The McGill Daily Vol. 108 Issue 22

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

The McGill Daily is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory.

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contents

April 1, 2019 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Table of Contents 3 EDITORIAL Colonial Statues Must Go

10 ISTHMUS Lessons from My Parents

4 NEWS SSMU Election Results

11

FEATURES

14

HOROSCOPES!

15

SCI+TECH

Change the Name Banner Drop Revised Sexual Violence Policy SUS Representative to SSMU Protest on Sherbrooke Pour le futur Movement

8

CULTURE

I Am Reuniting with My Body

Waste Not, Want Not

“Own Your Voice; Don’t Be Afraid”

16 COMPENDIUM! Big Suze Caught Green-Handed

All members of the Daily Publications Society (DPS), publisher of The McGill Daily and Le Délit, are cordially invited to its

Special Meeting of Members:

During this meeting, an end-of-year report will be presented by the Society’s Chairperson; this is a great occasion to ask questions about what the Society has been up to in 2018-2019, and what direction it’s heading in!

All members of the DPS are welcome to attend, and the presence of candidates to the DPS Board of Directors is strongly advised.

Date and time:

Thursday, April 4th @ 5:00 p.m.

Location:

680 Sherbrooke Street West, Room 110

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EDITORIAL

Volume 108 Issue 22

April 1, 2019 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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Colonial Statues Must Go

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Athina Khalid commentary + compendium! editors

Nellia Halimi Yasir Piracha culture editors

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copy editor

Julia Crowly

design + production editor

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cover design

Nelly Wat

contributors Claire Grenier, Ellerie Roberts, Emily Black, Justine Coutu, James Flanagan, Athina Khalid, Nabeela Jivraj, Nelly Wat, Hollie Marks, Eloïse Albaret le délit

Lara Benattar

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

The views and opinions expressed in the Daily are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of McGill University.

The McGill Daily is not affiliated with McGill University.

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content warning: white supremacy, colonial violence, anti-Indigenous racism

O

n the night of March 23, the Queen Victoria statue on McGill’s campus was doused with green paint. This statue, along with the James McGill statue, has been covered in paint several times over the past year. A group called the “DelhiDublin Anti-Colonial Solidarity Brigade” claimed responsibility for the act, stating, “this year we decided to wait one week after St. Patrick’s Day, to better time our action with anti-racist organizing in Montreal,” in reference to the March 24 Mass Demonstration Against Racism and Xenophobia.

The Queen Victoria statue, which was erected in 1900, stands today as a constant reminder of the centuries of imperial violence enacted across the globe by the British Empire, not least in Montreal. Colonial statues, and the entirety of the McGill campus, are situated on unceded land that was violently stolen from the Kanien’kehá:ka by colonizers like Queen Victoria. The statues of Queen Victoria, James McGill, John A. Macdonald, and other racist and colonial figures plague Montreal, despite numerous Indigenous and other activist groups asking the city to take them down.

John A. Macdonald is commemorated by a monument in Place du Canada, despite having actively perpetrated genocide against Indigenous peoples through measures such as residential schools and the promotion of an “Aryan Canada.” In the words of the Delhi-Dublin Anti-Colonial Solidarity Brigade, “public space should celebrate collective struggles for justice and liberation, not white supremacy and genocide.” To give colonizers validation through grand monuments is to honour the historical and ongoing violence that their legacies perpetuate.

Using paint has been an effective part of campaigns to remove racist statues elsewhere. In Halifax in May 2016, protestors doused a statue of Edward Cornwallis in red paint. Cornwallis was responsible for the “scalping proclamation” that offered cash rewards to anyone who killed a Mi’kmaq person.

That action, combined with years of protest, led to the removal of the statue in 2018. Protestors in the US have also had success after employing similar techniques: a Confederate monument was removed from a Los Angeles cemetery after activists spraypainted the word “no” onto it, and a monument to Confederate soldiers in Maryland was removed after protestors spray-painted the phrase “Black Lives Matter” onto it.

The statues on campus and around the city stand at the expense of Indigenous peoples and their sovereignty. By refusing to take them down, McGill and the city of Montreal continue to perpetrate anti-Indigenous racism and to marginalize those who are harmed by the realities of colonialism and white supremacy.

The “vandalism” of public monuments represents the denunciation of a shameful legacy of racist and violent colonialism. It is a refusal to continue to tolerate white supremacist self-congratulation. Statues created to honour imperialists and white supremacists have no place in public spaces.

As members of the McGill and greater Montreal community, we must be vocal in our denunciation of colonial monuments on campus and elsewhere. We cannot go on walking past these statues every day or taking pictures of them as if they are not explicit, concrete symbols of colonial violence. Instead, choose to actively oppose these racist statues in whatever way you see fit.

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News

April 1, 2019 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

McGill

SSMU Election Results

Buraga, Bhalla, Kawasaki, Gwiazda-Amsel, Wilson, and Haward Elected

Claire Grenier The McGill Daily

S

SMU election season ended March 29 with the release of the results for executive positions and referenda questions.

Voter turnout for this election was 18 per cent, or 3,944 out of 21,842 potential voters. Last year’s turnout was 32.8 per cent; however, most positions and fees had abstention rates between 30 and 40 per cent. The item with the smallest level of abstentions (6 per cent) was the Policy on the Implementation of a Fall Reading Break. This policy, high-profile in nature, was a draw for many voters. This year the most debated items were the increases to the SSMU Base Fee and the Athletics Facility Improvement Fee. The 2019 - 2020 SSMU executive team is as follows: President: Bryan Buraga Bryan Buraga, whom the Daily endorsed with reservations, won the election for president with 64.6 per cent of the vote.

His opponent, Kyle Rubenok, was awarded 35.4 per cent of the votes. 21 per cent of 3,944 total voters abstained from voting for this position. The President acts as the Chief Officer of the society.

In this role they are responsible for representing student interests, coordinating with, and supporting, the other executives, in addition to providing a vision for SSMU. Buraga has existing experience in student government and McGill administration, yet prioritizes student input in his work. Some

highlights from his platform include the implementation of a fall reading break by 2020, support for McGill’s divestment from fossil fuels, and tougher legislation on teaching staffstudent relationships.

VP Internal: Sanchi Bhalla Sanchi Bhalla won the election for VP Internal with 72.9 per cent of the vote, while her opponent, Aandrianna Jacob, received 27.1 per cent; 31.4 per cent of voters abstained from this position. The VP Internal’s responsibilities include communication, planning campus events (like frosh), and first year involvement. Neither candidate for VP Internal received an endorsement from the Daily because of their shared lack of experience and meaningful platforms. Bhalla’s platform included provisions for less expensive campus events, more opportunities to gain points for Faculty Olympics over the school year, and other efforts to improve school spirit.

VP Student Life: Billy Kawasaki Billy Kawasaki, who ran unopposed, won the election for VP Student Life. Kawasaki received 83.3 per cent of the vote, 16.7 per cent voted “no”, and 27.1 per cent abstained. The Daily, taking issue with Kawasaki’s priorities and his history in student government, did not endorse him. Kawasaki briefly served as VP Internal for the Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS), resigning in response to the POLI 339 controversy. The VP Student Life is responsible for the

relationships SSMU has with its clubs, services, and Independent Student Groups. They must also take a role in addressing campus issues, promoting mental health, and collaborating with student services. Kawasaki’s main platform point is an online portal for clubs, which would streamline their relationship with SSMU. While this is an ambitious proposal, it is also time consuming and could lead to the neglect of other responsibilities within the VP Student Life portfolio.

VP External: Adam Gwiazda-Amsel Adam Gwiazda-Amsel, who ran unopposed, won the election for VP External. Gwiazda-Amsel received 88.1 per cent of the vote, while 11.9 per cent voted “no” and 28.7 per cent abstained. The VP External is responsible for coordinating with different levels of government, in addition to managing affiliations with political causes and mobilization. While GwiazdaAmsel does not have extensive experience in student government, he does have a good grasp of the VP External’s responsibility. He wants to strengthen McGill’s presence provincially, continue advocacy in the fields of anti-sexual violence, change the R*dmen name, and overall, to prioritize Indigenous voices.

VP University Affairs: Madeline Wilson Madeline Wilson, whom the Daily endorsed, won the election for VP University Affairs with 69.3 per cent of the vote. Her opponent, Husayn Jamal, received 30.7 per cent of the

Ellerie Roberts | Illustrator vote; 25.6 per cent abstained from this position. VP University Affairs is the liaison between student advocacy and McGill governance.

They also oversee equity initiatives and policy matters. Wilson, a current Arts Senator, has experience in McGill governance and has proven herself to be a fierce advocate for student interests. Part of her platform includes increasing student involvement in McGill governance through pathways like Senate and student parity on task forces.

VP Finance: Sam Haward Sam Haward, who the Daily endorsed, won the position of VP Finance out of three candidates.

For this position, the ballot was

ranked with Haward in first with 6,526 points. The other two candidates, Ashar Yahya and Ahmed Bawany, received 5,219 and 3,801 points respectively; 34.3 per cent of voters abstained from voting for this position. The VP Finance is tasked with ensuring the society’s administrative security for the short and long term. Haward has the most experience in SSMU governance, including holding a seat on the Finance Committee.

Additionally, his extensive platform provided tangible ways to preserve SSMU’s finances, like improving resources for clubs, as well as ways to improve accountability and transparency under the portfolio.

All members of the Daily Publications Society (DPS), publisher of The McGill Daily and Le Délit, are cordially invited to its

Special Meeting of Members:

During this meeting, an end-of-year report will be presented by the Society’s Chairperson; this is a great occasion to ask questions about what the Society has been up to in 2018-2019, and what direction it’s heading in!

All members of the DPS are welcome to attend, and the presence of candidates to the DPS Board of Directors is strongly advised.

Date and time:

Thursday, April 4th @ 5:00 p.m.

Location:

680 Sherbrooke Street West, Room 110

news

April 1, 2019 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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McGill

Change the Name Banner Drop McGill Removes Banner within Minutes

Emily Black Reporter

J

ust before 2 PM on Wednesday, March 27, a banner was dropped from the roof of Leacock above the corridor connecting to Arts. The banner read “CHANGE THE NAME.” Within five minutes,

two McGill security officers appeared and began the process of removing the banner. By 2:05, the banner was taken down and confiscated by security. Security placed the banner into a campus security vehicle and drove away.

Approximately 30 students were present to witness the unrolling and quick removal of the banner.

The demonstration, though anonymous, coincided with the voting period on the proposed Athletics Facility Improvement Fee. SSMU Indigenous Affairs, along with several other student groups endorsed a ‘no’ vote on the fee. For those opposed to the fee, voting yes means supporting an institution that remains hostile

towards Indigenous students.

Action has yet to be taken by the administration regarding the #changethename movement despite repeated voicing of Indigenous students’ concerns and majority student support. Certain students present also argued that the university’s inaction on the R*dmen name change is

a testament to their refusal to support and listen to the needs of Indigenous students.

It is unknown who organized or displayed the banner, but the message to witnesses was clear.

To them, removing the banner was a continuation of silencing of the voices fighting to change the racist name.

Photos courtesy of Claire Grenier

WRITE FOR NEWS RUN FOR NEWS Elections: April 3 / Three News Editor Positions Open News Meetings: Thursdays, 5:30, Sherbrooke 680 #724 For more info, contact news@mcgilldaily.com

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News

April 1, 2019 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

McGill

Revised Sexual Violence Policy Presented and Approved at March 27 Senate

Emily Black Reporter

A

t Senate on March 27, Senator Angela Campbell presented the revised version of McGill’s Sexual Violence Policy, which passed at their meeting. The following day, an email was sent out to students detailing the changes to the policy and expressing the administration’s satisfaction with the policy’s developments.

In presenting the policy, Senator Campbell stated that immediately following its adoption, a standing committee would begin working to fully implement the policy, and that the working group would continue to meet to assess its effectiveness.

SSMU representative Andre Lametti voiced his disappointment with the policy. He expressed his opposition to statements, made in the previous meeting, that the administration had struck the correct balance between respecting students’ individual freedoms and protecting students from sexual violence. Speaking to the policy in general, Lametti stated that the complexity of the document meant that a simple yes or no vote would not fully do it justice. He also spoke to students’ concerns that the consultation

process did not allow for their views to be fully reflected in the proposed policy. Senator Campbell responded, stating that though she shares Lametti’s disappointment at student dissatisfaction, she believes McGill’s policy to be a document that is already intrusive into students’ intimate lives.

The Provost’s statement spoke to the need for continued work on the University’s policy, but offered no opportunity for students to voice their concerns with the current version.

The morning of the Senate meeting, the Sexual Assault Centre of McGill Students’ Society (SACOMSS) released a letter expressing their dissatisfaction with the policy and their reservations about the issues that they felt were left unsolved. The

letter recognized the progress made with the new policy, but ultimately expressed frustration with the administration’s refusal to explicitly prohibit all relationships between faculty and students, as well as the policy’s avoidance of recognizing unequal power dynamics in such relationships.

In voicing their discontent with the new policy, SACOMSS presented two demands to the administration: that the McGill administration publicly state their rationale for the decision to not prohibit all faculty-student relationships, and that McGill lobby the provincial government to extend privacy laws in order to enforce broader prohibitions at the University.

During the Senate meeting, SSMU representative Madeline Wilson referenced SACOMSS’ letter and demands, asking if the University would entertain them.

Senator Campbell responded by saying that both demands had been responded to already: the first demand has been outlined in a legal brief presented to the working committee, and the second has already been presented to the previous provincial government, and is not legally possible under Bill 151. She added that the newly-

Nelly Wat | The McGill Daily elected government has expressed that they have no intention of changing current privacy laws.

SSMU President Tre Mansdoefer echoed statements from other SSMU representatives, extending his support for a full prohibition and the council’s motion backing the stance.

He stated that all SSMU members would be abstaining from the vote, as they do not feel that they can fully support the policy and cannot vote ‘no’ on a policy that has made marked improvements.

In closing the letter, SACOMSS stated that they cannot endorse McGill’s Sexual Violence Policy or support the administration’s responses to sexual violence. The Provost’s statement spoke to the need for continued work on the University’s policy, but offered no opportunity for students to voice their concerns with the current version.

Documents from the Senate meeting state that the policy would be up for review again in March of 2022.

SUS Representative to SSMU

Justine Coutu Reporter

O

n January 23, 2019, the Science Undergraduate S o c i e t y ’s (SUS) representative to SSMU, Moses Milchberg, resigned for personal reasons. According to the SUS Constitution, by-elections to fill a vacant seat are to be held in the event of a resignation.

However, instead of nominating a replacement to serve as interim SUS representative to SSMU for the remainder of the term, executives made the decision to have previously-elected members of their team proxy for Milchberg during Legislative Council meetings. Asa Kohn, student of the Mathematics Department, took issue with this decision.

“The SUS refused to appoint a replacement after Moses Milchberg resigned, and when

Student Calls for Interim Representative

However, instead of nominating a replacement to serve as interim SUS representative to SSMU for the remainder of the term, executives had previously-elected members of their team proxy for Milchberg during Legislative Council meetings.

I pointed out that they were violating their constitution, they sent me a vague email that didn’t even mention the constitution,” explained Kohn. “There seems to be a common belief among student society executives that the provisions of society constitutions can, and sometimes should, be taken as suggestions,” he added.

After unfruitful discussions with SUS executives, Kohn submitted a referendum question to the SUS Chief Returning Officer (CRO) on February 18. The question asked undergraduate students of the Faculty of Science to voice their opinion on whether or not the nomination of an interim SUS representative to SSMU should be undertaken by the SUS Executive Committee.

Ultimately, the question was deemed invalid by the current CRO and SUS President Reem Mandil, and was not included

as an SUS referendum question.

According to Mandil, the course of action taken by the Executive Committee was the appropriate response given the time at which the resignation occurred. She also asserted that Milchberg’s seat was not vacant as proxies were being sent to Legislative Council.

“As an executive team, and also among discussions at our General Council, we decided that the best way to deal with the resignation was to send proxies of elected executives to fill his place in Legislative Council meetings at SSMU. We formally passed a motion at Legislative Council approving this decision and ever since then we’ve been handling it through proxy,” said Mandil.

When asked about the logic behind their decision, Mandil highlighted time constraints.

Considering the date of the resignation, the by-election for the SUS representative to SSMU

would have been held only a few weeks before the scheduled full election.

“This would have been a complicated timeline. In addition, holding a by-election requires approving dates and setting campaign periods. This would’ve delayed that election for a certain period of time where we would’ve had to send proxies anyways.

Hosting an election takes a lot of time and resources that we felt were better used when sending a proxy,” added the SUS President.

Dissatisfied with the position upheld by the SUS Executive Committee, Kohn filed a petition to the SSMU Judicial Board in early March. In his 96-page document detailing the situation, he requested that the decisions made by the SUS Executive Committee be judged unconstitutional. Almost three weeks after filing the petition, he is still not aware of its status.

NEWS

April 1, 2019 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Montreal

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Protest on Sherbrooke En Grêve Encore

Claire Grenier The McGill Daily

O

n Thursday, March 28 around 5pm, roughly 100 protestors marching against unpaid internships were met by a swarm of police. The protestors congregated in front of the Loto Quebec building, while Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) officers blocked off the stretch of Sherbrooke

from McGill College to Durocher.

A protestor confirmed that this march was part of the ongoing demonstrations across the province calling for fair compensation.

From March 18 to 22, 35,000 students from all over the province participated in walkouts.

On March 21, Montreal students marched to the Education Ministry to call on the government to extend labour protections

to students who must participate in unpaid internships for their degree.

This demonstration is said to be the last one of the semester, according to one of the protestors.

Protestors had banners, signs, and homemade patches which read “en grêve” or “on strike.”

“The ministry wants us go away, […] we are here today to let them know that we are not going away,” a protestor said.

Photos Courtesy of Claire Grenier

Pour Le Futur Movement

High School Students Walk Out Every Friday James Flanagan News Writer

O

n March 15, 150,000 demonstrators took to the streets of Montreal, demanding climate action. Both before and after the march, high school students have been walking out of class every Friday afternoon, under the banner of Pour le futur.

Every Friday at 1 pm, youth arrive at the corner of Mont Royal and Esplanade, just East of Jeanne Mance Park. Crowds range from 300 to 500, depending on the week. Most demonstrators are high school students, while others join in solidarity.

As the demonstrators move South from the corner on Saint Urbain, they take a left on Marie Anne, and zig-zag towards

Berri, all the way down to René Lévesque. The chants focus on the deteriorating climate and the necessity to act. Signs range from jokes about the climate being hotter than celebrities, to the incompatibility of corporate capitalism with a stable climate.

One attendee told the Daily, “this is not a popularity contest; it’s a public demonstration, and everyone is present. One feels an emerging political consciousness that comes from learning democracy first hand.

School’s out.”

The Pour le futur movement has started to mobilize in solidarity with La planète s’invite à l’Université (LPSU) and Greenpeace Quebec to target popular credit unions and public pension funds, demanding that they divest from

fossil fuel corporations such as TransCanada. Back-to-back actions on Friday, March 22 and Saturday, March 23 focused on Desjardins, the largest federation of cooperative credit unions in North America, and one of the world’s strongest banks according to Banker magazine.

Since 2018, 35 local credit unions federated under Desjardins have adopted resolutions calling for a permanent end to financing of and investments in oil sands pipelines, and the students are demanding that the wave continue. This Friday, demonstrators stormed the Palais de Congrès, surrounding the glass walls behind which Desjardins executives left their meeting. On Saturday, they occupied the same location, ostensibly to welcome participants of Desjardins’s

annual general assembly with their demands.

On March 29, La planète s’invite à l’Université, a federation of climate activists from universities across Quebec, penned a collective piece in Le Devoir articulating their latest demands: first, that the provincial government commit to complete liquidation of fossil fuels in the portfolio of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the second largest pension fund in Canada; second, that Ressources Québec sell its stock in junior oil companies drilling in Gaspésie.

Ressources Québec is a subsidiary government agency of Investissement Québec, an institution that provides financial support to businesses, and holds Capital Mines Hydrocarbures, a $1 billion fund. Through the

fund, Junex, an oil company since merged with Alberta’s Cuda Energy, was able to finance the drilling of its oil in Gaspésie known as Project Galt. This project has been met with fierce resistance from Mi’kmaq nations since 2017, who have led the way in pushing back against oil and gas extraction in the region.

For now, high schoolers will continue to march every Friday, urging immediate action and chanting emphatically “crier plus fort pour que personne nous ignore [yell louder, so that nobody ignores us].”

Each Friday, students from The Planet Takes McGill University and Divest McGill march in solidarity with the high school students. The group leaves from the Arts building at 12:30 pm. All are welcome to join in.

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April 1, 2019 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

CULTURE

“Own Your Voice; Don’t be Afraid” Madame Gandhi on Activism and the Future

Nabeela Jivraj The McGill Daily

how we, as a collective society, need to shift?

content warning: mention of trauma, mention of gaslighting

Madame Gandhi (MG): I’ve always loved the phrase “the future is female.” When I started to see it coming back in 2015, it was after I ran the London Marathon bleeding freely, and it was the first time I had seen a unifying feminist slogan that was aspirational and about building a brighter future using femininity.

It also highlighted what womxn, femmes, and queer folks bring to the table as something that is desirable. For me, “the future is female” is about valuing the femininity in all of us, regardless of our gender identity, and it’s about valuing things like being emotionally intelligent over brute force, or being collaborative instead of competitive, or living in a world that is “linked, not ranked,” as Gloria Steinem so eloquently puts it. For me, “the future is female” is about valuing

K

iran Gandhi, who uses the stage name Madame Gandhi, is a musician, producer, artist, and activist.

She has performed as a drummer alongside M.I.A., Kehlani, and Thievery Corporation, and went viral in 2015 when she ran the London Marathon bleeding freely on her period. Ahead of the release of her upcoming EP and her Montreal show dates, Gandhi sat down and answered some questions with The McGill Daily.

Here, she shares some of her experiences in empathy, music, activism, and her thoughts on our collective future.

The McGill Daily (MD): What does the phrase “the future is female” mean to you in terms of

My younger self would probably tell me that I’m great and that I’m doing really well, and remind me to stay playful.

– Madame Gandhi

femininity as an archetype of leadership that we can all aspire to, especially when archetypes of masculine, cis, white leadership are failing us.

When we say the future is female, many folks fear that it might exclude trans folks. For me, its important for each generation to repurpose a phrase to really meet the needs of the time. The trans femme community, as well as the trans community at large, have long been leaders in defying

Photo courtesy of Carter Howe gender norms and breaking down barriers that limit us when it comes to gender identity. And so for me, I find a lot of the liberation I personally seek is what is currently being achieved by the trans community. “The future is female” is about saying “how do we build a world that is more inclusive? How do we build a world that is more peaceoriented? How do we build a world that doesn’t assume we need to create a hierarchy to oppress one another, or that for one person to win, someone else has to lose?” So that’s what “the future is female” means to me, and in my work, I focus on being intersectional and very intentionally trans-inclusive.

MD: There is currently progress being made to recognize the need for more diversity and inclusion across the board, ranging from

tokenistic actions to genuine change. In the last five years, what shifts have you noticed for women in the music industry and in technology? What do you think still needs to happen?

MG: I think for me it’s really about saying that, as people of colour, womxn, queer folks, and trans folks, we shouldn’t be begging to be in masculine, white, elite, heteronormative spaces. Folks in those positions need to recognize that they would be so lucky to have people bringing different backgrounds to the table. That it’s not about them doing us a favour, and it’s not about them “opening doors” for a certain percentage or quota, it’s about realizing that having people of different backgrounds and opinions only makes the experience better for all people.

It makes the quality of a business, or a university or an education

I feel like the “ally” would be so lucky to be able to hang out with a bunch of folks of colour, or a bunch of queer folks, or a bunch of trans folks, and push their own comfort level to be exposed to something new.

Photo courtesy of Maggie Matalon

– Madame Gandhi

CULTURE

April 1, 2019 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

much stronger. To that end, I’m also really interested in folks of colour, queer folks, folks in minority immigrant comunities, and communites with varying abilities being able to stand up and to take leadership on our own. To actually do that, we have to build companies that design for our bodies, that design for our needs, that design for our safety. We have to start those organizations and raise that money. We have to build the new paradigm and design the structures, instead of breaking into structures that were never designed to include us to begin with. And I think a two-pronged approach to this is important: the mainstream has to recognize the value of having different folks, and we have to participate where we feel safe, but we also have to go and innovate our own companies, own communities, and own spaces.

MD: Empowerment can mean a lot of different things to different people – for you, what does empowerment mean, and in that

Madame Gandhi went viral in 2015 when she ran the London Marathon bleeding freely on her period.

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For me, “the future is female” is about valuing femininity as an archetype of leadership that we can all aspire to, especially when archetypes of masculine, cis, white leadership are failing us.

– Madame Gandhi

same vein, what does allyship mean to you?

MG: I think allyship sometimes has a problematic connotation, whereby the ally thinks they’re doing the folks in the minority group a favour. I feel like the “ally” would be so lucky to be able to hang out with a bunch of folks of colour, or a bunch of queer folks, or a bunch of trans folks, and push their own comfort level to be exposed to something new. That said, of course, given the times we live in, various minority groups are constantly exposed to different trauma and oppression that the mainstream does not cover.

A male ally in a feminist cause, to me, is someone that has deep

Photo courtesy of Anna Maria Lopez empathy, doesn’t ask questions about your trauma, and has already done the emotional work to really try to understand. That way, you don’t feel like they’re doing you a favour, or that they pity you, or that they are looking for a pat on the back. To me that’s an ally – somebody who has rich empathy and somebody who would never question your trauma or try to gaslight you and convince you that it doesn’t exist.

MD: As an activist, what was your experience working and studying at academic institutions, and how did that influence your current work?

Photo courtesy of Nolwen Cifuentes

MG: Honestly, my times at Georgetown and Harvard were the only times in my life that I ever experienced the kind of oppression that I talk about in my music. It’s really interesting, university is supposed to be this time where I am supposed to feel like a prestigious student who has been accepted because of my accolades. I’m supposed to feel like I belong. I’m supposed to feel like I’m reaching the fullest of my potential, and yet, that was the only place where I truly felt quieted and excluded. I felt undesirable, I felt stupid, and I felt undeserving, as if I wasn’t meant to be there.

I really did feel many of these things at both Georgetown and Harvard, and I think that because I have a lot of empathy, and it’s very easy to put myself in the

“The future is female” is about saying how do we build a world that is more inclusive? How do we build a world that is more peace-oriented?

How do we build a world that doesn’t assume we need to create a hierarchy to oppress one another, or that for one person to win, someone else has to lose.

– Madame Gandhi

shoes of others, when I went through that type of oppression, I started to have understanding for folks in different minority groups in a way that I really didn’t when I was growing up in the heart of NYC with access to a lot of different privileged positions.

When my Marathon story went viral, and when I started to produce and perform my own music, the central theme of my work, which is the same to this day, was “own your voice; don’t be afraid.” The reason that “own your voice; don’t be afraid” and “the future is female” are personal goals is because when I was at university, I was not able to own my voice. I was not able to speak up when something didn’t sit right with me or when I felt like someone was being rude or mean to me. I didn’t feel like I had the bravery that I wished for, and I didn’t have the courage or the focus in the moment to

be able to say what I wanted to say. And that’s why my work is really focused on those themes at large, because many of us who have experienced trauma or oppression can relate, regardless of what that trauma is.

MD: Is there any advice that you might give a younger version of yourself?

MS: I would do the opposite, I would have the younger version of myself give me some advice right now – and she would probably tell me that I’m great and that I’m doing really well, and remind me to stay playful.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You can find information about Madame Gandhi’s music and her upcoming shows on https://www. madamegandhi.com.

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ISTHMUS

April 1, 2019 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Anonymous The McGill Daily

Lessons from My Parents

content warning: homophobic slurs, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), anxiety, skin-picking, mention of racism, mention of violence

I

don’t know how to deal with reality sometimes. How do you cope with pain you’ve never experienced? How do you heal the trauma that was given from your grandparents to your dad down to you? My dad feels lost in America, watching from far away as the tide edges closer and closer and washes over his home.

Pain has always clouded his judgement, and his biting words hit me like a slap to the face at the restaurant. I excuse myself to the bathroom, just as I’ve learned to do ever since I was a child, sitting myself down on the dirty bathroom floor. It’s still the place I go to when I need to cry in peace, without him telling me to stop. I could never bottle up my emotions the way he wanted me to. Maybe that’s what his father taught him to do too.

I play with my fingers in the bathroom, peeling the skin off of them as my breath quickens and my heart races. As I pull the skin off, my finger starts to bleed and my thumb aches, but my mind compels me to continue anyway. I feel the pain but I can’t stop. As my anxiety reaches its peak, random thoughts about things I can’t control sink into my brain, threatening to overwhelm me.

I tap my toes and click my heels just the right number of times so that no one I love gets hit in a car crash. If they did and I hadn’t done that, it would be my fault. You might laugh, but this is my brain. I feel my head spinning and I just want to lie on the floor.

I can’t handle it, but I eventually have to come back to dinner. It would be far worse if they found me.

I want him to ask me about my mental health. I want to talk to him about OCD. I want to ask him about his childhood. But I’m afraid there’s so much I’ll never understand about him. There’s so much pain that I’m scared to bring up, scared that it will end with him going downstairs to watch TV while I peel the skin off my fingers in silence.

How did I become so ill-equipped to deal with pain? Who taught me to hate myself so much?

Was it the people staring, not knowing what to say to my bleeding thumbs? Or the thick hair that grew on my body?

My dad used to drop me off at school every day. Sometimes I’d hide the outfits I wore to school, changing when I got there so that he wouldn’t shame me for what I wore. He’d ask me about my grades, giving me a nod when I told him they were As, saying he was so proud of me.

But the things he’d praise me for were things that didn’t really matter. When we got into heated conversations in the car about the things that really mattered, like his careless, racist comments, I was always wrong. I was too sensitive. I was a disappointment. So I went into the school bathroom and cried some more.

He says sometimes that I should agree with him on everything. When I press him on it, my dad says he’s joking, but I think that’s ultimately what he wants. I know that if I just let him say whatever he wants without criticism, my life would be a lot easier. But sitting there at that restaurant, my food getting cold, I’m honestly just in shock that this is happening right now.

With tears dripping down my face, and another family eating two feet away from me, I say, “I like boys and girls.”

The rest of dinner seems bearable as I sit down again, drinking glass after glass of water so that my face is hidden from view. I blame my red eyes and stuffy nose on the spicy food. I hide my emotions well, until my father presses me on my quietness. And then the pain that has been bubbling under my skin finally erupts. Why the fuck do I wear my heart on my sleeve all the time?

“Because you called them f*ggots,” I cry out. “Please don’t do that again.”

I guess I’ve always subconsciously known this about myself. Maybe it was Hermione Granger’s gorgeous pink dress and curly, done-up hair at the Yule Ball that led me to realize I don’t only like boys. I don’t know, I just think boys and girls are fucking beautiful.

My dad tells me I need to not be so sensitive about these things.

No matter how many times he pulls this shit, though, I’m so much like him. We both check if the stove is off many more times than necessary. We both double back to pull on the front door handle to make sure it’s fully locked so the house can’t be broken into. We both circle back around the house three times to check if the gate is actually closed so the dogs don’t run out and get lost. I don’t know how to trust my brain, when all it does is lie to me and play tricks on me. It makes me imagine a shooter in my closet at two in the morning, a bomb on the side of the street as I walk home, a fire in the living room as I turn the lights off at night. When I’m sitting at home, the last one awake (who’s supposed to turn off all the lights), I feel so alone, and scared to move. I’m frozen on the couch, stuck with these hypothetical images in my head.

But I sit there, in silence, offering up weak smiles as I let my dad off the hook once again. Because it’s easier to bury my anger inside rather than deal with his response to it.

Sometimes when it gets really bad – usually when I’m lying in bed – I feel so completely fucking alone, like I’m the only person in the world whose mind works this way. I really want to talk with my dad, to just sit with him at the dining room table and have a discussion that doesn’t end in tears. I try to bring up more personal conversations with him, but they always end (at best) with a weak smile offered on his part and a mumble that he’s going to bed. Our actual conversations are limited to a few subjects – talks about school, debates with each other, and arguments that end with me crying in the upstairs bathroom.

It’s quiet.

My mom breaks the silence, “well it’s good that we’re all talking with each other, right?” My dad joins in, saying, “of course, we’re one family, and we should know everything about each other.”

“We love you.”

Maybe if he was taught by his parents that it’s okay to have personal boundaries he would understand mine, like don’t force your daughter to come out in an Indian restaurant on a Saturday night. Maybe if he knew anything about me, he’d remember I came out to him and my mom two years prior. Maybe if he knew anything about me he’d know I just want an apology. I don’t want an excuse about how his outbursts are just products of his past, and that I should just accept his racist, nationalist ideology as a part of who he is. I just want him to let go of all the anger and hate and racism he was taught — hate that he is convinced is central to his identity. I don’t want to debate my and other people’s humanity. I just want an apology for his racism and for him to change his actions.

I just want an apology for saying “f*ggot” in front of his bisexual daughter.

But that would be too much emotion for one night.

I don’t want my mom to make excuses for him either. But I sit there, in silence, offering up weak smiles as I let my dad off the hook once again. Because it’s easier to bury my anger inside rather than deal with his response to it. Maybe my instinct is to protect everyone’s feelings except my own, and smooth things over as women are supposed to do – because only men are allowed to get angry. Or maybe it’s been taught to me that if I tell someone they made me uncomfortable, they leave. Maybe that’s why I’ve let myself be used.

And maybe that’s what my mother’s father taught her too.

Illustrations by Nelly Wat

features

April 1, 2019 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

11

I AM Am REUNITING Reuniting WITH with MY My BODY Body

THE RELATIONSHIP RELATIONSHIP THE BETWEEN EATING EATING BETWEEN DISORDERS AND AND DISORDERS GENDER DYSPHORIA DYSPHORIA GENDER

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features

April 1 , 2019 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

am uncomfortable in this dress, I don’t like how this shirt fits, I don’t like how any shirt fits, I don’t know what to do with my hair.”

Nelly Wat The McGill Daily Illustrator content warning: eating disorders, gender dysphoria, body dysmorphia, transphobia “I

am

uncomfortable with my body.”

All throughout my teenage years and into my twenties, I have communicated this thought in some form to friends, family, and therapists – whether it be verbatim, in statements masked as humour, or simply through my behaviour. I don’t like my body.

Many of my friends, particularly those who identify as women, have shared the same sentiment as mine, and many still do today.

Self-consciousness about our bodies and our weight, as well as anxieties surrounding “fatness,” are normalized in our day-to-day behaviour. This should come as no surprise to readers. Discussions around self-image, the impact of the media on self-esteem, and wider social conventions on what is deemed “attractive” and “feminine” have long circulated on social media, in schools, and in casual conversation. The gendered aspect of body image has also been widely discussed and researched; one 2012 study found that 90 per cent of people who develop eating disorders are cis women. Again, and unfortunately so, I am sure this comes as no surprise. However, this study, and many others on eating disorders, only include cis men and women and are confined to a binary definition of gender.

Such discussions rarely give space

to trans and nonbinary people, and their experiences with eating disorders, as well as to how eating disorders can interact with gender dysphoria. These discussions also consistently fail to give space to trans and nonbinary people of colour.

I experienced body dysmorphia and gender dysphoria concurrently. When I started going through puberty, at around ten years old, I became hyperaware of the way that my shirts fit against my chest, how my jeans got tighter around my hips, but not my legs. At the time, I thought that this had to be normal; it was an awkward phase for everyone. People started getting their periods. Men, strange men, started paying unwanted attention to me and my friends on the street. Who didn’t feel uncomfortable in a bra?

I began to realize that something quite undesired and extremely unsettling was happening to my body. I spent longer periods of time staring at myself in the mirror every morning and every night.

Observing this, my mother commented with amusement, “ah, I see you’re going through some changes.” Some changes was right. I began to eat less in a desperate hope to slow the swelling and pinching, the thickening and unfolding of my body. I learned how to “diet” from all the young girls and women around me who were doing the same. I skipped meals and rationed my food intake strategically so that my family and friends would see me eat when I was expected to. I

feared both the quantitative and qualitative values of my weight; my anxieties encompassed not only the numerical value of my weight but also how it was reflected in certain parts of my body. I was always thinking, “I am above average, I am not normal, I

“I feel disunited from my body.”

I tried to read up on how negative body image among women is reinforced and encouraged by oppressive gender norms. I tried to internalize body positivity and unlearn the misogynistic conception of what “femininity” was supposed to look like, as well as the fatphobia that every media outlet propagated. Every time I convinced myself to feed my body, I would surrender to my immense hunger and eat anything and everything I had an appetite for, which was often unhealthy and greasy foods. Afterwards, I would immediately feel guilty, and the cycle repeated again. My mind and body were two separate entities whose affinities for one another were sporadic and unrequited.

My hunger was rewarded with a strengthened sense of identity, but at a loss of physical energy and mental well-being.

When I first heard the term “gender dysphoria,” I was in my first year of university, and I didn’t relate it to my own thought processes or patterns of behaviour.

My gender and sexuality had always been nebulous. The two were indeterminate abstractions that I struggled to comprehend, and refused to grapple with, in the presence of my conservative family members. When I was abruptly

features

thrown into independence as a college student away from home, I was given the space to confront my body and self without any reservations. However, that also meant that I was given the space to determine whenever and whatever I ate; I had complete control over the meals I had every day and how much food to put in my body. I justified my eating habits with the stress of school, and late nights spent hungrily working away in the library, as well as the ludicrous prices of food on campus.

Whenever I went out to eat with friends, I planned my future meals in advance and skipped meals the next day to “compensate” for what I ate. I suppressed my hunger and my physical exhaustion, largely due to poor nutrition, with multiple cups of coffee. I purposely stayed on campus late into the night so I could collapse into bed as soon as I got home, without any time to open the fridge and acknowledge my hunger. My adherence to these habits was further reinforced by the normalized culture of dieting, which encourages unhealthy practices such as drinking coffee to suppress hunger and purposely starving oneself.

When I noticed myself losing weight, I was pleased – not only because I was skinnier, but also because my curves were diminished. The more I nourished my body physically,

A desire to achieve certain standards of beauty can also be tied to a desire to “pass” as cis in order to avoid discrimination and violence.

April 1, 2019 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

and the more I gained weight, the more incongruent my body felt with my self. My hunger was rewarded with a strengthened sense of identity, but at a loss of physical energy and mental wellbeing. I opted for loose clothing that could hang off my body and enshroud the parts attributed to “femininity.” I avoided cameras because their images broke whatever shred of confidence and security I had slowly and painstakingly built for myself in my body. I felt like a curtained theatre stage before a show that I never wanted to begin.

“I am sustained by my body.”

When I finally reached out to someone for help I learned, through the course of years, and through verbalizing my emotions, medication, and introspection, that what I was experiencing was gender dysphoria tied closely to an eating disorder. This eating disorder fully developed when I got to university. Studies have found that eating disorders often develop, or redevelop,w in college, typically emerging between the ages

of 18 and 21. This has attributed to a high-stress environment, struggles with mental health, newfound independence, and the responsibility of having to cook for oneself. What this, and many other studies, do not address are dimensions of gender, race, and class. There is a high correlation between gender dysphoria and eating disorders, though neither of these is experienced by all trans or nonbinary people. Another study found that trans students were almost five times more likely than cis students to have an eating disorder.

In addition, the high cost of food and the inaccessibility of mental health services on campus, as well as the cost of seeing a therapist outside of university are factors that cannot be ignored. I found that the resources available to me were extremely limited; McGill no longer had an eating disorder program as of 2017, and the wait times for Counseling and Psychiatric Services were far too long for me to get help in time. As we should avoid pathologizing depression, eating disorders, and gender identity (as the previously mentioned studies

do), we must instead advocate for better support services and health care for racialized, queer, and trans people. Conversations on eating disorders have always centred the experiences of white cis women, who are assumed to be the population most at risk for eating disorders. Meanwhile, researchers and advocates for better provision of health care often fail to consider the experiences of racialized trans individuals.

Racialized and trans people experience higher rates of discrimination, violence, abuse, higher rates of poverty and housing precarity, as well as higher rates of problems with physical and mental health. The stigmatization of queer and trans identity, as well as of eating disorders, can limit access to adequate health care. Finding a queer- and transfriendly doctor, as well as opening up to someone about an eating disorder, can be challenging.

Moreover, a desire to achieve certain standards of beauty can also be tied to a desire to “pass” as cis in order to avoid discrimination and violence. Eating disorders can

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consequently become a mechanism for coping with dysphoria, as well as oppression and trauma. In addition, the idealized image of the skinny, white, androgynous queer is one that permeates Western media, as well as queer culture itself. Despite the well-intentioned efforts of artists and creators to increase queer representation, these efforts often contribute to the perpetuation of this archetype.

Which queer celebrities do we look up to? Who do we idolize? The popularized expectations of trans and queer people’s appearances are conceptions we must challenge and deconstruct. These conventions are firmly rooted in Eurocentric standards of beauty that uphold and idealize white cis bodies and cater to a white, cis audience. Trans people, particularly racialized trans people, who don’t conform to these standards are thus further pushed to the margins.

For the time being, I don’t believe that I will ever emerge wholly at peace with my body, bursting with uncompromising and unapologetic confidence. Nor can I speak for or over other people experiencing an eating disorder or gender dysphoria. My personal experience was shaped by my own privilege, and the way that privilege allowed me to navigate the conflicts with my body in relation to the world around me. What I do know is that my mind and body do not grow independently of one another. The more I sought to extricate physical traits such as breasts and wider hips from the normative conception of “femininity,” as opposed to “masculinity,” the looser I stirred within and without the bounds of my body. It has taken years, and will continue to take years, to reconstruct my relationship with food and my body. It will also take time to disentangle the Western ideals of transness and queerness from my every thought and behaviour. My consciousness, my strengths, my talents, and my future are dependent on my corporeal existence. I am reuniting with my body.

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Sci+tech

April 1, 2019 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Waste Not, Want Not Tackling Our Food Waste Problem

Hollie Marks Sci+Tech Writer

T

hrowing away those bananas you forgot about may not seem like the most significant thing in the world, but in reality, we are constantly buying into an industry that is causing worldwide ecological and social harm when we waste our food. ECOLE is a centre focused on urban sustainability for both McGill and the wider Montreal community that holds public events frequently. Earlier this year, they held a screening of Wasted! The Story of Food Waste, a documentary narrated by the late Anthony Bourdain, which investigates this global problem.

The agriculture industry is the biggest cause of deforestation, water extraction, and habitat and biodiversity loss in the world. If food waste was its own country, it would be the third biggest carbon emitter after the US and China.

It is undeniable that our attitude towards food is contributing to the destruction of our planet, but this is not just an environmental concern; in a world where 800 million people are starving, how can we possibly be throwing away 1.6 billion tonnes of food each year?

We waste unimaginable amounts of food in the Western* world, with almost as much food wasted annually by the world’s wealthiest countries (222 million tonnes), as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa (230 million tonnes). Wasted! attempts to answer the question of why we waste so much produce, but more importantly, introduces some hope for the future.

Tristram Stuart, a food waste expert and campaigner who founded Feedback, a global organization fighting to change our agricultural system, explains the first step on the food recovery hierarchy: feeding people. This seems fairly simple – using food for its actual purpose – but the reality of how much edible food is lost every year is shocking.

Canada alone loses $31 billion annually on wasted food, and it is estimated that this amount of food waste contributes to as much as a 10-20 per cent increase in the overall cost of food. With one in eight Canadian families struggling to feed themselves and 800,000 people visiting food banks each month, we can’t afford to allow our food prices to keep climbing; we must find a better way to distribute edible food to those who need it. At present, food is a luxury that too few can afford, enforced

by the norm of over-stocked corporations with profit-driven extortionate pricing and use-by dates that are simply there to keep their products in rotation.

Fighting food insecurity, which disproportionately impacts lowincome areas, is just one of a plethora of ways that we can challenge this current system.

In Montreal, volunteers at Santropol Roulant work tirelessly to provide food security to elderly, disabled, and low income Montrealers. Providing meal deliveries five days a week throughout the year, they have created an intergenerational community focused on social inclusion and increased access to healthy food. Their continued interest in reducing food waste is visible through the many collectives they run, which often concentrate on supporting local agriculture and food preservation. Midnight Kitchen, a worker and volunteer-run collective, is similarly centred around providing healthy and accessible meals for students.

They provide weekly meals for those registered in the program, run a bi-weekly food bank, and organize various events to challenge profit-driven inaccessible food production and distribution.

Montreal is also a hub of community-driven redistribution programs such as La Tablée des Chefs, which has been functioning in Montreal for over 15 years, changing the way hotels and restaurants redistribute their excess food, and fuelling a community kitchen. Providing the necessary logistical assistance for successful redistribution, La Tablée des Chefs has already saved 750 tonnes of uneaten food which would have gone to a landfill. Their help proves invaluable for Moisson Montreal, Canada’s largest food bank, which currently recovers up to 365,000 kilograms of food per month, and for Welcome Hall Mission, a centre for Montrealers in need, which receives uneaten food from the private boxes at Canadiens’ games, through a partnership with the Bell Centre. All over the city, people are beginning to affect change,

Eloïse Albaret | The McGill Daily compelled to help both the planet and those living on it.

However, it is more complex than just food redistribution.

Western* countries are exploiting other nations by appropriating natural resources, including food, at an alarming rate. Roughly 40 per cent of the world’s grains are used to feed livestock, most of which goes on to feed the wealthy, Western* world, rather than being used to feed those in need.

In areas that don’t yet have the necessary infrastructure for the quick distribution of quick food, often the excess food gets put in landfills. Landfills, where currently over 90 per cent of surplus food in the US ends up, cannot continue to be the answer.

It takes 25 years for a head of lettuce to decompose when

We waste unimaginable amounts of food in the Western* world, with almost as much food wasted annually by the world’s wealthiest countries, as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa.

left in a landfill, all the while releasing the potent greenhouse gas methane. Food that cannot be redistributed should be used in waste-to-energy systems made up of anaerobic digesters to power our transportation and homes.

With the US alone wasting enough food annually to power 5.5 billion electric heaters for an hour, and the desperate call to reduce our use of fossil fuels, this is another example of clean energy that may become very significant in the years to come.

Another example of sustainable food practices is composting.

Intensive farming with no crop rotation means that soil is unhealthy and lacking nutrients, and so, composting as a way to dispose of inedible food should be another option. We can “give nutrients to our nutrients” and make an effort to reverse some of the damage that the agriculture industry, under capitalism, has caused our planet. With roughly 40 per cent of the earth’s land currently being used for agriculture, and 10 per cent of the world’s wilderness being destroyed in the last 20 years, we owe it to future generations to attempt to bring some life back into the earth.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations states that global hunger could be alleviated if just one quarter of the food wasted each year was saved. We need to take action. OLIO, a food-sharing app that connects businesses with surplus food to people nearby who can pick it up for free, works worldwide and has led to over 1.2 million portions of food being shared in over 45 countries.

Montreal itself has Ubifood, which allows food vendors to sell surplus food at the end of the day for up to 80 per cent lower prices, and a similar app named Flashfood is based in Toronto. It has never been easier to become part of the foodsharing movement.

More importantly, however, we need governments to grasp the urgent nature of this issue and put legislation in place. This has already started in Europe. France legally requires all supermarkets to donate unsold food, and Italy has reduced taxes on waste for companies that donate edible food. There is no shortage of ways to move towards this shift in consumption, and no reason not to do everything we can to tackle this problem.

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HOROSCOPES

April 1, 2019 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

HECKin HOROSCOPES Aries (Mar 21 Apr 19)

Venus is in retrograde so adopt the next animal you see and give it away a week later to someone you hate.

Cancer (Jun 21 Jul 22)

You’re an ideological and semantic wasteland.

Taurus (Apr 20 May 20)

Go out of your way to violate the seventh commandment.

Leo (Jul 23 Aug 22)

Do something punk-rock today.

Shave your head. Buzz lines into the side of your head. Put cocaine in those lines. Snort them.

Libra (Sept

Scorpio

23 - Oct 22)

(Oct 23 Nov 21)

You put too much trust in your own abilities to discern bullshit.

*deep sigh*

Capricorn (Dec 22 - Jan 19)

Expend all of your resources with the confidence that you’ll be flush with Delta SkyMiles forever after.

Gemini (May 21 Jun 20)

You’re the biggest gossip in the world. That’s okay.

Virgo(Aug 23 - Sept 22)

Take! Some! Nudes! And! Dismantle!

Capitalism! (Simultaneously, though not necessarily relatedly.)

Sagittarius (Nov 22 - Dec 21)

Now’s your chance to escape.

Greenland is beautiful this time of year.

Aquarius

Pisces

(Jan 20 Feb 18)

(Feb 19 - Mar 20)

YouTube ad revenue. Think about it.

Take another sip, I dare you.

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April 1, 2019 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

compendium!

Lies, half-truths, and beep boop bop beeeeeeep.

Big Suze Caught Green-Handed Principal Allegedly Guilty of Defacing Statue

Faculty of Farts The McGall Weekly

T

he statue of Queen Victoria that resides in front of the Strathcona Music Building was recently doused in green paint in a show of anti-imperialist solidarity (see our editorial, page 3). The administration has largely been critical of this so-called vandalism, and many expected Principal Big Suze to be equally critical. However, she has stayed uncharacteristically silent on the matter.

An anonymous source close to Fortier tipped the Daily off to the fact that Big Suze’s stance might be more complicated than she lets on. We sent our investigative team to Big Suze’s office and they discovered something shocking: under her desk were multiple cans of green paint. Unfortunately, she reportedly burned off her fingerprints in 2012, so there is no way to prove whether or not she has touched the paint cans.

Later, during an unrelated enquête, the Daily’s investigative team found receipts in a dumpster outside James Admin, which showed the purchase of green paint several months ago, as well as yellow paint.

We figured that someone was simply redecorating their home, but then we remembered that the statue of James McGill was recently painted yellow. We went to the hardware store that sold the paints and requested to watch the security tapes from the day in question.

As you may have guessed by now, Big Suze was the paintbuying culprit. Who’s to say if she painted both the statues?

There’s still reasonable doubt that she’s innocent, but there’s also significant evidence against her.

We wonder if she’ll strike again, and if so, where and when will she continue her crusade? All we know for sure is that vandalism is very bad, and that statues are apolitical and should be respected.