The McGill Tribune Vol. 37 Issue 7

The McGill Tribune TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2017 | VOL. 37 | ISSUE 7

Published by the SPT, a student society of McGill University

EDITORIAL

McGILLTRIBUNE.COM | @McGILLTRIBUNE

FEATURE

ILLUSTRATIONS

McGill must take a stand against Bill 62

Please read the policy

Common Campus Sightings Decoded

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PGs. 8-9

PG. 7

Struggling to understand McGill’s policy against sexual violence

(Noah Sutton / The McGill Tribune)

‘Nightfall’ explores the intersection of artistry and insanity Players’ Theatre adapts classic literary horror Avery Warkentin Contributor Players’ Theatre is an independent group at McGill, run entirely by undergraduate students. Nightfall, their first production of the 2017-2018 season is a theatrical adaptation of four tales by Edgar Allan

Poe: The Raven, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, and The Tell-Tale Heart. The play takes us into the mind of Poe and, through a continuous, vignette-style adaptation, explores the meaning and meeting of madness and genius.

An engaging and ambitious revisioning of Poe’s works, Nightfall provides strong performances, and—although suffering from

Closure plans leave SSMU building tenants uncertain

Groups say too little is being done, too late

Ari Charles Contributor In the aftermath of the announcement of the SSMU building scheduled closure on March 17, 2018, over 50 clubs and services that use the building are struggling with plans to find new offices. Clubs whose relocation plans are finalized include the Peer Support Centre, the Legal Information Clinic, and MSERT. The complete shutdown, planned to continue through the Winter 2019 semester, is necessary to construct a rooftop mechanical room,

among other renovations. While the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) must relocate all of the building’s tenants, many group leaders say this assistance has come too late to be helpful. Lower-profile groups, such as the Alegria Contemporary Ballet Company, are especially concerned about slipping through the cracks in the closure. The company’s president, Zoë Goldstein, understands that SSMU is in a difficult position, yet was dismayed by the fact that her group only found out about the closure through PG. 4 word of mouth.

somewhat unpolished audio production— serves as a haunting tour of Poe’s fraught inner workings.

Director Kenzia Dalie’s adaptation is one continuous act with no intermission and only small set changes separating the four storylines. The first story, The Raven, depicts Edgar Allen Poe as he sits in his study, trying to forget his lost love, Lenore. The

appearance of a raven at his window drives Poe mad as he repeatedly asks the raven painful and personal questions—questions to which the raven only responds, “Nevermore.” In The Fall of the House of Usher, an unnamed man returns to the home of a boyhood friend, Roderick Usher, only to find that the house and its inhabitants are hiding sinister secrets.

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Skepticism in climate science: Reasonable or regressive?

Three scientists who question roles in climate change, and the nature of climate change itself Emma Gillies Contributor Ninety-seven per cent of scientists agree that humans contribute to climate change.

Patrick Moore, a co-founder of Greenpeace, falls into the other three per cent.

“Even if we are causing [environmental change], it’s hardly anything,” Moore said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. He describes himself as a “sensible environmentalist”

and left Greenpeace in 1986 over policy differences.

The study that released the 97 per cent scientific consensus on climate change in 2013 has since been popularized and widely disputed. Most studies since agree that the number is above 80 per cent, and more often above 90 per cent. Moore, however, quoted a different study by Legates et al. that stated that the number of scientists who agree recent warming is anthropogenic—

or due to humans—was 3 per cent. According to American climatologist Judith Curry, former chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology, few scientists deny that humans are contributing to climate change.

However, Moore claims that fossil fuels are 100 per cent organic—after all, they are made from decomposed organic matter in ancient forests and seas.

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2 NEWS

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

SSMU Legislative Council deliberates AVEQ affiliation and President Tojiboeva Executives state position of “non-confidence” in President Caitlyn Atkinson & Domenic Casciato Contributor & News Editor The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Legislative Council convened on Oct. 19 amid debate over a lack of transparency, questions about breaches of confidentiality, and allegations of underhanded politics. Structural projects such as the building closure, the libraries improvement project, and the proposed bike facility were discussed, but the most divisive and lengthy topics addressed were the statement expressing no confidence in SSMU President Muna Tojiboeva, and the motion calling for a student vote on whether SSMU should affiliate with the Association for the Voice of Education in Quebec (AVEQ) at the upcoming Fall 2017 referendum.

SSMU Executive board announces position of no confidence in President During the announcement period, SSMU Vice-President (VP) Student Life Jemark Earle read a statement on behalf of himself and VP Finance Arisha Khan, VP Internal Affairs Maya Koparkar, VP University Affairs Isabelle Oke, and VP External Affairs Connor Spencer describing what they perceived as Tojiboeva’s lack of transparency. While stating their position of no confidence, they recommended that Tojiboeva step down as SSMU’s official spokesperson.

“There has been a serious issue regarding a lack of transparency and communication on the part of the President, which is particularly troubling when decisions being made concern some or all of the executives,” Earle said. “It is for this reason that we wish at this time to state our position of non-confidence in the president and her ability to fulfill her mandate.”

Earle explained that the executives were acting on behalf of the student body in announcing their no confidence position, and reiterated student criticisms of Tojiboeva.

“It has also come to our attention that there are student-led campaigns revolving around the idea of a constitutional reform,” Earle said. “We understand that the current structure that we have has many flaws and many of the proposals put forth in these campaigns are justified.”

Tojiboeva refuted the Executives’ position, citing flaws in its constitutionality, misinformation about the alleged lack of transparency, and workplace hostility she’s faced. She alleged a lack of professionalism and animosity toward her within the Executive Committee.

“I was repeatedly bullied for being different, and having different political opinions from the executives,” Tojiboeva said. “I was not only body shamed, but also my qualifications were called into question only because my opinions did not match those of the executives.”

Further calling into question the motivations of the rest of the executives, Tojiboeva addressed her intentions as a spokesperson.

“Every single time I met with members of the media, I was [later] met with comments from the executives that I did not represent their viewpoints,” Tojiboeva said. “I would like to point this out as a problem. I am not here to represent the viewpoint of the executives. I am here to represent all of the members of the undergraduates at McGill.”

Debate regarding the criticisms of Tojiboeva heavily dominated the question period, with many members of the gallery present at the meeting defending Tojiboeva. Andrew Figueiredo, U2 Arts, expressed his distaste for the actions of the executive council.

“Our president was democratically elected by, we, the students, […] now this executive body is trying to unilaterally override and undermine our democracy,” Figueiredo said. “I’m sick and tired of SSMU being unaccountable and we finally voted for change, yet the VPs are trying to undermine that.”

Many questioned the democraticness of the statement and attested to Tojiboeva’s qualifications, prompting the executives to clarify that their primary intent was to bring their position of no confidence in Tojiboeva to the Council, not to unilaterally remove her as President. Spencer readdressed the executives’ statement, concluding the question period. “[The five executives] didn’t mobilize [because of] political differences, that was something that was mobilized by the President,” Spencer said, “[It’s] not the constitutionality of actions, but the ethics of actions, that was some-

Five executives criticized President Tojiboeva and Council again delayed voting on AVEQ referendum question.

(Noah Sutton / The McGill Tribune) thing that was concerning to the executives and why we’ve been working towards this for so long and why it’s finally come to this channel.”

Motion to Bring the Question of AVEQ Affiliation to Referendum Council postponed voting to join AVEQ—a provincial federation of student unions that lobbies for student interests at the municipal, provincial, and federal level—should be asked in the Fall Referendum until there are further faculty consultations. Tabling the motion has effectively excluded the question of AVEQ affiliation from the upcoming referendum, with the Oct. 25 deadline for submitting referenda falling before the next SSMU Council meeting on Nov. 2.

Spencer first introduced the motion at Council’s Oct. 12 meeting, but due to intense debate and councillor complaints about insufficient knowledge of AVEQ, Council agreed to postpone voting on it. Additionally, Tojiboeva argued that further consultations with faculty associations are necessary before Council is ready to put AVEQ affiliation to a referendum.

“I think it would be useful to bring back this question to be discussed at the faculty level, and then bring it back again for us to actually put [AVEQ or Union Étudiant du Québec (UÉQ)] on ballot,” Tojiboeva said.

In order to gather and report more information to Council about AVEQ and UÉQ, Athletics Representative Yué Jiao suggested creating an ad-hoc committee to observe both student federations. A Councillor will introduce the motion to create such a committee at the next Council

meeting on Nov. 2.

Engineering Senator Tre Mansdoerfer also presented a report titled ‘Summary of Experiences Observing the Quebec Student Union (QSU) and Association For The Voice For Education in Quebec (AVEQ) Over The 2016-2017 Term, to Date.’ The report describes the 20162017 Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) External Affairs Officer Jacob Lavigne’s experiences as an observer at the assemblies of both AVEQ and the QSU, the predecessor of UÉQ. In the report, Lavigne detailed his criticisms of AVEQ.“AVEQ’s plans were bare and only consisted of a rubric with a timetable showing when they would be working on each item,” Lavigne wrote. “While my objective at the start of my term was to have a referendum for an affiliation to a federation during my term as [external affairs officer], I have realized over the past few months that this was not favourable.”

Lavigne recommended that the PGSS only pursue membership in the QSU in the 2017-18 year. However, PGSS has remained independent from both student federations since Fall 2017.

Spencer, who was mandated to sit as an observer of AVEQ by the 2016-2017 SSMU Legislative Council, described her experiences as an observer as positive overall.

“Since the beginning of my mandate, I have worked very closely with AVEQ,” Spencer said.

“They really have done a great job [of] constantly checking in [...] through my office [about] the priorities we are working on, and how [SSMU can] make sure they are addressed while also navigating [AVEQ].”

RAMQ legislation forces McGill to discontinue vaccine distribution

Vaccines no longer available at the Student Health Services Laura Oprescu Contributor On Jan. 26, Quebec banned fees for medical services covered by the Régie de l’Assurance Maladie du Québec (RAMQ), the province’s public health insurance board. McGill’s Student Health Services (SHS) previously only charged students the cost of supplying vaccines, without making a profit. Since the ban prohibits charging fees, SHS has stopped selling certain vaccines because of their high costs. Flu shots, HPV vaccines, meningitis vaccines, and hepatitis A and B vaccines have all been discontinued for the most part, although certain students are still eligible to receive them based on their age, sexual history, or drug usage. SHS will also continue to administer vaccines that students have obtained in a pharmacy and will sell travel vaccines, which are not covered by RAMQ.

Critics say the new legislation has effectively ended a ‘two-tiered’ healthcare system, where patients can choose between receiving free, governmentprovided treatment or paying for quicker private treatment. McGill has made headway in its efforts to lobby against the ban, and members of SHS have faulted it for posing an unnecessary challenge for students unfamiliar with Quebec healthcare services. In an email to The McGill Tribune, Student Services Senior Communications Officer Lisa Dutton explained that the Ministry of Health and Social Services has taken McGill’s concerns into account.

“The government has acknowledged that the legislation is too restrictive and they are in the process of revising the rules,” Dutton wrote. “Students will be informed if the law is modified and when Student Health Services can resume providing these vaccines to the entire student body.”

Prior to the legislation, free vaccinations were only offered by hospitals in Quebec, but individuals on the vaccination schedule can now receive free vaccinations anywhere they are administered. However, those who do not fall in the recommended vaccination windows may have difficulty getting vaccines; they are ineligible for free vaccines, and healthcare services such as SHS are now unable to sell to them. Hashana Perera, director of SHS, is not in favour of the legislation.

“I believe the legislation was passed without consideration of all clinical contexts,” Perera said. “In our context, it actually created extra hurdles for students. Students already have a lot on their plates, and creating more steps to obtain medical care may result in them not getting this care. It is as frustrating for students as it is for nurses and physicians who want them to have access to these preventative health measures.”

Perera is hopeful for adjustments to the legislation. Subsidizing the cost of vaccine administration for private practices ensures that doctors can afford to continue to provide vaccines for free.

“We hope to be able to resume our previous vaccination activities in the near future,” Perera said.

The policy aimed to encourage low-income families to vaccinate their children by increasing the economic accessibility of doing so. However, with some healthcare provisioners no longer selling vaccines, there has been criticism of the policy’s effectiveness in practice.

Leila Feng, U2 Science, spoke in favour of keeping a two-tiered system. To Feng, vaccinating the largest number of people should be prioritized over vaccinating in the most equitable way.

“While a two-tier healthcare system might encourage unfairness when it comes to individual life-or-death surgeries, it may be a valid option for vaccines

Students might have difficulty getting vaccines through public services. (Gal Sandaev / The McGill Tribune) because non-contagious people are positive externalities to society,” Feng said. “The people buying vaccines are providing more health than harm to the people waiting in line.”

NEWS 3

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

SSMU Gendered and Sexual Violence Open Forum tackles lack of change and trust Students give feedback for the Gendered and Sexualized Violence Policy

Students called for inclusive feedback processes on the Gendered and Sexualized Violence Policy.

(Ava Zwolinski / The McGill Tribune)

Julia Métraux Staff Writer The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) hosted a Gendered and Sexual Violence Open Forum on Oct. 16 to receive feedback and answer questions from members of the McGill community on campus discourse surrounding sexual violence and the development of a SSMU Gendered and Sexualized Violence Policy (GSVP). SSMU Vice-President (VP) External Connor Spencer moderated the forum, which was livestreamed in order to increase its accessibility to the general public.

According to Spencer, SSMU is in the process of creating a GSVP after allegations that 2016-17 SSMU president Ben Ger and former 2016-17 SSMU VP External David Aird committed gendered and sexual violence, respectively.

“Some allegations were made against two students in [SSMU], which resulted in two executive resignations,” Spencer said. “One of these executives had anonymous disclosures, over 12, made against him. A group called the Community Disclosure Network [CDN] brought them forward to SSMU [....] Part of the work they did was a recommendation to look into creating a policy that specifically addresses gendered and sexualized violence.”

The purpose of the open forum was to collect a diverse set of student opinions on the forthcoming GSVP. “With membership, we’re hoping to get general [feedback] on how students are feeling about conversations on campus, conversations at the admin level, conversations at the grassroots level,” Spencer said. “There are rooms and spaces on this campus that are working on these themes, [...] but it’s often just specific student representatives.”

Spencer mentioned that the feedback from forums will be factored into the GSVP. She also confirmed that SSMU does not have sufficient resources for responding to disclosures or reports of gendered and sexualized violence. According to Spencer, SSMU’s only current avenue for addressing gendered and sexualized violence is its equity policy, which she says is insufficient.

“The equity policy explicitly states that it does not deal with sexual assault and sexual violence,” Spencer said. “That is why we got into the situation we were in last year. There is a SSMU employee manual that deals with sexual harassment and psychological harassment, and that is the closest thing.”

Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) Equity Commissioner Ana Paula Sanchéz, who attended the forum, criticized SSMU for not publicizing any recent changes in their approach to gendered and sexualized violence.

“I believe on the SSMU website, there’s no information on where to get resources [that address gendered and sexualized violence],” Sanchéz said. “Are we only going to have Facebook events and forums?”

One forum attendee posed a question about how discussions of triggering topics can prevent people from attending forums and other events centered around the discussion of gendered and sexualized violence. Dorothy Apedaile, U4 Science, pointed out that physically attending events is not the only way to contribute to the creation of the GSVP. “Mobilization isn’t always about getting people into a room,” Apedaile said. “Mobilization is also about getting people to think about issues.”

Though the forum was a step towards developing SSMU’s GSVP, Spencer believes that the policy will take years to finalize.

“I have problems with some of the narratives that were mobilized when the current executive took office [about] how it’s a fresh slate,” Spencer said. “We have a flawed system [and] a flawed institution, and it is going to take many years of many good people before we can get students to talk about work that is being done [about gendered and sexualized violence].”

Panel discusses possibilities of a Universal Livable Income Speakers emphasize inclusive approach toward the policy Fionn Adamian Staff Writer “The End of Poverty” panel, hosted at Thomson House on Oct. 17, examined the possibility of implementing a universal livable income policy in Canada through an anti-racist, feminist lens. With a livable income policy, the federal government would provide residents with enough money to cover their essential needs. Panelists discussed how to design such a policy to best address the needs of immigrants, women, and people of colour.

The Asian Women for Equality Society (AWCEP) hosted the panel, which was moderated by Yelp Senior Community and Marketing Director Risa Dickens. AWCEP member and event co-coordinator Sarah Mah, University of Manitoba Community Health Sciences Professor Evelyn Forget, and Senator Kim Pate also sat on the panel.

According to the panelists, a truly inclusive policy would be publicly funded and universally accessible to all people living in the country regardless of their migratory status or the ways they plan to spend the money.

Mah additionally called for the policy to address the challenges that women, in particular, face.

“We know that fighting male violence and promoting equality and creating alternatives to harmful industries such as prostitution must [impact] women’s economic insecurity in some way,” Mah said. “Canada is a wealthy country committed to human rights and equality and we have an obligation to offer women viable alternatives so that violence is not something we have to endure.”

Forget then presented a portion of her research on a livable income experiment in Dauphin, a small city in Manitoba. From 1974 through 1978, a mixture of federal and provincial funds went to providing a guaranteed stipend amount based on family size and salary to the 30 per cent of Dauphin’s population with the lowest income.

The results of the experiment suggested that the policy alleviated poverty. Forget found that over the four years, hospital visits in Dauphin declined by 8.5 per cent because residents had the necessary resources to sustain their mental and physical health. Forget also suggested that the additional funds may have eased families’ need to rely on their older children for support, enabling many of the children to complete high school degrees.

According to the panel, a similar policy on the national scale—whether funded by a carbon tax, a tax on cannabis, or a more progressive tax system—might produce similar results.

Panelists call for the integration of women and Indigenous issues when designing income policies. (mcgill.ca) “Kids in this little town in the middle of the prairie are all of a sudden staying in school a little longer [as the result of a universal livable income],” Forget said. “People’s lives are being transformed by that decision.”

The panel also invited community leaders to express their hopes and concerns about a basic income policy, including representatives from Movement Against Rape and Incest and Consultation of the struggles against sexual exploitation. Cherry Smiley, a member of Indigenous Women Against the Sex Industry, addressed the relationship between Canada’s colonial history and its economic wealth.

“Canada’s wealth comes off our backs as indigenous peoples and particularly indigenous women, literally over our dead bodies,” Smiley said. “How can a guaranteed livable income be part of a decolonizing project?”

Although several panelists qualified that a universal livable income would not provide sufficient reparation in and of itself, they agreed that it might play some role in Canada’s process of reconciliation with indigenous peoples.

“Think of all the public struggles being led by indigenous women, missing and murdered indigenous women, over-incarceration, the Cindy Blackstock challenges,” Pate said. “At the core of this is a status of unequal distribution of resources after they’ve already been stolen. One of the strategies of decolonization would be to insist that those resources be made available in addition to acknowledgment and breathing life into treaty responsibilities.”

The panelists concluded that any lobbying for a livable income policy must focus on the concerns of the people it is supposed to support.

“If you are a woman, if you are racialized, or if you come from a working class background, I hope you leave this forum with the confidence that our perspectives are central to making any livable income policy work for us,” Mah said. “It’s worth fighting for.”

4 NEWS

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

PGSS to join the Coalition régionale de Montréal Council discusses initiatives against sexual violence on campus and Secretary-General by-elections Marie Labrosse Features Editor On Oct. 18, the Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) Council met for the fourth time this semester, where they voted to join the Coalition Régionale de Montréal (CREM), a student advocacy group with more than 260,000 student members from universities across Montreal. The new Chief Returning Officer (CRO) for the Secretary-General by-elections Andréanne St-Gelais also detailed the steps of the electoral process, and Equity Commissioner Emil Briones reported on PGSS’s involvement in actions against sexual violence. Other notable announcements included Lorna MacEachern’s presentation on the myPath Individual Development Plan, Patrick Visintini’s discussion of the Legal Information Clinic’s services, and Krista Houser’s introduction to the McGill Office of Sustainability.

Legislative Council votes to join the Coalition régionale étudiante de Montréal External Affairs Officer Hocine Slimani put forth a motion for PGSS to join CREM. The nonprofit was formed in 2017 at the beginning of the municipal electoral campaign, and aims to support student needs at the metropolitan level by bringing their demands to the attention of political parties and candidates in the upcoming municipal election.

“The PGSS would like to formally assist and participate in [CREM’s] meetings,” Slimani said. “The executive com-

mittee already referred it, so they’re inclined to go for it.”

The majority of CREM’s demands focus on Montreal’s public transport system, with five of eight of their goals relating to the expansion of the public transit system and student discounts. The group also strives to raise awareness of students’ struggles to find affordable housing and of the lack of youth representation in the city’s governing bodies.

The motion to join CREM passed with one vote against and four abstentions.

By-election for Secretary-General announcement Following Former PGSS secretarygeneral Jacob Lavigne’s resignation on Oct. 2, CRO St-Gelais announced the details of the upcoming by-election for his replacement.

The call for nominations is now open until Oct. 27, with nomination forms available on the PGSS website. The mandatory candidates’ meeting will take place on Oct. 26 at 6 p.m. at Thomson House, and the CRO will release the meeting’s location via email prior to it.

“We’re waiting to see if there’s going to be people interested who nominate themselves,” St-Gelais said. “[At the] information session for candidates, [...] we’ll know how many people are interested.”

Campaigning will take place from Oct. 28 to Nov. 4, culminating in elections from Nov. 5 to 11. The new SecretaryGeneral’s term will begin on Nov. 12.

Equity Commissioner reports on McGill’s Policy against Sexual Violence Equity Commissioner Emil Briones updated council on PGSS’s current research into sexual violence on campus.

Briones gave notice of the appointment of Sara Mahboob (L.L.M. ‘08), a doctoral candidate at McGill’s Faculty of Law, to the Ad-Hoc panel to conduct a campus study of sexual violence. Following concerns that Briones’ seat on the panel constituted a conflict of interest, Mahboob was nominated to take his place as an observed of the panel’s activities.

“There was a concern brought up two council meetings ago that I sat on the [...] panel [...] and that the chair of that committee [Dr. Shaheen Shariff] is one of my graduate supervisors,” Briones said. “I found someone who had the time to sit on that committee as a delegate instead of myself [....] Her scholarship very much speaks to the context of this work so that’s pretty exciting.”

The Equity Commissioner asked that PGSS Council attendees fill out Dr. Shaheen Shariff’s survey on student experiences with sexual violences and with McGill’s Policy against Sexual Violence.

The data coming out of the resource project will serve to inform the development of PGSS’s sexual violence policy.

Briones and Member Services Officer JennyAnn Pura have also secured an observer seat for PGSS on the implementation committee of the sexual violence policy. As an aside, Briones also expressed his support for all those triggered by the

A by-election will be held from Nov. 5 to 11 to elect a new PGSS secretary-general. (L-A Benoit/ The McGill Tribune) current social media activity around sexual violence and harassment, such as the #MeToo movement and references to sexual violence stemming from the Harvey Weinstein scandal. He reminded students that the McGill campus has resources for them and that part of his role as Equity Commissioner is to help direct those in need to these services.

“If you know anyone who is emotionally triggered or going through a hard time there are resources on campus here for that,” Briones said. “I certainly can be supportive in that way. If there are students coming to you with these kinds of concerns please know that my [...] door is never closed to people.”

Closure plans leave SSMU building tenants uncertain Groups say too little is being done, too late Ari Charles Contributor Continued from page 1.

Although Alegria does not perform in the SSMU building, it uses the building to rehearse for free. According to Goldstein, the group has already spent roughly $3,000 to rent a theatre next spring, and may now lack the necessary resources to obtain practice space.

“I expect that [SSMU] should have reached out to us right away,” Goldstein said. “The closure will cost us a lot a lot of money, and we’re on a tight budget. It’s difficult to find studio space, especially on weeknights [....] It’s a tremendous source of anxiety for me.”

A more visible tenant experiencing relocation pains is the Midnight Kitchen (MK) collective, a free vegan lunch service that operates from the third floor of the SSMU building. Although MK was notified of the closure in advance, Wade Walker, a paid employee of MK, would have preferred additional outreach from SSMU General Manager Ryan Hughes. “[SSMU] did initially, in late August, say they had found us a space in a building on Peel [Street] that a lot of other ser-

Student clubs and services complain that they have not provided sufficient outreach regarding the closure of the University Centre.

(Daria Kiseleva / The McGill Tribune) vices are going into,” Walker said. “But we brought up concerns that it wasn’t a commercial kitchen. Can we move our [food service] permit there? What happens with the equipment there because it’s not industrial?”

According to Walker, it was for these

reasons that Hughes later ruled out moving MK to the Peel Street location, effectively bringing the collective back to square one.

“We don’t have any strong leads right now,” Walker said. “I guess we’re getting a little bit worried. It would have been nice if they had not offered us a space that was

not going to work [...] because it cut out a month’s worth of time that we thought we had it, and weren’t actively looking for other spaces.”

Although Walker expects that MK’s operations will return to normal after the SSMU building reopens, if the collective is unable to find an interim kitchen space, they may have to provide fewer meals or only offer cold foods. Walker also noted that some of the collective’s paid staff might have to search for new employment.

Other students facing temporary job loss are the employees of Gerts Bar, which will temporarily close.

An employee of the bar, who wished to remain anonymous to avoid retribution from management, alleged that Gerts knew of the impending closure in March, when it re-hired staff for this year. The student explained that they were not told that their employment would be cut short, and only learned of the closure along with the rest of the student body in September.

“My initial reaction [to the closure] was shock and disbelief,” the employee said. “We had signed contracts that were supposed to go until the end of April [2018] We have received no notice as to what is going to happen to those contracts after the building closes.”

OPINION 5

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

McGill must take a stand against Bill 62 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 Izze Siemann scitech@mcgilltribune.com Student Living Editor Grace Bahler 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 Daniel Freed & Elli Slavitch design@mcgilltribune.com Photo Editor Ava Zwolinski photo@mcgilltribune.com Multimedia Editor April Barrett multimedia@mcgilltribune.com Web Developers Daniel Lutes webdev@mcgilltribune.com Julia Kafato online@mcgilltribune.com Copy Editor Ayanna De Graff copy@mcgilltribune.com

Bill 62 is a xenophobic piece of legislation that is not reflective of the multicultural values upheld at McGill.

The bill, passed by the provincial government on Oct. 18, prohibits citizens from covering their faces while giving and using public services.

Justified under the guise of religious neutrality and security, Bill 62 is anything but neutral. Instead, it targets one specific sector of society: Muslim women who choose to wear the burqa or the niqab. If enforced, the law will infringe on the religious freedom of these individuals on a day-to-day basis.

These Muslim women—including McGill students—will, theoretically, be forced to unveil to access Quebec public services. That includes taking the bus or the metro, attending classes at McGill or another a public university, or getting medical treatment at a hospital.

This law stands to affect a significant number of McGill students—6.4 per cent of respondents in the 2009 Student Demographics Survey conducted by the Social Equity and Diversity Education Office (SEDE) identified as Muslim—some of whom may choose to wear a burqa or niqab.

The McGill community must respond, because the university must be a safe space for all students. To promote values of cultural acceptance, diversity, and religious freedom, McGill administration, professors, and students must actively and vocally oppose Bill 62.

The debate over secularism in Quebec is not new. Since the

OFF THE BOARD

Business Manager Daniel Minuk business@mcgilltribune.com Advertising Executives Grayson Castell, Noah Cohen, Vincent Li ads@mcgilltribune.com Publisher Chad Ronalds

TPS Board of Directors

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

Staff Writers

Julia Métraux, Fionn Adamian, Kendall McGowan, Cherry Wu, Grey Gunning, Gabriel Rincon, Avleen Mokha, Virginia Shram, Sophie Brzozowski, Kate Lord, Sam Min, Oceane Marescal, Miguel Principe, Emma Carr, Wasif Husain, Jordan Foy, Patrick Beacham, Winnie Lin, Cordelia Cho, Erica Stefano, Gabriel Helfant, Margaux Delalex

Contributors

Amrit Grewal, Anna Wallin, Antoine Vandenborre, Ari Charles, Avery Warkentin, Brandon Kaufman, Caitlyn Atkinson, Christina Stackpole, Emma Gillies, Fiona Khan, Gabe Nisker, Gwen Wren, Hana Shiraishi, Jade Prévost-Manuel, Jasmine Acharya, Johanna Cline, Keira Seidenberg, Laura Oprescu, Linqiao Zhou, Lucas Harvey, Margaux Delalex, Muhan Zhang, Shanell Fan

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.

Selin Altuntur Managing Editor Being a grown-up is really hard.

Any young adult can attest that our first encounters with personal finances, heartbreak, and aging parents can be downright scary. The real world is indeed a frightful place, rife with political instability, wildfires, and unexpected ways to die. The idea of having a specific holiday with the purpose of frightening the masses seems redundant at this point in time— our lives are already scary enough.

Thankfully, Halloween is about much more than fear itself.

As a child, the purpose of Halloween seemed abundantly clear: Dress up, get spooked, get candy, and eat candy. Kids think about their

revolutionary changes in the 1960s and ‘70s under the Lesage and Bourassa governments, wherein the Roman Catholic Church was forced to relinquish control over healthcare

“

If it truly embraces diversity, the university cannot remain silent on this blatant act of discrimination that will affect current and prospective members of the McGill community.

government fails to see is that to be secular is to ensure that no one religion is favoured or repressed by the state.

By infringing on the religious freedom of Muslim women who choose to wear a burqa or niqab, the provincial government has confused secularism with discrimination.

When the Trump administration enacted a travel ban on individuals from predominantly Muslim countries, a policy that similarly targeted a specific religious group, the McGill administration released a prompt statement in support of Muslim students affected by the discriminatory order.

Principal Suzanne Fortier declared that the Executive Order contradicted McGill’s character as a “community that embraces diversity,” and asked students for feedback on how the legislation would stand to affect them and how McGill could appropriately support them. A similar statement regarding Bill 62 has yet to appear in students’ inboxes. McGill may rely on provincial government funding, but that is no excuse. If it truly embraces diversity, the university cannot remain silent on or comply with this blatant act of discrimination that will affect current and prospective members of the McGill community. McGill students need to know that their religious beliefs, whatever they may be, will be accepted and welcomed on campus. A clear statement from the university administration is necessary to communicate this, as well as a similar call for feedback from students to the

“

Editor-in-Chief Nicholas Jasinski editor@mcgilltribune.com

and education, many Quebecois have remained strictly devoted to enforcing the separation of church and state. However, these principles of non-discrimination and religious freedom have unfortunately become twisted covers for Islamophobia and ethnocentrism. Today, Bill 62 is the state’s response to recent waves of immigration—particularly from majority-Muslim countries—and the supposed challenges they pose to Quebec’s secularism. What the Quebec

EDITORIAL one it issued after the travel ban.

Professors and students also have a responsibility to respond.

Several McGill professors have posted announcements on MyCourses, promising not to enforce Bill 62 in their classrooms. Other professors should follow suite. Furthermore, McGill students must play an active role in combating religious discrimination and ethnocentrism on campus.

Islamophobia threatens the potential for diversity and multiculturalism at McGill, and, more importantly, it violates the freedom and dignity of Muslim students.

In the face of recent violent threats against Muslims in Quebec and ignorant government legislation, now more than ever, all members of the McGill community must take steps to educate themselves on these issues, and promote respect. The McGill community, and especially the administration, cannot remain silent. Speaking out against this bill and the discriminatory attitudes underlying it is imperative to ensure that Muslim students—and all students, for that matter—know that McGill is a place where all students can express themselves freely. Ignorance breeds fear, but knowledge helps to promote cross-cultural understanding and respect. The stakes are high. We must all take a stand.

The McGill Tribune welcomes anyone who has been affected by Bill 62 and would like their voice to be heard to email opinion@mcgilltribune.com.

Adults need Halloween, too costumes with great anticipation, and genuinely look forward to immersing themselves in the Halloween spirit. It is, after all, a day that celebrates the key facets of childhood: Play, fantasy, and creativity.

Alas, as our bodies age and our minds become jaded by the general mess that is human life, our imaginations slowly waste away. We play less, work more, and become generally less enthused about Halloween. Finding a costume becomes a source of stress, tacked on to the long list of other things that need to get done. Trick-or-treating is no longer an option, replaced by runof-the-mill house parties or nights out in half-assed unicorn costumes bought at Walmart the day of.

Yet, things don’t need to seem so dire. The imagination is a muscle: It may be weakened by years of inaction, but it is still ready to be used.

Halloween is the perfect occasion to reinvigorate our childhood spirits, and it deserves to be recognized as such.

Halfway through the most stressful period of the semester, it’s incredibly vital to take this one day to prioritize living out our wildest fantasies.

Halloween may seem like a strange thing to spend valuable energy on in the middle of a bustling life, but it’s important to remember that play is actually good for you. Celebrated psychologist Abraham Maslow

included play among 14 attributes essential for living a fulfilled life.

Playfulness, according to Maslow, can be defined by amusement, humour, gaiety, and effortlessness. There are few better ways to let go of everyday stresses and inhibitions than to dress up as a completely different person, animal, or object.

Better yet, putting actual effort into making a costume that you care about is a sure-fire way to flex those imaginative muscles, and get the most out of Halloween. There are two ways to potentially go about the task of building a costume: Either think of something you would specifically want to be and seek out the necessary pieces, or go to a thrift shop and improvise an outfit. Last year, my friend and I went full-on goth for no more than 10 dollars, using thrifted items and things we already owned. It was lit.

In addition, the fun of Halloween goes beyond imaginative play and creative thinking. Experiencing fear in a non-life threatening context can be delightful in and of itself. The

adrenaline-fuelled excitement brought on by horror films, escape rooms, and insane corn mazes can trigger positive emotions like relief and triumph once the initial spook wears off.

At its core, however, the point of Halloween is to literally and figuratively embody someone else, which allows you to escape the stresses of regular life. Or, if you actually do need to work or do something important on the day of, taking care of business while dressed as ‘80s pop icon Cher is a surefire way to make your day infinitely more special.

It’s abundantly clear that Halloween is not a day to waste.

It serves an important purpose: To remind us that despite everything we have going on, time spent having fun is never time wasted. In fact, I’d argue that adults need Halloween more than children do—kids don’t need to be reminded to have fun. As an adult, it’s easy to get caught up in the mundanity of busy life, and to forget the simple joys of pumpkin carving and fake blood.

ERRATUM An article published in the Oct. 17 issue titled “On sexual violence policy reform, it’s McGill’s turn” incorrectly stated that Our Turn originated at Ryerson University—it was in fact started at Carleton University.

The Tribune regrets these errors.

6 OPINION

Johanna Cline Contributor Taking a break is beneficial and often necessary for maintaining mental health. A rising number of Canadian universities are acknowledging this in their academic calendars by implementing a Fall reading week.

With strenuous midterms, shorter days, and overburdened on-campus support services, McGill students

COMMENTARY

On Sunday, Oct. 15, I scrolled past the first of the now viral “Me too” posts.

Since then, I have tried to articulate my mixed feelings towards the “Me too” campaign in dozens of conversations with friends and fellow survivors. As much as I admire the thousands of women who have spoken up through this campaign, I cannot help but feel uneasy about the emotional and affective labour that the “Me too” movement demands of survivors.

Affective labour, in this instance, comes in the form of calling upon survivors to post in order to prove their personal and collective experiences of sexual assault and harassment. The viral visibility of the campaign itself forces survivors to relive intensely difficult emotions and experiences with every post they see. To call this “upsetting” is to put the feeling—and its magnitude—lightly.

As I debated whether I should post “Me too” myself, I also considered the positive and empowering aspects of this hashtag. Indeed, #MeToo speaks to a shared experience among over half the population, and moreover, a type of experience that is

need a Fall break to improve their well-being and academic success.

In November 2015, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) proposed a Fall reading week, but failed to implement it because of administrative concerns, including, according to former Vice-President (VP) University Affairs Chloe Rourke, “aversion to change” and apprehension about student benefits from the break. Further, outdated tradition has placed constraints on how the McGill calendar is set.

Currently, the calendar follows Senate guidelines that are still based off of year-long courses, meaning they’re not structured with Fall midterms in mind. In April 2015, an Enrolment Services survey of 5,000 students found that 71.5 per cent of respondents were in favour of having a Fall reading break. Later that year, SSMU passed a motion in support of the break.

Although efforts have been made to find a way to accommodate a Fall break through calendar restructuring, administrative barriers are not a

sufficient excuse. The momentum behind creating another break must continue to grow, in order to give students the aid they require as immediately as possible—ideally by next year. For every bureaucratic speed bump blocking the path to implementing a Fall reading week, there are countless students whose participation in their education is diminished by burnout.

Students would benefit massively from an additional break. As one of Canada’s top schools, McGill is known for its rigorous academic programmes.

This hard-working atmosphere is intense year-round, but reaches alarming peaks during midterm season—when stress and exhaustion can ignite mental health challenges for students. McGill Health Services has even reported an increased demand for mental health support in October and November. Unfortunately, the spiking demand means longer waitlists and delayed assistance for those who need it most. Despite these critical issues and evident student support for an

#MeToo comes at a cost

otherwise taboo in regular conversation or public forums. No one wants to bring up difficult personal experiences in spaces or moments not meant for them—such as a Facebook newsfeed—and these designated spaces are almost always few and inaccessible. As such, to be able to say “Me too” via social media can be a rare moment of catharsis. “Me too” gives survivors a platform to be brave and outspoken. In return, they are validated and heard.

And yet, in our celebration of the bravery and resilience of these individuals, we must not forget that the effectiveness of “Me too” is wholly predicated on every participant’s acute and mostly involuntary affective labour. Actress Alyssa Milano, one of the purported initiators of the viral movement, tweeted in her original post: “If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote ‘Me too.’ as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.” Those who post are thus called upon and even pressured to

“

And so, over the past few days, as the momentum of “Me too” wore thin through sheer attrition, and criticisms emerged alongside sentiments of solidarity, it was the survivors who came under fire.

In other words, while the intent of “Me too” might be to expose the prevalence of sexual assault and harassment against (predominantly) women to (predominantly)

additional break, the university has yet to update the calendar.

With rising demand for mental health services, other Canadian universities have moved to adopt Fall breaks for their weary students. Today, 61 per cent of universities nationwide incorporate rest days into Fall semester. At the University of Alberta, for example, officials implemented a post-midterm break to alleviate pressure on students whose mental wellness had been strained during the arduous assessments. Mount Royal University in Calgary—another school that has recently designated a Fall break—believes the time off offers students experiencing challenges in their studies the opportunity to seek academic aid at a time that’s early enough in the semester to course correct—a reassurance that lessens students’ mental burdens.

At Western University, implementation of a first-semester break arose from more than just student petitioning and a concern for mental health on campus—it was a

response to crises. After two highprofile suicides, the Senate finally heard what students had been saying for years—that they needed a break— and added a week off in October.

Tragedy cannot be the only way to incite a response. McGill’s mission to advance learning and offer the best possible education is not obtainable for students when they are unable to manage their studies alongside their mental health. Administrators must recognize concerns about overwhelming student stress and face facts about deteriorating wellness during midterms. This means working through bureaucratic barriers to implement a restructured academic calendar with a Fall reading week sooner, rather than later.

McGill needs to support students during stressful periods; not just through on-campus support, but through thoughtful restructuring of their academic experience to allow students time to catch up on work and rest. McGill cannot wait for tragedy to occur—it should take action now.

men, the drive of this movement rests wholly on the backs of the survivors. While the effectiveness of such a strategy remains up for debate, we absolutely cannot forget the affective labour we are demanding— and have always demanded—of survivors.

Likewise, we cannot forget that overwhelming statistics and testimonies regarding sexual assault already exist,

and have proven ineffectual in prompting significant change. Performative allyship online will be the first so-called results of this movement, but it is not enough. What remains to be seen is whether meaningful action will follow, or if we are merely retracing well worn paths of demanding affective labour of survivors from a standpoint of systemic disbelief.

Photo: Casey Kelbaugh

Muhan Zhang Contributor

McGill students need a Fall reading week to maintain mental health

“

COMMENTARY

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

The drive of this movement rests solely on the backs of survivors.

come forward with their own testimonies.

In many ways, this campaign therefore replicates pre-existing patterns in which we demand survivors to convince us of their truth from a position of fundamental disbelief. Those who see the posts, meanwhile, are forced to not only recall their experiences of assault and harassment, but also relive the trauma of systemic disbelief, inaction, and general helplessness that so frequently follows these experiences.

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Tuesday, October 24, 2017

7 STUDENT LIVING

Common Campus Sightings, Decoded Audrey Carleton, Managing Editor Illustrations by Arshaaq Jiffry

Alex is spotted walking up rue university toward the Milton Gates at 9 p.m. He is holding an extra large Tim Horton’s cup and a bag of timbits.

How to keep houseplants alive during the busiest time of year

Jonah Neumark, permaculture specialist, sheds light on healthy plant practices

What it means: Alex has not started studying for his exam, and it is now the night before.

Alex will be spending a long night in McLennan.

Beatrice is selling a “GENTLY USED” textbook on the McGill textbook exchange.

What it means: Beatrice did not open that textbook at all over the course of the semester, and she’s now reselling it in order to update her fall wardrobe.

There’s one empty carrel on the 6th floor of McLennan. There’s a folder sitting on the desk of the carrel.

What it means: That seat is not for you, it’s for Sally’s friend, who won’t be here for another three hours. Try the 5th floor.

It’s a brisk October day, and every seat is filled in your recorded 500-person Political Science lecture.

What it means: You forget your midterm was today. Good luck!

A swarm of young students exits Leacock, most of which with samosa in hand.

What it means: Class just ended in Leacock 132, and there happened to be a Samosa sale going on in Leacock lobby. Don’t try to get one—the samosas are now completely gone.

Brian, a person from your Frosh group that you shared a few shots with on the bus to beach day, walking through the Y-Intersection.

What it means: You and Brian will avoid eye contact and will pretend not to know each other.

With a busy schedule, houseplants are often left uncared for.

(Summer Liu / The McGill Tribune)

Anna Wallin Contributor It’s easy to forget about houseplants amid midterms, essays, and deadlines. The Concordia Greenhouse, in partnership with permaculture specialist Jonah Neumark, strove to address this common student dilemma at its Houseplant Care 101 workshop on Oct. 19. Neumark heads Neumark Design, a permaculture design and implementation company based in Montreal, and runs a plant nursery. The session covered how to provide proper lighting, water, soil, and fertilizers for plants, as well as combatting pests and diseases. Afterward, The McGill Tribune spoke with Neumark about the ins and outs of houseplant care and how to keep them healthy and happy, all while managing a busy student schedule.

The McGill Tribune (MT): Do you have any tips for first-time gardeners?

Jonah Neumark (JN): Follow a few basic rules. Water properly, give [houseplants] the proper lighting conditions, repot the plant[s], and keep them in good quality, aerated soil [....] Do basic research on the type of plant you have, the soil and light needs. [Consider] if it needs very arid conditions or wet conditions. [Is it] a tropical plant that needs to stay indoors, or is it a harsh plant that needs a cold dormancy?

MT: Many students are busy and don’t have time to care for their houseplants.

What type of plant requires the least amount of care?

JN: Succulents and cacti for sure are very, very low maintenance. They’re very tolerant of dry conditions. You want to let the soil dry out almost completely.

That is the one that requires the least amount of water. And it grows slowly, so you are repotting less often. Non-cacti that I recommend that are similar to cacti, in terms of aesthetic and type of plant, [are] the oxalis. It has a triangular red leaf and flowers beautifully. Honestly, I’ve had one since I was young in my parents’ house, and it must have gotten wilted to the point where all the leaves dried and died and had not been repotted in many years, but it still survived and flowered.

MT: Are there good reasons to buy an annual even if it’s likely going to die?

JN: Many vegetables are annuals. They’re useful, productive plants, but that’s it. I find way too many people plant annual flowers [....] People often plant things like impatiens around the borders of their garden. They’re really pretty, but there are many perennials that are [just] as pretty. I think [people buy annuals more] because of landscaping and plant nursery industries [promoting them] in order to have resales.

MT: What are the best practices for watering houseplants?

JN: Pour in [more than just] a little bit of water. Take them to the bathtub or outside or put a tray underneath to catch the water, and saturate them fully with up to four waterings, flushing them each time so that the water comes out the bottom. The idea is that every time you water, you want to make sure the entire volume of soil is fully saturated. Water once, wait five or 10 minutes, and water it again [up to four times].

MT: No one like bugs in their apartment. Can pests be an issue for houseplants?

JN: There are diseases [that can affect them]. There are fungal diseases, and then there are things like mildew and rust. Then there’s pests. For mildew, you would use baking soda or sulfur [to get rid of it]. For most common insects, [such as] whitefly, aphids, mealybugs, insecticidal soap takes care of it.

"Please read tHE policy"

STRUGGLING to understand McGill's Policy against Sexual Violence

By Ariella Garmaise Arts & Entertainment Editor This past week, The McGill Tribune spoke to Angela Campbell, associate provost (Policies, Procedures and Equity), and a pioneer of McGill’s new Policy against Sexual Violence. In this correspondence, the Tribune asked specifically about Our Turn—a third party inter-university action plan that grades Canadian universities on these types of policies­—pointing out that McGill scored zero for failing to process “faculty and staff [...] under the same SVP (Sexual Violence Policy) as students.” Her response was rather curt.

“This is false,” Campbell wrote. “The Policy applies to all members of the McGill community.

Please read the Policy.”

How is it possible that Campbell had such a different interpretation from Our Turn’s report on McGill’s Policy against Sexual Violence? The answer is that Campbell’s claim isn’t entirely unfounded, but it’s not entirely right either.

Technically, Campbell is correct. As outlined in Section 1, “this policy applies to all Members of the University Community,” and faculty and staff members fall under the ‘University Community.’

However, when it comes to methods of recourse, students and faculty are held to different standards.

Marc-Antoine Séguin, the director of Student Advocacy and University Affairs for the Legal Information Clinic at McGill (LICM), a not-for-profit organization that helps students navigate McGill policy, explained what exactly this difference entails.

“The complaints are brought through the same initial process, it’s just that there are extra steps,” Séguin said. “The sexual violence policy applies [to professors], it’s just not the only policy that applies […] so that’s the tricky part.”

Student behaviour, including instances of sexual violence, is processed according to the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures, while professors are typically referred to Regulations Relating to the Employment of Tenure Track and Tenured Academic Staff. This may sound like a technicality, but the difference in processing has serious implications for how the university pursues those who have been accused of sexual violence. While the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures explains to students how to pursue these claims, the Regulations Relating to the Employment of Tenure Track and Tenured Academic Staff’s disciplinary procedures are largely confidential due to Quebec labour laws.

The Regulations Related to the Employment of Tenure Track and Tenured Academic Staff does contain some information on student-professor relationships. Section 7.16.6 of the tenure policy states that “proposed external evaluators shall not be current or former thesis or research supervisors, students, or individuals with whom the candidate has or has had a close personal or professional relationship.” As well, in its definition of consent, the Policy Against Sexual violence outlines that consent cannot be given in a relationship between a professor and student. However, neither document provides specific information pertaining to what exact steps students can take should they encounter sexual violence at the hands of a faculty member. “[Professorial accountability], in terms of their unions and stuff, [isn’t] clear to students [....],” Maya Koparkar, Vice-President (VP) Internal of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) said. “And that’s important for students to know.”

Therefore, while not exactly false, Campbell’s interpretation that McGill students and faculty are processed under the same policy is misleading. While this speaks to current issues McGill faces regarding the nature of professor-student relationships, it is symbolic of an even broader problem: University policies are difficult to navigate. This is not unintentional, and students who don’t fully understand what exactly these policies entail can face grave consequences.

In an online survey conducted by the Tribune in the week of Oct. 16, 51.5 per cent of 66 respondents said they are “not very familiar” with McGill’s Policy against Sexual Violence. Only three per cent of students said that they are “extremely familiar” with this policy. This applies to most McGill policies: They are long, filled with legal jargon that makes them hard to read, and students often don’t familiarize themselves with documents until absolutely necessary. Overwhelmingly, however, this survey found that students are distrustful of the university’s administration: 53 per cent of respondents said that “they have little faith in [McGill’s] ability to provide support.”

“The most important thing is that we have to have institutions that want people to be able to understand these policies,” Caitlin Salvino, chair of Our Turn, said. “I don’t think it’s too difficult [….] You need to recognize that this is an administrative policy, it’s not the criminal justice system, so it doesn’t have any of the requirements that the criminal justice system has.”

McGill’s Policy against Sexual Violence is especially hard to read because it is not a standalone policy, meaning it refers to other documents, namely the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures. The multitude of documents inhibits students’ ability to decipher what steps are necessary to pursue sexual violence claims, and does not properly address the specific sensitivity sexual violence cases require.

“What’s really important to understand is that sexual violence is a very specific form of violence […],” Salvino said. “So when the Student Code is created, it’s not created to be specifically sensitive to issues of sexual violence. One example would be that when responding to sexual violence, and being on the review committee deciding responsibility and sanctions, you need specific sensitivity training, for example what questions you can ask someone who experiences this and such, and that’s just not covered in the Student Code.”

However, the administration often stands in opposition to these third-party resources. “Public narratives around the Policy are sometimes misleading and this is unfortunate, as it can lead to confusion and misunderstandings,” Campbell said. “We encourage students to read the Policy directly, rather than relying on secondhand information.”

The issue is that students often don’t have the time, motivation, or even the ability to decipher texts that are so technical in nature. Our Turn provides students with a clear and digestible set of standards by which to judge these fundamental policies. Third-party organizations like Our Turn, LICM, SACOMSS (the Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students' Society), and McGill’s Office for Sexual Violence Response, Support and Education (OSVRSE), are all helpful resources for students seeking to navigate the complexities of McGill’s Policy against Sexual Violence. The McGill administration needs to continue to support these groups in helping students navigate policy.

“It shouldn’t only be [a] burden on the students to do this,” Salvino said. “Students and their institutions should work together to make sure that [policies] are as accessible as possible.”

"local policy matters too.

It is in holding community

"University policies are intentionally difficult to navigate, allowing the administration to hide behind technicalities."

WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES IN ACCESSING THIS POLICY?

53% 43.9% 12.1% 10.6%

"I HAVE LITTLE TO NO FAITH IN THE INSTITUTION'S ABILITY TO PROVIDE SUPPORT"

"DOCUMENT IS DIFFICULT TO FIND"

"I AM INDIFFERENT TOWARDS THIS POLICY"

"I DO NOT FIND THIS POLICY DIFFICULT TO ACCESS"

In particular, Salvino recommends that universities accompany complex policies with supplementary documents.

“A lot of schools [Our Turn reported on] had flowcharts at the end of their documents which is great for people who are reading these documents,” Salvino said. “You read the whole thing, and it’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of clauses, especially if you don’t study law. At the end, some of [other schools’] documents have this wonderful graphic that shows you what your options [are] and what you can do, and that really helps when students are trying to access this stuff.”

Students’ confusion about McGill’s policies is certainly not limited to the Policy Against Sexual Violence. In fact, according to the survey conducted by the Tribune, students’ familiarity with the Policy against Sexual Violence fared well relative to other policies. 57.6 per cent of students are “not very familiar” with McGill’s Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures, and an alarming 74.2 per cent of students said they are “not very familiar” with the Charter of Student Rights. Of the 66 students who filled out this survey, not a single respondent said they were extremely familiar with this document. Unlike with the Policy against Sexual Violence, students did not cite distrust in their administration as the primary cause for their confusion. Relating specifically to the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures, 23.7 per cent of students said that this policy is hard to find, 27.3 per cent said the document is hard to read, and 25.8 per cent said that they are just generally indifferent toward this policy.

However, by failing to familiarize themselves with the Student Code of Conduct, students often miss out on beneficial information. The Legal Information Clinic at McGill exists specifically to help students navigate these policies.

“People come into this office thinking that they plagiarized on an exam, and they’re going to be expelled, [when] that is not at all the case,” Séguin said. “That’s not only because of [preconceptions], but because the Code is written in a way, and the letters that disciplinary officers send are written in a way, that’s very intimidating and that can lead to some stress. A lot of our job is to dispel those myths.”

Supplementary resources, like SSMU’s “Know Your Rights” Campaign, are crucial in providing students with clear explanations for complicated policies. “[Know Your Rights] does a really good job,” Séguin said. “I like that website, and it does a good job [of] walking you [through] and explaining things. And [the fact that] it comes from SSMU and not the [McGill] administration is interesting.”

Still, McGill is aware of the barriers students encounter when trying to access these policies, and is taking proactive measures to adjust accordingly. The administration is currently revising the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures, and, for the first time in 30 years, its Charter of Student Rights.

“There are some big issues that we need to address,” Glenn Zabowski, associate Dean of Students said. “One is the ‘McGill Context.’ What is the jurisdiction of the university if something happens off campus? Currently our code is a bit vague and we need to address that. [Even] if something happens off campus, that does affect students learning experience at McGill.”

Currently, the administration does not have any supplementary programs in place similar to SSMU’s “Know Your Rights” campaign. Zabowski recommends that students directly approach the Office of the Dean of Students when they encounter any confusion regarding the Student Code of Conduct. One student who filled out the Tribune’s survey, found that “there is very little advertisement of rights and services provided to students by the university.” McGill currently advertises the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures, and similar policies, at Discover McGill and through various academic sub-committees. With additional supplementary documentation that use colloquial language, McGill could explain its policies without sacrificing legal precision.

Séguin endorses the creation of more literature on McGill policies. “[Students need] general pamphlets explaining how these things work, and walking you through the process in more accessible language,” Séguin said. “You keep the precision of the document itself, but you have this added document that walks you through it in friendly language. It can be organized in a way that makes it clearer how things work.”

University policies remain inherently confusing, and part of this confusion is impossible to avoid; documents of a legal nature are inclined to jargon and lengthiness that make them hard to read.

However, McGill needs to do a better job of providing students with resources that explain these policies, while continuing to support organizations that work in this direction. Ambiguity about whether the Policy against Sexual Violence applies to professors is only one of the many ways in which unclear policies can make the process of reporting and addressing these issues nearly impossible for students.

Moreover, unclear wording allows the administration to hide behind technicalities or contradictions.

Confusion surrounding policies is not limited to those crafted by McGill. On Oct. 16, SSMU held an Open Forum on the Gendered and Sexual Violence Policy it is currently drafting. The forum was poorly attended by both students and executives; VP External Connor Spencer was the only SSMU Executive present, and not including Spencer and a TVMcGill representative, there were only 13 people in attendance. SSMU needs to advertise these events more broadly, and to make sure that its executives show up to such crucial discussions. By holding SSMU to these standards, students have a valuable opportunity to help shape this policy, and ensure it reflects their needs. In the wake of international scandals about pandemic sexual violence—and perpetrators who evade recourse— it’s important to remember that local policy matters too. It is in holding community organizations accountable that individuals can have the most impact.

Gendered and Sexual Violence Policy it is currently drafting. The forum was poorly attended by both students and executives alike; Vice-President (VP) External Connor Spencer was the only SSMU Executive present, and not including Spencer and a TVMcGill (TVM) representative, there were only thirteen people in attendance. SSMU needs to advertise these events more broadly, and to make sure that its executives show up to such crucial discussions. By holding SSMU to these standards, students have a valuable opportunity to help shape this policy, and ensure it reflects their needs. In the wake of international scandals about pandemic sexual violence, and perpetrators who evade recourse, it’s important to remember that local policy matters too. It is in holding community organizations accountable that individuals can have the most impact.

How familar are you with McGill's policy against sexual violence?

13.6% - Moderately Familar

31.8% - Not Very Familar

3% - Extremely Familar

51.5% - Somewhat Familar

"local policy matters too. It is in holding community organizations accountable that individuals can have the most impact."

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

STUDENT LIVING 10

Montreal’s oldest costume shop, est. 1865 is a time travel machine Ponton Costumes takes a unique approach to vintage Halloween outfits Shanell Fan Contributor When it comes to dressing up for Halloween, many students experience annual anxieties over finding a last minute costume that isn’t the run-of-the-mill cat ears or devil horns. Ponton Costumes stands in stark contrast to commercial costume stores, with its large array of high quality vintage costumes. Located in the Old Port, the store’s history dates back to 1865, when Joseph Ponton, theatre enthusiast and founder of the shop, worked as a barber on St-Laurent boulevard.

“Next to the barber shop, there was a costume store,” Carmelle Gagné, current owner of the store, said. “But he was not the owner for very long. Joseph Ponton died young, so the store was sold to Monsieur Phillipe who worked there for 20 years [....] Then it was sold to another [man] who worked there for 25 years, and then another one, until I bought it.”

Following Ponton’s death, the store continued to thrive as it passed on from successor to successor. It is now known as the oldest and largest costume shop in Montreal.

“Before [becoming the owner] I worked here for 30 years,” Gagné said. “I bought the store because I loved it, and

it’s been an adventure.”

Gagné started working at Ponton Costumes in 1987, and continued to work as a saleswoman until she was presented with the opportunity to buy the shop. She currently owns the store with Dominique Broussard. Three years ago, the pair relocated the store to St. Catherine street East in the Old Port, away from their

Ponton Costumes is Montreal’s oldest costume store.

(Margaux Delalex / The McGill Tribune) previous location near the Notre Dame church. Although the new location is smaller than the old space, Gagné believes it is easier for customers to walk through and for employees to maintain.

“The old one was much bigger,” Gagné said. “It was too big. Four floors.

We had two floors for costumes, one floor for accessories, and one floor for [dressmaking]. It was hard to clean everything everyday, and there was so much [stuff] it was hard to [navigate].”

Despite its smaller location, the store didn’t lose any of its charm in the move. With giant purple velvet curtains framing its entrance, and a quaint, antique interior, the vibe at Ponton’s instantly puts shoppers in the Halloween spirit. The store offers a wide selection of costume paraphernalia from all decades, including antique masks, wigs, and accessories.

Broussard also has her own station in the shop where she makes and mends the costumes on site. The wide variety of garments are organized neatly by era as to make one feel like they are travelling backward through time while walking through the store, from the 1990s to Ancient Rome.

Not only are the costumes handmade and the accessories antique, but the passion the owners have for the store comes through in every aspect of the shop. No other Halloween outlet in Montreal can trace its history back to the late 19th century, and rarely do they offer over 15,000 costumes spanning more than 20 themes. Since 1865, Ponton Costumes has remained one of Montreal’s greatest shops.

Taco Tuesday: McGill and Montreal’s tortilla scene

The history behind the Mexican dish and where you can find it Miguel Principe Staff Writer On Oct. 4, foodies around the world celebrated National Taco Day. The Mexican dish is undoubtedly popular, but with one look at Montreal, this might not seem so. While tacos are available across the city, this is worth a second look. As a bite-sized, nutrient-rich dish, tacos are easily a student’s best friend.

Where does the taco come from?

Although tacos might be well-known in North America today, their origins remain ambiguous. Jeffrey M. Pilcher, author of Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food, traces the origin of the taco back to 16th century Mexico, when silver miners called the paper that they wrapped around dynamites “tacos.”

Beyond its linguistic history, it’s hard to trace the dish’s lineage. Indigenous communities in Mexico developed the first taco, but the ruling elite saw the meal as lower-class cuisine, and put little time or resources into recording it. A cookbook from 1831, El Cocinero Mexicano makes note of a possible ancestor of the taco: The envuelto, a taco mixed with an enchilada. It was only in the late 1800s that the taco’s popularity began to boom.

In 1895, the Dictionary of Americanisms added the word “taco”

to its vocabulary. Ten years later, the taco truly entered American culture as Mexican migrants came to work in mines and on railroads in California. Yet again, upper class America viewed the dish—alongside other Mexican foods—as lower-class “street food.” It wasn’t until after World War II, when the children of these Mexican migrants disseminated into American culture, that the taco was more widely accepted by the general public in the United States.

Eventually, in the early 1960s, restaurateur Glen Bell—who originally sold hamburgers and hot dogs— appropriated the taco and franchised it. This version of Mexican cuisine— adapted for American fast-food culture— was met with great success across the U.S., creating the restaurant we now know as Taco Bell. Today, Taco Bell is a mainstream success in both the United States and Canada, operating in almost every Canadian province as a fast food favourite among millennials.

Where can I get tacos near me?

Unfortunately for McGill students, there are only two Taco Bell restaurants on the Island of Montreal. Located in the cities of Saint-Laurent and Pierrefonds— at least an hour from McGill’s downtown campus by transit—they aren’t terribly accessible. Fret not, however: There are still many options for tacos in Milton-

Parc and beyond.

If you’re looking to spend the remnants of your meal plan, Quesada in the Bronfman building is the best option.

Though its location is convenient for a bite between classes, the lunch hour attracts long lines of students. Royal Victoria College’s cafeteria also hosts Taco Tuesday from 5 to 8 p.m. once every few weeks. At $3 per taco, students can fill up with as much beef or vegetarian filling as they can squeeze into the shells.

If venturing off-campus, Lola Rosa is a favourite restaurant among vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike. Located a block from the Milton Gates, this cozy getup sells tacos made with meat-free fillings like teriyaki seitan, coriander, cashews, cucumbers, carrots, and daikon. Be warned though, Lola Rosa’s lines can get long. The tacos are worth waiting for, but be sure to call ahead or make a reservation.

T & T Tacos at the corner of Rachel and Clark streets sells a choice of three of their seven varieties, ranging from pork to steak, fish, and veggie tacos for only $9 on Tuesdays. On any other day, however,

Taqueria Arturo, located on Prince Arthur and St-Dominique streets, offers a wide variety of options—from classic fish to peking duck tacos. Their limitless options come with the caveat of steep prices, but for students looking to shell out a little cash to enjoy tacos with some friends, Taqueria Arturo is worth considering.

Though Montreal’s taco scene might be small in comparison to other cities’, the classic Mexican dish never seems to disappoint. To quote the wise words of Taco Bell, “Don’t look for love. Look for tacos.”

Montreal’s taco scene often goes unnoticed, but students should embrace it.

(Gal Sandaev / The McGill Tribune)

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT 11

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

The Tribune team takes on Montreal’s Festival du Nouveau Cinéma This past October marked the 46th iteration of Montreal’s annual Festival du Nouveau Cinéma (FNC). Decades into its existence, the festival is continuing to grow; this year, FNC managed to secure the premiere of big name films, most notably Blade Runner 2049. The McGill Tribune looks at which films succeeded, and which fell short.

‘Call Me By Your Name’

‘The Killing of a Sacred Deer’

‘The Square’

‘Wonderstruck’

Brandon Kaufman

Christina Stackpole

Brandon Kaufman

Dylan Adamson

Call Me By Your Name is a gay comingof-age story, the aura of which I can compare only to some pleasant summer memory. Elio (Timothée Chalamet) is the precocious son of an academic (Michael Stuhlbarg) living in a small town villa in 1980s Italy. Oliver (Armie Hammer), an American grad student, moves in to study with the professor. Elio and Oliver’s first meetings are awkward as their respective Italian and American sensibilities clearly clash.

Soon, however, a passionate relationship blossoms between them.

Luca Guadagi’s (A Bigger Splash) masterful direction depicts their lovely life in rural Italy, conveying bottomless nostalgia without being overbearing. This can also be credited to James Ivory’s screenplay.

Chalamet astounds, projecting equal parts naivety and intellectual fortitude, and Stuhlbarg’s singularly tender speech to Elio near the film’s closing is a highlight. Hammer, however, is the real star here; his presence is overwhelming from when he meets the family.

The film manages to eschew most clichés that plague queer cinema: There is no enemy, and no one is trying to pry the two apart.

Instead, we get the sense that Elio and Oliver possess absolute freedom.

Not much happens in a larger, conflictoriented sense—a fact reflected in Guadagni’s relatively static camera. What the camera chooses to highlight with its singular grace is Elio’s self-discovery, an arch so potent and affecting that a wave of disappointment crashes upon us as the lights turn on and we realize our time with these characters has come to an end, like the most beguiling of dreams.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer opens with Schubert’s grandiose Stabat Mater, and an extreme close-up of a human heart mid-operation, followed by a conversation about wristwatch straps. Within minutes, director Yorgos Lanthimos sets the tone for the film: Darkly eccentric, fearlessly macabre, and meticulously choreographed. However, underneath its spectacle, and despite some incredible performances, The Killing of a Sacred Deer falls short in depth and emotional resonance.

Colin Farrell plays a successful cardiologist, husband to his wife of 16 years (Nicole Kidman), and father of two children (Raffey Cassidy and Sunny Suljic). His seemingly-idyllic life is torn to shreds with the arrival of oddball teenager Martin (Barry Keoghan), and he is forced to make a choice with life-ordeath consequences.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer is stunning and brutal—a masterclass in arthouse filmmaking, but its coldheartedness and maddening horror make it truly difficult to sit through. The deadpan distance between the characters, while clearly intentional, leaves viewers floundering in an emotional void, offering no window for investment. When The Killing of a Sacred Deer reaches its fierce final act, there is little to do but watch the horrific action play out with the same cool indifference as its characters, a frustrating and hollow payoff after being trapped in a two-hour nightmare.

I’m not being entirely facetious when I say that the most impressive thing about The Square is that writer-director Ruben Östlund (Force Majeure) managed to stretch its stale premise out over an interminable two-and-ahalf hours.

Claes Bang stars as Christian, a cosmopolitan curator at a contemporary museum in Stockholm. In an attempt to revive his museum’s waning attendance, Christian acquires a new exhibit called “The Square”.

At a staff meeting, however, he is told by two press relations people—the kind of guys who would describe themselves as “influencers”— that market research indicates a ridiculous advertisement campaign is needed in order to turn a profit. It’s at around this point that the film begins to cave in. Beautiful cinematography and an exhilarating set piece aren’t enough to distract from the picture’s most apparent issue: A lack of subtlety.

Whether it’s the lampooning of the commoditization of art, the homeless people resting on the museum’s steps, the janitor who accidentally cleans up an experimental piece of art featuring dirt, or—I kid you not—the bonobo who can draw, we are spoon-fed with such frequency that the satire loses its sharpness. By the end of act one it is apparent that the film has beef with the elitist contemporary art scene. Östlund continues to belabour this point until the film moves from thought-provoking to thought-domineering.

The film ends up resembling one of the pretentious, overwrought, and clumsy pieces that Christian would install at his museum— the kind of piece that Östlund would sneer at.

Please ignore the trailer that pops up when searching “Wonderstruck trailer” on YouTube. Todd Haynes’ newest feature has so much more to offer than its protagonists turning corners and choruses of children singing David Bowie songs. Where the trailer promises a children’s movie—and a clichéd one at that—Haynes delivers a brilliantly nuanced film about childhood.

Adapted from Brian Selznick’s graphic novel of the same name, Wonderstruck juxtaposes the temporally distinct experiences of two runaway deaf children in New York City. The first, starring Oakes Fegley (Pete’s Dragon), moves from an incandescent, Stranger Things-esque ‘70s Minnesota home setting, to the ever-loving sunbaked streets of Harlem, New York. Complimenting these sensuous flashes of colour is a black-andwhite take on the Big Apple of the ‘20s, starring formerly-unknown deaf actress Millicent Simmonds. Flighty, effervescent, and whimsical, this twin tale takes its cues from Charlie Chaplin-era silent film.

Intimately tied together from the start with an inventive use of cross-cuts, the two stories share much more than their characters’ disability. Lost in societies not built to accommodate their needs, Haynes’ two protagonists’ experiences of marginality fit well within the larger agenda of his filmography. Wonderstruck, though not a “children’s movie” per se, prizes a childlike innocence and honesty above all else. Powerful without being overbearing, Haynes’ latest is rousing, empathetic cinema at its finest.

Contributor

Contributor

Contributor

Arts & Entertainment Editor

12 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

‘Nightfall’ explores the intersection of artistry and insanity

Cartoon

Players’ Theatre adapts classic literary horror Avery Warkentin Contributor Continued from page 1.

The Pit and the Pendulum is a first-person narration of a man who finds himself trapped in a prison and has to escape a series of torturous devices. Finally, The Tell-Tale Heart provides a story of paranoia and mental deterioration as Poe himself tells the story of how he murdered an old man.

Luke Horton delivers a haunting performance as Poe in the opening and closing stories. Matthew Milton, Oliver

Epstein, Esme Thompson, Emma Barbisan, and Stanley Myers O’Mulloy round out the dynamic cast. The actors play multiple roles, giving the production an intimate feel and allowing each actor to develop a more prominent presence on stage.

This directorial decision to keep the cast small pays off, as Nightfall’s strength lies primarily in its actors’ performances.

The opening tale, The Raven, serves as an introductory piece into the mind of Poe. The dialogue is split between cast members, creating a seamless shared narrative. Horton’s Poe captivatingly delivers some of

the most poignant lines in the poem. With sunken eyes and lifeless stares, he dominates the stage and convincingly captures the poet’s mania. Perfectly rehearsed dialogue from Epstein, Thompson, and Milton, who all play unnamed characters, create a fluid narrative that is wonderfully eerie to watch.

Interestingly, the raven of the poem is played by an actor (Emma Barbisan). Although the avine personification is initially intriguing, its presence at times distracts from the rest of the characters on stage. The raven only repeats a single word of dialogue a handful of times, rendering its large physical presence on stage somewhat at

Nightfall brings Edgar Allan Poe’s poetry to life. (Noah Sutton / The McGill Tribune)

(Daria Kiseleva / The McGill Tribune) odds with its limited vocabulary.

The subsequent three tales provide a similar combination of horror and suspense.

However, tense moments were periodically interrupted by technical shortcomings.

Set changes, although necessary, felt unpolished and lighting and sound cues were not always precise. Sound effects were also an issue, most notably in the third piece, The Pit and the Pendulum.

Nightfall chooses to use voice over in its adaptation of the story, rather than a live performance of the dialogue—a technical choice which doesn’t quite live up to its potential. Myers O’Mulloy gives a strong speechless performance as the prisoner, yet the unpolished and uneven recording feels like a jarring modern insertion in an otherwise antique world.

Sarah Alevy’s set is well utilized and appropriately versatile, with a singular old-

fashioned living space serving as the setting for three out of the four pieces (The Pit and Pendulum is set downstage and uses only a single chair). Costume designer Allie McGowan also stands out with her use of old-fashioned formal wear, invoking a distinctly Victorian aura.

Nightfall, despite a few technical shortcomings, is a unique adaptation of literary classics.

With compelling performances and haunting characters, it presents an appropriately disturbing examination of a poet’s descent into madness—a fitting performance for the Halloween season.

Nightfall runs from Oct. 1828 at Players’ Theatre, 3rd floor SSMU. Tickets are $6 for students and $10 for general admission.

Tickets can be reserved online or purchased at the door.

Joseph Tisiga and Luc Paradis deny convention at Parisian Laundry Jughead Jones and post-colonialism collide at last Keira Seidenberg Contributor Joseph Tisiga’s IBC: Dystopic Autonomy, on display at the Parisian Laundry gallery until Nov. 20, is a complex play on primitivism, where the contemporary meets the mythological in a series of watercolour paintings and unstretched canvases mounted on AstroTurf. For a portion of the work displayed within the exhibition, Tisiga juxtaposes conventional Western perceptions of First Nations culture with beloved Archie Comics characters, interacting in a way that evokes dystopian cross-cultural exchange. Scenes include Jughead speaking to a First Nations chief, Veronica teaching a woman dressed in traditional garb the nuances of preparing a bowl of cereal, and Archie—excited and shirtless—discovering a wigwam. There is a sense of intentional timelessness to the paintings, where the boundaries between setting and reality blur in loose and often scrabbled brushstrokes, thus forcing viewers to confront the relationship between past and present, visceral and animated.

The larger portion of Tisiga’s exhibition is a series of 16 watercolour paintings that describe a personal interpretation of a Kaska folk legend, where a mythological, human-consuming beast is disguised in a collection of urban, and somewhat misleading, objects.

Altogether, the paintings present uncomfortable glimpses

of human nudity and scenes of impossible context through a heavy-handed use of what is generally considered a delicate medium. The often ambiguous subject matter forces viewers to engage in an interpretive role, where they must make sense of the intricate narrative and openended titles.

In Anima Animus, Paradis explores the role of theatre in the industrial gallery space, using curtains and three-dimensional positioning of his canvases to interact with the viewers, whom Paradis might otherwise call ‘puppeteers.’ His series of eight paintings, accompanied by a rotating sculptural head that encourages continual, circular viewing of the work, depict amorphous and genderless figures. The abstract figures are painted on colourful backgrounds, encouraging a distorted understanding of depth and texture within their dreamlike quality—others shed any semblance of humanity and instead simply use compositions of line and shape.

Displayed in the basement of the gallery, where viewers can access the room through a narrow passageway of exposed brick, the paintings appear tucked away—a forgotten theater waiting to be discovered in the bowels of the building.

On a more personal note, I found the exhibition provided a unique—albeit somewhat confusing—addition to a Thursday night that might have otherwise been spent huddled over books in the library. I often feel that students view art with the overarching bias that comes

with knowing a big name; when one hears Rembrandt and Degas, there is no confusion as to whether or not the painting might be considered ‘good.’ Going into the exhibition without context or an understanding of what I was undertaking presented a blank slate for viewing the paintings and allowed my emotional and visual experience to be completely unique to me as the viewer.

Admittedly, many of the paintings were unsettling. But as I walked out the doors of the gallery, I knew that I had come to know that feeling without the aid of museum descriptions or social expectations.

IBD: Dystopic Autonomy depicts cross-cultural exchange. (parisianlaundry.com)

13 science & technology

Skepticism in climate science: Reasonable or regressive?

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Three scientists who question roles in climate change, and the nature of climate change itself Emma Gillies Contributor Continued from page 1.

He has focused on the effects of carbon dioxide and believes that the increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide is beneficial to life on Earth.

Moore also pointed out that there has been a greening of the Earth in recent decades because of the increase in carbon dioxide levels—this greening represents an increase in leaves on plants and trees.

Curry also referred to this recent greening. Curry doesn’t label herself a “skeptic” or “denier”—labels which she says mean nothing in the context of science.

“The term I use to describe myself is ‘scientist,’” Curry said.

“It is the job of every scientist to continue to re-evaluate the evidence and question conclusions.”

Curry said that through land use changes and greenhouse gas emissions, humans are warming the planet. But it’s important to separate the natural from the anthropogenic.

Wayne Pollard, professor in the McGill Department of Geography and a researcher in the Arctic also recognizes that humans are involved in changing the environment, but that the role humans play is only partly understood and may be exaggerated.

“We’re screwing up the environment—there’s no doubt about it,” Pollard said. “And we’re also, in the process, changing our climate. But [the] climate [also] changes naturally.”

“There are natural mechanisms which have changed every aspect of the Earth’s system,” Pollard said. “Whether it’s the composition of the atmosphere, the geometry of the continents, [or] the erosion of carbonate rocks.”

However, he acknowledged the changes we’re seeing now and the rapidity with which they occur, and how human activity augments some of them.

“The Earth as a system is made up of an infinite number of smaller systems that are connected,” Pollard said. “That’s the fundamental concept of a complex adaptive system.”

Changing one subsystem will cause it to seek a new equilibrium, thus affecting all surrounding systems and causing a cascading effect.

For Pollard, deforestation is one of the worst anthropogenic changes to the environment because forest ecosystems serve as vital air filters on Earth.

In terms of deforestation, there is a larger area of forest in Canada and the United States today than there was in 1900. Moore said that higher agricultural productivity and the need for less land have caused land that was used for agriculture to be repurposed into forest.

However, the Earth’s surface is also drastically changed due to agriculture, land use, and mining.

Landscape changes are important not only due to

Moore said. He also claimed that carbon dioxide levels are more often out of sync than in sync with temperature.

Curry, on the other hand, disagreed with Moore’s claim.

“There is a well-known physical mechanism whereby carbon dioxide emits and absorbs infrared radiation, which warms the Earth’s surface,” Curry said.

Pollard is sure that there is a causal relationship between carbon dioxide levels and

Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA)] numbers and saying they’re manipulating [them],” Moore said.

While people who are basing their estimates of sea level rise on actual observations of the tides are observing rises of about 1 mm a year, NOAA’s estimates, which are based on satellite measurements, are 3.9-4 mm a year.

Moore explained that temperatures appear to be increasing more than they actually are because many of the weather stations which were once in the countryside have been

(Summer Liu / The McGill Tribune) their scope, but also their effect on how heat is stored and released within the Earth’s climate system.

On the other hand, Moore believes that devastation isn’t caused by landscape changes like fracking, drilling for oil, and even open-pit coal mining.

“At least in all the industrialized countries, and in mining operations conducted by companies based in industrialized countries, reclamation of the land is a requirement after mining,” said Moore.

Furthermore, he believes that there is no proof of a causal relationship between carbon dioxide and rising temperatures.

“About a third of the carbon dioxide humans have ever emitted [has] been emitted in the past 20 years or so, and there just isn’t the kind of exponential increase in temperature to go along with the exponential increase in carbon dioxide,”

temperature. He added that methane and nitrous oxide are worse than carbon dioxide— two other greenhouse gases (GHG) which many scientists argue contribute to climate change. But, by volume, carbon dioxide is still probably the most damaging GHG to temperature increases.

However, focusing on greenhouse gases is examining only a small piece of the system.

“Part of the problem is that we’re focusing on the obvious parts of it,” Pollard said. “We’re not looking at the whole system,” Another issue Moore, Curry, and Pollard all seemed to be skeptical about was the validity of climate models.

“There’s a recent compilation of about 10 sea-level studies which are basically questioning [the National Oceanic and

surrounded by cities and airports.

In the same vein, Pollard pointed out that the resolution of instruments being used a hundred years ago were unable to record tenths of a degree change in temperature, which is the change to which we’re comparing recent measurements.

Claiming a hundred-year record of observation in some places thus presents data manipulation that’s based a lot on satellite imagery.

According to Pollard, even credible, high-impact journals like Science and Nature are publishing hyperbolized studies.

“I would argue that scientists are overreaching some of their scientific credibility by trying to be sensational,” Pollard said. “I’m not a cynic on models, I just believe that models can be manipulated to a biased outcome.”

Pollard stressed that this manipulation is often not deliberate, but arises indirectly

due to a desire to get published.

Pollard said the rise of science journalism has also contributed to a growing amount of ‘sensationalized science.’

“I believe that there’s a need to publicize it,” Pollard said. “I’m just critical of my colleagues who want to draw attention to their work, and see the media as [...] validation as opposed to peer review. Science should be about knowledge. We should rely on the bureaucrats and politicians to take our knowledge and work with it but instead the bureaucrats and politicians are taking the newspaper version of it. And I think that’s leading to an improper interpretation.”

For Moore, it’s difficult to know which graphs to trust.

Pollard, on the other hand, said that it shouldn’t be a question of trusting or not trusting anyone.

And that hyperbolizing the issue isn’t necessarily bad.

“I think overreaction, when it comes to this, is probably not a bad thing because we do have to scare our society [to spark a certain level of change],” Pollard said.

Moore still sticks by his research and reasoning and does not believe that we should move away from fossil fuels. “[Fossil fuels] provide 85 per cent of our energy […],” Moore said. “Fossil fuels will be the mainstay of global energy for centuries to come now that we have discovered the shale oil and gas of which there are nearly limitless supplies.”

Despite this statement, Moore paradoxically admitted that fossil fuels pollute the environment.

“The pollution from burning fossil fuels without any proper pollution control is the big problem,” Moore said.

Curry regards air, water, and soil pollution from energy exploration and generation as the biggest problems.

“We need an ‘all of the above’ energy policy,” Curry said. “At the same time, we should work to minimize the environmental impact of our energy production [….] All other things being equal, everyone would prefer clean over dirty energy.”

Climate change is an issue complicated by economics and politics. Although most scientists agree that there is anthropogenic climate change, climate change deniers like Moore bring up critiques that may strengthen climate research and proposed solutions in both the scientific and political communities.

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

science & technology 14

Designer babies in the age of CRISPR

How CRISPR technology could lead to the genetic alteration of embryos in the future Antoine Vandenborre Contributor A powerful gene-editing tool, known as CRISPR, has been developing, promising new approaches to treating various illnesses and even modification of children by their parents. Yet, it seems society still hasn’t addressed fears about the possible misuse of such technology—technology that research labs around the world have already started using.

CRISPR functions by altering damaging sequences in a gene. Recently, researchers learned to adapt this mechanism to more complex cells, allowing CRISPR to remove faulty copies of a gene and, given the right template, to replace it with a new one.

Drew Hendricks, a U3 anatomy and cell biology student at McGill, works as a research assistant in the Biological and Active Materials Lab, headed by Assistant Professor in McGill’s Department of Biochemistry Allen Ehrlicher.

Hendricks explained the benefits of CRISPR technology.

“Say there’s a cancer-causing mutation [in a given gene],” Hendricks said. “I can program CRISPR to go find it and cut it out. I’m using CRISPR to float in a template [to] find the gap that those cuts made, and [...] replace the gap with that template.”

Beyond the treatment possibilities of gene modification, there’s a larger, ethical issue at stake: Genetic modification of children by parents.

CRISPR could potentially allow parents to choose traits in their future offspring, such as hair and eye colour. With the advancement of CRISPR, the idea and associated risks of ‘enhancing’ humans looms in the minds of scientists and citizens alike.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) released a statement in 2015 about this issue. “[The] NIH will not fund any use of geneediting technologies in human embryos,” its website reads. “The concept of altering the human germline in embryos for clinical purposes has been debated over many years from many different perspectives, and has been viewed almost universally as a line that should not be crossed.”

Yet, CRISPR remains a powerful tool, and the NIH continues to fund research that uses CRISPR for other research purposes, such as correcting mutations in adult stem cells. But replacing one gene in the human genome is a drop in a bucket, and CRISPR often still produces off-target effects. The human genome comprises around 20,000 genes, and the templates used are often small, targeting just a small part of a particular gene, meaning the code in the template can be sent to another address in the genome than what was intended. For now this presents a major obstacle to the development of commercial technologies. Moreover, the kinds of broad traits that might be changed in designer babies are genetically very different from curing diseases that are caused by a single gene mutation.

Thomas Durcan, assistant professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill and member of the Centre for Neurodegenerative disease group at the Montreal

CRISPR genetic modification raises ethical questions. (Daria Kiseleva / The McGill Tribune) Neurological Institute (MNI), pointed out the important distinction between curing specific diseases and predetermining someone’s sex, eye colour, athleticism, or intelligence. He explained that from a clinical point of view, CRISPR requires many more years of development before it can be used as a therapy—even for diseases affected in only one gene—while features like height or intelligence are far more complex.

“To design a baby, fixing multiple traits at the

same time, that’s probably much further down the line, if at all,” Durcan said. “CRISPR might even become obsolete in 10 years.”

Ultimately, it’s easy to come up with reasons why scientific advancements could cause damage along with benefits. CRISPR represents a totally new paradigm in biomedical science, and though fears of designer babies may be overblown, the time to start asking broad ethical questions about how this technology will be used is now.

How Canada has to change its mindset to succeed in the AI revolution

Anthony Lacavera explains why Canada needs to localize the artificial intelligence market

Kate Lord Staff Writer Today, the fourth industrial revolution is being fuelled by artificial intelligence (AI), which is disrupting and transforming almost every industry. Inevitably, the countries that invest most heavily in their successful domestic AI technology companies will rise in global presence. Canada is running in this race, but is not in first place.

“We’re the junior partner, the bronze medal, the second fiddle, the sous-chef,” said Anthony Lacavera, founder of the telecom company Wind Mobile and author of the book How We Can Win: And What Happens To Us and Our Country If We Don’t.

According to a study by the World Bank, Canada is considered the second easiest place in the world to start a company, meaning that hopeful new start-ups appear every day. However, most of these businesses will remain small and have minor aspirations. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor reports that only one-third of new Canadian business owners hope to create a firm with more than six employees after five years. “[As Canadians] we pride ourselves on having a spirit of adventure and a certain ruggedness,

[but] then our business culture is timid and risk-averse,” Lacavera said.

According to Lacavera, Canada has a mindset issue when it comes to creating big and bold businesses.

“We just don’t aim for the number one position […],” Lacavera said. “We’ve got to have our companies go for gold, not just within the city, not just within the province, but globally. They need to win. They need to want to win, and they need to believe that they can win.”

The recent opening of Facebook’s AI lab in Montreal raised excitement around the future of AI and created a buzz on campus— largely due to the visit of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. However, as multinational, non-Canadian corporations choose to build additional headquarters or design centres in Canadian cities, Lacavera warns of the imminent demise of local Canadian tech companies that are so vital for Canada’s future economic prosperity.

“This is a modern Trojan horse attack on Canada’s future prosperity,” Lacavera said, referring both to Facebook’s AI lab in Montreal as well as the push for Amazon and Google to set up further headquarters in Toronto.

“The reason Facebook is relocating [here] is not because they’re interested in the long-term

prosperity of McGill or the city of Montreal or Canada,” Lacavera said.

“They’re interested in increasing the value of Facebook [....] They get to develop intellectual property and build intellectual capital in the form of all of our great AI talent. And the rising stars, the leaders that emerge, will just end up with a transfer to Silicon Valley.”

In the long-term, Lacavera explained, this international capital will leave Canada without the leaders needed to create the innovative tech companies that can compete overseas, the successes of which are necessary for Canada to thrive in this fourth industrial revolution.

“In terms of what [politicians] should be doing, it’s not that they shouldn’t be welcoming Google or Amazon,” Lacavera said. “But they need to bring the same enthusiasm to supporting our own homegrown businesses and winners.”

Exciting success stories from entrepreneurs in Canada in the AI and tech fields of business are numerous—including Joelle Faulkner who is using her private equity firm, “Area One Farms,” to revolutionize Canadian farming, or the CEOs of ‘Internuncio’, who have developed AI bots that scan and translate important information from paper documents for software systems.

It is the proper celebration and recognition of these successes that needs to be improved, drawing parallels with the Canadian entertainment industry.

“We don’t celebrate and pay

attention to [a Canadian artist] domestically [until] they make it big in the U.S.,” Lacavera said. “That bullshit has to stop. We have amazing, amazing talent here and we don’t need the validation of anyone else.”

SPORTS 15

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

McGill Redmen hockey downs Guelph Gryphons 7-4

GAME REPORT

Explosive offence overcomes defensive shortcomings Jordan Foy Staff Writer On Oct. 20, the McGill Redmen (5-1-0) took on the Guelph Gryphons (1-2-1) at McConnell Arena. Both offences capitalized on opportunities during the high-scoring affair, but ultimately McGill took the game 7-4.

In the first frame, the Redmen dominated the shot clock but finished the stretch at a deficit due to defensive breakdowns. The Gryphons were the first to score when they took advantage of a discombobulated Redmen defence after a scramble in front of the net. Later in the period, an unsuccessful Redmen penalty kill resulted in another goal for Guelph. McGill was able to respond on the rush when third-year defenceman Dominic Talbot-Tassi scored after firing a shot that trickled in after the Guelph goaltender deflected it. Heading into the second, the shot totals were 15-8 in favour of the Redmen although they trailed 2-1 on the scoreboard.

The Redmen attack exploded in the second period, using speed on the forecheck and in the offensive zone to create juicy opportunities and drive the puck to the net, for a total of four goals.

“We had a tough start [but] we have a fast team this year, so […] we had an advantage,” Talbot-Tassi said. “Our speed made a huge difference.”

However, McGill suffered from ongoing sloppy defensive play and gave up a number of scoring opportunities to Guelph, conceding two more goals.

During the final period, McGill ran into penalty trouble and had to survive a barrage of Guelph shots. Early on, the Gryphons capitalized on a power play, narrowing the gap to just one goal. Despite their defensive ineptitudes and a quintet of minor penalties, the Redmen hung on to the lead—helped by an aggressive penalty kill that resulted in two shorthanded tallies. First-year forward Quinn Syrydiuk scored his career-first Redmen goal after a misplay by the Guelph goalie saw him alone in front of an empty net. Later, second-year centre Alexandre Sills completed a hat trick after a beautiful saucer pass from third-year forward Julien Verrier on the penalty kill.

Despite earning a victory, the Redmen acknowledged

Second-year defenceman Gianluca Curcuruto lines up ahead of a faceoff. (Hana Shiraishi / The McGill Tribune) that their defence needs to tighten up.

“We weren’t sharp tonight defensively,” Head Coach Kelly Nobes said. “We need to be better.”

Sills, who was the first star of the game, agreed with his coach.

“We were lacking […] focus at some points, [and] we made some mistakes that [are] easy to correct,” Sills said. “[We] definitely need to get more focused on our game, and get back to the system.”

The following night on Oct. 21, McGill defeated the Brock Badgers 3-2. Next, the Redmen will travel to take on the Queen’s Gaels on Oct. 27. They return to home ice on Nov. 3 for a rematch against the Royal Military College Paladins after a blowout victory in their OUA season opener.

Moment of the game

On a power play late in the second period, Alexandre Sills scored his second goal of the night on a beautiful passing play off the draw. Defenceman and captain Nathan Chiarlitti set up Sills in the paint with a gorgeous pass from the half wall.

Quotable

“It was fun [….] I was seven years old when I scored [my] last hatty, [and] two of my buddies were here from my hometown [tonight, so] it was good.”

- Forward Alexandre Sills on how it felt to score a hat trick.

Stat corner

McGill outshot the Gryphons by a margin of 21 shots at a final count of 53-32.

Behind the bench: Mr. President, it’s time to take a knee

Professional athletes bring a valuable voice and wide outreach to social issues

Lucas Harvey Contributor On Sept. 12, Donald Trump spoke out against NFL players who took a stand against police brutality during the pre-game rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner.”

“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now’,” Trump said. “Out! He’s fired!

He’s fired!”

Players are often reminded that their job remains on the field, the ice, or the court— not commenting on social issues. Truthfully though, athletes can and should create real change by standing up—or in this case, kneeling—for what they believe in. Since Trump’s comments, major-leaguers have done just that, embracing their platform for protest. Athletes have knelt, locked arms, and openly spoken out against racial injustice. The mass coverage and general support these protests have garnered is telling of the capacity that athletes have to inspire change.

With such a huge platform, and such a diverse audience, professional athletes shouldn’t be criticized for stating their opinions. Athletes have an unusual ability to resonate with many different audiences because of their broad

Members of the Kansas City Chiefs take a knee before their game begins. (abcnews.com) viewer and listener base. Be it LeBron James’ statements, Denasia Lawrence’s national anthem, or the cover of TIME magazine, it’s hard to ignore the reach of these movements.

The debate over whether athletes should stick to sports is not new. Decades ago, Muhammad Ali, Jesse Owens, and Tommie Smith preceded the likes of Eric Reid and Bruce Maxwell in fighting against racial inequality through sport. Maxwell, the first MLB player to kneel and whose father served 30 years in the army, has publicly proclaimed his love for his country, reminding audiences that this protest isn’t against the United States or its military. Indeed, football players began locking arms and taking a knee in contempt of

realities in today’s America—of Ferguson, of Baltimore, of every cop shooting, and of over 200 years of systemic oppression. And it’s working: If nothing else, these protests have ignited a conversation. In a new age of media and information, this is often how change takes place.

The two arenas of sports and politics have always been intertwined, but have become nearly inseparable in recent years, due in large part to the rise of social media. The connection is impossible to ignore: Athletes are in the public eye, acting as role models to many. Especially in the NFL, where 70 per cent of players identify as African-American, issues of racial inequality are more personal.

This is their reality, and it doesn’t belong to their critics. In a way, these athletes are public representatives, using their platforms to speak up for those who didn’t get the same break, and rarely have champions to vouch for their interests.

Players have shown—particularly in the past month—that they deserve a voice, and that their opinions matter. It is unconstitutional to try to silence them under the pretense that social issues are not their business. When NFL players are told to stick to sports, just as commentators told the Dixie Chicks to “shut up and sing,” it silences a group of minds and goes against the principles of free speech.

Thirteen months ago, Colin Kaepernick said that he wouldn’t “stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people,” but only now has his sentiment truly picked up steam. Sometimes, the only way to get attention is through controversy. One way to inspire change is to anger the right people.

Athletes currently have the best platform to do so.

If Donald Trump thinks that he can divide the NFL, he’s wrong. And if supporting what you believe in makes you unpatriotic and disrespectful, then Baltimore Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs has it right: “I guess we’re all sons of bitches.”

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

16 SPORTS

2017 WORLD SERIES PREVIEW

Looking Ahead to the Clash Between Baseball’s Two Best Teams

BY GABE NISKER, CONTRIBUTOR The final matchup felt inevitable as the season chugged along. Tonight, Oct. 24, a pair of 100-game winners will face off in the World Series for the first time since 1970 as two of the best teams in baseball take centre stage—the National League champions Los Angeles Dodgers against the American League champions Houston Astros.

LOS ANGELES DODGERS

HOUSTON ASTROS

Strengths: Depth, depth, and more depth Weaknesses: Regular season inconsistency

Strengths: Explosive offense, middle infield, Justin Verlander Weaknesses: Middle relief

At one point this season, the Dodgers looked unstoppable. In the best 50 game stretch since The Astros were Sports Illustrated’s pick to win the 2017 World Series—three years 1912, spanning from June until August, the Dodgers won 43 games and lost just seven times. At ago. Houston is finally in the Fall Classic after a methodical tank and rebuild that saw another point, they looked quite the opposite, during a stretch in which they lost 11 in a row and 16 the team lose 416 games over four seasons from 2011 to 2014. out of 17. The good news for L.A. baseball fans is that right now the 7-1 postseason juggernaut looks Second baseman Jose Altuve and shortstop Carlos Correa lead the way for the deep a lot more like the former stretch than the latter.

Astros offence: The former is a leading American League MVP candidate after a fanOn the surface, the team’s success might be attributed to its massive payroll. However, this tastic all-around campaign, while the latter hit 0.315 on his way to solidifying his place notion is false. Many of the team’s stars are homegrown talents or prospects acquired in trades for among the game’s best shortstops. former Dodgers stars like Dee Gordon. The team is spending over one third of its payroll on players On the pitching side, Justin Verlander carried Houston on his back through two who no longer wear the Dodgers uniform. dominant ALCS starts. Meanwhile, lefty Dallas Keuchel co-stars to give the Astros a Only a team with immense depth could overcome such a financial burden. Luckily, depth is dominant one-two punch. Beyond those two, it’s going to be a matter of mix-and-match the Dodgers’ calling card, especially in the starting rotation. Led by Clayton Kershaw, the rotation for manager A.J. Hinch. goes four deep, while its fifth option, Kenta Maeda, has joined forces with a dynamite bullpen to lock The Astros will take an all-hands-on-deck approach with its bullpen, much like in the things down in the postseason. decisive ALCS Game 7, where every pitcher on the roster was ready to be called upon.

The offence hopes to get star shortstop Corey Seager back from injury, but in his absence Lance McCullers, Jr.—typically a starting pitcher—threw his devastating curveball 24 they’ve more than managed. The Dodgers scored 28 runs over the five NLCS games, thanks to key times in a row to close out Game 7 against the Yankees. The middle relief has struggled contributions from outfielders Chris Taylor and Yasiel Puig, for the Astros of late, but if McCullers, Brad Peacock, and third baseman Justin Turner. The man at the hot corner is and Ken Giles can step it up and lead the way behind near the greatest all-time in postseason history among playthe starting corps, the Astros will be in great shape to PREDICTION: DODGERS IN 7 ers with at least 100 plate appearances. His career playoff compete with the National League’s best team. The on-base percentage of 0.481 places him second in MLB hisThe Dodgers look positioned to keep on rolling through to the end of Oc- Astros were tremendous all year, and they’ve earned tory—between Hall-of-Famers Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth. tober, as their depth will finally overpower Houston in a fantastic series. When their spotlight in the Fall Classic.

Now, that’s good company. all is said and done, Clayton Kershaw and company will raise the World Series trophy for the Los Angeles crew.

Redmen rugby tackles UdeM Carabins late in season closer

GAME REPORT

McGill breaks through gridlock in second half

Patrick Beacham Staff Writer On Oct. 20, spectators at Molson Stadium saw the McGill Redmen (3-4) get off to a slow start against the Université de Montréal (UdeM) Carabins (3-4) in the first half of the season’s closing game. Refusing to end on a low note, McGill’s nearimpenetrable defence prevailed in the second half, and they took the game 31-21.

“It was a good win,” Redmen Assistant Coach Greg Gallant said. “We were a little bit sloppy, we didn’t take control of our ball, [but] we proved that we’re a superior team but [only] when we want to work.”

The Redmen and Carabins were on equal footing for an entire first half rife with picks and scrums as the ball constantly changed hands. For every rush McGill made, a penalty or broken ruck set them back. UdeM had similar problems with making it to the goal line, and the game was tied 14-14 when the dust settled at halftime.

“Whenever they scored, it was because we gave them the ball off a penalty,” second-year Ryan Robb said. “It’s us playing badly, not them playing well, so if we continue doing our job and doing what we do, everything will be okay.”

Renewed after the halftime break, McGill swiftly took the upper-hand. The Redmen scored two tries and a drop goal in the second half, while a strong defence didn’t allow any opportunities for a comeback until the Carabins managed a try in the game’s closing minutes. That effort was eventually in vain, as McGill’s ruckbreaking ability eviscerated UdeM’s offensive momentum during that last breath of life.

“We had to bring a lot of energy out on the field,” Redmen second-year Jessen Gibbs said. “We came off two strong wins. The team’s finally coming together really strong. We had a lot of rookies this year [.…] We just need to be more critical on the field now.”

McGill will go on to face the École de Technologie Supérieure (ETS) Piranhas in the RSEQ quarterfinals on Oct. 28. Despite losing narrowly to ETS early in the season, the Redmen are confident going into the postseason.

“We’ve just got to keep our work rate up, make sure we’re working hard all the time” Gallant said. “Good things happen when you work hard.”

Redmen second-year Jessen Gibbs fires off a pass. ( Patrick Beacham / The McGill Tribune)

Moment of the game

In their last scoring chance of the first half, UdeM dropped the ball just shy of the goal line in the face of McGill’s behemoth defencemen, where the Redmen took possession and squandered the Carabins’ last shot at victory.

Quotable

“We’re gonna hit on Wednesdays, run on Mondays, and on Fridays we’re gonna come together as a team.”

– Second-year Alex Pantis on the week ahead.

Stat corner

The Redmen hope to continue their streak of reaching every RSEQ final since 2000.