Vol103iss8 by McGill Daily

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Volume 103, Issue 8 Monday, October 21, 2013

McGill THE

DAILY

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Published by The Daily Publications Society, a student society of McGill University.

Culture Shock Page 6

03 NEWS

Protests in solidarity with Mi’kmaq anti-fracking occupation

20 CULTURE

FEATURES

A look at local attempts to address the ‘brogrammer’ culture

Senate criticized as “rubber-stamping body”

TNC gets musical

SCI+TECH

Players’ takes on Tremblay

Today’s climate change deniers

Invigilators union files grievance with University

Queer cinema two ways

Find us online! mcgilldaily.com

Exploring nerd culture

A low-down on Culture Shock

Breaking down the World Social Science Forum

09 COMMENTARY

Online misogynists should just fucking stop

HEALTH & ED

McGill failed the research test The Keystone XL debate means more than climate change Misplaced sympathy and Israel’s friends in high places

Culture Shock

19 SPORTS

“Character issues” in sports

23 EDITORIAL 24 COMPENDIUM! An off-smelling revolution

Campaign Period: Monday, November 18, 9 AM - Tuesday, November 26, 5 PM Polling Period: Thursday, November 21, 9 AM - Tuesday, November 26, 5 PM Check your email for a referendum kit! Questions? Email president.aus@mail.mcgill.ca

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SACOMSS Sexual Assault Center of the McGill Students’Society

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Deadline to submit petition with 100 signatures or have a referendum question approved by AUS Council: Wednesday, October 30

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News

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Monday, October 21, 2013

Demonstrators protest police brutality against Indigenous activists Protesters outraged at RCMP for “second Oka crisis” William Mazurek | The McGill Daily

William Mazurek and Robert Smith | The McGill Daily

hursday night, roughly 150 protesters marched in Montreal in solidarity with Mi’kmaq land defenders in New Brunswick, where 40 activists were arrested near Rexton, earlier in the day. Elsipogtog Chief Arren Sock was among those arrested. The arrests followed a violent clash between police and Mi’kmaq activists protesting the continued development of shale gas in the province. In September, the Mi’kmaq Warrior Society began a peaceful blockade on unceded Mi’kmaq territory in New Brunswick, aiming to stop fracking company SWN Resources. The blockade reportedly costs the company $60,000 a day. The RCMP has responded with violence, bringing in armoured riot police and snipers, and using intimidation tactics. “We are here to show our solidarity with the Mi’kmaq nation,” protester Natasha Kanapé Fontaine told The Daily in French. “[The violence] is really caused by the racism that exists between the band and the RCMP.” Some at the protest compared the New Brunswick events on Thursday to the 1990 Oka crisis, where violence erupted after police used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse a crowd of protesters attempting to block the development of a golf course on their Indigenous lands. “At the time of the Oka crisis, there wasn’t much solidarity,” a protest organizer told The Daily. “If this is a second crisis, [the government] will have to recall that this time we are much more active.” Kanapé Fontaine shared a similar sentiment. “I have the impression that mindsets

are more open now [...] I was surprised by the number of people who showed up today.” The protest began with speeches at Cabot Square before making its way slowly to the RCMP building on the corner

“At the time of the Oka crisis, there wasn’t much solidarity. If this is a second crisis, [the government] will have to recall that this time we are much more active.” protest organizer of Greene and Dorchester. Following the speeches and drumming, the protest passed once again by Cabot Square before turning down Ste. Catherine where it continued east through downtown. Tensions rose temporarily as the protest took a sudden turn on McGill College to arrive in front of the Victoria Rifles Armoury where a few demonstrators confronted the uniformed servicemen inside. The demonstration dispersed eventually at the corner of Réné-Levesque and St. Laurent

without incident. The confrontation began Thursday in New Brunswick as RCMP attempted to enforce a court injunction requiring the activists to remove a blockade on the road leading to facilities owned by SWN Resources. To break the blockade, the RCMP used pepper spray and fired non-lethal rounds of rubber bullets into the crowd. In response, resisters confiscated fracking equipment of SWN, and six RCMP cars were torched. “They’re setting an example of what we all should be doing,” Kanapé Fontaine said through a megaphone to the crowd

To break the blockade, the RCMP used pepper spray and fired non-lethal rounds of rubber bullets into the crowd. in Montreal, in reference to the resistance in Elsipogtog. “Standing up for the earth, for our chil-

dren, for the future generations, standing up against colonial exploitations [...] today they were extremely brave,” said an unidentified protester about the Elsipogtog resisters.

“It’s clear that they want to eliminate us because we are simply going to continue to fight for what is right. I think it’s a continuation of a cultural and ecological genocide.” protest organizer “It’s clear that they want to eliminate us because we are simply going to continue to fight for what is right,” said an organizer to The Daily in French. “I think it’s a continuation of a cultural and ecological genocide.” A subsequent solidarity protest was held Friday as part of the National Day of Action. Look online for photos and live Tweets of the events on the ground in Elsipogtog.

The McGill Daily

News

Monday, October 21, 2013

Senate criticized as “rubber-stamping body” Discussion revolves around ways to make Senate more useful Dana Wray | The McGill Daily

he second Senate meeting of the year kicked off on October 16 with congratulations from Principal Suzanne Fortier to Dr. Luda Diatchenko, who on September 25 was made a chair under the Canada Excellence Research Chair Program. Diatchenko is not only the first woman to be appointed a chair, but also the first at McGill. Senators split on whether debate is productive Senate held an open discussion entitled “Making Senate meetings more meaningful: Enhancing discussion and engagement.” There was general agreement by most of the senators that a large chunk of time in the monthly meetings was taken up by lengthy presentations. Others suggested that there was not enough meaningful debate, and that the little debate there was did not contribute adequately to the decision-making processes of the University. Religious Studies Senator and former SSMU VP University Affairs Haley Dinel, who has sat on Senate for several years, agreed about the lack of engagement. “My main concern has been the lack of engagement from senators,” she said. “Students are usually the most vocal on Senate – there is very little incentive for professors and nonacademic staff to contribute.”

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However, not all the senators agreed that there should be more debate. “[I] appreciate the fact that debate is fun and it stimulates engagement and thought [... but] it’s hard to imagine that complicated issues are going to be amenable to debate where you’ll change your opinion based on few minutes of discussion,” said Professor Gregory Dudek from the Faculty of Science. Professor Catherine Lu from the Faculty of Arts also criticized Senate’s inability to contribute to any kind of meaningful decisionmaking by the administration. “[My colleagues told me] ‘Senate is more like a rubber-stamping body,’” Lu said. “But this joke wasn’t too far off my experience.” Fortier wrapped up the discussion by announcing that a small working group would be formed to look into suggestions for making Senate more open. Quebec’s complicated funding structure Professor Terry Hébert, one of the Faculty of Medicine senators, posed a question about the cost of educating the average in-province McGill undergraduate student, as well as the gap between the money needed to educate a student and provincial grants and tuition money. Provost Anthony Masi responded by

pointing to the Quebec government’s complex funding structure. “Quebec doesn’t provide a block grant, and doesn’t provide funding by the program of study in which a student is actually enrolled,” Masi said. “The Quebec government provides funding for each [course] that a student takes,” with some courses given more money than others. However, Masi acknowledged that, according to numbers crudely calculated by University administrators, the average in-province undergraduate student only paid for 21.7 per cent of the total cost required to educate them – leaving both the provincial government and McGill to foot the rest of the bill. “In the long run, costs can’t continue to exceed revenues. [...] Revenues have been increasing continuously over the past decade, but [McGill] has had to spend more than we brought in to subsidize students,” he said, adding that in addition to pressuring for more governmental funding, increases in tuition needed to be considered. Reports on mental health, diversity, and research funding Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Ollivier Dyens and Executive Director of Student Services Jana Luker presented the

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annual report of the Committee on Student Services. Dyens highlighted the importance of mental health at McGill, connecting it to broader structures. “Some of the mental health issues we’re facing are a pressure from society,” he said, later adding, “We have to deal with the dayto day-grind of servicing students, but we also have to look much further ahead [at] how the world is changing.” The Annual Report of the Joint Board-Senate Committee on Equity, presented by Associate Provost (Policies, Procedures and Equity) Lydia White, acknowledged the problem of microaggressions on campus. In addition, the Committee tentatively proposed that a statement of inclusiveness and diversity be included in McGill’s mission statement at some point in the future. Research funding was also a topic presented for Senate’s knowledge. Vice-Principal (Research and International Relations) Rose Goldstein emphasized that McGill had to continue diversifying its funding sources. She highlighted that currently, over half of McGill’s total research funding – $484 million in 2011-12 – came from the federal government. However, she also underlined an increase in funding from non-profit, industry, and international sources.

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News

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Monday, October 21, 2013

Invigilators file grievance against University Grievance comes two weeks after signing of first collective agreement Jordan Venton-Rublee | The McGill Daily

Alice Shen | The McGill Daily

nly two weeks after AGSEM: McGill’s Teaching Union formally signed its first collective agreement with the University, the union has filed formal grievances against McGill. According to AGSEM, the University put up job postings for invigilators for the final exam period several days before the formal signing ceremony on October 7. However, AGSEM’s grievance lies in the fact that the postings were still open after the agreement came into effect, and that the postings were restrictive. “Before the collective agreement actually came into effect last Monday, McGill could legally do whatever they wanted in terms of how they advertised the positions.” Jamie Burnett, AGSEM’s Invigilator Grievance Officer, told The Daily. “But as of Monday, October 7, the postings that they had needed to correspond to the criteria outlined in the collective agreement.” One of the contraventions AGSEM described was that the postings were restricted solely to McGill graduate students. To access the application, potential applicants had to enter their McGill ID and password – something Burnett and Sunci Avlijas, Vice-President for Invigilators and TAs, feel violates the terms of the agreement. “The position that was advertised on Monday October 7, in our opinion, is a contravention of the agreement, in that it was restricted to graduate students,” said Burnett. The collective agreement, as signed, allows anyone to apply for an invigilator position, and gives hiring priority to those who have worked as invigilators before. While not all invigilators are graduate students, according to Avlijas, around 90 per cent are. However, in order to ensure that there is equal access to all positions, AGSEM is asking McGill to reopen the posting with less restrictive terms.

However, Avlijas brought forward the fact that it was McGill, and not AGSEM, who originally pushed for the applications to remain open to more than graduate students during the bargaining period. “I don’t know exactly what their reasoning was [at the time], but to me [...] the potential intent of doing this was to downplay the extent to which invigilation is done by graduate students, in order to weaken our argument for higher salaries for invigilators.” In an interview with The Daily, Robert Comeau, McGill Employee and Labour Relations Director, stated that he was “aware that there are two grievances now.” “The hard position is that they are griev-

“I don’t know exactly what their reasoning was [at the time], but to me [...] the potential intent of doing this was to downplay the extent to which invigilation is done by graduate students, in order to weaken our argument for higher salaries for invigilators.” Sunci Avlijas

ing a situation that happened before they had a collective agreement,” said Comeau. “So before we signed last Monday, they were not able to grieve the situation. Of course now we have a collective agreement, we will

follow it.” However, Avlijas countered Comeau’s claim. “Now, they were not legally required to follow those rules prior to October 7, but it’s not like they didn’t know about the rules. The person who put up the postings was on McGill’s bargaining committee. She’s one of the people who signed the collective agreement.” “But they didn’t even do that properly because the postings didn’t close until October 7, and on the 7th the collective agreement was in effect, and so we have filed grievances,” Avlijas added. Comeau stated, however, that “we had a discussion and an agreement that anything we are not on the same page on, we would agree to meet with what we call the ‘union management committee,’ and we already have scheduled one to discuss the grievances.” The meeting, scheduled for early November, according to Comeau, would be the chance for the University to address “the way that we will be applying the selection process for this year[’s] exam period.” “I have no doubt we will find a solution,” Comeau said. “All we want McGill to do is reopen the applications,” Avlijas stated to The Daily. “There is plenty of time to do that before December, [allowing] anybody to apply, and following the rules set out in the collective agreement. It doesn’t actually cost McGill any money, it just is a matter of respect [for us and] for the collective agreement.” Since 2010, invigilators have been unionized under Unit 2 of AGSEM, and had worked without a collective agreement until two weeks ago. The agreement was the first to be signed by Unit 1 and 2, which represent invigilators and teaching assistants. Unit 3, which represents course lecturers and instructors, negotiates agreements separately.

“We’re pretty happy that it’s signed, we’re not entirely happy with a lot of terms, but we’re glad to have a collective agreement, and we’re looking forward to the next negotiations, which will not be so limited,” said Avlijas. Some of the terms that the union was less pleased with include salaries, which, despite plenty of negotiations, still sit at $10.65 an hour – among the lowest in the province. While the agreement was initially ratified in May at the AGSEM General Assembly, problems followed the invigilators over the summer prior to the official signing of the contract in October. Comeau told The Daily that he believed

“It doesn’t actually cost McGill any money, it just is a matter of respect [for us and] for the collective agreement.” Sunci Avlijas “both parties were happy when we were able to finalize their agreement,” and acknowledged the fact that “it took a long time, because we negotiated, we went to conciliation and at the end we finished with the arbitrator.” “Unfortunately we didn’t actually reach an agreement with McGill on the final version to sign until August, because McGill kept on asking us to remove entire articles from the agreement in principle which we signed in front of the arbitrator. And we couldn’t do that, because our General Assembly already ratified it, and also we wouldn’t agree with it because it’s not fair,” Avlijas stated. - With files from Dana Wray

The McGill Daily

News

Monday, October 21, 2013

Culture Shock d n a e r u t see cul print for o unfit t ture shock! ul c e r o m

Illustrations by Haidan Dong

ince 2006, Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) McGill and SSMU have teamed up to offer Culture Shock – eight days of panels, workshops, art, and film screenings, dedicated to breaking down myths about communities of colour, Indigenous peoples, immigrants, and refugees. The annual event series openly addresses issues such as race, white supremacy, colonialism, xenophobia, and anti-migrant sentiments. Series like Culture Shock, said Kira Page, External Coordinator at QPIRG, are important in a “broader context of neoliberalism that is telling people that racism is not an issue – that colonialism is not an issue.”

“At McGill specifically, I think there’s a comforting discourse [about] multiculturalism – that this is a diverse school, it’s all good, there’s a lot of diversity,” Page said. “Representation is certainly a barometer we can use [...] but just the fact that it isn’t just white people who go to this school doesn’t mean that people don’t experience institutionalized racism in a McGill context.” Another motivation for Culture Shock is McGill’s position on unceded Mohawk territory, Page said. “The fact that McGill is on stolen land is not just a historical issue. It’s a current issue.”

“Race at McGill”

Dana Wray | The McGill Daily

acial microaggressions, systemic and institutional racism, and the specific experiences of racialized people at McGill were all topics of discussion at a workshop co-facilitated by Shaina Agbayani and Annie Chen on October 16. The first half of the workshop, presented by Chen, focused on the basics of racial microaggressions, in addition to systemic and individual racism. Microaggressions are small, everyday actions – whether verbal, behavioural, or environmental – that are hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights. Although not always done intentionally, the slow accumulation of these microaggressions over a lifetime adds up to a marginalized experience. Agbayani gave an example of the McGillcentric website McGill Microaggressions, where people at McGill send in their experiences with racism on an interpersonal, often casual and everyday level. Chen’s part of the workshop also debunked the myth of reverse racism. A term thrown around to describe discrimination against white people, reverse racism is often

used in arguments against programs such as affirmative action. Agbayani focused more specifically on race at McGill, and how racism manifests itself on an institutional, day-to-day, and curricular level. She highlighted that there is an underrepresentation of people of colour within McGill’s faculty, as well as a lack of financial support for initiatives addressing racism, such as the Social Equity and Diversity Education Office. Agbayani attributed the underrepresentation of faculty and staff of colour at McGill to a “feedback loop” between a lack of diversity in the student body and in staff. “Some [people of colour] who were offered jobs at Counselling Services rejected the offers because they noted that they wanted to serve student populations that [was] more diverse, and they wanted to be a mirror of identity in a position of authority for students of colour, which they didn’t see a lot of at McGill.” In interviews with a former McGill dean and his daughter, a current staff

member, Agbayani said the lack of diversity appeared to be a systemic problem that wasn’t getting any better. “[The former dean and his daughter] haven’t seen much progress [over the past few decades]. They’ve seen a decrease in diversity visibly – not of students, they noted more students of diverse backgrounds – but in terms of

faculty and staff.” According to Agbayani, diversity is used as a superficial buzzword for McGill. “Diversity for McGill [as stated online] would reflect a pursuit of diversity as a pursuit of cosmopolitanism, as opposed to diversity as a pursuit of social justice and [a process of ] redressing historical injustices.”

“Canada Behind Bars: On the Incarceration of Indigenous Communities”

Hannah Reardon | News Writer

tatistics Canada findings show that 30 per cent of female offenders in federal prisons are Indigenous, and this figure is steadily climbing, according to Patricia Eshkibok, one of the speakers at the Canada Behind Bars panel on October 10. Panelists Eshkibok, Jessica Danforth, and Kawate Tawe, focused mainly on the incarceration of Indigenous women in Canada, while also highlighting the crisis facing Indigenous youth. The “pipeline from school to prison,” as Danforth referred to it, is an intergenerational effect of the residential school system. Many of its effects, such as alcohol and drug abuse, identity loss, and high suicide rates, are all serious and pervasive problems, the panelists stressed, which push Indigenous youth disproportionately out of the education system and into the prison system. Dismal health conditions, extreme homophobia, racism, and violence are all issues that face Indigenous people within the

prison system. However, some efforts are being made to improve the rights of Indigenous people in the prison system. Danforth is the founder and executive director of the Native Youth Sexual Health Network, an organization that works to protect the health rights of incarcerated individuals. “You don’t lose your right to health as soon as you enter prison. Just because you’re incarcerated doesn’t mean you lose your rights as a human being,” she said. “Colonization is happening,” said Danforth, adding that racism and loss of identity are day-to-day realities for Indigenous people. There is a pressing need, according to the panelists, to spread the truth [about] the present-day effects of colonization. Raising awareness and fighting for justice for marginalized Indigenous people is the only way to move forward, the panelists stressed. “We are here to speak truth to power,” said Danforth.

The McGill Daily

News

Monday, October 21, 2013

“Roundtable Discussion on Solidarity City”

Olivia Larson | News Writer

PIRG McGill and SSMU co-hosted a roundtable discussion on Montreal’s Solidarity City declaration, presented by migrant justice network Solidarity Across Borders. Dozens of public service organizations across Montreal have signed the declaration in an effort to make basic resources such as education, food, and housing accessible to non-status migrants. At the roundtable discussion, representatives from various public service organizations were present to share their successes and to discuss the challenges they have faced in implementing the declaration. Quebec’s residency clause bars thousands of undocumented children from free schooling every year, pointed out Anne, a CEGEP teacher. She works with the committee on education, which has successfully “made this problem exist” for the government through persistent lobbying in the hopes that the word

‘resident’ will be omitted from the law. The Food For All committee, a part of the Solidarity campaign, reaches out to food aid organizations and banks, asking them to adopt the declaration and implement a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy in regards to immigration status. So far, the committee has had relative success in signing organizations on, and thereby increasing “food justice,” as one representative put it, for nonstatus migrants. Several organizations are working with Solidarity City to increase the number of subsidized housing projects across Montreal, and to make shelters for those who identify as trans* or as women safe spaces for those who are undocumented. The shortage of available social housing for Quebec residents has made the government reluctant to expand the list of people who qualify for public housing, leaving

many who are non-status homeless. Shelters have had issues with the Canadian Border Services Agency raiding and subsequently deporting paperless immigrants. The declaration, for both social housing agencies and shelters, has been extraordinarily difficult to implement, as the struggle for increased

accessible living is being waged at all levels of government. Despite myriad obstacles, Solidarity City’s powerful declaration to “fight back with solidarity, mutual aid, and direct action” is making headway in achieving equal status for all those living in Montreal.

“Unsettling and Decolonizing: An Introductory Workshop”

“Political Prisoners’ Struggles in Palestine”

Joelle Dahm | The McGill Daily

eidi Pridy and Philippe – who preferred not to give his last name – of the Anti-Colonial Solidarity Collective led an introductory workshop on unsettling and decolonizing, urging settlers to be respectful and effective allies to Indigenous populations on Turtle Island - also known as North America. After an introduction to the vocabulary of decolonization and the history of colonialism in Canada, and specifically in the Montreal area, participants engaged in an interactive discussion on works by Cree artist Kent Monkman and documentaries dealing with decolonization. Later in the workshop, Pridy explained that people often react to negative stereotypes, but feel comfortable about positive stereotypes that might glorify the group in question and give it a preconceived identity. “It does not matter if a stereotype is negative or positive. The problem is that it’s is a fixed representation and an abstraction of a complex dynamic.” “When one group is marginalized, another one is benefitting. We need to understand our-

selves as complicit in and beneficiaries of the illegal settlement of Indigenous people’s land,” said Pridy. “This appropriation often leads people to experience feelings of guilt. Guilt is a state of self-absorption that upholds privilege in a lot of ways and can really immobilize people from doing anything. We would encourage people to embrace that discomfort as a sign of a much-needed shift in self-consciousness.” In special regard of upcoming Halloween festivities, Pridy urged people to be conscious about their self-representation, especially considering “sexy Native women costumes” sold in stores. “Given the grade of sexual violence against Native women, that is really problematic,” Pridy stated. “Using someone else’s cultural symbols to exercise a personal need in self-expression is an exercise in privilege. That does not mean that cultural exchange never does happen and that we never partake in someone else’s culture, but there needs to be some element of mutual understanding for it to be a true exchange.”

According to Tadamon!, Israel also outsources its human rights violations by employing a private security company, G4S, to run its prisons. This privately-owned British security company also provides the IDF with equipment for checkpoints. Pressure in the form of hunger strikes on behalf of prisoners, or from movements such as Boycott, Divest-

ment and Sanctions (BDS) are still used today in order to pressure Israel to stop its maltreatment of prisoners and give them better care and humane services. “Palestinians can be tried as adults as young as 16, and are interrogated by Israeli soldiers,” said Amy Darwish, an organizer for Tadamon!

Ralph Haddad | The McGill Daily

adamon!’s workshop on October 16 discussed the harsh reality that Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip face when arrested by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). Tadamon! – an Arabic word for solidarity – is a Montreal-based collective that works in solidarity with struggles for self-determination, equality, and justice in the Middle East as well as diaspora communities in Montreal and beyond. As of 2013, there are an estimated 5,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israel. These prisoners are illegally held in poorly-maintained facilities, tortured in interrogations, and are subject to immediate maltreatment upon arrest. Israel was condemned by the UN earlier this year for its “abusive” treatment of prisoners, who are also denied family visits, Palestinian-based education, and basic healthcare. What is important to note is that Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank are subject to separate legal systems – Jew-

ish settlers are seen by an Israeli civilian judge, while Palestinians are seen by an Israeli military judge. Furthermore, rates of incarceration for Palestinian children are almost ninefold compared to those for Jewish children in the occupied territories, according to the workshop. Some Palestinians are arrested using administrative detention, supposedly used in times of emergency for strict security reasons (though Israel has an almost perpetual state of emergency). This form of detention allows for prisoners to be prosecuted without trial and charge, and are kept in prison for a period for up to six months, subject to renewal. Today, there are around 178 Palestinians under administrative detention. The number has decreased “due to international grassroots pressure,” claimed Paul Di Stefano, a member of Tadamon!, “but the number is still extraordinarily high.” He continued that this form of detention allows the state to “circumvent” people’s rights.

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Commentary

The McGill Daily

Monday, October 21, 2013

Just fucking stop

A response to online misogyny and silencing CC* | Commentary Writer

ear random asshole on the internet who feels that he can speak for everyone, There has been a slew of online activity from you and your brethren lately, and it’s been a real treat to read. There’s the group that started Twitter’s #fatshamingweek, aimed directly at women and how best to shame them. There’s the other jackass writing a long, self-righteous column about how encouraging women to be confident is society’s single greatest mistake. And then there’s your usual run-of-the-mill people who have just a modicum of power, and yet freely abuse it (Terry Richardson, I’m looking at you). The most frustrating part of writing this response, for me, is the fact that what I am saying will immediately be dismissed as ‘feminist screeching’ or ‘emotional’ ranting. What you don’t realize, random stranger on the internet, is that I don’t care about those labels. Despite your using everything in your (considerable) power to discredit me, I won’t ignore how very wrong your words are, and how destructive they can be. I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but maybe – although this seems egotistical and highly optimistic – I’ll make you realize that every word out of your mouth is an insult to me and my personhood. Your commentary demeans me, my abilities, and my hopes and dreams. I don’t want to assume this for other people as well; I can only speak for myself. Your words, whether thoughtfully considered or dashed out in a few quick minutes, are immensely disrespectful and remove any agency I could ever have hoped to have in writing this letter. Even as I sit here writing this, I know my efforts are futile. I know that you will continue to think less of me because of my gender.

In reality, internet misogynist, it is you who is lesser. Destroying those around you, simply because you can, doesn’t make you bigger. It makes you smaller. Insinuating (or outright stating) that women are inferior in various aspects – including, but not limited to, our intelligence, abilities, emotions, and ultimately, our right to exist unimpeded – does not make your right to exist and speak more valid. I would suggest that heeding caution and rationally considering your argument (since, as you are so fond of stating, rationality is a ‘men’s skill’), rather than spewing misogynistic rhetoric without consideration, may ultimately make you a less shitty and oppressive person. But I’m only a woman, so what do I know, right? These feelings (though I should call them ‘thoughts’ if I’m to be taken seriously), obviously have roots in the things I’ve been seeing online lately. But really, misogyny happens every day when people think that they’re entitled to demean those around them. It is so pervasive and normalized in our society to attack entire groups through the relative safety of the internet. It is so easy to write hateful things when protected by a screen. This piece is not meant to be hateful – it’s meant to express my discomfort and disappointment at what I’ve been reading lately, and what I consider to rapidly be becoming the norm. Ultimately, I’m writing this for myself. I’m writing this because I am sick and tired of feeling guilty for having an emotional and visceral response to these articles. Why shouldn’t I? Why should that, in any way, diminish the strength of what I feel? Why isn’t it ‘rational’ to be emotionally hurt at the complete lack of respect for who I am and what I represent? All of these posts are essentially telling me that

Alice Shen | The McGill Daily there is no space for me in this world. That my space is a metaphorical kitchen, where I am to be banished. That my goals of success, recognition, and equal standing are either unobtainable, irrational, or a mere illusion. I am sick and tired of people voicing their thoughts on issues that do not concern them, not only online but in everyday life. I am absolutely fucking fed up with a society that condones oppression and hateful language, and celebrates it as ‘refreshing honesty.’ You have enough power as it is, internet stranger, and it has been given to you by a so-

ciety that believes you superior. Stop abusing this power. Stop taking away my agency and my voice. Stop speaking for me. Stop telling me that my opinion is wrong, or doesn’t matter. Stop invalidating everything I work for. Stop invalidating my emotions because they aren’t what you consider ‘rational thought.’ Just fucking stop. Sorry for the excessive commas, CC *CC is a pseudonym. To get in touch, email commentary@mcgilldaily.com.

Beyond climate change

Unaddressed issues of the Keystone XL debate Dillon Stanger | Commentary Writer

he Keystone XL Pipeline is a proposed project to transport synthetic crude oil from the Albertan oil sands to the Gulf Coast and Texas. In a speech on climate change and energy policy in June, U.S. President Barack Obama addressed the topic of the pipeline. He stated, “Our national interest will be served only if this project does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution.” The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and environmental activists like Bill McKibben have criticized the controversial project for lacking accountability in addressing climate change. Yet the president and pipeline opposition groups alike weigh climate change foremost when debating the project, but disregard some of the social impacts of the project and the Albertan oil industry. After considering

both the social and local environmental impact of the pipeline project, the clear answer to whether to support the pipeline is ‘no.’ Politicians and activists should consider the localized issues stemming from the pipeline and oil industry. According to the Labor Network for Sustainability, “Tar sands extraction is already devastating native lands in Alberta,” and recent pipelines have spilled large quantities of oil within U.S. borders. Herman E. Daly, an ecological economist at the University of Maryland, states in his paper “The Perils of Free Trade” that there are always hidden social and environmental costs to large free trade projects. These very risks have already come to light. TransCanada, a company involved in the pipeline project, has threatened to utilize eminent

domain (taking private property for state use) to force landowners into acquiescing the installation of oil pipes on their land and has already sued some landowners. If the pipeline debate were framed with the threat to property rights in mind, that might be one way of inducing politicians and voters to oppose the project. Governments should look to transportation methods other than pipelines. CBC reports that oil producers and refineries are currently transitioning to shipping their oil by rail. Phil Skolnick, head of North American energy research at Canaccord Genuity said in an interview with CBC News, “There is huge trade between Canada and the U.S. in oil and the economics of rail are more compelling than pipe." To address the global issues with oil, the government needs a new perspective. As-

suming global warming is the main complaint against the pipeline, Canada and the U.S. could just ‘pay off’ the pipeline’s carbon emissions. In fact, the Hill reports that Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently proposed collaborative steps with the U.S. to curb carbon emissions – if that would garner approval for the pipeline. Is that what the internationally community wants – the greenwashing of a destructive pipeline by instituting other ‘eco-friendly’ policies? If the world wants to protect its communal rights to unadulterated land, it needs to make hard decisions and give the hard answer of ‘NO!’ Dillon Stanger is a Bioresource Management student. Get in touch at commentary@ mcgilldaily.com.

The McGill Daily

Commentary

Monday, October 21, 2013

Why we must hug Palestine

Responding to an appeal of sympathy for Israel Zoe Pepper-Cunningham | Commentary Writer

Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily

wo weeks ago, an article in The Daily (“Why we must learn to hug the Jewish state,” Commentary, October 7, page 10) discussed how the Israeli government and Israeli society have been struggling for “peaceful and normal existence” since the founding of the state. It retells the history of 1948, when the State of Israel was founded, and it claims that the Arab states immediately saw Israel “as a demon in their midst” and “desired to eradicate it from the world map.” The article also mentions the recent peace talk attempts at Camp David and in Oslo. The author states that Israel was optimistic and ready for peace, and that it was the inflexibility of the Palestinians that prevented a peaceful resolution. The article encourages readers to feel sympathy for the Jewish state (and to give it a hug) because its many genuine attempts at peace were thwarted by the Arab states and the Palestinians. This was a very difficult article for me to read, and I found myself confused and angry over the lack of historical context in the author’s arguments. To address the first point, the founding of Israel was not a joyous occasion for everyone. In fact, while Zionists and Israelis worldwide celebrate this day with flags, songs, and cheer, Palestinians call this day Al-Nakba, or “the Catastrophe.” Believe it or not, when a new state is created in an already-inhabited land, there is a great deal of violence, expulsion, misery, and death in-

volved. During Al-Nakba, an estimated 500 Palestinian towns were destroyed. Within this context, we begin to understand why “peace and a normal existence” for the occupiers and colonizers was not so easy to come by, and why surrounding states would have viewed this action as unjust.

Without Israel meeting [Palestine’s] basic demands, it is hard to believe that their ‘peace talks’ have any genuine concern for peace. The other main point of the article dealt with failed peace talks and why Palestine was largely responsible. However, not once has Israel come to the negotiating table with Palestinians’ most important demands: end to settlement construction, right of return, and end to occupation. The right of return for all Palestinian refugees was a promise made over 60 years ago at the United Nations in Resolution 194 and Israel has yet to comply. Without Israel meeting these three basic demands, it is hard to believe that their ‘peace

talks’ have any genuine concern for peace – rather, they seem like a show to demonstrate Palestinian ‘unreasonableness.’ The article tries to argue that Israel has been alienated from the international community due to efforts of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and international disgust at Israel’s apartheid system. While I find it exciting that more and more nations are turning a critical eye to the state of Israel, this is not entirely accurate. Israel has powerful friends in high places. The U.S. unequivocally supports the nation on a political level by voting against every resolution that the United Nations has tried to pass criticizing Israel’s violation of both human rights and international law. These include General Assembly Resolution 3379, which determined that “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination,” and many resolutions urging Israel to stop violence against Palestinians and in Lebanon. The U.S. has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel through some of its most egregious violations of international laws, and it also supports Israel militarily and economically – since its establishment, the U.S. has supplied Israel with $233.7 billion in aid (when adjusted for inflation). The U.S.’s overly generous and longlasting ‘hug’ to Israel has enabled Israel to continue its illegal military occupation of Palestine, maintain an oppressive racist apartheid system within Israel – as well as in the Occupied Territories and Gaza –

against its Palestinian citizens, and continue its project of the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population. This unwavering support has allowed Israel to continue making faux peace attempts and continually coming to the negotiating table (with the U.S. as the peace broker) without meeting the most important aforementioned demands of the Palestinians. Since the latest round of peace talks has begun, the Israeli Defense Forces have murdered three Palestinians in the West Bank and the government has approved plans for thousands more settlements to be constructed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Therefore these ‘peace talks’ hardly represent any real effort by the Israeli government. They are merely a show for the international community to create a facade depicting Israel’s ‘willingness’ to negotiate and Palestinians’ ‘stubbornness’ to work toward peace. If there is to be any meaningful change toward peace, we must stop thinking of Israel as a country struggling to make peace and in need of a hug from the international community. Instead, it should be viewed as a belligerent that has forestalled any hope of meaningful peace with its continued efforts to annex more land and inflict greater pain on the Palestinian people. Zoe Pepper-Cunningham is a U3 History and African Studies student. You can contact her at zoepepperc@gmail.com.

Features

The McGill Daily

Monday, October 21, 2013

BREAKING THE (BRO)CODE Creating space for women in technology and related fields Written by Anqi Zhang Illustration by Alice Shen

he technology industry has a woman problem, but you already knew that. By now – that is, fall of 2013: five years into Sheryl Sandberg’s stint as Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, and just months since Marissa Mayer’s lounge chair photoshoot in Vogue displayed her glamour as more than her effectiveness on the job – it is no longer news that women are simultaneously underrepresented and tokenized in the technology sector. And this is apparent in most of the sector’s branches, from ven-

ture capital-funded start-ups to multinational billion-dollar corporations that swallow each other whole for sport. The dearth of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields as a whole has garnered some much-needed attention in recent years. But the tech industry is singular in the challenges it presents to women who want to break in. A large part of this is still due to lack of technology education for women. Andrea Wood, a market analyst who has worked with Youth Employment

Services (YES) Montreal to investigate gender issues in the tech sector, hasn’t seen much change in gender balance in the 14 years that she’s been involved in the tech world. The reason, she believes, is that “enrollment for women in technology, engineering, and math [postsecondary] programs has been completely flat or declined,” while female enrollment in sciences, particularly biological sciences, has increased. (Continued on pg 12)

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Features

Monday, October 21, 2013

But even disregarding discrepancies in skillset, the technology culture is one that is particularly difficult to break into for those outside of the club – and women, as we know, definitely are. This is a culture that includes advertising for hackathons with women listed as a “perk” and then calling it a “joke” about the male-dominated tech industry (Sqoot, I’m looking at you), a culture that breeds apps that consist of feeds of men looking at breasts, a culture where sexual assault and harassment are such common complaints in the workplace and at conferences that antiharassment policies had to be adopted by such heavyweights as the Linux Foundation, the Wikimedia Foundation, and the Python Software Foundation. The closed culture of the technology sector has direct impacts. Because it is so difficult for women to ‘get in’ to the exclusive club that high-tech has become, many who do effectively clam up for fear of losing their hard-won memberships. This very phenomenon was outlined in Shanley Kane’s recent Medium post, “‘Fuck you, I got mine’: Women in Tech for the Patriarchy.” And then there are the Sheryl Sandbergs, who can afford to speak up, and do. There has been so much commentary on the Sheryl-Sandberg-Lean-In motivational trope – which encourages women to adapt to the tech industry and devote themselves entirely to obtain success – that nobody really knows how far or which way to lean anymore. Notwithstanding the legitimate criticism of “Lean In” as a movement for privileged women who can afford to spend all day leaning because there are no second jobs to work or children to care for, Sandberg’s plan espouses individual internal change as the key to societal and structural change. The onus is on women who want to succeed to make sure that they do. Which provokes concern, if only because it’s unclear how this logical leap will manifest itself in reality. *** The state of gender issues in the technology sector has also given rise to movements that seek to address the paucity of women in the field by hosting workshops, offering education, and promoting mentorship. These are organizations that, in the words of Sandy Sidhu, current Public Relations & Communications Director of Montreal Girl Geeks, “are focused on

taking action.” Grassroots organizations like Montreal Girl Geeks, Ladies Learning Code, and their ilk, exist to challenge the old boys’ club by creating a community of their own. Tanya McGinnity founded Montreal Girl Geeks in 2007 as an offshoot of the global Girl Geek dinners that have been in place since the mid2000s, “after noticing that there were so few women in attendance [at a Facebook garage event], specifically in the technology/developer room.” The goal, she says, was to create a community for “girl geek and girl geek supporters [...] interested in connecting, collaborating, and networking,” a community revolving around the sharing of specializations, passions, and interests. McGinnity has since left the organization, but Sidhu says that their mandate remains to “inspire the next generation of girl geeks to get involved in tech.” Having worked at high- tech firms prior to becoming involved with Montreal Girl Geeks, Sidhu says that when she found out Montreal Girl Geeks existed, “this would have been amazing to know of when I was in university or the earlier phase of my career when I didn’t have access to other women mentors, or [even] just a community.” She emphasizes the importance of community to both herself, and to the organization. “It’s a great place to learn, exchange, share ideas, and you can never have enough role models in your life.” In a world where female role models in tech companies are few to begin with, giving exposure to women in technology as a means of creating these role models is just one way in which Montreal Girl Geeks is building a community. “We profiled local Montreal women working in tech to [...] spread the message that we are here, there are women who are working in tech, and to get the word out [...] that there are women doing big things.” Sidhu points to the importance of organizations outside the work environment in creating this kind of community. “It’s not always easy to build these [communities] within a company,” she explains, because individuals are not sought out based on common interests, but simply co-occupy the same space. In this way, she sees Montreal Girl Geeks as providing a necessary complement within the technology scene. “We fit in as a piece of the [...] larger community.” The Girl Geeks website doesn’t make prominent use of the word ‘feminism,’

but it’d be hard to deny that their actions are feminist in nature. Beyond the clearly gendered term in the organization’s name, there is also the fact that most events, while not exclusive, are largely promoted to women. This semi-exclusivity, according to Sidhu, is justified by the overwhelming male dominance of the technology sector in general. “There are a lot of events that women don’t go to. We’re not being super exclusive, like ‘no men allowed,’ but it’s kind of tongue in cheek – like if you want to come, tell a bunch of your girl friends to come too.” This kind of approach also extends to speakers who are invited to lead events: “I don’t think [...] since I’ve been part of [Montreal Girl Geeks] that we’ve had a male speaker,” reflects Sidhu. “We know there’s a lot of events where they already do speak, and we’re trying to foster that support for women.” The turnout at these events, Sidhu says, reflects a variety of backgrounds, occupations, and demographics. “Not everybody who comes is working in the IT or the high -tech industry right now, but they’re curious, or they want to find out more about how to apply that particular topic to their business.” “In terms of background and ethnicity, it’s as diverse as Montreal is,” Sidhu continued. This is dramatically different from the technology sector’s employee demographics. Wood’s research had revealed an underrepresentation of racial minorities in the tech sector, and furthermore, an overrepresentation of non-Quebecers in Quebec’s industry. “Over half of the tech sector employees in Quebec are not from Quebec,” she told me, hinting at the politics of language that could lie beneath this statistic. Tech – at its basis an English-driven field – is perhaps already more accessible to anglophones; Sidhu admitted that this is a problem the Montreal Girls Geek team is attempting to address. “We’ve talked about it [...] it just hasn’t really happened yet.” The reason is that Girl Geeks is run by volunteers, and time is tight. Wood agrees that general busy-ness and financial priorities are what’s holding up the sector as a whole from working toward more inclusion. “Start-ups are just thinking about keeping their balance sheet in the black.” Perhaps this is why Wood predicts that the gender balance of the industry will take somewhere in the range of 20 to 30 years to change. In the years since she founded Montreal Girl Geeks, McGinnity

says, “I think that progress has been made over time but women are still being harassed, fighting the same battles of sexism and engaging in the same debates that I’ve seen since starting the group.” She points to the ‘fake girl geek’ argument – which, as outlined in a New Statesman article published this August, states that women feign interest in tech, science fiction, and other similar male-dominated ‘geek’ spheres to attract men and jump on the ‘geek chic’ bandwagon – as proof of how women’s interests in the tech sphere are still challenged. But like Sidhu, McGinnity believes the answer to this lies in the power of community organization, seeing it as the key to giving women “a seat at the table.” *** Technology is not the only sector in which women are marginalized as a group. The artistic and creative sectors have been male-dominated since long before David Gilmour started even thinking about the seriousness of men. With the increasing technologization of communication, work environments, and our daily lives, it is no surprise that the artistic world and the technological world are starting to intersect. Ximena Holuigue, Programming Coordinator at Studio XX, a bilingual feminist artist-run centre that seeks to support “women at the forefront of contemporary technological landscapes,” explained that there are two ways in which technology is increasingly incorporated into art: firstly, by influencing the content of the artistic message, and secondly, on the level of dissemination – through personal websites, social media, and engaging multimedia presentations. Rosa Mei, current Artist in Residence at Studio XX, includes technology in both of these facets of her current media art project. “One thing I wanted to do with this project is to demonstrate how far technology has come. [...] My goal is actually to show how cheap can you go. You can actually buy all this stuff that you need to build a fully functional green screen studio from Dollarama and Canadian Tire. [...] There are two components; that’s sort of the technological background, and then I’m going to be playing all the characters of 2,000 years of women warriors. So I have a background in martial arts [...] so I’m going to use that with a lot of sword fighting and popping, which is a style of funk dance

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Features that uses a lot of micromovement and animation. So there’s a combination of the animation we have from technology combined with real life animation.” Mei views technology as a necessary next step for the creation of art, as a means of creation and dissemination, especially within an arts landscape that faces significant funding cuts from the government. With media art projects like Mei’s made possible by increasing technological power, and with technology becoming integrated into the production process of art, Studio XX is highly necessary, for both the workshops and resources it offers, and because it is uniquely placed to deal with the issues facing women in both the art and technology sectors. Founded in 1996, the organization operates to give women artists both a physical and virtual space for exchange and discussion within the media art landscape. When it was created, Holuigue says, “It was an era when it was the beginning of internet and it was still very very basic in terms of technology access at that time for everyone – not just for women.” Even then, though, “there was already [...] a need to have specifically a space for women [...].” Highlighting the necessity of such a space, she notes that there are “still media arts festivals where the programming is mostly men.” Operating several projects, including an online publication, .dpi, artist in residency programs, and maintaining a computer lab area open to all members, Studio XX seems to be fulfilling its goal of acting as a resource centre and space for women artists. However, Holuigue sees their role shifting as technology itself – the very thing Studio XX seeks to make accessible – develops and changes the landscape. “Since the beginning of Studio XX – and that’s the interesting thing – [technology] has evolved so fast and so drastically [...]. People have access to it so easily today. [...] We used to have all of these books on software and tools [...] We were doing a team cleanup yesterday and [...] then we realized that not that many people will need them because all of it is actually just accessible online today.” However, the fact that information is more accessible online does not mean that Studio XX has no more work to do; on the contrary, Holuigue believes it is important to create a space to “allow artists to be physically present where there can be an exchange, discussion, acting and reacting between one another that

Monday, October 21, 2013

you’re not necessarily able to do when you’re by yourself.” Accessibility is an important issue for Studio XX, which strives to be accessible to both the francophone and anglophone populations. “We’ve opened up that discourse of giving [access] to all genders and we are bilingual as well. It’s really important for us to [...] make sure we reach out [to] those two communities.” ***

don’t open doors to help you make the jump to financial realities. There’s no alienation. Instead there is a sense of community that needs to be bridged into the community at large [...].” And yet, even without the potential for active alienation, a lack of awareness or focus on including marginal groups within society can allow that marginalization to carry into organizations whose goals revolve around inclusivity. Ignoring marginalization can breed exclusivity. This allows microaggressions to carry over from a society from which many of the tech world’s problems stem. About a month ago, I went to one of these events, a talk given by a woman passionate about her work and the power of a public well-versed in the possibilities of technology. During the question and answer session following her presentation, I watched her struggle to answer a question posed in accented and slightly uncertain English. And then, a follow-up question or two later, I watched the speaker cut off the questioner – no “Talk to me after,” just a flat “Other questions?” To be sure, it’s a microaggression, maybe even nano, but it was substantial enough to make me question who is encouraged, and who is encouraged just slightly less. I mean to diminish neither the value of these events nor these organizations by pointing out the microaggressions committed on their premises. After all, microaggressions are entrenched within our society, and as instances of our society, we can all be guilty at times. But the idea that marginalized peoples will enter and feel comfortable within these communities is as false as the idea that more women educated in coding will lead to improved hiring practices. Wood asserts that community is valuable, but not enough, and that employers must become aware and diligent in working for inclusivity in order for the tech scene – and culture – to change. In that vein, the organizations that seek to create a community should become aware and diligent in reaching out to marginalized groups, including, but not limited to, racialized communities and low-income women.

13 is the way to tackle the problem. While Mei is thankful for the space and technical support Studio XX offers for the development of her project, she notes that “this is the first project I’ve ever done with a women’s centre.” “I’m really used to testosterone-fuelled environments,” she says, “Really it’s the only thing that I’ve experienced my whole life is being the only woman involved in a project, and so it’s really great to be in an environment where it’s supported by women.” On the other hand, she expressed concern about the use of gender to offer special opportunities, due to possible further marginalization. “It’s been a theme throughout my life that I don’t like this sort of gender-specific – where you have to offer special opportunities for women because it’s a field not dominated by women.” Though Mei ponders her possible hypocrisy, there is a crucial difference between wanting to be “good for a girl popper” versus a regular popper (funk dancer), and needing a community of support.

Wood pointed to a video Etsy published earlier this year describing how they increased the number of women on their team, so as to demonstrate how increased numbers can undercut the “brogrammer” culture in the tech sphere. “If it’s one woman, it’s like ‘oh, she’s a girl.’ When there’s three, there’s four, there’s five, [it’s] ‘oh she’s just my colleague,’ there’s no problem,” said Wood, adding that the inclusion of new people also stimulated innovation. McGinnity echoed Wood’s sentiment, saying, “By being present – being seen and participating – I believe that inclusiveness *** will emerge.” If true, this is a strong justification for The fundamental point made by each of the creation of communities of women the women I spoke to was the necessity of who are increasingly educated about techeducation, from a young age, to break the nology and who can support each other stereotypes that both prevent women from through their presence in the tech sphere. entering the tech field and keep the “broHowever, as Wood points out, the exisgrammer” culture alive. While most advotence of qualified women does not mean cated changing the educational system to that they are always hired and allowed to make technology more accessible to young be present in the tech industry. Promoting girls, Mei had a different suggestion. “It’s awareness, according to Wood, is the first a level of confidence,” she said, noting that step, but in particular, promoting aware“there’s this whole underground movement ness to employers. “It requires employers’ that’s happening now,” in both the techawareness to do outreach. People can apply nology and artistic fields. However, these all they want, but the employer needs to reunderground movements are dominated alize there’s an imbalance. Imbalance can by men, in part because where young men actually cause negative consequences in are taught to play with combative and agthe workplace, but if you try to rectify that gressive toys, young women are given the balance, it actually creates innovation in role of nurturer. Perhaps, in the end, inthe group.” volvement and leadership in technology *** is not just a matter of where you lean or When asked about the possible excluwhich community you find, but also a matsivity of branding spaces, organizations, ter of empowering women from the most and communities as belonging to women, fundamental – and seemingly unrelated – Wood replied, “It definitely will not alienof levels. ate other people.” Instead, she worries that the community will become insular. That *** insularity, potentially leading to lack of outreach, can make this community unEven within these organizations, there able to produce increased employment To become a member of StudioXX or atrates for its members. “The problem with is ambivalence about how community tend any of its events, visit www.studioxx.org. the geek girls and the all-girl hackathons should be formed, and whether providing Check out montrealgirlgeeks.com for a schedis you’re creating a community but they women-oriented spaces and opportunities ule of upcoming events and a list of resources

Sci+Tech

The McGill Daily

Monday, October 21, 2013

Global Warming? Pfff!

A portrait of modern climate change deniers Christopher Cayen-Cyr | Sci+Tech Writer

ver since the dawn of the industrial age, the world’s consumption of fossil fuels has been on the rise. An ever-increasing population has exacerbated the demand for these fuels, which consist of the planet’s limited supply of resources in substances such as coal, petroleum and natural gas, following the increase in energy needed to sustain an ever-increasing population. For years, human energy-related activity went unquestioned, given a lack of understanding of its possible consequences were poorly understood. For most of the twentieth century, the terms “greenhouse gases” and “global warming” were not nearly as popular and widely-used as they are today. However, in the last few decades, a pattern analogous to fossil fuel consumption emerged: it was observed that the earth’s average temperature was also on the rise. A cause-and-effect relationship slowly began to emerge. It became apparent to the scientific community that fossil fuels, when burned, release gases like carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. These accumulate, trapping the rays of the sun. This mechanism, termed the “greenhouse effect,” is necessary for climate regulation in a certain measure, with a natural concentration in greenhouse gases. However, scientists only recently realized it was happening in excess. The observations of rising global temperatures sparked a worldwide debate on how to prevent this pattern from progressing. In the scientific community, it is widely considered that even a slight change in the earth’s temperature, as ‘small’ as 1°C, would have a major impact on the planet’s ecosystem. Bodies such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, formed in 1988) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC, formed in 1994) have since been created, both by the UN, in order to analyze the scientific evidence relating climate change to human activity. This also led to the Kyoto Protocol, created by the UNFCCC, which urged indus-

“There are very few legitimate scientists who deny climate change.” James Ford trialized nations to decrease the amount of greenhouse gases they released into the atmosphere, and to the popularization of the work on renewable sources of energy, such as hydroelectric, wind, and nuclear power. New policies surrounding greenhouse gas

emission in certain countries aim at preventing the global temperature from rising by more than 2°C with respect to what it was before industrialization, the current rise being at 0.8°C. There is now a wide scientific consensus that global warming and human activity are directly related. However, not everyone is ready to accept that conclusion. On September 27, the IPCC published a new report on the current scientific understanding in order to assess global warming. Its harsh conclusions targeted the role of human activity in climate change and deemed it “extremely likely” of being the main cause of global warming, while releasing more troubling statistics about the current and previously predicted environmental impact of the perturbations. The overbearing evidence provided by the report generated a range of reactions. For years, climate change denial been perpetuated by the fossil fuel industry. Common claims are that the IPCC tends to exaggerate, and that its reports become unrepresentative of reality. Bjørn Lomborg and Judith Curry are two notable examples of public figures who have attempted to minimize the significance of the last IPCC report. Lomborg, author of the polarizing The Skeptical Environmentalist, although acknowledging that there is a certain climate change, has emphasized that he views global warming claims as alarmist. His book made headlines in 2001, as it was attacked by a large portion of the scientific community for a lack of scientific honesty. As for Curry, a climatologist from the Georgia Institute of Technology, she views the field of research in climate change as an area of many blurred lines, and encourages discussions between skeptics and non-skeptics. Both have made comments following the publication of the report, suggesting that its findings fail to portray the bigger picture of climate change. A similar attitude is also taken by several conservative American media outlets, such as Fox News, which have instead chosen to focus on non-peer-reviewed studies contradicting the IPCC’s conclusions. The prevalence of climate change denial is mostly found in the media, considering there is barely any disagreement within scientific rings. Professor James Ford, leader of the Climate Change Adaptation Research Group at McGill, echoes this idea. “There are very few legitimate scientists who deny climate change,” he explains. “Richard Lindzen, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, comes to mind, but he was mainly vocal in the early 2000s, when there was more of a legitimate debate about the unknowns in the climate change picture. As

Alice Shen | The McGill Daily points of contention were settled, there was no room left to deny, and the only real unknowns left now are the wide projections as to how fast the change will occur.” Ford mentions that one long-standing point of contention over time has been the ‘Hockey Stick curve’, a graphical representation of how temperature has drastically increased from its once constant value since the 1800s. While some have claimed it to be a “statistical fallacy,” they have been repeatedly proven wrong.

Canadian government dropped any link with the Protocol, with no direct measures taken towards reaching its goals. The reaction of political figures also takes on a considerable importance, given their influence over national global warming policies. The UNFCCC has, of course, no binding power to force countries to adopt policies, and it is therefore up to governments to take the measures necessary in order to meet its recommendations. Many countries, especially in Europe, not only ratified the Kyoto Protocol, but also took binding measures to reduce their emissions in line with the treaty’s goals. The U.S. is only a signatory on the Kyoto Protocol, meaning that while they are interested in seeing its topics discussed, they

do not actively pursue its objectives. As for Canada, the picture is different: the Canadian government dropped any link with the Protocol, with no direct measures taken towards reaching its goals. In that limelight, Canada’s environment minister, Leona Aglukkaq, is frequently questioned about her views on climate change. Her recent comments on the warming of the Arctic have notably attracted attention. Deeming this warming “debatable” in an interview on CTV’s Power Play, she mentioned the general cold summers in the North as an example of why it was ambiguous. Ford emphasizes that the IPCC reports are very credible. “This is perhaps the most peer-reviewed document there is,” he told The Daily. “The version that most people read is a condensed summary of the actual document, which is very long. The IPCC doesn’t conduct its own research – it collects extensive studies into the document. Since it is a UN body, governments go over the summary word-by-word and spend days talking about how to frame certain key things, so the presentation of the findings can be quite conservative, but they can’t change the numbers. It is still a very rigorous thing that goes through a scientific process.” While there is indeed a wide range of predictions when it comes to speculating about the rate of climate change, the scientific consensus about its existence and its main cause is nearly unanimous. The face of its contemporary denial is shaped by the way the information is reported, which opens up another debate: the facts against the wording. See online for related infographics.

The McGill Daily

Sci+Tech

Monday, October 21, 2013

The Age of the Nerd

Exploring the development of nerd culture Leanne Louie | Sci+Tech Writer

erd. What goes through your mind when you read that word? What kinds of images are evoked? Are they at all positive? For a lot of people, the answer is no. Throughout most of its existence, ‘nerd’ has been thought of as a derogatory term. Merriam-Webster describes nerd as “an unstylish, unattractive, and socially inept person.” Well, to all you Battlestar Gallactica fans reading this, let me just say, frack that. The real meaning of the term ‘nerd’ is nothing like the backwards definitions you’ll find in the dictionary or on Wikipedia. This word is so comprehensive that it’s actually quite difficult to pinpoint a single definition. According to Zachary Levi, founder of the website The Nerd Machine, “Nerds are people whose unbridled passion for something, or things, defines who they are as a person, without fear of other people’s judgement.” And as Wil Wheaton (the actor who played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek) put it at the 2013 Calgary Comic Expo, “Being a nerd is not about what you love, it’s about how you love it.” In the past couple of decades, the things that nerds tended to like were often mocked or dismissed as ‘a waste of time’ or ‘lame’. Wearing a superhero t-shirt to

“Nerds are people whose unbridled passion for something, or things, defines who they are as a person, without fear of other people’s judgement.” Zachary Levi school was an excellent way to get thrown in the dumpster, and good grades were equated with the bottom rung of the social ladder. However, in modern society, the things that nerds have loved and excelled at throughout the years are rising in popularity and demand – even becoming mainstream. Computers are a necessity of everyday life. Gaming is something that even our grandparents do. Intelligence is sexy. What facilitated this change? The answer: nerds. The nerds of the 1970s and 1980s eighties pioneered the digital age. They brought us Facebook, Google, Apple, CGI, email, and Blu-ray movies. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, good marks in grade school might have meant getting your lunch money stolen, but it also meant going to top universities. Nerds rose

Kristian Picon | Illustrator with ease in their respective fields, becoming the leaders of the new world. Equipped with power, first-class intellects, and imaginations stretched by Star Trek, nerds ushered in a new age, leading the world through a technological revolution. The fantastical devices used by Captain Kirk or Luke Skywalker were made a reality. Martin Cooper, inventor of the cell phone, admitted in an interview with Mobility Ventures that he was inspired by Captain Kirk’s communicator. The bionic prosthetics now available bear a striking resemblance to the limbs of C-3PO. Science fiction has also been credited as the inspiration for tablets, holograms, and GPS, to name a few. It even might have had a role in the invention of the internet. In his futuristic short story From The ‘London Times’ of 1904, Mark Twain wrote about a device eerily similar to the internet. Called the “telectroscope,” it was a phone-based, worldwide network used for information sharing, making the “daily doings of the globe [visible] to everybody, and audibly discussable too, by witnesses separated by any number of leagues.” Sound familiar? Whether or not they were inspired by science fiction, we have nerds – mathematicians, computer scientists, engineers – to thank for the invention of the internet. They led the way from the very beginning, heading the initial military-funded program called ARPANET and, eventually, bring-

it in one of his YouTube videos, “Saying ‘I notice you’re a nerd’ is like saying, ‘Hey, I notice that you’d rather be intelligent than stupid, that you’d rather be thoughtful than be vapid, and that you believe that there are things that matter more than the arrest record of Lindsay Lohan.’” In modern society, being a nerd is something to admire, and even strive toward. Being a nerd is, well, cool. Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg are revered as demigods. Who doesn’t like Iron Man and Batman these days? The popular TV sitcom Big Bang Theory is about nerds. Sherlock Holmes is more of a sex symbol than Brad Pitt and there are world championships for League of Legends. Even at McGill – or especially at McGill – being a nerd has become cool. People proudly attend classes in Mass Effect t-shirts. With its epic sword fights and bottle cap throne, the Faculty of Engineering’s fantasy-themed ‘Frosh of Thrones’ was the envy of all firstmen. Intelligence that information, and for Facebook, which is celebrated and respected here, and it’s the same throughout Montreal. With over revamped the way people shared it. Nerds changed the world, and paved the 40,000 attendants this year, Montreal Comway to a new era. Many call it the “digital iccon dominated the city on the weekend of age” or “the age of information,” but I think September 13. During those three days, it a more apt title is the “Age of the Nerd.” was rare not to see a dementor, gladiator, or People have started to realize that being a Starfleet officer on the streets. Being a nerd is something that people nerd doesn’t mean that you’re ‘lame.’ More often, it means you’re successful. As John now wear as a badge of pride – the Age of Green, author and YouTube vlogger, put the Nerd is upon us. ing us the World Wide Web, a tool that has transformed the world of information. We also have nerds to thank for Google, which revolutionized the way people searched for

Equipped with power, first-class intellects, and imaginations stretched by Star Trek, nerds ushered in a new age, leading the world through a technological revolution.

The McGill Daily

Sci+Tech

Monday, October 21, 2013

The World Social Science Written by Diana Kwon & Ralph Haddad Visuals by Alice Shen

“Higher Education and Research”

s information moves online, education is slowing following suit. This panel explored how technology is changing and impacting the educational institution. Imtiaz Ahmed, a researcher at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, described technology as “post-nationalist” because of its ability to go past borders and allow discussion across different countries. According to Ahmed, future universities won’t be “land-based,” but will instead become virtual. Ahmed has been involved with developing technology to connect students in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka through the virtual space. He believes that virtual universities will have the ability to overcome conflict and foster better international relations through broader discourse across countries.

Ahmed’s ideas were met with some criticism from other panel members for being too idealistic. Jennifer Jenson, a professor at York University, pointed out that “Current models of online universities were far from being perfect.” Massive open online courses (MOOCs) has been a buzzword as of late, but these courses have yet to go beyond the traditional university lecture structure and make themselves more compelling for students. Jenson asserted that we need to change existing frameworks before we make them into virtual structures. The problem with online education is that we have huge educational institutions that are very slow to change, or adapt to it. Though a hopeful picture, education that transcends borders and virtual schools still have a long way to go.

“From Technostress to Online Intimacy”

his panel explored how the use of social media is changing human connections. As online social networks are easy platforms for people to make connections, they have also become avenues for researchers to look at human behaviour. With a study assessing the different ways people use the social media sites Facebook, Badoo, and Couchsurfing, Cristina Miguel – a researcher at the University of Leeds, found that there are three main functions of social media websites: making new friends, dating or hooking up, and maintaining relationships. The way that people view intimacy is also changing in a society where relationships are increasingly moving online. For some people, the level of intimacy that can be achieved online is greater than what they can achieve offline, but for others, online relationships are believed to be more superficial compared to those made offline. Social networking also has a large impact on adolescents. Jennifer Lavoie and Daniel Vallée, researchers at McGill,

spoke about how technology has affected adolescent sleep patterns. As late-night cellphone use and multitasking with technologies increse, sleep deprivation is becoming a harder problem for teenagers. Technology is largely an identity-building platform, and is valued more than sleep by many adolescents. Psychotherapy is another area in which technology is creating change. The hope is that technology can used to enhance psychotherapy. According to Terra Kowalyk, a researcher at McGill, traditional methods are not always effective for all individuals. Kowalyk explained that studies have found that the majority of clinicians thought they were doing much better than they were in terms of client assessment. Technology will help mitigate this issues as well as barriers such as access to information, time, and cost. From romantic relationships to physician-patient interactions, the impact of social media has been found in various modes of human relationships around the world.

“Social Transformations and the Digital Age”

he internet has become a channel for the flow of huge amounts of information. This panel explored the need for a change in self-governance and a push for collaboration between the public and the government to meet the needs of a digitized society. “What we’re moving to is a digital society that is fundamentally different to what we’ve seen before,” said John Verdon, a member at Defense Research and Development Canada. Social computing and the digitization of society have given rise to democratization of services such as journalism and science. Since the beginning of civilization, humans have formed communities that allowed individuals in a society to generate collective benefits through the diverse contributions of its people. According to Christopher Wilson, a professor at the University of Ottawa, for communities to prosper, there must also be strategies in place to prevent conflicts. “While the government has traditionally performed both of these functions, the government today is being transformed as conversation is being enabled through the internet,” Wilson told the audience. The internet has enabled wider discourse around today’s major problems – such as climate change, global access to resources, and the aging population – putting increased pressures on today’s governments. Thom Kearney, a part-time professor at Algonquin College and a change agent at management consultation website Strategy Guy, described the current government’s fail-safe structure is inherently oppressive. He explained that the fail-safe mechanisms put in place in today’s government try to design for every possible contingency, limiting people’s freedoms. A general consensus among the panelists was that the existing government infrastucture is insufficient to meet the demands of a digital society. “What lead-

ership has become is a romanticized myth, an avenue for obtaining perks and benefits,” said Wilson, citing the recent construction industry investigation into Montreal’s municipal government. “Leadership is an opportunity for [people] to service themselves [...] An increasing number of studies are showing that the population no longer has confidence in their leaders,” Wilson asserted. Wilson went on to explain that current governments have put mechanisms in place to limit the free and open exchange of information – providing the example of intellectual property regimes. However, the internet is reducing the government’s monopoly on goods and services by allowing greater public access to resources. “We have asymmetry. [The internet] is not open and transparent for anyone,” Wilson described. While anonymity has provided a means for people to more openly express themselves on the internet, it has also opened avenues through which new threats to society’s well-being could emerge – cyberterrorism being one example. The current governments are not properly prepared for these types of issues. Steps are being made by the Canadian government to try and catch up to the changes of the digital society. GCpedia is an internal wiki made to increase collaboration and sharing of information between government staff. However, this is not enough. Wider access to the public is necessary in a society where information can be easily shared. In some ways, the internet is forcing governments to become more transparent. Organizations such as Wikileaks have leaked secret government documents, making information available to the public. Whether they like it or not, governments will eventually need to change to meet the standards of a digital society.

Health&Ed

Forum

“Minority Languages”

The 2013 World Social Science Forum took place from October 13 to 15 at the Palais des congrès de Montréal. The event was organized by the International Social Science Council and sponsored through multiple sources, which included the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and Concordia University. The theme of this year’s forum was the social impact of technology. While the forum itself may have been sparsely attended – mainly due to insufficient marketing or not targeting diverse groups of people – the panels were thought-provoking. They featured talks from researchers all around the world, and covered a wide range of topics relevant to our modern lives. Below, we provide reviews of some of the most notable panels.

“Knowledge as Commons”

n academic paper goes through a whole series of obstacles before being published in an online journal. The problem with online journals is that they’re usually looking to publish ‘hot topic’ papers in order to increase their readability. Often, journals in the West look for papers that may only concern their part of the world. Furthermore, a user has to pay to access these journals – usually an exorbitant fee. Ongoing competition among journals means that budding online journals from developing countries cannot compete with those from the West. The solution? “Creating platforms which incorporate putting symbolic value on the journal articles: their level of quality, legitimacy, and visibility,” said one of the lecturers. Two of these platforms were presented at the panel: Redalyc, a system made up by the leading journals of all the knowledge areas edited in and about Latin America, and Social Science Research Network (SSRN), a platform dedicated to the dissemination of academic articles in the social sciences and humanities. These open access platforms help archive and preserve data by taking into account the

The McGill Daily

Monday, October 21, 2013

relations of production and the geopolitical sphere within which academic articles are written. Furthermore, they guarantee transparency on behalf of the producer, and protection of intellectual property for the author. On SSRN, for example, a user can download any article for free with the click of a button. While open access websites like SSRN and Redalyc seem to be on the right track with making academic articles – whether from the developing world or otherwise, – accessible for everyone to read, open access is not without its faults. Most open access content is subject to a system of hierarchy when it comes to the structuring of knowledge. This comes in many forms: inequality in the process of distribution of academic articles, the nature and topic of one’s work, journal bias, and one’s position in the academic system and the world. Peer review, a largely successful system, can still be highly subjective. Unfortunately, there is a long way to go in the social sciences, where academics witness a marginalization of their alternative and radical views from the mainstream journal publishing process.

ost of the roughly 8,000 languages of the world are endangered. 97 per cent of the world’s population speaks 4 per cent of the its languages. Sarah McMonagle, a European minority language scholar at the University of Hamburg, asserted that “Indigenous languages of states have been actively marginalized,” either by a harsh, dominant school system, or by marginalization of the Indigenous community. This is where, for her, language sustainability comes in. In the same vein, for the world’s endangered languages, the interactive internet – or “Web 2.0” – is a key player in trying to keep linguistic diversity alive, asserted McMonagle. Most Europeans speak languages that are not the official language of the state. The emergence of blogs in local or minority languages, local government websites (such as one in Welsh and English for

Wales), and Wikis (which are available in over 300 languages), all play a part in promoting local languages. Facebook and Twitter pages in local languages also exist, with Facebook in the lead in terms of application of local languages. Grassroots organizations that promote the use and education of minority languages, along with digital technology, can help revive some of these local languages that are threatened with extinction, especially in the West. Niamh Ní Bhroin, the second speaker, emphasized the role of homogeneous minority groups in promoting their own languages within and outside of their group. “Birds of a feather flock together,” she said – the slogan for a phenomenon called Homophily, where relatives, friends, or acquaintances write to each other in minority languages on social networking websites such as Facebook or Twitter.

“Privacy & Surveillance”

he issues of privacy, surveillance, and control over our personal information are worse than we believe. This panel sought to address the threats concerning privacy in the digital age, rethinking privacy in the 21st century, and the ways in which people can work their way around the top-down surveillance methods actively employed by government and conglomerates. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) – tech that enables users to access, store, send, and interact with information – are a huge issue regarding this topic, as they allow for easy breach of privacy. The legal framework governing their use is very weak. Governments and conglomerates store all our daily activities from these ICTs, “but most people don’t care,” said Panayotis Antoniadis, a lecturer and senior researcher at ETH Zurich, because we willingly give up our personal information in exchange for self-promotion or other services. One of the ways around this issue is to establish local neighbourhood networks, similar to Facebook, but that are not internetbased. Antoniadis’ aim is to create a simple software that anyone can configure, allowing users to connect privately with the people around them, whether familiar or strangers. Another issue that was brought up at the panel was shaping privacy in Facebook. Professor María Belén Albornoz,

a professor and researcher at FLACSO Ecuador, asserted that Facebook’s technical code (the code programmers use within Facebook) “makes users do what Facebook [wants them] to do.” This code creates an illusion of freedom and privacy within the social networking website. Facebook then turns users’ information into profit through advertising revenue. According to Albornoz, “Control of the content shared can fade away without notice.” People will simply forget that their private information is being controlled because of the seemingly ‘free’ framework of the site. The talk then moved to the fact that, as full-time users, we cannot switch off our connection to the web. Furthermore, there is no idea of consent when our personal information comes into play, because our relationship with the entities utilizing our privacy is unequal. The panel closed with a lecture on rethinking transparency, focusing on creating internet infrastructure that certain countries cannot shut off or censor, and demanding access to information about private data and internet habits from government and businesses. According one of the lecturers, Christopher Leslie, Co-director of the Science and Technology Studies at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University, the transparent society works and is revealed when blockage or censorship is a blatant practice of the regime. In Antoniadis’ words, “Everything we do is recorded.”

The McGill Daily

Health&Ed

Monday, October 21, 2013

McGill fails the research exam Scores a grade of CAnnie liang | Health & Ed Writer

niversities are pivotal players in the field of global health, not only in terms of research and medical innovations, but also in educating the next generation of global health professionals. The University Global Health Impact Report Card is a research initiative published this past April by Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM). This report studies the role of the top 54 research institutions in Canada and the United States, and their contribution to global health initiatives. The first of a series of reports in this longitudinal study, the publication quantified universities based on three aspects: innovation, which quantifies the amount of research and funding dedicated to neglected aspects of medical innovations, such as neglected disease research; access, which evaluates the presence of legal policies present within universities, especially in terms of technology transfer policies and ‘humanitarian’ licenses; and education, which looks at access to education resources regarding Global Health, such as courses, conferences, et cetera. According to the report, McGill ranked 30th overall out of the 54 universities surveyed – far below other Canadian universities such as McMaster University, the University of Alberta, and the University of British Columbia. Specifically, McGill had received an overall grade of C-, with a grade of D+, B-, and D on the innovation, access, and empowerment sections, respectively. As largely publicly funded research institutes, accessibility to these medical innovations depends on how universities manage their intellectual property, and ensuring equitable and socially responsible dissemination of biomedical discoveries. What’s taught in classrooms and what university researchers choose to research affects the search for new and affordable treatments – especially for neglected tropical diseases, which affect more than one billion of the world’s poorest populations. Key research findings showed that, on average, less than 3 per cent of the 2010 research funding at the top Canadian and American universities were devoted to research projects focused on neglected diseases such as Chagas disease, sleeping sickness, and unaddressed aspects of HIV/AIDs, tuberculosis, and malaria. Between these universities, substantial variations are present, with research and capacity-building grants ranging from up to 24 per cent. As a result of these findings, UAEM advocates, “Universities [can look to outside sources] to increase their research funding, despite potentially limited funding sources or external resources.” Criticisms by the Lancet, a weekly peer-reviewed medical journal, characterizes the report as “misleading” due to it’s relatively narrow focus of global health on research innovation for neglected diseases, and adoption of socially responsible licensing strategies. However, Bryan Collinsworth, the current executive director of UAEM, states that the report card’s focus was specifically on aspects of global health that had received the least attention, yet had clear and practical means for improvement. The G-Finder database, which was used for the Global Health Impact Report Card, is a comprehensive survey

Haidan dong | Illustrator Haidan Dong | Illustrator McGill University and “Humanitarian” Liof worldwide funding for research and development. It not only focuses on neglected diseases, censing for Drugs: Light in the horizon? The “Access” sector looks at how well unibut also on the most neglected aspects of the “Big Three” diseases – HIV/ AIDs, malaria, and versities are ensuring their biomedical discoveries are disseminated in an equitable and tuberculosis. socially responsible manner, and whether a Education and Student Empowerment: A university has made a commitment by signing onto global access licensing, or “humanitarian” shift toward multidisciplinary approaches? With respect to education, McGill had re- licensing frameworks. McGill scored the highest on its “Access” secceived a low grade of D on the education section, partially due to information which was unavail- tor, with a score of B- relative to its two Ds on the able, or when questionnaires went unanswered. other two sectors (Education, Innovation). An inSurveys were sent to various department direc- terview with Dr. Rose Goldstein, McGill’s current tors and deans during the data collection process, VP Research and Industrial Relations, reaffirmed often multiple times before the release of the re- McGill’s commitment to equity and accessibilport card, and where surveys went unanswered, ity regarding its medical innovations. Goldstein’s publically available data was used to verify a uni- office is looking into endorsing such a provision within the coming year. Although McGill has not versity’s contribution. Dr. Dan Deckelbaum, the current Interim signed onto any global access licensing frameDirector of McGill’s Global Health Programs, work, Dr. Goldstein stressed that it is not indicafeels that the results of the Global Health Impact tive of McGill’s commitment to ensuring medical Report Card are not indicative of McGill’s con- innovations are accessible. According to the Global Health Impact Retribution to global health education, and the results are partially dependent on who was asked. port Card, between 41-50 per cent of McGill’s “Canada as a whole, [and] McGill in general, is health technology licenses were non-exclusive, leading in injury intervention, research and edu- with zero per cent patents sought in low- and cation,” he said. “The work we do here isn’t as lower-middle income countries, and 1-10 per cent of patents sought in upper-middle income well-recognized as it should be.” Dr. Deckelbaum emphasized the need for countries where they may restrict access. Howmultidisciplinary approaches in global health. ever, none of the university’s exclusive licenses “Right now our mandate is to expand global on health technologies included provisions to health opportunities not just to those within promote access in developing countries over the the faculty of medicine […]. Global health past year. Dr. Goldstein stated that very little of is not just an intervention – it’s a multidisci- McGill’s innovations actually undergo the patentplinary approach that involves health, law, ing process, and many are not pursued due to the policy, economics, environment – all these lack of a partner or the resources to continue the things are incorporated within the definition project. However, the lack of written policies on access for exclusive licenses of medical innovaof global health.”

tions with potential impacts on the developing world does raise some concerns. This is problematic especially given the recent exclusive licensing of Cysteamine, a chemical compound sometimes used in the treatment of radiation sickness, and it’s related compounds to Raptor Pharmaceutical Corp. (http://ir.raptorpharma.com/releasedetail. cfm?ReleaseID=677537) in May 2012. This was done for the compound’s treatment potential of parasitic diseases such as malaria. The McGill Chapter of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines has been advocating for McGill University to adopt a global access licensing framework since at least 2009. In an email response, Shreena Malayiva, the current Chapter Leader for UAEM McGill, stated, “Despite being one of the foremost research institutes in Canada and North America, McGill still lacks strong access/humanitarian policies that greatly hampers [its] commitment to equity and accessibility. We still have a long way to go to ensure that research at McGill is socially responsible and the research meets the needs of the people worldwide.” Malayiva went on to assert that “the academia, students, and the administration are equally responsible role in ensuring equitable and accessible research here at McGill. We are encouraged by where McGill’s research policies are heading, and we’d be able to collaborate in the future.” Research and Innovation: What is the role of universities? The “Innovation” sector looks at how well universities are filling the research gap that exists for neglected global diseases that receive comparatively little private investment. McGill had received a score of D+ on this section. Based on 2010 publically available data collected through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) databases, a total of 0.66 per cent of McGill’s research funding was devoted to projects solely focused on neglected tropical diseases. Dr. Goldstein believes that while the Global Health Impact Report Card is useful in detecting trends within universities, it’s difficult to give a strong opinion, as it was the first of a series of research reports, and hence a ‘snapshot in time.’ The report’s emphasis on CIHR data has also raised concerns as it may provide an incomplete picture, since McGill receives funding from various other organizations, partnerships, philanthropies, and small private foundations, especially for rare and neglected diseases. McGill’s new Strategic Research Plan for 20132017, with plans to launch a Business Engagement Center for increased collaborations with the private industry, has raised concerns about the effect such partnerships may have in the direction of future research and potential conflicts of interest. Dr. Goldstein, however, does not believe this will be a prominent issue. “We have policies and provisions in place to ensure researchers have academic freedom…When we do partner or receive donations from the business world or from industry, it’s always such that researchers would be able to publish, students would be able to work on projects, [and we can guarantee the] academic freedom of researchers […] It really follows the interests and the abilities of the researchers themselves,” she stated.

Sports

The McGill Daily

Monday, October 21, 2013

The issues with “character issues”

The all-too-common mistreatment of troubled players Evan Dent | The McGill Daily

aron Hernandez, former tight end for the New England Patriots, was arrested this summer under suspicion of murdering his girlfriend’s sister’s boyfriend (if you hadn’t heard). In the wake of his arrest, a report in Rolling Stone came out claiming that, during college, he had needed constant supervision to prevent him from lashing out at others. This didn’t stop the Patriots from drafting him in 2010 (they knew of his past indiscretions, including a bar fight), and then giving him a $40 million contract in 2012. They figured that his immense talent was worth the risk of his past issues. Rolling Stone also reported that before this summer, Hernandez had begun taking PCP regularly, was acting increasingly paranoid, and had been instructed to go to a safe house by his coach. The reports have been denied by the Patriots, in an attempt to distance themselves from Hernandez, but at the very least, they knew, when they drafted him, that he had previously had “character issues” (the catchall phrase used in reference to players who commit crimes or make mistakes in college or high school). At some level, they knew about his erratic behaviour leading up the murder, and didn’t do anything to really help him. The Hernandez story is an extreme example of the norm when it comes to players with “character issues” – a general disregard for the player’s well-being. Professional athletes with enough talent are given the benefit of the doubt for past mistakes until they become liabilities to the team. But the idea of “character issues” itself is highly racialized, as non-white players are characterized by the media and scouts as “thugs” or “gangsters,” whereas white players are seen as kids who have just made a mistake. As a result, the treatment players get can vary dramatically. I’ll take an example from college football: Tyrann Mathieu, now a cornerback for the Arizona Cardinals, was suspended at the end of his 2011 season at Louisiana State University for breaking team rules. Reports stated that Mathieu had failed a drug test after smoking synthetic marijuana. In 2012, he was again suspended, reportedly for testing positive for marijuana. He later enrolled in drug rehabilitation, and then was caught with marijuana and kicked off the team. He was drafted in the third round (lower than he was projected), and the pick was considered risky for the Cardinals. This is all for a player smoking marijuana, a recreational drug that, though illegal, is hardly likely to make the player a liability. Compare that to Johnny Manziel, the current quarterback for Texas A&M. There are multiple photos of Manziel drinking alcohol while underage, for which he has never received team punishment. Manziel was also caught up in a ‘scandal’ this summer after he was caught selling his autograph, a violation

of collegiate rules. He was suspended one half of one game by his coach. Both of these players are labeled as having “character issues,” so what’s the difference? Mathieu is black, and Manziel is white. One guy loses a season for marijuana, the other gets nothing for drinking and a half a game for selling autographs. Manziel is expected to be a first round pick in next year’s draft, even with his “character issues.” It’s just one example of how non-white athletes are consistently treated more harshly for their mistakes. In the intensely weird world of draft scouting, when players are put under a microscope by teams and media alike, nothing makes a prospect fall faster than perceived “character issues.” These are as innocuous as getting caught smoking or drinking while in college (inconceivable!) and illegally making money as a college athlete to more serious crimes such as theft or violence. Either way, if a player makes a mistake at school, they are likely to fall draftwise for it, because franchises mostly want their players to be sportsmachines committed to just playing the game. And some players are dinged a little harder than others. For players who are talented enough, the label of “character issues” means they get drafted later and lose millions of dollars; for many others, it means not getting drafted at all, and facing the uphill battle of making a team after the draft. For instance, in football, Vontaze Burfict was predicted by many to be a top five draft pick in the 2012 National Football League (NFL) draft. While Burfict admitted to the media that he only played “average” football the year before, what damaged him more was his reputation for being “out of control” (according to one unnamed scout) off the field. Burfict ended up going completely undrafted before signing with the Cincinnati Bengals. He’s now one of the better linebackers in the league, though people still consider the Bengals signing him a risky move. For every Burfict that makes it to the professional league, there are many more who bounce around, never finding a stable team situation. Even when players do make it to the league despite their “character issues,” they are kept on a shorter leash than other players, basically given a one-strike policy. This is not to say that players should not be supported by their organization, but these organizations are not truly “supporting” their players. Rather, they are holding them to a much stricter standard than anyone else and giving no latitude for their mistakes. Take Dez Bryant, a wide receiver who sat out his final year of college after it was ruled that he was in contact with a sports agent. He was still drafted in the first round – a marker of his skill – but the team gave him guidelines that bordered on the absurd. Bryant reportedly had a midnight curfew, had to ask for the team’s permission to go out at night, and had a rotating

Alice Shen | The McGill Daily crew of security personnel during his free time. The expectation of formerly ‘troubled’ players is that they will never make another mistake again if they want to keep their jobs. ‘Troubled’ players are usually cut or traded once a team decides that they’re not worth the trouble. Instead of dealing with the problem, teams are more likely to simply get rid of the player and let them be someone else’s problem. If the player can’t be molded – to be committed to the team only – then they are usually cut loose. If another team decides that the player’s risk is worth the possible reward, they’ll sign him, usually for far less money. If not, depending on the sport, they must find work elsewhere (in foreign leagues, or minor

leagues) or re-enter the non-sports world. There, they don’t have even the modest support system of the team, and many are unprepared to find jobs in any other profession – usually because they either did not finish college, or never prepared in any way for a life outside sports. The problem with all this is the lack of action by professional teams to help their players. They knowingly draft players with “character issues” – oftentimes much lower in the draft than they should be – or sign them and if they screw up again, reject them. It’s a system that basically says, “be perfect, or get out,” instead of supporting its players without holding them to an impossible standard.

Culture

The McGill Daily

Monday, October 21, 2013

it f n u d n a s w e e n r e o e s m r o f t n to pri shock! e r u t l u c

“Roundtable: Spoken Word for Social Change”

Alice Shen | The McGill Daily

Rosie Long Decter | Culture Writer

PIRG (Quebec Public Interest Research Group) McGill’s annual Culture Shock series picked up again last Tuesday after a break for the long weekend, featuring a full day of workshops and art that concluded with KANATA’s Roundtable: Spoken Word for Social Change, at Café L’Artère. KANATA is a QPIRG working group that focuses on Indigenous Studies. The Roundtable was an evening of performance, featuring seven diverse, powerful artists and groups. The evening took place primarily in the format of a concert and coffee house; as a result, there was very little structured discussion of social change. Instead, the theme of social change ran through the various performances. Each performance had its own connection to Indigenous issues or decolonization. Some addressed decolonization through First Nations traditions and Indigenous culture, such as artist Moe Clark, who sang beautifully in Cree and subsequently translated into English the underlying elements of harmony and togetherness for the audi-

ence. Other performers used their own personal stories to present their perspectives on decolonization, such as Kai Cheng Thom’s moving spoken word poetry, which discussed the oppression of Chinese-Canadians. First Nations hip hop acts Northern Collection and Warrior Minded also drew on their own experiences, rapping about injustice and Idle No More. Northern Collection’s particularly powerful “Ghetto Trapped Youth” addressed stereotyping of the ghettoizing of neighbourhoods and the systemic oppression that perpetuates it, particularly in lines such as, “This education system wasn’t built for everyone.” Karen, a throat singer from Canadian Roots Exchange (a group of Indigenous and nonIndigenous youth who want to bridge the gap between communities), recited poetry that dealt expressly with the theme of culture shock through musings on adaptation and waiting in airports. Mehdi Hamdad’s striking and engaging spoken word performance was focused on social change, emphasizing individual accountability with his refrain, “You decide what you know.”

“Collage and Conflict: Manifestos on the Politics of Visual Art” Nathaniel Hanula-James | Culture Writer

tuck to a corner of Café l’Artère, a discreet 8.5 by 11 inch paper announces the presence of creative genius. “Teddy Harris’s work is the modernism of everyday perception and rationale. He makes works from vouchsafes and unrealized dreams, lies and advertisements for the nowheres. That is, he takes scraps of North America and threads them through his truthoscopic sensibility, for instance, pieces of newspapers, headlines, images from the diversity of our mostly grim experience, and he tells it to us again, and clearer.” Truthoscopic. Probably not the best word to get viewers excited. But as it turns out, Teddy Harris’ collages are much better than their purple introductory blurb suggests. The viewer is confronted with terrifying, often absurd scenes of the disenfranchised and oppressed. In “Under Occupation,” three dark-skinned men in a rubble-strewn alleyway run from swooping helicopters, but Harris’s collages make it unclear whether those helicopters are real, or just more graffiti on a bombed-out building. In “Flesh Like Homes,” two African women carry water jugs in the night as an inferno blazes behind them, while the upside-down

roof of the White House hovers in the air – or perhaps plummets down to earth like a missile – behind them. In fact, this upside down cupola pops up over and over in Harris’ collages, like a political version of Edward Gorey’s Passementeries horribles, a series of drawings all featuring monstrous tassels. Café l’Artère itself is the perfect venue for Harris’ art. The collages are hung in front of the cafe’s huge windows, and Harris has crafted each collage in such a way that it is illuminated, not unlike a stained glass window. In one of the most striking pieces, “The Bible and the Gun (2001),” blood oozes from black gashes in the collage, and from block letters spelling KKK. The illuminatory effects of Café l’Artère make both blood and letters glow with ominous power. Yet despite the excellence of the venue, not enough effort has been made to draw attention to the collages, just that discreet 8.5 by 11 inch paper. The consequence is that Harris’ work isn’t being exhibited at all. Instead, poor presentation has reduced his collages to hip decorative wallflowers. Thank goodness the art itself is better than that.

Courtesy of Theodore Harris

The McGill Daily

Culture

Monday, October 21, 2013

Kicking off the year with a Tick, Tick…BOOM! TNC hits the right note with Rent’s lesser-known cousin Louis Denizet | Culture Writer

ittingly enough, it is on Tuesday night that McGill’s Tuesday Night Café (TNC) Theatre premiered its first show of the season, none other than Jonathan Larson’s Tick, Tick…BOOM! If the name of the playwright rings a bell, it’s probably because you’ve heard of his magnum opus, Rent. Tick, Tick… BOOM!, on the other hand, is a lesser-known, yet still highly entertaining and well-crafted gem of a musical with a killer soundtrack. The play, which is loosely based on the life of its author, revolves around Jon, an aspiring composer who moves to Manhattan with his girlfriend in the hopes of writing the next great American musical. Unfortunately for Jon, life does not unravel as planned. As he is about to turn 30, the pressures in Jon’s life begin to weigh down on him. In particularly stressful moments, Jon becomes increasingly aware of the irritating-but-strangely-intriguing ticking sound in his head, which often ends with a sudden explosion. The three-actor piece, presented as an enthralling journey into the life of aspiring artists in the 1990s, is brilliantly executed by Brendan Macdonald, in the main role of Jon. His compelling stage presence, conveyed through mobility and enthusiasm, transfers his onstage energy to the audience. The charming Teodora Mechetiuc, in the role of Jon’s girlfriend Susan, also brought her goods

to the table by delivering exceptional vocal performances. Mechetiuc seems to live for the stage, and her versatility is ideally suited to this kaleidoscopic musical. The third and final actor, Nathaniel Hanula-James, in the role of Jon’s best friend Mike, complemented Jon’s story well, offering a contrast to the protagonist’s life, and certainly added to the show’s appeal by regularly flashing his ten thousand dollar smile. Highlights from the show included Mechetiuc’s impeccable rendition of “Come To Your Senses,” a heartfelt ballad about breaking up, looking at life from a fresh perspective, and moving on. The trio also performed outstandingly well during “Johnny Can’t Decide,” about Jon’s unwillingness to change his ‘starving artist’ lifestyle, and “Louder Than Words,” the final song of the play. The director of the play, Jon Corkal, revealed that he chose to direct this play due to his belief that he and Larson have a lot more in common than a first name. He also mentioned his desire to partake in McGill’s musical theatre legacy. Having previously acted in Sweeney Todd and West Side Story, both staged at McGill’s Moyse Hall, it was only natural for him to move on to directing a musical, an evidently successful challenge. Musicals are a rare choice for McGill’s student-run theatre groups, yet it is in small

Georgia Gleason | The McGill Daily venues that they shine the most. Despite the bare set and lack of varied costumes, TNC’s intimacy allows for a connection between the performers and the audience members, something that most mainstream musical productions lack. Tick, Tick…BOOM! itself stands out as an authentic portrayal of the nitty gritty side of life folded into a reach-forthe-stars musical. A unique play performed

by a dedicated cast, Tick Tick… BOOM! is truly a must-see. Tick, Tick...BOOM! will run from October 23 to 26 at 8 p.m. in the Morrice Hall in the Islamic Studies building. Tickets are $6 for students and $10 for adults. Reservations can be made by email at tnc.foh@gmail.com and are highly recommended, given the limited number of seats.

Friendly vulgarity Les Belles Soeurs at Players’ Theatre Daniel Woodhouse | The McGill Daily

“

There is nothing in the world I like more than bingo!” It seems like a mundane sentiment, but I invite anyone to sit before the cast of Les Belles Soeurs and listen to them talk, as one, about how much bingo means to them, without beginning to feel the desperate drama of the ordinary women Michel Tremblay brought to life on the stage. The year is 1965. Germaine Lauzon, middle-aged housewife, has hit the jackpot. She can literally thank her lucky stars because a million of them (in coupon form) have turned up in boxes at her PlateauMont-Royal house as a competition prize. Unfortunately, before she can trade them in for the latest domestic luxuries that she has been eyeing up in a catalogue, she needs them stuck into booklets. Inconsiderate of the pent-up jealousy they harbour, she invites her sisters and friends over to help her with the task. With close to 15 housewives in the same room, and her daughter’s friends dropping by, gossip runs free and emo-

tions high. Pretty soon the helpers start to become thieves. First performed in the late 1960s, Les Belles Soeurs shocked Quebec audiences with its kitchen-sink depiction of ordinary women with hopes, fears, and bad language. 40 years on, it remains perhaps Michel Tremblay’s most famous work, and is now being performed by McGill’s own Players’ Theatre. Les Belles Soeurs is famous as one of the first plays to use joual, a traditional Quebecois dialect and a central part of working class culture that for a long time had only been the subject of scorn rather than celebration. It is hard not to conclude that the English translation sacrifices much of its local identity. Indeed, the director, Stephanie Zidel, admits that “the language doesn’t translate effectively into metropolitan English.” Were it not for the god-damn-it-we’re-in-QuebecFleur-de-Lis-wallpaper painted onto the set you might struggle to identify exactly where in North America we are living. But this loss

in specifics reveals the universal nature of the characters and their struggle. The drama itself really takes off when all the women are together and begin to bounce off one another. Pretty soon they are letting each other know exactly what they think of the Italian girl down the street, exchanging rape jokes, and complaining about men in their lives. The verbal violence turns inward as dissatisfaction pours out, and soon the darkness of repressed lives and despondency are revealed. We see how the women become their own torturers. A play which, at the time, portrayed life unflinchingly, now,serves to remind us of the importance of what has changed. The horror at the revelation that the Angeline has found happiness attending a nightclub would be funny, were it not for how it kills her to turn her back on it in order to keep her oldest friend. This seems to have been a passion project for Zidel, and she certainly handled the challenge, keeping the action focused with a

large cast all on stage at once. Among an accomplished cast, Connor Spencer stood out, bringing seething jealous energy to the stage. The refrain, “I kill myself for my pack of morons,” which she spits out, leaves you with a clear impression of how these women have come to regard their own families. Whether or not the humour saves the drama from bleakness will remain unclear until this production arrives in front of its audience. Indeed, the student audience who will be receiving it are far removed from the women the play set out to portray and the audience it was originally written for. “I think there [are] a lot of things we might find scandalizing that they might have found funny,” suggests Zidel. Still, many of the challenges remain accessible to today’s audiences: “If your friend comes up to you and says she’s pregnant, that’s something that is still hard to deal with.” Whether audiences remain to be scandalized or not, Les Belles Soeurs is a powerful piece of theatre.

The McGill Daily

Culture

Monday, October 21, 2013

Cruising the contemporary

Queer romance and sex on film at the Festival du nouveau cinéma Ben Poirier | Culture Writer

Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily

ollowing the example of this year’s Cannes, Venice, and Sundance film festivals, Montreal’s own Festival du nouveau cinéma screened a film from James Franco’s sudden, recent slew of directorial projects. Recently, the actor and all around artiste has shown a propensity to adapt or rework dearly canonized works of American literature and film, including William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, Cormac McCarthy’s Hand of God, Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho, and, as if it hadn’t already been given enough attention, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. Some critics have found his audacity unnerving and whimsical, and early reviews of Franco’s As I Lay Dying suggest that he might not be paying as much time and due as these pieces warrant. On the other hand, Interior. Leather Bar., which continues Franco’s filmmaking process on a more sizeable scale, succeeds in using its contemporary context to create something intelligently and appropriately revisionary. The impetus for Interior. Leather Bar. is a lesser-known movie from 1980 starring Al Pacino called Cruising, about a detective who covertly enters the throbbing underworld of gay S&M culture in New York in order to track down a serial killer. The film represents a decisive moment in the history of queer subject matter in cinema, as it portrays a particularly ignorant and homophobic vision of the urban male homosexual community. Intended for a wide release, Cruising was censored and the director, William Friedkin, was forced to remove 40 minutes of homoerotic footage deemed too explicit, resulting in a

highly schizophrenic narrative. The aim of Interior. Leather Bar. is to imagine and recreate these lost scenes. The project ends up being less a finished reconstruction of this footage than an investigative ‘making of’ the production itself. Coincidentally, Interior. Leather Bar. co-director Travis Mathews takes a more ostensibly traditional role as director, easing the equally gay and straight cast into their roles, while Franco provides inspirational support for his long time friend Val, who plays the Pacino stand-in. Val’s persistent inability to grasp Franco’s motivations for doing a gaythemed project and his negotiations with the sexual situations taking place on set provide the film’s main narrative arc. As the viewer watches Val closely in his interactions with extras and listens to the phone conversations between him and his wife, they see a narrative in which discomfort and homophobia are not displaced onto a fictionalized screen but grappled with in their raw, everyday manifestations. While Val theorizes that the project is about having the artistic freedom to push boundaries and explore taboo subjects on screen, Franco speaks of wanting to reorient his perspective entirely – engaging specifically with the taboo of gay sex in order to dismantle its cultural and psychological weight. (A particular high point of the film is listening to Franco rant passionately about being “sick of heteronormativity.”) At the heart of Interior. Leather Bar. is a frankness in depicting gay sex and relationships, and a challenge to the liberal facade and secret aversion of contemporary straight

audiences. Mathews’ sensibility as a director gives his characters a refreshing shape and depth, even if they are only playing themselves, portraying a diversity of queer subjectivities inadequately met in modern cinema. Moreover, Mathews’ films often involve explicit sex scenes, tastefully shot, encompassing the spectrum of gay sexual behaviour, and often resulting from a genuine, unique attraction between characters. For instance, Interior. Leather Bar. contains a scene in which a real-life couple engages in intimate lovemaking, and in an interview afterward, they provide a compelling real-world view of gay romance. Their sex scene is made cinematic through editing, sound, and lighting, but is quickly disrupted as the camera pulls out to face the production team and the reality of the studio, framing the ongoing reactions of the people as they continue to look on. The scene asks the viewer to consider representational differences between gay sex, on- and off-screen. Interior. Leather Bar.’s tactic of forefronting the realities of gay sex are echoed in another, equally intriguing Festival du nouveau cinéma selection, L’Inconnu du Lac (Stranger by the Lake), which actually succeeds in staging a fictional cruising ground. Directed by French filmmaker Alain Guiraudie, the film takes place exclusively on the beach and in the surrounding woods of a lake in southern France, a popular gay hookup spot. The natural setting and slow ambience are the antithesis of Cruising’s cavernous underbelly, allowing for a more illuminated, yet nonetheless marginalized, microcosm of gay

sexuality. The story follows a downtrodden middle-aged man named Franck as he navigates the erotically charged landscape in order to fulfill a deep-seated desire for companionship. After witnessing his new lover Michel murder another man, Franck must simultaneously deal with his emotional and physical attachments and the inscrutable danger Michel presents. L’Inconnu du Lac pictures the perpetuation of exclusively gay space on the fringes of society. The beach is dotted with mostly older men, naked and sunbathing, or wading into the shallow water, and occasionally going into the woods in search of a hookup. The languid atmosphere this creates contests the conventionally provocative construction of gay sex, rending the tropes of films like Friedkin’s Cruising threadbare and obsolete. And yet the film does not shy away from a full visualization of gay sex either. Multiple sex scenes chart the full relationship between Franck and Michel, and participate in the same persistent viewing as Interior. Leather Bar.. The most significant part of the movie is, however, the powerful argument it makes concerning the role of sex in the mediation of more intimate emotional connections. Franck’s lovelorn pursuit is mobilized by the behavioural intricacies of the cruising area – for him, these kinds of spaces provide a last resort in a dominant culture that is structured around heterosexual relations. In a way continuing the claims made in Interior. Leather Bar., it asserts that the stigmatization of gay intimacy relegates opportunities for homosexual romance to the very edges of society.

Editorial

volume 103 number 8

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Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily

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contributors Amina Batyreva, CC, Christopher Cayen-Cyr, Joelle Dahm, Louis Denizet, Haidan Dong, Cem Eterkin, Georgia Gleason, Julia Grandfield, Nathaniel Hanula-James, Olivia Larson, Annie Liang, Leanne Louie, Rosie Long Decter, William Mazurek, K.P., Zoe Pepper-Cunningham, Ben Poirier, Hannah Reardon, Dillon Stanger, Daniel Woodhouse

wo weeks ago, a collective agreement was officially signed between the University and the invigilators unit of AGSEM: McGill’s Teaching Union, after ratification by the members of the unit earlier in May. Nearly three years in the making, contract negotiations left the AGSEM bargaining committee feeling pressured to settle for less in terms of pay and working conditions in order to move the contract forward. More insulting are the grievances that AGSEM was forced to file the week after the contract signing, regarding online postings for invigilators that contravene the new agreement. More than one-third of McGill’s graduate students are members of AGSEM, due to work as either teaching assistants (TAs) or exam invigilators, and AGSEM’s struggles with the administration have a direct impact on each of these employees’ working conditions. Undergraduate students, in turn, should consider the noticeable difference in quality of education when a sufficient number of TAs and invigilators are available to facilitate learning and evaluations. Having an outspoken and active union only serves to better the educational environment for everyone involved. A considerable number of undergraduates themselves are unionized as casual student employees on campus, and the importance of collective bargaining should not be underestimated. Individual students have much less bargaining power than an entire group of students. Furthermore, all students – workers or not – should be aware of their daily interactions with unionized workers, and support the betterment of working conditions for everyone on campus, whether they be TAs, Student Services staff, or custodial staff, among many others.

Two non-academic labour unions, the McGill University Non-Academic Certified Association (MUNACA) and the Service Employees Union (SEU) have encountered recent frustrations with McGill’s hiring policies in light of budget cuts. A retirement incentive program has been put in place alongside a hiring freeze, leaving some units – such as audiovisual equipment employees and internal delivery drivers – with a debilitating dearth of employees. Representatives from both MUNACA and SEU have also complained about McGill’s hiring of managers or casual workers to do the work previously done by those emptied positions (a violation of the MUNACA collective agreement and potentially of Article 39 of the Quebec Labour Code). Similar complaints have been made regarding the hiring of contract workers to fill these gaps, as contract workers are not union members and thus not protected by collective agreements. In this way, the University’s hiring undermines the work of existing campus unions. Many students picketed and advocated in solidarity with MUNACA during its 2011 strike, in an effort to show the University that workers’ interests are inextricable from students’ interests. This show of support should extend beyond strike actions, as unions are always in the process of advocating for their members. It is imperative that students who are in unions take it upon themselves to become aware of and involved with the work of their unions. With more participation, unions can better advocate and become a stronger force within the community – one that disallows McGill from mistreating its employees, as it is currently. —The McGill Daily Editorial Board

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Amina Batyreva, Jacqueline Brandon, Théo Bourgery, Hera Chan, Lola Duffort, Benjamin Elgie, Camille Gris Roy, Boris Shedov, Samantha Shier, Anqi Zhang All contents © 2013 Daily Publications Society. All rights reserved. The content of this newspaper is the responsibility of The McGill Daily and does not necessarily represent the views of McGill University. Products or companies advertised in this newspaper are not necessarily endorsed by Daily staff. Printed by Imprimerie Transcontinental Transmag. Anjou, Quebec. ISSN 1192-4608.

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Compendium!

The McGill Daily

Monday, October 21, 2013

Lies, half-truths, and fuuuuuuck

The Noisome Revolution

Change is in the air – and it smells of egg Juur | The McGall Weekly

he Quiet Revolution has become a part of Canadian history, and now it seems – political scandals notwithstanding – that a new chapter could be added to that sacred book. Much like the oppressed francophone population of the 1960s, or Victorian children, this Montreal community is “seen but not heard,” but all that could be about to change with the election of outspoken new leader René-Mouflette. In his inauguration speech, he outlined his campaign of civil disobedience by personally spraying the Mount Royal Cross and proclaiming himself “even smellier than Jesus.” The comments drew scorn from both Christian and atheist associations, though for different reasons. Right wing pest control companies, however, are pleased with the attention René-Mouflette is drawing to the skunk community. It is believed in certain exterminator sectors that the mayor’s office will be prompted to fund a comprehensive extermination program. It has been hinted to journalists at City Hall that the issue is more complicated than it appears. One official, who wished to remain anonymous, outlined the situation. “This may seem like a civil rights issue, but it’s nothing of the kind. For years now, Franco-Canadian-Skunk relations have been improving, and we have even begun to make progress with Anglo-Canadians. René-Mouflette’s election is a step backward – and let’s not forget there’s an ongoing investigation into the legality of some of

his campaign donations.” The suspicion is that certain pest control companies have been funding RenéMouflette’s election, in a bid to harm Human-Skunk relations, and clean up when the resulting extermination calls come in. Admittedly no proof has been found so far, and the skunks’ leader remains, at one end at least, tight-lipped. The ambiguously-named NEP (Nationalist Exterminator Party, a union of right wing pest control companies), on the other hand, released a defiant statement late last week. “The NEP would not dream of making any donations to such a loose cannon as René-Mouflette. Any cursory examination of our books will reveal that we actually supported his rival, the consummately chill Snoop Skunkk, whose policies were more in line with our concerns.” The other NEP (Nationalist Exterminator Party, a splinter cell devoted to the extermination of nationalists) sees this as purposeful obfuscation – or to use skunk parlance, a blatant covering of one’s tracks – on the NEP’s part. Snoop Skunkk’s official website is an Instagram picture of the skunk in a beanie, with a link to hightimes. com underneath. He also failed to hold a single rally – while nonetheless securing 32 per cent of the vote. The official investigation was described by the anonymous City Hall worker as being “thorough and ruthless in its search for truth.” Unable to resist dire quipping, the worker added, “they will not be afraid

René-Mouflette on his way to work to kick up a stink.” Despite these assurances, the investigation has been prevailed upon to delay presenting its findings until next spring. This is at the request of RenéMouflette, who will be in semi-hibernation

FUCK THIS / FUCK YEAH Fuck the internet. Fuck straight dudes on the internet, in particular. Fuck the places they’ve carved out for themselves to be terrible and juvenile about women at each other. Fuck them for venturing outside of these pissholes to air their sweaty grievances on the mainstream web. Fuck people who think selfies are a manifestation of modern Millennial narcissism. Fuck you, because it’s free, and I feel cute. Fuck you for telling me the only images I can see of feminine bodies are the ones created by straight men. Fuck the media making fun of me when all I want to do is control my own image.

Fuck yeah McGill Daily for interviewing Antonia Maioni for the health issue! She is fucking awesome and she could totally kick my ass. And your ass too if she wanted! Fuck yeah!

Fuck people who go to the library in groups. Going to the library isn’t meant to be a fucking recreational activity. You’re not supposed to talk, so on paper, there really shouldn’t be any point in going there with somebody else. Of course, the people who do this kind of shit are huge assholes, so they’ll usually end up talking anyway. This fucks everything up. Libraries are meant to be quiet. They’re really one of the only places in the whole fucking world besides churches or funerals where you’re expected to keep your mouth shut. Why do you have to fuck this up? Can’t you just go to the library alone and be miserable in silence, like everybody else? If I wanted to study with a bunch of obnoxious, loud people, I’d go to fucking BDA. So please, get the fuck out of the library.

FUCK STRAIGHT WHITE DUDES WHO REINFORCE EVERYTHING THAT WAS WRONG ABOUT MY MISOGYNIST, MASCULINE-REINFORCING UPBRINGING THAT MADE ME, AND PEOPLE LIKE ME HAVE BODY IMAGE ISSUES THROUGH SCHOOL AND ALL MY LIFE Fuck white men who think they’re being victimized because people call them out on their privilege. Fuck mainstream media for perpetuating images of otherness, misogyny, and xenophobic government propaganda and all that shit. Fuck the NSA. Fuck the illusion of democracy and freedom and privacy. Fuck assholes. Also apparently we’re all sluts. Fuck yes.

Have something you want to yell about? Get in touch: compendium@mcgilldaily.com

E.k. EK | The McGall Weekly and building up fat reserves over the winter. Whether the newly-elected leader is a civil rights activist for the 21st century, or just a pawn in the latest NEP plot, remains to be seen.

Ask The Weekly Dear Weekly, People keep telling me to check my privilege. It’s so fucking frustrating to have my opinion undervalued just because I’m a straight, white, middle-class guy with a not-unimpressively muscular (and abled) body. Right? The other day somebody told me I that I was being “kind of a huge dick” for saying that poor people are a burden on the rest of us. Like, earth to poor people, I have feelings too. Check your poverty, gawd. Any go-to snappy responses to knock people down a peg? —Not an oppressor Hey asshole, PTHFHFHBHTHTPTPTPTPTBBHBPPTHPHHBHHHHBBBBHHTHTHT BBBBPTHPH PTHPTPBHPPPPTPTTHTHTPTHPTHPTHPTHPHPTFFPHPHPHP —The Weekly