The McGill Tribune Vol. 36 Issue 18

STUDENT LIVING “Candide Cafe warms up Little Italy with its rose latte” pg. 7

FEATURE “What has McGill done for you? ” pg. 8-9

The McGill Tribune

EDITORIAL: DISRUPTING MOURNING STUDENTS IS NO WAY TO PROTEST TRUMP pg. 05

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2017 VOL. 36 ISSUE 18

PUBLISHED BY THE SPT, A STUDENT SOCIETY OF MCGILL UNIVERSITY

McGILLTRIBUNE.COM

Prioritizing safety in Montreal bars Casa del Popolo and others to implement international ‘guardian angel’ policy

Ella Benedetti Contributor

Students gather at the Y-intersection in the week following the Quebec City mosque shooting and U.S. President Trump’s ‘Muslim ban.’ (Liam Kirkpatrick / The McGill Tribune)

Mitigating the effects of the U.S. travel ban on Canadian campuses

McGill asks for community input before taking action Helen Wu Contributor On Friday, Jan. 27, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. for 90 days. Additionally, the order put a halt on all refu-

gees for 120 days and Syrian refugees, specifically, for an unspecified period. Issued against Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, the ban has been the subject of protests around the world.

As complications caused by the actions of the executive branch of the American government unfold, Canadian universities have taken initiatives to ad-

dress current and potential difficulties faced by their students, staff, and researchers. According to McGill Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic) Christopher Manfredi, academic members of the McGill community will be prevented from participating in important scholarly meetings in the U.S.

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The McGill Commitment advances experiential learning McGill looks to subsidize study abroad, field semesters, internships, and more Domenic Casciato Staff Writer The McGill Commitment, a project spearheaded by the Office of the Deputy Provost Student Life and Learning Ollivier Dyens, has gained significant traction after being granted

a $300,000 yearly fund from the Office of Provost and Vice-Principal Academic Christopher Manfredi in May 2016. Since its conception in Fall 2015, the Commitment has organized its initiatives into four pillars that embody Dyens’ vision for McGill’s future: International campus, innovative academics, leading

research, and fostering self-development.

“The McGill Commitment, essentially, is to help students and provide students with what we call a 21st-century education,” Dyens said. “What [kinds] of skills can we give students that will be useful for the next 50 years?”

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In cafe-bar Casa del Popolo, one might notice signs, printed in both French and English, that read, “If you feel unsafe in any way, don’t hesitate to talk to your bartender.” In the bathrooms, these signs are hard to miss; one is placed above the mirror, and another over the toilet. A more detailed explanation of its nonviolence policy is posted below the mirror.

Xarah Dion, staff member for seven years, still vividly remembers the night two years ago when a customer was being choked by her date right inside Casa del Popolo. This attack was a game-changer for the staff at the Mile End establishment. “[The staff] decided enough was enough,” Dion said. Since the incident, Casa del Popolo has instituted an attitude of zero tolerance toward violence, and is taking measures to ensure that its staff are able to appropriately handle unsafe situations when they arise. In the coming months, Casa del Popolo intends to engage its staff in a mandatory workshop with local Montreal non-profit organization Head & Hands to help the servers and bartenders learn more about violence and its prevention.

“It is crucial to learn how to help, it’s not enough to offer help,” Dion said.

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Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Mitigating the effects of the U.S. travel ban on Canadian campuses McGill asks for community input before taking action Helen Wu Contributor Continued from page 1.

“We are very concerned about the consequences of the imposed travel restrictions,” Manfredi wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune. “Both with respect to the immediate effect on our students and researchers, who are citizens of the seven countries named in the executive order, [...] and to the potentially detrimental and longer-term effect on institutional partnerships and scholarly exchange that are the bedrock of a 21st-century global academic community.”

Manfredi and his team seek to address the implications of the ban and how the university can support community members in need of help. Using an online form, the Office of the Provost has encouraged people to share how the executive order has impacted them and voice their opinions on how the university can respond. Further actions will be decided after reviewing the submissions received from the form, which remained open until Feb. 2. The university has already extended the Fall 2017 undergraduate, graduate, and continuing studies programs application deadlines until March 11 for students from the seven affected countries.

McGill law students were among the first to take immediate action to help those affected by the executive order. Led by thirdyear law student Sydney Warshaw, law students went to the Montreal Airport on Jan. 30 to ensure that legal aid was provided to

those prevented from boarding U.S.-bound flights. According to Alec Angle, secondyear law, the group hopes to identify how many people in Montreal have been affected by the ban.

Students have been encouraged by the Faculty of Law to write letters to the Minister of Justice, the Minister of Immigration, and their Members of Parliament to express their concerns. A campaign for writing letters was set up in the New Chancellor Day Hall Atrium, and the Faculty is considering establishing a legal clinic that will allow students to reach out for information.

“Basically, we want to ensure that the Government of Canada is proactive in dealing with the harms of the U.S. ban, even if our government has no power to change the policy itself,” Angle said. “We were able to write and mail about 100 letters on the first day of the campaign.”

Associate Dean of Graduate Studies Richard Gold has invited international students conflicted about applying to U.S. schools to instead apply to McGill by extending application deadlines for graduate programs. McGill’s law program qualifies students to write the bar exam in a number of U.S. states.

Some McGill students now risk being detained at the border while travelling to the U.S. for fellowships, internships, academic conferences, and job interviews. Concerns were recently raised over whether visiting students would be able to return home after McGill’s Model United Nations (McMUN) conference, held from Jan. 26 to Jan. 29.

Concern has been expressed over McGill researchers’ access to U.S. scholarly meetings. (Liam Kirkpatrick / The McGill Tribune) McMUN organizers reported that all delegates returned home safely.

At the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Legislative Council meeting on Feb. 9, a motion will be presented to decide whether external political advocacy should be mandated. SSMU will also donate to the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) and plans to support future student initiatives in response to the executive order.

Other Canadian campuses aim to provide support as this situation continues to unfold. At the University of British Columbia (UBC), approximately 30 employees and 350 students are directly affected, according to UBC Managing Director of Public Affairs Susan Dandard. UBC has established

a task force with the goal of determining what degree of assistance the university can offer those targeted by the ban. UBC is also working closely with McGill, the University of Toronto, and other Canadian universities to establish a coordinated approach to assist international scholars suffering from the travel restrictions.

“We could provide aid to students, faculty, and staff suffering hardship due to the travel restrictions,” Dandard said. “We are currently assessing the needs of our students, faculty, and staff. UBC’s administration sets aside money for contingencies like this. We are offering counselling services for anyone feeling distressed. We can also help faculty, staff, and student access immigration and travel advice.”

Board of Governors approves major research grants Fossil food divestment and threats to scientific knowledge also topics of discussion

Board members discussed new grants and awards worth almost $90 milllion. (Lauren BensonArmer / The McGill Tribune)

Inbar Amit Contributor On Feb. 2, the McGill Board of Governors (BoG) held its first meeting of 2017. The session opened with an update on major achievements by McGill students within the last year, highlighting the fact that three students received a Rhodes Scholarship–the highest number of any Canadian university this year. The approval of two grants and a presentation of the Report on the Open Forum

on Sustainability followed. During the meeting, Board members also expressed concern about the effect that the recent U.S. presidential election may have on the scientific community in Canada.

Report on the Open Forum on Divestment The question of the university’s divestment from the fossil fuel industry has become a common topic of discussion at McGill’s BoG meetings.

Divest McGill was originally

created in 2012 to lobby the university to divest its endowment from its fossil fuel partners. Following a February 2015 petition submitted to the BoG’s Committee to Advise on Matters of Social Responsibility (CAMSR), Divest McGill held an April 2016 sit-in, protesting the Board’s decision not to divest.

In response to this Feb. 2015 petition, Principal Suzanne Fortier organized the Open Forum on Sustainability to address the recommendations of the 2016 CAMSR report on divestment.

The Open Forum was chaired by Faculty of Law professor Frédéric Bachand, who also compiled and presented a report to the Board on the conclusions of the forum’s discussions.

“It was a lot of work, but I think it was a worthwhile exercise,” Bachand said. “Many of the questions that were discussed were sensitive, but I was amazed at the turnout of our community members who participated extensively and responded very positively to the Principal’s invitation to offer advice and insight.”

One hundred thirty-five students attended the Open Forum

in September 2016. According to Bachand’s report, it identified several measures to reduce McGill’s carbon footprint, including the implementation of a target date for McGill to become a carbon neutral institution and the development of sustainabilityfocused curriculum.

CFREF award and International Progressive MS Alliance grant Following standard procedure when accepting grants, VicePrincipal (Research and Innovation) Dr. Rosie Goldstein gave a short presentation on the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF) award and the International Progressive MS Alliance grant received by the university. The Board unanimously approved the motion to accept the grants.

The CFREF award given to the university is valued at $84 million and is offered by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council, the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council, and the Canadian Institute of Health Research. It is intended to promote research and

innovation in the field of neuroscience.

The International Progressive MS Alliance grant is valued at €3.8 million ($5.4 million CAD), and will be used to develop new MRI outcome measures that could result in more efficient preliminary assessments of drug efficacy, potentially resulting in shorter and less costly clinical trials, according to the official report said.

Concern over threats to scientific community Although not part of the agenda, Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) Secretary-General Victor Frankel addressed the media blackout of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Jan. 21. “[The media blackout] is absolutely against McGill’s mission to disseminate science and to make the world a better place,” Frankel said. “I am wondering if we could take the leadership and also engage with other universities across Canada to make a similar statement condemning the silencing of science and scientists.

We need to respond viciously.”

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

McGill community responds to shooting at Quebec City mosque

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Solidarity and support present on campus and across Montreal

Julia Metraux Staff Writer On Jan. 29, during evening prayer at the Centre Culturel Islamique de Québec, a shooter killed six and injured nineteen others. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau labelled this tragedy an “act of terrorism.” The Montreal and McGill communities responded by denouncing the shooting and participating in events focusing on solidarity.

Vigils were held across Canada to remember the lives of the six victims: Azzedine Soufiane, Khaled Belkacemi, Aboubaker Thabti, Abdelkrim Hassane, Ibrahima Barry, and Mamadou Tanou Barry, according to CBC News.

On Jan. 30, the “Vigil de solidarité avec les musulman-es de Québec” was held in Montreal at the Parc metro station in response to the mosque shooting.

Vigile de solidarité avec les musulman-es de Québec The vigil, which translates to “vigil of solidarity with the Muslims of Quebec,” aimed to stand up to hatred and support those who

McGill students participated in the Vigile de solidarite aveq les musulman-es de Quebec on Jan. 30.

(Julia Metraux / The McGill Tribune)

feel affected by anti-Muslim actions over the past week, according to Anglo-spokesperson of the Vigil Sameer Zuberi. The event was organized by local activists Eddy Pérez, Emilie Nicolas, Dalila Awada, Benjamin Prud’homme, Rim Mohsen, and Cathy Wong.

According to Zuberi, the event was organized the night of the shooting and arranged to take place the next day to provide an immediate response and to support those who lost their loved ones.

“We hope that people get an increased sense of awareness,” Zuberi said. “People often talk about Muslims in terms of terrorism. We hope to change that.”

Starting at 6 p.m., mourners gathered on Rue Jean-Talon to pay their respects to the victims of the shooting. Eight speakers voiced their reflections, with many sharing the sentiment that people of every nationality, sexuality, and race are part of Canada and Quebec.

Maia Salameh, U0 Arts, explained that she decided to attend this event to show solidarity and mourn with Muslims not only in Canada but around the word.

“The most memorable moment for me was when we joined in saying the al-Fatihah prayer,” Salameh said. “It was striking for me because it is the beacon of my faith and the faith of my fellow brothers and sisters of Islam.

To say it proudly, despite the tragedy that took place, meant to me that we are not afraid of white supremacy and racism and xenophobia and we will stand firm in our faith.”

McGill University’s response On the morning of Jan. 30, Principal and Vice-Chancellor Suzanne Fortier sent an email to the McGill Community officially condemning the actions of the shooter and the Arts Building flag would be lowered to half-mast. She encouraged students and faculty who require support to reach out to various campus resources, including McGill Counselling and Mental Health Services (MCMHS) for students and the Employee As-

sistance Program for faculty and staff.

In an email to The McGill Tribune, Sara Parks, the director of the McGill Office of Religious and Spiritual Life (MORSL), said that although the aftermath of the shooting has been difficult for members of the McGill community, the support has a silver-lining.

“I have been heartened by how many groups and students on campus have contacted us today, wanting to show their solidarity,” Parks wrote. “Students from the United Theological Seminary and the Student Christian Movement approached me to offer peer support to ‘Muslim sisters and brothers.’ The Newman Catholic Centre and other individual McGill chaplains have either issued statements condemning the violence or have reached out in other ways to coordinate strong displays of solidarity with Muslim communities and with any communities [shaken] by recent anti-religious acts.”

Parks encourages students to speak with chaplains at MORSL, as she said that they are available to offer support regardless of one’s faith.

McGill’s #LawNeedsFeminismBecause goes nationwide UBC and UofT also launch photo campaigns, national forum to follow Claudia Leung Contributor On Jan. 23 and 24, the Feminist Collective of McGill Law held their third annual photo campaign to start a conversation about feminism. This year, the campaign has shifted towards a legal perspective of feminism, rather than on the feminist movement in general. The event saw 100 students participate– a significant increase from the 33 that took part in April 2016.

By getting people to complete the sentence “Law needs feminism because” and have a photo taken with their completed

#LNFB will host a national forum on March 11.

(Elli Slavitch / The McGill Tribune)

phrase, Rachel Kohut, third-year law student and organizer of the campaign, wanted to encourage participants to define the terms ‘law’ and ‘feminism’ using their unique perspectives. Kohut said she hopes that the photos can act as a medium to advocate for more diversity and inclusivity within the legal profession.

“The legal profession continues to struggle integrating feminism into practice,” Kohut said. “In your first years of law school, you’re often reading early 20th century texts written by men, and although efforts have started to be made to change this, it can still be demotivating at times. Add on conversations about how you ‘should’ dress or what you should and should not disclose during interviews, and when you should ‘ideally’ have a kid if you want to make partner, it is no wonder that many women leave law firms after only a few years of practice.”

The campaign has gained traction and publicity across Canada. This year, law faculties at 13 other universities joined the #LawNeedsFeminismBecause (#LNFB) social media campaign, including the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia. Seneca College is also joining the effort, organizing a photo event for paralegals, law clerks, and legal assistants. Furthermore, #LNFB has also expanded to health care, with the McMaster School of Medicine planning to launch the #healthcareneedsfeminismbecause movement in May 2017.

McGill Law remains the anchor of

the growing project by orchestrating photo campaigns with other law faculties across the country, organizing a national forum on March 11, and providing institutional support for a movement that is now growing into an organization.

Kohut attributes the success of the campaign to its artistic elements, accessibility, and timing.

“I definitely didn’t expect the campaign to go this viral, my Facebook inbox exploded with all the messages I was getting,” Kohut said. “People are ready to talk about feminism in law and #LNFB provided the means.”

Ellie Marshall, leader of the #LNFB movement at UofT, knows Kohut through mutual friends and was eager to join the campaign.

“The campaign is still ongoing at UofT, as we plan to have another event later in the year to hear student voices on feminism and the law,” Marshall wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune. “There were about 50 students actively involved in the campaign and many more interested. We’re happy with the positive response and new channels for conversation that have opened up.”

Kohut said that there are days that can be overwhelming, but that her favourite part of the campaign is hearing people talking about their struggles in law school and visions for the legal profession.

“It is easy to get caught in the law school bubble,” Kohut said. “It’s nice to break that

bubble and see people coming together from different law schools. People are organizing and it’s very empowering, you know that you’re not alone.”

Florence Paré, a fourth-year law student, said that the McGill #LNFB event in January was well organized.

“Individuals were assigned specific time slots, pictures were taken very quickly and professionally, and other people’s quotes of the day were still on the table, so we got to read a few for inspiration before they were published,” Paré said. “It was an enjoyable atmosphere [....] I thought the campaign was nice and I’m curious to see what will come out of it.”

The #LNFB national forum on March 11 will encourage discussion and collaboration among students and legal professionals on feminism. The forum will explore four themes to help participants to gain a better understanding of how to reshape the legal profession: Feminist legal mentorship, student experience, alternative legal careers, and legal recruitment. The forum will be held in Montreal and profits will be used to publish a book that combines the #LNFB portraits and stories together into a cohesive narrative.

Kohut is both surprised and proud of how far the movement has come.

“The next step is really about honing what’s already been done by feminist lawyers before us and to continue building a strong sense of community,” Kohut said.

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Tuesday, February 7, 2017

The McGill Commitment advances experiential learning McGill looks to subsidize study abroad, field semesters, internships, and more Domenic Casciato Staff Writer Continued from page 1.

The Commitment includes a wide variety of faculty-specific projects, as well as initiatives for McGill’s School of Continuing Studies. The Provost’s fund has already been allocated to a number of initiatives in Fall 2016, including $100,000 towards the Faculty of Science’s Labs Without Borders program, which sends students to conduct field research for a semester at various locations around the world, including the Arctic.

The Skills Development Program, which will launch in Fall 2017, was given $145,000 from the Provost’s fund. The program is intended to encourage undergraduate students to expand their soft and professional skills in free co-curricular workshops. The workshops will be organized into five skill-based streams, tentatively named global citizenship, health and wellness, leadership, collaboration, and discovery. Sophia Kapchinsky,

the Skills Development officer at Teaching and Learning Services, has coordinated the Program since its inception in July 2016.

“Our students do need education outside of their course-based curriculum,” Kapchinsky said.

“It’s impossible to learn how to collaborate, or how to become a better writer, or how to negotiate, or how to engage with your community by being taught [in a course lecture]. You have to go through an experiential learning process in order to gain those skills.”

The Skills Development Program, which is set to launch in September 2017, will draw contributions from faculty units, administrative units, student groups, and additional offices, including McGill IT and the McGill Office for Sustainability to design the project. It will partner with over 2,000 existing workshops at McGill to curate a curriculum based around improving particular skills. The program will continue to expand its list of workshops by building campus partnerships.

“Students can almost choose their own adventure, in the sense that they can choose which

stream of the program to participate in,” Kapchinsky said. “If they want to develop their leadership skills, they can participate in the leadership stream. [....] There are different streams, and you can take the workshops and the offerings in any order you want to build [those] streams and to finish the program.”

The Skills Development Program, which falls under the McGill Commitment’s fostering self development pillar, focuses on providing students tools to cope with the personal growth they experience in university.

“It’s often the first time that students are moving out of their parents’ house, the first time that they’re starting to manage their own finances, the first time they’re managing their own housing situation,” Kapchinsky said. “They’re moving into this bigger pond where they become a smaller fish.”

In addition to the McGill Commitment, the Vice Provost’s office has also been granted $7.8 million over three years from the Ministère de l’Éducation et de l’Enseignement supérieur

for student professional development and to help them intern abroad.

“We’re going to put $5.8 million into increasing internships, but mostly [into] increasing mobility,” Dyens said. “[We’ll be] funding students so they can go abroad, so they can go to field courses, so they can have an internship, and we can pay transport and room and board. We’re really putting a lot of emphasis on trying to develop [students’] professional skills.”

The Quebec fund would subsidize study abroad and field semesters, most of which include significant travel and living fees. Kalyna Kruczowyj, the International Education officer, says that these costs are the primary reason students are unable to pursue studies abroad.

“Every time a survey [about study abroad] comes out, it’s always because of financial considerations that students don’t participate in a lot of these things,” Kruczowyj said. “Some of them, they can participate in some that are less expensive [....] Basically, the funding is trying to open accessibility to all students.”

Norman Cornett’s dialogic philosophy of education Revisiting the dismissal of McGill’s unconventional professor Margherita de Castro Contributor McGill University has yet to address grievances over the lack of transparency surrounding the dismissal of Religious Studies Professor Norman Cornett in 2007. Although McGill did not approve of Cornett’s unorthodox pedagogic style, the professor continues to promote his dialogical philosophy of education as a guest instructor in universities in North America and Europe.

Inspired by Mikhail Bakhtin’s “The Dialogic Imagination,” Cornett sought to create a teaching style that encouraged creativity, believing it to be what distinguishes humans from other species.

“I don’t teach [students] for a grade or for a diploma, I teach them for life,” Cornett said. “Once you finish your education here, to what bookstore do you go to get the textbook for life? How do we learn to think for ourselves, to make our own decisions, to make informed decisions? That is the key to becoming full board citizens of our world.”

According to his website, Cornett adopted the traditional lecture format for a more personalized classroom experience. Cornett asked students to write reflections based on the stimuli of a piece of art, sculpture, music, or text without revealing the name of the artist and telling the class not to worry about grammar. The professor would then invite the creator of the piece to join the class and respond to the student’s reflections on the piece.

Instead of being graded on exams, students were evaluated solely on participation.

“It gave you that kind of challenge which was really transformative,” Emily Rose Antflick, a student of Cornett’s between 2001 and 2004, said. “[... It] was one of the first times in my entire schooling history where I clearly have been asked without any curriculum expectations to just respond from my authentic self.”

Cornett invited a string of distinguished guests to attend his lessons, including former prime minister Paul Martin, jazz pianist Oliver Jones, Academy Award winner Ethan Hawke, and celebrated Canadian Director Alanis Obomsawin. Obomsawin, who usually covers indigenous issues in her documentaries, decided to depict Cornett’s plight in her 2009 documentary, “Professor Norman Cornett: Since when do we divorce the right answer from an honest answer?”

According to Rosanna Marmont, a student of Cornett’s last course at McGill in 2007, the opportunity to interact with such influential individuals empowered students and gave them the confidence to follow their passion. Marmont said that Cornett’s courses inspired her to become an artist, explaining that he gave her the confidence to become a sculptor.

“We think that we are not able to be journalists, we are not able to be artists, we are not able to be these things,” Marmont said. “[Cornett] would empower his students. He would tell us that we could do these things, that our opinions were worthy of being heard. It encouraged us to pursue our path, our natural callings, and to have

that courage.”

The McGill administration terminated Cornett’s contract without warning at the end of the Winter 2007 semester, after 15 years at the university. This sparked public outcry within the student community, as seen by the swarm of letters that were received by The McGill Tribune at the time.

The university offered Cornett a severance package with a nondisclosure clause, which he rejected for ethical reasons.

“If you stand for dialogue, then you stand for always being able to speak truth to power,” Cornett said.

“No amount of money could buy that.”

The university has yet to issue a statement on the reason for Cornett’s dismissal. Only current Sociology Professor and former Provost between 2005 and 2015 Anthony Masi addressed the issue by defending the university in a letter to Le Devoir in July 2007. Masi denied that potentially controversial in-class debates on Middle Eastern conflicts played any role in the decision and insisted that the McGill does respect freedom of speech.

The McGill administration’s treatment towards Cornett demoralized many of his students. Marmont cited Cornett’s dismissal as one of the reasons she transferred to Concordia University the following year.

Cornett has not allowed this experience to prevent him from pursuing his love for education. He has been invited by higher education institutions to conduct workshops for postgraduate students, such as the University of Leipzig and l’ Université du Québec à Montréal. He has

also translated a variety of French books into English. His most recent publication is a translation of Naim

Kattan’s Farida, a book portraying the often forgotten Jewish communities in Iraq.

OPENS IN MONTREAL ON FEBRUARY 10!

CINÉMA DU PARC – CINÉMATHÈQUE QUÉBÉCOISE

BY ALETHEA ARNAQUQ-BARIL “ACTIVIST CINEMA AT ITS BEST” NOW MAGAZINE

Alanis Obomsawin Best Documentary Award Prix Alanis Obomsawin du meilleur documentaire

imagineNATIVE Film Festival 2016

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

OPINION 5

editoria l Editor-in-Chief Julia Dick editor@mcgilltribune.com Creative Director Natalie Vineberg nvineberg@mcgilltribune.com Managing Editors April Barrett abarrett@mcgilltribune.com Nicholas Jasinski njasinski@mcgilltribune.com News Editors Holly Cabrera, Sara Cullen, Calvin Trottier-Chi news@mcgilltribune.com Opinion Editors Jackie Houston & David Watson opinion@mcgilltribune.com Science & Technology Editor Lydia Kaprelian scitech@mcgilltribune.com Student Living Editor Audrey Carleton studentliving@mcgilltribune.com Features Editor Albert Park features@mcgilltribune.com Arts & Entertainment Editors Selin Altuntur & Evelyn Goessling arts@mcgilltribune.com Sports Editors Joe Khammar & Aaron Rose sports@mcgilltribune.com Design Editors Domitille Biehlmann & Daniel Freed design@mcgilltribune.com Photo Editor Lauren Benson-Armer photo@mcgilltribune.com Multimedia Editor Noah Sutton multimedia@mcgilltribune.com Web Developers Clare Lyle webdev@mcgilltribune.com Daniel Lutes online@mcgilltribune.com

Disrupting mourning students is no way to protest Trump On Feb. 1, the McGill International Student Network (MISN) held a rally entitled “United We Stand #NoHate” in order to “reflect [MISN’s] support for the Muslim community” in light of the troubling “recent events” around the world. The event was widely understood as a reaction to the Trump administration’s travel ban against Muslim countries and to the recent terrorist attack against a mosque in Quebec City, in which a gunman killed six Muslim men—Azzeddine Soufiane, Abdelkrim Hassane, Mamadou Tanou Barry, Ibrahima Barry, Khaled Belkacemi, and Boubaker Thabti—while they were praying.

Some students criticized the rally for taking an apolitical stance, as it pitched itself as an inclusive event and explicitly stated that Trump supporters were able to participate.

McGill Against Austerity organized a counterprotest, called “Make Racists Afraid Again,” which took place simultaneously and claimed the initial demonstration was “cowardly” because of its apolitical stance and refusal to explicitly condemn Trump. The afternoon of the event, the “Make Racists Afraid Again” protesters proceeded down to the “United We Stand” rally unfolding at the Y-intersection, interrupted the speech of a McGill student and Syrian refugee, and verbally confronted participants.

While taking an overt or directed political

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Noah Sutton Multimedia Editor Have you ever walked out of a movie in which the audience clapped raucously as the credits rolled, only to have your friend turn to you and ask, “What’s the point of clapping?

It’s not like the cast or crew can hear the applause anyway.” If you’re anything like me, you’d respond to this comment by muttering “what a fucking twat.” To be honest, I can’t remember the last time I’ve heard clapping after a movie. A quick Google search confirms that this idea is commonplace, but not that it happens all that often. “Do people in the U.S. really clap after movies?” asks a confused Redditor, while angry internet bloggers echo the same sentiment of my makebelieve friend said above: Why clap at a movie when the people

stance is an essential aspect of protest, the decision of “Make Racists Afraid Again” to interrupt the “United We Stand” rally was disrespectful, ineffective, and morally reprehensible. Taking a stance against Islamaphobia, xenophobia, and other forms of bigotry is crucial; however, it must be done with consideration of those who are most vulnerable.

The events of the past week have been deeply disturbing, and McGill students may be experiencing a range of emotional responses to news from the United States and Quebec City.

Some may be angered or frustrated, while others may wish to express solidarity and compassion for those affected. All of these sentiments are valid. However, condemning the desire of some students to show love and support to the Muslim community, instead of hate for those who have harmed it, is unacceptable.

Some Muslim students from countries targeted by Trump’s ban were present at the “United We Stand” event, and voiced their appreciation for the show of solidarity. In condemning the solidarity demonstration, “Make Racists Afraid Again” showed disregard for the needs of individuals most affected by recent events. Those who have the privilege to speak out without fear of harm are needed in the fight against those who target marginalized groups. In doing so, students must be diligent that their voices do not speak

over those they wish to support.

The affected individuals in this case sought not only to express solidarity in the face of adversity, but to mourn the tragedy in Quebec City. Lost in the debate over opposing Trump was the need to remember the victims of the recent shooting. Protesters can hold onto their anger and their political convictions, but those grieving must be afforded the opportunity to do so in their own way. It is inexcusable that neither the organizers of the counter-protest, such as McGill Against Austerity, nor its participants, including Students’ Society of McGill University Vice-President External David Aird, demonstrated this sensitivity.

Not only was this counter-protest insensitive, it undermined the message behind both demonstrations. The counterprotest purported to “make racists afraid,” yet the only people it succeeded in frightening were those at the “United We Stand” rally.

In effect, the “Make Racists Afraid Again” protesters mistook “United We Stand’s” alternate priority for cowardice. Furthermore, the haphazard way the counter-protest was organized and carried out made its message unclear and misdirected. This needless conflict between the protests overshadowed the central message of both rallies: That McGillians simultaneously stand with the Muslim community, and against those who would do it harm.

Why you should clap at the movies supposedly receiving the symbol of appreciation are unable to hear it?

The answer is simple: Clapping is far more than showing appreciation, it’s an expression of emotion shared by everybody in the theatre–a recognition of the shared experience of the film.

At the theatre, applause and standing ovations show appreciation to the cast and crew who stand on stage and bow accordingly. If the only use of applause is to convey appreciation, then clapping after a movie is pointless. But applause is not a solely outward gesture, like the obligatory head nod to a vague acquaintance you pass on campus.

Standing ovations spread through a theatre, one person stands, then another, and another. The gesture of appreciative applause is more emanating than transmissive—the audience, cast, and crew walks away feeling like they are part of something larger than themselves, and clapping in unison as a group confirms it. While theatres and cinemas are typically quiet affairs, sports events offer a magnified example of cheering to show group identity.

When someone yells out, “Are you blind, ref?” it would be remarkable if the referee turned around and actually responded, “Why yes, I forgot to put my contacts on this morning and I’ve just been bullshitting this entire game!” Comments like these aren’t meant as literal advice for the

referee, but as a gesture of solidarity with fellow fans upset by the call.

Applause and questions like that are

“

Clapping is far more than

showing appreciation, it’s an expression of emotion shared by everybody in the theatre–a recognition of the shared experience of the film.

”

entirely rhetorical in nature, they affirm the obvious: “That was a great film,” or “that was a bad call.”

It isn’t surprising, then, that most of the films people report clapping at are films with strong cult fan bases. The Lord of the

Rings movies, Star Wars and The Dark Knight series are all hotbeds for post-movie applause. While the “group” isn’t as identifiable without the colour-coded apparel of a sports game, the message is clear: “Pretty good movie, eh?”

Movie theatres are odd social spaces. One sits in a room with several dozen strangers, entirely in silence. Additionally, film as a genre is moving toward greater viewer immersion. The expansion of 3D and VR draws viewers into the film itself and away from the theatre environment. Increasing viewer participation has been tried and discarded with the failed idea of smell-o-vision (Rugrats Go Wild 2003). But stalwarts of extreme audience participation have continued with screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, in which audience members go so far as to bring props and dress up as characters in the movie. This would be excessive to do for every movie, but watching a film is a shared emotional experience—people resonate with the emotions of others.

Laughter with a group is always louder than laughing alone—this is the lasting power of the cinema. Of course, there’s a line—one should not jeer constantly, standard rules of etiquette still apply. But if by the end of the film one feels like letting off some applause, give it a go and see how many people feel the same.

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

6 OPINION

C o m m entar y

Grey Gunning Contributor On Jan. 31, Donald Trump signed an Executive Order limiting immigration from seven majority Muslim countries. The order also suspended the United States’ acceptance of refugees for 120 days, and barred Syrian refugees completely. Trump’s order ignores the 1951 Geneva Convention, which recommends that participating governments provide asylum to refugees without considering “race, religion, or country of origin.”

The ban has since been blocked as unconstitutional by a U.S. federal court ruling; nonetheless, the

C o m m entar y

Emily Heer Contributor The condom broke, you skipped a pill, or your memories are foggy from the night before.

Accidents happen: Thankfully, emergency contraceptive pills are available. Since 2005, pharmacies have provided levonorgestrel pills (Plan B) without a prescription in Canada. In 11 provinces and territories, you can now find Plan B beside the condoms on drugstore shelves, while Quebec and Saskatchewan both keep it

Trudeau must be held accountable in the era of “alternative facts” reverberations of such a sweeping and exclusionary move persist. Amid the outrage that followed the order, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took to Twitter, declaring that Canada welcomes all refugees, regardless of faith. Trudeau’s feel-good tweet, however, is undermined by his government, which has placed its own cap on refugee admission. Even more troublesome is the fact the CanadaUnited States border continues to operate under the Safe Third Party Agreement. The Agreement requires that refugees request protection in the first safe country that they arrive in— meaning Canada cannot legally accept asylum seekers turned away from the United States. Should Trump follow through on his promise to overturn the court’s decision and reinstate the ban, it seems that those denied entry to the U.S. can find only false hopes in Canada.

It is the responsibility of Canadian citizens have a responsibility to hold their government accountable for its lack of concessions to refugees. In a political climate where “alternative facts” have taken precedence over honesty, it is crucial that the Trudeau administration maintain a standard of integrity and compassion. If the people of Canada do not see this

integrity and compassion, they must demand it.

Given the global political climate, political participation is more vital than ever. The power inherent in political speech is apparent in the events of the last week. After Trudeau’s tweet, Canadians took action. An online petition calling for the repeal of the Safe Third Country Agreement currently has 38,583 signatures, and a movement has emerged encouraging constituents to contact their MPs to demand change. Locally, McGill Law students are providing legal services to those affected by the ban at Trudeau airport, and organizing a letter writing campaign to protest the Executive Order. This coincides with a nationwide effort among law students to make legal resources accessible to anyone who needs them in the wake of the Executive Order. Protesting, volunteering, contacting local representatives are all examples of political action that has the potential to minimize the ban’s negative consequences. By refusing to stand idly by, Canadians can keep their own government transparent and, by extension, demand equivalent accountability from the Trump administration.

The rhetoric of “alternative

“

It is a representative’s off off the the board board job to listen—but it is

also the citizen’s job to speak.

”

are terrorists, or, in Trump’s words, “the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas.” Canada must do its part in emphasizing that a government that lies is not normal or acceptable. It should not permit a political landscape that facilitates the formation of national myths that are disconnected from reality.

Leading by example is essential to setting this standard. To combat the political culture of falsehood that the Trump administration propagates, and to impress upon the U.S government that their decisions do not exist in a vacuum, the people of Canada must demand transparency from their own government. If the Trudeau administration strives to be humanitarian, it needs to be transparent with its constituents first and foremost. When it is not honest, Canadians have the power to put pressure on their government, and they should use that power.

The nature of a representative system ensures that politicians have a responsibility towards those they represent. They are supposed to empower their constituents, to amplify these citizens’ voices and implement policy that caters to their needs. It is a representative’s job to listen—but it is also the citizen’s job to speak. Now more than ever, Canadians need to ensure that their government represents their ideals in both actions and words. If those ideals are compassion and honesty, then the responsibility falls on Canadian citizens to ensure that Canada supports the people that the United States does not.

Quebec pharmacists should not be gatekeepers for emergency contraception behind the counter. But in Quebec, it is only administered after a mandatory consultation with the pharmacist. This barrier impedes the autonomy of women seeking emergency contraception. It is unreasonable and unethical for Quebec to continue to uphold this standard when most of Canada has removed it.

When I went to get Plan B in Montreal, my consultation was with a pharmacist who seemed to be close to my age. He asked whether I had taken emergency contraception before, the date of my last menstrual cycle, the length of my typical cycle, why I thought I needed emergency contraception, when the “event” had occurred, and whether I used other methods of birth control. At the end of our consultation, he agreed that he would dispense the pill.

My bill came to $44.50. The consultation and the pill both cost $22, which is on the low-end of pricing in Montreal. If you have a valid Quebec health card, the consultation is free of charge. The

pill can be partially or completely covered by insurance, depending on your plan. And, if you’re under 18, it’s always free. But, because I’m a student and it’s not a prescription medication, I have no coverage.

At the end of my consultation, I asked whether he would ever refuse to dispense it. He confirmed that he would if there was little chance of the woman being pregnant, or if she were outside the window of effectiveness.

While the latter condition may be reasonable, the period of efficacy is not widely agreed upon and depends on the pill. There is some evidence that the pill is still effective within five days, but other studies suggest that it decreases significantly after 3 days.

Refusal to prescribe the pill based on the likelihood of pregnancy, however, is unreasonable and unethical.

While the chance of pregnancy immediately after or before a period is extremely low, the women who seek out emergency contraception

ERRATUM An article from issue 17 titled “Student of the Week: Claire Motyer” incorrectly stated that Musician’s Health Awareness Week will take place on Feb. 18-19, when in fact it will take place on Feb. 13-19.

The Tribune regrets this error.

facts” allows for the perpetration of harmful lies, such as the idea that a significant amount of Syrian refugees

“ Given

information,

the

right women

should be able to decide on their own if they need emergency contraception.

”

are typically in their early 20s, and in the reproductive prime of their life. Furthermore, regardless of the likelihood of a pregnancy, emergency contraception empowers women with autonomy over their bodies. Even if a woman forgot to take her pill, or the condom broke, or there was a sexual assault, she can still be in control of her reproductive system.

Barring situations where use of Plan B would be unsafe, it is unethical for a pharmacist to send a woman

who was attempting to exercise this autonomy home.

The Canadian Women’s Health Network and the World Health Organization have declared that there is no medical argument to justify a consultation or examination to obtain the pill.

While they should certainly ensure that patrons are educated on the proper use of any drug, pharmacists are not medical practitioners. They are not a sexual health consultants or necessarily experts in women’s health, either. The paternalistic idea that a pharmacist knows best what every woman needs is therefore rattling. Given the right information, women should be able to decide on their own if they need emergency contraception.

I work in sexual health, so my level of comfort with this consultation may not reflect the comfort of all women. These conversations can cause shame and embarrassment, especially in the case of assault. This consultation also makes it impossible for women to buy emergency contraception in advance—just in case.

When taken safely, Plan B is a fast and non-invasive way for women to take control of their sexuality. Mandating a consultation detracts from this, and there is no excuse for the fact that Quebec has yet to abolish this standard.

STUDENT LIVING

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

7

Prioritizing safety in Montreal bars Casa del Popolo and others to implement international ‘guardian angel’ policy Ella Benedetti Contributor Continued from page 1.

In the age of online dating and the explosive popularity of match-making websites and apps like Tinder and Bumble, this generation’s version of blind-dating has reshaped traditional dating culture. For many people, the first date entails meeting someone for the first time, with very little background information. Although blind dating can greatly expand one’s dating pool, it can come with safety risks. Moreover, the alcohol-fuelled environment of a bar can make customers more vulnerable to unsafe interactions. Though there are a plethora of unknowns with each bar visit, having bar staff as a source of protection is a comfort to customers.

Initiatives like the one at Casa del Popolo are popping up in bars across Canada and around the world. Most are inspired by a campaign called ‘Ask for Angela,’ which allows patrons to walk up to the bar and ask for ‘Angela’ as a signal that they’re in trouble. By discreetly alerting the bartender using these code words, individuals who find themselves in a difficult situation are assisted promptly. Knowing this policy is in place can also increase the sense of security that customers feel upon entering the bar.

The initiative was started in 2016 in England by a woman named Hayley Child. According to BBC News, the name ‘Angela,’ which Child created, is a play on the word ‘Guardian Angel.’

Last November, the campaign went viral after a

Casa del Popolo, among other Montreal bars, implement ‘guardian angel’ policies to improve their customers’ safety. (Erica Stefano/ The McGill Tribune) poster explaining its procedure that was hung in a bar in Lincolnshire, England was retweeted over 28,000 times. Internet users across the world are voicing their approval of the idea, requesting that this initiative be implemented worldwide.

As the campaign spreads, bars have taken on different variations of the code language to suit their needs. For example, The ‘Angel Shot’ takes this concept to the next level, by providing customers with a discreet way to request the bartender’s specialized help depending on the specific version

of the shot one orders. If the customer orders the shot “neat,” the bartender knows to escort the customer to his or her vehicle; when ordering “with ice,” bartenders will call the customer an Uber or taxi ride home; and ordering “with a lime on the side” lets bartenders know to call the police.

Beyond directly improving the security of patrons, advertising these non-violence policies at bars can spark discussion among customers that creates a more safe and aware bar environment.

“If some people find it shocking, that’s good,”

Dion said. “It’s something that people should always have in mind, and some people don’t. And maybe [for] the people that feel shocked by these signs, [they have] a positive impact.”

On McGill’s campus, the ‘Ask for Angela’ concept is gaining traction, though it has yet to be implemented in any of the university’s bars or restaurants.

Tim Mapley, U3 Arts and manager of Gerts, hopes that the campus bar won’t need an ‘Ask for Angela’ policy.

“If the McGill community felt like there was [a] need, we would likely have no problem implementing something like that,” Mapley said.

“Safety of patrons is our top priority. We pride ourselves on being a safe space.”

According to Mapley, Gerts works hard to create a safe and responsible environment with vigilant security, reliable male and female staff, and its close connections with WalkSafe and MSERT—two student-run groups that prioritize students’ safety on nights out.

Beyond the existing risks present at any bar environments, exposure to a wide array of strangers through dating apps has heightened these risks. Implementing campaigns, such as ‘Ask For Angela,’ is an effective way for bars and clubs to create safer spaces for those exploring the possibilities of the dating scene.

-----------------------------------For more information on the original campaign and tips to implement the “Ask for Angelia” policy visit www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/ nomore

Candide Café warms up Little Italy with its rose latte

New York Times-favoured coffee spot addresses international popularity and future plans

Paige Mysliviec Contributor Tucked among a row of shops in Little Italy sits Candide Café.

Candide Café was the realization of a long-time dream for owners Coralie and Mickael Rossi. The pair worked for eight years in a Starbucks Café in France, with the plan to eventually open their own coffee shop. The shop attracts a mixed crowd of young, working professionals, families with kids, and, now, tourists from New York City. This new cutsomer-base was drawn to Candide after reading its favourable review in the New York Times’ article “Five Places to Go in Montreal.” The article, which features Candide Café, among other local hotspots, highlights its famous rose latte.

“As we came from Starbucks, we knew we had to add a specialty, so we wanted to create something original,” Mr. Rossi said. “The most ordered drink [in every country] is the latte, so we wanted to do a special latte. The rose latte was the flavour, which is just as floral and delicate as we needed [….] It’s a Mediterranean inspiration. It’s something fun that we never did before.”

The rose latte is unique and satisfying. Served in a simple white mug, the foam is topped with a sprinkling of dried rose

Candide Café attracts customers abroad with their rose-flavoured latte. (Paige Mysliviec / The McGill Tribune) petals, the fuchsia colours enlivening an otherwise simple-looking going to follow you to open a second one and launching something drink. The rose flavour is subtle and smooth, which complements bigger,” Mr. Rossi said. “We haven’t [taken a holiday for eight years], the bitterness of a regular latte. The drink is a refreshing change so when the opportunity was here, we [had] two [options]. The one, we are launching a second Candide and we are working like crazy from the syrup-pumped specialty lattes of chain coffee shops.

The rose latte is only one aspect of Candide’s popularity, people for the next five years, or we can change our life, sell the coffee however. While many other third-wave coffee shops in Montreal [shop], and [do] a world trip. So we choose the world trip.”

The shop has been up for sale since the beginning of January, place high-quality artisanal coffee above all else, Candide’s with a lot of interest pouring in. It is hard to think of Candide in friendly staff prioritize quality distant barista-customer relations.

“As we were from Europe, we used to communicate [and the hands of anyone other than the Rossis, who founded the shop create a relationship] with every customer we had,” Mr. Rossi and raised it like a child.

“We don’t know who we are going to choose, but we want to said. “[We] use that here and create, like, a community in the coffee shop. We know a lot of customers and their drinks. It’s like a give the [coffee shop] to someone who is going to take care of it,” Mr. Rossi said. “We put a lot of love and passion in it [….] It is a community and something sort of strong.”

Candide’s vibe defines it as a local hangout spot. On any given small Candide dream to think that we are going to [come] back in day, the baristas chat with customers and children read books from five years in Montreal and [have] a coffee in here.”

For now, Candide stays put, while the Rossis hold meetings its library. At the centre of its hominess are Coralie and Mickael, who have succeeded in creating a rare coffee shop environment that with new interested owners. Customers will continue to flock to this local coffee staple, but soon, without the familiar faces balances an urban ambience with charm and quality service.

However, the Candide story has taken an interesting turn. Rossi of the Rossis milling about. One can only hope that the future revealed alternate plans for their future as owners, as well as for the proprietors will nurture and love it with the same passion as the Rossis. Candide stands out among others of its kind for the shop itself.

“Last summer, the bank came to us saying, if you want, we are warmth it spreads to its customers and its community.

What has McGill done for you?

Alumni reflect on the value of McGill post-graduation

By Julia Dick, Editor-in-Chief

(Illustration by Elli Slavitch)

A

t the outset, three or four years may seem like a long time. But by the end of a degree, students often feel anxious about what to do next. Unlike the shift from high school to university—which is, for many, a direct transition— the movement from an undergraduate degree into “whatever’s next” is marked by uncertainty. Whether at the start of undergraduate studies or at the end, it is typical for students to feel confused about their next step forward.

According to an article in the Atlantic published in April 2016, the current generation of students is more career-minded than its predecessors. The value of an undergraduate degree is increasingly based in its impact on a student’s starting salary; however, students often struggle to identify how their work outside the classroom complements their studies and formation as young adults. It is easy to feel defined by one’s GPA and academic accomplishments.

On McGill’s website, the homepage for undergraduate

admissions states, “You’re bound for great things. The journey begins at McGill.” Yet many students struggle to find a path that suits them, and the pressure to succeed can feel more like a burden than an opportunity.

Mariam Hussain attended McGill for two years between 2009 and 2011 before transferring to the Alberta College of Art and Design (ACAD) and completing her B.A. at the University of Calgary in 2015. Her path has been neither typical nor linear, but it took her time to realize that discovering one’s path does not need to be straightforward.

For her, going from high school to university entailed a huge leap of self-recognition. The environment at McGill forced an immersion in an academic language that was unfamiliar to her, and led her to hold onto her idea of herself as a ‘science person’ more firmly.

“That’s one thing I found with McGill, because everything is

so intense, and at a very high level, it’s difficult to kind of move around,” Hussain said. “Like when I was in science, I was like very in science, your friend group revolves around that, your schedule, your labs, you just kind of build your network.”

When she attended ACAD, she was apprehensive about changing her life so drastically, but has since opened her own studio in downtown Calgary. She recognizes that McGill engenders a space of high expectations, and in hindsight recognizes that it would have been beneficial to have slowed down between high school and university.

“I think I just had some unrealistic expectations, and it’s hard when you’re ambitious and driven, and you want to do everything, and you want to learn everything,” Hussain said. “[....] I really really loved university.”

Universities are based on the desire to learn and grow, yet doing so comes with various pressures.

While feeling overwhelmed and uncertain is part of the process, it is also an essential experience that nurtures personal growth.

Christal Loewen, BComm ‘13, contends that while it is important to stay on top of academic work, a degree from McGill leads to many important lessons that are valuable later in life. She identified volunteerism as an essential aspect of her time at McGill, which has continued into her life to this day; Loewen works at a non-profit organization in Calgary and volunteers with various other organizations in the city.

“At the end of the day, what you take away from that experience has so little to do with the degree that you have, and everything to do with the kind of like osmosis of life and knowledge, cultural knowledge,” Loewen said. “Like, relationship-building, that comes out of that experience. Like, you can’t really trade one for the other. And, those are the things [...] that make you.”

According to the university’s report on Fall 2016 admissions, 40 per cent of its students are from Quebec, 26 per cent from elsewhere in Canada, 11 per cent from U.S., and 20 per cent from overseas. For most of its students, attending McGill is inseparable from the new experience of living in Montreal.

Loewen, who attended McGill during the student protests over tuition costs in 2012, recalls the passion and intensity of engagement and how it has shaped her perspective of Canada as a citizen from Calgary.

“I think for somebody coming from the West, to have that kind of an immersion experience with these student politics, understanding the importance of language, and salvaging that culture, I think as a Westerner, has been just really helpful, as in my own perspective coming back now, being surrounded with a lot of ideas, that maybe look negatively towards the east,” Loewen said. “Having that living experience, having faces that come to mind, and seeing also the passion inside of what is driving this [....] I think as a Canadian, to understand those issues at a different level, is important.”

Regardless of where students go for post-secondary education, it is undeniable that this choice will have an impact on them for the rest of their lives. What, then, are the unique qualities of attending McGill? Arguably, this question is fraught, as self-development is highly variable and cannot be reduced to a few basic aspects of a university’s culture. The plethora of opportunities and experiences at McGill is immense; however, for students who are seeking to get the most out of their time in university, there are a few common threads that can be pulled.

In the imagination of students and alumni, McGill is a hands-off institution; students must seek their own opportunities and become adept at independent

learning. In an article published in The McGill Tribune in 2016, one author argued that McGill’s campus is not immune to the ‘loneliness epidemic,’ as many students may feel that they have to choose between their academic performance and building deep bonds with their community. The feeling of ‘falling through the cracks,’ though not quite ubiquitous, is certainly pervasive.

In striving to accomplish a balance between personal time, academic achievement, and social engagement, students may choose to pursue extracurricular opportunities. For some, these activities provide a consistent responsibility that, when incorporated into their schedules, may combine personal development, achievement, and social opportunities.

According to Bernard Moulins, B.Eng ‘12 and president of the McGill Young Alumni Association, the experiences he gained participating in extracurriculars while studying have been key to his professional life.

“Extracurriculars pushed me to explore [... to] go and discover what's out there. [It] starts as a CV building thing, but it quickly becomes a personality-building thing,” he said.

Bob Babinski, B.A. ‘86 and president of the McGill Alumni Association, was involved in CKUT radio while at McGill, an experience that led him to later pursue a career in journalism and radio.

“That was a really formative experience for me, both in terms of having me realize my love of radio, which I would later go into as a news person, and also learning to trust my creativity and my ability to work with other people,” he said.

Though she was majoring in sciences, Hussain was involved in UNICEF during her two years at McGill. She believes that the soft skills that she developed through her involvement, both at McGill and in her subsequent studies, have been beneficial in her professional life.

“Student clubs really expose you to a lot of things, like building networks, fundraising, organization, and I also think working with people,” she said. “Because I think it’s really easy to go through your undergrad without actually working with people, and [in student clubs] you all like the project that you are doing, and you’re not just being assigned to it.”

That said, extracurricular involvement is by no means essential to a student’s time at McGill. Students should feel that they are able to take the opportunities that are available if they want to, but that they do not need to sacrifice their own well-being in order to meet external expectations of ‘success’ and ‘accomplishment.’

Students are their own agents of what they get out of their degree—both in and out of the classroom.

“There’s really no formula, there’s no stuff you have to do. I think probably what’s most important is to enjoy what you’re doing because, realistically, the amount that you’ll be able to directly translate from your degree is not that much,” said Rachel Meland, BSc ‘15 and current student in the Faculty of Law. “So enjoy what you’re learning, and if you aren’t enjoying what you’re learning you have to question why you’re in that program.”

A challenge that comes with forging one’s own path and finding happiness through it, is the constant compulsion to compare one’s own progress and decisions to those of others. Hussain believes that it is important for students to set their own goals, instead of basing it on arbitrary standards set by those around them.

“Don’t take on too much, and I think it’s very easy for it to look like everyone else has their act together except you,” said Hussain. “And not that everyone is, [there’s] the myth of doing it all, as well as the myth that everyone is doing it all, and doing it all perfectly [....] So I think just do things at your own pace.”

Most people are familiar with the cliches about the ‘university experience’: It is the time for self-discovery; you will find yourself; you will evolve as a person.

Following graduation, however, how does one continue to grow and avoid a sense of self-atrophy? For many McGill alumni, participating in alumni associations around the world is a way to continue to meet new people with diverse backgrounds.

“You have to see McGill as the bond that automatically connects you to someone else. So if you have a question about something, if you have something that you want to pursue, and there's a door that you want to knock on [...] and if the person on the other side of the door is from McGill, you have permission to knock on that door,” Babinski said. “You won't always get the same answer when you knock on that door, but you're able to knock on that door.”

Moulins believes that becoming involved in alumni associations after graduation is key to continual self-development. He discussed how when one works in a certain industry, it is easy to be surrounded by like-minded individuals, so finding opportunities to be exposed to new ideas is crucial.

"What's nice about young alumni events is that they really do bring a huge amount of diversity,” he said. “[....] It's about realizing what's out there and expanding your thought process on things you've never thought about.”

In addition to becoming involved with McGill’s vast alumni network, Moulins contends that students should be proactive in searching for new opportunities for exposure to different career paths. After all, it is likely that students will change careers multiple times.

In 2014, Workopolis predicted that if the current trend of increasing job-hopping continues, Canadians can expect to hold around 15 different jobs in their lifetime. “[The most important thing is] informational interviews [.... Basically], you cold call or you message someone, someone whose industry you find cool or interesting, and you invite them and you buy them coffee or lunch,” he said. “And you just have a series of questions [... which is] key to figuring out what you want to do and to meeting people and getting a job offer.

Applying online is a waste of time.”

Moulins emphasized that having the confidence to contact people who you find interesting is essential to understand the realities of working outside of academia.

“Frankly, it’s the only way to get a job you like,” he added. “[....] Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

Students and recent graduates alike may benefit from such advice. But cold calling or emailing someone are not the only options available to start informational interviews. In Spring 2016, the McGill Alumni Association launched McGill Connect, an online platform that aims to promote connections between current and former students with similar interests.

“McGill has an outward-looking point of view, [...] it's to see where we stand vis-à-vis the rest of the world,” Babinski added. “There are a number of things McGill does for that, and it's connected to the kind of impact that a university educated person and the university itself can have on a community at large.”

According to Babinski, for students who are still trying to figure out what to do with their time at McGill, the most important thing to keep in mind is striking a balance between meeting academic demands and finding activities that they enjoy.

“Ask yourself what it is that is giving you energy,” he said. “What is it that makes you excited, and from there look around and see where the opportunities are to find that sense of anticipation [...] and make sure that you find the time to do that. And that time is often going to be as important as the time that you're giving to your studies.”

10

STUDENT LIVING

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

The Mile End Deli brings Montreal cuisine south of the border McGill alumnus’ Mile End-inspired restaurant makes waves in Brooklyn

McGill alumnus and Montreal native introduces Mile End classics to New York City.

(Photo courtesy of the Mile End Deli)

Emma Carr Contributor Restaurateur Noah Bernamoff has brought a taste of Montreal to the streets of Brooklyn. In early 2010, Bernamoff opened the Mile End Deli, a restaurant serving up reimagined Montreal classics in the trendy Boerum Hill neighbourhood, which is popular among foodies for its plethora of highlyranked restaurants.

Since its opening, the Mile End

Deli has become a local institution that attracts diners seeking to reminisce about life in Montreal by way of its cuisine. In March 2016, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau even paid the restaurant a visit.

“People love Montreal and they have really fond memories [of] visiting, including New Yorkers and people around the country,” Bernamoff said.

“Sometimes it [comes] back to bite us because people make the comparison, which is something that is endemic

to [the] deli and some other kinds of categories of food, kind of old-school foods, [...] like bagels, pizza, everyone sort of loves to rank them in some sort of order from best to worst.”

Bernamoff, McGill alumnus and Montreal native, took a path into the restaurant industry that was far from conventional. The 2005 Political Science graduate initially pursued a career in music and later moved to New York to attend the Brooklyn Law School. However, while on tour with his band, Lovely Feathers, Bernamoff developed a passion for cooking.

“The way a band’s schedule works is that you’re on tour for awhile and you’re back for awhile, so it’s sort of like long stretches of, like, home and away,” Bernamoff said. “I really started during those years to pick up cooking as an occupier of time, not an occupation, but something to do that was interesting, that engaged my creativity and my dexterity […] and I just kind of continued from there.”

Without any experience in business management or in the hospitality industry, Bernamoff decided to open a restaurant, and the Mile End Deli was born. Bernamoff drew his inspiration from the Mile End neighbourhood and the tradition of

Jewish delis in Montreal when creating the restaurant’s menu. Bernamoff’s roots in the Mile End are deep; he was not only a resident of the Mile End, but can trace his family history to the area as well.

“My grandparents grew up in [the] Mile End and Outremont, back in the 30s and 40s, so [the idea behind the Mile End Deli] is historically relevant from my upbringing,” Bernamoff said.

“Then, when I was attending McGill, I lived in the Plateau, and then [the] Mile End for six or seven years.”

Many of the menu’s items pay homage to Montreal institutions: the “Beauty” is an egg sandwich named after the Plateau’s popular breakfast joint, Beauty’s, and the “Ruth Wilensky” is a fried salami sandwich inspired by the signature dish at Wilensky’s Light Lunch.

Yet, the Mile End Deli is far from the traditional Montreal deli. Bernamoff and his team of chefs collaborated to reinvent the dishes of the Mile End so that they reflected the convergence of cultures in the area. Revamped cultural dishes, such as a smoked meat burger, chicken shish taouk pita, and dandan noodles with broccoli, are all on its current menu.

“It’s not meant to be a carbon copy

[of Montreal delis],” Bernamoff said. “[.…] It’s meant to be inspired by the classics from the neighbourhood, and also [symbolic of the fact] that [the] Mile End has become a melting pot. It was an immigrant melting pot 70, 80 years ago. We are inspired by not just Jewish deli, we try to mix the Jewish deli part into the food of a community that is somewhat of a melting pot.”

Additionally, the quality ingredients used at the Mile End set the restaurant apart from other delis. The Mile End Deli prides itself for using fresh and locally-sourced ingredients. “[The Mile End Deli] was the first deli in the [U.S.] where we knew where everything was coming from and so we also played up that narrative,” Bernamoff said. “Everything was being handmade and not processed in a big factory using commodity-grade beef and turkey, the salmon is natural and coming from naturally sustained aquaculture farms.”

In addition to the flagship restaurant in Brooklyn, the deli has expanded to locations in NoHo and Midtown Manhattan. For Montrealers who find themselves hungry and homesick in New York City, the cure just might be a classic reuben sandwich at the Mile End Deli.

The art of brewing better coffee

An education in third-wave coffee culture at Dispatch coffee

Flaminia Cooper Contributor According to the Coffee Association of Canada, in 2016, over 58 per cent of Canadians aged 18-24 drank coffee on a daily basis, a number that grows every year. It is clear that coffee has become a staple of Montreal life; from the famous Tim Hortons to the lesser-known independent coffee shops in the Plateau, there seems to be a neverending choice of places to get that daily caffeine boost.

However, this makes it difficult for third-wave coffee companies to stand out among the crowd.

‘Third-wave coffee’ is a movement based on the idea that coffee is more than just a commodity. For those who follow its tenants, all stages of production, from the growing to the brewing of coffee beans, are done meticulously.

There is often a focus on the experience of coffee drinking itself, and as such, baristas put effort into other drink elements, such as latte art and alternative brewing methods.

To support this love of coffee, the beloved Montrealbased Dispatch Coffee has begun offering free workshops at its new location in the Plateau on Rue St-Laurent and Avenue Duluth. These workshops give customers the opportunity to discover where their coffee comes from and to learn new brewing methods.

Every Thursday from 4-7 p.m., the head roaster at Dispatch, Chris Durning, introduces attendees to a different brewing method. The most recent demonstration on Feb. 2 focused on the V60 pour-over method. A funnel-shaped device filled with freshly ground coffee is placed over a cup, then water is poured over the top in concentric circles so that it filters evenly into the cup below.

There is a significant amount of chemistry involved in the brewing process. The balance of acidity, sweetness, and bitterness of a cup can be significantly altered depending on how it is brewed, and finding the ideal ratio is a detailed process. Specific aspects of coffee making—such as the

temperature of the water, how fine the coffee has been ground, and the ratio of coffee to water in the brew—can be the difference between a good cup of coffee and a bad one.

“I always like to say making coffee is like making a cocktail, you’re trying to balance all of these flavours,” Durning said.

Dispatch works exclusively with high quality fair trade coffee from all over the world, and each kind is chosen for its unique blend of scents. The Rwandan Kanzu coffee sold by Dispatch is described as ‘sweet and comforting,’ while the Peruvian Amaybamba coffee beans are also fairly sweet, but have hints of deeper chocolate and nutty aromas. Durning invites workshop attendees to taste the freshly brewed coffee, helping them to identify these subtle, distinct smells during his demonstrations.

These beans, roasted in Montreal, are light-roasted to retain as many nutrients as possible and preserve their high quality and complex flavours. The effort of roasting the coffee locally clearly shows the care and expertise that Dispatch puts into their products. This is also reflected in the free workshops, which go above and beyond to improve the customer experience.

At the end of the workshop, Durning also hands out recipe cards with specific instructions on how to replicate the brewing methods at home.

“By giving you recipes that we’re actually roasting for, it’s making sure you’re in the ballpark already,” Durning said. “Then, by teaching you how to manipulate the flavour, you can adjust it so that it tastes perfect and you’re wasting less coffee. That’s the biggest thing for us.”

Though there are many secrets to brewing the perfect cup of coffee, Dispatch provides an easy and enjoyable avenue to understand the fundamentals.

Durning’s workshops make the complex world of coffee brewing more accessible—plus, the free coffee makes the educational experience all the more gratifying.

Dispatch Coffee’s new location in the Plateau offers free weekly brewing workshops to customers.

(Flaminia Cooper / The McGill Tribune)

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT 11

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Metafiction and Bees: Joketown 16 throws the kitchen sink at comedy Eric Noble-Marks Staff Writer In a city where everyone has a friend who dabbles in comedy, it’s sometimes hard to tell the contenders from the pretenders. But as the 16th iteration of Joketown proved on Jan. 28, sometimes the best way to separate the wheat from the chaff is pure, unadulterated competition. As part of a sort of comedic battle of the bands, the night’s performers converted the small, hole-in-the-wall Theatre St Catherine into the kaleidoscopic village of Joketown—where the jokes are so fresh they’re sold in stores, and the only crime is being unfunny.

The rules were simple.

Four teams were given a week to craft their own yuk-worthy little section of the town, guided by a series of unrelated themes provided by the organizers.

This week’s typically nonsequiturial signposts were “the good old days,” “bees,” and “a very important telegram,” which provided plenty of absurd ammunition for the writers to work with. At the end of the show, the crowd would vote with their applause to determine who would win the coveted title of Mayor of Joketown.

With the title of Mayor

on the line, the stakes were high. Thankfully, each troupe was on their A-game. Up first was defending champion Emory

Fine deserves credit for crafting what was undoubtedly the most ambitious sketch of the night.

Continuing the meta

was its characters’ delivery—a deadpan, robotic drone that constantly delivered laughs. They even had their own corny theme

Alex Brown staked the climax of her scene on a bee pun. (Lauren Benson-Armer / The McGill Tribune) Fine, who swung for the fences by staging a highly postmodern “Joketown within Joketown”—a version of the entire evening’s entertainment condensed into a dizzying 20 minutes. It was dazzlingly high-concept for a local comedy show, if not a too little cute for its own good. Still,

trend was Lise Vigneault’s “Private Eye Ladies,” a deliriously surreal send up of ‘70s low-budget television, complete with foxy detectives, absurdist commercial breaks, and an evil beekeeper who just wants to play the maracas. However, the sketch’s most potent weapon

song.

Next up was Jason Grimmer, whose sketch recounted the harrowing tale of a man sent to Joketown prison for prop comedy.

Though it showed promise, this sketch was probably the weakest in a very strong field, suffering from pacing issues and flubbed

lines. It did feature a couple of barn burners, though; namely in the form of a morose, MILFobsessed inmate imprisoned for being a poet—the least funny of all professions.

“Private Eye Ladies” seemed like the obvious winner before the last performance of the night brought the house down and cemented comedian Alex Brown’s coronation as Mayor. (onionstatic.com) Centred around a local joke shop owner who is gradually turning into a bee, the sketch was a perfect mixture of meta humour and puke jokes. The sketch’s defining moment was when our hero, forced to decide whether to remain being human or to accept his newfound beedom, picks up a tiny skull and, after what seems like an eternity of comedic tension, finally takes the bait and says “to bee or not to bee.”

In a spellbinding gamble, Brown staked the climax of her sketch around the success of a Hamlet bee pun. Amazingly, it worked.

She was the deserved winner by a mile, capping a thoroughly chuckle-worthy night of some of Montreal’s best up-and-coming comics.

Joketown is put on at Theatre St Catherine every month of the year.

The date of the next show will be announced on the venue’s website.

Charlestown Burlesque dazzles audiences at the Wiggle Room Sophie Brzozowski Contributor For audience members who were veteran spectators within the burlesque community or regulars at the Wiggle Room, the Charlestown Burlesque, which premiered on Feb. 3, began as expected. After a brief but charming overture of ragtime piano, manager Frenchie Jones sauntered onstage—wearing nothing but undergarments and a top hat—to explain the rules of the night. As instructed, the crowd nervously stood up. With our right hand on our hearts and—for the less bashful among us—our left on our neighbour’s rear end, we took the infamous oath: “I vow to hoot, to howl, to heckle, to drink the bar dry, and to laugh as loud as I damn well please because life is just too goddamn short not to.” And so began the evening.

The Wiggle Room is known throughout Montreal as a destination unique not only for hosting exclusively burlesque shows, but also for its elaborately-themed productions.

This was the first, but certainly not the last, edition of the Charlestown shows. The host for the night was the elegant Kitty Vanderbilt, who kicked things off with a fetching rendition of Ella Fitzgerald’s “To Keep My Love Alive.” At once playful and sincere, she explained the inspiration behind the theme.

“The Charlestown came about in the 1920s, and signaled the emancipation of women,” Vanderbilt cooed, pausing for an enthusiastic cheer. “Women were finally

allowed to dance by themselves, shake it, and do whatever they wanted!”

Though not overtly political, the acts did seem to be a subtle and coy nod at the idea of feminine liberation that fuels modern nostalgia of 1920s flapper culture. Later on, Vanderbilt would sing “Tu T’Laisses Aller”

by Charles Azvanour—a song originally supposed to be sung by a man to a woman— in a nod to the burlesque’s tendency to ignore traditional gender roles.

Everything about burlesque is designed to get a rise out of audience members. The staff, the atmosphere, and even the cocktails all contribute to the maudlin, antique-y tenor of the show. Often dancing beyond the confines of the shallow stage, performers would waltz right into the crowd to interact with spectators, even plucking them from their seats and dragging them up on stage.

The dancers tailored their performance to whatever nostalgic persona they were inhabiting—a sly flapper with peacock feathers for a prop (Aria Deloche), a corpse bride with a puppet as her betrothed (BonBon Bombay), or a retro housewife armed with doughnuts (Audrey Ivory). Yet each performer had a character that went far beyond just the costumes, and every act was a racy mix of dance and theatre—more than just a simple striptease.

Scheduled to appear the first Friday of every month, the Charlestown Burlesque is perfect for anyone with a fondness for the ‘Roaring Twenties,’ bawdy theatre, sequined costumes, or simply uninhibited

Aria Deloche performs at the Wiggle Room. (Sophie Brzozowski / The McGill Tribune) fun. An evening at the Wiggle Room is guaranteed to be no ordinary Friday night, and the Charlestown may not be for the faint of heart. It will, however, live up to

its promise of giving the viewer a truly immersive experience unlike anything else you can find on St Laurent, or perhaps all of Montreal.

12 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

End the reboot

By Declan Embury, Contributor

Hollywood and content creators of all kinds have always been influenced by those that have come before them. Some of the greatest films of all time are based on previous works: The Godfather, To Kill a Mockingbird, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest to name a few. But in the past two decades, any movie fan will have noticed the growing trend of reboots, rehashes, and spin-offs filling up the theatre bills.

It’s understandable why studios want to make these movies; they are easy to produce and seem like a surefire way to draw nostalgic audiences to the theatres. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) and Jurassic World (2015) are both good examples of films that capitalize on nostalgia. Neither film managed to get out of the shadow cast by the original and stand out independently in any meaningful way, but that did not the reeboots from hitting big at the box office, with Jurassic World becoming the thirdhighest grossing film of all time.

This desire to avoid risk and stick to the ‘classics’ has lead to a significant reduction in the quality of new blockbuster films.We could be missing out on many new classics as studios decide to produce a reboot rather than taking a risk on a new idea. These huge projects are able to offer actors, actresses, directors, producers, and every other crew member more financial incentives than other projects. This often causes the most accomplished and established talent to be snapped up to work on these unimaginative money-making projects, rather than more interesting and fresh films.

Not only are reboots uninspired and often uninteresting, historically, reboots have generally lacked critical success. For instance, take the wave of ‘90s and early ‘00s comedies that have been been getting sequels in the past few years. Dumb and Dumber To (2014), Anchorman 2 (2013), and Zoolander 2 (2016) all floundered trying to recapture the quality and style that made the originals so great.

Critics assessed them as outdated, uninspired, and nothing more than big cash grabs.

“Anytime you mention reboot and remake, the audience thinks ‘rip-off,’” said Jeff Bock, a box-office analyst when interviewed by the Los Angeles Times .

“I don’t know why Hollywood keeps shoving these movies down our throats.”

There are reasons why rebooting movies is hard.

Most classics are products of their time, so it is hard to recreate their tone in a modern setting. It is also hard to balance the desire to be loyal to the original while also giving the remake its own feel. This is why most reboots either feel like copies of the original or completely different movies that happen to share the same name, perhaps with a couple references to the original.

Many people enjoy the entertainment value of reboots, but it is misguided to think they aren’t having a adverse effect on the film industry. The issue with reboots is that they give a creative industry an excuse to avoid creativity. This leads major filmmakers and stars of the industry away from more original projects and denigrates the legacy of these classic films. Reboots are bad for both the industry in the longterm and for movie fans who want to see classic films emerge in their own generation.

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Nostalgia or writer’s Reboot the reboot block?

By Ariella Garmaise, Staff Writer

Is Hollywood’s reboot trend justified?

Infamously terrible remakes like 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and 2016’s Ben-Hur give the reboot a sour reputation. At best, reboots are criticized as failing to live up to their source material’s former glory. At worst, their producers are labelled as unoriginal cash grabs.

However, throughout all of film history, the same stories have been updated to fit the modern times. Disney’s Cinderella (1950) has taken countless forms–from the animated Disney Classic (1950), the magical Ella Enchanted (2004), to Hilary Duff’s spunky Cinderella Story (2004). Each of these films is proof that, sometimes, how a story is told is just as important as the story itself.

Nancy Meyer’s 1998 film Parent Trap is a criticallyacclaimed classic, showcasing talents like Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richards, and kick-starting the career of Lindsay Lohan. The Parent Trap follows two girls who meet at summer camp, where they discover that they are long-lost twins. Many people overlook the fact that the film is actually based on a 1961 original, starring popular Disney actress Hayley Mills.

The updated Parent Trap allowed filmmakers to show off how vastly movie technology had evolved. In the 1961 original, most shots with both twins required a body double, while in the 1998 version, the crew was able to use more advanced split-screen technology. The Parent Trap is an example of how reboots can enable filmmakers to improve both the content and mechanics of past movies.

Reboots are also valuable because they allow filmmakers to recreate beloved classics with underrepresented or marginalized cast members.

Film history is dominated by white heterosexual characters, in which men get to play powerful roles while women are sidelined. Reboots allow audiences to reimagine old favourites by giving them a chance to recognize themselves onscreen.

2016’s Ghostbusters showcases the oftenforgotten female comedian, with five women leads just as hilarious and dynamic as the original allmale cast. The upcoming Oceans 8 is yet another chance for women to shine in the traditionally male-led crime genre. 2014’s Annie featured Quvenzhané Wallis as the eponymous star. Annie is traditionally red-headed, but Wallis, who is African American, proves that we need not accept these arbitrary casting norms. Progression in the film industry is not just about continuing to cast diverse performers, but also about deconstructing existing conceptions of who can occupy what roles within film. Questioning and delegitimizing these notions is an important foundation to improving diversity in future films.

Granted, there are reboots that are quite cringe-worthy to watch. The fourth season of Arrested Development failed to deliver the belly-aching laughter for which its first three seasons were famous. 2016’s Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life felt like a shadow of its charming and heartwarming former self.

Nonetheless, what both of these projects have in common is that they tried to recreate, rather than readapt, their originals. Like a former cheerleader at her 20-year high school reunion, these films were trying to relive past success, instead of looking at new territory to explore.

Reboots are a gamble, and hold potential to compare unfavourably to the works on which they are based. However, when executed with originality and a fresh perspective, they are a great mechanism for telling familiar stories in new ways.

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

science & technology 13

Hey Mr. DJ, turn the record off

Researchers link lack of pleasure from music to connectivity in the brain Izze Siemann Staff Writer Ever have friends that didn’t tap their foot, bob their head, or drum their hands to the beat of a good song? Researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) and the University of Barcelona have discovered that the lack of joy from music can arise biologically, rather than just by choice or taste.

While on sabbatical in Spain, MNI neuroscientist Dr. Robert Zatorre connected with colleagues at the University of Barcelona. Pooling together Zatorre’s knowledge of the brain’s response to pleasure and music and his colleagues’ expertise on anhedonia—the inability to experience pleasure—the team set out to explore the way in which the human brain derives happiness or displeasure from music.

In their resulting study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in September 2016, 45 participants filled out a questionnaire regarding the satisfaction they receive from music. The team divided these participants into three categories: Those who “can’t live without music,” those who experience regular joy from music, and those who exhibited no joy from music.

Participants in all three categories listened to music during the scans, voicing whether they liked the music or not. Brain scans using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the subject pool brought an intriguing conclusion to light: The scans projected three different patterns for the three subject pools.

The cortical regions of the brain that control audio processing and the reward system are connected.

“Hyper-hedonic” people—those who receive vast amounts of happiness from music—have tightly connected audio and reward systems.

On the other hand, individuals who don’t experience joy from listening to music have lower connections between these regions than usual.

This phenomenon, found in three to five per cent of the population, was dubbed “specific music anhedonia” by the research team.

“There is a whole group of structures called [...] the reward circuit,” Zatorre explained. “If there’s activity in that part of the brain, you experience pleasure. If there is no activity in that part of the brain, you experience no pleasure.”

But there are crucial differences between specific music anhedonia and anhedonia in general.

Subjects with specific music anhedonia took a control test. They

played an addictive gambling video game so the researchers could focus on their “reward system” response. This test, coupled with verbal questions, revealed normal results—affirming that because the subjects could activate their “reward system” in other ways, the anhedonia they experience must be specific to music. “[Anhedonia is] a symptom that often occurs in depression and other disorders, like Parkinson’s disease,” Zatorre said. “It refers to the lack of pleasure. The people that we were studying were perfectly fine in terms of their pleasure responses for anything [besides music]. [...They] like to be with their friends. They like to be among their families, and have normal, loving relationships like other humans [.…] They like everything, except for music.”

According to Zatorre, subsequent studies seek to explore whether and how these psychiatric conditions may receive more effective treatment—such as a collaborative team at the University of Tel Aviv in Israel, working on the development of a targeted music therapy. Currently, these developments are still experimental.

“The human brain can do a lot of really cool stuff,” Zatorre said.

Slow connections between different regions of the brain may help explain why some people don’t feel pleasure from music. (Eleanor Milman / The McGill Tribune)

Should drugs demonstrate efficacy before entering human clinical trials?

McGill bioethicists argue for stricter limits on first-in-human drug trials Palma Gubert Contributor The standards for drugs entering first-in-human (FIH) clinical trials are too low, argues Associate Professor Dr. Jonathan Kimmelman and PhD candidate Carole Federico in McGill’s Biomedical Ethics Unit. In a commentary published online in Nature on Jan. 30, Kimmelman and Federico maintain that evidence for drug efficacy is not emphasized enough before FIH trials and call for more thorough evaluation of the clinical promise of a drug before it is tested in humans.

Today, regulatory bodies in Europe and North America look for evidence of safety before drugs are tested in humans, but do not require evidence of drug effectiveness.

“We believe that many FIH studies are launched on the basis of flimsy, under-scrutinized evidence,” Federico and Kimmelman wrote.

The ALS Therapy Development Institute, which studies the motorneuron disease made famous by the ice bucket challenge in 2014, has similarly determined via its own animal studies that many failed drugs enter human trials due to inadequately designed or conducted preclinical studies.

McGill biomedical ethicists argue efficacy should be prioritized in human drug trials. (Cordelia Cho / The McGill Tribune) Most drugs that make it to phase II and phase III in human clinical trial stages fail due to lack of demonstrated effectiveness. Kimmelman and Federico posit that raising the bar for assessments of efficacy before going into human trials would lower failure rates and the high costs of drug development—money that could be better spent developing drugs

with real clinical promise.

Likewise, failed drug trials—even if the drug in question is harmless for the participants—divert manpower away from more promising trials. Researchers and volunteers, in devoting time and effort to a fruitless drug, are not available for other, more favourable endeavours.

“Scientists are a very scarce resource,” Kimmelman told CNN . “It takes years and years of training to be able to run a trial and we want to allocate that resource as judiciously as possible to lead to major advances and cures.”

Moving forward, Kimmelman and Federico suggest a number of changes to the existing process of clinical trial approval. They propose that researchers should be obligated to disclose all of the results, even the unfavourable ones, from their preclinical studies when looking for trial approval.

Furthermore, a central review board of experts should be created, combining ethical and scientific vetting of the preclinical evidence before approval for a human trial. In order to determine a drug’s clinical promise, such a board should pose questions asking, for example, how other drugs addressing the same disease process have fared, or whether the conditions of preclinical experiments match clinical scenarios.

Critics of Kimmelman and Federico’s proposal may counter that increased regulation could hinder potentially favourable drug candidates from ever reaching human trials. Kimmelman and Federico, however, argue that preclinical evidence does not necessarily need to be strong—but it should be critically scrutinized. In some instances, where animal models of a condition are inadequate, such as in some neurodegenerative disorders, a “limited suggestion of clinical promise” may be enough to warrant human trials.

“We call for infrastructure, resources, and better methods to rigorously evaluate the clinical promise of new interventions before testing them on humans for the first time,” Federico and Kimmelman wrote.

“We must abandon the fiction that current oversight systems are adequate […] to steward scientific efforts.”

Kimmelman expressed his worries to CNN regarding the potential effects of the Trump presidency in prioritizing speed over efficacy. While campaigning, President Trump said that he wanted to speed up the drug approval process and eliminate red tape at the FDA. “If President Trump follows through on some of the plans he has articulated on the campaign trail about drug approval, he plans to weaken the critical evidence needed to approve new drugs,” Kimmelman said.

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

14 science & technology

Communicating climate change in Canada

A public conversation on media, science, and global warming Daria Kiseleva Staff Illustrator

On Feb. 2, Media@McGill hosted a panel discussion on the role of journalism in effectively communicating climate change.

NASA recently revealed that 2016 was the hottest year in history and the third record year in a row—the first time such a pattern has occurred since climate data collection began. Despite this, according to a 2015 study from the Université de Montréal, only about half of Canadians subscribe to the scientific consensus that rising temperatures are primarily caused by human activity and only 27 per cent say that they are well-informed on the issue of global warming. In an attempt to address the gap between scientific knowledge and public engagement, the panel featured six experts across multiple sectors.

The participants acknowledged the media’s limited success in bringing climate change to the forefront of public awareness.

“The media has covered climate change in Canada extensively, but it has failed in a lot of cases, particularly in the last election,” Mike de Souza, managing editor of the National Observer, said. “It would have been up to the media […] to provoke more discussion during debates.”

A diverse panel hosted by Media@McGill discussed approaches to covering climate change in the media. (Cordelia Cho / The McGill Tribune)

Kai Nagata, communications director of the Dogwood Initiative, believes that the Canadian government has made decisions on the assumption that there will be a market for non-renewable energy in the future because climate action will fail. “[The media] fails to hold these people to account,” Nagata said.

The discussion also touched on the challenges journalism faces as a medium in tackling the complex issue of climate change. A proposition was put forth that the scope of the

environmental phenomenon cannot be contained by the reactionary, event-driven format of popular media. “[To communicate about climate change] we need to dig down deep into stories over a long period of time,” Linda Solomon Wood, CEO of the Observer Media Group, said.

“And that’s not sexy, it’s the total opposite of clickbait.”

Repeatedly, the conversation segued back to the subject of promoting engagement with the issue of climate change in diverse populations.

Martin Lukacs, environmental journalist for The Guardian, argued that a rift along ideological and political lines is central to the divergent perceptions of climate change.

“Polarization is really necessary [to motivate action against climate change],” Lukacs said. “What we are confronting is an ideological foe.”

Nagata agreed with Lukacs that perceptions of climate change vary strongly across the political spectrum.

“Discussion [on climate change] is not happening to the same extent on the political right [as on the left],” Nagata said. “Our responsibility, as advocates, is to understand the values that motivate people’s choices and to find a way to talk about this crisis that motivates action from people who are our political opposites.”

On the other hand, Candis Callison, associate professor at the Graduate School of Journalism at UBC, shared insight from her research on different forms of environmental activism, including that of American Evangelicals.

“There’s a way of talking about climate change which imbues it with ethics and morality […] and in various contexts it sounds different,” Callison said. “That kind of plurality associated with climate change isn’t something we generally think of.”

Laure Waridel, executive director of Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Sustainable Development Operationalization, agreed with Callison.

“The same message will not reach everybody,” said Waridel.

“To get the business sector involved, […] we might not even use the language of climate change, but […] the language of optimization, for example.”

Lukacs remarked that environmental issues may resonate more with the public when they are framed in a new light by social movements.

“Pipelines six or seven years ago were a technical issue that got mentioned in the business section of newspapers, [...] but they are now a defining political issue in this country, discussed in terms of their impact on indigenous rights,” Lukacs said.

The panel seemed to agree that an impactful communication of climate change goes beyond an accurate reporting of statistics. “[Climate change communication] needs to stay true to the scientific fact […] and at the same time it needs to become more than that in order for a diverse public to become engaged,” Callison said.

Are you getting enough sleep?

Early school start times adversely affect sleep habits according to McGill researchers Andy Wang Staff Writer With the onslaught of midterms on the horizon, sleep will likely be pushed down the list of students’ priorities.

According to a report card issued by ParticipACTION, a Canadian non-profit organization focused on improving public health, 26 per cent of adolescents are either mildly or moderately sleep deprived.

In addition to citing statistics, the report card also establishes a databased guideline on the amount of time children and adolescents should be sleeping—the first such guideline published in Canada.

Despite its importance, sleep deprivation has not yet been the focus of serious public discourse.

“I don’t think [sleep has] been a prominent public health discussion point,” Dr. Mark Tremblay, the report card’s chief scientific officer, told The Globe and Mail in June 2016.

The rapid digitization and the presence of screens in children’s rooms have contributed to the deterioration of sleep in recent years.

Recent studies have indicated that a good night’s sleep relies on appropriate levels of physical

activity during the day. As such, ParticipACTION recommends a new philosophy called “the whole day matters.”

“There is a direct correlation between sleep and [children’s] physical activity levels,” Tremblay said.

According to the report card, children ages five to seventeen should perform at least one hour of moderate to intense physical activity per day. Only nine per cent of Canadian children meet the criterion.

Early school start times also play a significant role in the amount of sleep children and adolescents receive during the week. According to participACTION, schools should begin no earlier than 8:30 in the morning.

McGill researchers published a study in The Journal of Sleep Research in November 2016, which contributed further evidence to an already growing body of data indicating that early school start times could be adversely affecting the grades and the general well-being of children and adolescents.

“This study provided the first comprehensive assessment of school start times across Canada and examined whether school start times were associated with sleep duration

and tiredness among adolescents,” the study’s abstract explained.

The researchers, led by Dr. Geneviève Gariépy of McGill’s Institute for Health and Social Policy, reported that despite 69 per cent of students meeting the national recommendations for sleep, 60 per cent reported feeling tired throughout the school day.

“Although school start times in Canada [are] better than in the U.S., there really hasn’t yet been a focus on adolescent sleep,” said Gariépy in an interview with The McGill Tribune.

But the situation seems to be improving. According to Gariépy, her research has led to the implementation of new policies regarding start times in two high schools in Eastern Canada.

A number of studies have shown that adolescents differ from adults in their sleep-wake cycles in two respects. First, adolescents require a longer duration of time to fall asleep compared to adults. Second, the secretion of melatonin—a hormone thought to induce drowsiness—is delayed in adolescents. As the brain releases melatonin in response to darkness, the change in secretion patterns observed in adolescence contribute to the sleep-wake system’s phase delay during this period of life.

Sleep patterns and requirements differ between adolescents and adults. (Ceci Steyn / The McGill Tribune) Sleep deprivation has been linked to a variety of health problems including obesity, mood disorders, and depression. Signs of inadequate sleep may include daytime lethargy, depression, and loud snoring—an indication of restricted airflow.

The Canadian Sleep Society

recommends nine hours of sleep per night. With time starting to stretch thin for many students, it will be difficult to meet this standard. But it is important to keep in mind that adequate sleep will result in more energy, better mood, and, in turn, better grades.

SPORTS 15

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

P O I N T Should athletes speak politically on sports time?

C o u nt e r point

(thegrio.com)

(politico.com)

With all the attention afforded to athletes’ political opinions, The McGill Tribune discusses the question of whether or not athletes should speak politically during “sports time.” For the purpose of this article, “sports time” is defined as all pre- and post-game press conferences, along with any statements made during a sporting event.

Athletes must continue to speak out politically during sports time

Sports time is not the time for political speech

Athletes should be allowed to address political issues on sports time if they wish to do so.

While political conversation is without a doubt an important part of democratic society, athTheir statements should not take on an excessive role by interfering with gameplay; however, letes should not speak politically during sports time. Athletes do not have an effective platform for athletes addressing political issues in post-game or pre-game interviews is beneficial for society political conversation, their statements may cause unintended negative reactions from fans, and because of the unique status these athletes possess. taking sides politically goes against the broad unifying aspect of sports.

Professional athletes are on an unmatched platform to convey their messages to both poThe first problem with such statements is the constraints of sports time speech. At a pre- or litical and apolitical parts of the public. Many segments of society feel alienated by politics post-game press conference, the most pertinent issues are match-related, leaving little time for and do not pay attention to the news. Therefore, athletes have the special ability to be heard by athletes to expand on political positions. The primary focus during sports time is to see athletes thousands of people who are usually deaf to the media. Athletes should make the most of this opcompete and talk about why the game went how it did, not why players support one political portunity and spark interest in political debates by expressing their political opinions. movement or another. Since so much time is devoted to sports and so little exists to The platform afforded to athletes is inherently beneficial because of the dwell on anything else, the athletes would be hard-pressed to shoehorn their discourse created from hearing differing opinions. In the contemporary message into a conference or in-game gesture. environment of reinforcement through social media, being presented Carolina Panthers’ tight end Greg Olsen discussed the limitawith a differing point of view is instrumental in opening the minds tions in an interview with Pro Football Talk. of individuals.

“The last thing [athletes] want to do is [...] be misinterpretOftentimes, these accounts are from historically mared and then have your thoughts misconstrued [...] and now ginalized populations. These groups are rarely featured on all of a sudden makes you seem to be something you’re Athletes should not speak mainstream media, but with sports they are placed frontnot,” Olsen said. and-centre and given the opportunity to express themIt can be incredibly difficult for athletes to voice politically during sports time selves. This is because sports is a true meritocracy: The their opinions in such restrictive circumstances. Therebest players succeed and only hard work and dedication fore, athletes should take their political opinions to other come into play. Sexual orientation, race, and gender platforms–like social media or radio talk shows–that Although it is important for athletes to speak out have no influence on who thrives once they’re on the allow them to fully flesh out and discuss their beliefs. politically, the timing of those comments is best field or court. It brings people with diverse and unique The nature of the audience creates the second backgrounds into the spotlight. problem for athletes looking to speak politically. No reserved for outside sports time. Sporting events As for the timing of athletes’ political statements, matter one’s political leanings, sports has commonly have the power to unify people all over the world, due to the omnipresence of political debate, drawing the been viewed as an escape from the negativity of politics. but associating them with athletes’ personal line during sports time seems rather illogical. There are Whether it be the Black Power Salute at the 1968 Olympolitical views does the opposite. There are better countless examples of situations where sports and political pics or Kaepernick kneeling for the American national issues have been intertwined. From the 1968 Olympics Black anthem, the general criticism of such act stems not from opportunities for athletes to express their leanings Power Salute to the 2015 U.S. Men’s and Women’s national the political message but from the tarnishing of the viewer’s and more effectively advance their goals. soccer teams making post-game statements about equal pay for sports experience. There is certainly a time and place for political women, athletes have the potential to impact the world and should statements, but poorly timed assertions during sporting events can speak out when they have personal connections to causes. Both of these induce blowback from even those sympathetic to an athlete’s cause. protests were successful in achieving change. The 1968 Black Power Salute For this reason, political statements made during sports time can do is often referred to as one of the most powerful protests in history and caused Americonsiderable harm to the socially unifying aspects of sports. Sports fans can easily cans to re-evaluate their treatment of blacks. In 2016, in reaction to the soccer protests, the U.S. attest to the effect fandom has in counteracting more divisive aspects of society, especially in Senate unanimously passed a resulution to end athletic pay discrimination. politics. On game day, the conversation isn’t about who voted for whom, it is about how great Kneeling during an anthem or talking politics during a post-game interview is rarely a a play was, if someone should steal second, or why the goalie was out of position. In a political nuisance and has the ability to create conversation between sports fans that may otherwise share landscape where common ground is fleeting, a world where society holds on to things that unify nothing in common. People complain about these statements not because they are distracting, people and urges athletes to consider better outlets for political speech is crucial. but because they do not agree with the message. While this could turn into a much larger debate The stance against political statements in sports time is not about infringing upon free speech. about freedom of speech, the issue here is with fans, not athletes. Individuals need to learn to The argument is based on what is best for both the athletes and the audience. The athlete is better accept debate and opinions that run counter to their own. In today’s politically charged climate, off using a platform that allows for the more complete and effective articulation of their views people need to question their beliefs and to be able to defend them in a civil manner. and the audience is best left alone during sports time so that they can enjoy their game without Given these facts, athletes should be allowed to speak politically when they please. The real the political negativity in which they are usually swamped. In the interests of both of these aims, debate lies with our society’s ability to cope with political conversation. players should not make political statements during sports time.

Editors’ Pick

— Samuel Cordano Contributor

— Patrick Beacham Staff Writer

Tuesday, February 7. 2017

16 sports

Goal and assist by Hodhod prove enough for Redmen Gervais-Chouinard makes 28 saves in victory over Carleton

2-1 Redmen André Morin Contributor After building a two goal lead, the McGill Redmen (19-4-3) survived a third-period comeback bid by the visiting Carleton Ravens (16-9-2) to pick up a 2-1 win on Feb. 4.

“I thought we had a good 60 minutes,” Redmen Head Coach Kelly Nobes said. “I particularly liked the last 10 minutes, we had a one goal lead, we got pucks deep in their corners, we played real good in the neutral zone, we didn’t give up any odd man rushes, [and] we just played a real savvy finish to the game.”

In a game where tempers flared and penalty minutes were given in abundance, sophmore forward Samuel Hodhod broke the deadlock for McGill with just over three minutes left in the first period.

With several key Redmen still in Kazakhstan competing in the

the 2017 International University Sports Federation (FISU) Winter Games, other players, such as Hodhod, have had to fill in and contribute.

“We’ve had lots of guys step up,” Nobes said. “Look at Sam Hodhod tonight, he had a good game, he was hanging onto the puck down low, he was creating things with his feet, and got a great goal, and got us started [....]

Guys are stepping up in different situations, and that’s good for the team as we move along.”

Hodhod, who was named the first star of the game, also picked up an assist on Alexandre Sills’ second-period goal.

Penalties caught up to the Redmen in the final frame, as Josh Burnside scored an early powerplay goal for the Ravens. The late goal would prove to be the only time Carleton would beat McGill goalie Jacob Gervais-Chouinard, who finished with 28 saves.

Frenshmen Samuel Hodhod took over the game, filling in for missing Redmen teammates. (Lauren Benson-Armer / The McGill Tribune)

Next up for the Redmen are the Nipissing Lakers, who they will visit on Feb. 10. With two games to go in the regular season, the Redmen sit atop the OUA Eastern Conference standings. Facing Nipissing, second-to-last in the OUA East, McGill will look to remain focused against a team not likely to make the playoffs.

“I don’t think that’s a big deal for us,” Hodhod said. “We focus on every game like it’s any other team.

Just because they’re a little lower in the standings doesn’t mean anything. They’re a great team.

Also, they’re fast, and we’ve got to make sure that we’re ready, we don’t want to be surprised.”

STAT CORNER

KEY MOMENT

QUOTABLE

Thirty-eight total penalty minutes were handed out between the two teams.

While on the penalty kill and with the Ravens goaltender pulled, the Redmen played solid defence for the last minute and a half of the game to secure the win.

“It’s always a little emotional when we play them, they’re a strong, big team, but we just stuck to our gameplan and it helped us” - Redmen forward Samuel Hodhod on McGill’s rivalry with Carleton, who eliminated the team from the playoffs last year.

Love them or hate them, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick are the greatest The NFL’s most polarizing team takes Super Bowl LI Kellen Jibb Contributor

the NFL. The two most infamous Patriots of the past 20 years are largely responsible for their lack of appeal among non-local NFL fans.

While 157 head coaches have

In true Tom Brady fashion, the New England Patriots staged a historic comeback win over the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI on Sunday night. Brady led the charge with 466 passing yards and 2 touchdowns, finding an unlikely target in running back James White for 14 receptions. White also punched in the game-winning touchdown early in overtime. With the win, Brady and company have cemented their legacies in NFL history. While they are undoubtedly among the football greats, Brady and Head Coach Bill Belichick have become the most polarizing pair in professional football.

With enough Super Bowl rings to cover a full fist, it’s hard to dispute Brady and Belichick’s legacies and unwavering–almost methodical–commitment to victory. Grumbling dissenters can point to Brady and the Patriots’ infamous Deflategate and Spygate scandals that may tarnish their come and gone across the NFL legacy; however, regardless of over his 17 years in New England, personal feelings, there is no de- Belichick has been a constant presnying that the New England teams ence, leading the Patriots to chamof recent years have been titans in pionship titles and near-perfect

seasons. Unlike the other 31 head coaches in the league, Belichick has near complete autonomy over his team, including free reign over all coaching and player personnel decisions. His seeming lack

vourite team a few times over his tenure, there really isn’t a reason to like Belichick.

As for Brady, the situation appears to be the opposite. For many, he seems to be just a nice guy who

Brady and Belichick embrace after clinching their fifth Super Bowl victory. (ESPN.com) of apathy for those under him and short, emotionless interviews has allowed fans to develop a strong distaste for him. Coupled with the fact he’s probably trashed your fa-

doesn’t run his mouth in the media, like so many other players have a tendency to do. Unlike Belichick, Brady seems almost too perfect.

Perhaps that is exactly why he has

become such a polarizing figure. A recent poll found that Brady was both the most-liked quarterback in the NFL, recieving 22 per cent of the vote, while also the leastliked, finishing first with 24 per cent of the vote. The statistics illustrate the stark division among football fans. Everybody hates a smug winner, and Brady has been exactly that on a consistent basis for the past 15-odd years.

No NFL team has won more games since the 2000 season than the Patriots. With five Super Bowl championships over the past 17 years, the sheer domination becomes clear after realizing that no team has won more than twice over the same timeframe. With Brady turning 40 in August and Belichick having been an NFL coach since 1975, the two seem to be on the back end of a dynasty.

Regardless of the football community’s undying love or vehement hatred for the team and its two figureheads, Brady and Belichick will be inextricably linked to greatness—a legacy sought by every sportsman.

Some call them cheaters, others call them icons, but above all, the New England Patriots are again, the indisputable champions.