McGill Tribune Vol. 38 Issue 10

The McGill Tribune TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2018 | VOL. 38 | ISSUE 10

Published by the SPT, a student society of McGill University

McGILLTRIBUNE.COM | @McGILLTRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

FEATURE

NEWS

The student Code requires student input

LORD, Give Me COFFEE To Change The Things I CAN, And WINE To Accept The Things I CAN’T

Trib Explains: The GSVP

PG. 5

PGs. 8-9

PG. 4 (Leanne Young / The McGill Tribune)

The Creative Supplement: Fall 2018

See insert

‘First Man’ shoots for the moon Andras Nemeth News Editor Halfway through First Man, Janet Shearon (Claire Foy), wife of astronaut Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling), confronts a NASA official (Kyle Chandler) to demand information about her husband after a near-fatal test mission. Her response to the official’s attempt at reassurance

is one of the film’s more memorable lines.

“You’re a bunch of boys making models out of balsa wood,” Shearon says. “You don’t have anything under control!”

Director Damien Chazelle invites his viewers to agree. First Man, adapted from James R. Hansen’s book of the same name, is pervaded by a feeling of insecurity. Recounting the lead up to the 1969 Apollo 11 mission,

Tribune Tries: Death and cake Leyla Moy Contributor “I love the brownies.”

“I’m interested in learning about death.” These are the icebreakers at the November session of McGill’s Death Cafe. Though the event drew a varied crowd, commonalities developed between the full room of people intrigued by both creature comforts and talk of mortality.

with their performances as Armstrong and Shearon. We first see Gosling as the titular hero on a high-altitude flight that nearly ends in disaster. His subsequent indifference to the ever-present danger of the space program, and his disregard for the distress of his loved ones become Armstrong’s most defining character traits—throughout the film, he remains enigmatic and distant.

PG. 11

Follow your nose

Death Cafe provides a cozy space to contemplate mortality On a rainy evening, participants filtered into an airy room with plants on the windowsill, past a table of pastries, berries, and fixings for tea. The contrast between conversations about death and a comfortable space with a whistling kettle and homemade baked goods is intentional, says facilitator Kit Racette.

“Death tends to separate us, and food brings us back together

the film subverts other cinematic treatments of outer space. Chazelle swaps the mystery and majesty of space films like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Solaris, and Apollo 13 for an intense, shaky immediacy, placing the viewer inside the claustrophobic cabins of the spacecraft as they rattle their way skyward.

The story’s human drama is equally intimate, and Gosling and Foy tether the film

Study identifies areas of the brain that link

again,” Racette said.

The café held on Monday, Nov. 5 was the second of a series hosted at McGill’s Building 21. Death Cafe’s stated aim is to make people more aware of death to help them maximize their life. The sessions at McGill are organized by Amanda Brown and Daniel Almeida in conjunction with Racette, who has hosted many death cafés across Montreal.

PG. 7

Oceáne Marescal Contributor

Those who can easily navigate new cities and unfamiliar locations might also find that they have an unusually-precise ability to accurately identify a plethora of different smells, ranging from basil and cinnamon to strawberry and

peppermint.

A recent study conducted at the McGill Department of Psychiatry demonstrated the surprising link between navigation and olfaction, the chemical reaction that grants us our sense of smell. To capture the experience of a tourist in a new area for the first time, the study asked participants to explore a

virtual city and discover its important landmarks including streets, schools, and shops. To test their navigational skills, participants had to find the most direct route between different landmarks. In a separate test, the study assessed participants’ olfactory skills by asking them to identify over 40 different smells.

PG. 13

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news

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2018

McGill to provide expanded financial support for indigenous students Partnership with charity set to double McGill’s current investment in indigenous students

Elizabeth Strong Contributor McGill has partnered with Indspire, a national indigenous-led charity dedicated to investing in the education of indigenous peoples across Canada.

According to a McGill Reporter press release on Oct. 15, Indspire’s financial aid will almost double McGill’s current $500,000 investment in bursaries and scholarships for First Nations students. Furthermore, the Government of Canada will match all of the donations awarded by Indspire.

Indspire’s program will offer two different types of financial assistance.

The first is McGill’s Indigenous FirstYear Award, a non-renewable $2,000 merit-based scholarship awarded to an indigenous student beginning their undergraduate studies. The second is McGill’s Indigenous Bursary, which will be available to all indigenous students pursuing a degree program. This award ranges from $1,000 to $10,000 based on the financial need of the student.

Independent of their partnership with Indspire, McGill will be instituting the Provost’s Indigenous Achievement Award, a renewable $5,000 award given to entering indigenous

students with outstanding high school or CEGEP grades.

According to the press release, the partnership was developed on the recommendation of Provost Christopher Manfredi’s McGill Task Force on Indigenous Studies and Education. The Task Force was launched following a call to action by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) for educational institutions to reduce barriers to higher education for indigenous peoples.

“If we want [to] break down the barriers that indigenous people face in their access to education, we need to work on all aspects of their journey,” Manfredi said. “Certainly, funding is an important enabler for this journey.”

The goal of these initiatives is to increase both the recruitment and the retention of indigenous students at McGill. Kakwiranó:ron Cook, the aboriginal community outreach administrator to the Provost for indigenous initiatives and formerly McGill’s indigenous student recruiter, cited financial difficulties as being a major deterrent for prospective indigenous students.

“Many admitted indigenous undergraduate applicants told me they were able to get better financial packages at other universities, and that was

a big factor in their decision-making processes to pursue their academic journeys elsewhere,” Cook wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune “The way I saw it, McGill needed to create dedicated indigenous-specific awards that could be applied across the board to [undergraduate students] in all programs.”

Cook is optimistic about the Indspire partnership, which started as a pilot project this fall semester.

“I am thrilled this partnership has come to life,” Cook wrote. “It’s been one of the most encouraging collaborations I’ve experienced here. While it’s a two-year pilot to begin [with], I have high expectations that it will remain and flourish. We’ll continue putting our minds together to make McGill more financially accessible to both undergraduate and graduate Indigenous students.”

Laura Arndt, Indspire’s vice-president of Education, expressed similar hope for the collaboration as the start of a long-lasting relationship.

“The importance of the relationship that we have with McGill cannot be understated,” Arndt said. “We need universities across this country to [take] part [in] achieving our [ultimate goal] that every indigenous child will gradu-

McGill’s partnership with indigenous-led charity Indspire is an important step forward in the path toward reconciliation.

(Dan Aponte / The McGill Tribune) ate within a generation. And, every time McGill funds a student, they’re part of realizing that dream.”

Arndt spoke to the challenge of not only increasing indigenous enrollment in post-secondary institutions, but also ensuring that they feel welcomed.

She emphasized the importance of creating spaces where indigenous students feel valued.

“In working together, we can start creating spaces where indigenous students believe ‘yes, not only do I deserve to be here, but I have knowledge to add to this space,’” Arndt said. “I’d like to get to the place where we begin having conversations [about] the beauty and the richness of what indigenous people contribute to all spheres with their knowledge and lived experience.”

Freeland and EU High Representative Mogherini affirm transatlantic unity Politicians debate equality and multilateralism Nina Russell Staff Writer Federica Mogherini, the High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and Chrystia Freeland, the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, met on Nov. 6 to discuss trade relations between the EU and Canada.

The public discussion, titled “Navigating uncharted waters: EU and Canada closer than ever,” touched on the implications of foreign policy, Brexit, and what it means to be a woman in the current political landscape.

Mogherini served as an Italian member of the Chamber of Deputies before being promoted to Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and now represents the EU at the United Nations (UN).

She was a key player in drafting the Iran nuclear deal in 2015 and making climate change a prominent topic of conversation.

In her opening remarks, she expressed optimism for the EU’s relationship with Canada.

“I think, with Canada, we share not only interests and policy agenda, I think we also share a [cooperative] philosophy of international relations that looks for the common grounds, win-win solutions, and finds a way to accommodate things [by] finding practical solutions,” Mogherini said. “I think we also share one fundamental thing, [and] that is the value of diversity.”

Chrystia Freeland was appointed Minister of International Trade in 2015 and

Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2017 under Prime Minister Trudeau. She has since succeeded in renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement.

When asked about how Brexit will impact trade negotiations with Britain and the EU, Freeland appealed to deep historical ties.

“We are supportive of both the UK and the EU in what is a difficult process,” Freeland said. “All Canadians are pretty familiar with the complexity [and the] the existential national character of a trade negotiation [....] I think, for Canada, this is just about continuing some great relationships in a new configuration. Canada has an extremely close, deeply-historic relationship with Britain. We’re more than historic allies: We’re family.”

Throughout the discussion, both Mogherini and Freeland emphasized the importance of cooperation in their In response to a question about being a economic relationships with the rest of the world. (facebook.com/EUinCanada) woman in politics, Freeland asserted the imIn his closing remarks, the Chair of emphasized the importance of multilateral portance of providing equal opportunities.

“When I think about myself and how cooperation in their economic relationships McGill’s Board of Governors Ram Panda elaborated on the faces behind the trade being a woman shapes my own [life], one with the rest of the world.

“What I have noticed [...] is that, around deals and Canada’s role in peacekeeping. of the things that has struck me the most is “It’s quite easy to forget, when we talk that I really hate it when, in international the world, more and more people are lookrelations, people assume that a particular ing at Europe, at Canada, and at us together about free and fair trade, [that] it is always group of people, by virtue of their ethnicity, as a point of reference,” Mogherini said. negotiated by people, [there are] individuor their history, or their religion [are not] “When it comes to human rights as a basis als behind it who exhibit a sense of warmth desiring of the full panoply of rights that for foreign policy, when it comes to free and and wisdom,” Panda said. “Creating the we enjoy in a liberal democracy,” Freeland fair trade, when it comes to [supporting] the world that you would like to live in is an UN system, peacekeeping, you name it, essential part of creating peace [….] I’m so said.

Attendees brought forward additional countries [and economies] that, maybe, are glad to see that Canada and Europe remain queries on current issues with a focus on smaller than ours are looking at us as ones the torch-bearers of the flame of peace. Our sanctions on Russia and trade with China. that can help them join the club of those that peace and prosperity depend on the peace and prosperity of everybody in this world.”

Throughout the discussion, both women are supporting multilateralism.”

news

TUESDAY, november 13, 2018

Environmental policy in a new era of Quebec politics Speakers encourage students to support environmental causes

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Democrats Abroad at McGill host midterm election viewing Americans, Canadians and other international students watch historic elections live

DAM made over 4,000 calls for candidates in flippable districts this semester. (Colin McCrossan / Democrats Abroad at McGill) Caitlin Kindig News Editor

Panelists discuss a diversity of tactics to tackle environmental progress. (montrealgazette.com) Diamond Yao Contributor McGill students listened to a panel comprised of ecologically-minded professionals discuss the future of Quebec’s environmental policy on Oct. 31, entitled “Looking Ahead: A New Era of Environmental Policy in Quebec”. The speakers agreed that the election of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) in October could be a major setback to making the province more environmentally-friendly. Organized by Greenpeace McGill, the panel featured speakers from a wide range of academic backgrounds and careers, including Alex Tyrrell, leader of the Green Party of Quebec; Nicolas Chevalier, Concordia Environment student and cofounder of the environmental group Leap Montreal; Katia Opalka, environmental lawyer and adjunct professor in McGill’s School of Environment; and Shaun Lovejoy, a professor of atmospheric physics at McGill and one of the original founders of Divest McGill.

Tyrrell thinks that the election of the CAQ is an opportunity for environmentally-conscious citizens to mobilize. He encouraged Quebecers of all stripes to get involved, as a transition toward energy sources that will minimize carbon emissions would require a lot of labour from many different sectors of the workforce.

“We now have a party that is pretty openly anti-environment,” Tyrrell said.

“People understand very well that the environment is not where the priorities and the values of CAQ lie. So, one of the advantages of this is that the left of the environmental movement can be more mobilized now because we have a very good target.”

In the spirit of mobilization, Chevalier believes that social movements are most powerful when broad coalitions work together to achieve common goals.

“CAQ is not only [going to] take away the environmental rights […] but also the human rights and the rights of immigrants,” Chevalier said. “Putting these values tests, putting a limit on migration […] is a crime of environmental justice, also, and not just social justice.

[Causes are] all connected [...], and, oftentimes, movements, as much as governments, don’t make these connections, and that’s a problem because then we become fragmented into smaller movements.”

When asked about how their different fields of expertise might contribute to the environmental movement in Quebec, Opalka weighed in on the challenges of solving environmental issues by using Western codes of law.

“The cornerstone of law in the West is human freedom, it’s not environmental protection,” Opalka said. “But, if we decided it was environmental protection instead of human freedom, then there is a lot of stuff that you can do. If we could dispense with democracy and [agree] that this is far too important to be left to people electing random [unqualified public officials], we could just do it.”

Lovejoy emphasized the importance of students getting involved, both on- and off-campus.

“If you are a McGill student one thing you could do is join Divest […and], if you are politically-inclined, support the Green Party or Québec Solidaire,” Lovejoy said. “Québec Solidaire’s main campaign was around the climate and the environment. Young people are going to be the ones who are going to be suffering from the consequences of what is happening, so it’s clearly really important.”

Democrats Abroad at McGill (DAM) hosted a midterm election viewing party on Nov. 6 at La P’tite Grenouille, where at least one hundred McGill students gathered to watch the votes come in. With each updated CNN projection, the group refocused on the screen and waited for results. Each Democrat success brought cheers and claps, and defeats triggered cries of disappointment. At 11 p.m., CNN projected that the Democrats would take back the House of Representatives and the room exploded with victorious energy, happy tears, and hope.

This was a race two years in the making, with Democrats across the U.S. and abroad preparing for the midterm elections since the election of President Trump, hoping to gain a majority in Congress. Congress is the legislative body of the U.S. government, which is made up of Senate and House of Representatives.

The Democrats were unable to wrestle control of the Senate from the Republicans.

However, attendants were satisfied that the 115th Congress now includes the most diverse group of members ever, as the country sent its first black, LGBTQ, Native American, and Muslim women to Congress or governor’s offices. Issues such as gun regulations, climate change policies, women’s reproductive rights, and immigration laws are all at stake, and the outcome of the midterms tipped the balance toward the blue.

DAM Vice-President (VP) External Amanda Demers initially felt uneasy about the results due to Republican retention of the Senate but believes the Democrats’ victories are monumental.

“From Gillum’s [contested] loss in Florida and Beto’s loss in Texas, these key democratic candidates did not end up winning their races,” Demers said. “[But], looking more closely at the results, I am very content with how things turned out, as the American political sphere has diversified greatly [because of the] the influx of more women and minorities into Congress overall.”

The midterms saw a record number of young voters as 31 per cent of young people

aged 18 to 29 voted, an increase from the 21 per cent recorded in 2014. DAM President Claire Rawson-Dannenbaum commented on the value of young people voting in the masses.

“This year, we’ve seen a huge increase in young voters in early voting, which is amazing,” Rawson-Dannenbaum said. “The youth are a huge portion of the population, but our voices rarely come together enough to strongly be heard.”

Brent Jamsa, U0 Arts, is the Project Manager for DAM. Jamsa organized and handled DAM’s phone banking operations during which members of the club and volunteers called registered Democrats in the U.S. about supporting certain candidates. This semester, DAM made over 4,000 calls for candidates in districts where election results could go either way.

“It was nice to speak with fellow Americans about progressive issues, and we always got praise when we told people over the phone that we were Americans at McGill,” Jamsa said. “They were happy to know that young people [abroad] were committed to helping the situation back home.”

The presence of Canadians and nonAmerican international students provided a diverse environment for politically-inclined students to convene and discuss their views.

“I was thoroughly surprised, as the first few people who came to our midterm event were mostly other international students and Canadians,” Demers said. “It was great and also shocking to have such a turnout and support from our fellow students, even if their interests do not directly lie with U.S. politics.”

Leading up to the 2020 Presidential Election, DAM will continue registering American students to vote over the phone and helping students obtain absentee ballots.

Shona Watt, BS ‘09, expressed optimism for the future with regard to young people casting their ballots.

“I’m so happy to see that there are record numbers of young people voting,” Watt said.

“People often feel that political candidates don’t represent them or that their one vote doesn’t matter. I see voting as one way to have a say in what kind of a world we want to live in.”

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2018

Trib Explains: The SSMU Gendered and Sexual Violence Policy How the GSVP protects SSMU community members from assault and harrassment

Kyle Dewsnap Staff Writer What is the GSVP? During the 2016-17 academic year, accusations of sexual violence were levied against the former vicepresident external and president of the Student Society of McGill University (SSMU). While McGill’s administration had a policy against sexual violence during the upheaval, SSMU had no such legislation, leading to an organizational crisis within the student union. Following the resignations of the accused, the remaining executives needed to double the size of their portfolios and students’ trust in SSMU was eroded. In response, the 2017-18 SSMU executive team committed to creating the Gendered and Sexual Violence Policy (GSVP). This policy, the funding for which recently passed in the Fall 2018 referendum, takes three distinct approaches toward addressing rape culture at SSMU: Prevention, support and advocacy for survivors, and disciplinary procedures.

What is gendered and sexual violence?

Actions that target or delegitimize an individual’s gender identity are acts of gendered violence. This

includes misogynistic or transphobic slurs, misgendering, and intentionally ‘outing’ closeted queer people.

Acts of sexual violence can be any non-consensual sexually-motivated behaviour, which may or may not be physical. This includes assault, harassment, and non-consensual condom removal.

How does the GSVP prevent future sexual violence?

The prevention efforts enacted by the GSVP are focused on the development and administration of training for SSMU staff and specific members. The two Anti-Violence Coordinators (AVC) will oversee the training, which must be completed by all SSMU employees and half of the members of every SSMU club during the fall semester. If they do not attend the training, or refuse to go, AVCs will suspend the SSMU member from their employment or, in the case of a non-compliant club, cease funding.

How does the GSVP support and advocate for the survivors of sexual violence?

In order to provide institutional support to survivors, the GSVP compels SSMU to promote existing support systems to the SSMU commu-

nity, such as the Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society (SACOMSS) and the Montreal Sexual Assault Support Centre. After the GSVP is enacted, SSMU will continue to advocate for more resources for these services, and the VP External Affairs will continuously update the SSMU website with information for survivors. The GSVP also works in tandem with the OurTurn National Action Plan, a SSMU-published strategy that guides student societies in creating anti-violence initiatives.

How does the GSVP respond to allegations of sexual violence?

The GSVP allows survivors to file disclosures and complaints to the AVCs against anyone within the SSMU context, including SSMU members, employees, and visitors on SSMU-owned property. While a disclosure can lead to an informal resolution process, a complaint can proceed to a formal investigation led by the AVCs or an independent third party if requested by the complainant. After an investigation is conducted, the AVCs will ultimately assess whether its findings substantiate the complaint; if they do, the complaint will be referred to a GSVP committee comprised of six students.

The committee will decide which

SSMU’s own sexual violence policy attempts to address rape culture within the McGill context. (May Lim / The McGill Tribune) sanctions should be levied against the accused, ranging from a mandatory letter of apology to dismissal from SSMU employment or position. The GSVP also provides a timeline that the disciplinary procedure should follow.

“The SSMU GSVP timeline requirements seek to ensure that, barring extraordinary circumstances, formal complaints will be completed within 2 months,” the GSVP reads. “[AVCs] will have extensive training not only on sensitively facil-

itating the GSVP process, but also on the central importance of frequent updates and information provided to parties involved in informal or formal resolution processes.”

When will the GSVP be enacted?

SSMU will begin implementing the GSVP in Jan. 2019, with the aim of full implementation by Sept.

2019. Starting next semester, students will pay an opt-outable fee of $0.45 per term to fund the GSVP’s implementation.

“Women, Media and Politics”: the changing role of women in politics Panelists describe challenges women face in media portrayals Nina Russell Staff Writer McGill Students for UN Women hosted “Women, Media and Politics: A Panel Discussion” on Nov. 8 to examine how the changing media landscape has affected women’s roles in the public sphere. The panel, moderated by Political Science professor Elisabeth Gidengil, included Jennifer Maccarone, a Liberal Member of the National Assembly (MNA) in Quebec; Justine McIntyre, party leader of the municipal political party Vrai Changement pour Montreal; Vino Wijeyasuriyar, a McGill student and coordinator of McGill’s Women in House program; and Mira Ahmad, communications and operations manager of the leading Canadian political think-tank Canada 2020.

The panelists first discussed the general trend of having more women in government.

Maccarone, who is the first female MNA to represent the riding of Westmount-St. Louis, elaborated on the benefits of having a diverse array of opinions when drafting legislation.

“It is specifically important in parliament [...] because women bring a different perspective,” Maccarone said. “At the end of the day, we want equality, we want gender parity, but also what that means is that we need to have the diversity of opinions around the table.”

Maccarone regards the Oct. 1 provincial election as a historic moment for female representation in the Liberal Party of Quebec, with women comprising 16 of the 29 Liberal Party MNAs. In

total, women now make up 41 per cent of the entire National Assembly.

“It is a challenge, and I know that we’ve seen a lot of changes right now [within the Liberal Party] in the National Assembly,” Maccarone said. “For the first time [...], there are more women than there are men [among Liberal MNAs]. And, [because of this], you see a definite change in the [types of conversations that are being held...], who is taking on what roles, and the responsibilities that women are taking.”

Panelists also considered the ways in which women are commonly portrayed in the media.

Justine McIntyre, who has been a member of the Montreal City Council since 2013, discussed the internal struggle that many women experience: The fear of appearing too lenient or too aggressive. She described her own experiences in trying to appear less intimidating in Council so as to be taken more seriously.

“I’ve often found myself thinking that I was presenting a really strong case for something, and Women now make up 41 per cent of the Quebec National Assembly. (Laura Oprescu / The McGill Tribune) thinking that I [had gotten across] this really pow“Speaking from the heart is very important, that frustrates you, that’s usually a good thing erful delivery of this argument, and then I’d watch it and be disappointed,” McIntyre said. “[I’d] but you also want to be strategic,” Ahmed said. because that provides a space where you can do think ‘that was kind of soft.’ And I’ve realized “Being able to communicate a message effective- really good work,” Wijeyasuriyar said. “Even if that I was sort of tempering what I was saying, ly to make sure that someone who is going to hear it’s something small, like ‘public transit is too exI was reeling things in a little bit. I think channel- what is being said is going to get that message and pensive,’ these all translate into public policy issues. So, take those little things, [...] and channel ing the kind of passion and energy and emotional not be distracted [is the most important thing].”

Finally, the panelists shared advice for that into political energy. And, once you get there, response into a strong debate is really powerful.”

Visibly-passionate women are often dis- women interested in getting involved with poli- I think it’s really important to look at the people missed as ‘emotional,’ which Mira Ahmed ad- tics. Vino Wijeyasuriyar provided insight for who are where you were before you started [...] and offer the sort of help that you wish somebody vised countering by effectively presenting oneself those who are unsure where to begin.

“I always say that, if there’s something had offered you.” to the media.

opinion

TUESDAY, november 13, 2018

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editorial board Editor-in-Chief Marie Labrosse editor@mcgilltribune.com Creative Director Elli Slavitch eslavitch@mcgilltribune.com Managing Editors Ariella Garmaise agarmaise@mcgilltribune.com Stephen Gill sgill@mcgilltribune.com Calvin Trottier-Chi ctrottier-chi@mcgilltribune.com

News Editors Andras Nemeth, Caitlin Kindig & Laura Oprescu news@mcgilltribune.com Opinion Editors Keating K. Reid & Abeer Almahdi opinion@mcgilltribune.com Science & Technology Editor Katherine Lord scitech@mcgilltribune.com Student Living Editor Emma Carr studentliving@mcgilltribune.com Features Editor Dylan Adamson features@mcgilltribune.com Arts & Entertainment Editors Katia Innes & Sophie Brzozowski arts@mcgilltribune.com Sports Editors Gabe Nisker & Miya Keilin sports@mcgilltribune.com Design Editors Arshaaq Jiffry & Erica Stefano design@mcgilltribune.com Photo Editor Gabriel Helfant photo@mcgilltribune.com

The student Code requires student input Influencing McGill administration can feel like a futile pursuit, but, this month, students have a tangible opportunity to voice their concerns.

The administration is currently revising the Code of Student Conduct for the first time since 2013 and has been seeking student input. Set to be amended by the end of the Fall 2018 semester, the updated Code proposes several important changes, chief among which is a broadened definition of the ‘university context.’ The proposed changes are substantial, however, turnout for student involvement has been low. Creating a policy that reflects student interests requires a joint effort: The administration should brainstorm creative outreach methods, and conversely, students need to work to make their voices heard, even as other priorities compete for their time.

Changes in the Code are largely a result of student effort: McGill alumna Kathryn Leci has been a powerful advocate for expanding the Code. Her story prompted the discussion about formally redefining the ‘university context.’ In 2015, Leci (then U3 Engineering) was assaulted by Conrad Gaysford (then U3 Engineering) at a party in the Plateau. Leci, afraid of seeing Gaysford on campus, went to the McGill administration to initiate disciplinary proceedings. However,

the then-dean of students told her that, because the assault happened off-campus, there was nothing that McGill could do—it was outside of the ‘university context.’ Leci’s case revealed the gaps in the Code that left students like her stranded, and the Code’s revisions directly address this failure.

Proposed changes to the Code are not limited to the university context. Section 10 of the new policy establishes that allegations of sexual violence are subject to the process set out in McGill’s Policy Against Sexual Violence, which assigns campus security or McGill’s special investigator to handle complaints of sexual violence or harassment. This change is crucial; sexual violence is distinct from other offences addressed by the Code, demanding a different standard of care and sensitivity. Section 10 of the updated Code proposes removing the requirement for intent in cases of harassment, reinforcing that harassment doesn’t require intent to inflict physical and mental harm on its victims. Similarly, Section 15 outlines that the university will still pursue disciplinary actions if it refers a complaint to legal authorities, whereas previously, the university would not allow for simultaneous investigations.

Legal processes move notoriously

slowly, and this change gives the university the flexibility it needs to protect students in situations like Leci’s where more immediate action is needed.

Each of these revisions is important to improving the administration’s response to instances of sexual violence and harassment.

These proposed changes are promising, however, the revision process has been imperfect. While organized student groups, such as the Student’s Society of McGill University (SSMU) and the Legal Information Clinic at McGill, are in regular consultation with the Office of the Dean of Students, very few individual students have submitted feedback.

There is a defined institutional barrier between the administration and students, therefore, administration should pursue more creative and accessible methods to engage time-strapped students in the revision process. Initiatives like tabling at the Y-Intersection or in first-year residences would help better reach students. However, students are notoriously reluctant to make their voices heard when the labour cost goes beyond a one-time protest. Fostering dialogue is a shared responsibility that students must make more of an effort to bear.

Still, student disengagement speaks to structural barriers that surpass

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EDITORIAL midterm season. While the document outlining the proposed changes is well-formatted, blocks of legal jargon are not student-friendly, nor are they accessible. Once the proposed changes are finalized, there should be an effort to produce a more readable summary in the style of SSMU’s implementation guide for their new Gendered and Sexual Violence Policy, or its Know your Student Rights! campaign.

Strengthening the presentation of the information already on the Office of the Dean of Students’ website would be a strong and simple start.

Writing the Student Code of Conduct should be a cooperative process between students and administrators. Engaging with policy proposals is a more time-consuming endeavour than attending protests and walkouts, however, student involvement is essential, even when the tasks at hand aren’t glamorous.

While the online consultation period has officially closed, the web form is still active, and it isn’t the only way for students to make their voices heard.

Students can send the Dean of Students an email or attend his office’s drop-in hours to give feedback on the proposed revisions to the Code. Creating effective policy requires that students and administration alike be engaged. So speak up—it’s in everyone’s interest.

Multimedia Editor Tristan Surman multimedia@mcgilltribune.com Web Developers Luya Ding webdev@mcgilltribune.com Tristan Sparks online@mcgilltribune.com Copy Editor Melissa Langley copy@mcgilltribune.com Business Manager Falah Rajput business@mcgilltribune.com Advertising Executives Declan Embury, Maharshee Karia, Sara Al Sharif ads@mcgilltribune.com

(McGill University)

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Publisher Chad Ronalds

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Nina Russel, Kevin Vogel

staff Hannibal de Pencier, Taja De Silva, Kyle Dewsnap, Owen Gibbs, Emma Gillies, Sabrina Girard-Lamas, Mary Keith, Sunny Kim, Sydney King, Winne Lin, Ronny, LitvackKatzman, Ender McDuff, Gabriela McGuinty, Sofia Mikton, Nicholas Raffoul,, Nina Russell, Julia Spicer, Leo Stillinger, Bilal Virji, Kevin Vogel, Tony Wang, Helen Wu, Jacqueline Yao, Leanne Young

Contributors Kate Addison, Makena Anderson, Mitch Bannon,Amanda Fiore, Keli Geers, Sunny Kim,Alaana Kumar, Kellyane Levac, Oceáne Marescal, Paul McCann, Leyla Moy, Demaris Oxman, Farida Rahman, Elizabeth Strong, Diamond Yao

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Miya Keilin Sports Editor When I was eight years old, I got the first hit of my competitive softball career. I don’t remember where I hit the ball to, but I remember standing tall on second base, feeling shock, pride, and pure happiness: An exhilarating combination.

Hits came more regularly after that. I spent nine summers playing competitive softball, working my way up from small, backyard tournaments

The art in athleticism in the San Francisco Bay Area to showcases with over 100 teams.

Softball was my entire life during the summer, and I would not have had it any other way. Years later, I’m still benefitting from the lessons the game taught me about competition, grit, and even art.

My life was consumed by other sports during the off-season. There was soccer and cross-country in the fall, more soccer in the winter, and swimming in the spring. No matter the season, I was always playing a sport. I enjoyed some of them more than others, but I was always happy, and I readily accepted my identity as the ‘sports girl.’ I always feared falling into the dumb sports jock trope, though. My perception of identity was molded by pop culture: The music kids were geeky, the nerdy kids were boring, and the sports kids were dumb. My aptitude in math allowed me to escape labels typically attributed to other athletes. So, I was

the smart sports girl. But even this label didn’t encompass all of my interests.

I was missing a creative side.

In my mind, neither athletes nor mathletes could be artistic, and I went on believing that I would never be an ‘art person.’ I focused on doing well in what I knew I could do: Softball.

Sydney Hersh was the best pitcher on our team. Throughout my first summer of competitive ball, I begged her dad to teach me how to pitch. When he finally agreed, I soaked in everything he told me and practiced all year. By the next summer, I was the ace of my ten-andunder team.

Pitching was an incredible learning experience. The countless hours I spent practicing in the bullpen, the long innings in the grueling desert heat, and every moment in between taught me something. There were obvious lessons like teamwork, discipline, and work ethic. But,

pitching threw some curveballs, too.

I had four pitches in my repertoire: The fastball, changeup, curveball, and drop ball. I worked with different coaches over my nine years as a pitcher, adjusting my form, grip, and motion for each of my pitches. With time, I started to feel attached to them; they were uniquely mine, like an artist’s creations. All of a sudden, in the midst of the dirt and the sweat, I, the sports girl-slashmath kid, was creating art.

I had always held such a rigid idea of what I was and wasn’t supposed to like. At last, there was an intersection between what I thought I couldn’t do and what I knew I loved to do. I stopped thinking of my interests as siloed parts of my life. I didn’t have to turn off my math brain on my way to softball practice or leave my identity as an athlete behind when I walked into a classroom. And, I definitely didn’t have to live my life believing that I couldn’t be creative.

6

opinion

commentary

Hannibal de Pencier Columnist The regrettable lack of women studying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in post-secondary education is

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2018

Women in STEM and men in the arts: Gender roles in academia

well-documented. Efforts to minimize this gender imbalance are widespread, and include initiatives such as Girls Who Code and a UNESCO publication investigating its root causes.

However, similarly concerning, yet often overlooked, are rising gender imbalances in creative fields and universities as a whole.

The Guardian reported last year that women, disproportionately pursuing creative fields, are now over 30 per cent more likely to attend university than men. In order to reach a more equitable gender distribution in higher education, the widespread initiative to encourage girls to study STEM subjects should coincide with an effort to encourage men to pursue arts, the humanities, education, and

Choosing a major can come with social pressure. (Winnie Lin / The McGill Tribune)

commentary

Makena Anderson Contributor The month of November is often the time that Montreal gets painfully, unbearably cold. Suddenly, a fiveminute walk to campus feels like a frigid expedition, a treacherous hike through white, icy streets. While this expedition may be momentarily uncomfortable to students, others call Montreal’s streets home throughout the winter.

Montreal’s homelessness crisis is multifaceted, and there are thousands of Montrealers suffering insecure housing situations. Despite a 2015

the numerous other faculties in which they are now the minority.

Such initiatives are necessary as this imbalance is likely both an indication and perpetuator of toxic gender stereotypes.

The simplest explanation for the lack of men in university, their uneven distribution among majors, and specifically, their tendency toward STEM degrees, is the perceived economic utility of a university degree.

As the number of people receiving undergraduate degrees increases—from two per cent of the population in 1945 to 43 per cent today—the value of those degrees decreases. It could be that, in the face of anxiety about financial prosperity, men have tended toward trades, STEM, and business degrees in order to fulfil the lingering ideological archetype of the breadwinning man.

But, this narrative is complicated by the increasing gender imbalance in medicine faculties, in which women now make up the majority of students.

If it were the case that men are more motivated by the economic utility of a degree, then surely we would see a similar percentage of men pursuing medical careers. A far more disturbing explanation for why men and women are enrolled in different faculties to such varying degrees is that men are ideologically imbued to view the empathetic engagement necessary for the practice of

medicine, arts, and education as effeminate.

When I first came to McGill, I found myself in classes where women seemed to constitute 80 per cent of the students around me. I began entertaining the bizarre—and ultimately absurd—proposition that perhaps men don’t like books and art as much as women. Of course, it doesn’t seem impossible that different genders are predisposed to different interests based on subconscious and diverging notions of a biological imperative.

Yet, such a conclusion fails to account for the extent to which men are affected by a gendered ideology which finds some of its

last footholds in trades, STEM, and business. This ideology condescends upon introspection and creativity, unless it’s coupled with antiquated rhetoric of masculine genius.

To dissolve this outdated ideology, there need to be more concerted efforts to direct boys toward the subjects to which they are apparently disinclined. We need to disabuse boys of their conception of arts and learning in general as being unmasculine.

Surely, a better academic world is one in which people study what they want, free from the gendered societal pressure that skews the distribution of students within institutions of higher education.

cartoon

It never ends Sunny Kim Staff Illustrator

Left out in the cold: Homelessness in Montreal report indicating that there were 3,000 to 3,500 homeless people in Montreal, the number might be significantly larger, as it fails to recognize the ‘hidden homeless’. The hidden homeless are those who temporarily have no fixed address and are potentially couchsurfing or living in their cars. These experiences are not always represented in official reports, impeding their ability to access the help that they require.

While some can’t access the help that they need, others can’t find the right kind of help. Meeting the needs of the homeless cannot accommodate a one-size-fits-all approach. Like everyone else, their hardships are heterogeneous and can’t be understood at a glance. While dealing with the gruelling hardships of hunger, cold, and uncertainty, Montreal’s homeless people also carry the weight of racial, gendered, ageist, and ableist discrimination. Likewise, homelessness and mental health have a nuanced relationship. With a reported 20–25 per cent of the Canadian homeless population suffering from severe mental illness, it is imperative to offer

specialized support.

According to a paper published

by Columbia University, having a stable and secure place to live is a key determinant of health. Mental health and homelessness cannot be addressed independently, as they are uniquely intertwined as both antecedents and consequences.

Health problems associated with homelessness include chronic schizophrenia—which can 3,000–3,500 homeless people live on Montreal’s streets. (montrealgazette.com) impede one’s ability to cope with their and material funds to supply feminine external environment—malnutrition, to pay taxes.

The cost of inaction will be hygiene products to homeless women hypothermia, and trauma resulting from assault and rape. By providing greater in the long run. By neglecting in Montreal.

Although many of us only call necessary and tailored help to the underlying causes of homelessness, Montreal’s homeless populations, the a significant number of people are the city home for eight months of the city can address the root of the problem. being re-circulated through a variety of year, students can play an active role As part of a three-year plan to aid government-funded services without in ensuring that more Montrealers have access to a home year-round. the homeless, the Plante administration ever receiving the help they need.

Several avenues exist whereby Homelessness may not be solved sought to introduce a 950 new housing units and a wet shelter, which offers students can offer their support to overnight, but through dedicated refuge to alcoholics without prohibiting the homeless. Groups on campus efforts, students can help mitigate its drinking. However, the plan hinges on like 5 Days for the Homeless, Health effects. Students can help the city focus the support of the new Coalition Avenir and Hygiene for the Homeless, and on preventative measures that will not Québec government, which plans to cut Monthly Dignity all raise awareness only provide a roof over their heads, but taxes and government spending. This and offer meaningful support to those also create a foundation under the feet philosophy, however, will do little for without access to housing. Monthly of the homeless and at-risk populations the bracket of homeless who are unable Dignity, for example, raises financial in Montreal.

student living

TUESDAY. NOVEMEBER 13, 2018

7

What to do at McGill’s Gault Nature Reserve

Gault offers a serene space for students to take a break from their studies Emma Carr Student Living Editor Most McGillians seeking an escape from the city ascend the stairs of Mount Royal or roam the winding concrete paths at Jean Drapeau Park.

However, those looking for an authentic adventure in the wilderness should venture out to McGill’s Gault Nature Reserve, a 1000-hectare property owned by the university. Though often unexplored by students, the 60-year-old reserve is situated on Mont St. Hilaire and hosts a variety of athletic and educational activities that are open to the public year-round.

Test out the hiking trails Students looking to enjoy the quiet countryside can amble along Gault’s secluded pedestrian paths during their visit. On autumn hikes throughout the property, visitors can take in sweeping vistas, local wildlife, and the changing foliage. Gault maintains eight trails of varying intensities which are accessible to the visitors 365 days a

year. The trails span across 25 kilometres of forest and allowswalkers to navigate their way along Lac Hertel and up the rocky Mont St. Hilaire hillsides.

Though novices may find some of the trails challenging, staff is available at the visitor pavilion to advise hikers on their itineraries.

Snowshoeing Once snow falls, outdoor enthusiasts are welcome to snowshoe across the reserve. The activity is difficult to attempt in an urban setting in which snow is regularly shoveled, but the reserve’s peaceful rural trails make this the ideal place to try the sport. Students can rent snowshoes from the university for 13 dollars, and, other equipment, such as snow poles, is also available. Though guests are only permitted to snowshoe on specified trails, the snow is fresh, and there is little foot traffic.

Observe research in action Founded with the dual mission to provide public outdoor space and an open-

air research facility to McGill students, Gault is home to a variety of scientific projects that visitors can observe around the property. Current field projects include Assistant Professor Virginie Millien’s investigation on the relationship between genetic mutations in mice and climate change. Also on site is Professor Andrew Gonzalez’s Large Experimental Array of Ponds (LEAP) project, featuring artificially-constructed aquatic communities used to study the impact of environmental stressors on freshwater ecosystems. Other smaller fieldwork projects also regularly take place on the grounds, and, if they are lucky, guests can witness scientific history in the making.

Learn about the local ecosystem As an outdoor classroom, the bucolic reserve offers several opportunities to learn more about Montreal’s flora and fauna. In 1978, Gault was the first Biosphere in Canada given special status under the UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Program for its diverse ecological community.

The reserve is open for students to enjoy all year. (gault.mcgill.ca)

Today, the reserve is home to a diverse selection of fish, plants, and reptiles. Partnered with the Société d’ornithologie de la Vallée du Richelieu (SOVDR) bird-watching group, researchers have identified an impressive 200 species on the reserve. For students interested in learning more about the natural populations at Gault, the

reserve also hosts lecture events throughout the academic year.

From downtown Montreal, students can access the Gault Nature Reserve via the 11 bus to Mont-SaintHillaire and the Ligne MontSaint-Hilaire, which departs from Montreal Central Station.

Tribune Tries: Death and cake Death Cafe provides a cozy space to contemplate mortality Leyla Moy Contributor Continued from page 1.

The pervasiveness of the death café, though it may seem niche, has been buoyed by a strong internet presence. The death café model was developed by Jon Underwood and Sue Barsky Reid based on the ideas of Swiss sociologist Bernard Crettaz, who held informal discussions about death over food and drink at his cafés mortels. Cafés mortels had no prescribed trajectory or religious inclination, and existed merely as spaces for people to talk openly about mortality. Inspired by Crettaz’s work, Underwood started the website deathcafe.com and wrote a guide to hosting death cafés based on Crettaz’s model. Death cafés based on this model are nonprofits, have no set agendas, and always serve refreshments. In the years following the website’s launch in 2013, death cafés have grown into a worldwide phenomenon.

Racette got involved since early in the project’s development. In a conversation after the event, she explained that she was intrigued by the concept. She went on to explain how shrouding mortality in taboo makes the inevitability of

Death café s prompt students to confront their own mortality.

(Emily Ponak/ The McGill Tribune)

death feel all the more isolating and painful. Through her own experience of loss, she realized how an awareness and acceptance of death might allow us to better value our lives.

“I went looking for a way of getting people to talk about death and dying,” Racette said.

On occasion those conversations have brought out conflict in participants’ belief systems. Racette reiterated that the death café model recommends relative neutrality in terms of religion and

spirituality.

“It’ll especially go there with people that are very Christian versus [those that are] very agnostic,” Racette said. “Death café isn’t a place to convince anyone.”

The conversation at McGill’s November Death Cafe touched on a variety of topics, including what people plan to do with their bodies, what attendees would do if they had three more months to live, reincarnation, ways of achieving immortality, whether faith is a comfort, and putting the pain of losing a pet into

words. We discussed the ecological impact of traditional burial and the sentimental reasons for ‘formaldehyde-ing’ bodies, a desire which, as one participant pointed out, has roots in the post-Civil War need to preserve bodies until they got home as a comfort to loved ones. A few people in attendance had worked in areas related to death and, thus, had unique perspectives from their careers in palliative care or neuroscience. By the end of the conversation, I found an answer to my own fears of aging and losing autonomy after listening to another participant’s experience of working in a World War II veterans’ hospital and seeing people who had lost many of their faculties but still found joy and things to live for. “[Today’s café had] a lot of philosophy,” Racette said. “And I find that’s normal with younger people […] to philosophize rather than deal with practicalities of their own deaths.”

The café ended with Racette asking attendees to reflect on their time at the café. Participants described the experience as comforting and grounding.

By the end, I felt that the collective initial hesitation at the topic had lifted, and that the group shared the comfort of a common understanding of their shared fate, however distant it may be.

LORD, Give Me COFFEE To Change A The Things I CAN, And WINE To Accept The Things I CAN'T Dylan Adamson Features Editor

ll of the clothes on the floor are damp, but the shirt seems to be the least damp. Judging by its position behind his accumulated under-bed objects, he assumes it’s been down there for a while. It’s difficult to discern which of his shirts it is.

Roger tugs and tugs and tugs some more, but the shirt seems to be stuck under the bedpost.

He’s not sure precisely when the change happened; he never is. The tabs just started piling up one day. A graduate-level syllabus worth of think pieces on the National Basketball Association, Chuck Schumer, and JK Rowling.

Itchy sweaters disappearing and reappearing according to some imperceptible algorithm.

It doesn’t matter how many layers he wears.

There’s a kind of bone-deep cold that maintains only a surface-level affiliation with temperature.

Fingers are stiff and slow. They ache under hot water.

He heaves the shirt out at last, rocking back with the release of tension.

The humanoid coffee cup is ripped in two, right through the middle part of the lightning bolt carved into its cranium. The little fucker’s spectacles are cleaved at the bridge. His little red and gold scarf is severed through its knot.

It’s the Secret Santa gift from last year, Roger realizes as he flips the torn t-shirt outside out. He hasn’t worn it since last year’s Christmas party when the IT lady presented it to him in front of everybody. It’s an anthropomorphic, Harry Potter-looking coffee cup, casting the spell “Accio Coffee” to summon a cup of coffee.

Why would a cup of coffee want more coffee?

His joke from the Secret Santa ceremony reverberates in his head, inducing some light shame at the memory of the muted laughter it received. Looking at the torn, transfigured boy wizard, Roger imagines all the coffee spilling out. He knocks his head on the bed frame crawling out, and is pissed off in a nondirectional way for the next twenty minutes or so. His transition from blanket to parka is swift.

He likes to remain swaddled at all times.

At Starbucks, Roger is dismayed at how low his phone battery is this early in the day.

This early in his day. His fingernails are nubs.

He feels like a baby in these phony high chairs.

His feet, encased in too-hot Blundstones, dangle numbly above the ground. Shirtless people are swimming somewhere. People are angry about the American midterm elections. He can’t talk himself into it. Too cold. Listening to a podcast and watching Instagram stories is annoying when people post videos with sound, but, sometimes your audio and visual receptors compromise in disharmony and you can find yourself in a fantastically-comatose state until there’s an ad or someone asks if the chair next to you is in use.

Burning his tongue on his double double Sumatran Roast, Roger remembers that he meant to remember his new reusable mug this time. Starbucks gives you a discount with a reusable mug. He thinks about his humongous eco footprint and his tiny shoes. His tiny shoe buried in a trash island of Starbucks cups and pizza boxes. Metaphors can be tough, but the

best ones make him feel simultaneously tiny and terrible. Through the tear in his shirt, his wooly sweater itches bare skin.

He tries to smile amicably at the homeless man holding the door, but his stiff lips only manage to contort themselves into something oddly half-sinister. People look especially sallow today. He perseveres. There was a moment in Starbucks when it really felt like the coffee had hit that good spot in his diaphragm, and he genuinely felt the warmth in his chest that could hopefully be mistaken for vitality, but now his Starbucks is cooling off in the outside air. Another con to the paper cup. Insulation is tricky. He burrows into his snotty scarf.

Last week, he woke up early to hand out resumes. It’s easy to forget how good of a cook he is. Egg-yolk yellow looks brilliant to tired eyes. The bubbling whites sounded so close to his ears. Endorphins bounced off the walls of his skull. It gives him shivers to think about. He packed his stapled resumes into a textbook, so as not to crumple them accidentally, and placed it at the back of his backpack, behind his water bottle, thermos, and a tupperware full of orange slices. He popped a Vitamin D pill on the way out the door.

Tilting his Starbucks cup skyward, he dribbles some final drops onto his scarf. He hasn’t registered a word of his podcast in a while. Thinking about egg yolks past, and resumes. Having a job or not having a job is cool. Anything tangible to direct the focus of his anxiety. Someone in American congress is apparently a racist. Under his scarf, the podcast fails to stir any righteous animosity in Roger.

He’s going north. Past all the storefronts he was too scared to hand his resume to. Past all the storefronts with managers who rejected him, to which he can never return for fear of their sympathy. Passing a man in a peacoat and horn-rimmed glasses, he imagines an alternate future for himself, with ping pong tables and Slack messenger. A group of people with some vaguely-defined occupation, who ostensibly convene every day to discuss Childish Gambino.

Maybe they work with computers. He would sell out in a heartbeat for a ping-pong paddle and a pea coat.

Roger doesn’t read enough, but he especially doesn’t read enough right now. He doesn’t play enough video games either, nor does he go to the movies enough. The podcast proves as effective as the coffee for contraverting his spiralling

The McGill Tribune is proud to present the Fall 2018 Creative Supplement, highlighting creative work by McGill students, including poetry, photography, illustrations, music, and mixed-media. For more work not featured here, visit: mcgilltribune.com/creative-f18/

FALL 2018

We would like to thank the AUS FMC, Chad Ronalds

Created by Ariella Garmaise, Elli Slavitch, Erica Stefano,

& Hebdo Litho, and the artists who submitted; this

Arshaaq Jiffry, Katia Innes, Sophie Brzozowski, Tristan Sparks,

project was only possible with their generous support.

Luya Ding, Abeer Almahdi, Cait Kindig, and Gabe Nisker

FUTURE IS NOW

CREATIVE SUPPLEMENT

(Cover) Elliot Scharf

a tragedy in 3 acts Sara Hashemi

one: the smell of burnt plastic creeping from nowhere

3

possession Sara Hashemi

this anguish is mine. i carry it until it crushes my bones spills my blood, flows— and i sit here as sacrifice waiting with all my skin.

two: the white shroud body carried baba buried

a pillar of salt to rub in my wounds. i am both abraham and the lamb, both my skin and outside it i am a vessel, something separate.

three: the black shawl grief, immortalized.

Elli Slavitch

i strangle myself to let it out squeezing myself from both ends until i am broken and bruised and blue

prelude (sometimes things are called “prelude” even when they don’t come before anything)

it’s been in me for so long rotting and festering and stupid, yet mine mine mine.

Angelina Mazza

i was caught in a torrential downpour of love, which sounds like a good thing but the truth is: it feels like being stuck in traffic which beats getting into a car accident, or so i hear i don’t have my license or your common sense but it’s all about waiting. i think i can handle this as long as I get it to feel more finite

Julia Spicer

Season’s change

it’s harder now because i know what it’s like to love every angle of a face while time runs out. i am crying again because we only have half an hour this time, and you smell like my oxygen.

2

Andrew Yang

(From above) Krysten Krulik (2), Katarina Mladenovic.

The hollows of the soul deepen, Creeping into the old seasons.

No one knows when winter began, but we know it began with a whisper; a whimper to the reckless winds, thinner than the layers that warm us from the ice.

Paper craters hold their form, enblazened in our smiles, ceaseless.

Elliot Scharf

Erica Stefano

the night sky Millie Valencia

i see the hollows of my soul and imagine it to be the night sky hidden in an abyss of darkness is billions of stars begging to be noticed but failing to be seen a façade of black blinds the broken to love myself is to look into the darkness and search the freckles of the sky thread together the forgotten constellations find the shooting stars a glowing rip in the void of the darkest days to love myself is to navigate far from the light pollution from a world that aims to outshine the stars seeking the galaxies that shine within embracing the night sky despite its darkness

Sunny Kim

what is a sunny day?

Abeer Almahdi

I lose sight of who I am when i’m without you, Like our shadows when we embrace When the sun is hitting our necks Forming one mass of darkness that i cannot distinguish myself in the sun burns when i look it straight in the eyes when i look you straight in the eyes,

Taja de Silva

when i look you straight in the eyes, there are no longer butterflies, only lullabies repeating in my head, trying to force me to go to sleep, when all i can think about, is how i’ve never known myself without you.

4

self-talk. The pea coat man looks back at him quizzically, and Roger looks at his feet.

He’s gonna get a rash. The wooly sweater is fucking grating against his sternum. Right at the exposed spot between the shredded coffee wizard’s eyes. It’s itchy in the most painful way. Is itchy better than damp? What would he change if he could? He pictures his torso, splotched with an oceanic nation of hives. Degloved in the frigid air, his nubby nails claw pathetically at the spot of the itch, at least a few inches of winter wear separating them from any satisfying scratch. He takes his headphones off, letting the cold penetrate his ear canals. It just hurts.

The pet store clerk’s lips are moving, but the series of sounds don’t congeal into legibility. The cold wind tries to rush in ahead of the closing door. Away from his ears, the podcast hosts squeak like embattled mice. Giving the same weird little grin to the ponytailed clerk as he did to the sallow homeless man, Roger casts his coat aside, hanging it by the door. They always have ponytails or goatees, but never both.

The humidity urges the itchy sweater off his back. The clerk motions with his hands but it’s tough to discern his meaning.

Roger walks with urgency, a rarity among pet store patrons.

A warm breeze is the opposite of November. Humidified terrarium air is a cheap substitute, but it still feels nice.

He’s striding past newts and mudskippers and disappointingly-small sharks. He hadn’t put as much thought into this as he might have. Goosebumps start to prick up on his neck near the end of the aisle. He’s arrived. A shiver ripples through his central nervous system. With a deep, sickly warm inhale, he scratches his uppermost vertebrae and feels his hair for a moment. His sweat surprises him.

His clunky boots and dirty socks cast astray on the pet shop floor, Roger climbs barefoot into the cage. There’s some faint hollering in the background, but it mingles with the mice in his headphones and falls on two deaf, defrosting ears. He wonders if this is where a healthy person’s fight or flight impulse would kick in. Someone once told him about how bad caffeine is for your adrenal glands.

He sidles up under the UV lamp’s otherworldly radiance. Between the shreds of polyester separating the mangled coffee cup’s eyes, there are no hives on his chest.

Disappointing. Roger wonders if komodo dragons feel blue in the winter, or if they even know about winter. The lamp’s warmth is nourishing. It’s like the sun gleaming on the yolks, still intact before he makes the transfer from pan to plate. He’s lying face up, and he can see the endorphins descending like snowflakes from the 160 watt bulb into his forehead. It’s just November. No logic exists that isn’t cyclical. He squints to better see the snowflakes.

Someone grabs Roger’s arm. His high dissipates as he’s dragged out of the cage, a trail of blood leaking from his limp right arm. His shirt is ripped some more. He kicks the ponytailed man in his chubby shin. More hollering ensues, and he notices a small crowd of bewildered aquarium enthusiasts gathered in the aisle to watch the scene. Roger grabs his itchy sweater and leaves the door open behind him.

Wool on exposed flesh hurts. His heart beats in his shoulder against the vintage sweater. The wiry fabric seems to tickle his bones even as it scrapes his gash. He feels dizzy and puts his headphones back on, trying to regain some

(Erica Stefano / The McGill Tribune) central balance between his ears. The podcast hosts are incredulous that anyone would voluntarily refuse their godgiven right to vote. Roger doesn’t want to think about how many elections he’s skipped. They should just make an app for it, he thinks. Is that a ping-pong-table-job idea? Blood is beginning to seep through his sweater. People are looking at him. He misses his coat and his scarf and his gloves.

His veins are bulging out of his hands and he feels utterly exposed. What if the mummified pharaohs just didn’t want people to see their frail dead bodies? Hiding forever, easiest thing in the world.

The light changes, and he’s going north. Roger remembers when he used to go grocery shopping with his dad. $300 receipts. $400. Lists and meats and heavy carts.

Roger grocery shops in nibbles. A loaf of bread and a tomato. Forgot the bags. Groups of people are now parting ways for him. He feels unmoored from the rigid norms of sidewalk etiquette but ashamed of himself nonetheless. He really hopes there’s no one he knows in the grocery store.

Roger stumbles through the turnstile. An employee is staring at him. He pulls out his phone, feigning preoccupation, and instantly becomes preoccupied. His spatial awareness wanes with each subsequent Instagram story. He’s in the dog food aisle. He looks up from the dogs on his phone to the dogs on the bags. He remembers last winter’s experiment with therapy dogs, competing with the assembled throng of other depressed people for the dog’s attention.

He’s forgotten what he came here for. He’s never been

good at grocery shopping. Walking through the cereal aisle, blood now dripping from his sweater, he’s stunned by the sheer volume of garbage surrounding him. The Amazon Rainforest is being privatized, his podcast informs him.

He should try to lock down a firm definition of fascism.

Plodding into a stand of taco kits at the end of the aisle, he sends cardboard spilling all over the floor.

Emerging from the rubble, he feels the cold, wet air of the produce section, and remembers what he came to do. The store is empty enough that the employees are talking at full volume to one another, waiting for shifts to end. They could well be talking about him, and he feels proud of himself for not caring. He pauses for a moment to gaze at the brilliantlyregimented vegetables. He’s tired of needing to go out of his way to see primary colours. He could never separate the red from the green peppers with such geometric precision.

Roger doesn’t want a job.

He pulls his sweater over his head, wincing at the pain in his shoulder, and folds his tattered graphic tee neatly on the floor, almost falling over in the process. Sidling one leg up onto the rack, he eases his back onto the veggies. Some protrude into his back, others he feels combust into seedy goop and soften beneath his weight. The white fluorescent bulb bears down on him. Getting into a stable position, he feels his muscles relaxing. He’s so cold. The light is beaming into him. He pulls his other leg up by pure strength of will. He’s dizzy and his eyes are watering profusely. He just wants five minutes in the light, then he’ll go home.

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student living

TUESDAY, NOVEMEBER 13, 2018

A COMunity for Commuters

Campus organizers gives commuters a home on campus Alaana Kumar Contributor Of the 40,000 students attending McGill University, over 37,000 are considered commuters. In order to accommodate this population, the Off-Campus and Commuter Student Support (OCCSS) program at McGill has developed a program geared toward students who do not live in a McGill residence: Project COMunity. The initiative provides a useful resource for these students, providing them with effective resources for adjusting to life off-campus.

The project’s organizers believe that commuter students previously lacked an area on campus to unwind and spend time with their peers. In response, Project COMunity created a space for individuals to relax between classes and engage with other students before their evening commutes home.

Founded nearly four years ago, COMunity has recently developed more extensive support systems for first-year commuter students, who, otherwise, lack an outlet to socialize with their peers. COMunity connectors, a team of upper-year students who are commuters themselves, facilitate the services on offer and plan social events for students living outside of McGill residences.

The connectors collaborate with on-campus clubs and services and work to ensure commuter students have similar access to campus resources as those living in residence.

For example, floor fellow-like advisors aid the students’ transitions to university.

Additionally, the connectors hold workshops that advise commuters on a variety of topics, such as how to make commuting productive with better time management and how best to schedule downtime on campus. According to Claudia Belliveau, a program intern at the OCCSS, commuter students have a different experience at McGill than those living in residences and, consequently, may need auxiliary support.

“Commuter students have a different experience at university because they spend less time here,” Belliveau said. “Their engagement on campus is much lower. We are here to help. We are all commuter students, so we understand what they go through.”

Throughout November, COMunity is hosting the ‘COMon Ground’ lounge on Monday mornings, a social gathering open to all commuters. During these events, COMunity connectors invite these students to come and enjoy free food and coffee, relax, study, and get to know each other in a space of their own. In the future, COMunity hopes to expand their presence at McGill.

“Our main goal in the next five to 10 years is to create a commuter lounge,” Belliveau said. “A COMon ground for students to meet, hopefully with a kitchen, [...]

The OCCSS program aims to build community among commuters. (COMunity)

maybe with the ability for some students to spend the night during finals.”

The connectors also try to bridge the gap between students living in residences and those living off-campus; for example, first-year students living outside the McGill bubble can participate in Rez Wars on a team of off-campus students. The organizers hope that these sorts of experiences will help commuters better connect with the McGill community.

“COMunity is a program that strives to make commuter students feel at home on campus just as students living in residence have a home,” Belliveau said.

Ultimately, the COMunity connectors recognize the difficulties of commuting and are dedicated to improving the off-campus student experience. As students, time management is a difficult task, and adding travelling time to a long list of activities can be a struggle. Moving forward, the connectors hope to see more students in their COMon Ground lounge and at future events to extend their impact.

Student of the Week: Richard Davy The McGill social work student teaching naloxone workshops Mary Keith Staff Writer In 2017, Canada saw 3,987 cases of opioidrelated deaths, 72 per cent of which resulted from the use of fentanyl-laced drugs. Given these frightening statistics, Richard Davy, U1 Social Work, aims to raise the public’s still-limited awareness of the opioid crisis and naloxone, an antidote that can be administered in the event of an

opioid overdose. Through his independently-run workshops, Davy hopes attendees will learn more about naloxone administration and that they will have the ability to prevent future opioid-related deaths.

Though his primary academic interests is mental health research, Davy was first inspired to pursue the project when volunteering in the Montreal area during the Fall 2018 semester. He first witnessed the destructive effects of the opioid

The social work student holds workshops to teach Montrealers about naloxone use.

(Mary Keith / The McGill Tribune)

crisis when distributing food to individuals living on the streets.

“I’ve been doing outreach work on the streets […] as a link to talk to people [and] refer them to services, [...] and I started to see that there was this problem with overuse of opioids,” Davy said.

“My major interest is around mental health, [and] I see addiction and drug use and misuse as a link back to mental health as a core concern.”

At each workshop, Davy begins by introducing the history of the opioid crisis. To reduce the stigma surrounding fentanyl overdoses, he also underscores the pervasive nature of the opioid crisis; he explains that, in addition to drug users, it afflicts children in homes where opioids are present. Because people of all ages and backgrounds are affected by the opioid crisis, Davy believes that it is imperative that more Montrealers are educated in naloxone use.

“This isn’t just an interest with the ‘other’ [disadvantaged communities] and this isn’t just about recreational drug users,” Davy said. “This is also about regular, middle-class people, who are taking […] opioids at home. Youth ages 14-24 […] use [prescription opioids] recreationally [...] from parents or caregivers. [Since] this impacts everybody […], we all need to know how to use naloxone.”

Davy has naloxone kits available at the workshop and shows attendees how to use and administer the antidote. As part of this training, he also teaches guests the signs of drug overdose: Loss of consciousness, slowed or stopped breathing, and blue lips, among others. If attendees notice this

reaction Davy advises administering naloxone.

So far, the workshops have been a success.

At his most recent event on Nov. 7, Davy had 40 attendees, and he expects a much larger crowd for his upcoming event. To further spread Davy’s message, the Centre Des Jeunes (CJD) will be broadcasting the workshop on Nov. 16. At present, Davy has rented a room for 120 guests, but is hopeful that the turnout is even greater.

In the near future, Davy plans to expand the program across the greater Montreal area by collaborating with the city’s health administrators.

“I’m talking to [the] Jewish General Hospital and they’re talking about me coming and presenting to the doctors there,” Davy said.

“We had a family physician come to the [last] presentation, and […] he really wanted [doctors] to learn more.”

Through this work, Davy hopes to empower attendees with the knowledge that can save lives.

He sees naloxone accessibility and education as a necessity in the province: Under the Civil Code of Quebec, bystanders are under a legal obligation to help those in need. In the future, he hopes that the university takes greater steps to keep students safe such as making naloxone kits a part of standard first-aid kits and holding mandatory naloxone workshops as part of orientation events.

“I think we need to make it a part of our education curriculum,” Davy said. “We know that people are going to be using these opioids recreationally and we know that people are using them under prescription, [so], if people are going to use them, they should use them safely.”

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Tuesday, november 13 , 2018

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Queering video games

The importance of creating inclusive virtual spaces

Nicholas Raffoul Staff Writer

Representation matters, even in virtual spaces. (Kellyanne Levac / The McGill Tribune) My first encounter with a gay relationship was as a kid playing The Sims 2, when I selected the ‘flirt’ action for two male avatars. Taking caution to make sure that no one was watching my computer screen, I didn’t know what two boys ‘flirting’ even looked like. I thought it was a glitch in the system that would probably crash my game—it didn’t.

It made me feel a bit weird, but my two Sims seemed to enjoy it, so I let my boy Sims make out and ‘WooHoo’ with each other. A sense of shame lingered though, and I wouldn’t allow them to get married, even when their relationship bar was at a full 100.

Ever since then, I’ve had very few other chances to explore samesex relationships in mainstream video games. Only a handful of games have queer protagonists, and representation is even more bleak for lesbian or trans female playable characters—according to Feminist Frequency, as of 2017, only seven per cent of video games had femaleidentifying lead characters.

One explanation for limited representation in video game characters is the lack of diversity among game companies and developers. A

report by the International Game Developers Association in 2017 showed that 74 per cent of game developer employees identified as male, 21 per cent identified as female, and only three per cent identified as transgender.

Even more troubling, the report showed that 81 per cent of respondents were heterosexual, 11 per cent were bisexual, and five per cent were homosexual. As for ethnic backgrounds, 61 per cent of the respondents are white.

Due to a clear lack of ethnic and sexual diversity, content produced by scruffy white men in unwashed hoodies dominates the industry.

With a lack of representation and perspectives, video games reach a creative and commercial standstill.

In recent years, video game developers have noticed the industry’s failings and have recognized the importance of representing a wide variety of queer and racialized characters. Games like Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim give players the option to have relationships with characters of the same sex.

Overwatch, too, is another game commendable for its diverse and inclusive character range. Produced by Blizzard Entertainment, Overwatch features characters from a multitude of cultural and ethnic backgrounds, and offers gender-bending playable avatars. In a comic released online, Blizzard revealed that at least one of the game’s characters is queer. In the comic, the character in question, Tracer, comes home to her girlfriend with a Christmas gift.

Giving players the option to play queer and gender nonconforming characters is a small tweak to the gaming experience that allows queer gamers to feel seen and included.

With a lack of queer representation in my everyday life growing up, gaming was one of the few ways in which I could comfortably experiment with my gender and sexuality. Being able to customize characters in a safe and non-judgemental environment was a luxury I was not afforded in my day-to-day life. Representations of queer characters in games have helped me discover who I am today and continue to give me a space that validates my identity.

Today, I am happy to announce that my two boy Sims have moved in together, are happily married, and have adopted two kids.

No Exit

Get your dose of existential anguish with TNC’s production of Sartre’s classic play.

Tuesday Night Cafe Theatre, Nov. 15 - 24, 7:30-9 p.m., Directed by Frédérique Blanchard and Alma de Montplaisir.

Montreal International Documentary Festival

Sample more than 200 cutting-edge documentaries at théatres across Montreal.

Nov 8 - 18.

Tallest Man on Earth

But is this singer-songwriter really the tallest man on Earth?

Find out for yourself!

MTELUS, November 13, 8 p.m., Tickets $49.

Shadows without Borders

McCord Museum’s newest exhibiton explores notions of home, exile, and identity through interactive shadowplay.

McCord Museum, Nov. 13 - Jan. 6, 2019.

‘First Man’ shoots for the moon

Damien Chazelle’s latest film follows Apollo 11’s historic moon landing Andras Nemeth News Editor Continued from page 1.

As political and familial turmoil swirl around him, Armstrong’s gaze remains fixed on the moon and the memory of the loss of his daughter to a brain tumour. Foy plays against Armstrong’s detachment with strength and charisma, serving as her family’s anchor in the absence of her husband.

Central to Chazelle’s vision is the story behind the mission itself, told with dramatic understatement. The deaths of a crew of astronauts in a cabin fire are made all the more shocking by how frankly the film presents them. The death of Armstrong’s daughter in the film, initially treated without much sentimentality, quietly follows him to the surface of the moon.

The film’s intimate camerawork effectively conveys Armstrong’s claustrophobia both in the cockpit and at home. His inability to find breathing space and to reconcile with his grief on the ground drive him to look for calm beyond the tethers of Earth. Justin Hurwitz’s melancholy score punctuates this emotional trajectory, evoking Armstrong’s loneliness amidst the lunar landscape with the sound of a theremin.

Damien Chazelle sends Gosling to the city of stars in his first post-’La La Land’ project. (digitalspy.com) Cinematographers often explore personal loss against the canvas of space, as in Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity, or Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar. But while Chazelle’s commitment to realism creates an experience more grounded and human than either of these films, the extensive dramatic understatement of the film is ultimately more stifling than illuminating.

The domestic drama of the story, told in a direct, intimate fashion, simply isn’t

enough fuel for the film to escape the gravity of its subject matter. The moon landing seems to exist on a level of pure mythology, but the personal drama doesn’t provide enough of a counterweight to the raw excitement of the space sequences to make the film’s exploration of the costs of the mission truly resonate.

Where First Man succeeds most is as a visceral, first-person account of the sheer unlikeliness of the Apollo 11 mission. In its

portrayal of the space program’s unceasing, absurd danger, the film evokes a renewed awe for the 1969 mission. First Man’s unrelenting, unsteady energy makes its few moments of stillness all the more profound, and the moon landing sequence alone is worth the cost of a ticket. Yet, leaving the theatre, viewers might find themselves struggling to see the significance of the human drama—and humming “The Blue Danube” all the way home.

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Tuesday, november 13 , 2018

‘Suspiria’ dances to a vicious conclusion ‘Call Me By Your Name’ book club mothers be warned Dylan Adamson Features Editor Suspiria, Luca Guadagnino’s remake, or ‘cover version,’ as he calls it, of Dario Argento’s 1977 horror classic, is a hard pivot from both its source material and Guadagnino’s previous film, Call Me By Your Name.

Whereas those films isolated their characters to watch the play of emotions in specific environs—CMBYN in a bourgeois summer home and Argento’s Suspiria in a witchinfested dance academy—the newest iteration of Suspiria has more all-encompassing ambitions. Nonetheless, the dense script is not enough to smother Guadagnino and his usual team’s masterful formalism. The clothes are beautiful; with a few notable exceptions, the people are beautiful; the dance scenes are chaotic, and the queer undertones are palpable.

Suspiria opens with Patricia (Chloё Grace-Moretz) frantically babbling about a coven to her psychiatrist. Drenched in sweat, she explains the hierarchical layers of the witches’ sanctum and the ways in which they uphold the facade of a dance company. As she paces from bookshelf to bookshelf across the office floor, the camera cuts between several vantage points on her increasinglymanic movement, affecting an unnerving sense of surveillance that is less preoccupied with monitoring than with intimidation. An “Appointment In Progress” sign flashes a menacing neon red outside the office door.

The psychiatrist, a stodgy academic type played by Tilda Swinton in prosthetics, is concerned, but ultimately dismisses her.

Immediately, Guadagnino and screenwriter David Kajganich introduce one of Suspiria’s key themes: The manifold power dynamics of suppression and repression.

The image of a ‘hysterical’ woman pleading desperately with an indifferent authority figure is a loaded signifier in 2018, and the script revives this motif in less than subtle ways throughout the film. The scope of Suspiria’s injunction is expanded, however, when Susie (Dakota Johnson), a Mennonite from Ohio, arrives at the aforementioned dance studio located immediately west of the Berlin wall.

In Kajganich’s script, however, the signification of the Berlin Wall is insufficient for his historical revisionist ambitions. The film promptly reveals Patricia’s involvement in the Red Army Faction (RAF), a militant leftist group that reached international fame in 1977, the year in which Suspiria is set, with the events of the German Autumn.

This much information would be cumbersome to disclose in any film, but Suspiria suffers from a particularly-clumsy unspooling of its complicated historical backdrop. Tropey context-giving clues like radio excerpts and political graffiti alert viewers that context is essential to the narrative, but they fail to consistently connect the plot beyond frustratingly broad strokes. Guadagnino and Kajganich are clearly stressing the necessity of violence in social upheaval, but the relevance of specific historical events is lost in the film’s dedication to carnage.

Of course, when Suspiria does catharsis,

Hot Take: Greta Van Fleet’s debut album is a rock n’ roll throwback

From the Italian countryside to communist Germany, Guadagnino’s films never fail to stir. (geekytyrant.com) it does it right. In the moments it opts to let the plot step aside, it delivers gut-wrenching violence with a painterly precision. The film’s climax, in particular, unleashes the neon red coloured carnage that the witches are no longer able to suppress with brilliantly choreographed chaos.

Though the script could have benefitted from a firmer hand in the editing process, the production is executed masterfully.

Guadagnino’s editor Walter Fasano finds himself a far cry from the languid rhythm of CMBYN, working instead in the vein of another 1970s horror classic, Don’t Look Now, to concoct a claustrophobic sense of spatial and temporal unity. The film’s frantic editing and distribution of information threaten to

suffocate the characters, despite Suspiria’s extended runtime, but Johnson and Swinton are fantastic nonetheless, as neither character ends up close to where they started. As always, with Guadagnino and his costume designer Giulia Piersanti, the clothes are ravishing.

Suspiria has too much on its mind, and, though it is formally dazzling and strikingly ambitious, it never coalesces to form a consistent thesis. The ghosts of fascism, national guilt, motherhood and false motherhood, and the inevitability of violence in times of social instability all make potentially-interesting cameos over the film’s 152 minutes, but only its neon red carnage emerges with the vicious potency to which Guadagnino aspires.

Album review

An oasis of nostalgia in a desert of autotune Demaris Oxman Contributor The world of music journalism is full of takes: Good takes, bad takes, medium takes, and even hot takes. Here, in the Arts & Entertainment section of the The McGill Tribune, we try to supply the hottest takes around. Recently, Pitchfork lambasted Greta Van Fleet’s newest album. In the article, Jeremy D. Larson gave Anthem of the Peaceful Army a dismal 1.6 out of 10. While one could easily contest Pitchfork’s critical ability, they are undoubtedly one of the biggest voices in music journalism. We at the Tribune, however, believe that the biggest opinion does not necessarily correlate to the best. Here’s our hot take on Greta Van Fleet.

Album Review: Anthem of the Peaceful Army “Rock and roll is dead.” It’s a complaint heard often these days among classic rock enthusiasts. The recent emergence of Michiganborn blues and hard rock band Greta Van Fleet provides a glimmer of hope and a compelling piece of evidence to the contrary. After gaining traction last year with their EP “From the Fires,” the band released their first full-length album, Anthem of the Peaceful Army, on Oct. 19.

Greta Van Fleet’s bluesy melodies and extended instrumental interludes take listeners back to the ‘70s and into the era that gave rise to emblematic bands like Deep Purple, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Led Zeppelin. Critics often draw comparisons to the latter, and it’s obvious why: Lead singer Josh Kiszka’s raspy howl, featured prominently on songs like “When The Curtain Falls,” is strikingly similar to Robert Plant’s style, and the swirling guitar riffs of “Age of Man” and “Brave New World” are undoubtedly reminiscent of the legendary group. It’s like stepping into a time machine.

There’s a fine line between a style inspired by one’s predecessors and one that feels derivative. Critics of the band often dismiss them as a carbon copy of classic musical acts, lacking in creativity. There is validity to that argument: Most of the songs on Anthem of the Peaceful Army could inconspicuously feature on a Led Zeppelin playlist, and the average listener would never notice. But, the band’s members are barely in their twenties, and they are skilled in the art of rock ‘n roll. With time and experience, they’ll find a sound of their own.

Anthem of the Peaceful Army might be imitative, but it’s energetic, nostalgic, and just plain fun. In a world of autotune and drum machines, I’ll take a Led Zeppelin rip-off any day.

Greta Van Fleet toes the line between homage and ripoff in ‘Anthem of the Peaceful Army’. (nationalrockreview.com)

ANTHEM OF THE PEACEFUL ARMY

greta van fleet

science & technology

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2018

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Living in a high-tech sci-tech world 2018 Public Science Symposium discusses the human-technology interface Emma Gillies Staff Writer The McGill Office for Science and Society hosted the 2018 Trottier Public Science Symposium on Oct. 29 and 30, where academics discussed information technology and its implications for humanity.

Human history is punctuated with moments which completely redefined technology, the latest being the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Beginning during World War 2, the revolution saw the inception of artificial intelligence (AI) and genome editing. Alan Turing, the revered mathematician, sparked the revolution when he developed the first computer to decipher coded messages sent by the German Enigma machine during WW2. Building upon Turing’s computer, it took just twenty years to downsize the ENIAC, the world’s first digital computer, and fit its capabilities into a tiny silicon chip. Technology continues to advance at a rapid rate, and while some are ecstatic for what it holds, others fear that we risk creating something we cannot control.

This fear is most relevant to the rise of AI. Rather than enhancing humans’ physical abilities, AI, unlike other technologies, promises to boost our cognition and, consequently, raises uncomfortable questions about consciousness and identity.

Doina Precup, associate professor in McGill’s School of Computer Science, shared her fascination with systems that can learn independently and even outcompete humans. With the rise of big data, there is a wealth of information about everything from business to healthcare, and it would take more processing power than humans are capable of to analyze it all.

“There’s really a deluge of many different kinds of data that are on the Internet and that we’d like to make sense of, and it turns out that we have the computing power now to do that,” Precup said.

Machine learning is a branch of AI specialized in conducting data analysis and learning from it. Machine learning can be applied to develop technologies such as self-driving cars and fraud detection.

“AI does not exist in a vacuum,” Precup said. “It exists in a social context, and we need to figure out a way to deal with this.”

Technology occupies a crucial place in human evolution.

Cameron Smith, an adjunct assistant professor of anthropology at Portland State University, explained that humans have consistently

used tools to adapt and disperse. Technologies to advance transportation have largely characterized the past two million years of human history—from the sailing vessels used by the prehistoric Lapita peoples of Polynesia to the spacesuits designed for travelling beyond Earth’s atmosphere, a project that Smith is working on in his Pacific Spaceflight lab.

But, the same technology that makes Smith’s spacesuit research possible also leads to privacy issues. As devices become increasingly ingrained into everyday life, so, too, has the collection and sale of user data.

As a result, AI technology is perpetuating concerns over data privacy. Moreover, dealing with personal data becomes even more complicated when robots, rather than humans, are analyzing it. According to Ian Kerr, Canada Research Chair in Ethics, Law, and Technology, the privacy issues surrounding AI are difficult for lawyers to handle because privacy regulation typically deals with relationships between people.

Current legislation is inadequate since robots, which were once simply extensions for humans, are now capable of acting independently.

“Privacy law sees [...] a binary between [being a] toaster and a person,” Kerr said.

“And, so, if [something is] not a person, [there are] no privacy implications. Everything is just as much a toaster.”

For Kerr, this binary way of dividing organic and machine thinking is insufficient.

Instead, he argues that there ought to be a continuum. Cognizance is not simply a trait of humans; robots are also capable of invading privacy.

According to Precup, artificial superintelligence is still out of reach, so robots won’t be taking over the world anytime soon.

Still, privacy doctrine today only accounts for humans and is thus ill-prepared for a high-tech world.

As artificial minds enter reality, humans should keep watch through law and policy.

Speakers talk artificial intelligence, technology, and societal repercussions. (Amanda Fiore / The McGill Tribune)

Follow your nose

Study identifies areas of the brain that link smell and spatial memory

Oceáne Marescal Contributor Continued from page 1.

Using these tasks, the Bohbot Lab showed that people who have good spatial memory are also able to identify odours better. Through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), they identified the medial orbitofrontal cortex, or mOFC, and the hippocampus as specific brain regions involved in both smelling and directing oneself. Participants who were skilled at both tasks had thicker medial orbitofrontal cortices and a higher hippocampal volume, suggesting a possible role for these regions in olfaction and spatial awareness.

The researchers found that patients with damage to the mOFC suffered deficits in both olfaction and spatial memory, whereas damage in other brain areas had no effect, suggesting that both tasks are related to the same region of

the brain.

Louisa Dahmani, the graduate student who conducted the study, explained why the seeminglyunrelated capabilities of navigation and smell are linked.

“The current research uncovers a link between spatial memory and olfaction which may find its roots in evolution,” Dahmani said. “The theory [is] that the olfactory sense evolved for navigation purposes.”

This hypothesis is logical, Dahmani explained, given that most animals use smell, rather than vision or hearing, to navigate and find food. Black bears, for example, have an extremely refined sense of smell, which they use to hunt food up to 20 miles away.

Similarly, dogs have an olfactory organ in their brains that is 40 times larger than ours. The human reliance on sight and sound is actually uncommon in the animal kingdom, which is why Dahmani was surprised by the outcomes.

“The most surprising result was that we found the existence

It is likely that the olfactory sense evolved for navigational purposes. (themedium,com) of this link [between olfaction and spatial memory] in humans, as we don’t very often rely on our sense of smell to navigate,” Dahmani said.

Deficits in navigation and smell often occur simultaneously with some disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia. A recent study of over 3,000 seniors showed that participants who were unable to

identify at least four out of five odours in a simple smell test were twice as likely to have dementia five years later. Now, with the Bohbot Lab’s conclusion, researchers are seeking to use olfactory and spatial memory tests to see whether they can identify the risk for these disorders.

“I think this is an important line of investigation as we may be able to intervene in these individuals

before the disease declares itself,” Dahmani said.

Greater understanding of the links between spatial awareness and olfaction has crucial diagnostic implications. Utilizing smell tests in patients predisposed to develop certain diseases of the brain, preventative treatments could be successfully administered much earlier on in the course of the disease’s development.

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science & technology

tuesday, novemeber 13, 2018

Cannabis as a key for chronic illness Discussing the viability of cannabinoid treatment with Dr. Michael Dworkind Ronny Litvack Katzman Staff Writer Since the legalization of cannabinoids— chemical compounds found in cannabis— for medical purposes in 2001, a growing number of Canadian physicians have turned to medicinal marijuana for patients suffering from cancer and other chronic disorders such as multiple sclerosis and arthritis.

Cannabinoid receptors, which bind cannabinoids, influence cognitive and physiological processes and are part of a larger network of receptors that compose the body’s endocannabinoid system. These receptors respond to the two active cannabinoids in cannabis, cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Positive effects from cannabinoids include pain suppression, enhanced mood, and increased appetite.

Some members of the medical community are eager to use the benefits of cannabinoids to treat their patients. Michael Dworkind, a physician at the Jewish General Hospital, cofounded Santé Cannabis, a Montreal-based medical organization which provides patients with medical cannabis prescriptions, in 2014.

Santé Cannabis connects patients to a network of healthcare workers including physicians, educators, and cannabis suppliers.

Specifically, Dworkind is interested in cannabinoids as a potential solution to Canada’s growing opioid crisis, working as a substitute, or at least a complement, for opioid treatment. Currently, 13 per cent of Canadians use prescription opioids, which remains the

most frequently-prescribed treatment for chronic illness despite a 5.5 per cent risk of addictive use.

“Opioids and cannabinoids work extremely well together,” Dworkind said.

“They are synergistic in their benefit.”

Under Dworkind’s process, following an initial interview process with a doctor, the patient must meet with an educator to learn how to use cannabis responsibly. Only after the patient has completed this process are they put in touch with licenced suppliers. Working with the suppliers to personalize the THC-toCBD content gives them a newfound degree of involvement in their treatment options.

Despite Dworkind’s optimism, some doctors are not as convinced by the effects of cannabinoids; according to him, only five per cent of doctors in Quebec prescribe cannabinoids. Jeff Blackmer of the Canadian Medical Association emphasized the need for further research, attesting to the fact that eight out of nine physicians in Canada are uncomfortable discussing or providing access to medical cannabis.

“It’s important to recognize that, by and large, that [the] level of evidence [for cannabinoids’ benefits] doesn’t reach the quality that we demand for every other product that physicians prescribe,” Blackmer said in an interview with CBC. Blackmer’s apprehensions are not unfounded. Like alcoholism and similar psychostimulant abuse disorders, cannabinoids may foster psychological dependence. To combat this effect, doctors who prescribe

Currently only 5 per cent of doctors in Quebec prescribe medicinal cannabinoids. (cannamd.com) medical cannabis in Quebec remain in contact with suppliers to ensure that patients are getting the right amount.

“When we see a growth in consumption [...], we have to put limits on it, or we ask them to leave the program,” Dworkind said.

Synthetic cannabinoids, such as Nabilone, as well as cannabis-derived medications like Sativex, are commercially available but possess their own set of risks. Similar to cannabis, these options are not covered by provincial health insurance plans.

“Whereas the conventional therapies are covered by the government, non-traditional cannabinoid therapy is not [covered by the government],” Dworkind said. “A bottle of

Sativex, which would last two weeks, costs $150.”

Nonetheless, cannabis is a cheaper option for patients on a budget.

“People who have work-related injuries are on a dozen drugs,” Dworkind said. “Total up that amount and compare it $5-$10 a gram, a gram or two a day of cannabis. Cannabis treatment is cost effective.”

The team at Santé Cannabis continues to push forward, educating patients in the hopes that they will embrace cannabinoid treatment for their own sake.

“All of this is about human rights and politics,” Dworkind said. “Quality of life is our bottom line, after all.”

Understanding the most common STI: HPV

McGill addresses HPV and cancer awareness Farida Rahman Contributor Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is an extremely common sexually transmitted infection (STI); in fact, up to 80 per cent of sexually active men and women will be infected with the virus at least once in their lives. The infection can be transmitted through skin-to-skin contact and primarily manifests on skin and mucous membranes, causing benign warts. However, it can also be associated with the onset of prostate cancer and cervical cancer. This month’s Movember campaign and last month’s Cervical Cancer Awareness Week provide opportunities to raise awareness for the potential health risks of HPV. “HPV has been linked in recent years to the development of cervical cancer,” Sabrina Piedimonte, a resident doctor at the Montreal University Health Centre, said. “More recently, we know that it’s associated with vulvar, anal, penile, and head and neck cancers [….] That being said, 85 per cent of people are infected with the virus, but the good thing is that most people are young and healthy and can clear the virus.”

As an STI, contracting HPV can generate painful social stigma and feelings of shame. Many of the factors that put an individual at a higher risk of being infected,

including having multiple sexual partners, being sexually active from an earlier age, having HIV or herpes, and smoking, are also subject to disparagement. An overlapping conglomeration of stigmas can have serious repercussions that extend far beyond physical health. Marginalized people are most affected by STI-based discrimination and may additionally have less access to adequate healthcare.

For those infected with the virus, a promising treatment is available. The HPV vaccine has been shown to not only prevent the transmission of HPV, but also help sthe body fight off the virus when already infected. Studies even show that the vaccine can prevent the relapse of precancerous lesions in the cervix. Thus, despite common misconceptions, it is still valuable to get the vaccine even after becoming sexually active. In support of this form of treatment, the Canadian government offers free vaccination to girls under the age of 18 and to men who have sex with men up to the age of 26.

“So far, most people get vaccinated when they’re in elementary school or high school,” Piedimonte said. “[But] not everybody in university has had that chance to be vaccinated or protected.

This is a population that’s at higher risk for having multiple sexual partners and not necessarily having access to a doctor

or knowing that they should have a PAP test.”

Part of a routine check-up for many women, PAP smears are a cervical screening technique used to test for precancerous tissues. Ideally, they should be performed once every three years.

However, if irregularities are found, these tests may be performed more often for monitoring purposes.

The Community Ambassadors to Conquer HPV (CATCH) teamed up with resident doctors from McGill Department

of Obstetrics and Gynecology last month to provide students with STI screening, PAP tests, and HPV vaccinations.

In addition to the clinic, they held information sessions about HPV, cervical cancer, and general women’s health.

The collaborative effort recognized the arduous process of accessing preventative testing and vaccinations outside of the university campus. The McGill Clinic also performs PAP smears, STI testing, and vaccinations; however, these services are only offered by appointment.

Up to 80 per cent of sexually active people will be infected with HPV at some point in their life. (arrowheadhealth.com)

sports

TUESDAY, November 13, 2018

15

In conversation with Jay Baruchel The Montreal-born actor talks Habs, fighting, and Canadian identity Gabe Nisker Sports Editor “Fans have always had opinions,” Jay Baruchel said. “But it used to be that the only people that would hear them were other fans or potentially the poor bastard that has to host the postgame show on whatever radio station.”

In this instance, Baruchel was alluding to social media specifically, but the number of ways to express feelings about favourite one’s sports is growing. Baruchel continues to use as many of them as he can.

The 2012 film Goon, which he co-starred in and co-wrote with McGill alum Evan Goldberg, is one of the most overt examples of the Canadian actor’s obsession with hockey. Baruchel, also known for the 2013 film This is the End and the How to Train Your Dragon franchise, is consumed by his love for the Montreal Canadiens. To put his self-proclaimed ‘religion’ into words, Baruchel has written a book about his fandom. Born Into It was released on Oct. 30.

When he spoke with The McGill Tribune over the phone, Baruchel was in Montreal for a few days for his book tour. Now that he lives in Toronto, Baruchel’s itineraries are always packed when he returns to his hometown.

“I make sure I eat all the food I can’t get in Toronto,” Baruchel said.

“And, so, I was very pleased and [...] surprised when we got off the VIA Rail on Thursday, and my fiancée said, ‘Let’s go to St-Hubert,’ and I was like, I would never have the balls to ask or

(Arshaaq Jiffry / The McGill Tribune)

to suggest that as a place where we could have supper, but I will definitely take the opportunity.”

St-Hubert is a favourite of Baruchel’s; he effusively praised the local chicken chain during his appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live last year as well as in his new book.

In his prologue, he describes the experience watching the game at his place, waiting for St-Hubert delivery.

It’s a nostalgic moment of writing, that feels timeless for sports fans.

“Finely-tuned chicken instincts turn all our heads to the front window, and we are now legitimately excited because we are all legitimately hungry,” Baruchel writes. “A little bright-yellow hatchback has just pulled up in front of my house, and

within it lies chicken that will soon be in our stomachs.”

Baruchel has a knack for describing these little moments from his hockey story. In an early chapter, Baruchel pinpoints his first hockey memory: Watching a Canadiens game at age three with his father and choosing to cheer for Les Habitants.

“Granted, I’d picked the Habs because red was, and still is, my favourite colour,” he writes. “But, I also know that the reason I love the colour red is because my parents always painted my bedroom stuff red.

Because they were Habs fans, and I was always going to be a Habs fan. I never had a choice. I was born into it.”

Much of sports fandom starts out similarly to the way Baruchel remembers his own fandom starting: As a matter of nature and nurture.

Family dynamics inform and often create fandoms. However, family can divide fans, too. “[Sports] can [...] do the same thing as politics, just probably softer, I think,” Baruchel said. “At the end of the day, it’s just hockey. But, I think it can drive a wedge sometimes.”

Baruchel moved to Toronto a few years ago for work. His relationship with his new city is complicated, largely because of the Canadiens’ dreaded rival, the Toronto Maple Leafs. In Born Into It, Baruchel writes mock hate emails to the Leafs and two other Canadiens rivals, the Boston Bruins and the now-defunct Quebec Nordiques.

“What seems to cut through and really register with people and seems to be sort of a part of everyday Habsism is our enemies,” Baruchel said. “We are Habs fans because we like the Habs, but we are equally Habs fans because we hate the teams that the Habs hate.”

That makes his own situation more convoluted, since the number of Leafs fans in his own family is only growing, as he marries into his fiancée Rebecca’s family of Leafs fans.

“For me, there’s a certain aspect of Habs fandom that requires being a troll,” Baruchel said. “There’s this [...] petty chip on our shoulder that we have that a lot of other teams don’t have [....] The first time I met all of her extended family last Christmas, I was [...] wearing a Habs scarf the whole day. So, in all the photos, I’m wearing my dumbass scarf, and it definitely informed all of the introductions to everybody.”

Baruchel’s love of hockey is pure; he sees it as the most beautiful game ever created. Further, he feels that if ever there were to be something truly symbolic of being Canadian, it would be hockey. The sport embodies some of what Baruchel sees as the key Canadian values.

“This is a country [...] where nobody likes to paint anybody with [a single Canadian identity], but if I was to [...] distill Canadianness into [...] adjectives, it would be [...] humility, work ethic, and toughness,” Baruchel said. “Canada’s all about doing what needs to be done when you need to do it. Because if you don’t, you can’t fucking drive your car because it’s fucking fused to the sidewalk in a cocoon of ice.”

Baruchel barely touches upon his Hollywood career in Born Into It, noting that those stories could fill a book of their own. Instead, he dedicates whole chapters to topics like hockey fighting—tying in the thread

of his Goon movies, which feature a minor league hockey fighter as their protagonist.

Baruchel struggles with his feelings about fighting, since he does not have to suffer the consequences.

As a fan, though, he feels that hockey fighting exemplifies Canadian traits.

“I think it’s like a dirty little secret that nobody wants to name,” Baruchel said. “Hockey fighting is as Canadian an experience for those participating in it, for those watching it, as anything [....] I think that there’s something [...] honest and [...] kind of quaint about trying to solve your differences with your two fists, real simply.”

To Baruchel, though, Canadianness lies in what happens after the fight.

“Look at how the majority of [...] those boys relate to one another after they drop the gloves,” he said.

“After it’s all said and done, it’s a lot of helping each other up off the ice

[....] It’s something that’s in us and has always been in us.”

Baruchel points out that even though the public ignores it in favour of the overarching Canadian stereotype, the Canadian fighting spirit has been present throughout the country—hockey is just its outlet.

“The first time we played [...] hockey indoors, there was a donnybrook [a fight],” Baruchel said. “It doesn’t necessarily dovetail, and it might seem incongruous with progressive Canada, but I don’t think it is. I think we found a place to put it.”

Baruchel believes it is a good thing for Canada’s teams to be at odds with each other.

“I know Toronto and Montreal on a Saturday night is [...] as close to [...] a storied cultural institution as we have in this baby country,” Baruchel said. “And, I think that Canada is better when the Habs and Leafs are better and are at each other’s throats, and, if Canada is better, then hockey’s better.”

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16

sports

TUESDAY, november 13, 2018

McGill men’s basketball holds off UQAM in thrilling victory

Cummins wins 2018 season opener for McGill with last-minute two-pointer

on the clock, shocking the packed crowd.

The home side stayed focused: McGill fifth-year guard Avery Cadogan scored a key three-pointer to cut the deficit to one with 30 seconds left. On the next play, fourth-year point guard Isaiah Cummins got the ball off of a defensive rebound, drove right to the basket, and scored with 17.8 seconds remaining. He also drew a foul and sunk the free throw to make it a 62-60 game.

“I just made [a] few bad plays the few plays before, so I had to make

Paul McCann Contributor On Nov. 8, the McGill men’s basketball team (2-0) opened their season at Love Competition Hall against the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) Citadins (0-2). In a hard-fought game, McGill won in the final seconds by a score of 62-60.

McGill started quickly, taking a 15-5 lead out of the gate. Fifth-year point guard Alex Paquin was redhot, scoring the team’s first seven points. The game started to even out as UQAM began hitting their shots and gaining momentum, but fourth-year-transfer McGill forward Levi Londole hit a buzzer-beater, and McGill finished the first quarter up 23-11.

Londole carried his dominating play right into the second: He converted a three-point-play right out of the gate, and McGill stretched their lead to 17, their largest of the night. However, McGill then faltered, letting the Citadins back into the game. UQAM went on a 10-3 run to get back within striking distance before McGill pulled away, once again, to finish the half up 35-24.

Fourth-year guard Isaiah Cummins drives to the basket. (Gabriel Helfant / The McGill Tribune) “We knew they were [going to] come out hard, so we made sure we were [going to] come out as hard, if not harder, to not give them hope from the beginning,” Paquin said.

At the start of the second half, UQAM turned up the intensity, starting the second half just as strong as McGill did to open the game. The Citadins put up a quick 14 points to McGill’s four, bringing the score to 39-38. With the help of a deep threepoint shot by Paquin and a string

of crucial defensive stops, McGill brought the game back under control.

At the end of the third quarter, they led 48-43.

The two sides traded control of the game throughout the fourth quarter. Late in the frame, McGill went on a quick 6-0 run to give them a 56-48 lead. With momentum shifting, it seemed like enough to carry them to victory. However, UQAM answered with 12 consecutive points to take a late 60-56 lead with 58 seconds left

up for it,” Cummins said. “So, I was going to the rack, and I knew we didn’t have much time left, and [...] there was only one guy in front of me.

So, I just took it to the rack.”

After Cummins knocked down the free throw, fifth-year McGill forward Noah Daoust made a key block, preserving the lead and sealing the game.

McGill moved to 2-0 with a win against Université de Laval (0-2) on Nov. 10 and will next play at home against Bishop’s University (1-0) on Nov. 15.

MOMENT OF THE Game With 17.8 seconds left, fourth-year guard Isaiah Cummins won the game for McGill with a driving three-point-play.

QUOTABLE “We [have to] do a better job with our young kids and having them understand the scouting report and who we want to shoot the ball and who we don’t.” - Head Coach David DeAveiro on how to prepare themselves for their next game.

STAT CORNER With strong play on both sides of the court, Levi Londole filled the stat sheet. He put up 13 points, a team-leading nine rebounds, and two blocks.

2018 MLB award predictions Our guide to baseball’s biggest award winners

League.

However, the Manager of the Year award more often goes to a candidate with lesser expectations, and Braves manager Brian Snitker’s ability to turn the 2017 90-loss Braves into a 2018 90-win club should earn him the award.

Wednesday Nov. 14 Cy Young Awards (Blake Snell, TB; and Jacob deGrom, NYM) The AL Cy Young race features a mix of faces both old and new. Blake Snell was 2018’s breakout pitcher with a 21-5 record, 1.89 ERA, and 221 strikeouts. Snell was the only consistent starter Jacob deGrom is our pick to win the NL Cy Young award. (Geoff Burke / USA TODAY Sports) on a Rays squad that won 90 games. His gaudy stats will push him above veteran Khris Davis.

Maximizing the Tuesday Nov. 13 Mitch Bannon workhorse Justin Verlander, production from his veterans, Managers of the Year Contributor (Bob Melvin, OAK; and Melvin also oversaw his whose 290 strikeouts and 2.52 young corner infielders Matt ERA would have earned more With another baseball Brian Snitker, ATL) Alex Cora won 108 Chapman and Matt Olson serious consideration for the season in the books, it is time for awards to roll in. On games—and the World who broke out into premier award in previous years.

Jacob deGrom will win Nov. 12, Shohei Ohtani and Series—but Bob Melvin power hitters and defenders.

National League voting the NL Cy Young award Ronald Acuña Jr. took home will be the one to walk away the American and National with the American League will be much closer; Craig despite his team’s best efforts League Rookie of the Year Manager of the Year Award. Counsell and Brian Snitker to sabotage his brilliant trophies, respectively. With Melvin led an overlooked are both worthy finalists. season. The pitcher managed managed the a mediocre 10-9 record after more awards to come, The Athletics squad to 96 wins Counsell McGill Tribune has compiled and the playoffs. He got career Brewers, who brought in the Mets supplied him with a a guide to this week in seasons from Jed Lowrie and Christian Yelich and Lorenzo mere 3.7 runs per game of run Stephen Piscotty and coaxed Cain this past offseason, to support. Max Scherzer’s 300 baseball awards. yet another .247 season out of the best record in the National strikeouts and 18-7 record

will draw the attention of some voters. But, ultimately, deGrom’s 1.70 ERA and 269 strikeouts will push him past Scherzer given modern voters’ tendency to look past win-loss records.

Thursday Nov. 15 Most Valuable Players (Mookie Betts, BOS; and Christian Yelich, MIL) This season, Mike Trout posted a career-best mark in OPS+, an advanced metric that normalizes a hitter’s onbase plus slugging percentage relative to the league average.

But even his glittering mark of 199, which shows he hit 99 per cent better than the average MLB hitter, will prove insufficient. Once again, Trout will be robbed of the American League MVP award as a result of the Los Angeles Angels missing the postseason. Mookie Betts will be popular with old-school voters as he was the heart of the besthitting outfield in baseball; and, the Red Sox’s 108 wins certainly won’t hurt, either.

Betts’

.346 average, 32 home runs, and MLB-leading 10.4 Wins Above Replacement per Fangraphs (fWAR), will be enough to hold off Trout for AL MVP. Christian Yelich led the National League in batting average, slugging percentage, and fWAR. He pulled away in the NL MVP race during one of the best individual second halves of a season in MLB history. Colorado’s Nolan Arenado won his second straight Platinum Glove award, but voters will discredit his offence because he plays in hitter-friendly Coors Field, and Javier Baez’s league leading 111 runs batted in aren’t enough to challenge Yelich in any significant way.