McGill Tribune Vol. 39 Issue 20

The McGill Tribune TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25 2020 | VOL. 39 | ISSUE 20

Published by the SPT, a student society of McGill University

McGILLTRIBUNE.COM | @McGILLTRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

FEATURE

SPORTS WOMEN’S WEEK

Feminist graduate options are indispensable to McGill

(Re)claiming our space

Female coaches deserve equal opportunity, too

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(Abeer Almahdi / The McGill Tribune)

The Creative Supplement: Winter 2020

see insert

Holocaust survivor condemns McGill’s handling of anti-Semitism allegations IJV and SPHR members co-organized rally outside James Administration

Kevin Vogel Arts & Entertainment Editor During her visit to promote her memoir, Holocaust to Resistance: My Journey, Suzanne Berliner Weiss led a rally

on Feb. 17 condemning Deputy Provost of Student Life and Learning Fabrice Labeau’s handling of anti-Semitism allegations regarding last semester’s controversial Face to Face trip. Weiss, a lifelong activist and Holocaust survivor, heard about these allegations from media coverage last De-

cember. Co-organized by Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) and Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) McGill, the rally outside of the James Administration Building featured Weiss delivering a letter to Deputy Provost Labeau detailing her perspective on the issue.

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Finding the right place to read

Teaching AI to learn by positive reinforcement

Navigating different literary spaces Jonathan Giammaria Staff Writer A university lecture or a book club: By way of discussion, both bring the personal act of reading into an academic or social realm. However, these cultural spaces don’t necessarily motivate the same types of discussion. Barring other factors, like contextual formality or accessibility, an individual moves through these spaces

carrying their own reading habits. In having to tailor their individual practices to a group setting, the question remains as to how a given setting influences the reader, and whether or not the reader feels satisfied by its literary provisions.

From a young age, Emily Matuska, U1 Arts, has always loved reading, and she came to McGill to pursue her passion.

“I’m just drawn to the ethereal beauty of language,”

Matuska said. “Genuinely, as an art form, I think [that] I resonated with words and language more than anything else.”

Studying English literature at McGill, however, has so far been a double-edged sword for her. On the one hand, Matuska cherishes her classroom for situating her with likeminded students, all as eager to engage in thoughtful discussions about novels and poetry as she is.

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New developments help AI better understand human preferences Doris Tian Contributor Training conscious beings to complete a task often entails offering a reward as an incentive: You might offer a puppy a treat if it sits, or you might give a child a lollipop if they stay quiet at a concert. In the realm of com-

puter science, the same is true for unconscious beings.

Known as reinforcement learning (RL), the process of incentivizing the machine to complete desired tasks allows artificial intelligence (AI) agents, or autonomous intelligent entities, to ‘learn’ by reward. Thus, when given the goal to maximize their

reward function, the machine learns to do the task repeatedly.

Doina Precup, a professor in McGill’s School of Computer Science, compares training AI agents to training animals, where the machines are offered a reward when the task is done correctly and denied it when the task is not.

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25 2020

NEWS

Divest McGill obstructs entrances to James Administration for divestment The obstructions caused the relocation of a CAMSR meeting Helen Wu News Editor Approximately 20 members of Divest McGill, Climate Justice Action McGill (C-JAM), and Greenpeace McGill blocked all five entrances to the James Administration Building from 8:30 am to 4:00 pm on Feb. 18, demanding that the university divest from TC Energy, the company behind the controversial Coastal Gaslink Pipeline. The pipeline is being constructed through unceded Wet’suwe’ten territory in British Columbia (BC), which has sparked outrage from Indigenous activists and allies. As of Sept.

2019, McGill owned $6.6 million in TC Energy shares.

Divest member Laura Mackey described their confrontation with Principal and Vice-Chancellor Suzanne Fortier and members of the Board of Governors’ Committee to Advise on Matters of Social Responsibility (CAMSR) when the committee arrived at the building for a scheduled meeting. “[Fortier] was very surprised,” Mackey said. “There was a [CAMSR] meeting this morning that was supposed to happen at [9:00 am] in this building [….] But once those people on the committee came and saw the building was blockaded, they had to move their meeting [to another location].”

While there were members of the McGill Security Services on site, security reinforcements arrived in about 10 minutes after Divest McGill began the blockade. Divest members stood inside the doors of the building and believe that Security Services were ordered to lock the doors to prevent them from speaking to the media personnel outside. Activists communicated with The McGill Tribune via text message, as Security Services barred people from re-entering the building.

Divest memb.er Laura Doyle Pean, 1L Law, was positioned at

one of the lobbies of the James Administration building. They stated that Divest members came prepared with paper handouts detailing the reasons for the blockade.

“We had prepared a lot of handouts to give to people to explain why we were doing the actions and what our demands were, because the goal [of the protest] was also for people to know what was going on and to know about McGill’s investment in TC energy,” Pean said. “We still have lots [of handouts] because we were not able to have that contact with employees of the building.”

Despite being aware of the disciplinary measures, Pean emphasized that the risks posed to members of Divest are lower than the land defenders’on the front lines of the situation in Wet’suwet’en.

“We know that we might be facing disciplinary measures, but we think it is a risk that is worth taking considering that people are being kicked out of their [homes] in Wet’suwet’en […] because of the Coastal Gas Link project,” Pean said. “We think it is a small risk to face considering what is happening. It is one that is necessary if we choose to show support.”

Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Vice-President University Affairs Madeline Wilson was also present inside the James Administration Building, acting as a liaison between the students and McGill’s administration and Security Services. Wilson spoke with both Vice-Principal (Administration and Finance) Yves Beauchamp and Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Fabrice Labeau at 9:30 am to explain the situation.

While confrontations did happen with some employees trying to enter the building, Divest member Cailean Oikawa, U1 Science, explained that other staff members were supportive.

“We did have a lot of allies in the building,” Oikawa said.

“There were a lot of employees that made it very known to us that they were supportive of our actions and that they loved seeing the

Activists believe that Security Services were preventing them from speaking with the media. (Helen Wu / The McGill Tribune) determination and passion we have for our movement. They wished us the best of luck.”

Oikawa highlighted Divest McGill’s broader goal of advocating for Wet’suwet’en land defenders.

“We never go into these things expecting McGill to meet demands fully [or] immediately,” Oikawa said. “But, we were successful in getting our message out to McGill staff, McGill students, the larger divest movement in Canada, and the conversation [around] what is happening in BC.”

Dean of Arts office announced the proposed cancellation of Graduate Options Students sign open letter opposing the proposed suspensions of feminist studies programs

The planned suspension would have eliminated feminist studies graduate programs.

(Leanne Young / The McGill Tribune)

Deisha Paliwal Staff Writer McGill’s Office of the Dean of Arts announced the planned suspension of the Graduate Option in Gender and Women’s Studies (GWS) and Development Studies on Feb. 10.

The cancellation of the options would eliminate feminist studies graduate programs, as of the Fall 2021 semester.

However, on Feb. 19, Associate Dean, Professor Michael Fronda, clarified to chairs and directors that the Faculty of Arts has not instituted an official suspension or cancellation.

“The Faculty of Arts is in the preliminary stages of a consultation about the options, following the usual prac-

tices relating to any proposed changes to university programs and curricula,” Fronda wrote.

In response to the proposed suspensions, the Gender, Sexuality, Feminist and Social Justice Student Association (GSFSSA) posted an open letter to be signed by graduate and undergraduate students. The letter voiced disapproval of the proposed cancellation and the request of its retraction.

“By suspending the Graduate Option, the course of our education is being significantly altered without our prior knowledge or the vital input of those faculty who are entrusted with its implementation,” the letter states.

The GWS is offered in 15 Master degree programs and 11 PhD pro-

grams, while the Development Studies Option is available in six Masters programs.

The letter also emphasized that the cancellation of the programs would threaten inclusivity.

“Not only does the university’s actions significantly narrow the pool of exceptional students that would benefit from a graduate program concentration, but it also suspends what has long been considered an asset for the University’s attempt at inclusivity.”

Kiersten van Vliet, third-year PhD student in Musicology with the option in Gender and Women’s Studies, emphasized that the proposed suspension would eliminate a program that is both viable and valued within the McGill community.

“I was gutted to hear that the Graduate Option in Gender and Women’s Studies was being suspended,” Van Vliet said. “The GWS Option fosters the type of scholarly community-building that, at least in my experience, has been rarely found elsewhere at McGill. It has provided me with an interdisciplinary cohort of scholars.”

In an official statement, Dr. Alexandra Ketchum, Faculty Lecturer of the Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, echoed similar sentiments.

“The university should be expanding its support and providing more financial resources towards the program at this time, rather than trying

to end it,” Ketchum said. “I want to underline that the community created by the Graduate Option is not tangential. By creating a research environment in which graduate students feel supported, they are able to do better research and be better scholars.”

Van Vliet, who also serves as President of the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM), speculated that the inclusion of a wider range of stakeholders in the discussions leading up to the decision would have changed the outcome.

“The decision appears to have been made by administrators currently or previously affiliated with Arts, without consulting with administrators within the Faculty of Education or the Schulich School of Music, which challenges the autonomy of other Faculties at McGill,” Van Vliet said. “By bypassing any consultation, the decision was also made without following McGill’s own policies for modifying existing graduate teaching programs.”

The lack of communication with graduate students concerned Van Vliet.

“The silence throughout this process is deafening, and speaks to larger issues concerning how McGill does not act in the interest of its graduate students, its graduate student employees, and its faculty lecturers, who are the institution’s most precarious faculty members,” Van Vliet said.

Maha Cherid, a masters student

in Education and Society who is pursuing the GWS option, expressed her disappointment about the university’s priorities.

“In my opinion, the fact that the administration even considered taking away this option, without consultation and without already having a different program in place for MA students, shows a lack of foresight and a serious lack of understanding of the role that gender and women studies play in university,” Cherid wrote in an email to the Tribune.

As of press time, the decision to cancel the GSW option has been suspended. There will be a faculty meeting to discuss the new criteria for graduate options on Feb. 25.

Maha Cherid, a masters student in Education and Society who is pursuing the GWS option, expressed her disappointment about the university’s priorities.

“In my opinion, the fact that the administration even considered taking away this option, without consultation and without already having a different program in place for MA students, shows a lack of foresight and a serious lack of understanding of the role that gender and women studies play in university,” Cherid wrote in an email to the Tribune.

As of print time, the decision to cancel the GSW option has been suspended. There will be a faculty meeting to discuss the new criteria for graduate options on Feb. 25.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25 2020

NEWS

3

Holocaust survivor condemns McGill’s handling of anti-Semitism allegations IJV and SPHR members co-organized rally outside James Administration

Kevin Vogel Arts & Entertainment Editor Continued from page 1.

Weiss read the letter aloud before delivering it to Labeau’s office.

“I am a Jewish Holocaust survivor and I have engaged throughout my life in combatting hatred of Jewish people,” Weiss read. “For me, such reports [of anti-Semitism] are very alarming [....] I have reviewed relevant reports on controversies at McGill this school year [and] I find no evidence of anti-Semitism here. What I see is a passionate debate on the politics of [Israel and Palestine].”

During World War II, French resistance networks hid Weiss in the countryside. As her family was killed by Nazis, Weiss spent her childhood years after the war in orphanages and eventually was adopted by a family in New York City. During her adult life, Weiss became involved in student activism, the Cuban Revolution, the Black Power movement, Indigenous rights, anti-Vietnam War activism, women’s liberation, and Palestinian freedom movements.

Weiss, now 79 years old, hopes that the lessons she has learned throughout her life can help advocate for social justice around the world today.

“These irresponsible charges serve to put Jewish people at risk by weakening our abil-

The Face to Face trip is an all-expenses-paid trip to Israel offered by a Jewish organization called Hillel.

(Kevin Vogel / The McGill Tribune) ity to focus on genuine acts of anti-Semitism, that is, ‘hatred of Jews because they are Jews.’”

Weiss said. “As for the Palestinians, their very attempt to voice grievances is now branded anti-Semitic. The Palestinians, who have suffered so much from Israeli rule, now face an implacable attempt to silence them entirely.”

IJV and SPHR organizers also stated that, especially given the current presence of Royal Canadian Mounted Police forces on unceded

Wet’suwet’en territory, advocacy for Palestinian rights should be linked to movements for Indigenous sovereignty.

“We recognize that Palestine and Canada are both occupied territories and that, in order to resist [colonialism] abroad, we must first address how we are complicit in the continual colonial process in Montreal, specifically at McGill University,” Mo Rajji, U2 Arts, said.

Rajji urged rally attendees to help hold

space in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en land defenders held later on the same day. Abigail Drach, U3 Arts, echoed the need for people to recognize the links between Indigenous and Palestinian struggles. “[It] is not a coinicidence that, [on Feb. 13], the Palestinian Boycott, Divest, Sanction National Committee released a statement in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en land protectors,” Drach said. “These struggles do not exist in isolation, but are rather part of the vibrant fights against settler-colonialism that have been going on since the European conquest.”

The demonstration concluded with organizers giving Weiss a black and white keffiyeh, a cotton garment and symbol of Palestinian solidarity. While the rally planned for Weiss to deliver her letter to Labeau in person, staff informed rally attendees upon entering the James Administration building that they had been instructed only to collect the letter in order to forward it to the Deputy Provost. After commanding protestors to vacate the building, arrangements were made for Labeau’s communication director to come down and receive the letter from Weiss.

“What we need at McGill and elsewhere is a firm defense of the right of political advocacy, even if directed against Israel’s policies,” Weiss said. “This is a precondition for effective resistance [against] genuine anti-Semitism.”

The Africa Speaks conference looks to the future of “Africa in the ‘Z’ Age” Panelists discussed the current role of Generation Z in Africa “Feminism, as a whole, is very white, and there are caveats, like Black feminism, where we inject other people’s experiences but, [...] as a whole, it has harmed more people than it benefited,” Kemeni said. “Feminism still centres itself [on] white experiences [....] The way to combat [white feminism] is to embody teachings that are more [inclusive] to my experiences and those of the women I’m surrounded by.”

Each panelist brought up the ways in which African feminism differed from white feminism. Toure cited white feminism’s main failure as the attempt to funnel feminism through a one-dimensional lens.

Marcus Garvey argued that Africa will never realize a moment of peace “I don’t think that we will ever all be on the same and security until Africa is united. (Victor Wang / The McGill Tribune) page,” Toure said. “We’re all different as women, we all have different versions of what success, wellbeing, and Rachel Habrih & Victor Wang wellness means to us, as well as what we want to stand Contributors for and against. We will not always be on the same page.”

Abdul-Rahman referenced her Muslim identity to On Feb. 21, the McGill African Students’ Society highlight how one’s experiences can influence their fo(MASS), in collaboration with the African Studies Stu- cuses as activists. dents’ Association of McGill (ASSA), opened their annu“The issue that comes with feminism is when we all al two-day Africa Speaks conference with a panel called try to be on the same page,” Abdul-Rahman said. “Your “Wathint’Abafazi, Wathint’Imbokodo,” focusing on the lived experiences and the things that inform your femifeminist movement across the African continent. nism differ based on who you are. Difference should Sukoluhle Bhebhe, ASSA co-president, introduced make us stronger.” the panel by explaining the meaning behind its name.

MASS and ASSA continued the conference with a “Wathint’Abafazi, Wathint’Imbokodo is a Zulu panel on the next day to discuss present political and ecophrase that means, ‘When you strike a woman, you strike nomic shifts in Africa. a rock,’” Bhebhe explained. “It symbolizes the power and The panelists encouraged Generation Z, those born agency that South African women [resisting apartheid] between 1995 and 2010, to embrace the history of the had [....] The involvement of women within [anti-apart- continent while striving for a more united future. heid] struggle is often overlooked, so I felt that it was Dr. Khalid Medani, Chair of the African Studies Pronecessary to title this panel with this phrase.” gram at McGill, began the conversation contextualizing The panel featured speakers Chloe Kemeni, U4 Arts, the recent challenges faced by the continent. Medani Ommu-Kulsoom J. Abdul-Rahman, BA’19 and President urged Generation Z to seek further unity between African of My Voice Matters, and Djamilla Toure, founder of states.

SAYASPORA. “It is crucial to defend against a new form of imperiThe panel began with all three panelists defining alism and limiting economic sovereignty,” Medani said. what feminism meant to them. In Kemeni’s view, femi- “[This] requires unity. [This] requires cooperation.” nism is still a very white movement.

In 2013, the African Union adopted Agenda 2063,

which outlined a set of specific goals to help grow Africa’s influence and solidarity. Panelists were asked for their thoughts on how Agenda 2063 can be most effectively implemented. Dr. Nii Addy, Assistant Professor at the Institute for the Study of International Development (ISID), responded by referring to the crucial relationship between youth and elders.

“The elders have experiences, and there are certain things they have gone through,” Addy said. “If [Generation Z] does not know [these experiences], they will make the same mistakes again.”

For Dr. Wendell Nii Laryea Adjetey, Assistant Professor of Post-Reconstruction US History, Africa’s aspirations for global recognition and equality have remained the same for over a century. Adjetey cautions against blind optimism, but places hope in Generation Z moving forward.

“Agenda 2063 won’t mean anything if the most important thing doesn’t happen, which is an incredible, revolutionary paradigm shift,” Adjetey said. “And the great thing about [Generation Z] is that [they are] amenable to change. [They are] optimistic and hopeful.”

Adjetey finished his thoughts by reflecting on the urgency of mass societal change. “[There are] little boys or little girls on the streets of Nairobi […] who are [selling] bubble gum when they should be in school learning,” Adjetey said. “Do you know how much talent we have on this continent that is never realized?”

4 ENDORSEMENTS

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25 2020

PGSS Winter 2020 Referendum Endorsements The McGill Tribune presents its endorsements for the Post-Gaduate Students’ Society (PGSS) Winter 2020 Referendum period.

Yes

PGSS Keep.meSafe Fee

The Keep.meSafe Fee proposes to establish a non–opt-outable $2.75 semesterly fee from Fall 2020 to Winter 2024. This fee will provide all PGSS students, at no additional cost, with access to Keep.meSafe, a mental health service that includes access to in-person counselling, secure clinical mobile communication, and telephone and video chat. Keep.meSafe’s highlights include minimal wait times, a diverse assortment of counsellors who can be matched with students’ unique lived experiences, and services in over 60 languages. With extensive concerns over long wait times and breaches of personal privacy at the Wellness Hub, Keep.meSafe promises to meet the needs of graduate students by providing 24/7 access to mental healthcare. Given this need, and the fact that a vote against the fee would result in the program’s termination, the Tribune endorses a ‘Yes’ vote to the Keep.meSafe Fee.

Yes

PGSS Health and Dental Insurance Plan

The PGSS Health and Dental Insurance referendum question proposes the creation of a two-tiered model with basic and enhanced plans.

Members will automatically be enrolled in the new enhanced plans for both health and dental. The health plan will increase vaccination coverage to $300, health practitioner coverage to $40/visit, and mental health coverage to 50 per cent per visit up to $1000. The dental plan will increase overall coverage to a maximum of $800. Members can also opt out of the enhanced plans and into the basic plans.

The Tribune endorses a ‘Yes’ vote, yo the comprehensive nature of the plan and the ability for PGSS members to choose their desired options at two levels.

Yes

PGSS Daycare Fee

The SSMU Daycare was created in 1999 to support students, staff, faculty and other members of the McGill community who are parents/ guardians. A nursery was opened in 2009 for children aged 4 – 18 months. Partially funded by the government, the SSMU Daycare costs $7 per child per day for parents and has an accessible location in the Brown building. The PGSS hopes to establish a non–opt-outable PGSS Daycare Fee of $3 per student per semester to guarantee 8 of the 32 daycare spots and 2 of the 8 Nursery spots for PGSS students. The fee will start in the Fall 2020 semester and end after the Winter 2025 semester. The Tribune endorses a ‘Yes’ vote to provide the daycare with more support, as it is an indispensable resource on campus.

Yes

PGSS Library Improvement Fund Fee

Prior to Winter 2017, PGSS collected a $3 Library Improvement Fund (LIF) fee, with McGill matching PGSS’s contribution each semester. However, this led to an excess of available funds, which proved problematic for PGSS’s non-profit status. Now that PGSS’s LIF funds have been depleted, the organization is proposing to renew the fee, which has not been collected in recent years, at a lower rate of $2 per semester. Maintaining high quality study spaces on campus is an essential undertaking for any student organization, and the Tribune endorses a ‘Yes’ vote on reinstating the LIF fee.

PGSS 2020/2021 Executive Endorsements The McGill Tribune presents its endorsements for the Post-Gaduate Students’ Society (PGSS) 2020/2021 executive team.

Process

In order to present the most informed endorsement decisions possible, our editors conducted in-person interviews with all of the candidates, and examined each platform in detail. The endorsements are the product of an Editorial Board meeting in which we addressed every position, debated, and voted. In order to earn the Tribune’s endorsement, a candidate had to receive a majority vote. Reservations could also be appended to any “Yes” endorsement with the approval of a majority of editors. Questions or concerns should be directed to the Editor-in-Chief at editor@mcgilltribune.com.

Internal Affairs Officer

Academic Affairs Officer

Financial Affairs Officer

Member Services Officer

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Gustina Giordano is a masters student in Educational Psychology running for the position of Internal Affairs Officer. During her undergraduate years, also completed at McGill, she worked with several campus organizations, including Jam for Justice and the McGill Undergraduate Fine Arts Council. As Internal Affairs Officer, Giordano hopes to provide a variety of events that cater to PGSS’ diverse membership, including the introduction of Wellness-centric activities, such as mindfulness workshops.

Giordano intends to prioritize sustainability and accessibility for all PGSS events. Giordano’s priorities reflect the values of the graduate community and the Tribune believes that she is qualified for the position of Internal Affairs Officer.

Eric Wilkinson is the incumbent for the position of Academic Affairs Officer, his term beginning on Jan. 23.

Before coming to McGill, Wilkinson worked with student advocacy at the University of Ottawa, the University of Toronto, and York University; he hopes to import this experience in order to fill all vacant PGSS appointments and by promoting institutional memory. Wilkinson also hopes to expand the PGSS’ ability to communicate in French, as well as ensuring that graduate students on Macdonald Campus are equally represented on McGill’s governing bodies. The Tribune holds that Wilkinson is fully capable of continuing this role for the 2020–21 year.

Connie Shen is rerunning for the position of Financial Affairs Officer and looks forward to seeing the full implementation of the initiatives that the PGSS executives have taken on this year. As most graduate students are international, one of her main projects is to identify ways to improve the accessibility, affordability and cost of the International Health Insurance plan.

Additionally, Shen hopes to raise funds for the PGSS’s needs-based bursary, the only bursary available to graduate students on the basis of financial need.

Further, Shen would like to continue the travel awards grant program, a fund covering the travel fees for students attending conferences and competitions out of town.

Current PGSS Secretary-General Dakota Rogers is running for the Member Services Officer position with the hopes of engaging members with the services that PGSS offers such as healthcare, leisure classes, and family care. Rogers wants to establish a good communication framework for students by having accessible, in-person consultations. In addition to improving avenues for feedback, Rogers will be responsible for integrating the new referendum questions into the McGill community by educating members of PGSS and the university administration about their existence. With experience as Secretary-General, as well as the McGill Board of Governors and Senate, Rogers is qualified to advocate for members’ student services and fulfill the position’s mandate.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25 2020

T

OPINION

EDITORIAL

EDITORIAL BOARD Editor-in-Chief Caitlin Kindig editor@mcgilltribune.com Creative Director Nicholas Raffoul nraffoul@mcgilltribune.com Managing Editors Abeer Almahdi aalmahdi@mcgilltribune.com Miya Keilin mkeilin@mcgilltribune.com Sophie Brzozowski sbrzozowski@mcgilltribune.com

News Editors Kyle Dewsnap, Helen Wu & Delphine Polidori news@mcgilltribune.com Opinion Editors Lucas Bird & Johanna Cline opinion@mcgilltribune.com Science & Technology Editor Emma Gillies scitech@mcgilltribune.com Student Life Editor Miguel Principe studentlife@mcgilltribune.com Features Editor Gabe Nisker features@mcgilltribune.com Arts & Entertainment Editor Kevin Vogel & Katia Innes arts@mcgilltribune.com Sports Editors Ender McDuff & Kaja Surborg sports@mcgilltribune.com Design Editors Sabrina Girard-Lamas & Winnie Lin design@mcgilltribune.com Photo Editor Leanne Young photo@mcgilltribune.com Multimedia Editors Sarah Ford & Aidan Martin multimedia@mcgilltribune.com Web Developers Jad Hamdan & Jonathan Colaco Carr webdev@mcgilltribune.com Copy Editor Keating Reid copy@mcgilltribune.com Social Media Editor Marie Saadeh socialmedia@mcgilltribune.com Business Manager Heela Achakzai business@mcgilltribune.com

Feminist graduate options are indispensable to McGill McGill’s graduate studies option in Gender and Women’s Studies (GWS) provides feminist-focussed seminars and thesis options to 16 masters programs and 11 PhD programs at McGill. On Feb. 9, the office of the Dean of Arts suspended graduate studies options in GWS without consulting staff or students. In response, students in the GWS program, as well as similarly suspended programs incorporating the Development Studies option, issued an open letter condemning the decision.

While the university has since retracted their decision, the fact that the administration viewed cutting the program as acceptable in the first place is problematic.

McGill’s decision to cut the GWS program demonstrates a massive oversight of the value of feminist knowledge in academia, as well as an ignorance of the importance of gender studies programs in increasing representation and discussion of issues relevant to women and 2SLGBTQIA+ students at McGill.

The graduate studies option in GWS was initially developed in response to needs expressed by the Graduate Group for Feminist Scholarship, as well as prospective student interest in graduate-level

OFF THE BOARD

Publisher Chad Ronalds

TPS BOARD OF DIRECTORS Heela Achakzai, Isabelle Côté, Katia Innes, Caitlin Kindig, Marie Labrosse, Falah Rajput, Shreya Rastogi, Keating Reid, McEan Taylor, Ahmad El-Zammar

ublication is the soleSTAFF responsibility ofThe McGilTri Kate Addison, Makena Anderson, Vanessa Barron, Adam Bur ton, Ruobing Chen, Tasmin Chu, Sarah Farnand, Jonathan Giammaria, Patrick Gilroy, Sophia Gorbounov, Chloë GordonChow, Alexander Hilton, Pascal Hogue, Amir Hotter Yishay, Scott Kennedy, Alaana Kumar, Shaun Lalani, Jackie Lee, Ronny Litvack-Katzman, Kennedy McKee-Braide, Catherine Morrison, Etna Ordonez, Deisha Paliwal, Chloe Marie Rodriguez, Veronika Sanada-Kailich, Taja De Silva, Iman Zarrinkoub, Alex Yue Zeng

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5

Kaja Surborg Sports Editor I grew up hearing that university would be where I would figure everything out, and simultaneously the best years of my life. This was where I would come out the other end with a better understanding of myself and the world, and afterward graduating, my friends and I would look back on these years fondly. Now, in my final semester at McGill, I am realizing that while my university experience has not always been smooth sailing, this may well be the prime of my life so far. My time in university is not done yet, but I already find myself missing it.

Nostalgia is odd: I can’t really

studies with a feminist focus at McGill. The option is unique from other courses at McGill, since it prioritzes feminist perspectives in a variety of disciplines. Even if GWS courses are only used to supplement other degrees, the inclusion of gender-focused perspectives is beneficial to any field and profession. Removing this option from the programs of so many current graduate students reveals a lack of respect for feminist pedagogies by the McGill administration. Suspending the GWS program obstructs the innovation of knowledge about gender and feminist topics, and impedes the potential for improved understandings and research of gender across fields.

The Dean of Arts has effectively made a unilateral decision, limiting which topics they believe students and faculty can care about. This decision disregards the many students who see GWS as one of McGill’s only options to gain knowledge about their identities and experience.

Evidently, many students care deeply about this issue; the open letter already has over 550 signatures. Further, studying GWS can help students understand their personal experiences in the context of more political and

systematic forms of oppression, including a multiplicity of identities and thought. This understanding can be empowering and not having access to it limits students’ abilities to discuss and understand their experiences in an academic setting.

At McGill, initiatives to support women and 2SLGBTQIA+ people are mostly student-led.

Clubs and publications such as Queer McGill, the F-Word, and the Union for Gender Empowerment work to raise awareness about feminist and 2SLGBTQIA+ issues despite a lack of administrative support. One of McGill’s main contributions to support 2SLGBTQIA+ students is Equity Education Advisor Meryem Benslimane, who works extensively to make 2SLGBTQIA+ students feel safe and heard at the university, including planning graduation ceremonies, Queer History Month, and closed events for Black, Indigenous and students of colour. However, placing the onus of student support on one individual is unfortunate. The graduate studies option in GWS is one of McGill’s only efforts at recognizing the historic oppression of 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals and increasing representation of

those identities in an institutional capacity; maintaining the GWS program is the very least McGill can do to specifically support 2SLGBTQIA+ students as an academic institution.

In the future, the Dean of Arts and other McGill offices need to approach program suspensions with substantial care and consultation, especially those which disproportionately affect marginalized students. The Dean of Arts should release a binding confirmation that the program will not be suspended, and acknowledge the valuable role that the program plays in creating an inclusive pedagogy at McGill.

Straight,cis-gendered students can support members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community by educating themselves, examining their biases, and re-considering their language use. Taking the time to ask others for their pronouns and consciously noting them, is a small step that all students should take. Professors can also make efforts to support women and 2SLGBTQIA+ students by incorporating feminist perspectives into their syllabi.

Discussions about gender, histories, and realities can and needs to be incorporated across departments.

Reflecting on my “Mamma Mia” years find another word to describe the bittersweetness of reminiscing over good memories. Nostalgia for the present, for something that is not finished, is even stranger.

There is something unsettling about being acutely aware of the fact that the present moment is temporary, making it both beautiful and heartbreaking. I know that I will, in all likelihood, never again have as much freedom as I do now. The ability to work different jobs throughout the year, to take any of the classes I want, and to crash on my friend’s couch when I accidentally stay past the last metro’s run will not last forever.

A good friend of mine coined the term “Mamma Mia years” to describe this chapter of our lives. Although it started out as a joking reference to the young and carefree attitudes of the characters in the 2018 movie Mamma Mia 2: Here We Go Again, I have come to find that the term perfectly encapsulates how I feel about my time at university.

It is easy to mock––and I do–– the naïveté that comes with being 20-years-old. We devote hours and hours each week to activities like improv theatre and

hackathons. Though they may one day seem inconsequential, there is also something special about the genuine thrill of watching your friends do everything from performing in an adaptation of Medea, to organizing campus labour unions, and climate protests, and knowing that, right now, at 21 years old, all of these things do matter immensely. It is the people that I have surrounded myself with, and the opportunity to see them grow and prosper, that will make this part of my life so hard to leave behind.

I have done my best to experience the past three years as they happened, but I still find myself obsessing over remembering every detail of a night spent at a birthday party or summer walks up Mont Royal.

Pages upon pages of journal entries detail the exact chronological order of events, from nights spent watching movies and playing Jenga with people I may never again see after graduation. The awareness of the temporary nature of young adulthood has made me both more appreciative of all of the joyful moments, and more anxious about the change that comes with next steps. I don’t

know if I will ever find a resolution to this duality, but I am also learning that maybe it does not need to be resolved. Nostalgia for the present can give an experience an extra layer of significance that I have come to appreciate.

With all of this in mind, it is important to remember that my own university experiences, as well as those of many other students, have not always been easy. McGill makes seeking and receiving mental health care difficult and inaccessible, balancing jobs and school is a reality for plenty of us, and institutional barriers to accommodations are something that many marginalized students have to navigate their way around.

I believe my “Mamma Mia years” have been in spite of the university, not because of it.

I have accepted that this may be as good as it gets, but that doesn’t necessarily bother me anymore. I know that the next chapter of my life can still bring me joy, even with the inevitable changes.

“Standing clearly at the crossroads, no desire to run There’s no hurry anymore, when all is said and done” -Andersson, Ulvaeus

6

ENDORSEMENTS

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25 2020

SSMU Executive Endorsements 2020—2021 The McGill Tribune presents its endorsements for the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) 2020-2021 Executive team. To form our judgment, our editors interviewed each candidate, asking them questions regarding their experience, portfolio, and goals for next year.

President

Jemark Earle Jemark Earle, 2L Law, has been at McGill for the last six years. In 2016, Earle campaigned and won the position of SSMU Vice-President (VP) Student Life, and has since held executive positions for the Black Law Students’ Association at McGill and the Law Students’ Association. If elected, Earle hopes to prepare for the reopening of the University Centre, focus on building a sustainable, long-term plan for SSMU initiatives, completing the 3501 Peel Wellness project, and ensuring marginalized voices factor into university decision-making.

Ruth Silcoff Ruth Silcoff, President of the McGill Debating Union, has focussed her campaign on making SSMU more accessible. She emphasizes academic issues at SSMU, including her plans to increase awareness for various majors within each department to combat under- and over-enrollment in different programs. If elected, Silcoff also plans to increase accountability by mandating that the administration produce more detailed reports to be shared with students. Silcoff also hopes to work with the VP Student Life and VP Finance to ensure clubs are aware of SSMU regulations.

Endorsement Yes to Jemark Earle Earle has distinguished himself from his fellow candidates by the sheer volume of experience he has to offer. As the former VP Student Life, he remains the only candidate running with any SSMU executive experience. All three candidates maintained that SSMU has a responsibility to connect with the student body; however, Earle’s plans to promote engagement were the most feasible. While Silcoff’s ambition to hold her fellow executives accountable was unique, her platform’s proposed solutions remain unfocussed and, in some respects, ill-conceived. The editorial board was further underwhelmed by Park’s lack of experience and concrete platform goals.

Earle’s previous success within SSMU and other governing bodies, as well as the formal goals he has set out for himself, has made him uniquely capable to execute the President’s role.

VP external

Ayo Ogunremi Ayo Ogunremi, U3 Arts, currently serves as the SSMU Mobilisation Coordinator. Having also co-founded Climate Justice Action McGill and worked as the VP Political of the Black

Students’ Network, Ogunremi brings an extensive background in community organizing and activism to the role. Ogunremi plans to support grassroots campaigns on campus, particularly concerning climate justice, Bill 21 opposition, and housing security, while working with senators and executives to provide external resources for mental health advocacy. Ogunremi also supports reviewing the SSMU Indigenous Solidarity Policy, and hopes to communicate developments in his portfolio to students through monthly tabling and in collaboration with VP Internal communications.

Noah Merali Noah Merali is currently the SSMU Services Representative to the Legislative Council, sits on the Affordable Student Housing Committee, and is a member of the McGill Student Emergency Response Team. As VP External, Merali plans to continue their work advocating for affordable housing, particularly through collaboration with Concordia’s Housing and Job Resource Centre, running Know Your Rights campaigns, and offering resources relevant to students in residences. They also intend to collaborate with other student unions, and combat food insecurity issues on campus through meal prep workshops and demanding better food options from McGill.

Endorsement Yes to Ayo Ogunremi Both Ogunremi and Merali have exceptional experience within the VP External portfolio and advocate for commendable causes such as antiBill 21 activism, fighting for affordable housing, and supporting Francophone students. However, Ogunremi’s experience in coalition building both on-and-off campus sets him apart. As SSMU’s Mobilization Coordinator, he worked directly with the current VP External, Adam Gwiazda-Amsel, to get McGill students involved with the September Climate Strike and anti-Bill 21 activism. As such, Ogunremi has a robust understanding of what SSMU needs to do to improve on this past year’s work, and his experience and passion for organizing movements will prove invaluable resources for student campaigns.

vp university affairs Brooklyn Frizzle

Brooklyn Frizzle, U2 Science, is campaigning on a platform that emphasizes the VP University Affairs’ (UA) role as an equity advocate to the administration. Frizzle’s main experience stems from their role as Resource Coordinator at Queer McGill, and equity work with the Office for the Vice Provost, citing advocacy as central to their academic experience. Frizzle prioritizes library improvement, institutionalizing gender inclusivity in administrative practices, and a SSMU-led independent research into accessibility of campus.

If elected, they further plan on continuing current projects led by the UA portfolio, including the “Know Your Rights” campaign.

Griffin Scott Griffin Scott, U3 Arts, is a student researcher, campaigning on providing a stronger voice for mental health and equity on campus. Scott has experience working with policy studies as a data analyst for the State of Maine, and cites that this

experience has enriched his understanding of administrative processes. If elected, Scott plans on working with the administration to remove the requirement for medical notes for exam deferrals, university-wide use of preferred names, accessible contraceptives on campus, Fall Reading Week, and to reform the Wellness Hub. Endorsement Yes, with Reservations to Brooklyn Frizzle Of the two candidates, Frizzle possesses a greater understanding of the scope and inner workings of the VP UA portfolio. In a position that requires constant co-operation with the McGill administration itself, Frizzle has more relevant experience to the position. Scott’s lack of direct experience with the administration may be a detriment, and the scale of his platform, which includes tenure reform, is unrealistic given the time and resource constraints of the VP UA. Both candidates praised the work of current VP UA Madeline Wilson, and both borrow heavily from her existing projects, specifically the Wellness Hub advocacy. It is unfortunate that credit to Wilson is absent in both of their written platforms and promotional material. Thus, the Tribune endorses Frizzle, with reservations.

VP student life

Maheen Akter Maheen Akter, U3 Political Science and Psychology, is the current VP Internal for the Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS), as well as a Floor Fellow at La Citadelle. If elected, Akter promises that clubs and services will deal with fewer bureaucratic processes and have more accessible support from SSMU. In terms of student mental health, she hopes to increase student involvement with the newly-formed Wellness Hub, as well as increase the variety of mental healthcare resources that students can access. For students with children, she plans to make improvements to the Daycare through better communication with its users. Other promises include increasing the availability of scholarship opportunities, and making jobs at SSMU eligible for the Work Study program.

Belle Sullivan Belle Sullivan, U2 Arts, has been involved with a multitude of campus initiatives, such as the SSMU Eating Disorder Campaign and the Studentrun service members union (SSMUnion). She plans to reform many events for SSMU Clubs and Services such as the club workshop and the services summit. Sullivan also plans to create a more inclusive environment at SSMU through ensuring that all employees are trained on how to use correct names and pronouns, as well as implement initiatives for mature undergraduate students. Other plans include the revival of the SSMU Mini-Courses series and getting more executive and volunteer positions in a students’ Co-Curricular Record.

Endorsement Yes to Maheen Akter Both candidates are equally experienced and competent for the position of VP Student Life.

Sullivan’s previous involvement experience

with SSMU shows great knowledge of the organization, especially her work with the SSMUnion. Nevertheless, despite Akter having less experience with SSMU, her work with other major organizations on campus such as AUS, as well as her work as a Floor Fellow compensates for this lack of training within SSMU. Furthermore, Akter has beneficial ideas that are actionable such as forming semesterly budget reports for Clubs and Services and communicating health resources for mental health outside McGill. While ideas such as the elimination of the samosa fee are a little dubious, Akter shows promise in this position for the following year.

VP Finance

Gifford Marpole (Yes, with reservations) Gifford Marpole, U3 Arts, has financial experience working as a treasurer for an off-campus fraternity and as a finance coordinator for a media production company in Ontario. Although he does not have many concrete goals for the finance portfolio, Marpole has a clear understanding of the primarily organizational and supporting role of VP Finance.

However, he does not have financial experience in a large organization such as SSMU, which is a point of concern considering the multimillion dollar budget of the organization. The Tribune endorses a Yes vote, with reservations: Marpole will have to adjust to balancing the budget of a large non-profit such as SSMU in order to properly handle the portfolio.

VP internal

Declan McCool (Yes, with reservations) Declan McCool, brings his experience as VP fundraising for the McGill Varsity Rowing Team, and sitting on the Science Games Committee in his campaign for VP Internal. McCool is bilingual, and his platform pushes for inclusivity as he works to put together a comprehensive survivorcentric Involvement Restriction Policy for faculty.

However, McCool should put more effort into plans for the SSMU listserv and social media, as his role as VP Internal will entail acting as the outward face of SSMU communications. As such, the Tribune endorses a Yes vote, with reservations.

Process

In order to present the most informed endorsement decisions possible, our editors conducted in-person interviews with all of the candidates, and examined each platform in detail. The endorsements are the product of an Editorial Board meeting in which we addressed every position, debated, and voted. In order to earn the Tribune’s endorsement, a candidate had to receive a majority vote. Reservations could also be appended to any “Yes” endorsement with the approval of a majority of editors. Any questions or concerns about our editorial process or its outcomes should be directed to our Editor -in-Chief

STUDENT LIFE

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25 2020

7

Finding meaning in found object Instagram accounts Social media allows us to better appreciate the world around us Kate Addison Staff Writer In the past year, through countless hours of diligent procrastination, I’ve begun to observe a curious trend overtaking my Instagram Explore page. It began with the occasional random picture of an old sofa or a shot of a peculiar pink porcelain toilet on the side of the road, but has now become an avalanche of snapshots bearing similarity to National Geographic or Planet Earth except the subjects aren’t animals: They are random street crap.

‘Found object’ Instagram pages are a genre of curatorial street photography dedicated to the documentation of certain inanimate, and sometimes even animate, objects. While not a brandnew phenomenon, with many accounts being over two years old, their growing popularity has resulted in the birth of accounts archiving increasingly obscure subjects from campusdwelling squirrels to security cameras.

Since it is not bound by rigid criteria, found object Instagrams can serve a variety of functions for those who run the pages as well as those who follow them. Emma Harris, U1 Arts, is the owner of @leschairs, an account dedicated to “the appreciation of the unexpected chaise. She explained how this form of photo curation can take on many purposes.

“I think of [found object Instagram accounts] as a sort of curation of different things you found on the street,” Harris said. “It should be spontaneous. I find that there are a ton of different genres and approaches to [these accounts], but design is definitely one of the main approaches that I’ve seen.”

animating objects is one way of feeling an attachment to [an] urban landscape,” Harris said.

“It’s nice to attach more than a [utilitarian] value to an object and [create] more of an emotional [form] of connection to your objects as a way of preserving them.”

Yet another function of the found object Instagram account is the sense of community they are able to cultivate by catering to particular interests and social groups. In the McGill context, an account like @tinyhatsmcgill, a page with over 600 followers, is dedicated to capturing the headwear trend of wearing an impossibly small toque.

The account run by two McGill students, who wish to remain anonymous to maintain the mystique, employs its small army of followers for the majority of submissions. As a result, the content is comprised largely by its audience who are motivated to participate by both a mutual fascination of tiny hats and of getting their Plateau friends featured on the page.

“In the beginning, I was always looking around trying to get pictures of people but now people send stuff in and I can kind of look and Fixating and curating an obscure object can reflect how one views the world. see what I think is funny,” one of the account (Anne McGrath / The McGill Tribune) operators said. “Honestly, I don’t really get [...] why it’s so popular because it’s a pretty simple In the case of many accounts, such as @ allow for the creation of art simply through a idea [and] not really anything special. I think it’s subwayhands and @someone_dropped, running shift in the way we view the objects around us. just funny.” an account of this nature is an opportunity for For Harris, Instagram serves as an accesWhether as a means of creative output or collaborative creative expression centred on a sible method for fostering a deeper connection cultivating community, the rise of found object common interest with a certain object. Similar to with one’s surroundings and encouraging greater Instagram accounts is an accessible way of excontemporary ready-made artworks such as My appreciation for aspects of life that may other- panding how one sees the world. The simple act Bed by Tracey Emin, a member of the Young wise go unnoticed. of forming a collection on one unifying topic, British Artists group and Fountain by conceptu“I think that people are trying to find ways allows people to stop and appreciate the little al artist Marcel Duchamp, found object accounts of connecting with others in public spaces, and things in life that they would otherwise miss.

From spinning to swimming

Alternative fitness spots around McGill

Catherine Morrison Staff Writer Between studying for midterms, participating in extracurriculars, and maintaining a social life, it can be difficult for students to squeeze exercise into their schedules despite the many health benefits it provides. For some, just climbing up to the McGill fitness centre is enough of a workout. These alternative workout spaces are close by and affordable, making them a great option for any student looking to get their sweat on. Éconofitness (625 Ste-Catherine Street West) Located five minutes away from McGill, Éconofitness is the perfect place for exercise without all the frivolous features of fitness clubs. The chain also hosts 25 other establishments throughout the island of Montreal, so many students can find an Éconofitness near their home. The company also runs gyms that are only open to women, providing a safe space for students who feel more comfortable exercising around their own gender. For $4.99 bi-weekly, members have access to the gym, group fitness classes, and training programs.

Spin Energie (3483 Parc Avenue) While all spin classes are within a higher pricing range, Spin Energie, located on Parc Avenue offers the most affordable spin classes

near McGill. For $45, students can buy an unlimited week of introductory spinning or for those who would like to less commitment, Spin Energie offers an affordable trial class for $10. Students also get a 15 per cent discount on all regular series of classes if they present their student card at the studio.

Association Recreative Milton-Parc (3555 Rue St-Urbain) Another way to get your heart pumping is within the heart of the Milton-Parc neighbourhood at the Centre multiethnique Saint-Louis.

With a starting membership fee of $10, the not-for-profit organization Association Recreative Milton-Parc offers a variety of activities from badminton to Zumba, for a small price.

The collective allows for people of various commitment levels in any sport, with prices ranging from $6 for drop-ins to $70 for a season pass.

Innocere Yoga (160 Prince Arthur Street East) A new addition to the yoga scene in Montreal, Innocere Yoga offers great intro prices for new members. With a variety of classes, from beginner Yin and Restorative classes to higher level Flow classes, Innocere Yoga has something for those fascinated with the art of yoga. For $30, members can get one unlimited month of yoga. Innocere also offers discounts for students, so long as they bring their student

Montreal caters to every student’s choice of physical activity, from weightlifting to yoga. (mindbody.io) ID when purchasing classes.

McGill Memorial Pool (475 Pine Ave West) For those who aren’t fans of weight benches and yoga mats but are still looking for a way to get in shape, consider the McGill Memorial Pool. Recreational swimming hours— known as Lap Swimming times—are offered every day. As students pay for Athletics fees as part of their tuition, they have access to all the other sports complexes—including the gymnasium, indoor and outdoor track, tennis courts, squash courts, and swimming pool— for free. Day passes ranging from $8.70 to $13.04 are also available for non-McGill students.

L’École de Danse Swing Cat’s Corner (3451 St Laurent Blvd) If moving to the beat is your type of groove, Cat’s Corner is the fitness studio for you. Offering swing dances, blues dances, and tap dance, this studio is sure to sweep you off your feet. To get the most affordable prices, make sure to attend their drop-in classes on Monday to Thursday from 6 to 7 p.m. for only $10 per class. For those looking for a deal, a drop-in card for $50 gets six classes for the price of five.

Regardless of the kind of exercise you like to do, Montreal offers something that caters to everyone’s interests and budget. Now get up, put on your sneakers, and get moving!

(RE)CLAIMING OUR SPACE Racialized students in search of community, safety, and home LAVANYA

McGill is known for having a large community of international students and frequently cites this fact as a badge of diversity and inclusivity. However, for many, McGill can be an isolating environment. Students of colour, immigrants, and marginalized identities are still forced to bear the burden of building infrastructures of safety on campus, or find it elsewhere, all while risking tokenization by their white peers.

“I’m in a club called the Pan-Asian Collective. Right now, what we’re trying to do is create that space for people within this community. [They started this group] so they can make a space to talk about these things, [since] there’s not a lot of Asian communities, because they are split up. They just wanted people to come under one common theme where we could talk about the Asian experience, whether it was people from the diaspora or those straight from Asia and so far away from home.”

- Lavanya, U3 Economics, minor in Statistics & Management

I kind of made it a mission to find my people [during] first year, first day here.

That’s part of the reason I chose Montreal. It’s an urban area, so if I don’t find it at McGill, I’ll find it in the city at some point. It was very [straightforward], like ‘Okay you look like you’re cool, we’re friends, I don’t care if you don’t want to be friends, but we’re contacts at least.’ I made it a point to have community. I had that in high school, and I realized that community is very much underpinning [my experience at McGill]. I don’t think I would be able to [be here] otherwise.”

- Favour, U2, Political Science & Geography

FAVOUR

“I’m really happy to be in the Islamic Studies Program. I feel like it’s rare to find that warmth and community in an institution that hits you as so cold, rigid, unfamiliar, and very intimidating in a lot of ways.” “[WIMES] is really just a hub of warmth. The [Word Islamic Middle East Studies (WIMES)] lounge, the people. Having people who look like you or want to study a similar history, or are part of the same diaspora and hold a lot of the same questions is really nice.”

- Nazlie, U1, WIMES International Development Studies (IDS) “At McGill, it happens a lot for POC students to feel unsafe and feel like they have nowhere to go. If you’re ever feeling like that, I promise you that other people are feeling that too and you’re not alone. Support other POC at McGill, go to events that they organize, reach out to them, create that protection with them, and make sure they know that they can be safe with you.”

- Rachel, U3 Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, WIMES

RACHEL

NAZLIE

NICHOLAS RAFFOUL, CREATIVE DIRECTOR

CREATIVE SUPPLEMENT The McGill Tribune Winter 2020

Photography by

SEQUOIA KIM

Energies (To Healing) We are confidently parallels when a million mountains decided that we were better off unmatched I saw the bodies of waters between the buildings agree that our beings need to rehabilitate alone the earth and its energy redirected us to what was Fate calling our names at different times to scattered far-ends of time.

Melodies On The Beach (To Love) Waiting for a home for that one song I was trying to find a place for your love found it in the future I found it in patience of writing melodies that scattered across the globe Looked in your eyes saw the answers the definite I play with and the indefinite laughed Fate told me I’m delusional the feeling comes to the composers poetry and music are found on the beach We’ll take the water with us understand our own droplets as the tide looks at the moon and tells you She’s the one Across the oceans the treble the notes we can discover the big blue and dance forever.

The Dinner My mother took off her rings when she slept. They were

dark. Their cool, smooth texture was reassuring when she

and tea fully sipped and the rings on her fingers, as always, as

touched my forehead to feel for a fever, and I loved to hear the

ever.

way they clicked when she tapped her fingers on the table as

I don’t remember the actual event, or what I ate, or the

there in a precarious little pile when I went to wake her during

she thought. They were beautiful and rare - I didn’t realize until

amount of times I fell asleep, although my mother told me later

those endless drowsy afternoons, a stack of silver always at

later, when I started looking for ones similar - but she always

that it was a little drawn out, that we had some type of greens

my eye level. The light was turning blue but her face was still

let me try them on, whenever I asked, as often as that was. Of

and fish but I had only eaten peas, and that I fell asleep many

illuminated slightly; I couldn’t see her breathe but I could see

course, they slipped over my round little fingers with plenty of

times. I remember there was music playing, and then there was

the red blush of sleep on her cheeks. I knew if I woke her up she

room to spare. But the weight on my fingers of the silver band

not. I remember laughter. I remember her taking off her rings.

would roll over and look at me through half-closed eyes, maybe

and blue-green stone was comforting enough.

ask what I wanted, but I could never find it in myself to wake her.

In those days she took me with her most places out of

This hosting friend had a small piano against the wall. My memory of this event abruptly cuts back in when someone says

She stayed rosy and removed in her sleep and I would leave as

necessity. We went to the farmers market in the summer, me

Sylvie, play something, please, play and I realize that it is my

quietly as I came, as quietly as I could.

holding her hand and by extension her rings as I watched her

mother they are talking to, my mother walking up to the piano.

I only remember her taking off her rings regularly on two

shoulder her way through the crowd holding a bag filled with

She took her rings off. She sat down to play. I don’t

occasions: to sleep and to shower. She kept them on at all other

bread. We went to bookstores in the winter, me craning my

remember what she played, or the way it sounded, but I

times, even when she washed her hands, and when I was a child

neck back so the braid she always did in my hair fell down my

remember how I felt: like my eyes were closed while they were

and even now I thought those rings must have been some of the

spine as I watched her choose a book and then put it back. We

open, like I had walked into the rain without flinching, like the

cleanest that little porcelain sink had ever seen.

took the train in all seasons, me dozing in and out of sleep as

first time I heard birds in the spring.

And she had some of the cleanest hands I had ever seen, although at that point in my childhood I hadn’t seen very many.

she absentmindedly rubbed my shoulder.

She took me with her to most places, and this is how I

Years later, after I had found piles of music book in a box in the top of her closet, after I had begged her to let me take

I had always thought they would be beautiful without the rings,

ended up at the dinner party. One of her friends from college

lessons, after I had played some of the pieces in that very box,

but with them they were something else: when she stretched

was hosting, and we lived down the street, and the friend that

I asked her what piece she had played that night of the dinner

out her fingers her palm was almost too arched, and the dull

usually watched me was going as well. I was hardly old enough

party.

silver caught the light in a way I have yet to recreate, as hard as

to pronounce any of the titles of the books they talked about, let

I try. Since those years of watching her as she slept, waiting to

alone attend - I was normally asleep by the time they poured the

took a ring off her finger and spun it around. I was old now, and I

wake her, I’ve looked through high end stores and flea markets

second glass of wine - but my mother took me along anyway.

had rings of my own, but I still couldn’t help but watch the flash

to find rings like those of my mother, but they never quite gleam enough.

Everything is brighter in memory; I’ve always liked the way silver catches the light.

Those rings were a part of her, a continuation of her knuckle, a necessary bump when I grabbed her hand in the

I watched her get ready, trying on her rings while she sipped tea in between visits to the closet to try on different dresses. I touched the cover of the newest book she’d acquired at the dollar bookstore two subway stops and a block away and tried to puzzle out how to say the title. By the time I had hit the subtitle, she was ready, hair braided down her back like mine

She smiled, pushed her now-gray hair back behind her,

of silver as it rotated around her finger.

And she said that piece wasn’t anything. She said she made it up.

today I am struck with memories of tender moments from solid people. they leave me wanting a reunion, no, not like the last one, one more meaningful moment, one more tender touch on a place I have not touched before, a familiar touch, no let’s call it what it is, a kiss, let’s do it again, I know we did it last time but there’s room for improvement, I’ll erase the memory of the last one from my head. an understanding, so scarcely given, a messy moment in a tidy room. when I told you about the psychology of touch, the somatosensory system and such, how there is a reason to why we enjoy holding hands, lips kissing lips, I throw a query, isn’t it weird, how us, humans, like doing that, would you like to do it with me, debunking the myth of our synastry. and you caught it, with a statement, a thesis if you will but with less intent, so a hypothesis, those you like, so; ever since you said, “I must have a bigger part for my neck in my sensory cortex because I get so ticklish there,” I could not stop, thinking about kissing your neck.

Empty Vessel The thought of her sparked joy and a sense of obsession, Leaving her surroundings purely enamoured, Perfection.

In my mind, she was all sorts of things.

Scented with the evocative perfume my mother would wear, and would sometimes spray onto me as a child, ensnared.

Unconquered curls cascading down her spine, with her coiffed baby hairs sitting daintily on her forehead, not daring to waiver from the silhouette of her disguise.

Hazel brown eyes, stealing the glow from luminaries nearby, with flickers of rebellion and desire, just enough to captivate wandering eyes.

She reminded me of primary colours. Loud, clear, bold.

Thieving the other amalgamations of their worth.

My mind ventured into the endless perfect possibilities, But soon I realised my gullibility.

The vessel filled until it could no longer, Puking out the sins that made it stronger.

My creature of enigma was just another, Empty, but still, leaving me to wonder.

Cosmic Ambien From the grey sea And the corrosive waves that make up The Earth’s heartbeat, I rose from my own tragedy.

My body is to be cherished, Not taken nor beaten – My mind to be enlightened and sang to from above, Never once abused or molested.

I climb the fluffy cotton strips Up out of this world and enter the sky-blue door.

Slowly, ever so, my tongue peaks out from between my lips And I have a taste.

A slow, upward flick and the internal functioning of the human body Implodes.

Cosmic Ambien.

A universal overdose.

I open my mouth wider and gorge myself on the color, The light, The weightlessness, And loosen my grip on the stratospheric doorframe, Slipping ever so elegantly into an inter-dimensional embrace That I dream to meet.

Ibi emergit horrendum, ambitiosus, sed insuperabilis veritatem, revelata per umbras in pariete: ego autem non vis, aliis intelligere.

Behold That which is beauty and light Rage and anger Alteration and consummation But most primary and sovereign Look upon the impenetrable veil Understand: When he realizes that without him, The flock would perish Only then does Pan know power Does it not seem Their anxious cries Make for garish harmony after all?

It matters not I am as deaf to them As they are blind to me In the comfort of night I began a hibernation Tearing leaves turned too early Tepid from sun and wet from dew In secret, I dove under Like a thief Reemerging onto that perfect edge Scorning the generosity of Prometheus Blazing alone into the abyss My figure, seared to the chasm floor Macabre and forbidden I toil to muster the cosmic pieces Like sweet August does a marriage Of the summer and autumn Yet, as they collect, the light becomes devastating And sick with parsimony My wings melt away So I awoke, chained My past not even a memory The taste of a selfish fruit still lingering And I wept for a stasis once known by the fauna Mechanized shell I stumble across the burning lake

LETTER FROM THE EDITORS The McGill Tribune is proud to present the Winter 2019 Creative Supplement, highlighting excellent creative work by McGill students, including poetry, photography, illustrations, and mixed-media.

Abeer Almahdi, Managing Editor

We would like to thank the Arts Undergraduate Society Financial Management Committee (AUS FMC) for funding this project, and Chad Ronalds & Hebdo Litho for printing this issue.

Moreover, we appreciate all the artists who submitted; it was a pleasure to review your work.

Caitlin Kindig, Editor-in-Chief

Although McGill doesn’t have a formal visual arts program, students find their own creative outlets. The Creative Supplement serves as a platform to highlight these endeavours. McGill students are notoriously bright and hardworking; we hope this issue proves that they are also immensely talented.

Sabrina Girard-Lamas and Winnie Lin, Design Editors Jad Hamdan and Jonathan Carr, Web Designers

Aidan Martin, Multimedia Editor Nicholas Raffoul, Creative Director Marie Saadeh, Social Media Editor Leanne Young, Photo Editor

“My thoughts [about] McGill [have] changed over the years. The longer I’ve stayed here, the more I felt out of place. I’ve struggled to find comfort at McGill because it isn’t as diverse as I imagined.

Not speaking French in Montreal is alienating, [and] being a Black female was alienating as well. I also struggled relating with some of the Nigerian people who grew up in Canada because I grew up in Nigeria, so most of my hobbies were very Nigeria-based and I couldn’t find that here.”

- Tumini, U3, Computer Science & Biology, minor in Interdisciplinary Life Sciences

“McGill is definitely somewhere interesting to be. Of course, sometimes I get pissed off that a lot of people are insensitive to what minorities at McGill need.”

TUMINI YUAN

ZEINA

“It’s very conflicting as a student. I pay university fees to an institution that endorses a lot of things I can’t stand behind. McGill isn’t as diverse as the city [of Montreal], especially in my program. I didn’t feel like there were a lot of associations at McGill for me to find extensive support. I personally found my community outside of McGill.”

- Zeina, U2, Education

“Through the people I’ve met [at McGill], I’ve been able to become a part of different communities and feel stronger [in] the identities that I hold. Through being in such a white institution, I’ve grown to value and fiercely protect my identity as an Asian woman more and have that solidarity with other people of colour.”

- Yuan, U3, Social Work

“Being from a mixed-race background, a lot of people don’t really know where [I’m] from, [I] look racially ambiguous. That left a lot of room for people to impose whatever they saw in me onto me, which was hard when [I was] a young teenager and not even sure either.”

SERENE

“And it kind of happened again when I came to McGill. Especially being a West Coast diasporic Asian coming to McGill, I was like ‘Where is everyone?’

I never hear Mandarin on campus, it’s so rare to hear, which was really weird.”

- Serene, U2, History

10 STUDENT LIFE

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25 2020

Café Bloc reaches a new peak of climbing and coffee

Downtown gym combines a fun physical activity with the comforts of a café

Scott Kennedy Staff Writer Café Bloc opened its doors on Feb. 11, bringing together the warmth and sociability of a café with the fun and creative exercise of a climbing hall. Located at 1209-1211 Boul. Saint-Laurent, this unique space was the brainchild of co-founders Sébastien Aubé and JeanFrançois Gravel, whose new business has been met with a favourable reception from the local community.

“We feel very grateful [that] we have [received] so many nice comments from our friends, family, and climbers from other gyms,” Aubé said. “Everyone has said [...] that the location is nice, the gym is pretty, [...that] they love the coffee, [that] they love the food, [and that] the staff are very nice.”

The founders made sure to focus on not only the rock climbing aspect of their business, but also on creating a positive atmosphere and experience for customers.

“I like our vibe,” Aubé said. “We put a lot [into] creating a space where people wouldn’t just climb and leave.”

Having only been open for two weeks, Aubé believes that their goal for the space is being realized.

“So far, it’s really succeeded because I see some people here that stay longer than my staff,” Aubé said.

“They arrive at eight or nine in the morning [...] they climb, [they] get a coffee and work, they go back to a bit of climbing, they eat, they chill, they go for a sauna. It’s just really nice.”

For Aubé, starting a space for rock climbing allows him to invest more into his personal interest.

“We were very excited with [...] the lifestyle of own-

ing a [climbing] gym,” Aubé said. “Our biggest passion [is] climbing, so it’s just so exciting to come in the gym, have a coffee, [see] some friends, talk about climbing, show them around. [...] It’s just really fun.”

As long-time rock climbing enthusiasts, the two founders used their experience in climbing to influence the design of their new business.

“I’ve been climbing myself for around 10 years, and [Gravel] for around 15 [years]. It’s our biggest passion,” Aubé said. “We wanted to have some [...] good quality climbing, because we wanted to have the place of our dreams.”

Café Bloc is not only a climbing gym for experienced climbers, it’s also welcoming to newcomers to the activity.

“There’s a lot of beginners and new climbers, [the space] is very [beginner] friendly here,” Aubé said. “[And] even if you’re very [experienced], there’s some nice stuff for you here [too].”

Only a short walk from the Saint-Laurent metro station, the downtown location of the climbing hall is an important part of making this gym accessible during the day.

“We’re [...] close by, so people who study in the universities nearby or work downtown [. . .] can [travel] one metro station or walk, and they can get to our gym, so it’s very accessible,” Aubé said.

The climbing gym itself took around six months to build, but more construction lies ahead for Café Bloc. The owners plan to develop the terrace space on the roof of the building in order to be used during the warmer months.

“As soon as the snow melts, we want to start right away with the construction of the terrasse to have it

Café Bloc is the product of two long-time rock climbers who wanted to share their passion for the whole community.

(Etna Ordonez / The McGill Tribune) [ready] as soon as it’s sunny outside,” Aubé said. “We are going to have a 30 or 40 foot wall outside. It’s going to be sick.”

This space provides students, new or experienced, with the opportunity to try a unique activity and become a part of a budding community of rock climbers within the city.

“I think that if they would like to experience a new community that’s very enthusiastic and motivating and [if] they like to practice a new exercise, you should definitely come and give it a go,” Aubé said.

Prepping for meal prep

Cooking can be tiring, but meal prep makes it quick and fun

Miya Keilin Managing Editor Amidst all of the assignments and midterms, students don’t always have the time—or energy— to put together satisfying, homemade meals. Meal prep, however makes cooking quick and easy with the benefits of being a cheaper and more environmentally-friendly option than buying food on or around campus for lunch every day. Furthermore, preparing simple meals for weekly lunches offers students the opportunity to gain confidence in the kitchen while also engaging in a non-academic yet productive task. Here are a few basics to get into the healthy habit of meal prepping.

they’re plain. Vegetables are also ideal for packing into small plastic or glass reusable containers for easy transport to campus. For an extra challenge, drizzle your favourite veggies with some olive oil, salt, and pepper and roast them in the oven.

Pots, pans, and perseverance A lot of meal prep recipes online require the use of equipment, like a slow cooker or a food processor, that aren’t items found in a typical student’s kitchen. Such equipment is unnecessary: A pot, a pan, a bowl, a cutting board, some knives, and a good attitude are totally sufficient. Even for adventurous meal prep endeavours like roasted chicken or meatballs, just add a cheap sheet pan to your pantry.

Starting from starch (and some protein) A straightforward way to assemble a complete meal is to pair a starch, like rice or potatoes, with a protein, such as meat, beans, or tofu. There are a million types of rice, such as white, jasmine, and wild, and many ways to cook potatoes, including boiling, roasting, and mashing, so the options for the starch component are nearly endless. While there are more complicated ways to prepare protein, there are simple methods that result in delicious taste. Chicken or tofu cut up into bite-size pieces and sautéd quickly with some salt, pepper, and a mix of spices to season deliver a delicious source of protein in only a few steps. Alternatively, a dish like a pasta salad or a casserole is relatively quick to assemble and satisfies your serving of proteins and vegetables all in one. A more time consuming yet worthwhile dish, is a curry or a stir fry, which may take some practice to get right but once you get a hang of it, can be very flexible dishes that will undoubtedly impress your friends.

Veggie tales Vegetables are an important part of our daily nutrition, but getting the right amount, or even eating any at all, can seem difficult. In reality, many vegetables are easy to prepare. Some, like carrots and bell peppers, need no cooking, just slicing and packing, while other vegetables like broccoli and asparagus only require some boiling. They can be flavoured differently by topping them with sauces or seasoning, but make for the perfect snack when

Looking for a snack Snacks are essential to maintain focus and energy throughout a long day of work. Granola bars, dried fruit, and crackers are all effective power bites to bring to campus. However, homemade muffins can take your snacking to the next level. Muffins are a relatively forgiving baked good, as mistakes in the baking process often don’t ruin a batch, which makes them the ideal starting point for beginning bakers. Plus, they are pretty versatile so you can

A few cheap utensils and a will to learn is all that’s needed to start meal prepping. (foodnetwork.com) personalize them with your favourite flavours such as banana chocolate chip or blueberry oat.

No-brainer containers A bonus of meal prepping is saving the Earth from the single-use containers that come with daily take-out lunches. Plastic or glass reusable containers are cheap and available at a variety of stores, including supermarkets, pharmacies, and the dollar store. You can also reuse yogurt containers,

pasta sauce jars, and similar food containers from the grocery store to bring your prepped meals and snacks to campus.

Meal prepping may seem like a daunting task, but in reality, it is quite simple. An extra half an hour on the weekend to cook your meals for the week is the perfect opportunity to start saving money and eating healthier, and you might even find that you have a knack for it. Happy prepping!

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25 2020

11

Finding the right place to read Navigating different literary spaces

Jonathan Giammaria Staff Writer Continued from page 1.

On the other hand, Matuska notes that the rigour of McGill’s academic atmosphere has demanded most of her readerly attention, often in ways opposite to how she engages with literature in her personal reading life.

“There is a really huge focus on, ‘Why do you study literature, why is it important, why is it useful for society, how has it affected the world around you?’”

Matuska said. “But that doesn’t have much bearing on why I would want to study literature. For me, and I think, for a lot of other literature students, you read because you love to read. [...] I kind of get a little fed up with the emphasis [on] making it so didactic.”

In Matuska’s eyes, ascribing value to a text by virtue of its association to scholarly theories and traditions sterilizes literature as an artform. She worries that university, in part, depersonalizes the act of reading; in the classroom, discussions often weigh the importance of a text based on its impact in the canon, not by its capacity to deeply connect with someone, even if only on a personal level.

Nevertheless, Matuska acknowledged that the serious study of literature requires concentrated discussions on canonized texts. This is especially the case at McGill, which has a highly traditional curriculum.

“You know [that] you miss things [when] just sticking to the canon but then you have to ask, how do you study time periods of literature if you don’t have a canon? How do you gain a certain knowledge of a vast expanse of time?”

Matuska said. “I don’t think you really can.”

For those readers who seek community and intellectual stimulation outside of the classroom, the question remains as to where readers can find more diverse, informal spaces to share their love of literature. Librairie Drawn & Quarterly (D+Q), a staple of independent bookstores in Montreal since 2008, provides a possible solution to academic stiffling.

Though the concept of a book club is certainly not exclusive to Librairie D+Q, the bookstore is unique to Montreal because of its sustained commitment to engaging communal literacy. Every month, in addition to

author talks and book launches, Librairie D+Q hosts several different public book clubs in the Mile End. With clubs focusing on Indigeneous literature, science fiction, graphic novels, and children’s literature— among many others—each one highlights a diverse selection of contemporary authors across multiple media and genres.

For Luke Langille, Librairie D+Q’s manager, the bookstore’s strengths come from its hybrid status, both in terms of the cohort of readers it draws in, and of the types of discussions it promotes.

“The way I like to make my pitch [...] to members of the public who have yet come to one of our book clubs is that it’s pretty laid back as an environment,” Langille said. “But it’s also somewhat similar to a studious discussion because of the fact that we have so many smart people who show up and talk about books. It’s really lively and informative. It’s stimulating enough [...] but definitely a departure from an academic setting.”

While students do attend the book discussions, D+Q’s accessibility welcomes readers of all walks of life. Without the pressures of specific schools of thought for discussions to adhere to, the book club mediates conversations where opinions stem from personal insights in as much as they do academic ones. Without an evaluative or formal spirit, anecdotes related to the text’s plot bring as much to the conversation as comments about its creative use of form.

What often moti-

Having to contend with institutional authority, literature students sometimes feel as though they connect with texts in a sterilized way.

(Chloë Gordon-Chow / The McGill Tribune)

vates a lively discussion at D+Q, is therefore, a text’s relevance to the lives of the readers discussing it. That a reader can choose which books to read—thus curating their own syllabus for discussion— only adds to the possibility for genuine connection to a text, which often leads to impassioned discussion.

What book clubs have to contend with, and what universities tend to avoid, is the overriding conception that the most productive book discussions occur only within dedicated academic contexts. Taken to an extreme, value judgments about a reader’s connection to a text, improperly assumed based on the context in which they read that text, create a hierarchy of literacy. The notion of “proper reading” dismisses anything that doesn’t align with an institutionally established version of literacy as inferior. It renders the fundamentally democratic act of reading insulated, reserved for an imagined elite.

Still, many educators recognize the value of less traditional analysis. In an interview with The McGill Tribune, Professor Alexander Manshel, who teaches 20th Century and Contemporary American Literature at McGill, spoke about why the segmentation of reading is a fallacy.

Invested readers hold an inherent bias to quality, no matter what they read. Rather than a ladder on

which different types of readers or genres can be ranked, Manshel contended that all readers generally seek to be rewarded for the attention they devote to a text.

“Whether you study the pinnacle of a canon [...] or you study pulp fiction and best-sellers, both of which you can do in a classroom, close reading undergirds both of those practices,” Manshel said. “But I don’t think the university, while it does emphasize close reading, has a monopoly on close reading. [...] It may not sound the same, it may not use the same terms, but close attention to detail is something that committed readers, whether inside the university or outside, employ in different ways.”

Different contexts value different kinds of reading, but that does not need to be seen as limiting to a reader’s connection with a text. It is inevitable that different contexts will stress different priorities as regards literature. Though the way in which discussions manifest may differ from place to place, close readerly attention—across all genres and contexts— will always deepen a reader’s connection with that text. The variety of contexts and genres that a reader will encounter, and the variety of discussions to participate in, are ultimately differences to be treasured.

12

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25 2020

Where do I begin?: Vaporwave

Internet soundscapes evoke an abstract wonderland for the new generation.

Vaporwave is more than its ubiquitous grid art and marble busts.

(Daria Kiseleva / The McGill Tribune)

Miguel Principe Student Life Editor

Daniel Lopatin) is allegedly the first vaporwave album. The ‘ecco’ is a double entendre on two aspects of the album that play a defining role in the vaporwave aesthetic: The echo effect that comes from the glitching of 80s mainstream pop songs, and the use of “Ecco the Dolphin,” a video game character from the 90s, who is featured in the album’s surrealist cover art.

Eccojams became a major influence for 2011’s Floral Shoppe by Macintosh Plus, the alias of American music producer Ramona Xavier. This album would eventually popularize vaporwave, with the track “Lisa Frank 420 / Modern Computing,” becoming arguably the most well-known song of the genre. Chuck Person is not completely forgotten in this iconic album with Xavier including the song, ‘Chill Divin’ with ECCO’, an homage to Eccojams and the aforementioned dolphin.

Sailor Moon and Japanese Pop - Future funk MACROSS 82-99 - SAILORWAVE (2013)

Sounds and images from the era of Windows 95 and peak mall culture manipulated to a degree that is both recognizable of its past roots yet remarkably separate from its source material; this is the spirit of the internet-born subculture, vaporwave. The aesthetics of vaporwave revolve mainly around the popular technologies and media from the late 70s to the early 00s. The genre allows for an anti-consumerist or a nostalgic interpretation of its music through its distortion, which makes it worth a listen. Here are some albums from four subgenres of vaporwave that capture different aspects of their ‘aesthetic.’

Future funk is the most accessible strain of vaporwave. With heavy influences from 80s Japanese city pop, future funk follows the vaporwave’s nostalgic aesthetic and critique of consumerism from material derided as cheesy and commercial in its time. 2013’s Sailorwave

by Macross 82-99, a pseudonym for a Mexican producer known only by their first name, ‘Gerald,’ is a staple of the subgenre, with tracks filled with catchy melodies at a high tempo. Furthermore, the title Sailorwave references the iconic anime character Sailor Moon, emphasizing vaporwave’s fixation of the era.

Greek Busts and Dolphins - Classic Vaporwave Floral Shoppe - Macintosh Plus (2011), Chuck Person - Eccojams Vol. 1 (2010)

Department Stores and Food Courts - Mall Soft Cat System Corp - Palm Mall (2014), North Shore Memory Gardens - The Orchards (2019)

Focussing on the mall as a defining symbol of consumerism emblematic of the past, mall soft contrasts the energetic nature of future funk. The

Eccojams Vol. 1 (2010) by Chuck Person (a pseudonym of American experimental musician

most well-known album from this subgenre is 2014’s Palm Mall by Dutch vaporwave producer Jornt Elzinga under the alias Cat System Corp.

The main piece is its opening 22-minute track, ‘Palm Mall’, which simulates a walk through a mall complete with samples of announcements from department stores and faint conversations to emulate passersby. A more recent addition is The Orchards by North Shore Memory Gardens. The Orchards also samples sound elements of a mall, such as arcade noises and people talking, but forgoes simulation for a more casual electronic and jazz sound; this distances it from the ‘background music’ feel found within Palm Mall.

Commercials and Weather Channels - Signalwave / Broken Transmission New Dreams Unlimited - Fuji Grid TV EX (2011), Blizzard 96 - Blizzard 96 (2019)

Probably one of the most abstract subgenres of vaporwave, Broken Transmission is characterized by the splicing of random and often contrasting samples from retro television—breaking each other’s ‘transmission’—to create the sound that comes from flipping through channels on a television. The hallmark album of this subgenre is Fuji Grid TV EX from 2011, a project by pioneering producer Ramona Xavier under the pseudonym New Dreams Unlimited. Xavier leans into the anti-consumerist philosophy through the album’s heavy use of jarring and haunting distortion of ad tunes that are continuously spliced together. The final product emulates the feeling of an uninterrupted bombardment of commercials. Another approach to Broken Transmission is Blizzard 96’s self-titled project released last year. This album slows down and distorts recordings from the Weather Channel during a monumental blizzard that affected the Northeast in January 1996.

As explained in the artist’s bandcamp, this album represents a special childhood memory that can be captured as nostalgia through the distortions of vaporwave.

Say It Because You Mean It

McSWAY Poetry Collective hosts an evening of poetry, comedy, and music, sure to cure the last of your February blues Feb. 26, 6:00-8:00 p.m.

651 Sherbrooke O $4/ No one turned away for lack of funds

Indigenous Literatures Book Club: Islands of Decolonial Love

Indulge in an off-syllabus story this reading week Mar. 25 7:00-9:00 p.m.

Drawn & Quarterly, 176 Rue Bernard O. Free

Chez-Nous Staged Reading Series: “The Third Solitude”

The McGill Department of English and Theatre Productions has teamed up with Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal to present staged readings of historical productions Feb. 26-27, 7:00-9:30 p.m.

Moyse Hall Free

Sharing Our Stories, Telling Our Lives In collaboration with the EnglishSpeaking Black Community (ESBC) and Montreal Black Mental Health Connections,Teesri Dunya theatre presents staged life-stories Feb. 28, 7:00-8:00 p.m.

West Haven Community Centre PWYC

Soviet life on Mars

CCA lecture explores the cultural impact of Russian sci-fi Vanessa Barron Staff Writer

For as long as humans have looked to the stars, we have wondered what lies beyond the scope of our stratosphere. This wonder particularly piqued the imagination of artists and writers in Soviet Russia. On Feb. 20, a crowd gathered in the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) to hear Asif Siddiqi discuss this cosmic enthusiasm in Bolshevik Russia. Siddiqi, a history professor at Fordham University, painted a picture of a 1920s Soviet Union (USSR) enraptured by the concept of galactic travel.

The talk was a part of the CCA’s lecture series, Search for New World. The series explores Russian sci-fi throughout the 20th century, focussing particularly on how the genre was influenced by existing technology and inspired many to think about utopianism and new societal organization.

The series is a counterpart to the CCA’s exhibition Building a new New World: Amerikanizm in Russian Architecture, which considers Russia’s relationship to modernity and the United States though its architecture.

From literature, to modern art, and films, the endless possibilities of the cosmos inspired creatives and captivated the general public. Space

travel offered a chance for the USSR to carve out its place in space and history, symbolizing the seemingly endless limits of human invention and exploration in the age of modernity.

North American audiences are most likely familiar with the USSR’s major role in the 1960s space race, though the countries advancements in space travel were the result of more than just a simple competition. Siddiqi explained that, starting in 1917, Russian popular culture drastically shifted its attention towards the heavens, inspired

by Soviet utopianism and the Marxist fascination with technology. The ‘space fad’ of the 1920s was a massive phenomenon that pervaded all aspects of culture, and Siddiqi’s research traced the theme of the cosmic throughout fiction, film and art, along with the public’s reception.

To show the pervasiveness of the sci-fi genre, Siddiqi noted that one-fifth of all books published at the time were science-related. Siddiqi pointed to Alexei Tolstoy’s Aelita as an example of Bolshevik-era science fiction. The successful novel follows a young man who travels to Mars and starts a proletariat uprising against the planet’s elite. Its adaptation was the first Russian sci-fi movie, a silent film, sold out theatres on opening night in 1924— extremely rare for the time. In the world of con-

temporary art, Kazimir Malevich and Boris Ender experimented with abstract and geometric styles to represent imaginary space stations and theoretical concepts like infinity. “[These artists believed that] art should mirror technological advancements, mechanically and abstractly,” Siddiqi said. “They were crafting a universe without a reference point.”

Not only were creatives producing copious amounts of space content, but the public loved every minute of it. Lectures on space travel were so popular that police were frequently called to quell the massive mobs attempting to push their way into the auditoriums. Before there were “Trekkies” and “Whovians,” there were Russian space enthusiasts making up their own intergalactic languages and space names. Space clubs hosted exhibitions that featured rocket models and hypothetical maps of Mars. One exhibition showcased a blueprint for a rocket that would melt its own wings to provide fuel for the engine, to which Siqqidi commented that we certainly haven’t reached that level of technological advancement yet. Later on in the 1930s, the popular preoccupation with space travel died down and shifted towards the more realistic aspiration of aviation, but the Soviet Union continued to produce sci-fi works beyond the initial craze.

This talk was part of the CCA lecture series, ‘Search for New World.’ (CCA.qc.ca).

Search for a New World continues on March 5 with Sergei Kapterev on Soviet Sci-Fi Cinema of the 1950s–1960s. The exhibition Building a New World runs until April 5 at the Canadian Centre for Architecture.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25 2020

13

Defining the modern hacker

An anthropological take on 21st century hacking culture Zoe Karkossa Contributor The hacker has gained a mythic status in modern tech-centric pop culture, simultaneously defining a righteous activist and a chaotic criminal. Despite the mystery shrouding the affairs of hackers and their collectives, Gabriella Coleman has dedicated her life’s research to uncovering and unravelling the real story behind hacker culture. A cultural anthropologist and professor in the Department of Communication Studies at McGill, Coleman’s work is centred on the history of hacktivism, the combinatory term for computer hackers and digital activism. At a recent talk for SUS Academia Week 2020, Coleman presented the website Hack_Curio, a unique effort to share the realities of hacking brought to life by the joint effort of contributors as is hacker custom.

Hack_Curio is, first and foremost, a virtual museum. It features a diverse collection of short videos and accompanying blurbs spanning a wide range of topics from hacktivism to piracy and trolling.

“We have to think about how we convince people of things, and text is not enough, and reason and logic is never enough,” Coleman said.

“You have to add compelling stories, visual material.”

Hack_Curio is also Coleman’s attempt at breaking down the societal stereotypes and stigmas that have defined hackers and hacker culture.

Contrary to the conventional image of a hoodiewearing ‘lone wolf’ typing away in his mother’s basement, Coleman wants viewers of Hack_Curio to understand that much of hacking and broader tech culture is extremely social and collaborative.

“Free software projects [for example] are often quite big and quite collaborative,” Coleman said. “You’ll have up to 1,000 people [contributing to] a project.”

Among her other goals for the project are preserving history, showcasing diversity, and experimenting with platforms.

One piece of history that Coleman highlighted was the intriguing trend of phone phreaking, a 1960s precursor to hacking that was notably practiced by Apple founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Coleman’s video featured Josef ‘Joybubbles’ Engressia, born blind but with perfect pitch, whistling a series of notes into a phone receiver. This unconventional technique allowed the so-called phreaker to hack into the telephone system and connect to whichever number they chose, completely free of charge. Despite the technique no longer being viable today, phreaking provides insight into the creative and rule-bending attitude that is an essential part of modern hacking culture.

In the political sphere, hacking is subject to great scrutiny. Following the revelation that Russian hackers interfered in American elections, Vladimir Putin chose to outrightly deny his country’s involvement. In a featured press conference, he declared that hackers have their own agency,

The website Hack_Curio is sharing the realities of hacking through visual media. (arstechnica.com) akin to that of an artist who simply wakes up and decides to start a painting. Despite the partial truth of such an assertion, playing into such tropes mainly serves a political agenda which exonerates himself and his government from the affair.

In reality, although many hackers and hacker collectives are independent in their political projects, many are also key assets to various powers who often use them for their own advantage with little regard for ethics.

One might wonder whether hacking has lost its edge in the modern era of the tech industry if the golden age of hacking has been given way to sell-outs and corporate culture. Coleman, for one, disagrees.

“There’s always cycles,” Coleman said. “At the same time, you have some current in hacking that become the establishment, and other currents that are pushing against it. [Hackers] have a very strong sense of history [and] of their past.”

The wonderful world of plant communication

Chemical signals and symbiotic relationships allow plants to thrive together to suppress the growth of certain weeds, allowing the crop plants to thrive. Basil, for example, can act as a natural pesticide and has been shown to help tomatoes overcome disease and improve growth rate.

Plants can also react to competition with their own chemical responses. After an animal eats a leaf, some plant species might produce defensive chemicals to repel pests or send signals to warn their roots or other leaves. Others signal nearby plants or even animals for help. The coyote tobacco plant, for example, deals with caterpillar predation by sending distress signals to insects that eat the caterpillars, thus ridding the plant of its pesky predator.

Emma Gillies Science & Technology Editor Animals are not the only organisms capable of communication: Plants, too, are remarkably adept at exchanging information and sharing resources. By releasing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the air or secreting chemicals into the soil, plants can communicate with one another, transport water and nutrients to nearby companions, protect themselves against predators, and even invoke ripening in other plants.

Mother trees and forest networks In towering forests filled with thousands of species, it may seem that all trees are constantly competing with one another in a quest for sunlight and water. A growing body of scientific research, however, demonstrates that trees live communally and form alliances, exchanging water and nutrients, sending distress signals, and altering behaviour accordingly, thanks to a magical fungal network endearingly referred to as the ‘wood-wide web.’

These fungal extensions of the root system, called mycorrhizal networks, allow for the transfer of water, nutrients, minerals, and even alarm signals between plants. In return, plants provide the fungi with a carbohydrate diet. Young trees often rely on this network, as their larger mother trees pump water and nutrients into their root systems, a phenomenon that German forester and author Peter Wohlleben describes as ‘suckling their young.’ Mother trees are the largest plants in the forest, with the deepest roots and the most fungal connections, so they can afford to distribute their heavy supply of water and sugars to surrounding younger trees.

Allelopathy and competition Some species have developed a type of chemical warfare called allelopathy to claim territory and force other plants off their land. By releasing toxic compounds known as allelochemicals, plants can inhibit the growth and development of competitors. Many invasive species can successfully take over a foreign environment using this technique. Originating from South

Species recognition Plants can detect when other plants are around them, which is important when it comes to competing for resources, knowing when there’s not enough sunlight, and sensing danger. Furthermore, research shows that plants, like animals, recognize their relatives and preferentially help them survive, a phenomenon known as kin recognition. Although kin recognition is still understudied in the plant world, there are varied examples of it at work. A 2017 study showed that the roots of soybean plants avoid less related neighbours’ roots, while those of more related plants grow closer together. In the wild, parasitic plants that depend on their host for their survival have evolved ways of sensing where their host species are, which can be a matter of life of death for the parasite.

Mycorrhizal networks form symbiotic relationships with trees to facilitate nutrient transfer.

(Sabrina Girard-Lamas / The McGill Tribune) America, the water hyacinth has invaded every continent except Antarctica thanks to its ability to chemically suppress its competition.

Allelopathic plants can also benefit agriculture. In companion cropping, allelopathic plants are planted next to crop plants

Fruit ripening A plant hormone known as ethylene is essential for the ripening of fruits such as tomatoes, peaches, apples, and bananas.

As these fruits develop, they produce greater amounts of ethylene, which then evokes a ripening response. This forms an amplifying feedback loop: As fruits produce ethylene in increasing quantities, they become riper, causing them to produce more ethylene. This process explains why putting a ripe apple next to a banana in your lunch box results in a brown banana later that day—it was all because of plant communication.

14

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25 2020

A new treatment for Alzheimer’s

Research suggests that lithium in small doses could remedy the disease Margaret Wdowiak Contributor Alzheimer’s disease currently affects around 44 million people worldwide. The disease destroys cells in the brain, inducing symptoms such as memory loss, mood swings, poor judgement, and a shortened attention span. The number of Canadians suffering from this debilitating illness is rising, but no cure or treatment currently exists to alleviate their suffering. A team of McGill researchers led by Dr. Claudio Cuello, a professor in McGill’s Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, is attempting to change this grim reality.

Their research has shown that, in small doses, the metal lithium is capable of reducing Alzheimer’s symptoms and could prevent the emergence of Alzheimer’s in people with a genetic predisposition to the disease.

Lithium has long been used in the medical field to treat mood disorders such as bipolar depression. However, conventional lithium solutions have a very narrow therapeutic window and carry severe side effects that prevent their long-term use in elderly patients. Side effects include nausea; tremor; weight gain; polyuria, a condition when a person’s body urines more than normal; and polydipsia, or excessive thirst.

Cuello and former PhD student Edward Wilson instead turned to NP03, a new low-dose lithium formulation created by a French pharmaceutical company that avoids the negative side effects associated with conventional lithium. The NP03 prep-

Alzheimer’s-like and [their] cognition is going down, this is in my view, and in the view of many, a perfect opportunity to start therapy before the structural changes in the brain are such that they will be totally irreversible,” Cuello said.

The next step for Cuello and his team are human trials. “[The human trial] opportunity is with Down syndrome [patients],” Cuello said.

“We can anticipate in cohorts of Down syndrome [patients] when the Alzheimer’s [symptoms are] activated.”

Individuals with Down syndrome are perfect candidates because they have a triplication of the gene carrying the APP protein.

Symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease include memory loss and shortened attention span.

“Down syndrome [patients] have tri(newscientist.com) somy on chromosome 21, which causes the typical syndrome, but [...] it means dupliaration traps a compound called lithium with the amyloid precursor protein (APP) cation of a protein called amyloid precurcitrate within another material in a pro- gene. APP is the hallmark of Alzheimer’s sor protein,” Cuello said. cess known as nanoencapsulation. NP03 disease in humans.

Due to increased levels of APP, Down has previously been shown to protect mice “We [reduced the symptoms] at fairly syndrome patients nearly always develop from neurological effects associated with advanced stages [and found that] the cogni- Alzheimer’s symptoms at an early age, Huntington disease. tive impairments induced by the [lithium] making the onset of the disease more pre“Compounds [that] are lipidic in na- therapy were spectacularly positive,” Cuel- dictable and the importance of the trial ture pass more readily [through the blood- lo said. succeeding in treating such symptoms even brain barrier],” Cuello said in an interview Indeed, the NP03 treatments reduced greater. with The McGill Tribune. “This nanoen- levels of amyloid plaques—aggregated Cuello believes that, in the next few capsulation is a […] lipidic trapping for- proteins that are thought to disrupt cell con- years, it will become possible to undermulation […] that allows us to use doses nections—and reversed memory deficits in stand early stages of the disease and suc[that] are at least 200 times lower than the the rats. Yet the treatment cannot remedy cessfully treat it. For the first time, there conventional lithium.” the symptoms of Alzheimer’s once severe is hope for the millions of people suffering Cuello and his team conducted an ani- cognitive decline has set in; it is only ef- from Alzheimer’s disease. mal study to test the effectiveness of NP03 fective in low doses over sustained periods “I’m optimistic,” Cuello said. “I think against Alzheimer’s. They administered the before dementia symptoms appear. we are at the verge of great discoveries in NP03 formula to genetically-modified rats “[If a person has] a profile [that] is Alzheimer’s.”

Teaching AI to learn by positive reinforcement

New developments help AI better understand human preferences

Doris Tian Contributor Continued from page 1.

In contrast with other ways that machines can learn to process information like supervised and unsupervised learning, Precup describes RL as the middle ground between the two. RL does not use massive amounts of hand-labelled data in order to learn something new, as supervised learning entails, nor does it set the agent loose amongst large pools of unprocessed data for the purpose of discovering new or interesting patterns, as in unsupervised learning.

Instead, RL takes a novel approach that is becoming increasingly common in computer scientists’ toolkits.

“You’re not holding the hand of the agent at every step, but you are providing some feedback to help it understand [the task at hand],” Precup said in an interview with The McGill Tribune.

The intuitive reward function, though easy to understand and implement in straightforward, game-like settings, becomes a challenge when the desired goal is multifaceted and complex. One such reward function exists in medicine. A dynamic, long-term medical treatment strategy called

an adaptive treatment method is made up of a sequence of treatments that each depend on the patient’s response to previous therapies. According to Precup, the reward should aim to juggle different objectives.

“The reward should balance the efficacy of the treatment with other considerations, such as side effects or the costs of medication,” Precup said.

However, incentivizing a computer to take such factors into consideration is not an easy task. Precup described a solution where the AI agent can interact directly with humans while it is operating.

“When the agent arrives at a situation which it is uncertain about, […] it has the option to ask a person,” Precup said.

Employing this system of teaching, the agent can then take the feedback from a human operator and use this information to learn.

Precup foresees AI-human interaction as a major field for future research. The emerging narrative is becoming more focussed on determining human preferences in real time and tailoring AI algorithms to match these preferences.

Stuart Russell, a professor of computer science at the University of California at Berkeley, echoes these sentiments in his three principles of beneficial machines. As

In reinforcement learning, AI agents can take feedback from a human operator and use this information to learn. (Jen Wang / The McGill Tribune) Russell notes, the first and foremost job of a ‘beneficial machine’—that is, one which works to the advantage of its human operator—should be to maximize the realization of human preferences. If the machine is initially uncertain about what those preferences are, then Russell proposes that the ultimate source of information about human

preferences must come from human behaviour itself.

Though these general principles in no way address every potential concern about AI, it is encouraging to see that researchers remain optimistic about creating computer systems that are aligned with the goals of humanity.

SPORTS

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25 2020

15

Martlets fall short against Citadins at Senior Night

Cabillo-Abante makes three three-pointers in 58–55 loss Sarah Farnand Staff Writer The Martlets (7–9) faced off against the UQÀM Citadins (7–8) on Feb. 20, with the hopes of securing a third place finish in the RSEQ. The game ended in a loss for McGill, with a final score of 58–55.

At the end of the first quarter, UQÀM led, 17–14. There was a scary moment when, with four minutes left in the quarter, a Citadins player pushed McGill’s Sirah Diarra into teammate Kamsi Ogbudibe. Both players remained on the ground for a few minutes before they were escorted to the locker room. Fortunately, both returned in the second half. McGill bounced back to gain a nine-point lead in the second quarter, but UQÀM responded, and by halftime, the Citadins once again had the advantage with a 30–28 lead.

Despite six free throws off of UQÀM’s eight fouls in the third quarter and a three-pointer from fifth-year guard Geraldine Cabillo-Abante, the Martlets never regained the lead. They entered the final quarter trailing 49–43.

The battle remained close throughout the game. McGill remained behind by one with six minutes left in the final quarter. With one minute left, the home side was down 58–52, but a three-point shot from Cabillo-Abante gave the Martlets some momentum. UQÀM remained strong, however, and although McGill outscored them 12–9 in the final quarter, UQÀM held on,

Hakizimana, forward Ruth Tshikudi-Tshila, and guard Stephanie Mondou. Each graduating player was presented with their framed jersey and flowers.

During the ceremony, Thorne discussed the impact that the seniors had on the program and the numerous obstacles each had overcome. For example, fifth-year guard Hakizimana endured two hip surgeries.

“Being a senior means that I have a leadership role on the team,” Hakizimana said. “I have to lead by example and [with] communication.

It’s my last year to give everything I have to the program.”

When speaking about the impact the seniors had, Robitaille teared up.

“The seniors really mean a lot,” Robitaille The Martlets celebrated their graduating seniors in their last home game of the regular season. said. “This is only my second year with them, but (Matt Garies / McGill Athletics) I feel bad. I know it’s only a game, but it’s Senior Night, and I think we didn’t play as well as we defeating the Martlets 58–55.

“Today’s game came down to fight, came [could have].”

Both Head Coach Ryan Thorne and second- down to effort, came down to discipline, and we The Martlets face the first-place Laval in the year guard Delphine Robitaille agreed that there didn’t have those. I think tonight’s game was RSEQ semifinal on Feb. 26 in Laval. Robitaille is was not much to say after the loss. an important one, because we could have either excited for the challenge.

“When you [lose] a game, you just don’t ended up in third or finished in fourth, so it’s “We have four days to [prepare] for Laval,” want to talk about it,” Robitaille said. not like we were playing for nothing [....] Given Robitaille said. “They are number one, and it Thorne emphasized that the team needed to that we were playing for something and that is going to be a really good game. We have to improve their focus moving into the playoffs. The was the effort we came out with, that’s kind of follow the game plan and [know] what we are Martlets had 20 turnovers and 12 fouls, which disappointing.” going to do defensively and offensively, and just cost them valuable points throughout the game.

The Senior Night ceremony took place be ready.”

“We [were not] disciplined, and the little immediately after the game. McGill honoured A semifinal win will move the Martlets on mistakes that we made cost us,” Thorne said. Diarra, Cabillo-Abante, guard Gladys to the RSEQ Final on Feb. 29.

MOMENT OF THE GAME

QUOTABLE “It’s my last year to give everything I have to the program

STAT CORNER Fifth-year guard Geraldine Cabillo-Abante led the Martlets

With less than four minutes left in the game, fifth-year transfer

and the team that I love, in order to not regret anything” - Gladys

with 11 points. She made three three-pointers, had three

centre Sirah Diarra made a crucial block on UQÀM’s Inga Aleksaite

Hakizimana, on what being a senior on the Martlets means to her.

rebounds, and three steals in her 32 minutes on the court.

to keep the game close, down 52–50.

Female coaches deserve equal opportunity, too The fight for a level playing field goes beyond athletes

Miya Keilin Managing Editor San Francisco 49ers Offensive Assistant Coach Katie Sowers made history at Super Bowl LIV when she became the first female coach to ever appear in the competition. Two weeks earlier, the 49ers’ next-door neighbours, the San Francisco Giants, hired Alyssa Nakken, the first female full-time coach in the MLB. Several other women have made headlines throughout the years for breaking into the professional men’s sports scene, including Bernadette Madox, who was the first full-time assistant coach for a men’s NCAA Division I basketball team. Though these breakthroughs represent crucial progress, they also serve as a painful reminder of how unequal the world of sports remains.

Eight of the nine current head coaches in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) are men. More than half of the former head coaches of the Canadian women’s national ice hockey team are men. At McGill, out of 30 men’s and women’s varsity sports, 26 have a male head coach. These numbers don’t make headlines, however, because they are the norm.

Throughout every level of women’s sports, men are present, from coaching and administrative roles to officials and media.

The impact of women’s involvement in sports as more than just athletes is multi-

dimensional. Both in and out of athletics, women face discrimination in the workplace. In the US, women actually used to comprise nearly all coaching positions for women’s teams before Title IX—a civil rights law intended to protect individuals from discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs or activities receiving federal funding—was passed in 1972. The law succeeded in improving women’s sports but attracted men to these coaching positions as they now offered better pay. In this world, once men decide that they want something, they get it, so the 90 per cent of NCAA women’s teams coaches that were female prior to the passing of Title IX has since dropped to just 40 per cent.

There is nothing about men as a group that inherently makes them better coaches than women, so there is no reason that men should be disproportionately considered for— and subsequently awarded—coaching jobs.

Additionally, the double standard presents another barrier to female coaches. Anyone in a position of power, such as a head coach, is subject to criticism, but for women, there is often no way to win. Female coaches are more likely to be faulted for factors outside of their control and given fewer resources than their male counterparts, leading to shorter tenures and less successful careers. Women can have more knowledge and experience and still lose out on a job to a man. Thus, administrators, media,

Prejudicial hiring remains a problem for women in sports.

(Associated Press)

and fans alike must be more cognizant of their implicit biases before they make judgements or decisions that could unfairly damage a female coach’s reputation. They should also keep in mind that the barrier is even higher for women of colour. Among coaches of both men’s and women’s teams, the majority are white, so there needs to be a greater effort to combat prejudicial hiring by implementing better policies for correcting implicit bias.

Even at the lowest level of competition when girls are just beginning to play a sport, having female coaches can make a difference.

As an eager, young athlete, I looked up to national stars like Mia Hamm and Cat Ostermann, but my true role models were the

20-something-year-old college players who spent their summers coaching and inspiring the next generation of female athletes. While famous stars are important for women’s sports, they can’t make a critical in-person connection with a young athlete like her coach can. Creating more opportunities for older players to return to their youth leagues as coaches and mentors will only increase the number of girls playing sports, which will, in turn, help improve the most competitive levels of women’s sports globally.

Women’s sports matter, and slowly but surely women are levelling the playing field.

Parity, however, means more than creating equal opportunity for female athletes—the goal is equal opportunity for all women in sports.

16

SPORTS

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25 2020

In conversation with Shireen Ahmed Bringing activism and sports journalism together Kaja Surborg Sports Editor Shireen Ahmed, a Toronto-based activist and sports journalist, is a powerful voice in Canadian sports journalism. Her work covering stories about equity and inclusivity across various sports has been published in The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, and SB Nation, among others. Ahmed values the role of social media in building her career and portfolio in sports journalism.

“The opportunities to publish in those traditional outlets came because of social media,” Ahmed said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “I had no connections in Canadian media whatsoever. I didn’t go to [journalism] school, so I didn’t have those traditional connections [....] I know from being in the industry for almost a decade [that] people really rely on [those connections], and they create shortcuts [....] [But,] I’ve been on Twitter since 2011, it’s not like any of this came overnight [....]

[You just have to] engage with people, there’s no secret. I love [Twitter]. I love engaging with people.”

Ahmed’s start in sports writing came in the form of a Tumblr blog.

“Often, I would pitch stuff and no one would publish it,” Ahmed said. “As opposed to pitching to [...] someone who might take my idea, I thought I would self-publish [....] I tried to [write the] stories that were important to me. One of the most important stories, journalistically

speaking, was only ever published on my Tumblr blog [....] Everyone loves a feel-good story, [...] but there’s ways to use social media as a tool of amplification and of story telling.”

Examining sports and broader social systems critically, while necessary, can sometimes be disheartening. Ahmed points out that it is important to remember that being critical of systemic injustice comes from a place of love for sports and wanting to make the space more inclusive.

“I talk about the issues within the systems in sports,” Ahmed said. “It can be exhausting.

I love love love soccer. It is in my blood. I’ve been playing for over three decades. I am very torn about going to Qatar [for the FIFA World Cup] in 2022 because, on the one hand, I have the opportunity to be a part of a media team, [... but] I can’t help reading about mega-events and feel sick.”

Ahmed cited Dr. Jules Boykoff and Dave Zirin’s writing about the degradation of society, the environmental impact, and the militarization that come as a result of mega-events. Ahmed believes, however, that the balance between loving the sports and teams that we do, and wanting them to make them better does exist. “[I love] the World Cup,” Ahmed said.

“There is a place for us to be critical of the problems with something and love it at the same time. There has to be [....] We don’t need to let corporations define who we are and how we love sports [....] The biggest part of this is unlearning what we’ve been told, as women in this industry,

Shireen Ahmed started writing about sports on her Tumblr blog.

(TEDx Talks)

as marginalized communities, and racialized communities. We’re not ruining the sport by talking about it, it comes from a place of care and a place of concern and a place of love [....]

You’re inconveniencing the people in power, that’s the first thing to get over.”

Positive change is happening in sports, and sometimes it comes in places one would not necessarily expect.

“People are going to be shocked that I’m going to say this, [but] I feel like the NHL is doing some work here,” Ahmed said. “I see some teams in the NHL doing massive collaborations with Black Girls Hockey Club [....] There’s a

movement happening. Not everybody is at the same level, not everybody is going to unlearn at the same time, but I feel like the conversations that I did not expect to happen in my lifetime have begun [....] It’s one thing when people apologize, but there’s another point that shifts the dynamic when people start to understand their accountability piece and they start to go ‘Okay, we know this is bad, but we really need to fix this shit.’”

Ahmed can be found on Twitter (@_shireenahmed_) and on Tumblr (footybedsheets.tumblr.com).

Impactful female athletes you may not know Talent that flies under the radar

Zoe Babad-Palmer Contributor Allyson Felix You may be familiar with American world-class sprinter Allyson Felix, but she remains incredibly underrated.

At 34 years old, Felix holds 18 IAAF World Championships medals and nine Olympic medals, and is tied for first place in IAAF career medals in any discipline and the leader in Olympic medals for women’s track and field. She is also at the top of her sport in records: Her 47.72 split in the 4 x 400-meter relay at the 2015 World Championships is the fastest split ever by an American woman and the third fastest split among all women; she also ranks fourth overall in the women’s 150-meter sprint.

Felix broke with tradition when she signed a contract with Adidas in 2003, making her ineligible to compete under NCAA regulations.

This contract

Allyson Felix’s NYT oped led to Nike changing its maternity protections for athletes.

(Essence)

paid her entire University of Southern California tuition. While she studied, Felix continued training and competing.

She went on to win a silver medal at the 2004 Olympics and two gold World Championships medals.

In addition to her athletic talents, Felix has been outspoken about athletes’ maternity rights. In an op-ed published in The New York Times less than a year after her daughter was born via an emergency C-section, she discussed the risks that pregnancy carries for athletes.

Her criticism of Nike’s maternity policy highlighted the pay insecurity that athletes face when having children and resulted in a

congressional inquiry and maternity protections from Nike and three other athletic apparel companies.

Whether or not Felix will be at the 2020 Olympics—and she certainly hopes to be—her career and activism make her name one that every sports fan should know.

Jennifer Jones Jennifer Jones has been at the top of the curling world for 15 years. The 45-year-old Canadian won gold at the 2014 Olympics in an undefeated run as skip; she is the second person and first woman to have done so. She has also won 12 medals at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, the Canadian women’s curling championship, earning her a tie for most Scotties championships.

Jones, a senior legal advisor educated at the University of Manitoba, is best-known for “The Shot,” a nearimpossible play executed in the 2005 Scotties. “The Shot” won the game against Team Ontario, qualified her team for the 2005 World Women’s Curling Championship, and sent shock waves across the Canadian curling community. Jones was voted the top Canadian female curler of all-time in a 2019 TSN poll.

Jones most recently competed in the 2020 Scotties, clinching a wild-card spot but falling to Ontario in the semifinals.

It was her 15th time competing.

Madison Packer Women’s hockey has its fair share of stars, but forward Madison Packer’s name is not as big as it deserves to be.

Packer, 28, grew up in Michigan and now plays for the Metropolitan Riveters in the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL). Although she was not selected for Team USA at the 2014 Olympics, Packer refused to let her hockey career end in university. After she graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 2014, she took a chance and signed with the Riveters for the NWHL’s inaugural season, rather than moving to Canada to play in the already-established Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL).

That move has since brought heaps of success for Packer, who was selected to play in the NWHL All-Star Game in 2016, 2017, 2019, and 2020, acting as one of two team captains in the most recent iteration. She announced her retirement at the tail end of the 2017 season amid arguments between the league and players over salary cuts, health insurance, and the league’s future, but chose to return the next season, winning the Isobel Cup with her team.

Packer has been one of the most outspoken advocates for the NWHL during its expansion. She is also an advocate for LGBTQ rights and suicide prevention awareness.