic woman’s 56 cents. Trying to fit every woman’s experience into one coherent idea of feminism is as illogical and incomplete as allowing one stereotype to represent an entire racial minority.

This type of generalization

is exactly what white feminism is criticized for, and rightly so—a movement simply cannot enact change if the individuals it’s supposed to be uplifting feel alienated and excluded from it. With that said, this feeling of alienation white feminism produces doesn’t just apply to non-white women, but to all members of society. With each wave of feminism, there has been a pushback by both men and women who actively identify themselves as non-feminists—the most popular and recent being the “Women Against Feminism” collective.

Feminists will often attribute this opposition to a misunderstanding of feminism’s fundamental purpose, or a belief that feminism advocates for something other than political, social, and economic equality of the sexes. Feminists distance themselves from these associations because they feel that such beliefs do not accurately, or even remotely, reflect their motivations.

Another frequent criticism of feminism is that it excludes members of the LGBT community from

the conversation. Feminism must address this concern and emphasize inclusivity by increasing focus on the intersectionality. The way in which feminism intersects with issues of race, sexuality, and class ultimately demonstrates that feminism isn’t just a women’s issue, but a human rights issue. While feminism at its core is, and should be, a movement to promote gender equality, conceptualizing feminism as it pertains to other social issues makes it more accessible.

White feminism needs to acknowledge the ways in which it excludes many of the women it is supposed to support. Feminism should embrace its diversity, as its growing ability to reach and influence more people will make it stronger.

For this diversity to flourish properly, however, feminism needs to be able to reflect upon itself as a social movement, and be critical of certain brands that invalidate others and counteract progress. Gender equality will be very difficult to achieve if feminism continues to work against, rather than with, itself.

An article in issue 9, Vol 35 incorrectly stated that the Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) Council passed a motion to change the appointment process for the VP Finance position on Oct. 21. This article also incorrectly stated that the members of a comittee of experts to vet VP Finance applicants had already been decided. In fact, the motion had only been discussed at that meeting and the members of the committee have not been decided.

An article in issue 9, Vol 35 incorrectly stated that Frederic Fovet was the current director of the McGill Office for Students with Disabilities. (OSD) In fact, Fovet is the former director.

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Opinion C ommentary

albert park Columnist Continued from page 1.

Remembrance Day is when students are most likely to think about Canada’s role in global conflicts, as the nation takes the time to reflect on the horrors of war. Unfortunately, Demilitarize McGill holds a firm belief that the commemorations serve to glorify warfare; however, the fundamental purpose of the day is to solemnly honour fallen soldiers and reflect on the sacrifices that they made. If anything, there is a strong link between this message and the movement’s overarching mission of encouraging peace and pacifism. If Demilitarize McGill feels that Remembrance Day at McGill is wrongly focused on celebrating Canada’s military, the group should make

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Why Demilitarize McGill should embrace Remembrance Day a cooperative attempt to shift the conversation towards memorializing the victims of war, and remembering the lives that were lost to ultimately end conflicts.

Discussions about the atrocities and horrors of war­— such as the loss of Canadians lives in the Battle of Passchendaele during the First World War—can set up a valuable emotional foundation for Demilitarize McGill to share its stance about current world conflicts and why it believes the university should not be complicit in the development of military research.

While it could be argued that the group is already contributing to the conversation through protests and conferences, there is an important distinction to be made between joining a dialogue and attempting to dismantle it. The difference was best seen in the wake of its protest of the 2014 Remembrance Day ceremony.

While the group raised valid points about some of the negative aspects of Canada’s military history, mainly by presenting facts about the rate of sexual assaults and torture committed in the army, these were not presented in a constructive manner because the context in which they were acting overshadowed their message. It was clear that the group intended to disrupt an

inherently peaceful event; therefore, the resulting polarization of the conversation made it nearly impossible for McGill students to take part in the group’s message and naturally integrate it into a constructive conversation about war and Remembrance Day. Instead, Demilitarize McGill’s social media pages were flooded by hate comments and kneejerk responses.

Remembrance Day has a place for a wide spectrum of voices and sentiments. This is perhaps best illustrated by the usage of the white poppy, which is worn by some pacifists as an alternative to the traditional red poppy. The white poppy is a poignant yet respectful way for individuals who are strongly against warfare to display their condolences for the human sacrifices while expressing an alternative perspective on Remembrance Day. Demilitarize McGill should take approaches such as this to creatively express their stance alongside the tradition of Remembrance Day. Regardless of the organization’s actions and the image it has built on campus in the past, there is potential to generate empathy and even support for Demilitarize McGill’s mission and overarching mindset. Moving forward, the group must find

Whatever its colour, the poppy honours lives lost in war. (Stephanie Ngo / McGill Tribune)

ways to engage students in a way that does not take away from the

traditions of Remembrance Day, but instead builds on them.

o f f t h e b oar d

Grantland is dead; long live Grantland

Mayaz alam Editor-In-Chief On Friday, Oct. 30, 2015, Grantland died. After four years, the sports and pop culture website’s time has come to an end. In its short existence, Grantland became known for its wide range of longform journalism and blogging. Despite its cult following and consistent high-quality writing, Grantland was doomed from the start; its legacy, however, will live on.

Although Grantland is dead, the style of writing that it pioneered within the cross-section of sports and pop culture will continue to live on through its former staffers, as well as the generation of writers that it in-

spired. The problem with Grantland however, was that it was always going to be temporary. Any time that an unprofitable enterprise is created, its days are numbered. Only ESPN’s vast profits could prop up a vanity site that lacked a true purpose. Once Disney, the Worldwide Leader in Sports’ parent company, decided to respond to its declining subscriber base by cutting ESPN’s budget, it was inevitable that Grantland would soon be cut as well­ — especially after founder and former editor-in-chief Bill Simmons was ousted in May. Grantland refused to play the game that many other digitalonly news organizations have been forced to given the changing economics of the industry; rather than mindlessly chasing page views, it focused on trying to create writing that was incredibly passionate and smart.

Compare this to Bleacher Report, a sports website that dwarfed Grantland in terms of pure page views but is infamous for its flashy slideshows; Vox, which

has created a burgeoning media empire by providing explanatory content that leverages clickbait; or BuzzFeed, which is still little more than listicles and GIFs. Indeed, Grantland stood out from its digital-only peers in its unwillingness to oversaturate the internet with shitty content.

Everything created at Grantland was seemingly done with a deeper purpose. Even Andrew Sharp’s #HotSportsTakes— which, if read at face value, might be perceived as poorly written—was a satirical critique of the many journalists whose half-assed rants spewed logical fallacies. The shorter writing on Grantland was analytical and incisive; complex, yet relatable.

Writers such as Zach Lowe, Bill Barnwell, and Katie Baker all possessed an impressive ability to take the incredibly dense minutiae of the NBA, NFL, and NHL, respectively, and explain the game to readers. The longform journalism, written by the likes of Jonathan Abrams, Jordan Ritter Conn, and Brian Curtis

,was both inspiring and thoughtprovoking. It often showed the human side of sports and pop culture, or explained the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of entertainment.

Grantland was never interested in playing the same game as everyone else in an operational sense either. While other publications—including Grantland’s parent ESPN—thrived on the 24/7 news cycle, Grantland didn’t publish on weekends. The site rarely chased the scoops or incessantly added to the rumour mill that has characterized entertainment journalism in recent years. This method allowed the site to bring together an immensely talented group of writers, staffers, and editors, and provided them with an ecosystem to write about the things they loved in an insightful and engaging manner. It inspired a generation of writers and reminded readers that original analysis and reporting, as well as an unique voice, were the most important ingredients for impactful journalism.

In a way, Grantland had

outsmarted itself. By eschewing other methods of revenue generation and continuing to operate at an immense loss, it was always going to be a thorn in ESPN’s side. It was an elitist’s publication whose founder, Simmons, was arrogant and self-indulgent.

From ESPN’s viewpoint, the decision was simple: It could kill the site and its losses while still retaining the stable of talented writers who had developed under Simmons’ tutelage.

Readers are becoming more used to reading the standard writeups that simply repackage content from other sources.

If the voice is non-existent and the style is bland, a publication will lose any readership it gets from engineering headlines to increase clicks in the long term.

This is the same reason that the New York Times is able to get one million digital subscribers—a large swath of readers is looking for journalism that adds value. Grantland may be dead, but its existence proved that quality will always live.

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Science & technology

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Identifying emotions through head movements A descent into the uncanny valley AVA zwolinski Contributor Human interactions are made up of complex exchanges of movements, sounds, and smells. In fact, researchers from the Sequence Production Lab at McGill University have shown that people are able to detect emotions simply by watching how people move their head.

The work was conducted by Professor Caroline Palmer from the Department of Psychology and Steven Livingstone, a postdoctorate fellow at McMaster University.

To prove their theory, the team recruited 12 adults to speak and sing a sentence with varying degrees of emotions, including happiness, sadness, and neutrality.

“We found [...] that [the participants] used the same kind of head movements when they were singing a happy tune, [or] when they were speaking a happy sentence,” Palmer explained. “This suggests that there is something about the head movements that goes beyond the lexical content.”

In the second part of the study, the team had subjects watch videos of the participants that had been recorded—with their faces blurred and the sound muted. But the ability to interpret these physical ‘micro’ movements by an individual was still observed.

“Viewers could identify the emotional state from videos of the head movements during speaking or singing,” explained Palmer.

“This means that those head movements really are conveying something that is not just specific to the words.”

Aside from offering greater insight into the human mind,

The latest demonstration of artificial intelligence in the media was the movie Ex-Machina. (Cordelia Cho / McGill Tribune) research in this field is useful for those involved in the development of artificially intelligent (AI) systems. “[This discovery] can give us the chance to encode these cues in an intelligent machine, because those head movements seem to transcend speech,” Palmer stated.

But according to a statement on The McGill Center for Intelligent Machines’ website, the creation of

an intelligent system is not easy. “[These systems should be] capable of adapting their behavior by sensing and interpreting their environment, making decisions and plans, and then carrying out those plans using physical actions,” the statement read.

A hallmark of AI research is the hope of passing the Turing Test—developed by Alan Turing— where a human attempts to discern

whether they are speaking to another human or a robot based on verbal cues. If the robot is thought to be human for the majority of the conversation, then the robot is said to have passed the Turing Test. In the evaluation of both verbal and non-verbal cues, however, humanrobot interactions can result in the observation of new phenomena.

“There’s a term in computer science called [the] ‘uncanny

valley,’” Livingstone said. “[When] something is close to being real, but is not real, [it can] make you feel a little uncomfortable.”

By studying and understanding head movements, androids could be given the ability to detect expression of information and emotion. This would enable them to understand people’s emotions and interact with a human more accurately, thus avoiding the uncanny valley.

While the thought of a robot acting exactly like a human may seem like something from a science fiction movie, these emotionally intelligent robots could eventually find themselves a place in society. For example, these kinds of systems could also aid in the long-distance care of patients.

“There are some lines of work developing robots to deliver standardized care to people either in hospital settings or stay-at-home individuals who don’t have the ability to get out,” Palmer stated. “This [...] may include a nurse checking in on how a patient is doing at home, [after receiving information from a robot about their emotional state].”

Palmer hopes to further investigate this phenomenon with musicians, who often use non-verbal forms of communication when performing together.

“It seems very reasonable that some people will respond better to [a] machine that conveys emotion the way [a] human [does,]” Palmer said. “[Today,] machines are not known for conveying emotions because it is a very difficult state to model.”

As technology evolves, the materials needed to build robots improves. Consequently, the difficulty of building a robot continues to decrease. If researchers are able to emulate human emotions as well, then the future of AI robots is bright.

be the Tribune’s next photo editor Send your CV, 3 pieces of work, and cover letter to editor@mcgilltribune.com by Nov. 16

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Science & technology

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Going back to the elements Nanoparticles as a replacement for scarce and heavy metals ANDY WANG Contributor On Nov. 4, as part of Redpath Museum’s Mini-Science series, McGill Assistant Professor Audrey Moores from the Department of Chemistry discussed her research on nanoparticles in the context of green chemistry.

Moores began by posing a fundamental question to the audience: “What is sustainability?”

From a pure materials science perspective, it is ending the overuse and overconsumption of elements.

But social and economic impacts of supply and demand are factors that must be taken into consideration when creating a sustainable future. For example, old and broken electronics are shipped from developed countries to parts of Africa to be recycled. This process is not only environmentally harmful, but creates dangerous working conditions for those involved. “[Recycling electronics] involves melting [special] metals, which inevitable creates toxic fumes,” Moores said. “And of course, the workers are not properly [equipped with safety gear].”

Creating a sustainable future not

only requires new recycling methods, but also new products that might be easier to recycle.

Today, heavy metals play a huge role in industries, from electronics to pharmaceuticals, as they are used as catalysts—substances used to increase the speed of a reaction—in a variety of chemical transformations.

A special example is the metal indium, which is found in all touchscreen devices. When mixed with titanium dioxide, it is used as a transparent and conductive coating. Currently, there is no alternative to indium’s unique properties. If no other options are found, this could pose serious problems to these industries.

“At the current rate of consumption, the supply of these critical elements—[such as silver, gold, indium, and palladium] is likely to run out in the next five to 50 years,” stated Moores.

Moores’ lab creates and examines alternatives to heavy metal catalysts.

One candidate is iron nanoparticles.

Though the catalytic properties of iron have been used for centuries, creating iron nanoparticles require very harsh conditions, such as extremely high temperatures, pressure, and pH level.

In 2009, however, researchers in the Netherlands were able to conduct

Audience members manipulate a mixture of water and reduced iron nanoparticles. (Photo courtesy of Ranjeet Bachonee / Redpath Museum) Dutch scientists required that no oxygen or water be present, however, making it extremely difficult to use on an industrial scale.

“We have figured out methods to create an oxygen-free environment in factories, but not water,” explained Moores. “New factories being built in the South of China or India have up to 80 to 90 per cent humidity throughout the year. If you tell them ‘no water,’ they are going to laugh at you.”

To address this issue, Moores’

hydrogenation reactions catalysed by iron nanoparticles at room temperature. Hydrogenation involves the transfer of a hydrogen to another molecule, thereby increasing or decreasing its molecular complexity, and is used in a number of industries.

“Hydrogenation is an ubiquitous process because of its usage in the production of margarine to the synthesis of ibuprofen,” explained Moores.

The process proposed by the

lab added block copolymers to the reaction mix, making the iron nanoparticles water-resistant, with yields of up to 95 per cent.

The next step in Moores’ research is to take her findings to the industrial level for mass production.

The ferromagnetic properties of iron nanoparticles allow them to be easily separated in industrial processes—a huge advantage compared to the heavy metal catalysts they are trying to replace.

McGill Space Institute takes off with a ‘big bang’ Professors unite to create McGill space haven clare lyle Staff Writer McGill is home to many renowned astrophysicists, cosmologists, and planetary scientists. Until recently, however, space researchers at McGill lacked a place to share their work.

Scientists were scattered between different departments, with offices ranging from Rutherford Physics Building to Burnside Hall. But all of this is changing with the creation of the McGill Space Institute.

“Looking around [the] campus at McGill, there’s a lot of expertise in space-related research,” said Professor Andrew Cumming, a physicist affiliated with the Institute. “We decided to create the Institute to bring together these different researchers and foster collaborations across disciplines.”

A $1 million donation from the Trottier Family Foundation not only created fellowships for students affiliated with the Institute but helped in the creation of a space for researchers at McGill to gather. The official home of the McGill Space Institute will be thirty-five fifty (3550) RobertBourassa Boulevard, formerly part of the Montreal Neurological Institute.

“I think [having a dedicated building] is key to the success of the

McGill professors Andrew Cumming (left) and Vicki Kaspi (right) come together to create the new space institute. (Natalie Vineberg / McGill Tribune) institute,” said Cumming. “Particularly for interdisciplinary studies, it takes time to learn the particular language and jargon of the other discipline, and so having a physical location where researchers can talk and discuss ideas is crucial [....] Explaining your research to someone in another field is when the most interesting new ideas emerge.”

The Institute brings researchers together with a mixture of formal and informal events, such as seminar series and a daily ‘coffee time’ that is attended by researchers from across the

Institute.

“Every day, tea time is [from] 3 to 3:30 or 4, and you just hang out and talk and some really interesting topics come up—I’ve learned a lot,” explained Miles Cranmer, a U1 math and physics student affiliated with the Institute. “[For example,] there’s a neutron [star] discussion group where you read a paper on neutron stars and you present the most interesting parts of it to the group, and then you discuss it.”

This type of environment creates a think tank that enables a variety of

topics, from supernovas to the creation of new matter, to be shared amongst researchers.

“Whenever you go in, there are people talking about something really interesting.” Cranmer said. “You can bring up some topic you’ve read about and have a long discussion about it with someone, like nuclear pasta— [an exotic state of matter observed in neutron stars].”

Research areas include exoplanets, cosmology, the evolution of the universe, and high energy

astrophysics. Although most of the research occurring at the institute is primarily theoretical, supporters of the Institute are quick to point out that scientific inquiry has a history of having unintended practical applications.

“Quite often, the new instruments that are being built to do some of these observations are pushing the limits of technology,” said Lorne Trottier, a McGill alumnus and benefactor of the Institute. “From some of that work, people develop skills that are very useful in other fields—and some of the techniques and hardware and algorithms that they develop may find some commercial application as well.”

Ultimately, much of the motivation behind the research that goes on at the Institute stems simply from human curiosity.

“The kinds of questions that they’re looking for answers for are very fundamental, and something that I think most people have some sort of deep interest in,” explained Trottier.

“Where do we come from? How did our universe come into being? How have we evolved over time? Is there life in the universe? Are we alone?”

Until these questions are answered, scientists like those at the Institute will undoubtedly continue to search the stars.

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Science & technology

Tuesday, November 10, 2015 1

The rotating snakes illusion, developed by Kitaoka Akiyoshi (sciencedaily.com)

Toying with our brains

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How are optical illusions interpreted?

ESHA kaul Contributor The human brain is an extremely complex organ that is the integrating and processing centre of the body. It helps people recognize faces, remember complex formulae, and produce emotions. Many of these reactions rely on the brain’s ability to correctly process information through its visual system. As intelligent as the brain may be, under the right conditions, it can still be tricked.

The eyes can be thought of as a satellite that receives visual information from the environment and transmits this data to the brain, like a television receiver. To do this, the eye processes in visual data through specialized lightsensitive cells called rods and cones which are located on the back of the eye—the retina. This information is then sent to the brain through a mass of cells that form the optic nerve. Most of the cells of the optic nerve transmit information to a structure in the brain known as the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus (LGN), which then relays information to the visual cortex at the back of the brain, known as the occipital lobe. This is where the brain processes the information that had been taken in from the eyes.

Despite this, the visual cortex can be tricked into ‘seeing’ something different from what the eyes actually ‘see,’ explained McGill Associate Professor Erik Cook from the Department of Neuroscience, whose research focuses on how neural activity underlies conscious visual perception.

“Over millions of years, our visual system evolved in an environment that was pretty stable,” Cook explained.

“So it sort of cheats, takes advantage of the prior knowledge of the system, and

takes shortcuts. What a visual illusion [really] is, is an image that the visual system was not designed to see; when it tries to take shortcuts, it fails. [This] reveals the algorithms the brain is trying to use.”

In photo one, it seems that the wheels are rotating, even though they actually are not. This geometric illusion—known as the Rotating Snakes Illusion—was developed by Kitaoka Akiyoshi.

Illusions like this one work because the visual cortex is fooled into believing something that isn’t actually happening—like the wheels moving— is happening.

“The first thing to notice about ‘Rotating Snakes’ is that the motion grinds to a halt if you stare at just one part of the image,” explained vision scientist and SUNY College of Optometry Professor Ben Backus in an interview with NPR. “On the other hand, it keeps going if you keep looking around.”

This can be explained by how the eye moves under special conditions.

Small and quick changes in the eye’s position, known as saccades, causes neurons to start rapidly firing. This overwhelms the visual cortex, making the wheels appear to be in motion.

“As your eye moves, it is the particular pattern on the page that stimulates motion sensitive detector cells in your brain [which] are in the cortex,” explained Professor Frederick Kingdom from the Department of Ophthalmology. “It tricks those cells into thinking that this is movement. The cell doesn’t care where it’s activation comes from. When it’s activated, [it thinks] that there’s movement.”

In photo two, the brain interprets the circles as spheres coming out of the page or going into the page. This is because the visual system uses light

to interpret the position and space of objects. The brain is conditioned to expect light from a single source, shining down from above (like the sun). This leads it to believe that these shading patterns could only have been caused by light shining down on the sloping sides of a dome—coming out—or the bottom of a hole—going in. Though the shape is drawn on a flat piece of paper, the brain automatically interprets it as a 3-D object, because of the shading.

Moreover, cells within the visual system can fill in the breaks in lines or shapes—without any other input— using the assumption that an object belongs there. For example, in photo three, a person will perceive two triangles, though only one is drawn—an illusion known as the Kanizsa triangle.

“There are different ideas about the Kanizsa triangle,” Kingdom explained. “One is that the ‘pac-men’ [shapes] stimulate a triangle detector in your brain.”

Essentially, there are specialized cells in the brain that selectively detect shapes. These cells are found in the infra-temporal cortex, which is also in the recognition of familiar things like faces, objects.

“Some of these cells might be being stimulated by the Kanizsa Triangle [to create that illusion],”

Light and shade alter the raised or dented appearance of the circles. (wikimedia.org)

3

Optical illusions have been designed to trick the brain’s visual system. (thebrain.mcgill.ca) Kingdom said.

However, other theories have been presented. “[When] your brain sees something with corners, it tries to fill in what would be there to produce such a pattern,” Cook explained. “You see corners all the time and corners correspond to edges. [The brain thinks]

since there’s corners here, there must be some kind of object. ” To survive, humans have been hard-wired to trust their instincts.

But in the modern world, there can be more than meets the eye, and an understanding of the brain’s circuits can lead to the manipulation of these inate responses.

Student / Soldier

(Elli Slavitch / McGill Tribune)

THE experience of students in the military ELIE WAITZER

A

t McGill, Remembrance Day usually creates a tense atmosphere. Social media wars are waged on whether disrespect is justified in combating revisionism and oppression.

Campus conversations discuss the glorification of war, selective memory, profiteering, and imperialism. It’s a politicized holiday on campus: There is a group of decorated old men on Lower Field with their hands clasped behind their backs, there’s a helicopter or two chopping above, and there’s a silent Demilitarize McGill protest crowded around the Redpath Museum steps.

It’s a controversial time for a reason. The Canadian Armed Forces have a well-documented track record of colonialist violence, sexual assault, and xenophobia. Demilitarize McGill touched on this in a statement issued in advance of last year’s ceremony:

“Remembrance Day […] is an exercise in selective memory, organized to enforce the forgetting of any element of war that conflicts with the story the Canadian state wants to tell about itself,” the statement reads.

But while it is human nature to reduce debates down to ideals—and to view an issue as the sum of its parts—it gets dicey when the concept at the core becomes divorced from reality. And that’s exactly what has happened over the past few years.

The military is seen as an amorphous entity that diminishes the individuality of soldiers within it.

In some ways, it’s like pointing fingers at Goldman Sachs employees for the Great Recession—the fundamental outrage is often so great that it can obscure the fact that at its base, a corporation is made of up thousands of complex people to whom the pitfalls of deregulation and Western capitalist

society only make up a tiny sliver what they think about every day.

People forget that for those in the military, being a soldier is just one aspect of their identity. The label is filled with assumptions and stereotypes, all of which overpower other essential aspects that make up an individual’s identity.

Master Corporal Jonathan Carson graduated from McGill in 2014 with a B.A. in History and Political Science, and is currently attached to the third battalion of the Canadian Royal 22e Regiment while he waits to be deployed on a tour to the Ukraine to advise the Ukrainian Armed Forces on combined arms. He joined the reserves on a whim after his first year at McGill.

“I just kind of decided it was something I might be interested [in],” Carson said. “I was overwhelmed with how much [of university] was theoretical—none of it struck me as being particularly grounded. I [...] wanted to do something that I thought was real and concrete.”

According to Carson, one of the biggest myths surrounding the military is that every soldier joins the forces out of some sense of patriotic duty. A big factor for Carson’s decision to join the military was simply that he needed a job. When he first signed on, he thought of it as a better alternative to working at the bookstore or in some café.

“A lot of people seemed shocked that I got paid to be in the army,” he said. “We all get a salary.”

On the other hand, Adam Templer, U3 Political

Science, remembers wanting to be in the military since high school. The Hamilton, Ontario native tried for four years to apply through the Regular Officer Training Plan (ROTP), which pays for tuition and living costs in exchange for service time.

“Coming from a single-parent home, and not being very well off economically [...] I didn’t think I had that many options so I decided that the military would be a good way to do something with my life with limited prospects,” Templer said.

After facing several roadblocks in his ROTP application, Templer ended up joining as a reserve following third year through the Black Watch Regiment on Rue de Bleury just south of Rue Sherbrooke. As a reservist, he trains every Tuesday night from 7 to 10 p.m., and boot camps are typically held in the summer, which leaves him plenty of time for his studies and other commitments. In his time at McGill, Templer has served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Political Bouillon, a university commentary journal on international politics, and he is currently an Arts Representative to the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU).

Templer wants to pursue law school at McGill after he graduates, and plans on remaining in the military with the hopes of becoming an officer in his regiment.

While he has never been uncomfortable walking to his regiment in uniform, and all his friends know that he is on the reserves, he has at times felt hesitant to open up about that part of his identity.

“I don’t really tell students that I’m in the military, partly because of the politics on campus,” Templer said.

“In my capacity as an Arts representative, it’s always kind of been on my mind that if [...] it was more widely known, [...] would [I] still be as welcome in some of the circles that I have been?”

When Carson was a student at McGill, he also struggled with the assumptions people would make about his identity when they found out he was in the military.

“I was in [a] Canadian foreign policy [class] one year and I brought up that I was in the army, and I found that any time anything military came up, I was the go-to person,” he said. “I didn’t want to be pigeonholed as ‘the military guy’ in classes or on campus.”

Master Corporal Eric Washburn stopped attending Vanier College in 2008 to join the Royal Canadian Regiment as an infantryman, and was deployed overseas in Afghanistan two years later as a machine gunner. After four years of service, having to revert to being a student to finish up his CEGEP degree was an unsettling experience.

“As a 24-year-old veteran of the combat in Afghanistan sitting in a classroom full of 17-yearolds—it was quite intense to say the least,” Washburn said. “I was not ready for that.”

Washburn, who joined the Canadian Grenadier Guards—located in Montreal—as a reservist after returning from Afghanistan, is now in his second year

The military is seen as an amorphous entity that diminishes the individuality of soldiers within it.

at Concordia, where he founded the Concordia Veterans Association (CVA) along with two other students with military experience. In addition to offering support to the estimated 200 to 400 current or ex-military members at Concordia, the CVA’s goal is to make the transition from military life to student life easier. Many universities in the United States grant up to a full year of transfer credits to soldiers who have completed courses offered in the military. In Canada, most universities will not recognize these as credits, making the application process daunting for soldiers trying to move on to the next stage in their lives.

At the Royal Military College (RMC) in Kingston, Naval Cadet Kyle English has had a different studentsoldier experience. Set to graduate this year with a Political Science degree, he will remain in the military for at least five more years to serve out the rest of his ROTP contract. Every student at RMC is also a soldier going through more or less the same experience, which creates a tight-knit environment that has allowed English to form close relationships.

Templer and Washburn both agreed that the most rewarding aspect of being in the military was the incomparable sense of community. During his first year in Afghanistan, Washburn remembers working with six fellow soldiers to apply emergency tourniquets to a local man who had become a triple amputee after accidentally triggering an improvised explosive device (IED).

“You suffer through a lot of hardships,” Washburn said. “You’re spending hours, days, months with somebody who’s going through the same thing as you are [...] so you develop a bond—it’s unbreakable—and that really is the most striking thing about the military.”

The inevitable flipside of that unique closeness,

however, is that it can create a false image of insularity and homogeneity that informs many people’s stereotypes of the military. “[People think] it’s just a big heartless institution— just another cog in the government wheel,” English explained. “When [they] see everyone walking around the same uniform [...] it’s really easy just to assume that everyone does the same job and has the same mindset, but there are so many different trades within every branch, and everyone brings something to the table.”

Templer, Carson, English, and Washburn all joined the Canadian Armed Forces for different reasons, and while their experience is collective, it is important to remember that every soldier’s viewpoint is individual. Still, as a soldier in the granular moments of training or combat, their role is to execute the assigned task, not to hold the military accountable. And as a student, it can be challenging to step outside of that experience and criticize the military as an institution.

“It’s very interesting to try and compartmentalize those two things,” Carson said. “Obviously, working in the military is going to [impact the opinions] you form [...] about the military.”

English echoed Carson’s sentiments and explained that one of his motivations in pursuing an education in politics was to be able to zoom out and gain perspective on the larger implications of his involvement in the military.

“It’s always valuable to be able to look at anything critically, and I think that policy decisions are no different,” he said. “It gives me a different outlook on [the military] as a whole.”

Remembrance Day is a time that captures the struggle to reconcile these two identities. While

Templer recognizes the dangers of accepting the prevailing narratives of the past without thinking critically for yourself, he sees Remembrance Day is a rare and valuable day to mourn the victims of war and violence.

“I don’t think that people are going to argue that a life lost in war is not a tragedy,” he said. “At the same time, it’s important to remember why we fight these wars.”

Carson agreed, saying that Remembrance Day shouldn’t be interpreted as a statement on civil-military relations.

“For me, the whole idea of Remembrance Day is to remember those who can’t be there,” he said.

“Regardless of what your opinions are on the [...] justification of various wars, the fact that remains is that there are people who can’t be present [...] so it should be about them. There are plenty of other days in the calendar to discuss the merits of various political decisions—I think Remembrance Day should be reserved for focusing on those people.”

In the two minutes of silence, the faces of his five friends who were killed in Afghanistan flash through Washburn’s mind. Every November, he thinks about the fact that it wasn’t until after the First World War that Remembrance Day became a tradition; that such a bloody catalyst was needed to prompt Canada to set aside this time. For Washburn, it’s a time to remember the fallen as much as it is a time to reflect on why they fell.

“Hopefully that’s what everybody’s thinking about, and hopefully […] that collective memory is enough for us [to] never want this to happen again,” he said. “We’re not here to glorify war—we’re doing the exact opposite.”

12

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Three foods you hated as a kid that may not be so bad now

By Liz Willcock

Scientists have found that taste buds evolve—as people grow older, foods that children may have stealthily discarded, become appetizing and intriguing in adulthood. For many children, Brussels sprouts, spinach, and smelly cheese, were on the ‘run-and-hide’ list, and it’s likely that most parents have

tried without luck to get their 10 year olds to consume these foods at one point or another. Don’t fret, however, these three easy and tasty recipes call for a second look at the foods that used to make you cringe, and can hopefully convince a more mature palate that they might not be so bad after all.

From left to right (Photo scourtesy of Liz Willcock, thedailydish.us, tarteletteblog.com)

Roasted Brussels sprout

Wilted garlic spinach

Brussels sprouts, the vegetable universally loathed by children, generally have a bad reputation. But these cheap and seasonal vegetables are easy to throw in the oven, roast as a side, and can actually be an unexpected treat. This recipe will make crisp, garlicky, and delicious sprouts that are equally appetizing thrown in a salad or served along with dinner— making it apparent why they may in fact be worth giving a second chance.

Second among the childhood dreaded vegetables list is spinach. Even though this ingredient can be used as a base for just about every salad, spinach should be given the special attention it deserves after all those years of childhood disdain. This wilted spinach recipe can work as a side, or tossed into a bowl with brown rice and sweet potato—an affordable and healthy meal that can be made in under five minutes.

Although many students’ taste buds may not have been won over by blue cheese or Brie just yet, branching out in little ways from childhood favourites like cheddar grilled-cheese is a good start. This open-faced toast with goat cheese is an easy snack to make, and may just be the perfect way to tiptoe into maturity.

Ingredients

Ingredients

1 large shallot, diced 3 cloves of garlic, crushed 1 tbs of olive oil 4 cups of spinach Coarse salt and pepper to taste A squeeze of lemon juice

2 slices of rye toast 2 tbs of goat cheese 2 large figs 1 tsp of rosemary Drizzle of honey

Ingredients 1 1/2 cup Brussels sprouts (halved with ends chopped off) Drizzle of olive oil 1 clove of garlic Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Goat cheese and fig toast

Directions

Directions 1. Preheat oven to 375° degrees Celsius.

2. Cut off ends of Brussels sprouts, halve them, and toss them in a bowl with the other ingredients.

3. Roast for 30 minutes or until until crisp on the outside and tender on the inside.

C A M P U S S P O T L I G H T

1. Place the shallot, garlic, and olive oil in a pan, and cook for two minutes until shallots are golden.

2. Add spinach and sauté until wilted.

3. Top with salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice.

1. Toast rye bread.

2. Spread goat cheese.

3. Wash figs, remove stems, slice thinly, and arrange on toast.

4. Sprinkle with rosemary and drizzle with honey.

F Word

Feminist publication discusses upholding anti-oppressive mandate chloe lau Contributor McGill is known for its diverse landscape of political and social activism. On Thursday, Oct. 6, the feminist publication collective F WORD, a prominent player in the cultivation of such discourse, held a launch party to celebrate the release of the fourth volume of their zine. The party hosted over 200 people at TR-H Bar—a punk rock venue on Saint-Laurent, known for its graffiti decor and indoor half-pipe.

“It’s got a really good atmosphere, good vibe. Everyone seems to be in […] good spirits, and I’m really excited to be here,” Mimi Ho-Tai, U1 East Asian Studies, said.

The night also had live music and specialty drinks named with feminist puns such as “Intersectionaiquiri,” “Consensual Sex on the Beach,” “Tequila Patriarchy Smasher,” and “Cosmopolitan is a Sh*t Magazine.”

In addition to the lively social atmosphere and zines, attendees were able to browse pieces of art, and select clips from feminist films that played during the party.

The zine features feminist art presented through a wide variety of media. This includes art by McGill students, as well as artists from a

myriad of locations. The F WORD’s free bi-annual zine publication was started in 2014, and operates under a collective-based, non-hierarchical structure. This type of structure fosters an environment where the collective can try to uphold their mandate of anti-oppressive feminism.

Maintaining an intersectional approach entails many complex considerations of overlapping social identities ,and the systems of oppression that accompany each one. F Word therefore makes continuous efforts to constantly alter their approach and their content to stay true to their mandate. “[We] critically assess ourselves and try to change structural problems, if there are any,” Vita Azaro, U3 Arts, and co-coordinator of F WORD said.

Jamie Kim, U2 Honours Physiology student and F WORD’s other co-coordinator, has been involved in F WORD for two years. Last year, she and Azaro oversaw a major revamp of the zine’s design. During this period, the collective was able to decide on an aesthetic direction, and F WORD developed a distinct style. Thinking back on the past couple of years and the zine’s recent revitalization, Kim reflected on the changes the collective and the publication had gone through.

“The quality of our zine has im-

proved a lot,” Kim explained. “[As well as] the number of submissions we get [....] There is definitely a lot more interest within our collective.”

However, the expansion of the zine has also presented significant challenges in upholding their values. “[We recognize] that [the collective] definitely always has room to learn [...] to make changes, and being able to do that in a productive and a constructive way,” Azaro said.

Kim also remarked on how the growth of the collective members itself has posed new hurdles to overcome. As the diversity of its members and content has increased, so has the complexity of the conversations surrounding intersectionality. This has fostered meaningful conversations about many facets of social identities.

“Maintain[ing] our mandate has been a bit more work than in the past because there’s a lot more going on with all the members and interactions,” Kim noted.

As F WORD continues to grow, Azaro hopes to see information about feminisms made available to as many people as possible in order to spread their message further. “[I hope to see an] online library of resources [to] make information on different aspects of feminisms and

The cover for F WORD’s latest zine (Photo courtesy of F WORD) other issues such as racism, [and] ableism more easily accessible to people who don’t know how to engage with that information,” she said.

F WORD hopes to continue providing resources and platforms for discussion on the many issues that intersect with feminisms in order to broaden the scope of the conversa-

tion. As a feminist publication, it is constantly evolving and learning to accommodate the growth and evolution of feminist ideas. At times, accepting criticism is difficult, but F WORD welcomes the challenge of turning critique into sincere conversation about feminisms and using this discussion to restructure accordingly.

13

Student Living

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Campus life for Post-Grads

PGSS finds new ways to address graduate students’ needs and concerns Audrey carleton Contributor For many students, entering graduate school presents a world of new adjustments. Some grapple with conducting research on their own for the first time, while others struggle with the lack of unity they once felt in their undergraduate program. Some even do this all while raising a family. McGill Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) serves to ease the hardships that McGill graduate students face in the day-to-day triumphs and trials on the road to completing their degrees.

“We really want to make sure that students feel well-represented and a part of the community,” said Sahil Kumar, PGSS internal affairs coordinator and MSc candidate, said. “[We] connect graduate students to each other, and connect them to opportunities and funding, and provide a really welcoming and pleasant atmosphere.”

The role of PGSS in the lives of McGill graduate students is mostly the same as that of a student society at the undergraduate level.

“I think the needs of students are generally the same,” said Devin Mills, PGSS academic affairs coordinator and doctoral candidate in Educational Psychology. “ [We] want quality educational experiences; [we] want hands on experience. We want affordable education. We want opportunities to socialize and get involved [....] These aren’t dissimilar from undergraduates.”

However, the inherent differences in the structure of graduate school make PGSS’ duties unique. Unlike undergraduate programs, where most students spend a majority of their time on one of McGill’s campuses, graduate students are separated based on where their research is located. Here, campus is no longer the hub of student life.

“Students are [...] spread out a lot more,” Kumar explained. “There are students at The Douglas [Mental Health University Institute] , there are students at the [Lady Davis Institute research arm of the] Jewish General [Hospital], there are students at the Montreal General [Hospital], there are students everywhere doing graduate studies, and so no one is really on campus all the time.”

Kumar notes the struggle that this can impose on students who spend most of their time away from McGill’s campus.

“For me, it’s very difficult because now I’m not on campus anymore, and now I kind of see the struggle that Mac campus always had as an undergrad,” Kumar said. “Being like, ‘We’re so far away, we don’t have access to the same events to the same events or services,’ or whatever is going on on campus.”

Unlike most of McGill’s undergraduate student societies, PGSS can’t base all of their events on the downtown campus if they want to make them ac-

cessible to their entire student body.

“A lot of our scheduled events need to be over longer periods of time or need to be evening, or need to be when they’re accessible, so that kind of limits the amount of stuff we can do,” Kumar said.

Another unique element of graduate student life that the PGSS has to account for is the relationship each student holds with their advising professor.

While course-based graduate programs are available, the majority of students earn their degrees solely by conducting research under a McGill professor, which can be a point of anxiety.

Through its programming, PGSS aims to address the need students have for guidance in developing a positive relationship with their research advisor.

“The division between student and professor—that relationship really changes,” said Katherine Hales, a second year MA student who sits on the PGSS internal affairs committee.

“There’s a whole bunch of initiatives that are being taken [...] called Grad Connect Cafe [that] happen once a month. [Students] talk about things, so students get to hear answers from other students, and then everyone gets to talk about these things like ‘How do you talk to your supervisor?’”

After getting over any these initial anxieties, however, a lot of students find comfort in the close relationship they establish with a professor. “[My supervisor] really took the time to listen to my concerns and support me,” Lerona Lewis, PhD Candidate in Educational Studies, said. “I think as a student if your supervisor shows concern for other areas of your life, even if there are minor setbacks, you know that this person really cares

Thomson House is the home of PGSS and a hub for all graduate students. (L-A Benoit / McGill Tribune) about your overall success as a student [....] I would say that this sense of caring is a key component of a good studentadvisor relationship.”

A key difference between graduate and undergraduate programs at McGill is the composition of the student body. While most undergraduate students are within several years of age of one another, the age range of graduate students is much wider, and includes some students who are also parents.

“Being a parent and also a student can be challenging for many reasons,” Laura Risk, doctoral candidate in Musicology, wrote in an email to the Tribune.

“There is also a lot of stress around time management. It’s hard to find the time to do everything, especially when your kids are not yet in daycare or school.”

PGSS tailors a lot of its programming to meet the needs of students who have to balance their research with raising a child.

“Student parents are a big part of the graduate postdoctoral community,” Kumar said. “[PGSS] hosts a lot of family-friendly events, because a lot of our students and our membership are a lot older, and maybe have kids who are dependent; so we try to cater to a family-friendly atmosphere when we do these excursions.”

Additionally, PGSS offers a service to student parents called “Study Sundays.” Once a month, on a Sunday, student parents are invited to drop their children off at Thomson House for an afternoon of free babysitting, giving them space to study and research on campus while their children are being cared for. PGSS events and services catered toward student parents also allow them to network with other parents who

understand the challenges of balancing graduate school with having a family.

“When my kids were very young, I went to Study Saturday [as they were previously called] almost every month,” Risk wrote. “It was wonderful—my kids usually loved the activities and I had 3 solid hours of study time.”

The physical separation and the vast diversity of student lifestyles at the graduate level can make developing relationships with other students a challenge. This year, PGSS began doing more to address this lack of cohesiveness in the student body.

“You can meet people in your department, but it’s not like in undergrad where everyone’s around the same age and everyone’s like, ‘This is brand new to everybody,’” Hales said. “In grad school, if you want to find those opportunities, you have to seek them out a little bit more [....] It’s kind of more like “Here are these things, and you’re all adults, and you can figure it out.’”

Mills also noted how this lack of unity results in a disconnect between students and the school community.

“There’s not necessarily the sense of belonging towards McGill that would require them to only socialize at McGill,” Mills said. “Graduate students are more associated with their program [...] their socialization does tend to be within their program.”

To garner new students’ sense of camaraderie and affinity for the university, PGSS planned its first ever twoweek graduate orientation this year.

“One of the things that was most different when I started in 2014, [was that] there wasn’t really a grad orientation,” Hales said. “There [were not] really the same opportunities that existed

to go out and meet people.”

Noticing the previously poorlstructure of graduate orientation, Kumar intended to change this upon arriving in office.

“The platform I ran on for this position was that I wanted to make an orientation week for students, [to offer] social interaction [and] networking opportunities,” Kumar said. “We basically created these two weeks of orientation that never really existed before. We offered social events and we offered chances for students to interact and that was a big thing.”

Despite all of these efforts, many graduate students still struggle with getting involved, because they find it difficult to take a break from their research.

“I think a lot of times people in grad school feel like they can’t do things outside of school,” Hales said.

“They feel like they should be researching, or they should be reading—and everyone kind of falls in the cycle of ‘I don’t have any time.’”

With its accessible events, PGSS hopes to give students services that will facilitate their research, rather than distract from it. Other programming gives students a venue through which they can momentarily take breaks from their work, knowing that occasionally, stopping to relax boosts productivity and is essential to overall success.

“Grad school does become more of a full-time job requirement, so you don’t have as much flexibility,” Mills said. “I would stress that there’s an important balance between work and play [....] Just like you need to have it in undergrad, you need to have it in grad school.”

14

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Primary colours Neutralité reveals social consciousness in minimalism AleX Bankier Contributor Rad Hourani has no need to be humble. The 33-year-old fashion designer is an accomplished photographer, filmmaker, and is perhaps most notorious for his ‘invited member’ status within the world’s premier high fashion group, the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture. Hourani’s style attempts to transcend the constructs used by humanity to categorize and order the world. Hence, ‘neutrality’: It’s an aesthetic Hourani claims had its genesis in his own lack of formal artistic instruction or, in his words, a “no-background background.”

Located in the interior of a repurposed warehouse, Neutralité is Hourani’s second and latest attempt at a multidisciplinary art exhibition. No variations in lighting are afforded within the space; illumination is equal throughout the exhibit, and coupled with the floor plan’s relative openness reflects the accessibility of Hourani’s artistic vision to all viewers. The rectangular trusses on the high ceiling recalls a wholesale retailer, with the many patrons adding to the cacophony of voices that dominate Neutralité’s soundscape. On any other night, however, the sheer vastness of the venue might be enough to intimidate

Hourani poses in front of his characteristically minimalistic artwork. (huffingtonpost.com) patrons into silence.

First of the five segments comprising Neutralité is the Child’s Room. Setting the stage for following sections with works such as “Ageless”—a series of eight solidly-coloured pastel tableaus symbolizing the pure energy of life without social pressures—Hourani reveals a calculated minimalism as central to his neutral aesthetic.

Such minimalism is, in fact, complemented quite well by the hollowed out industrial space and white palettes upon which many of the artist’s works are mounted.

F r o m T h e V ie w p o int

As viewers move through the exhibit’s three middle sections, a multitude of pieces ranging from humanoid, rubber sculptures to brightly coloured, polygonal wood panels, and even a pile of sex toys are presented for the viewer. In displaying some 21 works of art, Hourani seems to actively take inventory of the many dogmas and precepts driving human socialization. Among these works are multi-tiered, aluminum daisies that display the inherently unbalanced interaction between socio-economic classes, and whose

Staff Illustrator Performers are often told to imagine the audience in their underwear to help themselves calm their nerves. Christopher DiRaddo—a queer Montreal author—joked that he “must have gotten it wrong” when organizing

Neutralité is located at Arsenal (2020 Rue William) and is running from Nov. 4 to Jan. 17.

Admission is $10.

a u t h o rs in t h eir u n d ies

An author performs one of the deeply intimate and personal performances. (Emma Hameau / McGill Tribune)

Alissa Zilberchteine

skeletal frames appear hollow, as if to indicate that the ideology of socio-economic stratification lacks substance.

Alongside each piece was an accompanying white placard printed with Hourani’s responses to his own work. Among these explanatory placards, there never seemed to be any suggestion for how exactly the artist would see his vision implemented—though perhaps this is left to the audience’s own imagination, or perhaps unimportant to Hourani’s work altogether.

Marking the final phase of the

exhibit was The Adult’s Room.

Here, the artist’s “Nationless” is practically a companion piece to his “Ageless”—both are sets of eight painted tableaus albeit with respectively darker and lighter shades. In addition to implying the transformation of child to adult, the two pieces help contextualize the collective entirety of Hourani’s works as being greater than the sum of its parts. Each piece is in itself lacking context when removed from Neutralité, just as Neutralité lacks clarity when judged without all of its constituent works.

Overall, the eclectic nature of the media and objects present in Neutralité—scattered within their vaguely partitioned sections— suggests that audience members are, in fact, walking through a manifestation of the artist’s own psyche. As the abstractions of the human mind often elude understanding, the definitive placards provide a guided tour through the artist’s reasoning and thoughts in a style akin to a written manifesto. Despite leaving little to the imagination, Hourani nonetheless offers the audience an intriguing view of his own blueprint for transcendental utopia.

Authors In Their Undies. The event featured three other queer Canadian authors who walked onto Stock Bar’s stripper stage, and read excerpts from their new books in their underwear. Daniel Allen Cox, Matthew Fox, and Andy Sinclair nervously approached the spotlight in their boxers or briefs before partaking in a truly vulnerable performance.

Although I have never attended Stock Bar before, I gathered that the setting appeared unchanged from its usual strip club decorum.

At centre stage, the stripper pole was lit with flashing lights that changed from pink to orange, while neighbouring walls were covered in posters of half-naked men, and waiters came around taking drink orders; however, as each author

performed his piece the stripper pole and flashing lights were overshadowed by the intimacy of the venue fostered by their vulnerable performances While Sinclair, Fox, and Cox read passages from their new novels or manuscripts—most of which deal with serious content including ostracization, the search for identity, and death—DiRaddo debuted some of his teenage short stories and poetry. His work ranged from personal poetry dealing with loneliness, a comedic seduction story involving Barbie, and an absurdist poem about his dog.

He chuckled here and there as he once again embodied his voice as younger writer, occasionally adding comments about his creative process. I laughed along, thinking back to my own cringeworthy writing from years before. As the evening progressed, he and the other authors became more comfortable on stage as the audience attentively observed their performances and cheered on the brave authors.

DiRaddo explained that his intentions behind this event were “to shake things up a bit” by combining Montreal’s queer and

literary communities and create a happening that he would have wanted to come to. Despite not being a member of his immediate target audience—neither a gay man, nor a reader of queer literature, nor a regular Stock Bar attendee—I greatly enjoyed the performance. I was one of only five females in the audience, and didn’t particularly identify with any of the literary content, but this didn’t hinder the emotional appeal for me. Authors In Their Undies was publicized as an event for its immediate queer niche, but I felt their performances proved to be engaging for a larger audience due to their universal, humanizing aspects.

Authors In Their Undies turned out to be a unique kind of performance, combining literature and a revealing choice of costume.

Although it was branded as an event for Montreal’s queer community, it wasn’t hard to break down the specific target labels and enjoy the event in a way that resonated with me. Real people were on stage, in their underwear, sharing their inner thoughts and creative expression.

This surpassed any sexual, gender, or age boundary, and I found it both endearing and relatable.

PLAY REVIEW

15

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Butcher question ideas of justice, revenge, and love ANNA ST. CLAIR Contributor

Playwright Nicolas Billon premiered Butcher last year in Calgary, having previously won the 2013 Governor-General’s Award for Fault Lines , a work of three plays including Greenland , Iceland , and Faroe Islands . While Billon’s previous plays have had darker themes, they look like comedy sketches in comparison to his latest work. Butcher forces the audience to examine what would happen when victims and perpetrators of ethnic violence meet almost 20 years later and an ocean away from their first encounter in a concentration camp. At last, the victim is more powerful than the perpetrator, but whether victims can find peace without vengeance is left to be discovered.

The play is reminiscent of the trials of former Auschwitz officers. On trial are nonagenarians who one might pass on the street and think “What a cute old man.” When war criminals become so far removed from the time and setting of their transgressions, it’s strange to think that millions have been murdered at their hands.

Butcher opens on a rainy Christmas Eve in a Toronto police station where Inspector Lamb, (Alain Goulem) an average, no-nonsense police officer. He likes hockey, loves his family, and just wants to be home with his wife and daughters by Christmas morning.

Dumped at the police station is a man (Chip Chuipa) wearing a Santa hat and an old general’s uniform. He speaks only a (made-up) Eastern European language called Lavinian. The only things found on his person

Lawyer and detective bargain over the future of a potential war criminal. (Emma Hameau / McGill Tribune) are a business card for a lawyer named Hamilton Barnes with the words “arrest me” written on it, as well as a butcher’s hook.

Hamilton Barnes (James Loye), the eloquent English lawyer is the foil to the humdrum Inspector Lamb. Barnes holds a firm belief in the power of law and order, and has an extensive knowledge of Latin and Greek. Enter Elena (Julie Tamiko Manning), the Lavinian translator and nurse. The drama quickly turns from comedic clash of characters to a serious look at ethnic conflict in a lonely police station at 3 a.m.

In a play that addresses the horrors of genocide, it would be too sickening to describe or depict crimes against humanity in gory detail. Billon wanted characters to speak in a Slavic language, but it was essential that no one in the audience could

understand every line of dialogue.

He worked with University of Toronto linguist Christina Kramer to create Lavinian, challenging the audience to confront how and why they communicate with one another.

In keeping with Billion’s decision to have violence described in a language nobody can understand, director Roy Surrette ensured that some of the most violent scenes were staged in darkness, obscuring the audience from what’s really going on.

That’s not to say that the play was G-rated, as the climax of the play features a drawn-out murder that is only partially hidden from view.

A stellar cast that supports Billon’s complex script fully; Alain Goulem’s portrayal of Lamb initially comes off as cartoonish, yet by the end of the roller coaster ride of plot twists, his expert portrayal of a cop hiding

a dark secret is transfixing. In a remarkable feat, Chuipa delivers each of his lines with powerful emotion, be they anger, confusion, or pain—and all of them in a language invented solely for this production. The audience is left in the dark as to what exactly he’s saying, but despite the language barrier, emotional power and emotional truth come to the forefront in the most pivotal scenes. We are never given the details of the man’s confession, but through a passionate emotional language we are able to piece together the truth.

The action takes place on a minimal, yet realistic set. Grey and beige desks and file cabinets set the scene in an average police station office. The indifference of the set stands in contrast to pain and passionate revenge experienced by the characters.

Real rain falls from the ceiling

before the play begins, and continues in a window during the action. This is no cheerful Christmas play, and there are no plush blankets of snow decorating the window. Instead, the audience gets a dreary and unforgiving urban rainstorm. By being set on Christmas Eve, there is a certain urgency to the action. The bonds and love of family become more pronounced during the holidays, and the thought of losing loved ones becomes that much more heartbreaking.

Adamant theatregoers and those who haven’t yet been introduced to drama can all enjoy Butcher. Every one of the play’s 90 minutes was loaded with gripping suspense, philosophic themes, and emotional charge.

Butcher runs from Nov. 3 to Nov. 29 at the Centaur Theatre (453 Rue St. François-Xavier).

Admission for students is $28.

d esi g n me .

Have Experience using adobe creative suite? The tribune is hiring a design editor. email editor@m cgilltribune.com with 3 design Samples, a CV, and letter of intent by monday nov. 16

16

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

film REVIEW spectre New James Bond proves the franchise needs a shake up

Daniel Craig returns for the fourth and possibly final time as James Bond. (007.com)

Declan EMbury Contributor When Skyfall came out in 2012, it gave the James Bond franchise a 21st century upgrade, focusing on modern issues and distancing itself from the goofiness that defined the brand in the more recent films. Under the direction of Sam Mendes, Spectre, the 24th addition to the collection, attempted to bring back some of that

Flashback

goofiness while still maintaining serious undertones. Unfortunately, the result is more of a disjointed combination that quickly jumps from serious drama to Bond being locked in a Austin Powers-esque torture contraption. The weak script makes the 148-minute running time feel endless, and is ultimately a disappointing farewell for what is rumoured to be Craig and Mendes’ final Bond film.

Spectre’s strongest scene is its opening. Set in Mexico City during a Dia de los Muertos festival, the film opens with a masked Bond stalking and taking out a target, while simultaneously destroying half a block of buildings all in one brilliant continuous film shot. These actions result in Bond being suspended and having to work—with the help of Moneypenny (Naomie Harris), Q (Ben Whishaw), and Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux)—behind MI6’s back in order to discover more about the shadowy “Spectre” organization. Eventually he must stop their evil plans, which involve the current hot topic of mass surveillance.

Meanwhile, back in London, the film follows C (Andrew Scott), who is in the late stages of constructing a giant surveillance centre in London that he believes will make the ‘Double-O’ program obsolete. Meanwhile, MI6 command, M (Ralph Fiennes) tries his best to stop Spectre and keep the program alive.

The head of Spectre, Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz), serves as the main antagonist in the film. Waltz tends to play very similar characters in every movie he’s in, but without the strong writing that came with his most notable roles such as Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained, Waltz performance feels unexceptional.

As for the rest of the acting, the performances, while not poor, are far from show-stopping. Craig returns as the slightly more emotional mass murderer that has defined his character in the past; Seydoux plays the typical Bond girl, who falls for the helpless love interest role before the end of the film. The one standout is Jesper Christensen, who returns to his role of Mr. White from Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, and makes the most dramatic scene in the film.

It’s also hard to ignore the blatant misogyny that’s become commonplace in Bond films. In early

stages of the film, it seems that they might have finally cast a love interest for Bond that’s more age appropriate, unfortunately, Lucia (Monica Bellucci) who’s actually four years older than Craig, only makes one real appearance in the film to serve as a sex object for Bond. Quickly, Bond is back to the standard woman who is 20 years his junior. This is a shame as it could have been a great way to update a franchise and bring it further into the 21st century.

This isn’t to say that Spectre is all bad: The action sequences are undeniably epic, while the cinematography and soundtrack are both well done; The range of global settings from Morocco, to Rome, and back to London all serve as good backdrops to the action.

Spectre attempts to tie together all the storylines from previous Daniel Craig Bond films, while also harking back to the older, more goofy films—ultimately, it does neither of these particularly well.

More conviction within the acting, a stronger script, and an overarching better storyline would have been necessary to raise the film even remotely close to the standard or captivation level of previous Craig Bond films. Ultimately, Spectre is a signal that it’s time to move onto a new Bond, and take the series in a new direction.

a w o man u n d er t h e inf l u en c e ( 1 9 7 4 )

Behind the scenes of the film set for A Woman Under the Influence. (imgur.com)

Nico Wada Contributor A Woman Under the Influence (1974) is an impressive study of madness and conformity, serving as one of the benchmark films of American independent cinema.

The film’s maverick director, John Cassavetes­—best known for Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and The Dirty Dozen (1967)—often shot his films in a hand-held style known as cinema verité, in which the camera functions like a fly on the wall in order to mimic a reallife viewing experience. Due to

its rawness and emotional power, the film is often assumed to be improvisational or unscripted, yet Cassavetes always carefully wrote and directed his own projects. To mirror a convincing reality and provide his work with a sense of authenticity, Cassavetes enjoyed scripting the familiar—in this case, the abrasions of daily living, and casting close friends and family members to play the roles.

Just as Woody Allen favoured actress Mia Farrow, Cassavetes demonstrates a

particular fondness for Gena Rowlands, whose portrayal of Mabel Longhetti in A Woman Under the Influence resulted in an Oscar nomination. Mabel is a housewife who behaves in odd ways; her temperament is mercurial as she floats from moments of singing and humming in a little-girl manner to growwing annoyed, pantomiming and throwing indignant punches into open air. Her husband, Nick Longhetti, played by Cassavetes’ close friend Peter Falk, is initially the rational counter to

Mabel’s antics, yet is subtly revealed to be just as crazy and volatile as his wife, existing at a seemingly perpetual bursting point. Cassavetes uses Nick as an archetypal male figure, leading to feminist interpretations that Nick embodies the repressive societal patriarchy suffocating the gentleness of the female spirit.

Nick works in construction and enjoys yelling at people with his thick New York accent to maintain his macho selfassurance. Eventually, Nick sends Mabel away to a mental institution, and then welcomes her back six months later with a party that can only be described as unnervingly tense.

The film devotes much time to exploring the Longhetti family dynamic. Cassavetes is undoubtedly sympathetic to the rootless state of the middle class American housewife. Mabel’s social awkwardness and desire to fit in is embarrassing and difficult to watch, yet she is oddly charming. The couple’s three children run away from Nick and gravitate toward Mabel, perhaps due to her childlike nature and gentle femininity. When Nick is left to care for the kids while Mabel is away at the institution, he takes them out of school and loads them into his truck for a fun morning at the beach.

Observing a gloomy mood, Nick yells unpleasantly: “We’re here

to have a good time, let’s have a good time. Otherwise we go home!” The day ends with the kids rolling out of Nick’s truck drunk after guzzling beers that were left out for them to find, demonstrating that Nick is no better a parent than Mabel.

One particular attribute that is often overlooked, is the setup of the couple’s home. It is arranged like a soundstage, with guests flowing in and out like shuffling actors and the dining room transitioning into Nick and Mabel’s bedroom in the evening.

The film itself can be seen as Cassavetes’ commentary on the theatrical nature of banal daily life. Mabel behaves in ways that embarrass Nick in front of guests. As she returns from the institution and still struggles to act according to social norms, Nick shouts: “Be yourself! Be yourself!”

In translation, Nick wishes for Mabel to participate in the rituals of small-talk. The irony of his demand is that, in reality, Mabel doesn’t have an inner selfhood. She is defined by her odd jumble of mannerisms and gestures that compose her failed public persona. The film wraps on an everyday scene of Nick and Mabel bringing dishes to the kitchen put to a harmonicathemed tune, almost as if a curtain was just briefly lifted on a play in progress.

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Around the world with Xavier Rudd The enigmatic Australian singer-songwriter goes on tour MAxime Scraire Contributor Australian surf-roots musician Xavier Rudd has been around for more than a decade, spreading his message of acceptance and love all over the world. After no less than seven solo albums—most of which went either platinum or gold in his home country—the outspoken environmentalist decided to form The United Nation, an eight-piece band who’s newest LP came out earlier this year. On it, Rudd puts aside the folk aesthetic he has been refining ever since 2002’s To Let , in favour of pursuing and exploring something completely different: Reggae.

While Nanna , Rudd’s most recent album, is an evident change of pace for him, longstanding fans can still find on the LP everything that makes the songwriter’s music so exciting: Strong messages of peace and unity; a highly recognizable, soulful and soothing voice; sumptuously crafted instrumentation; catchy pop choruses; and a definite sunny vibe. Highlights include the first single, “Come People” with its addictive horn section and its assembling chant “I believe we are one, we are sacred,” “Nanna,” which features sublime backing vocals from chorister Georgia,

First Listen

and opener “Flag,” featuring one of the catchiest choruses of 2015.

For 54 minutes, The United Nation can transport listeners to the closest white sand beach at absolutely any time: All you have to do is close your eyes.

Earlier this year in an interview with EARMILK , Rudd described the formation of his new band as “very organic.” He said, “it literally felt like all of our ancestors had a cup of tea and put us together.” The multiinstrumentalist, who made his reputation performing as a oneman band behind a complex setup that could include guitars, djembes, a didgeridoo, a stomp box, a harmonica, and shakers, is leading an ensemble on stage for the first time. But solely judging from the live recordings of his present tour, listeners could easily be fooled to think that he has been working with The United Nation his entire career.

Ever-smiling and zen-like, dancing smoothly to the off-beat rhythm of his relaxed reggae anthems, there is no doubt he is living a dream.

Having first started his career in Whistler, British Columbia, Rudd’s Canadian fanbase has grown to be a very dedicated one.

In fact, it is so considerable that half of his North American tour is on Canadian soil, including five stops in Quebec alone.

This contrasts wildly from most international acts that usually only stop at three or four of the biggest Canadian venues and spend most of their time in the United States. “[Rudd’s] smile and onstage charisma is infectious,” wrote the Brisbane Times . “If he was indeed starting a cult, there would have been thousands of followers ditching their shoes and amassing a head full of

H A M I L T O N : T h e M u si c a l

Alexander Hamilton gets a fresh spin in latest musical recreation. (broadwaybox.com)

Eric Noble-Marks Staff Writer Full disclosure: I’ve never understood the appeal of modern musicals. Generally I find them trite, overdramatic, and

Xavier Rudd makes use of the didgeridoo in his live performances. (thesnipenews.com) dreadlocks out of pure respect Flag” tour will be a once in a lifetime experience for fans is a for a masterful performance.”

Since then, the musician and very strong one, one which only his band have been averaging a fool would deliberately choose almost a show per day, making to miss.

“Some people have seen audiences all around North America boogie to the sound of me 10 to 15 times and loved my some of the best world-music solo shows,” Rudd said in an to have been written in the past interview with the Cairns Post. “[They] have come up to me years.

As Rudd plans to go back to and said [The United Nations playing solo shows in the next performance is] their favourite years, the possibility that “The show.”

contrived. My musical theatre friends have constantly to broaden my horizons, begging me to listen to Next to Normal or Rent . “This one’s different,” they say to no avail. It’s especially hard for me to appreciate musical

soundtracks without actually seeing the staging of the play.

It’s one thing to write songs that serve particular narrative functions, but quite another for them to stand on their own.

So, as someone who doesn’t

really understand musicals in general, you can imagine my skepticism when I heard about Hamilton , a rap musical that uses a multiracial cast to tell the story of the American founding father, Alexander Hamilton.

Nevertheless, I wanted to give it a shot. This one might actually be different.

In working with one of the tightest pit bands on Broadway (to my ears anyway), creator Lin-Manuel Miranda has written some definitively great songs that even musical curmudgeons like me can enjoy. After all, any project that boasts the Roots’ Questlove and Black Thought as collaborators can’t be all bad.

Rest assured, the rap sections of the soundtrack not only work, they shine above the singing.

This is not cringe worthy, family friendly rap. Miranda and company have a definitive grasp of cadence and flow, and tracks like “My Shot” and “Right Hand Man” have ‘bars,’ if I’m allowed to use that term.

That being said, the music

gets stale when Miranda takes a turn towards the conventional. If you changed a few of the lyrics to songs like that of album opener, “That Would Be Enough,” they could come from any generic musical. Let’s just say, it’s no coincidence that they leave much of the singing to the snide, stuffy British characters. Perhaps I might be able to appreciate these songs more if I was able to see them actually performed on stage in the context of the story.

Nevertheless, as individual songs they fall flat.

All in all, I was presently surprised by Hamilton . Though it wasn’t the home run I hoped for, its concept generally works— especially if taken as a biting satire of the theatre industry’s ubiquitous whitewashing as others have suggested.

Musically, it features a number of standout tracks and a couple duds. Hamilton is certainly the most unique musical soundtrack I have ever heard. Who knows, maybe I’ll even check it out next time I’m in New York.

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Sports Redmen Rugby

mcgill

50 - 0

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

ETS

Redmen rugby cruises to 15th straight RSEQ Finals RSEQ All-Star Augustus Hill injured as McGill score 50 points

Redmen march through to finals. (Lauren Benson-Armer/ McGill Tribune)

Zikomo Smith Sports Editor The McGill Redmen (7-0-1) routed the ETS Piranhas (2-6-0) 50-0 in the RSEQ semifinals at Molson Stadium on Friday, despite having three Redmen leave the field injured and entering plays one man down due to yellow cards.

The victory marks the 15th straight time McGill has reached the final of the RSEQ Championship, and the team was in a celebratory mood after the match.

Five Redmen received awards after the

Be h i n d t h e Be n c h Emily Wang Contributor Continued from page 1.

The media in particular like to use “character” to explain team success or failure. Prior to last season, for example, many were quick to praise the Los Angeles Kings for their great leadership. That was before defenceman Slava Voynov was arrested after hitting his wife at a team party. Following this, he was allowed to skate with the team while still being investigated by Los Angeles police for domestic violence. They said the same things about the Chicago Blackhawks—but that was before the Buffalo police investigated winger Patrick Kane for sexual assault; Kane was welcomed back into the team with open arms, even before the investigation ended.

In contrast, players like Evander Kane of the Buffalo Sabres and Phil Kessel of the Pittsburgh Penguins have had their character questioned by media

game. Fly-half Augustus Hill, senior second row Tommie Larochelle, junior second row Bernard Kaminski, and senior flanker Rhys McRae-McKee were named RSEQ All-Stars, while number eight Sebastien Boyer was named Rookie-of-the-Year. Head Coach Ian Baillie was also awarded with the Coach-of-theYear plaque.

“Ask him if he wants me to sign his Coach-of-the-Year award!” joked Assistant Coach Matt Garston during Baillie’s post-game interview.

McGill’s hard running was on

display all game. Senior centre Thomas Stokes recorded four tries and opened McGill’s scoring in the third minute. He swiftly followed with a second try just seven minutes later, and scored his third at the end of the first half. McGill entered the break leading 22-0.

“We have a couple of guys who can really take the line, and you saw that today,” Baillie said, “We had a number of line breaks.”

McGill’s passing was something to behold, moving the ball down the line with a frictionless ease. Hooker Mitchell

Cuillerier was excellent in attack, anchoring many of the dummy switches McGill employed to keep the ETS defence offbalance.

The best of McGill offence, however, was on display in the 52nd minute— at the 50-metre line, Hill broke a tackle with a dummy pass, and then effortlessly off-loaded the ball to the rampant Stokes who scored in the corner.

McGill, who had to contend with two yellow cards, tackled in a disciplined and relentless fashion. McRae-McKee was particularly active against a pesky ETS rucking side.

“Defensively, we were very strong,” Baillie said. “We gave them a couple of penalties at the breakdown […] but we were very strong in the tackle, and we turned them over quite a bit.”

Worryingly, Hill was injured by a late tackle in the 65th minute. He was helped off the field, and his status for the Finals is presently uncertain.

“We will have to wait and see,” Baillie said. “He took a pretty good knock. So we’ll get him looked at, follow all the protocols obviously.”

McGill will face the Montreal Carabins next week in the RSEQ Finals. McGill beat Montreal on a last-second play

in their previous matchup, but the Redmen are favorites in the upcoming game. “[Montreal is a] class side—on their day they can take it to anyone,” Baillie said. “The league is getting more and more parity [.…] It will be a tough game.

Quotable “We have a very good back three and we’ll kick counter with anyone. I think we will tend to win [a kicking battle] just because we have very good rugby players from a kicking perspective.”—Baillie on McGill’s response to opposition tactics that attempt to pin the Redmen back with the kicking game.

Moment of the game In the 47th minute, McRae-McKee froze his defender at the McGill 30-metre line with an audacious spin move. He then proceeded to drag four defenders 15 yards before being brought down.

Stat corner McGill have now outscored opponents 197 to 43 when playing at home.

Meaningless chatter about character obscures hockey’s true problems for years. Evander was blasted for posting a picture of himself posing with a large stack of money in Las Vegas during the lockout. Kessel was called lazy and out of shape when he played for the Toronto Maple Leafs by the press for years because he doesn’t have the physique you’d expect of a world class athlete. He was called a ‘locker room cancer’ because he wasn’t able to turn the Leafs into a good team on his own.

This is what these words really boil down to: Teams that win have good character and leadership, and teams that lose don’t. It’s not surprising that the criticism of Evander and Kessel came when they were playing for awful teams in Winnipeg and Toronto. It’s a shallow definition that puts winning above all else.

Kings GM Dean Lombardi said that Richards’ substance abuse problems were “traumatic”—for Lombardi. Lombardi ended up using Richards’ arrest to justify terminating one of the worst contracts in the

Do you like the habs?

Do you hate the habs?

Zack Kassian showed a ‘lack of character’ according to the Habs GM. (Photo courtesy of Jeff Vinnick / NHL) league. Meanwhile, O’Reilly, a firstline centre in Buffalo, does not seem to have faced any consequences for his drunk driving. The way teams and the league respond to substance abuse and addiction should not depend on how skilled a hockey player is.

It’s become clear that the

league’s attitude of valuing wins above all else needs to change. The term “character” has become worse than meaningless—its used to condone and encourage harmful behaviour from hockey players.

In the year since Bettman’s comments, multiple players have been accused and/or convicted of crimes

against women. Multiple players have run into problems with substance abuse. GMs have been unequipped with handling either situation, seemingly unconcerned with crimes like sexual assault and domestic violence, missing the point when it comes to issues of substance abuse and addiction.

The NHL needs to do better.

...wanna talk about it?

Become the Tribune’s next Sports Editor!

Email editor@mcgilltribune.com with three writing samples, a CV, and a cover letter by Monday Nov. 16

Sports

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

The rebirth of redmen FOOTBALL Photo spread by Natalie Vineberg Football has an exceptional capacity to bring people together. It inspires a spiritual kind of faith and devotion similar to that of religion. Through football, dozens of individual student-athletes come together as a team, and hundreds of students and family members can connect with their camaraderie as fans. Whether winning or losing, the Redmen were never passive. Instead of sitting on the bench when they weren’t playing, players would always be on the sidelines, alert to the game. They would take

it upon themselves to pump up the crowd, ensuring that their fans were as engaged in the game as they were. Even down by 36 points in their last game of the season against the Laval Rouge et Or, the McGill players were respectful and positive in the face of multiple unsportsmanlike conduct penalties by their opponents. Despite not making it to playoffs this season, under new Head Coach Ronald Hilaire, the Redmen football team took strides to turn around their once downtrodden program around.

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Sports

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

know your athlete

kade wist re d m e n sw i m m i n g

By Nicole Spadotto (Natalie Vineberg / McGill Tribune)

Martlet Basketball

Kade Wist is 17-years-old but, contrary to Ray Bradbury’s quote, he is not “17 and crazy.” In fact, Wist exudes maturity beyond the levels of most upperyear university students. A freshman for the Redmen swimming team, Wist competes in both the butterfly and free-style. Between the two strokes, he’s already won seven gold medals in his first three RSEQ meets.

He just started racing free-style about a year ago and is quick to explain that picking up the free is easy if you already swim the fly.

Wist, a Calgary native, is the youngest swimmer in the RSEQ. He doesn’t turn 18 until June—he skipped second grade—but being so far from home at a big school in a big city doesn’t faze him in the slightest.

“I have an apartment with a guy on the team,” Wist explained. “He’s a first year, but he’s from Quebec, so he’s 20. So [with me being 17], it balances it out.”

Apartment living isn’t without challenges though.

“We didn’t have bagged milk in Calgary!” Wist exclaimed. “I hate it so much. I always pour [milk] into my cereal and the bag just falls out!”

Albeit 17, Wist shrugs off his age as a minor issue. He’s too young to legally go to bars in Montreal, but the vibrancy of the city is part of what drew him to McGill. He says that spending time with his team is his favourite way to relax.

“The team is really good [about my age],” he said. “We joke about it and do things that I can be included in as well.

There’s another 17-year-old on the team […] we get along so well. We just all hang

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out in the library.”

Wist credits the laid-back and inclusive nature of McGill’s swim team as what largely edged out UBC and the University of Calgary during his recruiting process. He also cites his mom, McGill Sports Hall of Famer and Canadian Olympian Andrea Nugent, as a huge influence in his life—especially when he first started swimming.

“Starting up, she had a really big influence,” Wist described. “In grade nine I decided to swim year-round and she was really supportive, but at the same time she doesn’t try to coach me at all.”

Even though Nugent was a McGill swimmer, she did not pressure Wist into picking McGill for his post-secondary career. Wist and his mother discussed gap years, the merits of different schools, and different swim programs. Ultimately, Wist explained, his mom took on the role of a conscientious mother in his decision process, as opposed to pressuring him to go to her alma mater. He smiled fondly when he remembers how his mom expected him to give a list of reasons why McGill was the right school and swimming program for him before she gave her blessing.

As for future plans, Wist is still fairly unsure. He remembers first seeing his mom’s Olympic medal.

“I want one of those one day,” he thought.

Wist enjoys his economics classes, so he thinks he’ll major in that. He might not know what he wants to do after McGill, but he has the next four years to think it through.

Besides, Wist gives the impression that he’s firmly rooted in the present—enjoying his studies, Montreal, and just being one of the guys on the team.

McGill Tribune (MT): If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?

Kade Wist (KW): Probably Greece. I remember watching the movie Mamma Mia (laughs), and it’s just so beautiful.

(MT): What was the last movie you saw?

(KW:) The Wolf of Wall Street. I loved

it.

(MT): Do you have any pets?

(KW): I have a cat and a dog. The dog’s

named Misty and the cat’s Coebo.

(MT): Do you have a favourite?

(KW): Definitely the cat. He’s just solid

black so I always just thought that was really lucky.

(MT): What’s the worst nickname

someone’s given you?

(KW): Probably “Baby Kade.” It started on my recruiting trip when [the swim team] figured out I was only 16 at the time, and they were like, “God, you’re so young!” And it stuck.

(MT): What’s the most embarrassing song

on your iPod? (KW): Probably my favourite song, actually. It’s “Party in the USA” by Miley Cyrus.

Laval

Martlets pull away in fourth quarter in tight win over Laval Sylla, Kiss-Rusk, and Ros dominate for a combined 40 points

Mariam Sylla goes up for two. (Natalie Vineberg / McGill Tribune)

Morgan Alexander Managing Editor Following a silver-medal finish at the CIS Championships last February, the goal for the McGill Martlet basketball team (1-0) was clear: Win the first National Championship in the program’s history. During their season opener on Friday night against the Laval Rouge et Or (0-1), the team seemed inconsistent. Playing a tight game throughout, the Martlets only managed to pull away in the fourth quarter, winning 69-60.

“[It was] our size inside, and that’s what we did, we banged it inside, got some opportunities, and then kicked out,” Head Coach Ryan Thorne said of the team’s success in the fourth quarter.

“Our size allows us to make [the defence] collapse, and when they collapse, we just got to be ready to knock down shots, and we did.”

It was a slow start for the Martlets, who were able to take an early 21-17 advantage in the first quarter, but then lost their lead after a series of turnovers on poor entry passes in the second. Despite their sloppy play on offence, the Mart-

lets were able to keep the score separated by one to two points throughout the second due to a stingy defence.

“We can be a little more aggressive,” Thorne said. “Today the overall set-up for Laval, [because] they’re all small, [was to] be a little more controlled rather than being aggressive.”

Junior centre Alex Kiss-Rusk was the ‘it factor’ throughout the second and third quarter, registering six blocks and scoring all 10 of her points. Kiss-Rusk, who previously played in the NCAA at Virginia Tech, is the tallest player on the team at 6’4.”

“It’s very rare to have someone of Alex’s height and ability here in Quebec,” Thorne said. “Usually they’re in the NCAA, so definitely we want to take advantage of that.”

Kiss-Rusk was automatic on the night, making 83 per cent of her shots and scoring 10 points for her team. She has shown considerable improvement in her three years with the Martlets. “[Kiss-Rusk has been] getting more confident, a little more aggressive,” Thorne explained. “She knows she’s one of the biggest girls in the conference, so a lot of [things] are going to go through her [...]I’ve definitely seen some improvement there.”

Kiss-Rusk, senior point guard Di-

anna Ros, and senior forward Mariam Sylla combined for 40 of McGill’s 69 points. Sylla finished with 20 points and 14 rebounds, dominating throughout the game. For Laval, senior guard Gabrielle Girard carried the team, putting up 29 of their 60 points. “[Girard] spent the summer really working on her game,” Thorne said.

“She has improved. She’s playing at an All-Canadian level [….] For us [we] can live with one person going off and controlling the rest [of the team] as opposed to everyone doing a great job.”

McGill will head to Lennoxville to square off against the Bishop’s Gaiters (0-0) next Saturday, Nov. 14 at 6 p.m. as they continue their quest for post-season glory.

Quotable “I thought that was a great opportunity for us just to bond. I thought the ladies, especially the freshmen, got to know each other, and I thought we got to play some great competition early in the season, which was awesome.” —Thorne on the team’s pre-season experience in Greece.

Moment of the game

The Martlets went on an eight-point run over two minutes early in the fourth quarter to pull away from the Rouge et Or

Stat corner McGill’s bench had 21 more points that Laval’s.