McGill Tribune Vol. 38 Issue 19

The McGill Tribune TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2019 | VOL. 38 | ISSUE 19

Published by the SPT, a student society of McGill University

McGILLTRIBUNE.COM | @McGILLTRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

FEATURE

ALBUM REVIEW

Don’t overturn a democratic vote for undemocratic reasons

Artists in search for a space

Tip of the sphere is a little bit magical

PG. 5

PGs. 8-9

PG. 12

(Dan Aponte / The McGill Tribune)

The McGill Tribune UTILE

proposes an affordable student housing project for McGill

JOURNALISM(S):

A PLURAL DISCIPLINE

A MEDIA AND JOURNALISM CONFERENCE Hosted by The McGill Tribune

PG. 3

What it takes for McGill to cancel class The history of snow days at McGill Vanessa Barron Contributor On Feb. 13, McGill students awoke to the best news imaginable: Classes were cancelled due to inclement weather. Although the university has now had two snow days in the past two years, before March 2017, McGill had not cancelled

class in 19 years. Though in recent winters the McGill administration has been more willing to declare a snow day, it takes an extreme storm for the university to close its doors for the day.

In the past 20 years of class cancellations at McGill, the 1998 Ice Storm was perhaps the most dangerous event. This natural di-

saster consisted of three severe storms over the course of six days.

It cost the governments of Quebec, New Brunswick, and Ontario a total of 1.5 million dollars in collective damages and resulted in at least 25 deaths. Following the storm, McGill was closed for a week, as there was no power and the campus was covered in ice.

PG. 14

McGill receives $200 million to fund graduate scholarships

ALAN FREEMAN REPORTER FOR THE CANADIAN PRESS

APHRODITE SALAS

PROFESSOR IN JOURNALISM AT CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY

SARAH NAFISA SHAHID STAFF WRITER AT THE DAILY STAR

THOMSON HOUSE

FEBRUARY 19-21

Senate to vote on revised sexual violence policy

Abeer Almahdi Opinion Editor

On Feb. 14, the McGill University Board of Governors (BoG) announced the new McCall MacBain Scholarship and discussed the Strategic Research Plan, sexual violence policy revisions, and the annual report of the Committee on Student Discipline. The

BoG also approved motions that were previously approved by Senate, such as the creation of an Institute of Health Sciences Education within the Faculty of Medicine and the renaming of the Département de langues et littératures françaises to the Département des littératures de langue française, de traduction et de création.

McCall MacBain Scholarship In honour of McGill’s upcoming bicentennial celebration, John McCall MacBain and Marcy McCall MacBain, both McGill alumni, donated $200 million to McGill to establish a new scholarship to support graduate students. This is the single largest gift to any university in Canadian history.

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news

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2019

AUS executive decision to approve POLI 339 fee suspended

VP Internal resigns amid governance scandal Andras Nemeth News Editor Motion to Ban Recording of Legislative Council Meetings Carries Prior to discussing the POLI 339 vote, the Legislative Council approved a motion to institute a standing rule banning the taping or recording of AUS Legislative Council meetings. Under the approved motion, campus media may be exempt from the ban if they obtain a two-thirds majority vote of approval by the Council at each session.

Suspension of POLI 339 Course Fee Approval In a statement to members of the McGill Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) on Feb. 12, the AUS Executive Committee announced that it had overturned a Jan. 30 Legislative Council decision to not approve a course fee for POLI 339, titled “Comparative Developed: Topics 1,” a summer course set to take place at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The proposed fee would have each student enrolled in the course pay $1,000 for housing and travel expenses. According to Quebec law, all courses requiring fees beyond tuition must be approved by the university’s student society, a responsibility which the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) delegates to the AUS for Faculty of Arts courses.

The Legislative Council narrowly voted down the fee 14 to 13, largely out of concern that a course at an Israeli university would be inaccessible for Palestinian students. The AUS Executive Committee justified overturning this initial decision in their Feb. 12 statement, claiming that they had received additional information about the course and were given a deadline of Feb. 8 to make a decision. On Feb. 14, AUS Secretary-General Sophie Zhao and Deputy Secretary-General Nathan Mendel announced on the AUS Facebook page that their team had suspended the Executive Committee’s decision to approve the course fee under accusations that the vote, which had taken place over Facebook Messenger, was unconstitutional.

These events were of primary concern at the AUS Legislative Council meeting on Feb. 14. In a discussion led by Zhao, AUS executives issued statements about the events of the past two weeks and answered questions about overturning the Legislative Council’s decision. Two members of the Executive Committee, AUS President Maria Thomas and Arts Representative Andrew Figueiredo, admitted to pressuring other members of the Executive Committee to vote a certain way. The executives also announced the resignation of Vice-President (VP) Internal Billy Kawasaki, while AUS members and councillors called for further resignations and the release of the Facebook messages constituting the vote.

In a prepared statement delivered to the Legislative Council, Thomas provided a timeline of the decision to approve the course fee and apologized for telling another member of the Executive Committee to vote a certain way. She explained that, following the failure of the course

The AUS Execuitve Committee voted not to call an emergency Legislative Council meeting after allegedly receiving information that justified a revote on the POLI 339 course fee. (Claire Boixel-Streiff / McGill University) fee at Legislative Council, she had been approached by the professors responsible for the course, after which the Executive Committee voted to make the decision internally in accordance with the AUS bylaws governing course fee approval.

“On February 7, we were told we needed to decide on this class fee ratification due to [Frais Institutionels Obligatoires] (FIO) bylaws clause 2.3, which states that ‘If a decision must be made when AUS Legislative Council is unable to be convened, the AUS Executive Committee must contact the representative departmental association if and when possible for their recommendation. This recommendation can then be ratified by a simple majority of the AUS Executive Committee,’” Thomas said. “Some of us suspect an executive told the professors [about] this bylaw so that they could frame it in this way and capitalize off of it [....]

To break down the vote, we had four yes, four abstentions, and two [no votes] [....] I will admit that I messaged another member of our executive at the time, as I wanted another ‘no’ vote in order to stop this process. I realize in hindsight that this was a mistake on my part, so I am sorry.”

Thomas claimed that Kawasaki resigned as a result of the pressure surrounding the executive vote.

“From this vote and situation, our VP Internal Billy Kawasaki has now resigned,” Thomas said. “He wanted 24 hours not to be bothered, which is why we did not announce it yesterday [....] He felt, among others on our team, bullied and harassed into voting a certain way according to the goals of others [....] He was new on our executive, and he was in a hostile environment.”

According to the AUS VP Communications Jamal Tarrabain, a total of three votes on the course fee were held over Facebook, with the executive committee reporting the results of the first vote.

“There were three votes in total over Facebook Messenger as we were unable to convene in person,” Tarrabain wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune. “The outcome of the second two votes contradicted the first vote, however, it was decided that the first vote result would be the one that counted. There was a prior vote as to whether to call an emergency [Legislative] Council meeting which was voted down.

I am unaware of there being [...] formal movers on the motion.”

In a statement before the Legislative Council, Figueiredo apologized for pressuring another member of the Executive Committee and expressed regret that the question was not brought to Legislative Council, but he defended the constitutionality of the vote.

“I would like to admit, first of all, that, like Maria, I did message somebody to try to get them to vote the way that I wanted, and I do apologize for this,” Figueiredo said. “That was not necessarily right of me to do. I would like to also note that we were informed by the professors that there was an impending deadline [….] We had pressure from [the] administration on us, [and] we had pressure from the professors.

I think we all wish this could have come back to Council [….] That said, the letter of [the] constitution was followed.”

Addressing the Legislative Council, Department of English Student Association (DESA) VP External Anisah Shah called for AUS executives to consider resigning in light of the controversy.

“I [...] think that the only way to move forward and allow constituents to feel as though they can have faith in the AUS is through resignations,” Shah said. “I’m not calling on anyone specific to resign, but I think if you were involved, if you encouraged this blatant disregard of democratic procedure in this institution, if you were willing to bend to professors’ whims or even encourage them to manipulate bylaws in a way that goes against students’ interests, you should not be serving as an AUS executive officer. I would strongly encourage you to resign before articles of impeachment are brought up.”

Other councillors questioned the constitutionality of the Executive Committee vote. According to section 12.3 of the AUS Constitution, all actions and resolutions taken by the Executive Committee between Legislative Council meetings must be submitted to the next Council meeting for ratification, and there was no such submission for the Feb. 14 meeting. Many councillors and observers called for the executives to release relevant Facebook messages in order to restore the trust of councillors and constituents.

According to Thomas, the question of overturning the Executive Committee’s vote will, ultimately, be decided by SSMU pending the results of the AUS SecretaryGeneral’s investigation.

“On Feb. 11, I sent the ratification to the [Director of Student Accounts], who sent it to SSMU for ratification, and they ratified [and sent it] to the Deputy Provost Student Life and Learning (DPSLL) office,” Thomas said. “Speaking today to DPSLL, he has informed me that if we can get SSMU on board, we can talk to [the DPSLL] about rescinding our vote.”

news

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2019

UTILE proposes an affordable student housing project for McGill SSMU considers development plans to keep Montreal affordable

Candidates discuss accessibility, mental health, and equity at AUS elections debate VP Academic is the only uncontested position in the upcoming election Nina Russell Staff Writer

The proposed $19.3 million project could be completed by 2023, pending a referendum to create a student fee that would support the development. (Emerson Dodge / The McGill Tribune)

Sam Dagres Contributor The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) is in the preliminary stages of constructing residential spaces in collaboration with Unité de travail pour l’implantation de logement étudiant (UTILE), a non-profit organization that works toward establishing affordable housing for students in Québec.

UTILE was founded in 2012 in an attempt to revive a vacant UQAM student housing project. The effort was unsuccessful, but the organization has since invested in other projects, including an affordable student housing project for Concordia University.

In 2014, SSMU approached UTILE to conduct research on the state of student housing around McGill’s Downtown campus and the possibility of erecting new affordable accommodations. This past January, UTILE presented a 60-page feasibility report to SSMU. The report found that the cost of rent in the Plateau-Mont-Royal area is increasing faster than inflation. This has resulted in McGill students paying the highest rent on the island; 40 per cent more than students at other French-speaking universities, on average.

“We are paying $200 to $300 more than other [students] in Montreal,” SSMU President Tre Mansdoerfer said. “Those numbers are upsetting [....] Affordable housing is something that should be important to SSMU, [and] UTILE is one avenue [to] affordable housing.”

The feasibility of such a project hinges on its financing. UTILE recommended building a new, medium-rise structure that would provide 150 units, estimating that monthly rent would be around $761 for a studio and $500 per occupant in a three-bedroom apartment, with amenities included.

Based on their detailed model, UTILE projected development costs to be around $19.3 million. Most of the financing would come from private and public donors, but at least $1.5 million would need to come from student fees. UTILE suggested imposing a semesterly fee of $5.15 per student for 10 semesters. With this budget, UTILE predicted that the development could be built by the Winter 2023 semester.

“We haven’t decided if we want to run the fee this semester or not,” Mansdoerfer said. “[We would need to] start mass advertisement on what this project should be. The fee, if it were to run, [would be called] an ‘Affordable Housing Fee.’ There would have to be a referendum [to insert the fee]. [Referenda] go through McGill, and they last for five years [maximum].”

Mansdoerfer emphasized the importance of immediate awareness and advertising campaigns to ensure that the student body is knowledgeable about the prospective project and is able to make informed decisions about the development.

“As long as they have the basis of information, I’ll be very happy,” Mansdoerfer said. “If it’s a yes, great. If it’s a no, then I’m glad that students can engage in making the decision [....] I am of the opinion that SSMU should be working toward tangible wins.

There’s nothing more tangible than something like this.”

According to Mansdoerfer, initial obstacles for SSMU include selling the student body on a project that they will personally never benefit from, convincing the student body that SSMU is capable of managing a multi-million-dollar project, and deciding who will manage the project once it is built.

Laurent Levesque, head of UTILE’s media relations, mentioned that Montreal’s rent could one day resemble Vancouver’s and expressed dismay at the complete absence of non-profits with missions similar to that of UTILE. “There is no other group doing this in all of [Canada],” Levesque said. “We are talking with student groups in Toronto and Vancouver to try to export the Quebec model. The [main objective] is to [...] maintain Montreal as an affordable city forever.”

UTILE and Concordia’s own affordable student housing project has concluded the design and financing stages and will soon begin construction. John Hutton, the finance coordinator for the Concordia Student Union (CSU), expressed optimism about the project.

“The ‘McGill Ghetto’ is a perfect example of landlords overcharging for apartments while not doing much to maintain them,” Hutton said. “Students need better housing options.”

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With the voting period for Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) executives now underway, AUS Elections hosted a debate on Feb. 12 for candidates to discuss their platforms and respond to questions. All executive positions except for Vice-President (VP) Academic are uncontested. Meanwhile, there are six candidates up for the position of Arts Representative to the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) and five candidates for the position of Arts Senator, competing for three and two positions, respectively.

Mental health was a main topic in the debate, and many candidates proposed ways to facilitate access to resources. Ananya Nair, one of the candidates for VP Academic, hopes to work with professors to reduce the burden of final exams.

“I want the curriculum to be more oriented around [the] well-being of the students,” Nair said. “If three exams in 24 hours is a conflict, I think [that] three exams in 28 hours should be a conflict too. It’s a loophole that I think the AUS should take a [stance] on and work with the enrollment services to accommodate.”

Nair’s opponent, Wing Wong, also proposed working with professors to address overly heavy course loads and opposed exams worth 70 per cent of the students’ final grade. Wong proposed implementing a minimum number of assessments per course, to prevent professors from placing too much weight on final exams.

In addition to campaign promises specific to their platforms, each of the candidates running for Arts Representative to SSMU addressed the subjects of accountability, mental health resources, and equity. Andrew Chase, Ruofan Wang, Ariana Kaye, Gabriel Ahmad, Shreya Dandamudi, and Adin Chan all cited accessibility and diversity as important issues in their campaigns. Chase and Wang promised to increase accessibility for Francophone students while Kaye discussed part-

nering with Rez Project to advocate for marginalized groups. Ahmad suggested hosting a conference for women in politics to bring awareness to the barriers that women face and endorsed a provincial-wide day against Islamophobia.

Another key issue for many of the candidates was improving SSMU’s image of accountability. Chase believes that this image fell after the bank switch left many of SSMU’s clubs unable to access their funds and when its chartered bus company cancelled their service at the Children of the Corn event, leaving over one hundred students stranded at MacDonald Campus. Kaye promoted accessible meeting minutes, Chase proposed working with the accountability committee, and Chan discussed improving the SSMU website to facilitate accessibility.

Jamal Tarrabain, current VP Communications for the AUS and the only candidate for President, discussed AUS’s commitment to transparency.

“I always want to increase the transparency of the AUS, and one thing I want to do is put the bylaws in the AUS handbook for incoming students,” Tarrabain said. “[I also want to] invite campus media to attend Legislative Council meetings and submit monthly reports to the campus media so that they can publish what they see fit about what the AUS has been doing.”

Two days after the debate, the Legislative Council passed a motion prohibiting recording and taping unless councillors voted to allow it by a two-thirds majority at the beginning of each meeting.

Regarding sustainability, Tarrabain advocated giving the AUS Environment Council (AUSEC) an increased ability to hold executive members accountable for the sustainability of their practices.

“I also want to work with the VP Internal to empower AUSEC to do audits of the different executive portfolios and issue sustainability recommendations,” Tarrabain said.

Members of the AUS will be able to cast their votes Feb. 18-21.

AUS President candidate Jamal Tarrabain discussed increasing accountability and sustainability in his platform.

(Lauren Benson-Armer / The McGill Tribune)

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news

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2019

McGill receives $200 million to fund graduate scholarships Senate to vote on revised sexual violence policy on Feb. 20.

Abeer Almahdi Opinion Editor Continued from page 1.

“We are investing a lot of money [...] in selection,” J. McCall MacBain said. “Going around and trying to find those hidden jewels around Canada [...] and around the world to come to McGill.”

Applications for the new McCall MacBain Scholarship will open in Winter 2020, with the inaugural scholars set to arrive in Fall 2021. The scholarship aims to support a network of up to 75 students per year.

Sexual violence policy revisions Although McGill has had a sexual violence policy since Dec. 2016, the university missed the provincial government’s Jan. 1 deadline to update its policy. This deadline was set as part of Quebec’s Bill 151, an act to prevent and fight sexual violence at higher education institutions, which required institutions to create or update their policies with new regulations.

“Since we established our own policy in 2016, [...] the provincial government [...] introduced legislation so that each institution [should] have a policy on sexual violence, and they had some elements that they were putting in their legislation that we would have to add in our own policy,” Principal and Vice-Chancellor Suzanne Fortier said. “[The revised McGill Policy] is actually going to be presented at Senate in our next meeting next week.”

Senate will vote on the revised sexual violence policy at their next meeting on Feb. 20.

Strategic Research Plan Martha Crago, Vice-Principal (Research and Innovation), presented McGill’s latest revised Strategic Research Plan (SRP).

The SRP outlines McGill’s strategy and vision for increasing research over the next five years and was last ratified in 2013. It

According to the latest Report on Student Discipline, plagiarism comprised 72 per cent of academic offenses. (Leanne Young / The McGill Tribune) underwent a multi-level consultation period from Mar. to Nov. 2018 and was endorsed at Senate.

“Every university in Canada needs an SRP,” Crago said.

“We’ve had one for quite a while, [and] this is the latest version.”

The SRP contains five core commitments to research, including a new one dedicated to promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion. Additionally, the SRP highlights seven Research Excellence Themes, with two new ones focusing on technology in the digital age and sustainability innovations. Lastly, the SRP presents four strategic objectives for materializing the university’s vision which relate to strengthening innovation, collaboration, and diversity.

Report of the Committee on Student Discipline Dean of Students Christopher Buddle presented the annual report of the Committee on Student Discipline, which dictates university policy relating to the Code of Student Conduct and

Disciplinary Procedures. According to Buddle, the university needs more staff trained to handle academic offence accusations.

“We had a similar number of cases as we’ve had other years, [and] we have more academic offences reported than non-academic offences,” Buddle said. “Of the academic offences, typically about a third or so of those end up being exonerations [....]

This is actually an important point because it means that professors aren’t actually always the right people to be making [accusations of an academic offence]. In fact, we need trained disciplinary officers to oversee that process.”

According to the report, plagiarism is the most prevalent academic offence, comprising 72 per cent of cases, followed by cheating. For non-academic offences, the most common ones fall under article 10 of the code, ‘Physical Abuses, Harassment, and Dangerous Activity.’

The BoG will meet again on Apr. 25.

Law enforcement and community experts call for dialogue on systemic discrimination Attendees share perspectives on privilege and misperceptions

Elizabeth Strong Contributor To promote a better understanding of systemic discrimination and how to combat it, the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) and the Criminal Law Group of McGill co-hosted a panel discussion on Feb. 11 titled “Systemic Discrimination: Challenges for Policing in An Age of Diversity and Heightened Public Scrutiny.” The speakers consisted of Quebec Police Ethics Commissioner Marc-André Dowd, Ottawa Police Community Co-chair Ketcia Peters, McGill Department of Psychiatry Assistant Professor Myrna Lashley, and Marc Charbonneau, the chief inspector of the Corporate Service Division of the Montreal Police Service (SPVM).

Alain Babineau, a CRARR advisor and member of the Criminal Law Group, co-hosted and moderated the panel discussion. In an email to The McGill Tribune, Babineau emphasized productive discourse on systemic discrimination requires representatives from both law enforcement and black communities. “[In] my experience, the conversation [about police discrimination] is usually unidirectional,” Babineau wrote. “The police tell the audience what they do and what they expect from the community. Or, in the case of town hall meeting, the community yells at the police to vent their frustration. In either scenario, it is not typically productive. I believe our panel discussion was interactive and informative for [both the] participants and panellists.”

Speaking from the perspective of the black community, Peters discussed the challenge of reconciling the interests of law enforcement and those of black communities when these conversations occur. According to her, police view themselves

as professionals and are, therefore, not always willing to accept the help of civilians. But, in Peters’ view, community members have valuable insight from their own firsthand experiences with systemic discrimination.

“It’s like two different cultures, and they’re not understanding each other.” Peters said. “The police culture, the community culture, they’re not even speaking the same language.”

Laughrey also addressed the misunderstandings between law enforcement and racialized community members. She highlighted the many areas of everyday life in which systemic discrimination manifests itself.

“When I’m talking about systemic racism, I’m talking about policies, practices, and economic and political structures which place racial minorities and ethnic minorities at a disadvantage,” Lashley said. “It’s the things that we take for granted every day that we never question. And the bad thing about it is that the person who’s oppressed, start[s] taking it for granted, too.”

Valérie Black St. Laurent, a member of the Criminal Law Group at McGill and co-host of the panel, believes that systemic discrimination can be best understood through a social lens.

“We seem to have an aversion to the word systemic, [...] we tend to take it personally,” Black said. “[I believe] we might want to take it less personally in the sense that we all have a role to play within that system, and, therefore, when we discuss systemic discrimination, it is not a personal attack on a person.”

Nonetheless, Lashley reiterated the need to reflect critically on one’s personal privilege.

“If you never have to ask yourself [...] ‘can I do that’ [...] you’ve got privilege,” Lashley said. “If you never have to ask yourself when the police car stops, ‘I wonder if they see me as

Panellists emphasized the need for a unified understanding of systemic discrimination and the importance of including those directly affected in the conversation. (Valérie Black St-Laurent / The McGill Tribune) a black person first or if they see me as a human being,’ you’ve got privilege.”

According to Lashley, members of police forces need to acknowledge the power they hold as enforcers of the law.

However, police must also be recognized as members of the broader society, and that it is the collective responsibility of communities to combat systemic racism.

“Police are nothing more than members of society,” Lashley said. “And we, as members of society, set the tone. Each time we engage in racism, […] we are setting [that] tone. Don’t expect the police to be different than we are. We are responsible, and if we don’t want our police to engage in bad behaviour, then we must stop behaving [badly...]. But, it is not up to the people who are being oppressed to make the oppressor feel guilty.”

opinion

TUESDAY, FEBRuARY 19, 2019

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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 Multimedia Editor Tristan Surman multimedia@mcgilltribune.com Web Developers Luya Ding webdev@mcgilltribune.com Tristan Sparks online@mcgilltribune.com

Don’t overturn a democratic vote for undemocratic reasons In an ambiguous and poorlyworded email sent on Feb. 12, Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) executives released a statement announcing that they had overturned the AUS Legislative Council’s decision to withhold approval of the course fee for POLI 339. POLI 339 Comparative Developed: Topics 1 is a two-week summer exchange course at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and at the Jan. 30 AUS Legislative Council meeting, members raised that the course was inaccessible for Palestinian students. Councillors ultimately voted not to approve the course fee, however, Executive Council quashed this decision using an emergency bylaw. Overturning the Legislative Council decision exceeded the executive’s mandate, and AUS executives should respect the democratic process and rescind their vote.

AUS executives and Arts Representatives to the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) overturned a democratic vote with insufficient reason. While they claimed that the second vote was justified because a course syllabus and itinerary were missing, opposition to the class was rooted in the PalestinianIsraeli conflict—other specifics are irrelevant and would not have changed the vote’s outcome. It appears that

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TPS Board of Directors Abeer Almahdi, Becca Hoff, Jeeventh Kaur, Marie Labrosse, Katherine Milazzo, Daniel Minuk, Falah Rajput.

Nina Russell, Kevin Vogel

staff Peter Ball, Hannibal de Pencier, Taja De Silva, Kyle Dewsnap, Owen Gibbs, Emma Gillies, Sabrina GirardLamas, Mary Keith, Sunny Kim, Sydney King, Winne Lin, Ronny, Litvack-Katzman, 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 Makena Anderson, Yasmine Azzi ,Zoe BabadPalmer, Mitch Bannon, Vanessa Barron, Lucas Bird, Sam Dagres, Hannah Downard, Katherine Dulong, Mary Johnson, Alaana Kumar, Paul McCann, Kennedy McKee-Braide, Leyla Moy, Keira Seidenberg, Elizabeth Strong, Alden Tabac, Diana Viola

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Please recycle this newspaper.

Keating Reid Opinion Editor While the Chinese telecommunications manufacturer Huawei may be most famous in Canada for the Vancouver arrest of chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, the company’s influence is much closer to McGill than that event might suggest. Despite security experts’ concerns that the company may be operating as an intelligence asset for the Chinese government, Canadian universities, including McGill, have accepted roughly $50 million in total from Huawei to fund research and development initiatives. It would be easy to dismiss accepting these ‘gifts’ as irresponsible; however, increasingly-tight budgets have made it difficult for universities to do anything else. Simply barring universities from

the executives used an emergency provision to overturn a democratic vote for political reasons, which, in a group of elected representatives, demonstrates a lack of transparency in their governance.

Under Quebec law, all courses that charge ancillary fees must have these fees approved by the university’s student society, and SSMU delegates the approval of Faculty of Arts course fees to the AUS. In response to the AUS Legislative Council voting not to pass the fee, two days later, the Executive Council held a meeting over Facebook Messenger on Feb. 8 to decide the course fee’s fate themselves. After three rounds of voting—with varying results— the first vote, which overturned the Legislative Council decision, was ultimately made official. They then waited four days to announce their decision to AUS members.

In a statement posted to the AUS Facebook page on Feb. 14, AUS Secretary General Sophie Zhao and Deputy Secretary-General Nathan Mendel announced that they had suspended the Executive Council’s decision to approve the course fee in order to conduct an investigation of the decision and its constitutionality.

The Secretary General’s statement adds another layer to the pandemonium. In addition to poor

governance, AUS is becoming an increasingly hostile environment: Arts Representative Andrew Figueiredo and AUS President Maria Thomas admitted to ‘pressuring’ other executives into voting for their favoured side, and AUS members have called on both Figueiredo and Thomas to resign. Vice-President (VP) Internal Billy Kawasaki has announced his resignation because of the controversy.

Councillors have expressed concerns about harassment based on political beliefs and identities. As a proposed solution to harassment and to create a safe space, councillors moved to ban the recording of AUS Legislative Council meetings: Campus media can be granted exemptions on a per-meeting basis, subject to a two-thirds majority vote by Council.

Although this motion may have good intentions, it will only result in a loss of transparency in AUS. Instead, AUS should be developing ways to fully address their representatives’ poor behaviour. If they truly want to protect councillors and gallery members at meetings, AUS must properly condemn and prevent harassment instead of blaming a scapegoat, like recording. Executives, representatives, and even constituents have to receive adequate disciplinary action.

According to the AUS

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EDITORIAL constitution, all Executive Committee decisions must be ratified at the next Legislative Council meeting.

However, their decision on POLI 339 was not submitted to Legislative Council for ratification, but instead forwarded directly to SSMU’s executives. Despite this undemocratic and opaque process, SSMU ratified the executive’s decision and sent it to the Deputy Provost Student Life and Learning (DPSLL) office.

SSMU should have withheld their approval instead of blindly greenlighting an unrepresentative decision.

The issue extends far beyond the course’s funding, and reflect mismanagement and secrecy on the part of AUS. Conducting emergency meetings over Facebook Messenger is unacceptable. Students representatives and executives should reconsider their right to the position if their ability to fulfill their mandate and serve their constituents is compromised.

Instead of blaming harassment on recording, AUS must develop better ways to protect members of Council and their constituents. SSMU has an opportunity to overturn the AUS Executive’s decision, as the DPSLL office has offered to rescind their approval should SSMU do so as well.

SSMU and the AUS executives should respect the initial Legislative Council vote against the course fee.

Funding universities is a national security issue accepting Huawei’s money is not a sufficient response to the risk of foreign espionage. Governments need to ensure that universities are financially viable in the long term, whether through increasing direct funding or partnering with more reputable members of the private sector.

Security experts from around the world, including former Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) director Ward Elcock, have expressed concerns that Huawei’s products—which range from smartphones to large-scale network infrastructure—include deliberate security backdoors to assist the Chinese government in spying on their users.

For instance, security vulnerabilities in Huawei cell towers might allow Chinese intelligence agents to intercept political or economic information sent over the company’s network.

The head of the United Kingdom’s Secret Intelligence Service and the U.S. House Intelligence Committee have described Huawei as a national security threat, and Germany may be following their lead.

This concern extends to Huawei’s funding of universities. The company has dedicated $50 million to funding research at Canadian universities, including McGill. In December, CSIS briefed approximately 20 McGill

researchers who received funding from Huawei, warning them that they were producing ‘dual-use technology’ that could be appropriated for military purposes.

Technology espionage is more than a hypothetical concern. McGill associate professor Ishiang Shih was arrested in Jan. 2018 on suspicions that he was aiding an effort to leak U.S. military technology to China. Nortel, a Canadian telecommunications company, disbanded in 2013 after being undercut by Huawei using allegedly-stolen technology, costing the Canadian economy tens of thousands of jobs.

Despite the potential threat posed

by Huawei, Canadian universities continue to partner with the company because they need the funding. As the largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer in the world, few companies can compete dollarfor-dollar with Huawei. This poses a dilemma for researchers: Refusing

Huawei’s money could spell the end of their project, but, by accepting it, they put themselves in the difficult position of relying on an organization with possible ulterior motives. This applies at the institutional level, too. Canadian universities are strapped for cash: McGill is chronically underfunded by the province, while, in Ontario, universities just lost $360 million to Doug Ford’s tuition cut. Extra money—regardless of its source—is difficult to turn down.

The best way to limit Huawei’s influence over Canadian universities is to crowd out their money. The more alternative funding sources that exist for researchers and universities, the less leverage Huawei has.

More government funding for our universities may be necessary. When the status quo involves risking decades of technological vulnerability, it is clear that funding universities isn’t just a social good; it is crucial to national security.

Erratum An article titled “Point-Counterpoint: The G.O.A.T in men’s tennis” published in the February 12 issue stated that Rafael Nadal won his first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open. In fact, it was the French Open. The Tribune regrets this error.

6

opinion

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2019

LAUGHING MATTERS

Subject: Guide to #ChangeTheName

From: makena.anderson@contributor.com

cartoon Makena Anderson, Contributor

“Spring” has sprung Karan Kumar Contributor

Re: Next steps regarding the name / Étapes à venir dans le dossier relatif au nom Dear McGill, I hope this email finds you well, and thanks for the snow day!

I got your email, but it left me a little confused. It’s about time you noticed that no one likes the men’s varsity team name. But, what is taking you so long to finalize your decision?

Don’t worry too much about appeasing the donors regarding the name change —I know some people who opted out of their SSMU Library Fund fees who might be able to lend you a couple of bucks. Don’t be embarrassed, McGill. It’s not like we haven’t come to expect this kind of thing from you. Here are some guidelines to ensure that the name change plays out in everyone’s best interest: Feelings matter Now, this one might seem a little rudimentary, but you haven’t quite mastered it yet. When choosing the new name, do your best not to oppress marginalized people. Otherwise, students will rightfully fight back by putting up even more stickers in bathroom stalls expressing their discontent. Try something inclusive and No one dares to cross the ‘Blob Men.’ compassionate, like the ‘Lovebirds’ or the ‘Warm-hearted Winners.’

(Kaylina Kodlick/ The McGill Tribune) Choose an animal that exhibits McGill pride Martlets are cool birds and everything, but blobfish don’t get enough attention. With a name like the ‘Blob Men,’ competitors will definitely know we mean business. Ever heard of someone fighting a blobfish? That’s because no one would dare to.

Don’t threaten fragile masculinity Martlets are female birds! You can’t expect the men’s varsity teams to adopt the name of an animal that is inherently feminine. The men’s teams need an animal that will show their competitors how strong they are! Names like ‘Hippopota-men,’ ‘Sala-men-ders,’ or even ‘Burly Boys’ will remind our athletes that they are super strong and manly.

No longer than two syllables and one vowel Don’t forget to consider the most important actors in this equation: Fans (and their wallets). After a couple of beers at Molson Stadium, drunk spectators won’t be able to pronounce, let alone cheer, for a team with a complicated name. A new name will be hard enough to remember as it is. Don’t ruin the men’s varsity teams’ reputation with a convoluted name; choose something simple like the ‘Birds’ or the ‘Men.’ It’s not too late to undo the damage of the men’s varsity team name. Good luck with the brainstorming; I can’t wait to see what you come up with! If you have any questions or need more advice, feel free to ask literally anyone born after 1997.

Cheers, Makena Anderson

commentary

Kennedy McKee-Braide Contributor Newly-elected Premier and leader of the Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) François Legault recently shuffled his cabinet, naming Isabelle Charest the new Minister responsible for the Status of Women.

Charest sparked controversy in early February for insisting that the “hijab is a symbol of female oppression.”

When criticized for her comments, she refused to apologize or rescind her statement, citing her belief that women should be free to dress as

Let Muslim women wear whatever they want they choose. Her comments fall in line with other sentiments expressed

by Legault and his party, who plans to ban the hijab for ‘authority figures’ like judges and teachers. The policing of women’s clothing, especially when disguised as ‘feminist’ or as a form of liberation, exemplifies a disregard for the rights of those from different backgrounds. White women and feminists, like myself, should demonstrate proper allyship and aid in dismantling systems that we benefit from—and that starts with calling it out.

Facing criticism for her initial comments, Charest still stood behind her discriminatory statements.

“I think women should be free to wear what they want,” Charest said in a press conference on Feb. 5.

Herein lies her hypocrisy: Defending women’s freedom to dress while simultaneously calling for a hijab ban promotes conditional freedom of choice for women, whereby only those who conform to certain ‘Québécois values’ are seen as deserving of fair treatment. If Charest is genuinely concerned with women’s

Isabelle Charest’s comments contradict the values that feminism preaches.

(Ruidi Zhu / The McGill Tribune)

autonomy, perhaps she should listen to the experiences of women who choose to wear the hijab.

Clothing is integral to selfexpression, and you can learn a lot about a person from the way they dress. When a Muslim woman chooses to wear a hijab, she freely expresses her culture, values, religion, and identity—something that feminists should celebrate. No woman should

have to choose between accurately representing her identity and being able to live comfortably in Quebec.

Feminists should not support a ban on any kind of clothing, especially gendered clothing like the hijab.

Of course, it is naive and ignorant to assume that this debate restricts itself to one form of oppression. Charest’s comments exist at the intersection between sexism,

Islamophobia, and xenophobia.

Quebec has a problem with hate crimes, especially regarding Islamophobia, and, thus, Muslim women experience a much different province than non-Muslim women.

Charest and her followers aren’t expressing concern for freedom and equality for women so much as they want to codify their distaste for those who are different from them. Solving this issue means tackling many forms of systemic oppression.

Feminism has taken many forms throughout the movement’s history.

Though the changes sparked by the movement should be celebrated, it is even more important to highlight how feminism could have been and can continue to be more inclusive of women with diverse life experiences.

Intersectional feminism calls for a movement which represents the interests of all women, not just those who are white, wealthy, straight, ablebodied, and cis-gender. The time has come to abandon the white feminism behind words like Charest’s and for white women like myself to start listening.

science & technology

tuesday, FEBRUARY 19, 2019

7

MAPS charts the way for psychedelic therapy

Researchers stress cautious optimism for new treatment Luca s Bird When McGill students hear about psychedelics, their minds might wander to that friend who tried magic mushrooms once, or maybe MK Ultra’s acid-based electrotherapy experiments. What might not immediately register is the novel and promising potential for these drugs today in the form of psychedelic therapy.

The perception of psychedelics as medicinally viable and socially acceptable diverges from their historic prohibition and stigmatization. However, changing norms raise a variety of questions concerning psychedelics’ potential benefits and harms as well as the role they might play mental health treatment. The public face of this movement in Canada, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS Canada), is working toward the legalization of psychedelics by facilitating research on psychedelic therapy, educating the public, and sparking a healthy dialogue regarding psychedelic drugs.

Magic mushrooms, acid, and molly— or, as they are medicinally known, psilocybin, LSD, and MDMA—have all emerged as substances of interest in the field of psychotherapy over the past ten years. LSD and psilocybin have been shown to be helpful in treating disorders like alcoholism and depression, particularly in patients whose conditions are the result of life-threatening illnesses. MAPS has conducted two successful clinical studies showing how MDMA could aid individuals suffering from PostTraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and further trials are on the horizon to explore the safety and efficacy of the treatment.

Cognitive behavioural therapy is a form of psychotherapy which enables patients to revisit traumatic memories in a safe environment, with the goal of permanently altering the thinking and behavioural patterns surrounding the memory in question. While conven-

tional therapy follows a similar procedure, it can be an extremely difficult process for a subject with PTSD, as revisiting the memory can induce anxiety, agony, and other extreme emotions reminiscent of the inception of the trauma. MDMA can help facilitate the process by easing recollection of traumatic memories.

“Normal therapies, when they start to access that tape loop, have a huge fear response that people don’t want to go through,” Mark Haden, executive director of MAPS Canada and adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia School of Population and Public Health, said. “MDMA assisted psychotherapy allows access to the loop in a way that doesn’t stimulate fear.”

In treating an aggressive disorder like PTSD, the therapist-patient relationship is particularly important. Reliving traumatic events in their emotional totality requires vulnerability from a patient and sensitivity from a therapist. According to Haden, MDMA is invaluable in building a strong relationship of this type. “[MDMA] also bonds the therapist to the subject,” Haden said. “It’s a connector, and that connection is a huge benefit in terms of therapy.”

Haden also stressed the medicinal potential of LSD. Informed by some inaugural research done on psychedelics in Canada in the 1950s and ‘60s, he speculated that LSD might be useful in treating alcoholism.

“If you think about what alcoholism is, there’s a certain rigidity of ego,” Haden said. “If someone is killing themselves with this behaviour that they somehow justify and make okay, that’s rigid thinking. So, LSD is useful for insight [and] reflection on self, and it kind of shakes the ego up.”

LSD simulates a spiritual experience, a phenomenon which Bill Wilson, one of the co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), asserted is helpful in combatting alcoholism. Wilson was an advocate for using LSD to treat alcoholism, arguing that it aids one’s spiritual development and abstention from alcohol.

“He was a

proponent of the benefits of LSD because it produces one of the things which is an underpinning of AA, that is, a spiritual experience,” Haden said.

Haden is confident about the future of psychedelics and psychotherapy. He sees the scientific community engaging with the idea in a new way.

“There are a wide range of people, from psychologists to psychiatrists, who are taking a look at the evidence that’s being produced and saying this will change our profession,” Haden said. “People have these sorts of disorders over long periods of time, and they’re very difficult to treat [....] What we’re observing with psychedelics is that they’re actually much easier to treat and that [they are] treatable within a relatively short period of time.”

While the potential of psychedelics is difficult to ignore, there is reason to be cautious. The current available research is not extensive enough

have a potential to help people, but we just don’t know at the moment if they do help people better than current standards of care.”

Some of Jarry’s apprehension is prompted by the media’s depictions of psychedelic therapy as a definite, blossoming success.

For example, Rolling Stone ran an ambitious story in March 2017 titled “The Psychedelic Miracle,” which took the proliferation of psychedelic research and anecdotal evidence as signs of scientific success. Such exaggerations incite another concern in Jarry: The possibility that individuals may decide to self-medicate due to a lack of options.

“Depending on your access to healthcare, depending on your willingness to go through the healthcare system, depending on your experiences with psychiatrists and psychologists, I could imagine

New findings suggest that dopamine levels in an individual can directly influence the reward response when listening to music. (Mary Johnson / The McGill Trinune) to constitute scientific certainty, and funding for such studies is still sparse. That being said, it is crucial that the societal perception of these substances keeps pace with a quickly evolving scientific understanding.

Jonathan Jarry, a science communicator at McGill’s Office for Science and Society hosts the video series “Cracked Science,” to which he most recently added an episode on the ‘psychedelic renaissance.’ He believes that, although the foundational evidence is promising, our current regard for psychedelic therapy should be limited to cautious optimism.

“There is preliminary evidence in phase two clinical trials that certain psychedelics, within a therapeutic context, could potentially help certain patients with certain kinds of psychological disorders,” Jarry said.

“I’m very much in favour of MAPS funding these studies because these substances do

people rushing to these substances outside of healthcare institutions to find help, which could be quite damaging,” Jarry said.

Jarry does not intend to dismiss or delegitimize the few positive scientific studies so far. He simply wants to reiterate that they are exactly that: Few and far between. Both of the pilot studies MAPS has run with MDMA used particularly small sample sizes of eight and 12 people, respectively. These limitations are partly symptomatic of the public denouncement of psychedelics, which makes acquiring funding difficult.

Psychedelic drugs have the potential to aid struggling individuals with severe psychological disorders, and the idea that these drugs might help ease and expedite their treatment is reason to be excited, but scientific certainty is a waiting game. The substantive evidence for the efficacy of psychedelic therapy is not robust enough to assert that these drugs will assume a role in the future of mental-health care. Yet, the potential of psychedelic therapy presents an invigorating notion: These drugs might no longer exclusively provide a vivid, psychoactive experience to the recreational user, but may also come to aid and enrich the lives of people who truly need them.

artists

In search of a space

TRACING THE ART MOVEMENTS AT McGILL ELLI SLAVITCH | Creative Director eventy-one years ago, McGill instituted its first and only Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) program. It survived only four years. In that brief period, notable alumni such as Mary Filer and Nancy Petry, among many others, graduated, and subsequently became wellknown for revolutionary works that have been showcased in the Art Canada Institute and the National Gallery of Canada.

In 1952, McGill’s Fine Arts program morphed into the Department of Art History and Communications Studies in order to focus on academic research instead.

McGill’s art community temporarily dissolved until students and staff took it upon themselves to reawaken creative initiatives.

In the absence of a sanctioned art program, student-run groups such as The Fridge Door Gallery (FDG), the Visual Arts Society (VAS), and the Fine Arts Council (FAC) have stepped in to fill the gap. Full-time McGill staff, including career advisor Susan Molnar, have run art exhibits such as Artists Among Us, and people like Associate Professor Ara Osterweil in the Department of English have designed interdisciplinary classes that incorporate artistic practices. In 2015, the Faculty of Education launched the P. Lantz Initiative for Excellence in the Arts, which includes an Artist-in-Residence program and McGill’s first Art Hive Initiative (MAHI). Most, if not all, of these new initiatives have emerged since the early 2000s. Slowly but surely, the art community is rediscovering itself at McGill.

McGill’s art initiatives, however, have grown separately and rarely collaborate— oftentimes, they hardly know of each other’s existence. Sophia Barnao-Seward, U3 Arts and executive director of the FDG, sees a harsh divide between the administration and student groups.

“There’s definitely a web, but there isn’t really a connection between the two, and it’s something that I struggle with,” Barnao-Seward said.

The gap between students and the administration makes it hard to create lasting initiatives. Dorothea Stefanou, U2 Arts and director of the VAS, had not heard of McGill’s Visual Arts Collection or Artist-in-Residence program until the near-end of her degree and will graduate from McGill before she has a chance to collaborate. If the administration introduced its initiatives to students in the early stages of their degrees, this would increase their chances of forging lasting relationships.

If they are lucky, some students are able to uncover the artistic networks at their disposal. Kaylina Kodlick, a painter and U3 Arts, is grateful for the recognition that she has gained through student-run initiatives.

“I’ve been able to […] continue my painting,” Kodlick said. “You find out [that your art will be showcased], like, in tears, as how I found out about F-Word and the Fridge Door and so on.”

In this way, the student body has helped to fill the artistic void at McGill.

“Maybe the school is lacking where students pick up, [through] all of the niche scenes and organizations,” Kodlick said. “There is a pretty thriving art community within McGill.”

As participation in McGill’s student-run groups grows, there is an increased need for support. Because the student network is fragmentary, seeking institutional help has become difficult, particularly when students typically enter and leave the McGill community after three or four years.

Designing lasting initiatives is a challenge for Artists-in-Residence, students, and professors alike, as the intense expectations of academia and students’ daily routines hardly foster extracurricular collaboration. McGill’s first Artist-In-Residence, Maria Ezcurra, created MAHI, in part to build a relationship between McGill’s students and staff. Student enthusiasm for MAHI motivated her to continue it as a long-term project.

“We were surprised with how creative and engaged these students are, but we don’t have enough opportunities to bring art into academia,” Ezcurra said.

Meanwhile, certain full-time staff like Molnar try to find ways to share creative spaces between students and staff. The Artists Among Us exhibit, for example, runs once a year.

Osterweil, a painter and professor at McGill, has managed to incorporate creative practices into the classroom. Osterweil designed her graduate seminar, Image, Sound, Text, as a hybrid course in contemporary art, critical theory, and creative practice. Students are invited to make art in response to their engagement with established artistic texts. She

feels that the course has helped her as much as it has helped students by filling the void of artistic creation in her academic career.

“I’ve made it a goal to try to integrate my artistic life as a creator more thoroughly with my role as a professor because I need it,” Osterweil said. “I need these two lives to be connected, but, also, because I feel that my students are really hungry for that.”

The course format is so popular that there are more students trying to enroll than there are seats in the class.

The Faculty of Education also offers a handful of visual art classes, but it is rare for students from other faculties to enroll in them. Gloria Francois, artist and U2 Arts student, was interested in the course, but was discouraged by the limited number of seats.

“I saw that this class was restricted, that I had to get an advisor’s note, and that it was nearly impossible to get in,” Francois said. “So many things [...] become inaccessible because you try once, fail, case closed, [and] move on.”

Students can also resort to student-run art initiatives on campus such as the VAS, which now has over 1,000 members on Facebook. Sadaf Farookhi, project coordinator at the MAHI, argues that permanent space is a key component for growing art initiatives— this was the key to the Art Hive’s success. The lack of a shared space for McGill’s numerous art initiatives is striking.

“It’s not really the steadiness of students that is necessary, but, rather, the steadiness of the space,” Farookhi said. “The system is not really designed for students to stay, but the space is really what must be permanent.”

Artists and art facilitators on campus agree that it is strange for a university with such an extensive visual arts collection not to showcase it to its entirety. As such, there is no gallery space to unify all of McGill’s varied art communities.

There’s something so valuable about showing art in a permanent space, because it makes the artists feel as though you are taking them seriously. “[Most] universities have a permanent collection and a space to hold them, and what differentiates McGill is that we do not have a permanent space,” Barnao-Seward said. “There’s something so valuable about showing art in a permanent space because it makes the artists feel as though you are taking them seriously.”

Lori Beavis, P. Lantz activities coordinator of the MAHI, believes that students should claim their rights to a space and stand up for themselves.

“There’s no venue,” Beavis said. “There’s no gallery, there’s nothing here. It gets me thinking [about how] years and years ago at OCAD, they just decided that there should be a student space, and they just used a hallway. They were so persistent, and they were a pain in the ass to the administration, and finally they got a student space.”

Wendy Owens, director of the Visual Arts Collection (VAC), sees the merits in creating an area to house McGill’s artworks, which currently remain scattered around campus.

“If you’re busy at McGill, you may never even have the time to visit the galleries which exist nearby,” Owens said.

Recently, after the VAC was incorporated into the McGill Library, Owens and the administration initiated plans for McGill to build its own art gallery, which will be accessible for all staff and students to visit. But, until the gallery’s construction, the VAC will remain dispersed in different corridors, classrooms, and outdoor spaces, and students will continue to struggle to find space.

It has become clear that students deserve and require a permanent space to continue to build and sustain the visual arts community at McGill.

“It’s a big thing that admin can do,” Barnao-Seward said. “It’s sort-of seeing that void and seeing that students work for it for free.”

Whether it be in classrooms, a new gallery space, student-run initiatives, or in the Art Hive, art movements are growing on campus, and they are here to stay.

“It’s growing. I think that, for artists, to be able to say that [an exhibit at McGill] has shown [my art], that’s a big part of it,” Barnao-Seward said.

(3) (2)

(1)

(6)

(5) (7)

(4)

(8)

(9)

(1) Claire Rawson Dannenbaum,

Cyberspace, featured in the FDG (2) Lori Beavis, Presence: The Grandmothers (3) The VAS's Annual Showcase

(4) Maria Ezcurra, Tree of Life (5) Gloria Francois, last self-portrait of 2018 (6) Susan Molnar, Oh God!!

(7) Ara Osterweil, Dark Matter (8) Kaylina Kodlick, Hatachi!

(9) The VAC near McGill's Rare Books Collection

10

science & technology

tuesday, FEBRUARY 19, 2019

DAVOS 2019: Climate change and

empowerment

Environmental activism for all at the World Economic Forum Katherine Dulong Contributor Globalization, climate change, social entrepreneurship, and sustainability were just a few of the topics on the table at the 2019 World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland from Jan. 22-25. This year, the annual forum provided a platform for environmentalists, young innovators, world leaders, multinational corporations, academics, and more to consider the issues that threaten humanity and potential solutions.

David Attenborough, a renowned English broadcaster and natural historian, delivered an optimistic yet realistic speech about the necessity of acting quickly to counter climate change. At 92 years old, Attenborough was born during the Holocene, a different geological era than the current Anthropocene era. Reminiscing about the nature docuseries “The Blue Planet,” the environmental activist marvelled at the unbelievably rapid changes in the climate and at the speed of information trans-

mission in this epoch.

Climate change was a central theme at the Davos 2019 World Economic Forum. Protesters such as 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, a climate change activist and one of the youngest attendees this year, brought attention to the prominence of the issue and called out previous generations’ passivity toward the crisis.

“You say you love your children above all else, and, yet, you are stealing their future in front of their very eyes,” Thunberg said.

In their attempts to address climate change, attendees suggested novel solutions, ranging from artificial trees to seagrass. In addition to brainstorming practical solutions to the crisis, participants grimly acknowledged the devastating consequences of climate change including ocean acidification, rising ocean temperatures, smog and air pollution, and extinction. These realities paint a dire depiction of already irreversible trends, although many attendees at the forum remained hopeful that it wasn’t too late to save the planet.

Also present at the Forum were Suzanne Fortier, principal and vice-chancellor of McGill University, and Isabelle BajeuxBesnainou, dean of the Faculty of Management. As the only Canadian members of the Global University Leaders Forum in attendance, they took on the task of promoting the interests of university students all over Canada.

Fortier emphasized the importance of communication between teachers and learners.

“Universities have the opportunity to help people who want to learn, and the challenge is to listen to the new generation and find out what they want,” Fortier said at the forum.

Fortier and Bajeux-Besnainou were just two of 696 women in attendance this year, 22 per cent of the just over 3,000 total attendees. This figure is an improvement compared to 2016, when women made up only 18 per cent of attendees.

Amidst the many leaders present at the World Economic Forum, six young people stood out as inspirational figures because of their diverse backgrounds, expertise, and ideas.

Under the theme “Globalization 4.0: Creating a Global Architecture in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” Suzanne Fortier discussed climate change. (Athena Ko / The McGill Tribune)

Basima Abdulrahman, founder of Iraq’s first sustainable architecture consultancy firm, spoke as a fervent environmentalist but also as a philanthropist keen on improving social cohesion in her country. Akira Sakano, chair of Zero Waste Academy, explained her organization’s aim to make a small Japanese town waste free by 2020. Julia Luscombe, director of Strategic Initiatives at Feeding America, represented her non-profit that aims to im-

prove food security in the United States through food banks. Finally, Juan David Aristizábal, Mohammed Hassan Mohamud, and Noura Berrouba attended as co-chairs of Davos 2019 with the common mission to empower young people all around the world.

Empowerment shone through at the Davos 2019 World Economic Forum, reminding attendees of the power of change and of shaping our own future.

Music shown to significantly improve mental motivation A new study highlights the dopaminergic effect of music Yasmine Azzi Contributor There’s something about music that engages the brain, often eliciting a strong emotion simply using the ears. While it might just be an abstract pattern of pitches and rhythms, music somehow has significant biological and therapeutic implications. A recent study co-authored

by McGill researchers explains the phenomenon, providing novel evidence that the motivational power of music depends upon the amount of dopamine in the brain.

“This paper is the first evidence showing that the way that music engages our reward system is really much like other things that are much more concrete and important for our survival,” Benjamin Gold, a Ph.D. candidate who worked on the study, said.

The researchers based their investigation on the known connection between music and dopamine release; what remained unknown was how a change in dopamine levels could then play a role in motivating a subject.

“Is dopamine causing the pleasure we may experience from music, or is it responding as a consequence of pleasure and actually enhancing motivational aspects of behaviour?” Ernest Mas-Herrero, a postdoctoral fellow and the study’s primary author, said.

After conducting three separate trials on 27 healthy volunteers, the study found that participants who received levodopa, a drug that the brain converts into dopamine, experienced an increase in motivation compared to those who received a placebo. Conversely, when the same volunteers listened to music after receiving a dose of risperi-

done, a molecule that blocks dopamine receptors, their motivation decreased.

“When we compare the [treatment group with the placebo group], we see participant reports of pleasure differing,” Mas-Herrero said, “More chills and pleasure follow levodopa than risperidone. People are also more likely to spend money, so they are more motivated to buy [...] music following levodopa than risperidone.”

According to Mas-Herrero, music can serve as a model to understand emotions and their complexity.

“Dopaminergic circuits can be used to understand disorders and conditions characterized by a dysfunction of this pathway, such as addiction or depression,” MasHerrero said.

The research also opens the door to understanding how music acts as a therapeutic treatment for neurological disorders. Those who have neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s could potentially be treated using musical therapy in ways that pharmacological alternatives cannot. Sufferers of depression or anxiety could also see some increases in motivation as a result of this musically-induced mechanism.

“Understanding the neurochemistry of music may help us understand to what extent music can be used as a treatment for motivational [and neurodegenerative] disorders,” Mas-Herrero said.

This paper provides hope that the substantial link between music, motivation, and mental pleasure can be exploited to boost motivational circuits.

“Music is so powerful to us, so emotional, and, therefore, able to shine through our memories when other mem-

ories are deteriorating like in Alzheimer’s,” Gold said. “[It can also] provide cues that we can associate [with] our movements like in Parkinson’s, or to be a substrate for connection like in autism.”

Though there is still be plenty left to discover, such as why something as abstract as music can play such a large role in processing information, this paper acts as the first step toward understanding music’s therapeutic effects.

“We still have a lot to learn about how to use music to target and treat neurological disorders, but it might be possible,” Gold said. “There’s still a lot to uncover. This paper is more of a proof of concept.”

New findings suggest that dopamine levels in an individual can directly influence the reward response when listening to music.

(Zoe Countess / The McGill Trinune)

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Tuesday, february 19, 2019

11

McGill Drama Festival continues to impress Player’s Theatre presents its annual showcase of student talent Every year, Player’s Theatre’s Drama Festival highlights the abundance of student talent that McGill’s theatre scene has to offer. Showing until Feb. 23, the festival offers six original short plays written, directed, produced, and performed by students. Stories depicting everything from a first date between high-schoolers to an existential drama set in 1930s Harlem graced the stage at the Mainline Theatre.

Young Love Leo Stillinger, Staff Writer This brilliant and concise comedy tells the story of a a high school first date in the style of a Discovery Channel documentary. Narrated by Steven Finley, the audience peers into to a cringeworthy natural spectacle of medium-sized proportion: The teenage movie date. Viewers watch in suspense as Ari (Liana Brooks, U3 Science) and Bea (Isobel Macleod) struggle through conversational miscues, spilled popcorn, and their own mutual attraction. Finley steals the show as the eccentric narrator, but Brooks and Macleod are equally captivating in their portrayal of the sweet and selfconscious lovebirds. Victoria Stevens’ (U1 Education) script and Hope Kelly’s direction were both perfect, and this tour de force left the audience howling with laughter.

game with Pinch and Zoras (Jen Ower), a graceful and witty angel, losing terribly. In an attempt to settle his bet and replace his soul, Tom scrambles around 1930s Harlem hoping to find and con a gullible stranger out of their soul before the devil comes to collect his. He meets, among others, Cleopatra (Gretel Kahn, U3 Arts), a sharp and melodramatic hospital patient whose illness has forced her into solitude. Kahn, Ower, and Gemin, play two hilarious roles each, allowing for a diverse range of likable characters in a

8

½

Collisions

Diana Viola Contributor Written by Danielle Eyer, 8 ½ Collisions is an unflinching portrayal

A Man in Hue Leo Stillinger, Staff Writer Written by Steve Greenwood, A Man in Hue was a charming amalgam of Shakespearean theatre: An adaptation of Twelfth Night featuring characters from The Tempest. According to Greenwood’s introduction, both plays are “rich with queerness,” and the adaptation brought Shakespeare’s complex network of homoerotic tensions to the fore. Featuring unrequited lovers, power-grabbing queens, and twin siblings who swap suitors, A Man in Hue was an entertaining dive into a hybrid world. Caroline Portante’s (U4 Arts) direction brought the script, which mixes Shakespearean diction with modern swear words, to its full comic potential. A Man in Hue represents queer relationships with a clever twist on Shakespearean scholarship, and it pulls off this performance with aplomb.

Mike and Jo (Jo & Mike) Nicholas Raffoul, Staff Writer In an Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind-esque production that takes place in a dystopian future, exes Jo (Ana Krutchinsky, U2 Arts) and Mike (James Pallato, U2 Arts) have to reconcile their differences and find themselves on good terms. If they fail to meet this seemingly simple objective, they face expulsion from their city. To promote maximum efficiency, the city’s government requires that all citizens fully cooperate with each other. Thus, the two characters are forced into ‘Relationship Recovery,’ an absurd machine invented by a Nurse (Maeve Williams, U1 Arts) with the help of her intern (Ethan Mendell, U1 Arts & Sciences), in which Mike and Jo unpack their relationship, and learn how to move on. The process requires that the couple sit in a room and watch holograms of their bittersweet memories, including the first time they met, their first date, and their breakup. Light and sound effects create the illusion of the latest cuttingedge advancement in relationship technology. Written by Kate Hammer and directed by Tess Capern (U1 Arts), Mike and Jo provides an interesting perspective on breakups and communicating with an ex.

The Bottomless Pit in the Back Room of Nick's Speakeasy Nicholas Raffoul, Staff Writer After selling his soul to the devil, con-man and aspiring musician Tom (Harry Skinner, U3 Music) tries to cheat his soul back from Pinch (Sydney Gemin), Satan in disguise. He tries to win it back in a preposterous card

Player’s Theatre bring its annual showcase to the Mainline Theatre, presenting six student plays. (TNC) small cast. With hilarious performances by Kahn and Ower, The Bottomless Pit in the Back Room of Nick’s Speakeasy offers silly and lovable characters, witty comebacks, and insight into the consequences of betting against the devil herself.

Yellow Room Diana Viola, Contributor Yellow Room, written by Paige Lawson (U1 Arts) and directed by Summer Mahmud (U2 Arts), reconstructs friends Flynn and Sloane’s blurry memories of a summer night spent in the bedroom of an old friend whose identity remains a mystery for the majority of the play. Sloane, played

by Victoria Stevens, is intent on ensuring that Flynn’s (Laine Berry, U1 Science) attempts to downplay the night’s events do not obscure the truth.

Gretel Kahn, who portrays Flynn and Sloane’s mysterious friend, and Sofie Farkas, as Lisa, her significant other, slowly unveil the truth about the teenagers’ tumultuous relationships and the misremembered events of the fateful summer night. The play’s ending relieves the tension that builds between the characters over the course of the play, but leaves the audience questioning the reliability of the story’s narrators.

of mental illness following Ferris Powell (Nathan Mendel) and June Hayes (Ines Vieux Francoeur, U1 Arts), during their stays in a psychiatric hospital.

Both are trapped by the loneliness of their illnesses and are at the mercy of Mania (Leyla Gervais), an omnipresent puppeteer who controls their actions. Mania commands that Ferris and June meet just eight times over the course of their stays, allowing the characters to explore the intersections of their illnesses. “Who was the last person you met? Will you keep in touch? Did you catch their name?” These are some questions, written in the program, that director Charlie Atkinson (U0 Arts) poses to his audience, encouraging viewers to reflect on how a single encounter could change their lives. 8 ½ Collisions further questions how much control individuals truly have over their own lives.

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Tuesday, february 19, 2019 Sophie Brzozowski A&E Editor

‘Tip of the Sphere’ is a little bit magical Cass McCombs’ latest album warmly embraces listeners

‘Tip of the Sphere’ is a maelstrom of imagination. (pitchfork.com)

Singer-songwriter Cass McCombs has always been a compelling storyteller and Tip of the Sphere, his latest work, might just be his magnum opus.

The album, released on Feb. 8, is a whirlwind of fantastical world-building, deft lyricism, and cathartic melodies.

The songs are a subtle departure from the spare, folksy aesthetic of McCombs’ past few albums. While 2016’s Mangy Love was delicate and earthy, Tip of the Sphere introduces a fuller, more robust sound which better accompanies the depth of the themes of loss and regret that his work explores.

“The Great Pixley Train Robbery,” the second track on the album, tells the story of a riotous railroad heist involving a fugitive, an insurance salesman, and an otherwisenondescript passenger from Modesto, California.

The details of the fictionalized robbery unfold against a backdrop of thundering percussions and galloping acoustic guitar to produce an atmosphere that perfectly accommodates the wildlyspecific dystopian stick-up that McCombs describes.

Few songwriters can boast

the kind of lyrical dexterity that McCombs has deployed over the years. In 2015, the artist penned “Bradley Manning,” a somber folk song that mournfully chronicles the tale of a real-life army private who was sentenced to 35 years in military prison for divulging classified documents to WikiLeaks. Four years later, McCombs has seamlessly transitioned from writing political protest ballads to churning out surrealist, dreamlike melodramas.

The scope of his stories ranges from transcendental to mundane: “Tying Up Loose Ends,” the album’s melancholic centrepiece, finds its narrator picking through a box of old family photographs, unable to remember the name of the man pictured next to his Aunt Dorothy. McComb’s breadth of skill is equally as poignant on “Sleeping Volcanoes,” an existential and foreboding song about impending natural disaster.

Tip of the Sphere invites the world to see through the keen eyes of an overactive imagination. With his croaky vocals and warm melodies, McCombs beckons his listeners into a weird and wonderful world they will never want to leave.

The McGill Drama Festival Players’ Theatre presents its annual play festival featuring student-written, directed, and performed productions.

Feb. 20-23; Mainline Theatre, 3997 Boul.

Saint-Laurent; $8 tickets for students.

ISA Bollywood Night The Indian Students’ Association hosts a night of Bollywood music and bhangra.

Feb. 22, 10 p.m.-3 a.m.; Le Cinq Montreal; $12 tickets via eventbrite.

“In the Belly of the Whale” Artist-educator Andrew Hunter reflects on the colonial roots of Canadian art museums and galleries.

Feb. 21, 4-6 p.m.; Arts Building W-215; Free.

Gulîstan, Land of Roses Screening McGill World Islamic and Middle East Studies Students Association will screen a documentary about female Kurdish guerillas fighting ISIS. with director Zaynê Akyol in attendance.

Feb. 21, 6:30-9:30 p.m.; Morrice Hall Room 017; Free.

Kent Monkman’s latest exhibit inspires resilience McCord’s latest exhibition skewers everything from ‘The Scream’ to Group of Seven Keira Seidenberg Contributor Canadian artist Kent Monkman’s solo exhibition, Shame and Prejudice: a Story of Resilience, on display at the McCord Museum until May 5, offers a selection of the artist’s reappropriated paintings and sculptural works focusing on indigenous experience, including well known pieces such as The Scream. Monkman is one of Canada’s prevailing contemporary artists and draws on his Cree ancestry to inform the body of his work. Monkman’s oeuvre is primarily concerned with the history of colonialism in Canada, touching on themes such as resilience, loss, and sexuality to engage with settler-indigenous relationships. Many of his sculptures, paintings, and installations employ what local historian Reilley Bishop-Stall terms ‘archival intervention’ or ‘visual sovereignty.’ These terms refer to works of art that challenge colonial representation within the artistic canon, while deconstructing traditional representations generated by white individuals.

Monkman’s mastery of the mediums that he parodies and re-appropriates is striking. At first glance, The Bears of Confederation appears to be a replica of a landscape by an artist like Albert Bierstadt and George Varley that nostalgically renders nature as a resource to which man feels entitled. Upon closer examination, Monkman subverts artistic tropes, using historical or invented characters. These figures frequently enact homo-

The McCord Museum showcases Kent Momkman’s ouevre in its latest exhibition. (Rosa Apaza Castro / The McGill Tribune) eroticism or BDSM play amid scenic vistas. His works expose centuries of indigenous oppression, expressing the atrocities of the residential school system and the negative implications of colonial trade systems.

One of Monkman’s recurring characters is Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, Monkman’s alter ego fashioned in the likeness of Cher, who provoked controversy with her 1973 album Half-Breed in which the singer-songwriter exploited her supposed Native American heritage by wearing traditional feathered headdresses in her performances and on the album cover. Many of the works at Monkman’s exhibition cast Miss Chief as a troublemaker, able

to traverse spacial and historical boundaries by appearing in scenes from multiple time periods and locations. The character plays on social perceptions of ‘deviant’ sexuality to reclaim indigenous autonomy. For instance, in The Daddies, Monkman reproduces Robert Harris’ 1884 painting Meeting of the Delegates of British North America to Settle the Terms of Confederation, and places a nude Miss Chief in the centre of a room filled with gawking male delegates.

The first several rooms of the exhibition intersperse Monkman’s own works and those from which he draws influence, including paintings by 19th and 20th century Western

masters, juxtaposing canonical religious scenes and landscape vistas beside re-appropriated versions.

The exhibition also showcases Monkman’s sculptural installations, including an eery, moving replica of Fragonard’s The Swing, and nativity scenes in which stereotypical representations of indigenous persons, dressed in Red Skin and Chiefs sports jerseys, replace Mary and Joseph.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Monkman delivered a lecture on Feb. 6 at Pollack Hall, providing an overview of his work’s development and describing the processes and inspirations behind his opus.

“There’s so many histories of indigenous experiences, both present and historical, that have never been authorized in this very powerful language of painting,” Monkman said. “I needed to fill these gaps that really authorize indigenous experience”.

Canada and the United States are only beginning to acknowledge their histories of violence and oppression, which have long been obscured by narratives of national development.

Monkman believes that part of this process must include providing outlets and voices for indigenous persons, and allowing their expression to to pervade mainstream art and pop culture. While works detailing the ongoing turbulence of settler-colonial relationships are often critiqued for reifying the very violence they seek to dispel, Monkman’s work is unique for its comical yet critical approach to the indigenous experience.

student living

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2019

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Conscious coffee-brewing

A look inside Verdun’s zero waste Le 5e Cafe

Leyla Moy Contributor The plant-filled café Le 5e in Verdun has a sweet secret: They make their non-dairy lattes and vegan fare with minimal waste. The cafe strikes a tricky balance between cool minimalism and coziness, with plants lining a bookshelf above a cozy reading nook. Co-founders Vincent Dessureault and Dorian Zéphir were both interested in cafés’ potential as places to meet and exchange information about the environment and social impact. A mutual desire to move away from careers in big business brought the pair together, and Le 5e developed after over three years of collaboration on the project.

Walking straight through Le 5e, past the kombucha on tap, leads customers to the entrance of the similarly ecologically-minded grocery store Épicerie LOCO. The sparsely-decorated space boasts everything from unusual bulk toothpaste and crickets to more pedestrian grocery finds, like bulk grain and bath products. The partnership between the café and the grocery store developed out of serendipitous timing: Le 5e’s pilot project in Griffintown concluded its trial year just as Loco’s owners decided to expand to a second location from their original outpost in Villeray. “[At the time], we were the only two officially zero-waste companies, so we connected and kept in touch,” Dessureault said. “We ended up finding a nice place that was actually twice as big as we needed, and we [landed on] the idea of sharing the space.”

Dessureault and Zéphir found that imple-

At Le 5e Cafe, customers are taught eco-friendly habits. (Kellyane Levac / The McGill Tribune) menting zero-waste policies was a daunting but worthwhile task. While international chains like Starbucks have been lauded for taking small steps toward minimizing waste in their takeout options, Le 5e took more drastic steps to deliver on their zero waste promise. For one, they don’t stock paper cups and, instead, prompt customers to adopt reusable alternatives.

“The biggest challenge we have, and the most impactful decision we’ve [made], was removing all the cup waste,” Dessureault said. “With a typical coffee shop business model, [around] 50 per cent of the revenue comes from takeout.”.

Initially, getting potential customers to

change their habits was a challenge, but, for every patron taken aback by the business’s decision to forego disposables, the pair saw a customer developing new habits. For those open to making the switch, Le 5e offers reusable mason jars that customers can purchase for a dollar. But, there is more going on behind the scenes of a zero-waste business than one might assume.

“The other [...] challenge [...] is what you don’t really see as a customer,” Dessureault said.

This includes everything from choosing the delivery containers that stock arrives in to minimizing transportation emissions. Le 5e sources local and fair trade as much as possible and is

thoughtful in every step of the process to reduce waste. They have negotiated with suppliers to make deliveries in reusable containers, which they wash and send back to minimize waste produced from stocking the store. Lately, they have been doubling down on cutting transportation emissions by sourcing their stock from local suppliers that use emission-free transportation options like bike delivery.

Dessureault is made hopeful by the growth of other waste-minimizing businesses across Montreal. Thousands of Montrealers turned out to the city’s first Zero Waste Festival in 2018, and the movement has only continued to grow in the years since.

Le 5e has been connected with the Association Québécoise Zéro Déchet (AQZD), a Quebec nonprofit that aims to raise awareness among citizens, municipal governments, and businesses of the benefits of a zero-waste lifestyle. AQZD’s other partners include NousRire, a group that buys organic and ecologically-responsible food in bulk to make the products more accessible to customers and businesses, and Circuit Zéro Déchet, which compiles a directory of local zero waste businesses. Such projects, which have emerged in response to popular interest in zero-waste living, are encouraging for local trailblazers like Le 5e and Épicerie LOCO. “They gave us a lot of opportunities to share our experiences with different people, and I think it was a nice way to connect with [...] people that are curious or interested in [integrating zero waste principles] into their businesses or their future businesses,” Dessureault said.

Bakery-hopping through the Plateau Montreal’s must-try baked goods Miya Keilin Sports Editor Montreal has always had tasty pastries, and, now, a high quality bakery is never more than a few blocks away. However, the constant stress of midterms, papers, and job applications can make it difficult for students to venture out of the McGill bubble and fully appreciate all of the baked goods that Montreal has to offer. The McGill Tribune is here to help add some sweetness to students’ lives with a short list of some of the most well-respected bakeries just a short walk or bus ride away from McGill’s Downtown campus.

Boulangerie Guillaume

Located north of St. Joseph and St. Laurent, Boulangerie Guillaume features an impressive array of fresh-baked breads, pastries, sandwiches, and decadent desserts. Through big windows that face the sidewalk, the various breads and pastries that decorate the wall behind the counter will instantly attract passers-by. Upon entering, customers can peer back into the kitchen to see their bread steaming as it comes out of the oven.

The interior setup can be a little bit confusing. The pastry and bread selections are on display near the entrance, so customers can easily see all of these options. The sandwiches and cookies, however, are hidden beyond the cash register. Bags of day-old baked goods— offered at a discounted price—are opposite the counter, which can make them easy to miss. Yet, with a wide range of traditional and creative takes on all things baked, no customer leaves Boulangerie Guillaume disappointed.

Mamie Clafoutis

Just steps away from Square St. Louis, Mamie Clafoutis offers the perfect selection for a summer picnic in the park or a cozy coffee date. From their Oh mon Dieu! croissants to their shortbread cookies, this local favourite consistently delivers rich, buttery sweets baked to

perfection. They also make traditional French breads, pies, tarts, and sandwiches, which customers can enjoy on a lovely mezzanine with couches, tables, wifi, and a piano. Even better, the upstairs area has a view of the kitchen, so diners can watch bakers mix, roll, and shape dough into Mamie Clafoutis’ signature flaky pastries.

Les Copains d’Abord

Although small, Les Co’Pains d’Abord, tucked away on Rue Rachel just off of St. Denis, is full of beautiful pastries and desserts.

The first display case features an assortment of simple yet gorgeous goods. Highlights include the choco grand cru—a croissant with perfectly-even stripes of chocolate—a danish with apple slices cleanly laid across each other, and glossy brioches that come in assorted flavours. Meticulously-decorated cakes, tarts, cookies, and pies, the flavours of which vary with the season, line the shelves of the second display case. Cakes like the irrésistible au chocolat and the mille feuille feature intricate designs, showcasing Les Co’Pains d’Abord’s attention to detail.

Kouign Amann

A Montreal classic, this bakery is named for its signature treat, the kouign-amann: A Breton cake with layers of butter, sugar, and pastry dough with a caramelized exterior. While it isn’t much to look at, the kouign amann, with its rich sweetness, is scrumptious.

The bakery sells the pastry by the slice or as a full cake that can easily be taken to go. Kouign Amann does not serve a wide variety of sweets, but what they do make is superb: The chocolate in the pain au lait choco is sweet and smooth, the rolls are perfectly sugary and crispy, and the apple turnover, with a flavourful filling and a crunchy, photogenic pastry, is always satisfying. On the savoury side, Kouign Amann offers assorted quiches as well as croissants with various combinations of ham, cheeses, and vegetables inside. To make a complete meal, customers can pair their baked goods with a coffee or one of Kouign Amann’s fresh, homemade juices.

The Plateau offers a wide-variety of extravagant pastries. (Miya Keilin / The McGill Tribune)

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student living

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2019

What it takes for McGill to cancel class The history of snow days at McGill Vanessa Barron Contributor Continued from page 1.

Berkeley Kaite, an associate professor in the Department of English, remembers arriving at campus only to be told that the university would be closed.

“It was the first or second day of classes when the storm started,” Kaite said. “Not only did McGill close, but the whole city was shut down.

It was eerie like a ghost town.”

While Kaite was fortunate to have power at her home, she noted that many people had to check into hotels that had generators to get access to electrical heating. Roads were closed off to traffic, and cars were stuck in the ice.

Some McGill students responded to this natural disaster through acts of charity—a group of law students coordinated donations and deliveries of essential supplies to areas of Quebec that were hit hardest during the storm. The event also resulted in new research projects at McGill: Project Ice Storm studied the long-term effects of prenatal stress caused by the environmental disaster, and is led by Dr. Suzanne King. McGill has not seen such an intense storm since.

Following the events of 1997, snow storms came and went, but McGill’s doors stayed open.

It was not until recently that McGill cancelled classes twice due to blizzards: the first time in 2017 and the other in 2019. While neither of these instances were as extreme as the 1998 storm, the blizzards nonetheless posed a challenge to both commuters and those who walked to class, as roads and sidewalks were impracticable. Owen

On Feb. 13, McGill cancelled class for the first time in two years. (Winnie Lin/ The McGill Tribune) Quinn, U1 Engineering, observed that while students love to complain about bad weather, city employees worked hard to clear the paths for vehicles and students.

“McGill’s campus isn’t that big compared to other schools,” Quinn said. “But I imagine it takes a lot of work to clear that much snow in a short amount of time.”

The frequency of class cancellations in recent years may indicate that McGill is more seriously considering students who do not live within walking distance of campus. Paul Orasanu, U2 Engineering, commutes to campus and was relieved that he did not have to take the bus that day.

“Living in the West Island, it takes me almost an hour and a half to get to campus on a good day. That time can double with poor weather or traffic,” Orasanu said. “It’s nice to know that McGill doesn’t only think about its near-campus students when making these decisions.”

The snow day not only spared students from commuting in poor weather conditions, it also provided them with a small break during midterm season. Whether they spent the day studying or binge-watching Netflix, students had the opportunity to relax at a stressful time in the school year.

“I had midterm on Thursday [Feb. 14], so

that extra day for studying definitely saved my grade,” said Quinn. “And, I felt much less guilty sleeping through my alarm for my morning class.”

Students at McGill who have experienced both of the past two snow days can consider themselves lucky. The 19-year gap between the 1998 Ice Storm and the blizzard of 2017 means that thousands of McGill students graduated without enjoying a single snow day.

“Snow days are so rare at McGill that [professors] are quite surprised when school is cancelled,” Kaite said. “[This snow day] felt special, like I was in fifth grade again.”

Combatting impostor syndrome on campus

In competitive environments, students struggle with confidence Alaana Kumar Contributor A student receives an acceptance letter to their dream school or an offer for a prestigious internship, yet, they cannot help but wonder why they were selected.

These thoughts are characteristic of impostor syndrome: The feeling that one’s successes are not a result of their efforts or abilities but are, instead, a fluke. Those who experience the phenomenon often feel like a fraud and believe their achievements do not measure up to their peers’ accomplishments. The fast-paced campus life can bring forth these feelings, causing self-doubt in students’ minds.

Experts have identified five manifestations of impostor syndrome: The perfectionist, who always feels dissatisfied with their achievements; the superperson who is often described as a ‘workaholic’; the natural genius, who fears facing obstacles in their work; the soloist, who avoids asking for help; and the expert, who is determined to excel at everything they attempt. From the outside, these high-achieving individuals might seem high-strung or obsessed with being the best. However, they are often unable to recognize their own success.

High-pressure environments, such as universities, are replete with individuals battling some form of impostor syndrome. This is generally a consequence of coming from a smaller, safer community, such as high school, and joining a larger or organization in which competition can be more intense. Hannah Reed, U1 Arts, explained that interacting with peers in her program can sometimes

Many students at competitive universities experience feelings of insecurity and isolation. (Sunny Kim / The McGill Tribune) trigger impostor syndrome.

“As an Arts student studying computer science, I sometimes feel like a fraud among that community,” Reed said. “I’m scared I’ll go to the computer science lounge and someone will ask me a question [...] right away, they’ll just know I don’t belong. It takes a lot to

fight that insecurity and remind myself that I study all the same material [as the other students in the program].”

Over 70 per cent of individuals surveyed by the International Journal of Behavioral Science admitted to feeling insecure at some point in their lives. Although impostor syndrome is common among students, it is not limited to that demographic. Accomplished individuals, including Emma Watson, Meryl Streep, and Neil Armstrong have spoken publicly about their fears of being exposed as frauds in their respective fields. Even Maya Angelou, the critically-acclaimed author, said that, after each of her books were published, she feared being exposed as a phony author. For students, it is important to realize that these insecurities are commonplace and just a consequence of high achievement.

When battling impostor syndrome, individuals can sometimes feel as if they are the only ones struggling with self confidence. Understanding peers share the same insecurities is key to overcoming the negative thoughts associated with impostor syndrome. Students often find that talking to their friends and counsellors helps in easing their worries. Amanda Dennie from McGill’s Peer Support Centre often speaks with students who feel overwhelmed in their environments. She finds that their self-doubt can sometimes leads to negative habits such as procrastination or overworking.

“Sometimes, students come in with lots of extracurriculars and activities and still fear they’re behind everyone else,” Dennie said. “They often wonder, ‘am I doing enough?’ or ‘do I belong here?’ [....] You made it here, so you deserve to be here. Be kind to yourself.”

sports

TUESDAY, february 19, 2019

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10 Things: Ugly uniforms through the years Mitch Bannon, Paul McCann, Alden Tabac, Owen Gibbs, Miya Keilin Contributors, Staff Writer, Sports Editor

1960-61 Denver Broncos

With this uniform, the Denver Broncos made one thing clear: Sports teams should avoid brown and yellow. However, the Broncos went a step beyond the ugly colour combination by adding stripes on the pants and socks. While the pants were merely lacklustre, the striped socks may have been the worst addition to any uniform ever.

1964-76 Chicago White Sox

Few teams can pull off powder blue jerseys, and the 1971 White Sox were no exception. The light blue and bright red colour scheme was a bold choice that failed to even register in the ‘so-bad-it’s-good’ category. The worst part of the uniform was the pants: In general, teams that elect to use the same colour for their tops and bottoms do not look good, and this is doubly true when the primary colour is powder blue.

1972-84 San Diego Padres

The brown and yellow jerseys that the San

Diego Padres wore from 1972-1984 are even more disappointing than their 50 consecutive seasons without a World Series title. In the otherwise-beautiful city of San Diego, the brown and yellow stuck out like a sore thumb.

The Padres’ promise to return to ‘mustard and mud’ as their main colour scheme in 2020 assures that they will look as bad as they will likely perform.

1974-87 Washington Bullets

The horizontal red and white stripes on these uniforms are terrible. However, the shorts are the true villain here. With their red waistband, white piping, and star-shaped patches, these shorts more closely resemble an American flag than an article of clothing.

1975-1986 Houston Astros

In a long history of unique jerseys, the Astros’ white, orange, and red masterpieces are easily the most famous. Colloquially known as ‘tequila sunrise,’ these uniforms are the perfect combination of beautiful and ugly. In the last few years, they have brought back the look on several retro nights. Conspiracy theorists are still trying to prove a direct correlation between their resurgence and Houston’s recent success.

1978-85 Vancouver Canucks

In an effort to revamp their look, the Vancouver Canucks swapped their classic blue and green uniforms out for a brand new red, black, and yellow design. The jersey featured a large V-shape across the chest which, according to the designers of the uniform, stood for victory. Fortunately, they ditched the ‘V’ after seven seasons and abandoned the red, black and yellow for good in 1997.

1989 Ajax away uniform

This Ajax redesign makes them look like a travelling circus. The kit’s combination of an abstract geometric pattern and a bright red and blue colour scheme is disastrous. Perhaps, the team hoped that their hideous jerseys would distract their opponents.

1995-98 New York Islanders

In 1995, the New York Islanders decided to change their logo from the classic ‘NY’ to a new fisherman emblem. The change led to a disaster of a jersey, which featured bright orange, teal, and black—three colours that were never meant to be in such close proximity. Islanders fans hated the logo so much that the team changed it back as soon as

league rules allowed them to at the end of the 1997 season, but the colours remained until the end of 1998.

2016-present Seattle Seahawks

A uniform should be noticeable from the bleachers, but maybe not from space.

The NFL-wide colour rush, in which teams wear bright, monochromatic uniforms, is an interesting concept and has produced some gorgeous uniforms. However, the Seattle Seahawks’ variation, which they wore starting in 2016, featured matching neon green jerseys and pants: An ugly and deeply unpleasant colour for a uniform.

2019 Tampa Bay Lightning third uniform

The Lightning’s new alternate jersey is bland. The uniform, unveiled in early February, features only the uninspiring colours black, white, and grey. The steel-grey socks and numbering are both particularly off-putting because of how spectacularly they clash with the black. That, coupled with a lack of detailing, makes this outfit look like a practice uniform in action.

Power to the players NBA stars demanding trades is good for everyone Ender McDuff Staff Writer Anthony Davis is still a member of the New Orleans Pelicans despite his best efforts to leave the only NBA team he has ever played for.

Amid a sub-.500 season in which the Pelicans have struggled to make the playoffs, Davis joined a growing list of NBA stars demanding a trade.

Consequently, the Los Angeles Lakers made painstaking efforts to acquire Davis, but the Pelicans held onto their franchise player through the Feb. 7 trade deadline.

While New Orleans may simply seek a better offer in the summer, there are two more reasons they elected to keep Davis. The Pelicans are frustrated at the Lakers’ alleged tampering, plus the league is

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applying pressure on them to deny the outright trade demands. Such pressure, however, stems from a misunderstanding: Teams are overestimating the threat of trade requests and underrating their own management’s accountability.

NBA stars’ trade requests are nothing new: Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar both wished their way to Los Angeles in the 1960s and ‘70s, respectively.

In recent years, however, the frequency of such demands has increased. Players like Paul George and Kawhi Leonard have learned how to leverage expiring contracts and the threat of free agency. Now, Davis is giving it a try.

The problem is that front offices are worried that this dynamic hurts small-market teams.

Franchise players often demand trades to larger markets to grow their personal brands, leaving small-market teams in a weakened position in trade negotiations.

What these concerns fail to recognize, however, is the role that management has historically served in determining the places that players seek to play. For every Chamberlain, who sought out the Los Angeles lifestyle, there has been a Shaquille O’Neal, who forced his way out of Los Angeles in 2004.

More recently, Kawhi Leonard left San Antonio because of his issues with team management regarding his quadricep injury. Both Davis and Kristaps Porziņģis have requested trades due to years of

On Jan. 28, Anthony Davis joined a growing list of NBA players to demand a trade away from the team who drafted him. (Tyler Kaufman / AP)

dismal team personnel management.

Meanwhile, the feared large markets of Los Angeles and New York have almost universally failed to acquire any top-tier talent from these trade requests for years. By thinking that these players will be available in free agency, teams like the Lakers, Clippers, and Knicks have instead waited to make their moves. In turn, players often find new homes with teams who show more immediate interest.

Small-market teams on both sides of these franchise-altering deals have found success. In the Paul George trade, the Indiana Pacers acquired all-star Victor Oladipo, and the Oklahoma City Thunder convinced George to stay and help them compete atop the Western Conference. Additionally, the San Antonio Spurs sent Kawhi Leonard to Toronto in exchange for all-star guard DeMar DeRozan, allowing them to remain in the playoff picture.

As for the Raptors, there is still concern that Kawhi Leonard may leave the Raptors in the upcoming offseason, but with their rebuild imminent either way, trying to win right now in the Eastern Conference is a smart move.

These blockbuster deals left all parties in a better situation. The players have learnt to fit in their new cities; teams, that would have received nothing in return if their stars had departed in free agency, acquired all-star talent instead.

To mitigate concerns of players leaving small-market teams, the NBA implemented the Designated Veteran Contract. This component of the 2017 collective bargaining agreement allows teams to offer unmatchable ‘supermax’ deals to their free-agent superstars. The Thunder and Washington Wizards used this provision to retain Russell Westbrook and John Wall, respectively.

Ultimately, the fears arising from star players’ trade requests are overblown. This summer, teams will inundate the Pelicans with sizeable offers for Davis—a fortunate position for New Orleans after years of egregious mismanagement.

The Pelicans may be frustrated to see Davis go, but his demand, as that of so many other players, is a direct product of the team’s own managerial failings—a truth certain other teams would do well to reflect upon.

16

sports

TUESDAY, february 19, 2019

Tremblay scores twice in OUA quarterfinal win McGill men’s hockey will face Carleton in semifinals Zoe Babad-Palmer Contributor On Feb. 16, the McGill men’s hockey team (17-11) defeated the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) Ridgebacks (14-14) in an exciting 6-2 win to advance to the OUA semifinal round. In the rough-and-tumble affair, 12 players— including both teams’ goalies—received penalties.

McGill dominated the game from the start.

Just 38 seconds into the opening frame, a clean snipe from third-year forward Samuel Tremblay gave McGill the lead. Tempers ran high, and the occasional post-whistle malice soon escalated into the Ridgebacks taking penalties for slashing, high sticking, and tripping. Although McGill failed to score on their first two power plays, they established a rhythm of solid passing and several close shots.

On their third power play, however, the team broke through: Fourth-year forward Christophe Lalonde put the puck over the goal line, and, 31 seconds later, first-year forward Jordan Fournier scored to advance McGill 3-0.

Both McGill and UOIT got physical in the last three minutes of the period, pushing and shoving until second-year forward Keanu Yamamoto masterfully stickhandled through traffic to score yet again. The first period ended 4-0, with 12 shots from McGill compared to just two for the Ridgebacks.

According to Head Coach Kelly Nobes, the team focused on remaining consistent heading into the second period.

“We just talked about keeping the game plan the same as it was,” Nobes said. “We wanted to grind, we wanted to stick with it, and keep pucks going north.”

Throughout the period, McGill played keepaway,

frustrating the Ridgebacks’ efforts at a comeback.

The home side had promising chances on their single power play, breathing life into the period. However, they could not convert, and eventually gave up a power play goal with 1:22 left in the period.

Emotions ran highest in the final period, but McGill remained in control of the game. About halfway through the period, third-year transfer defenceman Maximilian Daigle increased the score to 5-1 McGill with a slapshot. Tremblay scored for the second time that night with a power play goal shortly after.

With just over five minutes remaining, a major netfront brawl disrupted McGill’s momentum. The scuffle sent two Ridgebacks and two McGill players to the penalty box for roughing and unsportsmanlike conduct. At this point, McGill eased their pressure and allowed a last-minute goal. However, the Ridgebacks had lost the competition far earlier in the game, and, when the buzzer sounded, McGill was victorious by a score of 6-2.

Going into the game, McGill was determined to win the series on Saturday and avoid a third, winnertake-all match.

“We were really ready in the room,” Tremblay said. “We wanted to finish [the series] right now and not play tomorrow, so it’s a little bit more rest for us [....] It was a good motivation to end this tonight.”

Fourth-year defenceman Dominic Talbot-Tassi, who celebrated his 25th birthday on game day, wants his team to play against their next opponent with the same intensity that fuelled their win against UOIT. “We’ve got to keep up with the same energy [and] stick to the structure and I think things should go our way,” Talbot-Tassi said.

McGill will face Carleton in the OUA semifinals.

Tremblay takes a faceoff from centre ice. (Keli Geers/ The McGill Tribune)

MOMENT OF THE Game Third-year goalie Louis-Philip Guindon made a spectacular save on the penalty kill during the second period, rolling onto his back to stop the Ridgebacks.

QUOTABLE “I think the message was pretty clear in the room that we had to come out strong and impose our tempo, and I think that’s what we did.” –Dominic Talbot-Tassi on the impressive first period start.

STAT CORNER Four McGill players—third-year transfer defenceman Nikolas Brouillard, Tremblay, Yamamoto, and Fournier—recorded two or more points in the win.

Changing concussion policy in youth sports NYU scholar advocates for a better approach to protecting young athletes Kaja Surborg Staff Writer With growing amounts of research on the occurrence of concussions in contact sports, conversations about how to keep young athletes safe in organized sporting environments have expanded. At his Feb. 14 talk, “The Games We Play: What Should Law and Policy do About Playing Collision Sports?,” Jason Chung, an attorney and senior research scholar at New York University’s Sports and Society Program, discussed his efforts to find policies balancing the benefits of sports with safety standards backed by scientific research.

“No medical professional will ever say that getting hit in the head repeatedly is a good thing,” Chung said.

However, concussion research has not yet definitively established a cause-and-effect relationship between traumatic brain injuries sustained from collision sports and longterm neurodegenerative effects. Currently, researchers’ focus is on professional sports, such as the NFL and NHL, where there is a greater risk for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a condition that results from repeated impacts to the head. Applying these findings to youth sports is not scientifically sound: The pace of play is not nearly as intense, and athletes’ brains are at different stages of development.

“The recurrent research that’s been performed regarding CTE is on elite athletes with far greater exposure [to CTE] than you and

I,” Chung said. “When we talk about risk to the general population, we have to be careful not to take extreme cases or edge cases and extrapolate their experiences to the general public.”

However, both Canada and the U.S. have seen a rise in legislative attempts to restrict or ban collision sports at the youth level based on a belief that action is necessary even without conclusive research. Chung argued that there are more productive ways to address the issue like having open discussions about the pros and cons of a total ban, along with conducting longitudinal studies.

“When I’m speaking to American audiences, this is very black or white,” Chung said. “Either you ban it or you don’t. I am actually advocating for more of a Canadian approach.

Let’s look at the evidence. Let’s actually perform the steps. Even if we disagree, let’s have a public forum on it.”

In 2013, after a lengthy review with medical professionals, Hockey Canada banned body checking at the peewee level and below. Chung views this example as concurrent with the more nuanced approach for which he advocates. He noted that the quick rush to add regulations founded on imperfect science is unproductive.

“When there’s still debate on the facts and consensus around an issue, changes on that issue will have a basis that’s [...] like quicksand,” Chung said. “It’s vulnerable to any shift in [...] public opinion.”

Chung cited the social barriers that come with a complete ban, particularly for low-

NYU scholar and McGill alumnus Jason Chung delivered a talk about concussion policy in youth sports. (Kaja Surborg / The McGill Tribune) income and racialized communities, as talent in football and other contact sports can provide an opportunity to receive a university education. He also referenced both the physical and emotional benefits of youth sports to those who partake, including preventing obesity and learning teamwork, as reasons to avoid a total ban on participation.

Ultimately, Chung concluded that the most appropriate direction for policy to take is to force youth sports’ governing bodies to take legal responsibility in keeping their rules consistent with the the most recent research. He also argued

that federal and provincial governments should require leagues to keep their participants up to date with the available information. Federal and provincial governments across Canada have already begun to establish more comprehensive guidelines for treating traumatic brain injuries and returning to play after concussions.

“This is happening more consistently across Canada, and the federal government is currently spearheading a deeper look into national standards,” Chung said. “Provincial legislatures are adopting laws like Rowan’s Law or at least discussing it in legislature.”