McGill Tribune Vol. 37 Issue 22

The McGill Tribune Published by the SPT, a student society of McGill University

TUESDAY, MARCH 20, 2018 | VOL. 37 | ISSUE 22

ENDORSEMENTS Winter 2018 SSMU referenda

FEATURE

WONDERFUL WASHROOMS

The middle way

Because we all deserve to use a washroom that Suzanne Fortier would

PGs. 8-9

PG. 10

Finding the path to buddhism in the Western World

PG. 5

McGILLTRIBUNE.COM | @McGILLTRIBUNE

(Leanne Young/ The McGill Tribune)

2018-2019 SSMU Executive Endorsements PGs. 2-3

Man shot in broad daylight two blocks from McGill campus Shooter still at large, victim in stable condition Lucas Bird Contributor On March 14, Tony Elian, the owner of the high-end clothing store Giorgio Gruppo Roma on Peel Street, was shot by an unidentified man in his own boutique. After suffering gunshot wounds to

his lower back, Elian was rushed to the hospital.

The Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) later confirmed to The McGill Tribune that he is in a stable condition and predicted that he would be released soon.

The shooter, an unidentified suspect wearing a mask and a brightly-colored construction vest,

Overcoming the fear of missing out

The fear of missing out, better known as FOMO, is a universally-felt sentiment— one that can creep up on just about anyone, caused by a range of circumstances.

Although the term has been used conversationally for years, it was officially added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2013, and defined as “Anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere.”

tity of the shooter, which might lead to an arrest.

“We’ve met with the victim, we’ve been collecting information, [...] we’ve done the analysis of the scene, we’ve recovered a firearm on site, and we’ve looked at footage from service cameras,” SPVM Spokesperson Jean-Pierre Brabant said.

PG. 4

Bring Your Own Juice is an oasis in McGill’s comedy desert

McGill’s only sketch comedy group provides needed laughs during midterms

What is FOMO and how can we learn to deal with it?

Miguel Principe Staff Writer

fled the scene on foot. He dropped his weapon outside the boutique and the police have since identified it as a Remington 870 shotgun. SPVM authorities have not made any arrests as of March 19 and are still searching for the suspect at this time.

They have also made a public request asking for citizens to submit any information about the iden-

However, FOMO goes deeper than just the feeling of missing out. It involves making unrealistic comparisons between your social life and your peers’. It’s a vicious cycle of thoughts that gnaws away, making you second-guess your choice to spend Friday night studying in the library while your friends are out partying.

Despite being a natural extrovert, Sachin Samarakone, a U3 engineering student, is no stranger to this feeling.

“I usually tend to feel FOMO a lot,” Samarakone said. “I think it’s more to do with my personality type though.

PG. 7

Matthew Hawkins Contributor “McGill is pretty dry when it comes to comedy,” said Bring Your Own Juice’s (BYOJ) producer Abbey Hipkin, after the final performance of their threenight live show on March 17 at the Mainline Theatre.

BYOJ, a self-proclaimed

“ground-up” sketch comedy troupe, and McGill’s only sketch comedy troupe, shattered that assumption with witty, topical, and sometimes absurd sketches that ranged from recreating hipster soft-boys of the Mile End to Guy Fieri’s wife giving birth. With sketch comedy, audiences should always be braced for the unexpected, and Saturday’s performance did

not disappoint—the night’s biggest surprise was a large bag of (hopefully) fake cocaine exploding over the cast and stage, lingering in the air for the next three sketches.

BYOJ works against some of the restrictive structures of comedy groups themselves.

Being “ground-up” means that the writers are also actors, marketing directors, producers, and stage managers.

PG. 11

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

2 NEWS

Tre Mansdoerfer, U2 Engineering, has served as Engineering Undergraduate Society (EUS) senator, EUS representative to the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), president of McConnell Hall Council, and member of the Students’ Society Planning Network (SSPN). He has also been a coordinator for E-Week and has held leadership positions at both Model United Nations conferences hosted

by McGill.

Mansdoerfer’s platform focuses on improving SSMU’s accountability and advocacy. It prioritizes three key pledges: Fostering relationships with and between faculty associations, restoring trust in SSMU, and implementing student surveys and ad-hoc task forces to improve advocacy initiatives. Specifically, he plans to improve mental health services and lobby for a Fall reading week.

He also hopes to make General Assemblies (GA) more accessible and accurate by hosting them online and using clickers to count votes.

With regard to clubs and services, Mansdoerfer plans to solicit space from faculty associations to temporarily house these groups during the University Centre’s closure.

Finally, Mansdoerfer empha-

sizes the importance of SSMU maintaining strong ties with the McGill administration. He intends to work closely with McGill’s incoming Deputy Provost Student Life and Learning, and leverage his relationships with current administrators to advocate for students. He hopes to introduce more student Senators to represent schools and faculties that currently lack Senate positions. In addition, Mansdoerfer will host regular meetings, roundtable discussions, and monthly meetings between SSMU executives and faculty executives to share knowledge and collaborate on solutions to governance issues.

corinne bulger

president

SSMU Elections 2018 Corinne Bulger, U2 Arts, is the Arts representative to SSMU for the 2017-18 school year. Representing the Faculty of Arts at both the Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) and SSMU legislative councils, Bulger was additionally a member of the SSMU Services Committee, the AdHoc Committee for Provincial Representation, and a member of the Daycare Board of Directors.

Within AUS, she sat on the Faculty of Arts committee and the Academic Affairs committee.

In addition to her experience in student government, Corinne

has been a prominent member of the residence community throughout her three years at McGill. After serving as Vice President (VP) Communications for New Residence Hall in her first year, she coordinated RezWarz in 2016-17, and is currently a floor fellow at New Residence Hall.

Bulger’s platform emphasizes community, project progression, and governance reform.

She sees cultivating community spaces—both in the physical and emotional sense—as essential during the 2018-19 school year, particularly in light of the SSMU building closure. Bulger stressed her plans to oversee past projects, including the Our Turn Sexual Violence Policy, ensuring that menstrual hygiene products are available in McGill buildings, and maintaining Milton-Parc relations.

In terms of governance reform, and across all three of her platform’s central tenets, Bulger underscores close collaboration with the student body as the foundation of a successful presidential term. She also plans to prioritize cultivating team spirit among the executive committee and across SSMU communities.

ENDORSMENT: tre mansd0erfer Jacob Shapiro, U3 Arts, is the only candidate running for the position of VicePresident (VP) University Affairs (UA).

His platform is based on three core values: Continuity, creativity, and community.

Recognizing that high turnover rates in student governance are a barrier to continued productivity year after year, Shapiro hopes to carry on the projects of former VP UAs while setting the stage for future ones to do the same.

Beyond funneling resources into existing programs, Shapiro plans to establish mechanisms for knowledge-sharing between past and present SSMU VP UAs and faculty VP Academics.

jacob shaPiro

ing increasing shared spaces and multimedia at SSMU. However, it falls short of adequately addressing students’ waning trust in SSMU’s ability to effectively advocate for students and their activities. And while Bulger aptly recognizes the importance of building a cohesive executive team, she has less directly and openly addressed the political divisiveness that has troubled recent executive committees and councils, and only has vague plans to prevent similar in the future.

Mansdoerfer possesses the skills, experiences, and relevant platform to lead SSMU. It is crucial that the incoming executives reaffirm SSMU’s role as a provider of essential services and an inclusive and effective channel for student advocacy, and Mansdoerfer is the better candidate to lead a team to achieve that.

VP: UNIVERSITY AFFAIRS

Of the two exceedingly qualified candidates running, Mansdoerfer has slightly more institutional knowledge and experience with SSMU. His platform has more focus on prominent student concerns, including relocations during the University Centre’s closure, the transparency of the SSMU Board of Directors, and making GAs more democratic. From his service as both a senator and councillor at SSMU, Mansdoerfer has invaluable connections with councillors, executives, faculty associations, and administrators. Given the public fracturing of the 2017-2018 Executive Committee, Mansdoerfer’s approach to restoring trust in SSMU seems particularly suitable for the upcoming year.

Bulger’s platform proposes a number of compelling ideas, includ-

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

3 NEWS He plans to work closely with faculty VP Academics by holding monthly one-on-one meetings, creating a forum to share knowledge and resources on equity, and distributing minutes from all of his meetings with university administrators.

Shapiro also hopes to prioritize the research aspect of the UA portfolio, carrying on with existing research projects—such as Open Educational Resources (OERs)—and empowering students to work on new, innovative ideas.

Shapiro intends to research implementing cooperative living and intergenerational community spaces at McGill, but beyond this, wants to remain open to project ideas from students. He plans to hold a student research competition as one way of accomplishing this.

Shapiro emphasized creating a strong sense of community among the student body as essential to advocating for students at the administrative level.

If elected, he will work to develop positions for first-year students on Senate.

He hopes to make engaging with student governance easier for students by reducing the use of acronyms in policies and holding a TED-style advocacy conference open to students, and bringing his executive office hours into other student spaces. He also aims to work with the university on revising the Pass/ Fail policy to allow students to uncover passing grades later in the semester.

VP External Marina Cupido Marina Cupido, U4 Arts, has an extensive history working with The McGill Daily as both a news editor and a managing editor. As a student journalist, she has reported on the different institutions within SSMU and McGill. This year, she was also part of the University Affairs Committee.

If elected, Cupido aims to improve accessibility on campus for both Indigenous and francophone students, as well as improve transparency at SSMU in general. She also intends to better SSMU’s relationship with residents of the Milton-Parc neigh-

VP Internal Matthew McLaughlin Matthew McLaughlin, U0 Arts, is running unopposed for Vice-President Internal. He has been working as Secretary General to the SSMU President since January, and currently sits on the SSMU Community Affairs Committee, and the SSMU Accountability Committee. He is also the President of Douglas Hall Council.

McLaughlin plans to expand the reach of the SSMU listserv by posting the link to it on a wider range of social media platforms, including Facebook,

Endorsement:Yes Although Shapiro has no direct SSMU experi-

ence, he exhibits a desire to empower students as VP UA, and has concrete ideas for knowledge-sharing and community-building mechanisms to do so. He understands that advocating for the campus community requires a student-centric approach and hopes to expand opportunities for hearing students’ interests and needs.

Shapiro’s desire to prioritize research and his openminded approach to doing so is admirable. Research opportunities may give students who lack a passion for politics and activism—and thus historically have remained uninvolved with SSMU—a chance to contribute to the Society. Also, having a breadth of strong research findings can be used to back up his advocacy efforts as UA. Shapiro plans to improve institutional memory and continuity year-to-year, which is also noteworthy.

bourhood, believing that closer collaboration with the community would broaden the experiences of McGill students as well as foster better relations with local residents. Another partnership she would like to see is with a student federation, which she aims to bring about by attending both the Association for the Voice of Education in Quebec’s (AVEQ) and the Quebec Student Union’s (UÉQ) meetings. She also plans to extend the mandate of the ad-hoc committee on the subject. In terms of provincial campaigning, Cupido plans to work with other Quebec universities to lobby against unpaid internships.

To Cupido, Indigenization is the most important part of her platform. She intends to draw on McGill’s Task Force on Indigenous Studies and Indigenous Education’s 2017 report, particularly its recommendation that the name of McGill’s men’s athletic teams, the “Redmen,” be changed. Additionally, she wishes to increase the relatively small budget of the Indigenous Affairs portfolio, increase its limited work hours, and institute mandatory training for clubs on Indigenous Affairs in order to better address Indigenous needs. Meanwhile, in order to better support francophone students, she intends to translate governance documents into French and bring back the SSMU position of Francophone Affairs Commissioner. More broadly, she intends to hold consultations with students and representative groups on francophone and Indigenous issues.

Twitter, WhatsApp, and WeChat. He also plans to create a centralized calendar of events taking place at the University Centre, where clubs, services, and ISGs can submit events through a link in the listserv.

In terms of handling the SSMU building closure and its effects on the operations of clubs and services, McLaughlin plans to release periodic listservs detailing the new locations of their offices and upcoming events.

To encourage SSMU members to become involved in student governance, and to help maintain institutional memory, McLaughlin plans to re-implement the “Day In The Life of a SSMU Exec” program, through which students can shadow a member of the SSMU Executive for one work day. Furthermore, he intends to hold town hall meetings once per semester to regularly engage SSMU members with the Executive. To facilitate access to information on SSMU Legislative Council, McLaughlin plans to release bi-weekly Facebook Live updates on the events of each council meeting.

Given that McLaughlin is a first-year student without experience planning Frosh, he plans to consult Campus Life and Engagement, the SSMU Sustainability Committee, and the SSMU Equity Committee for guidance on how to best manage the planning of Frosh, and on making multi-day drinking events safer and more inclusive for students.

McLaughlin suggests organizing events that are not centered on drinking as part of Frosh, such as city tours and cafe meet-ups.

Furthermore, he has informed and constructive ideas for doing so. This is especially important within the VP UA portfolio, as many advocacy projects, such as the fight for a Fall reading week and reforms to the Pass/ Fail Policy, require several years of consultations with the university. As Shapiro recognizes, it is difficult for any single SSMU VP UA to make headway with the university in just one year, and he hopes to implement a long-term solution to this.

While he has ample experience leading youth activist projects within the city of Montreal, Shapiro’s lack of prior firsthand experience with SSMU may make his learning curve steep upon entering his position. However, he displays an impressive knowledge of SSMU and its governance structures. If elected, Shapiro must continue to research both SSMU and university policies and governance structures, and consult with student leaders past and present before entering this position.

Endorsement: Yes Cupido has a strong grasp of the

Vice-President (VP) External portfolio and of SSMU at large, as well as original ideas to fulfill her responsibilities. This, combined with her extensive experience reporting on student politics, makes up for her lack of a past formal role within SSMU. Cupido acknowledges that all the actions of student government are inherently political and is passionate about opposing injustices, but also pragmatically prioritizes a functioning SSMU over inflammatory on-campus debates. She rightly commends incumbent Connor Spencer for her work on a Gendered and Sexual Violence Policy while also noting the apparent lack of political campaigns—specifically, a lack of mobilization for demilitarize and anti-austerity efforts.

It is also promising to see Cupido engaged with the Task Force’s recommendations on improving Indigenous accessibility on campus. Meanwhile, her goals for improving francophone

Endorsement: Yes McLaughlin’s platform provides

tangible suggestions for improving institutional memory, transparency, and ease of communication with students.

McLaughlin appears well-versed in social media, and understands that it can be effectively used to open channels of communication with the clubs, services, and ISGs that will become more difficult to reach while the SSMU building is closed. In addition, using accessible Facebook Live updates to inform students about legislative decisions could prove effective in ensuring that students have greater access to information about SSMU governance.

As McLaughlin is a first-year student, he lacks extensive experience in event planning, especially for largescale, multi-day events like Frosh.

However, he is acutely aware of his lack of knowledge in this area, and has planned to consult relevant groups accordingly. Following through with this part of his platform will be crucial for effectively managing the coordination of events.

acceptance are tangible and achievable. Likewise, it is clear that Cupido is well-informed on SSMU affairs: She is aware of various initiatives such as the McGreen Project in Milton-Parc and the past successes of student federations in promoting change.

As examples, she has referenced the 2012 strikes against tuition hikes and the recent passage of Bill 151, which requires all Quebec universities to implement sexual violence policies.

However, should Cupido be elected, she must consider the criticisms of AVEQ that have been brought up at SSMU Legislative Council.

The “Vote No to Marina Cupido” Facebook page has levied criticism against her candidacy, finding fault in her response to Igor Sadikov’s anti-Zionist tweet and incumbent SSMU President Muna Tojiboeva’s grievances about SSMU. While the controversy is worth mentioning, in responding to the opposition, Cupido has demonstrated confidence, the desire to engage in meaningful, open debate, and an understanding of her new responsibility to represent all voices on campus. She must continue to do so if elected.

McLaughlin emphasized that he would hold town hall meetings where students can come to SSMU executives with questions and concerns.

Town halls are frequently brought up by candidates as an effective means of hearing students’ voices and increasing transparency. However, SSMU executives are notoriously overworked, and town hall meetings can be logistically difficult to organize. Given that McLaughlin’s platform includes a number of concrete suggestions such as this one, he must recognize that implementing each of these projects could prove harder than anticipated— and that spreading oneself thin may hinder work performance. McLaughlin has nonetheless put a lot of clear effort into getting involved at McGill in the short time he has been enrolled, and into building a platform that addresses students’ concerns with transparency, equity, and accessibility of information.

For VP Finance and VP Student Life bios and endorsements visit mcgilltribune. com/ssmu-elections-2018. For PGSS bios and endorsements visit mcgilltribune. com/pgss-elections-2018.

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

4 NEWS

Man shot in broad daylight two blocks from McGill campus Shooter still at large, victim in stable condition Lucas Bird Contributor Continued from page 1.

“The investigation is still ongoing because, so far, we don’t have any [witness] descriptions that would lead to an arrest.”

This is not the first time Giorgio Gruppo Roma has been the location of violence. On March 8, 2017, the Montreal Police Arson Squad investigated the store being firebombed. At that time, Elian told CBC News that he did not know who targeted his business or why, although he did concede that he knew and attended the funeral of now deceased Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto. He also admitted to knowing gang leader Ducarme Joseph but maintains he is not personally linked to the Montreal Mafia.

Before police arrived at the scene, Nina Fainman-Adelman, a master’s student in psychiatry at McGill, was walking to the bus from her criminology class when she saw the gun on the ground.

“I didn’t think it was a real gun,” Fainman-Adelman said. “I thought it was a toy or something, and it was right out-

side this men’s clothing store, so I was kind of peering in to see if maybe it was a display for an Army collection, and [store employees] just dropped it.”

Fainman-Adelman was on the phone with her friend when she came across the gun. She sent her friend a picture, who commented that it looked real. Other than the gun itself, nothing in the area seemed amiss to Fainman-Adelman.

“There was a tour group that walked by as well, and they walked right over [the gun], didn’t even notice it, so I really felt like this was nothing to worry about,” Fainman-Adelman said. “Before anything else could happen all these police cars just show up and [police officers] have their guns out and one of them pulls me aside, and he’s like, ‘get out of the way!’”

Fainman-Adelman examined the gun for about a minute and took a picture before she was ushered away by police. She didn’t realize until she was at work that someone had been shot.

McGill campus security also rushed to Peel Street after the shooting. Campus Public Safety Director Pierre Barbarie said that the security service team’s primary objective is ensuring the communi-

An unidentified suspect opened fire at the high-end clothing store Giorgio Gruppo Roma on March 14.

(Audrey Carleton / The McGill Tribune) ty’s safety.

“Individuals were asked by the police to exit via the back door of the store, because they didn’t want any pedestrians on Peel Street, so we put an agent there to make sure it was only our staff that were going into the building,” Barbarie said.

Barbarie also mentioned that, while

campus security doesn’t necessarily have the authority to respond to such incidents, it is prudent to have agents nearby to ensure that McGill students and staff are not harmed.

“We wanted to be on scene to see what was going on and lend assistance if needed to our staff on Peel Street,” Barbarie said.

SSMU Council accepts recommendations from committee on anti-Semitism Council passes motions on the presentation and a Fall Reading Break Stephen Gill Sports Editor At its March 15 meeting, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Legislative Council passed the Motion Regarding the Policy for the Implementation of a Fall Reading Break, renewing SSMU’s mandate to lobby for the institution of a Fall break at McGill. Council also passed the Motion Regarding the Joint Board of Directors and Legislative Council Special Committee on Anti-Semitism, enacting the committee’s various recommendations to combat anti-Semitism on campus. Senior Director, Planning and Resources Diane Koen and Trenholme Dean of Libraries C. Colleen Cook also presented more information about the Fiat Lux library project.

Council passed a motion to adopt the FRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism, though no such definition currently exists. (Catherine Morrison / The McGill Tribune) McGill librarians discuss Fiat Lux project The Fiat Lux library construction proposal, currently in its planning phase, proposes renovations to the Redpath and McLennan Libraries to fit the modern needs and desires of McGill students. The project leaders for the creation of a “library of the mid-21st century” informed Council of the project’s current status and on soliciting feedback from the student population.

“This project really is about students and your needs,” Cook said. “So we want to hear from you [...and] get some of your input.”

Cook and Koen spoke about planned improvements to the library such as better lighting and air conditioning, greater selection and flexibility for individual and group study spaces, and additional seating.

“The whole thing, in the best of all possible worlds, [would be finished] within five to six [years],” Cook said.

Fall Reading Break motion goes to referendum The motion resolved to continue the Society’s push for implementing a Fall break. It would renew SSMU’s stance on the issue and mandates the Vice-President (VP) External, VP University Affairs (UA), and members of the Senate Caucus to lobby the provincial government, administration, and Senate to establish a Fall Reading Week at McGill. “[This composition] implements a three-pronged approach,” Bryan Buraga, the incoming Arts and Science senator and a representative from the motion’s “yes” campaign, said. “[As a result,] this would apply the maximum amount of pressure in order for this to be implemented.”

After acknowledging the need for special considerations for certain faculties such as Engineering—whose professors must lecture for a certain number of hours per semester as mandated by the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec—and Medicine, which doesn’t have two-semester academic years, Council passed the motion to be voted on as a referendum question during the Winter 2018 voting period.

Recommendations from the Special Committee on AntiSemitism passes After a presentation from a member of the committee, Council deliberated a motion to enact each of its recommendations. These include renewing the committee’s mandate for the 2018-2019 academic year, adopting a working definition of anti-Semitism, and having new SSMU executives undergo a mandatory training session on anti-Semitism. The committee also recommended additional mandates for the VP UA, including hiring a special researcher

on anti-Semitism on campus, organizing open workshops to educating students on relevant issues, and working with the McGill administration to implement their recommendations.

The proposed definition of anti-Semitism, one of the motion’s two clauses that passed through the committee without consensus but was addressed by a footnote within the motion, drew the most attention from Council. The motion proposes adopting the European Union’s (EU) Fundamental Rights Agency’s (FRA) working definition of anti-Semitism, though no such definition currently exists. In 2013, the FRA controversially removed an unofficial working paper from its website that included a “working definition of anti-Semitism” which many had taken to be the EU’s official working definition of anti-Semitism.

“Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews,” the definition read. “Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

One councillor raised concerns about the definition potentially being too broad.

“As [...] someone that is pro-[Boycott Divestment Sanctions] BDS, I’m a little worried that I will automatically be labelled as anti-Semite under this definition, without it being fully explained in the section,” Social Work representative Matthew Savage said.

Shira Mattuck, a committee member from Chabad McGill, reasoned that considering the committee’s composition and the included footnote, the proposal should not be modified.

“It’s really important to understand that these clauses were voted on by a majority of Jewish groups on campus,” Mattuck said. “It’s really important that we hear the lived experiences of Jewish students on campus and let Jewish students define anti-Semitism, and I think that [those concerns] are valid, but they are addressed in the footnote.

After adding a friendly amendment for the committee to revisit its terms of composition during the Fall 2018 semester, Council passed the motion.

OPINION 5

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Winter 2018 Referendum Endorsements Editor-in-Chief Nicholas Jasinski editor@mcgilltribune.com Creative Director Noah Sutton nsutton@mcgilltribune.com Managing Editors Audrey Carleton acarleton@mcgilltribune.com Emma Avery eavery@mcgilltribune.com Selin Altuntur saltuntur@mcgilltribune.com News Editors Holly Cabrera, Domenic Casciato, & Calvin Trottier-Chi news@mcgilltribune.com Opinion Editors Jackie Houston & Alexandra Harvey opinion@mcgilltribune.com Science & Technology Editor Jade Prevost-Manuel scitech@mcgilltribune.com Student Living Editor Catherine Morrison studentliving@mcgilltribune.com Features Editor Marie Labrosse features@mcgilltribune.com Arts & Entertainment Editors Dylan Adamson & Ariella Garmaise arts@mcgilltribune.com Sports Editors Stephen Gill & Selwynne Hawkins sports@mcgilltribune.com Design Editors Arshaaq Jiffry & Elli Slavitch design@mcgilltribune.com Photo Editor Ava Zwolinski photo@mcgilltribune.com Multimedia Editor Tristan Surman multimedia@mcgilltribune.com Web Developers Daniel Lutes webdev@mcgilltribune.com Julia Kafato online@mcgilltribune.com Copy Editor Ayanna De Graff copy@mcgilltribune.com

Motion Regarding the ECOLE Project Fee Levy Renewal: Yes The Educational Community Living Project (ECOLE) is an independent student group that provides living and work space at 3559 University Street. Every year, resident facilitators adopt eco-friendly living habits such as sharing vegan meals, composting, and minimizing their heat and energy use.

Student facilitators also take on Applied Student Research and advocacy projects during their time living at ECOLE, often tackling social justice and environmental topics. Additionally, the house serves as a space for clubs and student groups to use for meetings, workshops, talks, and film screenings related to environmental and social sustainability. This motion would renew the opt-outable ECOLE Project fee of $2.00 per student per semester, which would allow ECOLE to continue to conduct research projects, advocate for sustainable urban living, and provide valuable meeting space for student groups. These services are all essential for a healthy campus community, especially in light of the recent University Centre building closure.

Motion Regarding the Black Students' Network Fee: Yes The Black Students’ Network (BSN) is a Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) student service with a dual mandate to “sensitize the McGill community to issues concerning Black

OFF THE BOARD

Business Manager Daniel Minuk business@mcgilltribune.com

peoples,” and to create a safer, more accessible campus for black students that supports their health, well-being, and academic success. This question consists of two parts: The first asks students to renew the opt-outable Black Students’ Network fee, and the second asks students to approve a semesterly fee increase from $0.40 to $1.00 for full-time students, and from $0.20 to $0.50 for part-time students. The motion states that the BSN’s current fee is no longer sufficient to sustain its diverse range of programming, including hosting educational and social events, and providing mentorship and support for Black students on campus. Further, the BSN is now the primary financial contributor to Black History Month programming at McGill. The BSN is a crucial intersectional education and support resource for all members of the McGill community, but especially for black students. The BSN’s existence on campus is essential to continuing to work toward representation and equity for black students at McGill.

Motion to Amend the SSMU Campus Life Fee: Yes Motion to Amend the SSMU Clubs Fee: Yes Motion to Amend the University Centre Building Fee: Yes The motions to amend the SSMU

Publisher Chad Ronalds

TPS Board of Directors

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

baggage while walking right in front of you. Balancing a ludicrously large gym bag, three grocery bags, his laundry basket, and an abandoned chair he picked up on the way home, we can all agree that the Atlas is inspiring, albeit an enormous obstacle to everyone else on the street.

Staff Writers

Kendall McGowan, Cherry Wu, Laura Oprescu, Andras Nemeth, Grace Gunning, Gabriel Rincon, Avleen Mokha, Virginia Shram, Sophie Brzozowski, Sam Min, Oceane Marescal, Emma Gillies, Miguel Principe, Janine Xu, Jordan Foy, Miya Keilin, Gabe Nisker, Winnie Lin, Cordelia Cho, Erica Stefano, Gabriel Helfant, Margaux Delalex, Ceci Steyn

Contributors

Ainsley, Brandon Kaufman, Gabriel Helfant, Kaylina Codlick, Kyle Dewsnap, Lucas Bird, Mary Keith, Matthew Hawkins, Miguel Principe, Nicholas Raffoul, Noah Simon, Owen Gibbs, Tarina Gupta

Tribune Office Shatner University Centre Suite 110, 3480 McTavish Montreal, QC H3A 0E7 T: 514.398.6789 The McGill Tribune is an editorially autonomous newspaper published by the Société de Publication de la Tribune, a student society of McGill University. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of The McGill Tribune and the Société de Publication de la Tribune, and does not necessarily represent the views of McGill University. Letters to the editor may be sent to editor@mcgilltribune.com and must include the contributor’s name, program and year and contact information. Letters should be kept under 300 words and submitted only to the Tribune. Submissions judged by the Tribune Publication Society to be libellous, sexist, racist, homophobic or solely promotional in nature will not be published. The Tribune reserves the right to edit all contributions. Editorials are decided upon and written by the editorial board.

All other opinions are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the McGill Tribune, its editors or its staff.

Please recycle this newspaper.

Elli Slavitch Design Editor Montreal is a wonderful city for walking—not only because of its pedestrian streets, quirky architecture, and beautiful street art—but because of the eclectic array of pedestrians strolling down the streets. There are arm-swingers, head-bobbers, aggressive J-walkers, and many others.

Some types of walkers are unsettling, however, particularly during the slushfilled spring. In the weeks to come, beware of these street creatures.

First and foremost, steer clear of the cluster—the row of friends walking in a perfectly horizontal line, clogging the sidewalk. Let’s even hold hands, shall we? Clusters give you three options: Stay back, break through, or step into a puddle of slush. Giggling,

independent student groups, are able to operate effectively in light of the building closure.

Policy on Implementation of a Fall Reading Break: Yes This referendum question asks students whether they agree to adopt the Policy on Implementation of a Fall Reading Break as a formal SSMU policy. Sixty-one per cent of Canadian universities have at least four study days in the Fall semester, and a 2015 survey of over 5,000 McGill students found that 71.5 per cent of respondents were in favour of a Fall Reading Break.

The Policy specifies a three-pronged approach to realizing a Fall Reading Week: It mandates the Vice-President (VP) University Affairs to lobby the University administration, the VP External to petition the provincial government, and SSMU to encourage the McGill Senate to implement a break.

While implementing a Fall reading week could require starting the Fall semester earlier in August or potentially holding final exams on weekends, an October 2014 study conducted at Brock University shows that an additional fall break would reduce stress for students— especially first-years. The benefits of implementing a Fall Reading Break outweigh the logistical costs and, given that McGill students are broadly in favour of a Fall Reading Week, SSMU should advocate to make it a reality.

Sidewalk etiquette: Talking the talk about walking the walk they go “wooooah!” if you try for the second option. Clusters are adorable.

But other pedestrians hate them. Please, let us pass through without making us feel weird about it!

Advertising Executives Grayson Castell & Katherine Hutter ads@mcgilltribune.com

Campus Life Fee, the SSMU Clubs Fee, and the University Building Centre Fee all respond to logistical issues posed by the closing of the University Centre for renovations starting on March 17.

The SSMU Campus Life Fee supports student projects, events, conferences, publications, productions, and athletic teams at McGill. This question asks students to agree to amending the SSMU Campus Life Fee so that it can be used to help interim clubs and services secure activity spaces during the building closure. There is a surplus in the SSMU Campus Life Fund due to a lack of applications in past years, and McGill clubs and services are in dire need of designated spaces for meetings, events, and offices.

The SSMU Clubs Fee funds McGill clubs. This question seeks to amend the Clubs Fund to cover the costs of securing spaces for Full Status Clubs in good standing while the University Centre remains closed to students.

Finally, the University Centre Building Fee contributes to a designated fund to pay the rent and utilities of the University Centre Building. This question aims to amend this fund to cover “the costs of reserving alternative spaces” due to the building closure. The amendment will ensure that clubs are able to operate effectively outside of the University Centre building.

These questions outline inevitable and necessary financial steps to ensure that the McGill clubs and services, and

Next, keep the magnetic-man in mind. This is the pedestrian you try to pass but he fakes left, fakes right, and then goes left and right again! You just initiated a dance with the magneticman. He has the perfect intuition to match your every move. When you clearly veer to one side, he moves in the same direction. He is a magnet, and you are iron.

Additionally, Atlas is a walker to avoid. A wonder to this world, this person can carry everything at once!

He heads to the gym, runs his weekly errands, goes to the laundromat, and listens to his motivational podcast all in the same stroke. This is especially impressive because he carries all of his

Moving on, look out for Parallelle.

Like a ballerina, she dances down the other side of the street with every move perfectly synced to a mirror reflection of—you guessed it—you! That’s right, you are in tandem, and this makes you feel so, so uncomfortable. You do not know why, but pacing down the street perfectly side-by-side with a stranger creates this overwhelming sensation of wrong. Thankfully, Parallelle shares your anxiety as she imitates you. If there is any humanity left in her, she will either speed up, or slow down.

Finally, take heed of the zombie: That dude in front of you who always has red eyes and whose superpower is doing everything in slow-motion—truly, very slow motion. You wonder why, and then come to understand it is because his brain has been absorbed by the little gadget in front of him. He may be wearing flashy socks or a small hat, and he probably smells really bad.

Unfortunately, he cannot understand the words, “excuse me,” because he has conditioned himself to only understand the language of DMs.

Dear pedestrians, stick to the right and pass on the left, say “excuse me” when necessary, and keep your eyes and ears open—notably out of respect for seniors, young families, and disabled persons in Montreal. Our streets should be dominated by respect and inclusion, and not by the creatures slowing us down. That way we can all move forward, at our own pace.

(Illustrations by Elli Slavitch)

6 OPINION

COMMENTARY

Grace Gunning Columnist The McGill Daily published an exposé on Feb. 19 of a landlord’s eviction of the residents of a ParcExtension building in the name of a luxury apartment project.

This comes at a time when Montrealers across the city are protesting gentrification in their neighbourhoods. Gentrification, a complicated process that involves redevelopment of a neighbourhood to appeal to middle-class consumers, results in the displacement of existing inhabitants. As long-term residents are illegally pushed out

COMMENTARY

Kyle Dewsnap Contributor On Jan. 29, Sherbrooke nurse Émilie Ricard posted a photo of herself in tears on her Facebook page, giving a sarcastic thumbs up and smile to the camera. She captioned the photo with a diatribe, mocking Quebec’s Minister of Health Gaétan Barrette’s tweet that his government’s 2015 health care reform was a success. She paints a grim picture of the state of nurses in Quebec; she describes being so overloaded with patients in life-threatening conditions that she has to leave other patients sitting in their soiled diapers until she has a moment of “rest.”

Ricard is not alone. The Quebec government’s disastrous policies have led to a nursing crisis that has pushed many nurses away from the profession.

According to Montreal’s regional school board, CEGEP students’ applications to nursing programs have dropped by 22 per cent since 2014, and nurses in Quebec are emigrating by the hundreds to practice in regions

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

It’s not all good in the neighbourhood: Students play a role in gentrification in favour of high-end apartment complexes, community networks and resources are threatened.

To some, the issue of gentrification may seem disconnected from student concerns.

Yet, it is necessary for students to recognize that their presence is appealing to developers, and then strategically work to support existing communities. This is especially relevant in Montreal, where neighbourhoods like Parc-Ex, SaintHenri, the Mile End, and the Milton Parc community have all faced rent hikes, the ousting of local businesses, and an influx of transient students. In the case of Parc-Ex, development projects are progressing alongside UQAM’s plans to open a new branch in the neighbourhood. This neatly demonstrates the connection between students and gentrification; gentrifying developers wish to capitalize on a growing student presence while undermining the well-being of neighbourhood residents. As students move toward working life, they must remember that they exist within the matrix of a broader community, and their

actions within their neighbourhood have consequences.

While students may be more focused on passing their midterms than preserving the integrity of the areas that they live in, they should still be aware of the impact they have on their surroundings. Students are a unique demographic: Many hold the social status of the preprofessional—who often has the support of parents, universities, and networks of peers and mentors—alongside an independent rootlessness that leaves little room for them to contribute to community building. Furthermore, student communities are often localized on campus, rather than in their neighbourhood. This is especially true at McGill, where four-fifths of students do not list French as their mother tongue and might, because of this, feel unable to fully participate in Montreal’s bilingual culture.

Since most students occupy their Montreal dwellings for such a short time, there is also a disconnect between tenant and landlord. An influx of students may perforate a tightly knit neighbourhood

community and mark it as a desirable neighbourhood for development.

Additionally, students graduating from McGill are more likely to reach a higher pay grade than those without a college education, and might unwittingly transform into the young urban professionals that gentrifying developers cater to. This could oust past residents who are no longer capable of paying spiking rent costs, putting their welfare at risk.

In light of their relationship to gentrification, students have a mandate to be conscientious, both in their relationship with the spaces they live in during university, and with the neighbourhoods they choose to occupy afterward. This entails lobbying for stricter laws against rent hikes, as well as for governmental support for public spaces. It also means being aware of community organizations and, in the case of mobilization against gentrification, supporting permanent residents in their efforts. Examples of mobilization include the Parc-Ex residents’ Feb. 20 demonstration outside Parc Metro station and the 2012 takeover of Building 7 in

South-West Montreal by members of the community. There are many ways that students can take on supportive roles: Ranging from raising awareness on social media to joining local groups protesting gentrification.

In the long term, students must also be aware and critical of their own mindset. From coming out of university, to beginning their first job, to settling down, students at every stage of life must ask themselves: Why am I moving where I am? What is my role in this community? A community-based mindset is necessary for the health of the neighbourhood. An individual does not exist as a free agent, but within the context of others.

Just because students are transient occupants of an area does not mean that they do not have a responsibility to that neighbourhood.

It is possible to be impermanent and empathetic at the same time. By thinking about community alongside individuality, students can do their part in supporting the residents of Montreal, and any city they might live in after they leave McGill.

Testing Quebec’s patients: Students should care about the nursing crisis with better working conditions, such as Switzerland, according to the CBC article. With current and future nurses shirking the profession, the shortage of nurses grows, throwing fuel on the fire. Still, the Quebec government has shown little interest in the plight of its nurses. This is a concern, as hospital data analysis shows that quality care from nurses dramatically reduces hospital mortality. If Quebec residents and McGill students want the best treatment possible, they must be invested in the wellbeing of their nurses.

Quebec has a history of mistreating its nurses. A quick browse through StatCan’s 2016 labour surveys shows that Quebec nurses are among the lowest-paid in the country, while its general practitioners (GPs) are among the most wealthy: The typical Canadian nurse needs to work an hour and 22 minutes to make what the average Canadian GP makes in an hour. Meanwhile, Quebecois nurses are required to work for two hours and 33 minutes to make what Quebecois GP’s make.

Their mediocre pay compounds the miserable work conditions in Quebec hospitals. Quebec regularly sets the record for how many of its nurses are pushed to work overtime to deal with labour shortages—the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions says that over 35 per cent of Quebec nurses worked overtime in 2016, compared to the national average overtime rate of 27 per cent.

On top of this, they can expect to face ridiculous nurse-to-patient ratios. In Quebec hospitals, these ratios can be as high as one nurse per 16 patients.

The British Columbian Nurses’ Union recommends that this ratio be—at most—one nurse to five patients, and

“

The nursing crisis doesn’t just cause bureaucratic headaches. It also makes Quebec’s clinics more dangerous.

”

such ratios are legally protected in other jurisdictions, including California.

These statistics should be concerning to anyone who uses the Quebec health care system, which includes students who rely on the McGill clinic. Nurses regularly work for more than 16 hours in one shift—a fact that 94 per cent of patients are not comfortable with, according to a 2017 survey by the Fédération Interprofessionnelle de la Santé (FIQ).

The nursing crisis doesn’t just cause bureaucratic headaches. It also makes

Quebec’s clinics more dangerous.

Over 1,326 incidents and accidents happen in healthcare settings across Quebec every day, and a 2017 study done by nurse-researchers in the UK shows that hospitals with high nurseto-patient ratios have been associated with dramatically higher mortality rates after operations.

The nursing crisis has come to a head, yet Dr. Barrette’s ministry seems totally apathetic to these statistics; he even accused the FIQ of using “negative” and counterproductive terms to aggravate the crisis. Given his government’s attitude, it’s no wonder that CEGEP students don’t want to go into nursing. If Barrette will not listen to his own healthcare professionals, then it falls on his electorate—regular

Quebecers that expect and deserve the best in healthcare—to call him out for his apathy. The FIQ provides an infographic with statistics and ways that constituents can voice their concerns to the government. They can educate themselves on why Barrette and his government have failed nurses, and they can voice their concerns directly to him. He is, after all, a very active Twitter user.

If students don’t start caring about nurses, they can only expect longer wait times in hospitals that are steadily becoming less effective and more dangerous. Nurses are the backbone of Quebec’s health care system, and any student, regardless of their residency status, relies on this system for their own health and wellness.

(Winnie Lin / The McGill Tribune)

Tuesday, Mrach 20, 2018

STUDENT LIVING 7

Overcoming the fear of missing out What is FOMO and how can we learn to deal with it?

Miguel Principe Staff Writer Continued from page 1.

I’m a very extroverted person so I love different social experiences.”

Often, our perception of our peers’ social lives may not actually hold true.

A study from the University of British Columbia (UBC) found that 48 per cent of first-year university students believe their peers are more socially connected than they actually are. This is largely because social activities typically take place in public, visible to others, while individual activities, like studying, are done in private, and thus go unnoticed. The study found that many students who sense that they are missing out have a reduced sense of social belonging, which is a key indicator of someone’s mental well-being.

While the fear of missing out is natural, if it comes up too frequently or goes undealt with, it can lead to unpleasant reactions and behaviours. For example, the UBC study found that people grow increasingly stressed if they feel regular anxiety about missing out, and they might react by adopting a dependency on social media or general feelings of dissatisfaction with their personal life.

Another study by marketing communications company James Walter

The correlation between unhappiness and FOMO is strong, studies show.

(Erica Stefano / The McGill Tribune) Thompson demonstrated that FOMO contributes to people’s dissatisfaction with their social standing and a feeling of having less. It’s proven to play a negative role in people’s overall psychological well-being because it triggers negative social and emotional experiences, such as boredom and loneliness.

But this correlation between FOMO

and unhappiness is a two-way street. Eric Barker, writer for TIME noted in a 2016 article that those who are already feeling insecure or unhappy with their lives may be more susceptible to FOMO. Barker also points out that witnessing others’ social lives shared on social media initiates FOMO. In the age of Instagram and Snapchat, students are expected to

showcase their best moments on social media platforms for their peers to be jealous of when they see them. Faced with these posts, students often develop the unhealthy digital habit of constantly checking social media to stay in the loop and avoid feeling as though they’re missing a major event. FOMO stems not from the fact that our social lives are lacking, but rather the idea that our social lives are not objectively better than others’.

“So you’re wondering if your life measures up and you turn to everyone else’s deliberately sculpted illusion of lifestyle perfection,” Barker wrote. “This is the happiness equivalent of reading your bank statement after looking at the Forbes 400 list.”

For Samarakone, this has certainly been the case. Learning not to compare his social life to that of his peers with different academic workloads has been a process.

“I used to do my work around events, but I’ve realized, that’s not a healthy way to do things,” Samarakone said. “Especially when most of my friends are in slightly easier programs as opposed to chemical engineering which is an extremely time consuming degree [...My FOMO] has really improved [in my time at McGill].

I’ve realized the long term consequences of my actions just for seeking a few hours of pleasure.”

Ask Ainsley: Am I too late in applying for a summer internship?

Ainsley reassures students worrying in the face of summer internship rejections and wait times Dear Ainsley, I am having trouble finding an internship for this summer. I’ve applied for a few, but have been rejected from some and haven’t heard back from others. My friends are starting to get acceptances, and I can’t help but compare myself to them. I’m worried it’s now too late to apply for any new positions. What should I do?

Sincerely, Anxious About Internships (AAI) Dear AAI, First of all, don’t worry! It is not too late to be applying for summer internships.

Although you may feel stressed, know that many students are in the same situation as you. It’s easy to compare yourself to the people who landed star internships this year, but remember that they probably got a few rejections themselves before receiving an acceptance. Many companies are still searching for summer interns into April and May, so keep looking.

First things first, it’s important to learn efficient and effective ways to search for an internship to save yourself time you can use to work on your CV. Start your hunt on a job search engine like Indeed or idealist.org. Narrow down your options by putting in your specific field of interest and preferred location. While it’s advisable to keep an open mind in searching and not limit your results too much, figure out what your deal breakers are, and weed out results accordingly.

I’d also recommend checking your personal networks for possible opportunities. Ask your friends or family if they know of any job availabilities where they work—if you have a friend who did a cool internship last summer, see if you can get their employer’s email, and ask them personally to express interest. In the same vein, consider reaching out to your previous employers; they may know others looking to hire within the same field. Keep an eye out for networking events around campus— such as program-specific Wine and Cheese nights—since these are held to help students get to know professors and professionals in their line of work.

Once you’ve found an internship and are ready to apply, the most important thing to do is to make sure your CV is up to date and that, along with your cover letter, it is suited to the position for which you’re applying. If you aren’t sure how to do this, McGill’s Career Planning Services (CaPS) or your faculty’s career office can be a great resource to help get you started. They hold information sessions as well as provide comprehensive online guides on all things job and internship-related.

If you’ve already applied to summer internships but are not receiving any acceptances, worry not! It’s important to remember that some of the most successful people are those who have also been rejected the most, but kept their chin up and kept going for new opportunities anyway.

Think of job rejection the way you would romantic rejection: If a job doesn’t want

Don’t give up on your summer internship dreams just yet. (katieturner.tumblr.com) you, you don’t want that job. It’s likely that another position that you’d be even better for will come along in the future, and you’ll be glad you didn’t get distracted by subpar internships in the mean time.

If you end up job-less this summer, there are still plenty of meaningful ways you can fill your time and boost your CV. Consider taking an intensive course in a valuable skill, like coding, that will make you more employable in the future. Reach out to local non-profits to volunteer your time, or consider getting a part-time job to save up money for the future—you never

know when you’ll be offered a great job in an expensive city, and you’ll be glad to have rent money saved up so you can take it without hesitation.

Whether you’re finding it difficult to land a job or an internship for this summer, or have yet to begin the search, don’t worry.

Continue to apply and you’ll see that there is always an opportunity waiting around the corner—you just have to go out and look for it.

Wishing you the best, Ainsley

The Middle Way Finding the path to Buddhism in the Western world Noah Sutton / Creative Director Illustration by Winnie Lin

In

my second year of university, I decided that it was time to get serious about school. I had felt like I could always be working harder, and when I wasn’t working, I felt guilty for it. My life became consumed by school work. I would wake up early to study, go to class, and stay in the library until late into the night. I began to feel unhappy, anxious, and depressed. But I figured this was something I couldn’t control; it was just the cost of achieving my academic goals.

As my mental state continued to worsen, I decided I needed to change something. When the Winter semester rolled around, I chose to start meditating. At the time, I had never meditated before; I didn’t know anyone who had, and I knew very little about the practice.

I began meditating and, among other things, I slowly found a balance that worked for me. As my interest in mindfulness practice grew, so did my desire to learn more about the religion that underpinned it. I figured that if I enjoyed meditation this much, I should see what else Buddhism had to offer me.

Chinese immigrants to the West during the 19th century who brought their religion with them were the first to introduce Buddhism to the occidental world. Yet, Buddhism only gained significant cultural sway in the West during the 1950s, when Beat Generation authors such as Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs developed an interest in Buddhist thought as an alternative to the consumerist ideology emerging in North America.

Buddhism is a diverse religion that spans continents and centuries. As such, there is a significant amount of discord around certain key concepts: Different schools of Buddhism derive different lessons from their common foundational texts.

The Dharma is an exception to such differences of opinion. It represents the cosmic law and order, encompassing all of the Buddha’s teachings and forming the foundation for all Buddhist thought by describing the nature of existence itself.

The essence of the Dharma lies in the Four Noble Truths, which acknowledge the existence and root of suffering, as well as a method for ending suffering: Dukkha, which commonly translates to the notion that suffering exists in English; Samudaya, suffering has an origin; Nirodha, suffering can be stopped; Magga, there is a path to the end of suffering.

The centrality of suffering to Buddhist thought may seem a little masochistic to those who do not practice the religion. But this misapprehension is due to the insufficiency of the English language to adequately translate the word and concept of Dukkha. Dukkha refers to the impermanence of life, which at a basic level leads to anguish. The most basic example of such anguish is death—individuals will inevitably experience the pain of losing a loved one, and eventually the anguish of dying themselves. This anguish, however, does not limit itself to the pain caused by loss, but also encompasses a deeper, existential pain at the idea of no longer existing or the inability to grasp a tangible reality.

The sequence of Noble Truths outlines that Dukkha has a cause and therefore an end. Magga offers respite by

referring to the Eightfold path: A list of practices that allow a practitioner to end Dukkha.

Buddhism was built on the metaphysical understandings of 5th century BCE India. Samsara, an important aspect of Hinduism, refers to the cyclical nature of life that leads us through an endless cycle of deaths and rebirths, facing the same facts of Dukkha endlessly. The Buddha’s contribution to this cycle is the idea that it can be broken.

Until relatively recently, meditative practices were only considered useful to monastics, as a way to gain further insight into the conditions of Dharma. Yet, meditation is the component of Buddhism that has gained the most traction in the Western world. Meditation practices, such as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), that focus on the health benefits of the practice have become especially popular.

Introduction to Buddhism through a meditation practice is not an uncommon path. Wendy Hugessen, a Buddhist monastic who resides at the Kagyu Thubten Choling Monastery in Wappinger Falls, New York under the name Ani Lhadrun, first discovered Buddhism through the practice of Transcendental Meditation in university.

“I started to meditate, then when I moved back to Montreal was looking for a room, and found a centre that was advertising rooms for a good price and you had to attend morning meditation, which was fine with me,” Lhadrun wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune.

As she maintained her meditation practice, Lhadrun began to expand her interest in Buddhist thought rather than just meditation.

“I started to read more about Buddhism, especially Zen and Tibetan Buddhism, and found it explained a lot in ways that really resonated with me,” Lhadrun wrote.

Buddhism’s emphasis on understanding through experience rather than faith has made it an attractive choice for Westerners who are generally skeptical of faith-based teachings.

“There was an emphasis on practice, on finding it out for yourself, which went well with my quite liberal upbringing,” Lhadrun wrote.

Robert Godin, a member of the Montreal Zen Center, agrees that Buddhism’s emphasis on experience has facilitated its introduction into Western cultures. “[With Buddhism] there are no dogmas or beliefs,” Godin wrote in an email to the Tribune. “This practice is therefore available to anyone, without relying on any sectarian beliefs.”

While Lhadrun studies a traditional school of Buddhism from a Western perspective, other scholarly practitioners have sought to go further and develop a new school of Buddhism that is compatible with Western conceptions of rationality.

Secular Buddhists believe that the Buddha’s teachings can be beneficial to individuals during their existence, rather than over the course of multiple lifetimes as a faith-based practice maintains. Rather than seeking to break the cycle of suffering across many lifetimes inherent to Samsara, secular Buddhists try to use the Buddha’s teachings as a framework for achieving greater satisfaction within this world and this existence.

The path of Westerners who ultimately choose to call themselves secular Buddhists follows similar trends. They are exposed to Buddhist thought later in life and are initially attracted to it. They continue to become immersed in the religion, but as their knowledge grows so does their skepticism for the metaphysical foundations of the religion.

Stephen Batchelor, a Buddhist scholar and author, has published numerous books detailing his experiences as a Westerner and a Buddhist. His latest book, After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age, offers a potential reconciliation between Buddhist religion and the modern Western experi-

ence. “[It’s] an attempt to synthesize an understanding of Buddhism that I have been working towards since my first publication,” Batchelor writes in the preface to After Buddhism. “What does it mean to practice the Dharma of the Buddha in the context of modernity?”

The idea that religions face a crisis when confronted with modernity is not unique to Buddhism. Islamic reformers such as Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī and Muhammad Abduh in the late 19th century argued that the Quran should be re-interpreted to be compatible with modern Western values. In After Buddhism, Batchelor wants to show that one can apply the same process to the Pāli Canon, the collective teachings of the Buddha that have survived millenia since they were first written down in 29 BCE. While Buddhism may be able to support multiple interpretations, related only by their shared connection to the Dharma, critics remain skeptical of the secular label.

Lara Braitstein, an associate professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism at McGill University is suspicious of Westerners claiming the authority of the Dharma over the lived experiences of Buddhists.

“

The path of Westerners who ultimately choose to call

themselves secular Buddhists follows similar trends. They are exposed to Buddhist thought later in life and are initially attracted to it. They continue to become immersed in the religion, but as their knowledge grows so does their skepticism for the metaphysical foundations of the religion.

”

In an email to the Tribune, Braitstein pointed to the work of British scholar T.W. Rhys Davids, who first encountered Buddhist texts in Sri Lanka in the late 19th century. Rhys Davids believed Buddhism was a hyper-rational philosophy that was misunderstood by the Buddhist practitioners he encountered.

“Rhys-Davids just completely ignored the lived practice of Buddhists around him in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) and instead gave himself the authority to determine what 'real' Buddhism is, based on some of the Pali texts he was reading,” Braitstein wrote. “The Western interpretation of Buddhism as rational and 'not a religion' I think can really date back to that moment.”

Jeff Wilson wrote skeptically of processes of de-religionization like the one Batchelor undertakes in his article “The Religion of Mindfulness,” combating the idea of mindfulness as an entirely secular endeavour.

“Defining beliefs about reincarnation as disposable religious elements, rather than as Dharma and simply the way things really are, is a form of boundary drawing and in-group making, the sort of thing that religious movements excel at,” Wilson wrote. “[...To] claim that something is the heart of the Dharma and that other things can be discarded is to make a religiously sectarian argument. Defining Dharma as universal, and above or beyond any particular religion is, of course, itself a religious statement about the nature of Dharma.”

Godin divides definitions of what is essential to Buddhism into “cultural traditions” and “fundamental teachings.” This vision places Eastern traditions of Buddhism and Western interpretations on equal footing, given that they all flow from the fundamental lessons of the Buddha.

“The more specifically cultur-

al aspects are often difficult to assimilate for persons born and educated in Western societies,” Godin wrote. “There are many examples of ‘Western’ adaptations of Buddhism where some of the rituals and practices are either simplified or modified, removing some of their more cultural expressions, leaving the essential principles and practices of Buddhism.”

Lhadrun sees her challenges as a Buddhist with a Western background as requiring her to identify and work through the Western perspectives she brings to the religion.

“My approach [to Buddhism] is different, because the cultures are different,” Lhadrun wrote. “Westerners are I think more individualistic, which is good in that I look out for myself and don't accept blindly, but I can tend to think more selfishly because of that, which really shows up in community life.”

As I learned more about Buddhism—especially the experiences of Buddhists in traditionally-Buddhist countries—I began to increasingly feel like an outsider to those traditions.

I was uncomfortable taking something I felt no legitimate claim to and re-appropriating it for my own uses. In other words, I felt that if I couldn’t accept Buddhism in its totality, I couldn’t accept it at all.

My reservation aligns itself with the tenet of Western rationality, which claims that all beliefs must be logically consistent. And this explains the emphasis placed by scholars, such as Batchelor, on developing a “secular Buddhism,” free of superstition, that we can support logically with our modern understandings and yet still remain true to the original teachings of the Buddha.

For many in the West, finding Buddhism is a personal process, and a constantly evolving one.

“I have been interested in different so-called ‘spiritual’ endeavours during most of my life,” Godin wrote. “I am 81 years old, but I have personally found the practice of Zen Buddhism to be the most satisfying for my personal needs. It is up to each person to define its own needs for [his or her self].”

The teachings of the Buddha were written down in the first century BCE, hundreds of years after the Buddha’s death in the fifth century BCE. His lessons are preserved and taught by teachers across the world, each bringing their own experiences and predispositions to the texts.

What one such instructor may take away from the original teachings may be entirely different from another—and who can say whether either of them is wrong?

Though I continue to meditate, my interest in Buddhism began to wane because I couldn’t see myself choosing to “take refuge,” the formal ritual of becoming a Buddhist by taking refuge in the Buddha, Sangha, and Dharma. Nonetheless, I keep finding myself coming back to what I’ve learned, but these days, I try to worry less about labels, dogma and the “correct” practice.

“The best way to get through all this is just to keep practicing,” Lhadrun wrote. “I find the questions I had before mostly get answered by themselves as I go along.”

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

10 STUDENT LIVING

Wonderful washrooms of McGill You can do better than the second floor of Leacock

Texts to send when you want to cancel plans Sometimes you have to lie in order to get some you time

Gabriel Helfant Staff Photographer

Mary Keith Contributor We’ve all been there: Making plans with friends days in advance only to wind up in your bed when the time comes, wishing there was a way to cancel without sounding rude or unappreciative. In order to help you curate the best lies to get out of plans, The McGill Tribune has a few go-to-texts to send to get your friend off your back.

Because we all deserve to use a washroom that Suzanne Fortier would approve of. (evastalinski.com) McGill is a challenging environment for many students, primarily because of its rigorous academic atmosphere, hilly terrain, and severe scarcity of washrooms. Lining up to use the first floor Redpath washroom is a bitter and constant struggle. However, for those who appreciate the finer things in life, there are a number of more prestigious lavatories available if you simply go looking for them. To help students find their ideal washroom experience, The McGill Tribune explored the bowels of McGill’s Downtown campus to compile a list of the university’s best secret bathrooms.

Old Faithful (McLennan, 6th floor) Finding paper towel in a McGill washroom is almost as rare as finding a room in SSMU without asbestos. However, nestled between library archives and the graduate study room on the sixth floor of McLennan Library lies a hidden paradise: A private, gender-neutral washroom, with an abundance of paper towels, vast leg room, and strangely romantic lighting. After a difficult day of studying, this roomy-yet-cozy lavatory is the perfect place to treat yourself and practice some “Hygiene de vie.”

Close to Home (McConnell Engineering basement) It is often upon their first steps on campus that one realizes they have made a terrible mistake, needing to use the washroom just minutes before rushing to a midterm. Luckily, right by the Milton Gates, in the westernmost wing of the McConnell Engineering Building, is a beautiful basement washroom that showcases the benefits of the industrial revolution. Its rustic engineering vibe and incredible level of cleanliness makes the entire experience delightful. Such true ingenuity can only be expected from the great minds of the Faculty of Engineering, which brought us our beloved OAP. Suze’s Spot (James Administration Building) While most students won’t get to meet our principal and high-ranking administrative staff until graduation for a speedy handshake, experiencing the building in which they work is an honour in itself. Although this washroom may be the most difficult for the average student to access, it is definitely worth the effort. If you manage to get by the security guard who is scarier than the manager of Apt. 200, head up the main stairwell and take a peek into the second-floor facilities. What the James Administration washroom may lack in ventilation, good lighting, and paper towels, it makes up for with its sense of prestige that nowhere else on campus can really offer.

An Apple a Day (McIntyre Medical Building, 2nd floor) A visit to the washroom can be a rather troubling experience, leaving you with concerns that may be best suited for your family physician. After a sweaty walk up the mountain, make your way to the McIntyre Medical Building and take the elevator up to the second floor to enjoy a washroom with a ventilation system that would definitely be recommended by at least nine out of 10 doctors.

If you leave with issues that can’t be blamed on your reduced-price Quesada burrito, find one of the many students walking around in lab coats and let them know what’s on your mind.

Tuesday, March 20 , 2018

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT 11

Bring Your Own Juice is an oasis in McGill’s comedy desert McGill’s only sketch comedy group provides needed laughs during midterms Matthew Hawkins Contributor Continued from page 1.

It’s a welcome break from the traditional behind-the-scenes role of writers, and, as the coordinators attest, it creates a stronger bond between the cast members.

“It takes away the idea of a character or something belonging to one person,” Olivia Berkowitz, marketing director and cast member, explained. “It’s all about family.”

This sense of family comes through in BYOJ’s performance. There’s no one star—the cast is an ensemble in the truest sense. Sketches with only a few cast members, such as two Greenpeace lobbyists taking a vacation by actively hurting the environment, have the energy of the full cast. Larger group sketches— including one in which a passionate bone broth aficionado accosts Arby’s employees and customers—don’t feel overwhelming or saturated. The diversity of material comes from the cast’s wide range of comedic influences, from Monty Python to Vine stars. The show works because the cast all bring their own own ideas, and the inclusive writing means that each member has a moment to shine.

BYOJ thrives with a combination of fresh ideas and strong teamwork. (Elisabeth Bragale) One standout example was Cole Otto’s Paul Ryan character, participating in an all-Paul edition of RuPaul’s Drag Race, awkwardly strutting while a panel of all-Paul judges (Ru, McCartney, and Rudd), gave sassy critique. Each character was hilariously realized, and while one might claim the spotlight for a moment, the sketch was held up by the whole cast’s improvisation.

Another similarly ensemble-oriented

sketch centred on an over-the-top Oprah copycat named Orpah, played by Tristan Sutherland, who may or may not have kidnapped Gayle King in an attempt to become the queen of daytime talk. Again, the sketch highlighted one player and character, but would have been much dryer and more tedious without the contribution of a studio audience played by the entire cast, planted in audience seats. Asking questions such as “Did you

murder Oprah?!” and asking for “Orpah’s Favourite Things” gave Sutherland’s character depth and humour while also showcasing a more understated, but equally funny, assortment of “audience” characters.

Each sketch and bit felt organic, arriving at the jokes smoothly and feeling fresh despite rehearsals and past performances. Some jokes took pointed jabs at McGill’s health services—“It’s 7:45! The clinic will be booked until October!” were clearly meant for students, while others relied on universal experiences, such as a girl who knows so much about Europe after her semester abroad.

BYOJ writers have gone on to perform at Just For Laughs here in Montréal and Toronto, winning the Homegrown Comics Competition, and the ensemble entered the Montreal SketchFest this year. Comedy brings together not only the cast, but the audience as well. The shared laughter and experience is easily forgotten in a world in which we can watch Youtube videos with headphones on, isolating ourselves for entertainment. Having many styles of humour helps even more, because there’s something for everybody in the jokes. If McGill is a comedy desert, BYOJ is its much needed oasis.

Reanimating the corpse of trap music

Lil Yachty and 03 Greedo break the Migos mould Brandon Kaufman Contributor There was a time, not too long ago, when it seemed that Lil Yachty was the future. He looked and sounded like a radically new type of rapper, happiest when crooning over samples of cartoon theme songs, his bars lighthearted and youthful. He entered the mainstream with his 2016 mixtape Lil Boat charting at number 106 on the Billboard 200. The then-18-year-old joined Quality Control, the Atlanta label which includes Migos among its signed artists.

Then, he bricked hard. His debut full-length record, 2017’s Teenage Emotions, was boring, overlong, and a commercial disappointment (and for some reason featured Diplo). The album’s sales were as disappointing as its critical reception, moving less than 50 thousand units in its first week.

Another dud could put an end to the short reign of the so-called king of teens. Thankfully, his newest project, Lil Boat 2, released March 9, 2018, finds Yachty unshaken from the failure of Emotions and making some of the best music of his career.

The Atlanta rapper manages to display his improved technical skills while also recalling the carefree bubble-gum trap of his early career.

On “love me forever,” Yachty floats over production by Buddah Bless with the fun auto-tuned singing that distinguished Lil Boat the first.

Cuts like “COUNT ME IN” and “OOPS” highlight his marked improvements; on the latter, Yachty impresses by confidently changing his flow over a simplistic drum beat. He deploys his characteristically hilarious bars throughout: On “COUNT ME IN” he implores listeners to call him “Yachty Rothschild.”

The record is good, not great. It slogs in the middle, with songs like “Das Cap” and “WHOLE lotta GUAP” rehashing the same ideas, and sounds he expounds sufficiently on other tracks. And while Yachty has surely developed as a rapper, he still struggles to go bar-for-bar with the likes of Ugly God and 2 Chainz.

Still, this is the project that Teenage Emotions should have been: A solid showcase of all the eccentricities that have made Yachty one of the most subversive rappers of the decade.

Ten years Yachty’s senior, Los Angeles rapper 03 Greedo is no less irreverent. His sound is difficult to pin down, using both Gucci Manelike triplets alongside R&B melodies that would fit well on a prime Stevie Wonder record. His beat selection is impressive, and he sounds comfortable spitting over both old-school synths as well as the drum machines that have become omnipresent in today’s trap.

Lyrically, Greedo is very much a part of the gritty, realist West Coast tradition.

Greedo’s versatility shines through on his impressive new mixtape, The Wolf of Grape Street.

On the lead single, “Substance,” his voice carelessly glides over a chilledout soul beat, contrasting with the story of his struggle with substance abuse. “Baytoven” is celebratory, with Greedo comparing his go-to producers to some of the industry’s hottest: “Ron Ron just like my Zaytoven/Beat Boy, that’s my Metro Boomin’.” Greedo sounds like he’s having fun, effortlessly rapping over a beat that sounds like the brainchild of the same producers who pioneered Migos’ sound.

The mixtape loses no steam

down the stretch. Greedo’s versatility demands the listener’s attention by refusing to stay with one sound. He goes for a more atmospheric and smooth sound on “For My Dawgs,” but a few tracks later explodes on the abrasive “Vulture.” 03 Greedo’s strength is his flexibility, and he manages to show it off without making the album feel unfocused.

Yachty and Greedo represent an answer to the current stasis trap music finds itself in. The Migos sound, which seemed so revolutionary not so long

ago, has gotten stale. This January’s Culture II, for example, is a bore at almost two hours long—in part because they tediously relied on the same formula of triplets and strange adlibs that made Culture work so well.

The few highlights of the record are the tracks that the group experiments on, like “Stir Fry.” Yachty and Greedo, on the other hand, have revitalized the sound by injecting it with their unique personalities and influences. We’d be lucky if these records are any indication

Lil Yachty and 03 Greedo revitalize trap on new releases. (wealtholino.com)

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Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Pop Rhetoric: ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ is not as incusive as it thinks A response to RuPaul’s transphobic, sexist comments, and his empty apology Nicholas Raffoul Contributor In an interview with the Guardian on March 3, RuPaul made it obvious that he does not want to let trans and cis women compete on Drag Race anytime soon.

Rupaul’s Drag Race, which has been airing for nearly a decade, is a reality TV competition in which drag queens compete to become America’s next “Drag Superstar,” and are judged based on their charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent. His reasoning was glaringly superficial, transphobic, and misogynistic, revealing a lot about RuPaul’s biases, and even more about the prevalent discrimination in the queer community.

When asked if he would accept a transgender woman who has altered her experience with feminizing surgeries as a contender, RuPaul responded with a, “probably not,” saying that “you can identify as a woman and say you’re transitioning, but it changes once you start changing your body. It takes on a different thing it changes the whole concept of what we’re doing,” referring to season 9 runner-up Peppermint’s breast implants, which she got after she left the show.

This statement not only displays RuPaul’s outdated conception of trans identity, but also reduces trans identity to whether or not an individual has undergone surgeries. As the face of drag culture internationally, it’s appalling to hear RuPaul belittle the trans community, who have had a foundational influence on drag, like Angie Xtravaganza, a trans founding member of the House of Xtravaganza in New York City in the 1980s.

These transphobic comments destroy the image of Drag Race as the safe haven that we all knew and loved, revealing RuPaul’s questionable motives for creating the show in the first place.

As for RuPaul’s comments on cis women competing on the show, he answered, “Drag loses its sense of danger and its sense of irony once it’s not men doing

it, because at its core it’s a big f-you to male-dominated culture.”

“Male-dominated” would be an equally apt descriptor for RuPaul’s show. These comments fail to give a voice to the female artists, the female performers, the female fans, and the female drag queens, ignoring non-cis male drag queens including Creme Fatale, Tayla Macdonald, and Victoria Sin. RuPaul’s Drag Race routinely appropriates aspects of women’s history, such as the “Baddest B*tches of Herstory” routine, in which each competing drag queen represented a famous female historical figure like Princess Diana or Annie Oakley. This is hypocritical since women are excluded from celebrating their own history on the show, because RuPaul thinks that it is only an ironic political statement if men perform.

Women taking charge of their history and femininity by reclaiming their sexist experiences is a potentially strong and powerful political statement, and cisgender men like RuPaul should not be allowed to undermine their art.

Besides making a grossly inaccurate assumption, RuPaul is excluding competitors based solely on arbitrary body standards. He had no problem with competitors like Detox (Season 5) or Trinity Taylor (Season 9) who have had physical enhancements like glute and chest enlargements. RuPaul does not really have an issue with stereotypically feminine bodies, but a larger problem with women. This is part of a bigger issue of the misogyny in the LGBTQ+ spaces because queer culture is dominated by cisgender men.

RuPaul tweeted an apology two days after the interview was published. However, he only apologized to the trans community, neglecting to comment on his discrimination of cis women. Many of the reactions to his tweet were shocking, with some saying that RuPaul had no reason to apologize in the first place. “His show, his rules, right?” Other comments included that gay men should have something for themselves without trans

RuPaul’s apology fails to adequately address the lack of inclusivity in ‘Drag Race.’

(Kaylina Kodlick / McGill Tribune)

people taking it from them.

Drag Race is the most prominent gateway to drag culture and, for drag queens, the easiest road to worldwide fame. It’s appalling that RuPaul is taking away the chance from trans and cis female drag queens from sharing their art, solely on the basis that drag isn’t as scandalous when it isn’t men doing it. RuPaul and the show’s producers know exactly how influential they are—the show drew nearly one million viewers for its Season 9 premiere. Thus, they are actively marginalizing the voices of trans and cis women who are trying to share their art form on an international stage.

Fans should not accept RuPaul’s apology until trans and cis women are equal contenders for the Drag Race crown and share LGBTQ+ spaces without discrimination. Embracing trans and cis women on Drag Race strengthens the danger and irony of drag— it doesn’t hinder it. Women are taking control of their own femininity, and sending a huge middle finger to all the men who continue to enforce unrealistic restrictions on women in our male-dominated culture—RuPaul included. Now that’s totally “punk-rock.”

‘A Wrinkle in Time’ is a fun, if flawed, revamp of the childhood classic At least Oprah is in it

Noah Simon Contributor Recent dialogue surrounding the new film adaptation of Madeleine’s L’Engle’s classic book, A Wrinkle in Time, pits the film’s quality against its desire to be an inclusive big budget production. Is it good merely because of this prerogative? Is that proper criticism?

It’s a fair question. Critics are hailing the Disney film as a progressive milestone for Hollywood due to its choice of director and diverse cast.

Make no mistake, it is a big deal that a studio as influential as Disney handed over a movie of this magnitude to Ava Duvernay (Selma (2015)), a woman of colour. A 2017 study by the University of Southern California found that of the top 100 movies in 2016, a female director helmed only eight. The same study found that out of the top 1,100 movies since 2007, only four were directed by a woman of colour. A Wrinkle in Time stands as a beautiful aberration to Hollywood’s suffocating whiteness, and is truly refreshing from a representational standpoint.

Ultimately, this is to the film’s benefit, but it isn’t the only thing DuVernay

Oprah Winfrey and Mindy Kaling star in Ava DuVernay’s latest project. (slate.com) brings to the table.

A Wrinkle in Time follows Meg (Storm Reid), a bullied and insecure child who, after the disappearance of her scientist father (Chris Pine), becomes apathetic and despondent.

When she and her family receive a visit from universe protector Ms. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon), Meg, her brother Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe) and new friend Calvin (Levi Miller) literally travel the universe in search of their father. With the guidance of two other universe

protectors, Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling) and Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey), Meg tests her limits and learns how to believe in herself.

Thematically, A Wrinkle in Time is pretty standard as far as children’s movies go, preaching the importance of family and a healthy self-esteem.

But it is the powerful dynamic within the central family that carries the film’s emotional weight, and moments that could have been cheesy are actually quite moving. DuVernay’s direction helps mask the film’s clichés.

And while there are some narrative shortcomings that thaw at the film’s cohesion—such as questions of why exactly Meg’s peers treat her so poorly, or why Calvin chooses to go on the adventure so soon after meeting Meg—they don’t take away from the experience as a whole.

A Wrinkle in Time can often feel familiar, hitting each industry standard for big budget family films: Likable and simple characters, an easy-tofollow story, and lots of colours. Each of these elements works well enough to create a satisfying and entertaining film, yet DuVernay injects enough of her own voice to also make it feel decidedly different. Her experience in documentary and gritty realism provides a grounded aesthetic that contrasts well with the extraterrestrial sets that allows her to show off her flair for visual grandeur. The vibrant colours and eerie symmetry of the evil planet Camazotz are stunning, and a giant Oprah Winfrey guiding you through a cross-universe road trip (“tessering” as they call it) is truly something to behold. These creative decisions often make the film feel surprisingly weird, and the film is bolstered not only by its diversity, but also its idiosyncrasies.

However, A Wrinkle in Time could have dived deeper into the darker elements of the story. Hidden behind a veneer of childish play is a film on the brink of becoming much bleeker.

One can sense it wants to linger on the novel’s scarier and more mature moments, that it could become something its young audience looks back on and says, “I watched that as a kid??” For a story that warns against a contagious and menacing darkness, it is too bad DuVernay didn’t explore the narrative’s compelling trenches.

There is a certain life to A Wrinkle in Time that feels confoundingly new, and this is due in large part to DuVernay’s fresh perspective.

A film about a young girl finding her place in the world, despite the universe’s inherent evils, resonates more in DuVernay’s hands than it would in a white director’s. The film is a progressive milestone, as well as a fun, though flawed, family film: Quality versus inclusivity becomes irrelevant because the two elements are intertwined. The film’s progressiveness and subversions propel what could have been a dull, CGI-filled children’s movie into something culturally important.

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Tuesday, March 20, 2018

How many people is too many people?

Earth in the Anthropocene: Theories of carrying capacity and the overpopulation problem Emma Gillies Staff Writer There are currently 7.6 billion people on Earth. The United Nations (UN) projects that this number will increase by one billion within the next 15 years. By 2100, over 11 billion people could be inhabiting the planet.

The concept of overpopulation is not new.

Thomas Malthus, an 18th century English economist famous for his theories regarding population growth and demographics, argued that the human population’s growth rate exceeded that of food production. To combat this disparity, Malthus urged for population control as an effort to conserve natural resources.

While logical in some ways, Malthus’s theory had numerous shortcomings. Firstly, he failed to account for technological advancements that would greatly increase food production. He also didn’t account for the many advances in public health, family planning, and contraception that would control human population. Furthermore, Malthus blamed the poor for their poverty, arguing that welfare would worsen the population problem by encouraging early marriage and having more children. Malthus supported regulation of the size of poorer families. This argument led the British government to proclaim that the Irish potato famine of the late 1840s was an effective method to reduce population, and bolstered the eugenics movements that selectively bred out what were considered socially undesirable—or non-white—traits.

Though flawed, Malthus’ ideas are important.

Large, rapidly expanding populations lead to increased violence, poverty, and unemployment. Humanity currently depends on finite resources for energy and food production. In the natural world, carrying capacity refers to the maximum number of individuals of a species that can survive in a given environment. Using this theory, ecologists have been able to explain and observe the effects of overpopulation. “ W h e n

predators have been removed from areas, we see the effects of too many prey animals on vegetation, and their own precipitous decline in numbers,” Anthony Masi, professor of industrial relations and organizational behavior in the Desautel Faculty of Management, wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune.

Unlike other animals, humans can consciously change their behaviour patterns, such as by reducing fertility or deciding to migrate. They can also engage in trade, or expand the boundaries of their habitats.

The carrying capacity of the earth regarding human population isn’t uniformly distributed between, or even within, countries. Coming up with an exact number is complex and dependent on many variables. According to Masi, the calculations are heavily debated and controversial, but various estimates put Earth’s carrying capacity for humankind at around 15 billion people.

Peter Brown, a professor in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences, said that Earth’s carrying capacity depends on lifestyle.

“If you have a large number of people who want to eat red meat, the carrying capacity would be a lot lower than if you have a lot of people who want to eat lentils or rice,” Brown told the Tribune.

In Canada, discussions about human population growth often revolve around countries like India, since, in general, highincome countries have slower-growing populations than low-income ones. But most low-income countries are not growing at exponential rates. For Brown, the biggest problem is additional people in rich, consumerist countries.

Advanced economies are often guilty of being stuck on a “treadmill,” where they are constantly in pursuit of economic expansion via population growth, either through births or immigration. The consumerist attitude that accompanies continuous economic growth is a large part of the problem, according to Sarah Brauner-Otto, an associate professor in McGill’s Department of Sociology.

“If everybody lived the way […]

that the people I study in Nepal do, we would not be talking about the population and the sustainability problem to the same degree,” Brauner-Otto said. “The resource use in wealthy countries is so astronomical that it far outweighs the high populations in any place.”

Humans have so heavily impacted the environment that many scientists are

capacity. People think that they can always invent something to get past limitations.

However, this is public perception, though.

Brauner-Otto pointed out that while innovation has the potential to expand carrying capacity, there may be limits to our ingenuity.

“We do not have evidence that our inventions can move at the pace that our

now calling the current geological era the Anthropocene—an epoch dominated by humans. We cover grass with tarmac, frack for oil and natural gas, and drain entire lakes for irrigation. But even if we’re living in the age of humans, human lives aren’t the only ones that matter.

“All kinds of species […] are being driven to extinction, or at least to much lower numbers, in part by human population,” Brown said. “We’re one species among many, and we should learn to share the household.”

In Earth’s history, there have been five mass extinctions causing between 50 and 90 per cent of the planet’s species to die off. According to a study in Science, we’re entering a sixth mass extinction, due mainly to human activity. Brown emphasized that even though lifestyle can make an impact, a larger population will still lead to greater strain on the environment.

“Any organism, no matter how benign, degrades the environment in which it lives,” Brown said.

Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical on climate change argued that the problem isn’t the number of human beings, but how they act.

Pointing out that even if everyone were as virtuous and thoughtful as the Pope, Brown argued that the number of people is an unavoidable factor leading to environmental degradation.

Environmental impact is related to the size and growth rate of the population, how the Earth’s resources are used, and technological innovation. It can be modelled with the IPAT equation, I = P x A x T, in which “I” stands for impact, “P” for population, “A” for affluence, and “T” for technology.

Technology is a particularly important variable in the equation because it has the ability to increase Earth’s carrying

current use of resources shows,” Brauner-Otto said.

On the global scale, human population depends on the world’s births and deaths.

Demographic transition is the shift between low growth and high growth based on birth and death rates. Low birth and high death rates result in low growth. With improvements to public health, death rates decrease, resulting in higher overall growth. Over time, improved education, which increases job opportunities for women and makes contraceptives more available, lowers the birth rate, and low growth returns.

Factors that affect growth vary by location, even within countries. For example, mortality is extremely dependent on the quality of medical care. According to BraunerOtto, there’s very high variation in mortality in places like the United States, where the quality of medical care is good, but access to it is inconsistent.

When Malthus started this controversial conversation in 1798, which has since pitted pessimists against optimists, he simplified the issue. To solve the population problem, its full complexity must be considered. Factors like culture, technology, social institutions, policy, and ethics cannot be ignored. Highincome societies should consume less and help low-incomes ones by sharing technologies to empower women, improve living standards, and increase education—thus preventing humans from exceeding Earth’s carrying capacity.

In his 1998 book, How Many People Can the Earth Support? mathematical biologist Joel E. Cohen presented the three schools of thought in balancing natural resources and the human population: “Bigger pie” through technological advancement, “fewer forks” through reductions in population growth rates, and “better manners” through improved governance and elimination of inequalities.

Cohen envisioned bringing these philosophies together through universal primary and secondary education. Masi agreed that all three must be observed.

“They are not mutually exclusive, and we should move ahead on all three fronts to avoid ever reaching the Earth’s carrying capacity for human beings,” Masi said.

Overpopulation is a global threat to wildlife and vegetation. (Natalie Vineberg / The McGill Tribune)

science & technology 14

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Meet the newly-discovered species of 2017 From the Trump-like moth to snapping shrimp, 2017 was chock full of strange new creatures Oceane Marescal Staff Writer The most recent estimates of the number of species world-wide, according to Science Daily, suggest that there are around 7.8 million animal species on Earth of which only about one million have been described and catalogued. Fortunately for aspiring field biologists, a staggering 87 per cent of animal species may be still unknown.

Here are some of the most extraordinary new animals discovered just this past year.

Synalpheus pinkfloydi: Rock band meets killer shrimp.

The next time you plan on attending a rock concert, consider going to the Pacific coast of Panama, where you can find this tiny sonic killer shrimp.

Synalpheus pinkfloydi may only be 5 millimetres wide, but it packs a loud punch.

This crustacean creates a high pressure bubble by snapping its bright pink, enlarged claw at rapid speeds. When the bubble pops, it produces a sonic blast that can reach up to 210 decibels—that’s louder than sound produced at a rock concert.

The imploding bubble also produces temperatures up to 4,400˚C, nearly as hot as the sun’s surface.

Aptly named after the rock band Pink Floyd, the pistol shrimp uses its sonic energy to stun or kill prey—usually small fish—and

drill burrows into solid basalt rock.

Geckolepis megalepis: A new twist to “jumping out of your skin” This newly discovered species of gecko—native to Madagascar—iis characterized by its unusually large scales, each of which can range up to eight per cent of the gecko’s total body length. These scales are dense and highly mineralized, creating a mottled brown-grey camouflage for the reptile to hide in its natural limestone habitat.

The most unusual feature that this species exhibits is its unique defensive strategy. When Geckolepis megalepis is grasped by a predator, it quickly sheds the layer of skin beneath its scales. The predator is left with the empty, scaly shell, while the gecko escapes—pink, shiny, and scaleless, but unharmed.

Remarkably, these unscaled geckos show no blood or scarring, and their scales can regrow at unusually fast rates.

Currently, scientists are studying the species for medical purposes, with the aim of discovering ways to eliminate scarring during skin repair procedures in humans.

Dendrocerus scutellaris: Cutting edge discovery Dendrocerus scutellaris is a new species of endoparasitoid wasp—a type of parasite that lives inside another animal before ultimately killing it—that comes equipped with a saw-like structure on its back.

Gekolepis megalepis sheds its scales to escape from predators. (novataxa.ca) This 2 mm-long insect’s life cycle begins as it hatches inside of its host. The larvae feed on the living organism from the inside out before maturing into their adult form.

Its adult form, only 3 millimetres long, sports a series of jagged spines along its back called mesoscutellar combs. These combs act as a built-in saw, which the wasp can use to cut its way out of its host’s body.

Thankfully, parasitoid wasps are harmless to humans—so there is no need to fear being sliced apart from the inside by a wasp. Typically, their hosts include pest insects like aphids, making these wasps useful for controlling pest populations in agriculture.

Neopalpa relations

donaldtrumpi:

Ancestral

This newly discovered species of micro-moth bears an eerie resemblance to Donald Trump. It sports a tuft of yellowish-white scales on its head, similar to the unique coiffe sported by the 45th President of the United States.

Social media users, however, were quick to focus on the other ironic features of the micro-moth, including its MexicanAmerican habitat and its especially small genitalia.

Evolutionary biologist and systematist Vazrick Nazari, who named this new species of moth, hoped that naming the new moth after President Trump would bring attention to the new species and highlight the crucial need for further conservation of fragile habitats from the threat of urbanization.

Exploring physicist Stephen Hawking’s scientific contributions The mind behind modern physics, space traveller, and hero

Tarina Gupta Contributor On March 14, Stephen William Hawking, physicist at Cambridge University and international best-selling author of A Brief History of Time, passed away, leaving behind a legacy of revolutionary discoveries spanning the past five decades.

At the age of 21, Hawking was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, a progressive neurodegenerative disease that causes an individual to lose control of their nerve and muscle function over time. While doctors gave him only two years to live, he defied their prognosis by surviving for 55 years with the debilitating, incurable condition. Hawking was a prolific writer, contributing to the field of physics up until the end of his life.

To celebrate his extraordinary life, below are three immense contributions that Hawking made to the field of physics.

Black Holes Hawking pioneered research on one of the greatest mysteries of our universe. Black holes, the remnants of the collapse of supermassive stars. In the 1970s, by applying quantum theory to

these intangible facets of our universe, Hawking proved that they were not completely black at all, but in fact radiate energy over time, emitting a faint glow.

He also discovered that black holes would eventually leak radiation, and disappear, which opposed the idea that they absorbed everything and would continuously grow larger. The discovery that a black hole could radiate particles was a turning point in modern physics—leading to a stream of fresh findings and research based around this discovery for the next 40 years. In 1974, Hawking introduced the concept of Hawking radiation to the physics world, explaining that black holes thermally emit sub-atomic particles until they exhaust their energy and evaporate completely.

Hawking took such pride in his work that he wanted the formula for Hawking radiation to be engraved on his tombstone.

A Brief History of Time A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes, Hawking’s most well-known book published in 1988, explored Hawking’s study of cosmology— the laws that predict how things work in the universe, or simply how the universe exists. The book, which has sold tens of millions of copies, caters to nonscientists and answers basic questions on the universe’s origins, its projected fate,

Stephen Hawking will be remembered for his impressive body of work and revolutionary contributions to modern physics. (wordpress.com) its structure, and whether or not it i s scientific community has yet to come up infinite. Through the general relativity and with the theory, Hawking came up with a quantum mechanics theories, Hawkings formula that unified quantum mechanics explores theories of space, time, matter, and classical physics. The groundbreaking and gravity. The scientific community aspect of this formula was combining both reveres A Brief History of Time as a classical and quantum mechanics with powerhouse in non-fiction literature that classical physics to describe the motion of provides deep insight into the large scale tiny particles that make up large bodies. structure of the universe.

Hawking’s discoveries will remain relevant in the years to come, and his The Theory of Everything legacy will continue to inspire further The “theory of everything,” is an idea pursuit of understanding the mysteries of in the scientific community that there is the universe. The world will forever be a single, all-encompassing theory that can indebted to Stephen Hawking’s brilliant describe the physical world. Although the mind.

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Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Redmen hockey season recap

Successful year for McGill despite first-round exit at nationals Jordan Foy Staff Writer 2017-18 marked a successful campaign for the McGill Redmen hockey team, as they captured their 18th OUA Queens Cup and competed at the U Sports National Championships for the second year in a row. Their consistently solid play in the regular season led to a 22-4-2 record and a first-place finish in the OUA East Division. All season, contributions came from up and down the squad’s deep roster: Third-year centre Jerome Verrier led the team in assists and points, with 29 and 41 respectively, while third-year forward Christophe Lalonde led the team in goals with 13.

Second-year masters student and captain Nathan Chiarlitti led the rearguard and chipped in three goals and 13 assists. The back end also proved vital offensively, as third-year skater Dominic Talbot-Tassi was second in points on the team with 25. In the crease, second-year goaltender

Louis-Phillip Guindon had an exceptional year, stopping shots with a sparkling 2.22 goals against average—an OUA best. Behind the bench, Head Coach Kelly Nobes was the recipient of the Father George Kehoe Memorial Award as the U Sports coach of the year.

Heading into the playoffs, the Redmen maintained their momentum from the regular season: They destroyed the Laurentian University Voyageurs by a combined score of 14-3 in two games, then downed the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees in three.

However, McGill found more difficulty in the OUA East final series against their crosstown rivals, Concordia. The Redmen lost their first game at home, but forced a tie-breaking third game with a suspenseful overtime win in game two. In the end, McGill secured first place in the OUA East division and booked their ticket to nationals with a game three win over the Stingers 6-2. Before heading to the U

Sports National Championships, McGill battled the Brock University Badgers on March 10 for the Queen’s Cup (OUA Championship). It was a chippy contest, but the Redmen easily ousted their opponents, securing the Queen’s Cup with a 5-1 victory.

Heading into the national championships in Fredericton, third-seeded McGill faced off against the sixth-seeded University of Saskatchewan Huskies in the quarterfinal on March 16. The Huskies entered the tournament as Canada West Finalists, after finishing in second at the 2016-17 U Sports Championship. In a scrappy affair, the two sides received 84 combined penalty minutes.

The contest was tight: The shot total favoured McGill by a tiny 34-33 margin. The Huskies were up 2-0 early in the second, but the Redmen halved the deficit later in the stanza when firstyear forward Antoine Dufort-Plante buried one on the powerplay. The Redmen pressed in the third, but fell behind by two halfway through the

frame when the Huskies scored on a deflection that fooled Guindon. Despite their many opportunities—including several shots dinged off the post—the Redmen were unable to come back, ultimately falling 4-1 after the Huskies potted an empty net goal.

The University of New Brunswick (UNB) Varsity Reds eventually defeated the Huskies for the bronze medal, while the University of Alberta Golden Bears beat the Saint Francis Xavier X-Men in the gold-medal game to secure the David Johnston University Cup. The Redmen will lose four seniors to graduation this offseason, including defencemen Chiarlitti and Francis Lambert-Lemay, forward Jan Kaminsky, and goaltender Jacob GervaisChouinard. However, as the team retains much of its roster, they will look to build upon this season’s achievements next year. When they return in the fall, their eyes will be set on another appearance at nationals and a run at the U Sports Cup.

Sports success coming in waves for Seattle Vegas’ NHL success paves the way for new franchises Owen Gibbs Contributor At the beginning of the 2017-18 season, the Vegas Golden Knights were generating plenty of chatter about their sparkling inaugural campaign. Initially, Vegas’ success opened the door for other expansion franchises: The possibility of additional NHL franchises in Quebec City, Seattle, and Houston piqued fans’ interest more than ever.

Fast forward five months, and Vegas is currently sitting near the top of the NHL’s Western Conference. With 10 games remaining in their season, Sin City’s presence in the playoffs is a near certainty. They’ve shattered almost every positive North American sports expansion team record and have surprised many with their rapid rise. However, even as the team gears up for a historic postseason appearance, the eyes of expansion have turned toward another region—the Pacific Northwest. A new franchise would foster new local rivalries, benefitting local fans—and the league as a whole, while also catering to the needs of hockey enthusiasts in an underserved market.

In early December, the Seattle City Council approved a plan to make Seattle’s KeyArena capable of hosting an NHL franchise, a project set to be completed in 2020. Finding a suitable arena was the final hurdle in the city’s quest for a team.

In February, the Oak View Group submitted an application and down payment to the league to begin forming a team—a request that was promptly granted—and earlier this month, the ownership group performed a season ticket drive in order to evaluate public interest in professional hockey. Ten thousand deposits were received in just 12 minutes, and by the hour mark, that number reached 25,000. Basically, Seattle is all but guaranteed to get a team by 2020 at the earliest.

Though the road to the next expansion team seems clear, challenges remain or Seattle. Any delay in the arena’s construction would result in a delay of their inaugural season.

Beyond that, Vegas has set a lofty standard for potential new teams, meaning that Seattle’s franchise will face pressure to perform in their inaugural season. If they aren’t as good as the Golden Knights, then they may lose fan support and struggle to turn a profit.

Still, there is no logical reason to believe that they won’t succeed. One year ago, the Golden Knights selected their players under the laxest expansion draft rules in NHL history, and Seattle has already been guaranteed the same rules should they reach that stage. Beyond drafting, much of Vegas’ hockey success has come from selecting General Manager George McPhee and hiring Head Coach Gerard Gallant, both of whom have been massively successful. Every season, franchises with lofty expectations fire top GMs and coaches, allowing other teams to scoop them up. That is exactly what happened with Gallant and McPhee and will likely happen to someone in 2020 as well.

Seattle should have no problem finding a talented management staff.

The main reason that a new NHL franchise in Seattle would be significant is the degree to which it would revitalize the Seattle sports market, and in many ways, that of the entire Pacific Northwest. In past decades, the region’s once-prolific sports market has fallen on hard times. The region lost two NBA clubs in the Vancouver Grizzlies in 2001, and the Seattle Supersonics seven years later. These departures left just one team from each of the four major leagues across the three major cities of Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland. None of the teams in the area have any close rivals due to their relative isolation from

the rest of North America, and therefore must spend more on air travel than any other franchises. The presence of an NHL team in Seattle would give the Vancouver Canucks a regional rivalry.

The SuperSonics were a popular team that left largely because of stadium concerns, so with a revamped KeyArena they could easily return soon after 2020—giving the Portland Trail Blazers their own regional rival, too.

Having an NHL team would be beneficial for Seattle—and the entire Pacific Northwest. Very soon, the league will add its 32nd team. From all signs in Vegas’ first season, this move should succeed, and the NHL can even learn that it is, indeed, safe to expand in areas other than the Southern United States.

16 SPORTS

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Ontario takes positive first step in passing concussion legislation Provincial lawmakers become first in Canada to approve Rowan’s Law

Miya Keilin Staff Writer Rowan Stringer was a 17-year-old high school athlete from Ottawa. She picked up rugby in Grade 11, when her high school offered a varsity girls team, and grew to love the sport so much that she joined a club team that summer. Later, in May 2013, Stringer was hit hard during a rugby match. She thought that she may have been concussed, but wanted to compete in her next match, so she ignored her symptoms and played anyways just two days later. She suffered another concussion.

Experiencing repeated head trauma in such quick succession leads to Second Impact Syndrome (SIS), a condition that can occur when a person is concussed for a second time before their brain has recovered from the initial concussion. Even a minor hit can immediately cause the pressure in a person’s brain to increase and must be treated within minutes. In Stringer’s case, SIS led to her death on May 12, Mother’s Day, four days after the second concussion.

After her passing, Dr. Charles Tator, a professor of neurosurgery at the University of Toronto who studies spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury, requested access to Stringer’s medical documentation. Tator was searching for ways to prevent such tragedies in the future and researched the case for several months before delivering a report at the inquest held in an Ottawa court in June 2015. Based on his report and testimony, as well as statements from Stringer’s friends, family, and fellow members of

the rugby community, the jury came up with 49 recommendations to improve concussion awareness and treatment in Ontario. The first of these recommendations was to enact “Rowan’s Law”—an initiative intended to inform young athletes and their guardians on the seriousness of concussions.

Rowan’s Law, formally known as Bill 193, is a huge step in the right direction for protecting young athletes and changing how concussions are perceived in youth sports culture. Better education will help kids more effectively identify when they are concussed and understand the serious consequences of playing with concussions.

Coaches and parents will know better when to keep an athlete out of the game and when it’s safe to let them back in.

Specifically, Rowan’s Law defines protocols for when an athlete should be removed from play and when they should be allowed to return. It also requires parents and coaches to learn about concussion identification and management from online resources.

It’s often difficult to diagnose a concussion, especially for people who have little to no understanding of the symptoms, so these new protocols will have an important impact on protecting youth athletes.

Rowan’s Law includes a code of conduct for athletes and mandates an advisory committee to consult with Ontario’s Premier. The code is a set of in-game rules tailored to each sport.

Meanwhile, the committee helps to implement the rest of the jury’s recommendations into provincial law. It’s made up of medical experts, youth sports leaders, athletes, and Stringer’s father, Gordon.

The committee first convened in 2016 and met several times before proposing concussion legislation in December 2017. The final

hearing for the legislation took place on March 6, 2017—when it passed with all-party support. In passing Rowan’s Law, Ontario lawmakers are making a bold and long-overdue statement: They are ready to lead the way on big legislative and cultural changes needed to fight the damage concussions do children every year.

Similar laws have been passed all across the United States, but Rowan’s Law is the first of its kind in Canada. Gordon Stringer hopes that other provinces will follow Ontario’s lead and enact what could be life-saving legislation.

“The heavy lifting has been done here in Ontario, but this is not something that’s an Ontario issue,” Mr. Stringer said in an interview with the CBC. “This is something that needs to be addressed across Canada.”

Rowan’s story is heartbreaking—but there’s a light at the end. The new legislation will likely save many young athletes from sustaining irreparable—even fatal—brain damage. Using Rowan’s Law as an example, other provinces should act before preventable tragedy strikes again; lawmakers across Canada must learn from Rowan’s story and make concussion legislation a priority.

But laws are only the beginning. A concussion needs to be accepted as one of the most dangerous injuries in sports by all Canadians. Athletes should never even consider playing after potentially being concussed, nor should they be given the chance to.

People should understand how to treat concussions and respect the recovery time needed after one. At the end of the day, it’s not what the legislators do that’s going to have the greatest impact; the change that we make in our attitude will be most important.

Predicting the MLB midseason A flash-forward to July’s top storylines after a memorably slow offseason GABE NISKER, STAFF WRITER With regular season action less than two weeks away, all baseball fans want is to get started. For them, there’s nothing better than those summer afternoons spent at the ballpark with hot dog in hand. Given the slow offseason, The McGill Tribune pressed fast-forward on the MLB remote to provide a look at how the 2018 season might look at its midpoint.

BRONX BOMBERS Fresh off an early off-season acquisition of reigning National League MVP Giancarlo Stanton, the New York Yankees are looking strong and mighty so far. Stanton has teamed up with outfielder Aaron Judge and catcher Gary Sánchez to form one of baseball’s most deadly trios in the middle of the Yankees lineup. With that shutdown bullpen still intact from last season’s ALCS run, the Bombers are ready to make a play for Houston’s throne.

INCREDIBLE ROOKIES Ronald Acuña has been a revelation for the Braves since rising up to the majors, mashing homers and keeping his team competitive. In the American League, Los Angeles Angels’ two-way dynamo Shohei Ohtani has experienced a bit of a learning curve. After some early struggles, he looks a lot more comfortable on the mound but the Angels are still hoping to see the bat come around in time for the stretch run.

In the Playoff Hunt With the July 31 trade deadline only weeks away, the contenders and pretenders are starting to reveal themselves. The Minnesota Twins deftly added a boatload of talent in the offseason—including starters Jake Odorizzi and Lance Lynn—at minimal cost. They’re right in the thick of things in the AL Wild Card race, only two games ahead of surprise contenders in the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays, and one game behind the Boston Red Sox for the first spot.

The Miami Marlins sold off Stanton to the Yankees in December, but they

weren’t done there: Miami dealt outfielders Christian Yelich and Marcell Ozuna to the Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals, respectively. Both beneficiaries are in the heat of the NL Central race, only a few games behind the Chicago Cubs, whose bolstered rotation with Yu Darvish and Tyler Chatwood has been excellent.

The San Francisco Giants built the ultimate 2013 superteam in the offseason, adding Andrew McCutchen and Evan Longoria, and the results have been promising.

But, with the aforementioned wealth of contenders in the NL wildcard race—plus Jake Arrieta and the Philadelphia Phillies—it looks unlikely that they’ll find themselves in the postseason.

New Rules An offseason rule change restricting mound visits hasn’t clicked the way Commissioner Rob Manfred would have liked. Teams are now restricted to six mound visits per game without having to make a pitching change, and they are still coming to grips with how and when to use them. The adjustment has made little impact on the pace of play to this point, but more rule changes seem to be on the horizon. Manfred has spoken of his desire to add a pitch clock next season, and Minor League Baseball is testing out new extra inning rules, similar to those used in international play.

Playoff predictions It’s certainly possible that baseball is re-entering an era of dominant powers.

The Astros, Yankees, Dodgers, and Cubs look poised to make another run to their leagues’ championship series, and baseball doesn’t feel quite as competitively balanced as it’s been in years past.

However, as the dog days of summer heat up and make a sharp turn into fall baseball, don’t count out teams like the Red Sox and the Washington Nationals.

Both have new managers leading the way—but, then again, even they were in the postseason last time around. Whatever the coming months may bring, fans are set to witness a new volume in a classic baseball story.