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Under the watchful eye Surveillance in the modern era Page 18

CONTENTS 3

NEWS

Montrealers gather for Student Day of Action

Discrimination in the Faculty of Dentistry

New medical note process could pose challenges

14 SCI+TECH

AMUSE soft picket at Edward Snowden event

Why biodiversity matters

SSMU endorses QPIRG

15 CULTURE

7

Examining Japanese politics in Shin Godzilla

Constellations presents an existentialist love story

COMMENTARY

18

Addressing the chaos that unfolded before Snowden Exploring both sides of the Climate 101 protests Are the Standing Rock check-ins all we can do?

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EDITORIAL

Surveillance on journalists must stop SSMU General Assembly endorsements In response to SSMU Equity complaint

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Protests for Student Day of Action Organizers call for recognizing studying as a form of labour

Rayleigh Lee The McGill Daily

O

n the evening of November 2, roughly a hundred students gathered in Victoria Square to rally for the recognition of student work as part of a national Student Day of Action.

In other provinces, this Day of Action was organized by the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), but CFS doesn’t have any members in Quebec.

In Montreal, the demonstration was organized by various individuals at local universities, and by the Campagne sur le travail étudiant (CUTE), or Campaign on Student Work in English. Working in conjunction with McGill Against Austerity, David Aird, the VP External of the Students’ Society of McGill University, organized a McGill contingent to the event, which was comprised roughly of 25 people.

The demonstration began with a rally in Victoria Square. Addressing the crowd, CUTE members delivered speeches in favour of recognizing studying as a form of labour that contributes to society and, as such, should be subsidized and even remunerated by the state.

Officers of the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) were present, but refrained from interfering with the protest.

University tuition In an interview with The Daily, John Hutton, a recent graduate from Dalhousie University who attended the demonstration, argued that “education should be accessible to everybody regardless of ability to pay.”

“Education should be seen as a public service. It’s something that should be done in the interest of society, and not just to produce some educated workers for the companies that buy the university,” he said.

“Students, [...] if they are going into their first year, don’t know what they’re going to take. They can’t actually afford to take a class that might not work out, they can’t afford to fail.

If it’s $800 per class, you can’t afford to try out something, you have to get it right the first try. It doesn’t always work that way, especially when you’re seventeen, eighteen.”

Hutton also commented on the Liberal government’s new measures to assist postsecondary students with student debt in the 2016 federal

budget. According to Employment and Social Development Canada, graduates may defer repayment until their income reaches $25,000, effective starting November 1.

“Education should be seen as a public service.”

—John Hutton Attendee

The Liberal government has also introduced a Repayment Assistance program for graduates having difficulty with repayment, but Hutton said this is “a headline, it’s not a real policy.”

“Poverty is not the solution to student debt,” said Hutton. “Abolishing student debt is the solution to student debt.”

Student internships Thierry Beauvais-Gentile, another attendee, told The Daily, “Right now there is a big fight for [a 15 dollar minimum wage] going on, so it would be great if that could ap-

ply to students as well [...]. As long as we are not understood as doing work [by studying], we’re basically getting exploited.”

“There is the old saying of equal work, equal pay, and I think that should apply. [...] That means equal advantages for international students, women, and other populations that are affected by this.”

Amelie Poirier, a CUTE member and a l’Université de Quebec à Montréal student, shared Gentile’s sentiments regarding systemic misogyny, speaking in both English and French: “It’s the women programs where the internships aren’t paid like infirmary, social workers, sociologists, all the people around health. [...] But people in law schools are paid, engineering too, which is [traditionally thought to be a] more masculine program.”

Poirier told The Daily that the march was a “feminist campaign” and that “so far it’s been women who feel more concerned about our campaign.”

“Our principle [is] for the recognition of student work, in part for paid internship and at large and student salary. [...] I think students are autonomous from the

moment they leave their parents’ house and they should be recognized as is,” she concluded.

“That means equal advantages for international students, women, and other populations that are affected by this.”

—Thierry Beauvais-Gentile Attendee After the event at Victoria Square, the group marched to McGill’s Community Square, in order to join the rally taking place in support of the striking Association of McGill University Support Employees (AMUSE).

Mental health services changes policy

SSMU executives worry change in medical notes process could prove detrimental Marina Cupido The McGill Daily

D

ue to recent reforms of McGill Mental Health Services (MMHS) and Counselling Services, the process by which students obtain medical notes has changed.

Previously in order to receive a medical note students experiencing mental health issues had to go to daily drop-in hours, make a brief appointment for the same day, and receive a medical note to bring to professors to justify an absence or an extension.

Now, access to same-day medical notes will be limited to two categories of students: those in imminent danger of harming themselves or others, or those who have already been assigned a Client Care Clinician (CCC).

Under the recently instituted stepped care system, students arriving at MMHS and Counselling will be matched with a CCC through a shared intake process, who will then help them figure out a plan of care best suited to their individual needs.

However, according to Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) VP University Affairs Erin Sobat, the

current wait time for appointments with a CCC is roughly two weeks.

This means that students who are not in need of emergency care and are not already being followed by a CCC will have to wait for two weeks before having access to a medical note. However, McGill professors are unable to accept medical notes that retroactively justify past absences.

In a statement emailed to campus media, including The Daily, on October 28, Sobat expressed serious concern about the impact of this change on the student body.

“This will have an immediate and detrimental effect on many of our members,” he wrote, “not least because there has been no prior warning or communication regarding the change. In particular, it disregards the need to provide services and accommodation for incidental cases of mental health issues that may not qualify as an immediate safety concern, in a system where there is not currently sufficient access to care to ensure that students are already being seen by a McGill or external clinician.”

Speaking to The Daily, Cara Piperni, Interim Senior Director of Services for Students, explained the context be-

hind the change. She was not responsible for the decision to implement these reforms to MMHS and Counselling, as she only stepped into her role in late October, but was nonetheless able to speak to the rationale behind them.

“This will have an immediate and detrimental effect on many of our members.”

—Erin Sobat SSMU VP University Affairs “When we talk about ‘the change’ relating to [medical notes],” she said, “I think it’s also important [to recognize] that we didn’t actually make a decision specifically around medical notes.

What’s changed is the way students access what is now a common intake for both Counselling and Mental Health, so as a consequence of some of those changes, pathways changed, and there is a subgroup of students who used to

be able to use same-day urgent dropins strictly for the purpose of medical notes, [who can no longer do so].”

This, said Piperni, was why SSMU executives working on mental health reforms, like Sobat and VP Student Life Elaine Patterson, had not been informed about the change regarding medical notes: “This was a residual impact [of broader reforms], that I don’t think we really noted specifically.”

Piperni also explained the logic of limiting same-day emergency appointments to those immediately at risk.

“We created this notion of ‘safety appointments,’ because students that are in situations where someone or they themselves are concerned about harm to self or harm to others, because of the bottleneck that used to exist, [...] couldn’t get access,” she said. “So we carved out a very particular space [...] for [...] ‘safety appointments.’”

“Now, knowing that there are other [cases] that are non-safety but still urgent,” continued Piperni, “we are looking to see how we can adjust the model to try and accommodate. So we’re looking at adding

urgent appointments that would be same-day or next-day.”

“We’re looking at maybe inserting a new resource, like a social worker or a nurse who could deal with just the documentation things that people need, but the reality is that medical notes is a systemic issue,” she added.

Piperni assured The Daily that she and the other staff members working on implementing the stepped care system of mental healthcare were fully cognizant of the urgency of this issue. Consultation with Sobat and Patterson, other student leaders, peer support providers, and people with lived experiences of interacting with the new system will be carried out in the next couple of weeks, she explained, and adjustments based on their feedback will be implemented as soon as possible.

Piperni also mentioned that during the Fall 2016 final exam season, a pilot project will be underway across most McGill faculties which will allow students to defer an exam without medical documentation, if it is the first deferral of their current degree program. This should lessen the number of people needing urgent appointments at MMHS and Counselling.

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November 7, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

AMUSE soft pickets at Thousands show up to event, causing

Students gather for the AMUSE protest.

Marina Cupido & Xavier Richer Vis The McGill Daily

O

n Wednesday, November 2, Media@McGill, a self-described “hub of research, scholarship, and public outreach on issues and controversies in media, technology, and culture” at the University, hosted former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden via videoconference in Leacock 132.

Snowden gained international notoriety in 2013, when he leaked thousands of confidential NSA documents to journalists from The Guardian and The Washington Post. These documents revealed collusion between the NSA, other national intelligence agencies including the Canadian Security Intelligence Services (CSIS), and a variety of technology and communications companies, in order to gather the private data of billions of people worldwide.

Since he fled the United States in 2013, Snowden has lived in Russia, where he has been granted temporary asylum, although the U.S. government is engaged in constant efforts to extradite him on charges of theft of government property and treason.

Meanwhile, he has given numerous interviews and lectures, in person in Moscow or by videoconference.

His appearance at McGill coincided with a developing scandal over the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), and its widely condemned surveillance of several Quebec journalists, most notably Patrick Lagacé, a writer for La Presse . In the days leading up to his lecture on campus, Snowden had tweeted his condemnation of the SPVM’s actions.

AMUSE on strike The videoconference also coincided with the final day of

Sonia Ionescu | The McGill Daily a five-day strike by the Association of McGill University Support Employees (AMUSE), which had begun on Saturday, October 29. Since April 2015, AMUSE has been without a Collective Agreement, and has been negotiating with the administration for a $15 minimum wage, paid sick leave, access to the benefits provided to most non-casual employees on campus, and improvements to the Work Study Program. The union decided to strike in response to McGill’s continued unwillingness to compromise.

A few hours before Snowden’s talk, AMUSE released a statement saying that they would be picketing the event.

“Were we not on strike, AMUSE members would be staffing this event,” read AMUSE’s statement. “This event, taking place on McGill campus, at the workplace of our members, means

that it falls within the jurisdiction of our strike.”

“If you attend this lecture,” it continued, “you are crossing the picket line of a legal labour strike.

To cross this picket line is to undermine the strength of our strike and stand with the employer instead of the workers.”

The talk had been scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., but Media@ McGill employees under AMUSE and their allies had already been at the entrance to Leacock 132 for roughly two hours.

“Basically we want people to know that they’re crossing the picket line, so by all of us being on strike we’re not able to work the event, and so the event, if it continues, will have to replace us with volunteer labour,” said Bradley Powell, an AMUSE member standing with the picket line.

“So we want people to know that by attending the lecture, they’re

crossing the picket line in order to support [this event organized

by McGill].”

Indeed, Media@McGill hired several volunteer workers to replace the AMUSE members who would have staffed the event.

Rally for AMUSE While union members stood in front of Leacock 132, AMUSE, in coordination with McGill Against Austerity, simultaneously organized a protest in front of the James Administration Building.

Organizers spoke to those waiting in line for Snowden.

The line, which began in front of the main Leacock entrance, reached all the way around the James building, stretching as far as the Wong Building.

“There are many, many reasons I’m here today,” AMUSE member Parker Finley said to the crowd. “We’re here to show our

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November 7, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

5

Edward Snowden lecture confusion, frustration, and security concerns

support for decent work, fair wages, respectful and legal contracts, or contracts at all, or just one contract that covers the total amount of time that you can be hired to work, for employment protection, for priority in applying for jobs that you have already performed.”

“How great is it that McGill hires casuals under the same job description, the same job terms, even if it has the same job title and pays them nine dollars less per hour?” Finley asked, eliciting boos from the crowd.

“How great is it that McGill can offer a job for a year and half, only to give you six-month contract installments with no guarantee or protection that you will indeed be hired for the duration that you have been hired for?” he continued. “How great is it that McGill makes students who need financial aid jump through hoops and bureaucracy only to make minimum wage, have zero sick days, and maybe not even be able to find all the available postings?”

Michelle Hartman, an associate professor at McGill’s Institute of Islamic Studies, also spoke at the protest.

“As a professor here, I am a non-unionized worker,” she said.

“So I’d like to thank all of you who are unionized workers for coming out and [...] going on strike because this – workers standing up for themselves – doesn’t just benefit all of you, but it benefits all of us.”

“Other profs might not be on the microphone,” she continued, “but your work is appreciated.

There are professors in solidarity with all of you. There are a lot of us who really, really appreciate what you’re doing, and it’s so important that you keep pushing for this. Keep pushing for fair conditions, to have your work recognized, to have your positions be recognized as proper work and to earn proper pay.”

The picket line Security had initially told people to wait outside the Leacock Building, but papers taped to the floor at the doors to Leacock 132 suggested otherwise, reading “SNOWDEN VIDEOCONFERENCE: LINE-UP STARTS HERE @ 5:30PM.’” As such, a group of roughly 150 people bypassed the line outside, and congregated in the lobby of Leacock, growing increasingly impatient.

While AMUSE members gathered in the entrance of Leacock 132 holding flyers and picket

Students gathered outside the Leacock building. signs, McGill Security employees stood in front of them, blocking the crowd assembled in the lobby from accessing the auditorium.

Many event attendees expressed varying degrees of frustration with Security, as the scheduled start time for the talk passed, with no sign that they would be allowed to enter the room. The situation was exacerbated by conflicting information regarding where the line was supposed to start.

“Keep pushing for fair conditions, to have your work recognized, to have your positions be recognized as prooper work and to earn proper pay.”

—Michelle Hartman Associate Professor of Islamic Studies Furthermore, at least one Security employee managing the crowd outside the Leacock Building reportedly told those in line that AMUSE members were causing the delay. In reality, the strik-

ing workers were engaged in a soft picket; that is, they had no intention of physically preventing anyone from entering the auditorium, and simply wished to inform those attending the talk that they would be crossing a picket line.

Partly as a result of this, a great deal of misinformation seems to have been spread about the picket, resulting in a misplaced sense of outrage against AMUSE from some of the attendees. While many in the crowd expressed solidarity with them, others chanted “fuck your strike!”

When Security eventually allowed students to enter the auditorium, students, who were aware there weren’t enough seats in Leacock 132 to accommodate everyone in line, began to push and shove to get in. AMUSE members appealed to attendees not to cross their picket line, but without much success, as Security personnel ushered people through the doors one by one, and hundreds of people pushed from behind to get in.

“You are literally supporting a university that conducts research into military surveillance,” shouted one AMUSE picketer. “Do you not see the irony in that?”

Ultimately, a representative of AMUSE’s parent union, Public Service Alliance of Canada, instructed the picketers to leave the building through a discreet back entrance for their own safety.

When the auditorium met its capacity, Security closed the

Sonia Ionescu | The McGill Daily door, with many students still upset that they had been refused entry. It was announced that Leacock 26, down the hall, had been opened to accommodate overflow.

Students again rushed to the door, with many pushing and shoving to get through. At least one student was hurt in the process.

“I was with a friend towards the front of the line for Snowden, in front of the Arts [building] doors or thereabouts,” a student who wished to remain anonymous told The Daily. “They were letting people in in increments [...] and there was a massive stampede of pushing and running every time. I was on the edges during one stampede, and I was pushed and fell. I landed on [my] elbow.”

That student later went to go see a doctor as a result of their fall. “The doc says it’s probably a small fracture or a bone chip,” they continued. “People around me saw, but those not next to me or behind me kept running. I don’t know where Security was, [...] it was so scary and hectic.”

Media@McGill In an interview with The Daily in the Leacock lobby after the doors had closed, Darin Barney, an associate professor of Communication Studies and a member of Media@McGill’s Steering Committee, spoke about Media@McGill’s role in the planning of the event.

“Whether [AMUSE] was physically preventing anyone

from entering the room, I don’t know,” he said. “I just know that they were present there, and so it became the responsibility of the event’s organizers to ensure nothing unsafe happened at that point, because [...] there was [..] the potential of some kind of encounter between a group that was exercising a perfectly legitimate act of freedom of expression [...] and labor organization, and a very large group of people who wanted to get into that room.”

“Even the potential of a serious physical conflict between those two groups had to be avoided,” he continued, “and I think what [Media@McGill] did was successfully avoid that. Some other things fell by the wayside in order to achieve that, such as a very large delay for the event [and] a large number of people who had been waiting not able to get into the event. I regret all of that, but I don’t lay responsibility for that either at the feet of the picketers or Media@McGill.”

“It just so happens there was a massive event planned for McGill on a night when a trade union, whose workers were to work that event were on strike, so they put a picket up, that was the situation,” he added.

Christine Ross, director of Media@McGill, refused to comment on AMUSE’s picket line. *The McGill Daily chose not to report on the Snowden lecture in solidarity with AMUSE.

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November 7, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

SSMU creates review committee Council changes Faculty of Engineering senator elections

Xavier Richer Vis The McGill Daily

saw no debate and Council passed the motion with 87 per cent in favour and 13 per cent abstaining.

O

n Thursday, November 3, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Legislative Council convened for its fifth meeting of the 2016-2017 academic year.

Councilors heard a presentation from VP External David Aird on the Association for the Voice of Education in Quebec (AVEQ), one of Quebec’s main student federations, along with five reports from SSMU committees and three councilor reports.

Four motions were passed, including a motion to endorse an existence referendum for the McGill chapter of the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG), a motion regarding the election of student senators from the Faculty of Engineering, a motion concerning Board of Directors (BoD) seating allocations, and a motion which aimed to create a “Democratic Governance Review Committee.”

QPIRG’s existence referendum Julie Skarha, a representative from QPIRG, came to Council to provide reasons in favour of SSMU passing a motion endorsing the group’s upcoming existence referendum.

Incorporated at McGill in 1989, the group’s mandate “is to conduct research, education, and action at McGill and in the Montreal community on environmental and social justice issues,” according to the respective motion, and “provides resources and funding to students and community groups.”

McGill undergraduate students currently pay a five dollar opt-outable fee to support QPIRG. The motion

Engineering senator elections A motion was brought forward to Council regarding how student senators from the Faculty of Engineering are elected. Currently, more engineering students vote in the Engineering Undergraduate Society (EUS) Executive Elections than SSMU elections, which seems to indicate a growing indifference for SSMU elections within the Faculty of Engineering.

The motion put forward would “concurrently [hold] the election of the Engineering Senator alongside the election of faculty-level association council members,” effectively placing the election of a Senate representative under the auspices of EUS, instead of SSMU, in accordance with SSMU’s Internal Regulations of Representation and Advocacy.

Engineering representative Richard (Tre) Mansdoerfer argued that the adoption of the motion would hopefully increase the number of interested candidates and voter turnout for the Senator position.

Senate Caucus representative Joshua Chin noted that this may become “more of the norm rather than the exception” in the future if other faculties choose to do the same, and asked if this could be revisited in the future.

VP University Affairs Erin Sobat responded that he was happy to look into this later, but asserted that it was each faculty’s prerogative to do the same as the Faculty of Engineering.

He added that it is SSMU’s responsibility to fill these Senate seats, and

delegating the task to faculties is a valid option. He noted that a higher level of institutionalized communication between SSMU and faculties would be helpful.

The motion passed with 91 per cent in favour, four per cent opposed, and four per cent abstaining.

Democratic Governance Review A motion was brought forward regarding the “creation of an ad hoc Democratic Governance Review Committee.”

SSMU increased the BoD’s responsibilities last April. The motion raised concerns about the fact that the BoD, the highest governing body within SSMU, is not required to address Council or the General Assembly.

The BoD is also not required to hold meetings at publicly available times, or make the minutes of its meetings public.

“The democratic legitimacy of the BoD depends on the transparency of its procedures and dimensions,” reads the motion. The proposed committee would review the overall role and mechanisms of the BoD, all the while aiming to “identify and propose changes to address any inconsistencies, ambiguities and omissions in the Constitution and Internal Regulations [regarding the BoD] that lie within the scope of the Committee’s mandate.”

SSMU President Ben Ger, speaking in favour of the motion, said, “As someone who is currently sitting on the Board, I am yet to be convinced that it is a perfect body for what was envisioned in terms of the division of labor [between Council and the BoD].”

“This motion is far from questioning the existence of the Board,” said

SSMU Council.

Xavier Richer Vis | The McGill Daily

Arts representative and former editor at The Daily, Igor Sadikov.

Chin, who was added as a mover of the motion during debate, also spoke in favor of the committee, specifically with regards to the division of labour between the BoD and Council.

“I’ve had this concern for quite some time now, that there is potential that [...] the Board could be used to push contentious issues or debate on higher level and bypass [SSMU Council],” he said. “Who makes the decision with regards to where motions, debates, or discussions get presented, here [at Council] or at the Board?”

“That division is not properly outlined to some extent,” Ger. said “There are matters where the Board ends up dealing with something that could foreseeably be seen as a political matter, because it is tangled with something that is legal, so there definitely is room to further define what [goes to Council and what goes to BoD].”

Sobat also spoke in favour of the motion, saying the BoD was important for reducing Council’s administrative overhead, but acknowledging there are inconsistencies in SSMU’s governing documents about the BoD. “The [SSMU] constitution gives members of Council and the Board power to put forward referendum questions, but the appropriate relations of elections right now only apply to council and members, so there’s effectively no regulations on the BoD because of that, [...] which is something that was missed.”

The motion was split in two, with councilors first voting on whether the committee should exist, and then appointing councilors to sit on it.

The motion passed with 88 per cent in favor and 12 per cent abstaining. Councillors appointed to the Committee included Sadikov, First Year Council representative Kevin Zhou, Clubs Representative Adam Templer, and Residences Representative Olivia Shi.

AUS Council debates budget

Nora McCready News Writer

Council supports Quebec Public Interest Research Group-McGill

O

n Wednesday, November 2, the Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) Council gathered for the Legislative Council meeting during which they discussed a proposed motion to change the Chair of the Arts Internship Advisory Committee, amendments to the AUS Annual Budget, the approval of ad hoc allocations from the Arts Student Employment Fund, support for the continued existence of the McGill chapter of the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG), and Committee reports.

AUS Budget AUS VP Finance Deepak Punjabi presented the annual budget for approval by the Council. This year, questions arose concerning a budget item allocating $592.12 to the purchase of AUS executive hoodies.

World Islamic and Middle East Studies Student Association VP

External and former editor at The Daily Niyousha Bastani voiced concern that this was not an appropriate use of AUS resources. She proposed an amendment saying, “I would like [the budget] to be approved but with the budget towards exec sweaters being moved to the Equity Committee [...]. It doesn’t really make sense to me why our money would be used for exec sweaters.”

This led to a debate on the discrepancy between the inadequate budget for certain committees, such as the Equity Committee (which was only allocated $300 for the year), and the funds allocated for items such as the executive hoodies.

AUS President Becky Goldberg defended the budget, saying, “the reason that the Equity number is so low is because it was taken from the budget from last year which was [...] $700 [...].

Less than $300 of that original allocation was used that year.”

AUS Equity Commissioner Jad El Tal responded, “what we’re concerned about is that it’s not that the

number is low [...] but because the other number is so high. For AUS swag, six hundred dollars, that’s double our budget.”

AUS VP Internal Kira Smith voiced her concern given that the debate was pitting executive sweaters against funding for the Equity committee, saying, “AUSec [AUS McGill Environmental Council], for example, has $350 and we would really like more money too, so while Equity is important there are tons of important causes that we could be giving the money to.”

This led to further debate concerning the Equity Committee’s lack of funding. The issue was resolved by a final amendment to the budget: a clause adding $200 to the Equity Budget. This funding will be diverted from the overall AUS surplus, initially proposed to be $21,617.64.

QPIRG-McGill QPIRG-McGill is described on its website as “a non-profit, stu-

dent-run organization that conducts research, education, and action on environmental and social justices” at McGill and in Montreal. This organization is largely funded by a five dollar opt-outable student fee.

While discussing the motion to endorse QPIRG-McGill’s continued existence, the fee’s opt-outable nature became a subject of debate.

Political Science Students’ Association (PSSA) President Tofunmi Odugbemi said that “the automatic fee takes advantage of lack of information and student disengagement. With the automatic fee QPIRG is in a position where the less students know about the organization the more income they receive.

Making QPIRG membership nonautomatic would make QPIRG accountable to its members.”

“A large portion [of QPIRG funding] actually goes to groups outside of McGill or to organizations outside which may be considered by some to be more radical and not

representative of the majority of McGill students,” she continued.

In contrast, AUS VP Social Kat Sviknushin argued, “you not knowing where your student fees go sounds like a ‘you’ problem, not a ‘QPIRG’ problem [...] QPIRG taking money from you and you not knowing how to opt out is actually not what we’re debating here. [...] You cannot speak to the people whose lives its literally changed.”

Odugbemi responded that “as a visible minority I do not appreciate us sitting in this room right now and saying ‘the people we are helping, yada yada yada.’ [...] I would just like to look at it as a facts thing [...] My understanding is if the automatic fee is removed it doesn’t result in the dismantling of QPIRG, that they will still exist as an organization.”

The Council decided to amend the motion whereby “AUS include[s] conditions of the fee and that it is opt-outable,” and which stipulated that AUS publicize the endorsement. The motion then passed.

Commentary

November 7, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

7

The government is watching us...

Kayla Branson Commentary Writer

...and our school doesn’t care about our safety

U

sually, when I have an experience as miserable as the one I had Wednesday night, I send an angry email. The event that has me angered was ‘free,’ which I presumed would only cost my time and comfort — but I was mistaken. I was also required to compensate unwarranted emotional labour, not to mention that Media@McGill will most likely not refund me for the bottle of wine that I felt compelled to buy afterwards. I am not writing about the content of Edward Snowden’s presentation. If you’re interested in that (and it certainly is interesting), read The Montreal Gazette or Motherboard’s coverage of the event. I’m writing about the experience that I had in ‘line’ to see Snowden.

At 5 p.m., two hours before the scheduled start of the event, there were enough students to fill the seats of McGill’s largest lecture hall two times over. A sign outside the auditorium doors read: “The official lineup will start here at 5:30.” At 5:20 p.m., these students – some of whom had already been waiting for hours – were informed that the official line was moving outdoors. At this point, over a thousand angry students ran to be among the first six hundred students in a line they thought they were already in. By 5:45 lineup extended from the entrance of Leacock building all the way to the Trottier Building – according to Google Maps, it would take six minutes to walk the 450 metres from the beginning of the line to the end, over an hour before the event was scheduled to commence.

Between the time that this line had formed, and the time that the doors finally opened, any semblance of structure had disappeared. Before the line had devolved to this point, someone (presumably an organizer) did a cursory headcount of the line – I was within fifty metres of the Leacock doors and around the hundred person mark. I didn’t get into one of the six hundred seats of the lecture hall. The fifty person wide ‘line’ that I was a part of was similar to mosh pit: people were shoulder to shoulder and it reeked of body odour. This mob was fueled by entitlement and testosterone as opposed to drugs and alcohol. When the doors abruptly opened at a quarter after seven, a stampede ensued.

Who, through all of this chaos, ultimately secured a seat in Leacock 132? They were the people who cheated their way in – waited on the second floor of Leacock and sprinted downstairs when the doors

A student fractured her arm in the stampede. opened, bypassing those who had been waiting outside. They were those who pushed their way in, without regard for other people’s safety and personal space. At one point, my friend and I used our arms to physically block men from trampling three girls just outside the door. Maybe if I had ignored their plight and pushed through, I would’ve been among the six hundred ‘lucky’ students to sit in Leacock 132. But probably not, because getting a seat in Leacock wasn’t about luck – it wasn’t just about the willingness to push – it was about physical stature. Ultimately, I didn’t get a seat because I was empathetic and because I was smaller than other people in line. If you watch the video, you will see – most of the students in the lecture hall were men.

Many people were blaming the AMUSE picket line for holding up the event – I won’t go into that.

I’ll just point out that many of the same people chanting “fuck your strike” successfully got into Leacock 132 and applauded Snowden for legitimizing AMUSE twenty minutes later, which I find absolutely disgusting.

In the end, I can’t even be mad at my peers for abusing the system, because there was no system to abuse.

As soon as the Facebook event went up, over a month in advance, it was clear that the interest in the talk far surpassed the capacity of the venue.

At the time of the event, the com-

bined number of people ‘interested’ and ‘going’ to the event on Facebook was approximately 22,000. Prior to the event, Media@McGill insisted the event couldn’t be livestreamed due to contractual restrictions.

At one point, my friend and I used our arms to physically block men from trampling three girls just outside the door.

At 6:52 p.m., Media@McGill announced that the event would be livestreamed on the event page. Why did this happen eight minutes before the scheduled start of the event? At this point in time, everybody in line had thoughts along the same vein – I wouldn’t have waited for this long and endured this mayhem I had I known that it would have been livestreamed, but I’m already in this mob, so fuck it, I guess I’ll try to get in. Livestreaming did nothing to appease the thousands of people waiting outside an empty lecture hall, but it did make Snowden’s talk accessible to people who couldn’t be physically present at the event. Accessibility wasn’t incorporated into the struc-

Sonia Ionescu | The McGill Daily ture of the event; the accessibility that was afforded by the livestream wasn’t even an afterthought, it was a side effect.

The likelihood that an ablebodied person would break their leg and acquire a short term disability far surpassed the likelihood that a person with a physical disability would’ve successfully navigated the mob. It was incredibly unsafe and inaccessible – I asked myself, how can the security at an event with such a high-profile speaker be so poor? When Ban Ki Moon came to McGill this past February, the security was extensive. Moon was safe, and consequently, students were too. And then it hit me – because Snowden wasn’t physically at McGill, Media@McGill was not liable for his safety, and the safety of the students suffered as a result.

I fully acknowledge the fact that security is expensive. So is booking space. I can say “you should’ve hired more security,” or “you should’ve gotten more room” but neither would be effective critiques, especially without knowledge of the event budget. I would like to point out some realistic ways in which this event could have been more controlled and accessible: Mark the boundaries of the line with rope, chalk, or pylons. Have security people monitor the boundary, to ensure that people are not cutting in line.

Hand out tickets to the first six hundred people in line. A lot of the

trouble stemmed from the fact that people felt entitled to a seat after waiting in line for so long.

Require interested parties to register online via Eventbrite, Tilt, or even Minerva. Set a deadline and cap the registration at the number of available seats. Set up a livestream on the McGill network.

Raise money to increase the number of seats. I can think of many clubs at McGill that would be interested in supporting a Snowden talk.

It could’ve even been crowdfunded – so that those passionate about hearing Snowden speak and privileged enough to have the funds to support the event could donate to help mitigate the cost of booking more space.

McGill has numerous large lecture halls, and (as we saw during our first 15 minutes with Snowden) multiple parties can join a Google Hangout.

The hangout could have occurred across several lecture halls, not just Leacock 132, so that more students would’ve felt connected to Snowden.

Collaborate with the Office for Students with Disabilities and reserve a certain number of seats for students with disabilities.

Any one of the above suggestions would’ve made a massive difference in the proceedings of the event, and my Snowden experience wouldn’t with bitterness, resentment, and body odour.

To contact the author email, kayla.branson@mail.mcgill.ca

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COMMENTARY

November 7, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Climate 101: We can do better The Ottawa protest was ineffective and, honestly, insensitive

Catherine Jeffery & Sophia Seward Commentary Writers

O

n Monday, October 24, two hundred youth walked through Ottawa to Parliament Hill. They protested the potential expansion of the Kinder Morgan pipeline, which would run from outside of Edmonton, Alberta to Burnaby, British Columbia, carrying both crude and refined oil. The government will decide on whether or not it will undergo the project by December. During the protest, about a hundred students crossed a police barricade, thus getting ‘arrested,’ as they will eagerly tell you over social media. In reality, a few of them were cuffed (most of them not) and escorted to a police tent set up to process the detainments.

The first few people processed were fined $65 and banned from the Hill for a year; most of the remaining people weren’t fined at all, and were banned for three months. So, the first thing you’ll hear from the protesters in the aftermath — that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was willing to arrest about a hundred kids instead of taking on the big oil industry is actually false.

First, we will clarify that the cause of the protest is valid.

Pipelines should not be built. We should be transitioning to greener energy to protect Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, the environment, and the economy.

Indigenous and marginalized communities who must live with the consequences of environmental injustice should have the peace of mind to know that their health and land will not be jeopardized more than it already has by nation-states and their corporate allies.

This is a worthy cause, but the ethics and the efficacy of how activists fight for it matters. We’ve always been interested in protests, but after reaching out to several protesters in the hopes of preserving our optimism for ‘60s-style civil disobedience, we were left disheartened looking at the current face of the ‘power of youth’ and the effectiveness of large-scale protesting.

We initially assumed the supporters would provide us with persuasive reasoning and rationale in order to avoid confusion and frustration regarding their methods. But after talking with several supporters, reading dozens of newspaper articles, and studying the arguments over and over again, the rally has actually been a source of disillusionment for us. The acts of civil disobedience that students took part in on October 24 were ineffective, racially problematic, and seem to be symptoms of young idealism.

The dismay and hesitance towards pipeline bulding is a general concern among activists. The questions remains: how to create

change? How to hold our governments accountable? How to influence political decisions? The protesters will have you believe that stepping over a fence is the way to do that. That’s essentially the problem: students think the government cares about them getting a trespassing citation. Let’s get real.

The government doesn’t give a shit about the few extra pages of irritating paperwork. When opposing a huge, money-making, job-creating, government-supported industry, it’s not about the inconvenience or a theoretical threat. Power lies in two places: physical presence (such as the protest going on in Standing Rock, where the participants are physically stopping the development), and formal, governmentlevel discourse, involving legal, economic, and political arguments to defeat the government using their own methods.

All of the protestors echoed similar principles of overestimated personal power. For example, Maya, a McGill student present at the protest, explained that the act of stepping over the police barricade sent an important message to Trudeau.

Similarly, another anonymous student claimed that, “civil disobedience grabs people’s attention in a very strong way.” Another student, Laura, asserted that arrest was the point of the action because it would create a “more dramatic headline: ‘Trudeau’s government would rather arrest 99 young people than take a stand against the oil industry.’”

We were left disheartened looking at the current face of the “power of youth” and the effectiveness of large-scale protesting.

Frankly, there’s very little value in shock. Within the protesters’ reasoning lies ignorance about how the government actually works and our place within it. As university students with access to vast resources, we should be harnessing these privileges and using them to constructively advocate for change.

This means that not only those with university education should have a say in policy formation. Indigenous ativists and communities who sacrifice their lives spearheading these movements should be prioritized.

That being said its important to acknowledge that the Canadian government is biased and will favour

Marina Djurdjevic | The McGill Daily opinions from white people as opposed to marginazlied voices. NonIndigenous, especially white, people who genuinely want to support the movement can do so in nuanced ways. They can use their privilege and facilitate conversation and concrete action surrounding these topics: undermining Kinder Morgan’s evidence in their certificate of public convenience and necessity application and questioning the objectivity of their environmental protection plan. Constituents would bombard their MPs with their opinions, various economic strategies including divestment from oil and re-investment in green energy, or purposing legal redress, which advocates for so many additional limitations on the pipeline that it becomes unprofitable for it to be built. How we can incorporate diverse communities into the process of creating these action plans remains a tremendously important question, but not one we will pretend to know how to answer.

In addition to being ineffective, purposeful ‘arrest’ is also incredibly insensitive in light of the Black Lives Matter movement and ongoing police brutality against Indigenous people who find themselves impacted by this pipeline project. To make a mockery of the arrest and to use the phrase Hands Up, Don’t Shoot (as seen in 350 Canada’s Facebook

photos of the protest from October 24) is to make light of the genuine fear Black and Indigenous communities feel regarding arrest and strained police relations.

Additionally, to claim to be arrested when in fact only a citation was issued is to ignore the genuine impact of a true arrest on a marginalized person’s life, and to deny the validity of that narrative.

Formerly incarcerated individuals, primily those from marginalized communties, face a tougher time reassimilaing into society as opposed to their white counter parts. These protesters exploit the threat of these consequences, which they know they will never experience in order to further their campaign without any care for the detrimental effects this might have on certain communities.

Many people posted photos of themselves holding trespassing citations, outright bragging about their disobedience. One white person’s comment even reads “#whendreamscometrue” while the photo shows them being escorted by a police officer. Needless to say, actually getting arrested by police when you are a person of colour in a violent situation probably resembles a nightmare. By employing terms like ‘risking’ arrest, when in fact that was their sole intention, and “putting our

bodies on the line,” they utilize emotional rhetoric to promote a false image of what actually happened (stepping over a fence and calmly being escorted by police). To paint a picture of violence and rebellion is to make light of those people who actually live through the terrible experience of police terror.

Since engaging in this particular act of civil disobedience isn’t effective in influencing governmental decisions and it remains problematic in terms of its social implications, where does that situate it within the process of political change? Nowhere.

Instead, we should be looking for different and more effective ways to engage in political discourse — such as using the resources we have to uncover concrete intellectual proof, as discussed above, while prioritizing those communities upon which this decision will have the greatest impact. We surely do not have all the answers, but we hope that this will start a discussion on how to be conscious citizens, holding our government accountable in our changing social climate.

Catherine Jeffery is a U1 Political Science student. Sophia Seward is a U1 Economics student. To contact the authors, email catherine. jeffery@mail.mcgill.ca and sophia. ard@mail.mcgill.ca.

COMMENTARY

November 7, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Climate 101: Change in action

9

Why I got arrested in Ottawa

Robert van Waarden | Photographer

Protests in Ottawa.

Jed Lenetsky Commentary Writer

A

few months ago, a study released by Oil Change International put the immediacy and threat of climate change in new terms: if we want even a 66 per cent chance of limiting climate change to two degrees celsius, fulfilling our international commitments, and preserving earth’s remaining biodiversity, then no new fossil fuel infrastructure can be built. That means no new wells, mines, terminals or pipelines.

Unfortunately, Justin Trudeau does not believe that this reality applies to Canada. He regularly appears on TV supporting Canada’s need to develop new pipelines to transport fossil fuels. Last month, he approved the Pacific Northwest Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) pipeline and terminal, despite the fact that it would add 4.9 million tons of Carbon dioxide every year. The proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline, if approved, will be even worse for the climate. It will transport 890,000 barrels of tar sands per day, the most carbon intensive form of oil in the world. The emissions will be the equivalent of adding 34 million cars to Canadian roads and will make it next to impossible to keep global warming under two degrees celsius. Additionally, with 400 oil tankers travelling the coast of British Columbia each year, it would make an oil spill off the coast

much more likely. Despite all this, Trudeau is posturing to approve the pipeline.

From ‘overhauling’ the National Energy Board, the regulatory body that approves energy infrastructure, to an ‘ambitious’ carbon tax, Trudeau’s climate politics have failed to deliver on his campaign platform of bold climate action. I am tired of Trudeau claiming to be the ‘Minister of Youth,’ while at the same time supporting projects that threaten our future along with that of the country. Justin Trudeau has made it clear that the statements he made on the campaign trail won’t be fulfilled, and Canadians deserve better than a Prime Minister who would rather take selfies than deliver on his mandate.

[The proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline] will transport 890,000 barrels of tar sands per day, the most carbon intensive form of oil in the world.

Trudeau has a choice: he can approve Kinder Morgan and make the already daunting task of limit-

ing climatic warming to two degrees celsius all but impossible to reach. Or he can reject the Kinder Morgan pipeline and begin to follow through on his commitment to bold climate action.

According to polls, 45 per cent of Canadians aged 18-25 voted for the Liberal Party, making Canadian millennials responsible for the Liberal majority win in Ottawa.

By 2019 young people will be the largest voting block in Canada; we voted the Liberal government in and now we need to hold them accountable. This is why I went to Ottawa for the Climate 101 protest: to put my body on the line to disrupt the status quo, and demonstrate the lengths that Canadians, especially young Canadians, are willing to go to prevent Trudeau from making the wrong choice. On October 24, I, and 98 other likeminded young people, crossed a police barricade and got arrested on Parliament Hill. We demonstrated that our power for change does not solely lie in the voting booth space; it also lies in our ability to come together to protect our futures. In this sense, Climate 101 was a success. We were covered by news outlets all over Canada.

We nationalized the conversation around Kinder Morgan by showing that Canadians all around the country (and even Americans) are willing to participate in acts of civil disobedience to stop the Kinder Morgan pipeline.

I am tired of Trudeau claiming to be our minister, the Minister of Youth, while at the same time supporting projects that threaten our future.

For far too long, the burden of direct action has fallen on mainly Indigenous peoples who, on the frontlines of extraction projects, are given no other choice but to defend land and water with their bodies. For example, the Tsleil-Waututh nation in B.C. have been organizing against the Kinder Morgan pipeline since it was proposed, and Indigenous environmental activist Vanessa Gray physically shut down Enbridge “Line Nine” last fall, despite the enormous risks. Gray is potentially facing life in prison for her brave acts of resistance while I walked away with less than a parking ticket. It is high time that these acts of civil disobedience be brought to places of power, and that they be done by privileged people.

There is a lot of power in this privilege, and it needs to be leveraged.

Climate 101 was an attempt to utilize that power. Organizers trained over 125 people in civil disobedience, many of whom had never participated in such displays of protest before. We heard speeches from frontline activists and how much our actions meant to them.

We got up early the next day, chanting “climate leaders don’t build pipelines” all the way to Parliament Hill.

Getting arrested in an act of solidarity with land defenders all across the continent was one of the most powerful moments of my life, and has inspired me to keep fighting and organizing in any way I can. Climate 101 was not about one day or one pipeline — it is about growing a movement. People may have doubts about the efficacy of the protest or its authenticity, but the action will only lose its relevance if this movement stops growing, and if youth stop taking a stand, both for our futures and those on the frontlines.

If young people come together, we can take matters into our own hands and create the ‘real change’ that Trudeau initially promised. By taking actions in solidarity with people on the frontlines and in our own communities, we can enforce the necessary moratorium on fossil fuel infrastructure, contribute meaningfully to upholding Indigenous sovereignty, and build a better future for everyone.

Jed Lenetsky is a U2 Environmnet student. To contact the author, email jedlenetsky@gmail.com.

10

Commentary

November 7, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

The #NoDAPL check-in

Phoebe Colby Commentary Writer

Not enough in an on-going struggle

O

n Monday, October 31st, those of us on social media witnessed friend after Facebook friend check in at Standing Rock, located on Standing Rock Sioux territory. You may have checked in yourself — I know I did. You may have even hit that Google search bar and read a few articles about the continued struggle of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and allied nations in defense of their land and waters.

And then, if you were like me, you went back to your essay, shut your laptop to go grab coffee and continued on with the day as usual.

So what impact did we leave clicking the check-in button? Was it another instance of simple ‘clicktivism’? Another virtual bandwagon to hop on with very little actual risk or even effort?

Of course it was.

What impact did we leave clicking the check-in button? Was it another instance of simple ‘clicktivism’?

Another virtual bandwagon to hop on?

In just a few clicks we had checked-in, added our virtual presence to over a million other Facebook users in an attempt to confuse the Morton County Sheriff ’s Department (which has allegedly used Facebook’s checkin feature to target protesters).

However, a recent CBC article explained that not only is this action superficial, but ultimately

ineffective, as surveillance and police departments have extensive software such as geo-fencing which easily circumvents the check-in flood. In short, the check-in had no concrete effect on the surveillance or protection of protesters.

However, that does not mean the check-in was without effect.

The check-in was not useless, but neither was it useful. It was peripheral.

As the #NoDAPL struggle continues, moments like Monday’s check-in wave are just that — moments. Significant in their expression of solidarity, but not representative of the ongoing

risks and efforts of those on the front lines. Similar to the arrest of Shailene Woodley and other celebrity endorsements, this moment is a hypervisible, and ultimately ineffective snapshot of Indigenous resistance, a resistance that spans centuries. In a simple click, we were “standing” in Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, not physically but virtually entering a space where Indigenous bodies, stories, and lives stand between their land and a pipeline.

So let’s be clear — we did the right thing, not as allies, not as activists, but as Facebook users,

as participants in a media trend demonstrating solidarity. But this is not a game changer. The Facebook outbreak of check-ins we saw Monday was not part of the protest, it was a response. This was not a stand with Standing Rock against geo-spatial colonial extortion of traditional territory, it was a simple ask and answer, call-to-action by way of witness.

When asked to click a few buttons on Facebook, a small but concrete expression of solidarity for the protection of those on the front lines, we responded in droves.

But our response was momentary, an 8-bit drop in an ocean of

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pixels. We may have encouraged, we may have shocked, we may have been to Standing Rock, but we haven’t seen it. We haven’t felt it. We haven’t lived it. And we certainly haven’t protected it.

Phoebe Colby is a U1 Arts student majoring in Art History. To contact the author, email phoebe. colby@mail.mcgill.ca.

The author and The McGill Daily encourage readers to go online to www.sacredstonecamp. org/supply-list/ to find out about more ways in which they could support water protecters and activists on the ground.

Visuals by Rahma Wiryomartono

Durga

Five Stages of Grief Claire Avisar

Step One: sit alone at your kitchen table, wonder if his leaving her has anything to do with you, and assure yourself you could have fixed the breaks in the phone line with enough coats of blue-tack or two tin cans and the world’s longest piece of twine.

Step Two: yell at the fridge because you are angry that it still works, fight with your dog about the weather and about the dirt on her paws, even though she’s really just doing her best, and yell at the rain because you wish it were snow.

Astha Agarwal This poem is inspired by the Hindu tradition of worshipping pre-pubescent girls as a manifestation of the goddess Durga during the Navratri celebration of nine forms of goddess. Durga represents strength, motherhood, and the victory of good over evil.

Every year I waited For that one day When Mummy Papa got out of bed Before I left for school.

That one day When my feet were the only thing That Papa’s hands Touched.

That one day I was Durga.

Then one year I lost that day too.

Step Three: if only she had waited, if only he had told her and clearly stated, if only time passed the same way to two people.

When Mummy called Swati Aunty’s little girl To be her Durga.

“Mummy Did I do something wrong?”

Step Four: open the fridge— not because you’re hungry and mostly because it’s a habit— pile rice pudding into a bowl that is the exact same bland shade, stare at the raisins and wonder if they feel depressed, realize you feel akin to the raisins in the rice pudding you have made.

Step Five: accept that both good and bad things come to an end, write a note-to-self saying you hope things get better soon, eat rice pudding until you forget to pretend, and wonder what Obama does when he’s alone in a room.

“Mummy I’m sorry.”

At some point That night It hit me.

“Mummy Is it the blood?”

“Mummy I’m sorry.”

“I don’t know why this is happening.”

“Make it stop.

Make it stop. I want to be your Durga again.”

The Thread Jessica Goldson

My mental health dangles by a thread -- weighed down by lost loves and the sparse foundation of my family unit. Fibre by fibre, the thread weakens from the weight of being. So frail is the thread, though it has weathered storms past, there is no way to hide the overturned trees, floods, and sediment that have accumulated, blocking the sun from my eyes. I try to tell myself that I am just blinking, that I will soon open my eyes to cotton candy sunsets and children running to the ice cream parlour, but I know that I am only lying to myself. I am not clever enough to cover my own tracks.

Let Bashar be your guide: A day in Ramallah, Palestine Maxine Dannatt

You promise to meet at the Palestine bank at four but chances are you will late and at the wrong bank. Start looking at the one in the main manara square and then move downwards to downtown.

Once you find the right bank of Palestine, get in the car that is waiting.

And then step out again to take a portrait of your tour guide smoking a cigarette in the sunlight

Don’t put your seat belt on when you get back in the car. Seat belts off in Palestine. “Keep talking,” he says, “That way I can have more time to think about where I’m going to take you”. This is Ramallah in a car, with Bashar.

He takes you down through Al-Tira, the neighbourhood that people call the “Doctor’s neighbourhood”. When you pass by the Nelson Mandela statue, recently gifted from the people of South Africa to the people of Ramallah, it is an obligatory step to stop in order to take a picture. A selfie, if possible.

Look at the road leading down into the valley, opposite from the statue. Ten years ago that would have been a place for you and your friends to go play football in the nature but it is built up now. Cross that location off of your guidebook, it’s been interfered with by the development of Ramallah. You can thank the Oslo Accords for that. You can thank the Oslo Accords for a lot of things, but there is no time now.

Continue driving down the big road that leads down towards Anquinia.

Don’t ask us the name of it, addresses are done solely through long descriptive paragraphs: “You know, the road next to the basketball court where we ran with Right to Movement in the winter that leads down past Ahmed’s house? That one.” Pass by Taybeesh supermarket, the third sight on this drive. Remember it, as it’s the best place to get drunk pizza in Ramallah. For the best sober pizza, go to Angelo’s on Ramallah’s main street.

Drive down into the hills of Anquinia but instead of continuing strait down the road as most people do, turn right. At the second hill, park the car and get out. Notice the amusement park on the hill top opposite from you. It seems abandoned but then notice the way the ferris wheel moves very slowly. You can hear people screaming faintly along with pounding music.

You’re not going there though.

Follow Bashar through the olive groves and try to scale the terraces as gracefully as possible.

If you are lucky you will come here another time for a barbecue. You will climb into a car that holds two people too many and drive towards that second hill on the right. Along the way you will get lost and maybe someone

will drop the watermelon into your arms from above. When you arrive there will be people there already drinking beers and grilling an absurd amount of kofta meat. If you are really lucky some people will have brought their drums and then you will spend the rest of the evening listening in awe as people take their turns drumming together. Listen too, when a voice rises up to sing along to the drum. And then you will be in a circle surrounded by people singing in unison to the songs of their country and you will know you’re in the right place.

If you do not arrive in Anquinia for a barbecue, you can stay there till the sun sets and then follow Bashar back down the hill and back to the car. Ask him about his grandfather on the way back to Ramallah. That amazing man who served in the British army during the mandate and who used to swim to Syria everyday through the Golan Heights.

In Ramallah, drive down to Ramallah Tahta (Downtown) and pick up cigarettes at Yanni’s grocery store close to the Friend’s girls school. Get to know the man behind the counter well and he will give you a discount for Araq the next time you are in there. You are now equipped for an evening drink.

To start off the night with Bashar, go to Pronto, the Italian restaurant run by a Palestinian who will salute you loudly when you sit on the terrace and then offer you shots of tequila next to the Shepherd’s beer that you buy. Buy Palestinian beer when in Palestine. Shepherd’s, brewed in Birzeit or Taybeh from the village of Taybeh. Like most places, it is served with a plate of carrots and cucumbers in salt and lemon juice. Sit outside. Watch the small procession playing music in Ottoman outfits walk by and then turn up Jaffa street. And then when it is time to go home to eat dinner, thank Bashar and say good-bye.

You will bump into each other when you are out later in the evening.

Twang written by a survivor for survivors Katey Wattam

Content warning: sexual assault The wind flickers through the window left slightly a jar, filling the car with the smell wet earth and rain. Petrichor–noun–a pleasant smell that frequently accompanies the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather. Watching the speedometer tick higher and higher, the wind begins to rapidly enter the car plastering my hair to my face. I can’t see a fucking thing. Frantically tracing my fingers along the car door to find the window crank, a wave comes over me–I’m not alone. Through the slits of my hair–tendrils guided by the current of the wind–the rearview mirror becomes clearer. There’s a dark figure sitting in the backseat.

in the mirror across from the toilet, I look like how I feel: different. Purple frames my eyes like spectacles; on my neck and wrists I’m wearing a choker and bracelets made out of burses.

Greasy and unkempt tendrils of hair graze my tender cheeks. Pushing them behind my ears a wave comes over me–I’m not alone. Looking in the mirror I meet the gaze of the dark figure. It’s standing just to the left of the toilet.

My heartbeat fills me–ragging up through my chest, ringing in my ears, behind my eyes, filling my head. It opens its bloody mouth. baaaaaa...baaaaaa

baaaaaa...baaaaaa Through the crackling voice blood stained teeth bite the air.

Blood trails down from the corners of its mouth, forming a puddle on the ground. My fingers tremble as I redress. Turning my head a little over my shoulder, trailing from the floor to the wall beside me there is nothing there–no dark figure, no blood. I still feel the presence of another. Murmuring a country tune twang, I buckle my belt, zip up my sweater, and tightly cinch my hood–my clothes like plates of armorer. ***

shwoomp.

My trembling fingers finally land on the crank.

Whipping it forward, the pulsing air abruptly stops. Looking back at the seat, I’m startled–it’s empty. I still feel the presence of another. I have to piss.

My headlights meet a sign, “Welcome to Pembroke Ontario–exit ahead.” Turning the dial of the radio there is screeching static, then screeching static and muffled voices, then muffled voices and country music, then a booming voice: “you’re listening to star 96.7– today’s country”. I not-so-secretly love country music. The country channel is the only working radio station at my family cottage. The thumping in my head begins to lower; the colour comes back to my cheeks. It feels like the sun hitting my face. I can almost make out sand between my toes, the twang of country music, and the ebb and flow of the rippling lake. A fog horn–no–a car horn. Opening my eyes and the sun becomes a headlight of another car. Swerving over to the side, I barely miss the other car. The soft sand becomes the crunching gravel that frames the side of the road. Neon blue and red lights flicker in the distance, the thumping rises–oh wait– it’s just a gas station sign. I really have to piss now. *** The toilet bowl is stained red from my piss.

My cunt hurts. No matter how much I wipe, it never feels clean. The baby pink hand soap smells like knock-off Hubba Bubba bubblegum mixed with lavender. It stings. Catching my reflection

baaaaaa...baaaaaa “What? What was that?” he’s startled, and begins to loosen his grip on my head.Flinging my head up I catch the eyes of the dark figure in the rearview mirror.

Blood trailing down the corners of its mouth– they turn up–forming a smile.

thump. thump.

thump. thump.

Ragging up through my chest, ringing in my ears, behind my eyes, filling my head, my thumping heartbeat replaces the sound of thrashing air. Meeting its gaze, blood trails down its face as the corners of its mouth turn up. It opens its mouth.

even harder, his cock pressed up against my cheek.

My eyes meet the cold grey gaze of man standing in front of the chip section. The corners of his wrinkled mouth turn up into a smirk, “Where you headed?” “North” I murmur. “What’s up North?” All I can spit out is, “I don’t know... clearer skies...cleaner air I guess”. He seems taken aback, “The skies here seem pretty clear, you can see Ursa Major tonight.” “Is that the bear or Big Dipper?” “I’m pretty sure both. Did you know the animal is alive when it is transformed into a constellation?” “No.” We stare at each other for an almost uncomfortable amount of time. Stumbling on his words, he spits out, “Cann...I...I...I join you?”

Blood stained teeth biting through the air flashes through my mind. “Yeah, sure.” thump. thump.

The car doors seal us inside. The engine rumbles; reaching for the radio dial, his fingers meet mine. They trail up my arm to the small of my neck.

baaaaaa...baaaaaa “What the fuck is that!” he yells. Breaking through the cracking voice, it’s bloodstained teeth bite the man’s head off. shwoomp Blood gushes, blood rushes out of the now headless body. Peering a little over my shoulder, I’m not surprised to find the backseat empty. Turning the radio dial to find a crisp spot, the rumble of the engine is met by the twang of country music, replacing the sound of my thumping heartbeat.

It begins to lower; the colour comes back to my cheeks. Reaching over to the passenger door my fingers find the leaver. The headless body slumps against the window. Opening the door, I push it out of the car and slam it closed. thump. thump.

Catching the rearview mirror on my way up, the corners of my mouth turn up into a smirk. *** Softly rumbling on the gravel of the steep driveway, the car slowly lowers down to the landing in front my family cottage. Getting out of the car I gulp the sweet air, smelling of wet earth and rain–petrichor. A breeze blows my tendrils of hair, cooling my cheeks and neck. Grabbing the spare key from under a potted plant, I wipe it clean and see the stars reflecting in the metal.

Turning my head a little over my shoulder my eyes meet the stars. Using my fingers to trace Ursa Major in the night sky, a bear emerges from the stars. Burrowing my toes in the sand, the sound of the rippling lake fills me up.

thump. thump. *** Ragging up through my chest, ringing in my ears, behind my eyes, filling my head, a thumping heartbeat replaces the hum of the engine. His fingernails begin to dig into the small of my neck.

A wave comes over me. Finding the rearview mirror, my gaze it met by the dark figure sitting in the backseat. Pulling my head down to his crotch, the man holds my head down with his elbow as he undoes his belt and begins to pull his cock out.

“You like this? You want it?” he says under his breath. “No! Stop!” I yell. He holds my head down

The murky bathwater is stained red. Floating there for a while, weightless, warm, and clean. A booming voice on the radio, “you’re listening to star 96.7– today’s country” startles me. The soft twang of country music reverberates against the tiled floor and walls. Wrapping myself in my favorite baby pink plush towel smelling of lavender, my eyes meet the eyes of the dark figure in mirror. No longer dripping of blood it smiles at me. I smile back–I’m not alone.

Dust, honey, bullets Alainah Aamir

To wipe the past three years clean with one swish like dust on a carpet but the bitter taste in my mouth weathers all kinds of storms. See I am a woman who can forgive anything except when you turn on your axis and transform into someone that I for the life of me cannot recognise. It is easy enough to forgive my condescension when I am soft like fresh honey underneath but your core has turned hard and the ants in the neighbourhood have all been informed. The thing is it is not his business or her business the things I do and why I do them and I have razors stored in the linings of my coats for when winter gets too cold and I will lie and tell you that I lost control but I have never ever lost control. I know perfectly what I am doing but it is easy to roam off the earth and make it look like an accident. The neighbour shot himself in the skull with a gun as he cleaned it. You are always verbose in telling me the way you dislike my loopholes, my cop outs, but you are the first to escape into Wonderland and you know how this will cost you but you do it anyway and maybe next year you will be somewhere in the USA and I will be in Montreal and I will try to remember who you are as I sit in the weak sun reading a book about a lost life, a could have been, and I will smile because you could say it is a bullet that I dodged but the truth is that it has been three years since I took the bullet and I have not yet found an exit wound.

Birthday

Sophie Panzer

She thought she would give birth in a world where Hawaii had been swallowed by the ocean where bear skeletons littered Arctic seabeds where sharks snapped in the watery remains of Miami.

She thought she would have to feed her child in a world of plastic soil and toxic fruits of burning rainwater, acid rivers of garbage islands in browning seas.

She thought she would raise her child in a world of a thousand new Atlantises of lands without seasons of barely-remembered snow.

Instead she gives birth in a world where electricity still hums where supermarkets still stand where snow falls gently outside hospital windows.

She is too young, the baby is too early, but the world has not ended yet.

navy sheets Hanna Bee

Perfect Imperfection Jessica Goldson

Sensitive, strong Confidence all-encompassing; Channelling my perfect imperfection Until my last remaining belief is in my own worthiness

Mouth meets space between bottom rib / top of hipbones meets cyborg surfaces and (me) Mediation Meets strange delineations Meets skin as a site of loss the body is built on precedent/passivity You tread minefields with yr

tongue

Sleep Talk

Christopher Junn

The heat of summer wakes me up. I sleep on towels so that the sticky sweat doesn’t stain my virgin sheets. Three hours ago I tried to fall into a slumber while my sweat condensed behind my ear. I dreamed, but only lightly. I looked over at my clock. It was around one o’clock. The first wave of summer anxiety hits. A reminiscence of the day and a painful reflection of having nothing to do —or of having done nothing. It is a sickening feeling of emptiness that manifests as a lump of heavy air taking up space at the bottom of my glottal region.

The feeling does pass. I assure you. But in the hour of the wolf, its takes a hold of your heart and rushes you through a whirlwind of future and past. A quick squeeze to your chest, then its gone but it leaves you frightened. Sometimes, you take your fingers, embed your nails, and pinch at your skin.

You pinch hard and the pain erodes your thoughts. I can’t recall much of it now. Maybe next time I’ll remember to record it.

I recall my summer days while visiting family in the motherland. Jet lagged and tired, I would have sleepless nights.

The light from the plaza shone into the room and cast orange shadows in the fractal patterns embedded in the frosted windows. I despised that orange light. Those nights, I spent alone in a room shared with four. All the others slept soundly.

My little cousin, barely making two years old, was a peaceful sight as he lay directly in my line of vision. Countless times I would hear the nightwalkers make noise in the courtyard and I would futilely try to decipher their shadows against the windows. The seconds of the night ticked by to make minutes. Lost in boredom, I would creep into the living room desperately finding something to do. I found a place by the window that overlooked the plaza and, here, I would listen to the drunken folk scream and watch the motorbikes rumble carrying a delivery of midnight meals. These little excitements of the night would happen every hour or so. Eventually, I would quietly make my way back to bed and unknowingly fall asleep.

But what about when we grow old? When the lingering guillotine of death hangs from a weak string that will in due time snap from gravity’s pull. Death, you don’t scare me as much now. I’ve been desensitized. All those deep nights I’ve encountered you in the realm of my cosmic imagination. You frightened me with your presence in black holes and the void of space. My early nights were spent thinking of the people in my life, my disposition, and most importantly love. She was new. Mostly smiling and shy. Her teeth made her smile amazing. It was from afar that I first saw her. Meeting new friends, she looked happy. She fit in well. I remember thinking of her and smiling into my pillow.

I only remember the good memories. The free periods we spent studying together were calm and nice. She made her way to my study period from hers after telling her proctor that she had to work on math. I found the effort attractive. I waited six months. She knew only of two. In the middle of the two months, we had a trip to Seattle. There, on the first night,

was the first time I had talked to you. I said one word and one comment. The first was “hi” and I forgot the second. It couldn’t have been that interesting anyways.

Oh my, do I remember the dark dancehall where you pulled me through the crowd while the soft serenade of Purple Rain rang while the flat laser lights swiveled in senseless directions. I remember your arm extending from the high of your shoulder as it pulled my hand and body in whatever direction you took me. I didn’t care. I was lost in the darkness and you were my guide. Close my eyes and remember. Pull up close again and I hope that you feel the shudder in my breath. Feel my heart throb in the erratic beat of love that is lulled into the comfort of a slow dance. Look at me again and whisper some nervous words.

I’m awake again. A welcomed breeze drifts through the curtains. I remove the towels from underneath me and pull my duvet over my shoulders then tuck myself in. The room is dark and I face the windows. The black silhouettes of tall trees sway to the gentle push of the wind. Looming and ominous, they dance against the gray background. I reach for the clock. The short hand was positioned slightly below the five. I look up to the looming trees, sigh, then turn to stare into the morning darkness.

I remembered a night in the middle of winter. The city sat glowing afar and the wine colored sky floated in the distance. I walked out of my building and ventured into the calm streets. Wispy snow snaked through the lowly airstreams, buffeting my ankles and running a cold chill up my pants. I walked upwards, towards the hill. Under an underpass and down one street, I arrived at a small neighborhood.

In the middle of the neighborhood, white lights flooded a snow-covered court. Out of the lime-light, I found a clearing fashioned into an ice-rink. Small trees, stripped of their leaves and in the shadows, lingered around the rink, whispering with the rattle of their branches. I treaded carefully, slowly sliding my shoes across the ice, placing one step in front of the other. I made my way to the middle and, there, I sat staring up towards the speckled universe.

As I gazed towards the cosmos, there, on the cool ice that breathed through my warm jacket, I ignited. A great flame erupted from the void of space and caught my jacket, turning my body into a tall orange bonfire and sending its flickering arms towards the darkened sky. Black snow floated upwards, the smell of singed polyester filled the hot cloud of smoke.

The fire, uncontrollable, illuminated the clearing and the shared shadows retreated behind the trunks of the trees, running further off into the looming distance –away from the perilous heat. Aflame, there I was, a lone light in the valleys of darkness, screaming to be heard. Will they listen? Will they grant? Will they do nothing, I suppose.

Morning light pushes its first rays past the trees and into my room, some reflecting off the mirror, striking my eyes awake.

Queen leduc Micah Flavin

sometimes i say oh no in advance, right when i wake up, before anything technically bad happens. one example of something bad is if the girl i love with every cell i have calls me while im on the toilet and leaves a voicemail saying that she can’t make it to my birthday party. i would cancel my birthday and cancel the season summer and then shrivel into a shrimp and toss myself in the sea.

love letters Hanna Bee

I used someone else as a placeholder for you when I started writing this; walking home alone at 3 AM all the bars on Saint-Laurent doing last call I breathe easy, knuckles cradling keys, smoking on the sidewalk and promise that this is yours and yours only, my love, my love, my love slow traffic on Mont-Royal streetlights humming / luminous waste and me, kissing consecrated concrete (tastes a million times better than weed or anyone’s bottom lip ever could) I love you for your bikes and brick walls, for the 80 running at some ungodly hour and warm bagels in paper bags and yr tongue foreign and romantic and cursed to never adhere to the roof of my mouth I love you for the lovers you leave on my doorstep (for the lovers I leave at their doorsteps) (for every boy with a fine arts degree who I will laugh about six months from now) For the cross on the mountain For the water below

Like dust

Niyousha Bastani The truth about father’s divine law is written in negative spaces for in the world of being there is only a mother tongue that sings out of tune when slipping through daughter’s lips and a faith that swallows her whole then spits back out her blandest bits.

Father doesn’t quite like that in negative spaces she kisses imaginary women and sells cultural secrets to imaginary spies.

In negative spaces like smoke she changes forms and father sees her again as a foreigner dreaming of a sacred space full of dust she blows into the empty corners disturbing ever so slightly the cosmic law of father’s restless gods.

For nights like tonight where the moon sits in Aries I love you I love you I love you

Butterflies Sophie Panzer

Hannah is sixteen, and she sees her friends begin to change their bodies.

Nature has already given them breasts and hips, periods and pubic hair.

Now they metamorphose on their own terms.

Taylor walks in the first day of school with her hair cropped close to her skull. Jen’s cheeks hollow amidst rumors that she eats only lemon wedges and chia seeds. Isabel lifts her shirt in the locker room to reveal a mildly infected rose blooming in the small of her back.

Hannah’s hair is long, her skin unpierced. Her cheeks are round with puppy fat. She eats pot roast and knishes and potato pancakes cooked by a woman whose hair was once shaved, whose bones were once visible, whose wrist still bears the number tattooed on her wrist so many years ago.

Kalaam 36,000 ft.

Somewhere over the Atlantic ocean.

Ralph Haddad

I never feel more alone than when I’m on a plane. I never feel more impatient either.

Loneliness and impatience, when you’re trapped on a seven hour flight with 500 other strangers is a not a great thing to feel. More than ever now I feel, or I have been feeling, an overwhelming emptiness.

Not the morose kind though.

Not the kind of emptiness you feel you can stifle with something; someone.

Just the kind you resign yourself to.

Elias Khoury said that Lebanese people are ever happier than when they’re on a plane.

In Lebanon, they feel stifled – they have nowhere to run from the many crises that fatigue the country like the plague. They have nowhere to go, except the airport. Abroad, they feel depressed, they pine for home – it’s not the same over ‘there’. You don’t completely fit in, people look at you weird sometimes for speaking out loud in your mother tongue, you feel like you’re trapped in a dream, along with everyone else (are they all really happy?). So, there’s nowhere to feel more content on than a plane, either leaving Lebanon, or leaving your adopted second home on the way back to your ‘real’ one, away from the illusion.

We are a people in a constant state of transit, and simultaneously also of latent dynamic energy.

More than half my plane from Beirut to Paris was filled with people who were on their way to Canada. In many ways the country itself has become a myth, a bedtime story we tell our friends – or anyone who would care to listen really – simultaneously beautiful and abhorrent. The only reality I cling to is the friendships I’ve made there, everything else – all my problems, my casual sexual encounters, my physical environment even – I can will away if I close my eyes and concentrate hard enough. And when I leave again it will have all felt like a prolonged lucid dream.

I’ve never really felt this way about leaving before, it feels odd.

I tried to keep up appearances if only for my mother’s sake, but if it were up to me I would’ve done away with the formalities altogether.

This makes me restless, I feel uncomfortable. I numb myself any way that I can. I cling on to the people I know if only to legitimate my own sense of self.

I think of the ancient oak tree that guards the entrance to the capital. Its branches spread out to completely eclipse both sides of the four lane highway in shade. What has it seen?

Last night in Beirut feels unreal. I was not present. My body was there, it was responsive, I ate and replied when called upon. But my mind was completely absent, completely clouded with recurring thoughts of my impending departure.

We land in Montreal in a couple of hours. Everything will happen quietly from there. The conductor in my brain will take over the movie of my Canadian life as I go back to my last year on Turtle Island, Inshallah.

“Your mother is worried about you,” my father declares, sitting in the cockpit of the plane that took me to Europe. I am unfazed by his statement. I respond with a meek “Mm.” And that’s that, I go back to my book.

“... Personal and political are interdependent but not one and the same thing. The realm of imagination is a bridge between them, constantly refashioning one in terms of the other …” Azar Nafisi says to me.

Driving to the airport at dawn is always a treat. The streets are refreshingly empty as I speed down the highway towards Beirut.

The sky is still dark, but slowly giving way to faint hues of indigo, painting everything in a rather somber light. Nothing looks or feels threatening at this time of day. My anxiety melts away.

As the sun inches its way up over the mountain range, we are instantly engulfed in an inescapable heat. The city wakes up.

The airport is filled to the brim with people. “Four full flights have already gone off to Hajj,” the airport transport driver tells my father.

It is 6 a.m. Many people in line are dressed to the nines – where are they going? Only in Lebanon do people bother dressing up to get on a plane. I will never understand this. I feel underdressed in my black pyjama shorts and my matching Mashrou’ Leila t-shirt.

As we take-off, the city, now below us, looks magical, shrouded in a mist, all homogeneously a fuzzy baby blue. Nothing has changed, but I feel incredibly different.

Features

November 7, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Indigenous disabled student alleges discrimination

McGill Dentistry student unfairly accused of being drunk during student clinic, ridiculed for accomodations Written by Saima Desai | Visuals by Kevin Tam

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November 7, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Features

O

n August 20, Gregory Gareau, a third-year student in McGill’s Faculty of Dentistry, was informed that he would not be promoted to the fourth year of the Dentistry program, DMD-IV, since he had failed two courses. “The reasons for having me repeat two courses from third year are either outright lies or instances in which my student rights have been violated,” Gareau told me.

He says that he has been denied adequate accommodations for his disability, and has faced harassment and discrimination based on the fact that he’s an Indigenous person. After appealing the decision on October 11, his appeal was denied.

Gareau is a Métis student from rural Manitoba, who also suffers from chronic back pain. He’s endured everything from vulgar messages written on his locker, to having to wait two years for a modified dental chair for his disability – all of which have made his time in Dentistry “a nightmare,” he told me. “I have been told by dental supervisors that people like me are ‘too slow’ to ever succeed in dentistry,” he said.

“Sit down or get out”: treatment of students with disabilities Gareau was in a serious car accident when he was 17, in 2005. “The seat belt broke two vertebrae in my neck, and it cut one of my muscles under my right armpit, and it sliced through my abdominal muscles. I lost six bags of blood. I tore ligaments in my knee and in my right shoulder. I broke teeth. One of my quad muscles was put in to reconstruct my abdominal wall – I still have a flank hernia, I had a colostomy bag for 9 months,” he told me.

Gareau said all of this is known to the Faculty of Dentistry, since he’d included it in his application to the Dentistry program. “I had applied using my story [...] to explain why I am going to be a great healthcare professional, why I have the potential to be a healer, because of what I’ve gone through and my experiences on both ends of the spectrum of the doctor-patient relationship,” he explained.

“I have been told by dental supervisors that people like me are ‘too slow’ to ever succeed in dentistry.”

—Gregory Gareau After the crash, a portion of his intestine was removed, and he has been diagnosed with liver hemangioma – a tangle of blood vessels in the liver – as well as gallstones. In order to minimize his stomach pain, he needs to eat frequent, small meals.

With a doctor’s note, which was provided to the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD), the OSD made the recommendation that he be allowed to eat in class.

“I was sent to the Students’ Promotions Committee [SPC] in second year because they were not sure that I was ‘professional enough’ to move from second year to third year, because I was eating in class,” Gareau said. Faculty have repeatedly challenged his accommodations, with one instructor “yelling at me in front of my classmates, stating multiple times that I was told not to eat in class,” he said.

Gareau is a patient at the Chronic Pain Management Unit of the Montreal General

Kevin Tam | The McGill Daily

Gareau inside the Faculty of Dentistry building.

Hospital, and part of his treatment includes taking daily medication to control his back pain, another residual effect of the car crash. “The Faculty of Dentistry has, on multiple occasions, ordered me to not take any medications at all on days which I am to treat a patient,” he continued. “In fact, the changing nature of my prescriptions has been scoffed at by the faculty in email correspondences and used [...] to discredit my requests for accommodations.”

As another accommodation for his back pain, Gareau requested a modified dental chair which helped support his lower back, since the standard-issue dental chairs which students receive caused his pain to be so severe as to be “incapacitating,” he told me.

Although Gareau was assured in a letter from the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Shahrokh Esfandiari, that he would “find an expedited way” for Greg to receive a modified dental chair, it took him two years to actually receive a new chair. “There were so many barriers put in: after I got the doctor’s note, after I registered with the OSD, [the faculty member] drew it out. He would always say, ‘Now we need this, now we need that, now we need you to see an occupational therapist.’”

“On Monday I may have seemed okay, but [...] I was not leaving my house from Friday when I got home from school, till Monday morning when I went back to school, because I would be laying on my floor to alleviate my back pain,” Gareau said. Another dentistry student, Nathalie* told me that, during those two years, she had seen Gareau flat on his back on the floor of the Dentistry locker room many times, to reduce his pain.

At other times, Gareau needs to stand up during lectures due to his pain – an accommodation he says was made explicit to the Faculty by the OSD. Nathalie described an incident where Gareau was standing during a class, and the professor interrupted his lecture to tell Gareau to “sit down or get out” of the classroom.

“The way they treat him is ridiculous,” Nathalie told me. “Once he was standing in clinic, because he has problems with his back. The profs always make fun of him, they look at him in a weird way.”

Because of his back pain, Gareau uses loops – small lenses that sit on top of eyeglasses, which change the wearer’s field of vision so they don’t have to bend their neck to work at a desk. But the loops that Gareau ordered – paying $1500 out of his own pocket even after a student discount was applied – were too heavy, and had a “working distance” between his eyes and the desk that was too short. When he sent a request to the faculty to have his loops exchanged, “they outright refused, and they admonished me again for daring to question them,” said Gareau.

“The way they treat him is ridiculous . [...]

The profs always make fun of him, they look at him in a weird way.”

—Nathalie* McGill Dentistry student “I’ve been made to feel ashamed of my disability in Dentistry,” he told me. “I’ve been forced to apologize for the impact that my need for accommodations has had on the faculty. It’s been really hard for me, to go to so many people [and request accommodations] and say, ‘because I am a person with a disability.’ It doesn’t look like I have a disability, but chronic pain is an invisible disability.”

Anti-Indigenous sentiments in Dentistry “I come from a small village named Woodlands. The town consists of 250 people with the surrounding area; it’s an hour north of Winnipeg,” Gareau told me. “It’s the kind

of place where people play horseshoes, and have town barbecues and rodeos. It’s an Aboriginal area – it’s not a reserve – and mainly Métis people, or people of Métis descent, live in the area,” he explained.

Gareau, like most people in his community, is Métis – a term which refers to someone of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry, recognized as Aboriginal under Canadian law. He’s the first in his immediate family to go to university.

During our first interview, he told me immediately, “I like to talk with my eyes closed to try and concentrate when I try to recall events. For me, this is normal, when we speak in Aboriginal ceremonies, everybody gets a turn to talk and you’re not necessarily looking at each other. I say this because I’ve been made to feel very self-conscious about the way that I act while at McGill, while in Dentistry, by faculty, by other students.”

Gareau said that he’s been dealing with harassment and alienation since the beginning of his time in Dentistry. He’s found messages written on whiteboards in the Dentistry locker room, such as “suck a dick Greg,” and had his locker vandalized with drawings of a penis.

“I’ve been made to feel ashamed of my disability in Dentistry” —Gregory Gareau Some of the anti-Indigenous sentiment in Dentistry is subtle – for example, Gareau told me about how a professor in the faculty would carelessly call meetings with students “powwows.” But, more alarmingly, Gareau has been accused of being high or drunk while working in the dental clinic – a stereotype often used to discredit Indigenous people.

“I’m always told from faculty that I look high, that I look ‘weird,’ that I’m ‘too slow to

November 7, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Features ever succeed in dentistry.’ I’ve been asked if I ‘smoked drugs,’” Gareau said. The letter from the SPC to Gareau notes that “The committee members have expressed great concerns about your professional behavior and agreed with the DENT310 directorship that you are not ready to be promoted to DMD-IV.” He recounted an instance in which, during his time working in the Dentistry student clinic, he was taken aside by the clinic manager and was told that there was an “anonymous complaint” from a staff member that he smelled like alcohol.

“I came in from the front doors, went up the stairs, and started setting up my station, and immediately I was pulled aside. It was the first week of treating patients in third year.

I didn’t even talk to anybody, I just walked in the building,” Gareau told me.

After being pulled aside by the clinic manager, “we went into a small radiograph room, and she started smelling me, my clothes. I took off my shoes and she smelled my shoes. And she said ‘nope, you don’t smell like alcohol,’” he added.

In an email to Gareau, the clinic supervisor explained that after pulling Gareau aside, she noticed that he had been chewing gum, which was what she had smelled.

“Alcohol has devastated Aboriginal communities, and personally I’ve been touched by alcohol abuse, within my own family,” said Gareau. “This happened about ten or 15 minutes to 9 a.m., when I’m supposed to see a patient – and I did. I put it aside, and dealt with it. But I was shocked.”

Indigenizing the University Since coming to McGill, Gareau has coordinated dental workshops for youth through the Native Friendship Centre of Montreal, as well as participated in the Indigenous Student Mentorship Program under McGill’s First Peoples House. He began studying Dentistry with the aim of working in a rural Indigenous community, since children in Indigenous communities have some of the highest rates of severe tooth decay in Canada.

Gareau told me about how a professor in the faculty would carelessly call meetings with students “pow-wows.”

“I am so grateful that I have escaped generations of family abuse, alcoholism, and as a Métis man, colonialism, in order to be in a position to become a healthcare professional,” he told me. But in his appeal letter, Gareau wrote, “I am concerned that my repetition of third year will be seen as evidence that Western professional programs are incompatible with Aboriginal worldviews and beliefs.”

In an interview with the McGill Reporter, McGill professor and Indigenous rights advocate Cindy Blackstock said, “You don’t recruit Aboriginal students; you change your university environment so that they’ll come.” And despite McGill launching a task force on Indigenous Studies and Education this year, it seems like McGill’s faculties may still be a hostile environment for many Indigenous students.

“The first step towards healing is for the Faculty to announce that ‘yes, there are reports of unfair treatment’ and ‘yes, our

faculty and everyone who steps through our doors is going to get a lesson on cultural safety,’” Gareau said.

Paul Allison, Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry, told me in an email that while the Faculty didn’t systematically collect data about Indigenous students, “we know there are currently three self-declared Indigenous students across the four years of our program of approximately forty students per year (i.e. three in a current total of 157 students).”

“You don’t recruit Aboriginal students; you change your university environment so they’ll come.”

—Cindy Blackstock Professor in McGill’s School of Social Work

Allison also noted that “faculty have attended university-wide training on cultural sensitivity, diversity and equity offered in collaboration with the Office of Social Equity and Diversity Education (SEDE) for, among others, search committees and human resources.”

He added that the Admissions Committee, which oversees the selection and admission of applicants to the Dentistry program, “seeks to promote as diverse an applicant pool and as diverse a pool of students admitted to the program as is possible, while recognizing the demanding academic, social, behavioural, communications and ethical qualities all our dental students should have in order to be admitted.”

provider.” Esfandiari was a member of the SPC which, almost a year later, had to vote unanimously to have Greg repeat the year.

He also represented the SPC at the Student Appeal Committee on October 11.

Gareau appealed the decision to the Student Appeal Committee on October 11, 2016. His appeal was denied on the grounds that “the Committee decided that there is not enough evidence to question the decision taken by the Student Promotions Committee,” according to a letter Gareau received from the Student Appeal Committee Chair.

Gareau is currently seeking a year-long leave of absence from the Dentistry program, after which he plans to graduate in April 2019.

“The denial of the appeal means that I have an opportunity to raise the issues of discrimination that I have witnessed and have faced to an audience outside of the Faculty of Dentistry, where fresh ears will hear them,” he told me.

In June 2015, McGill’s medical school was put on probation after it received a failing grade from the Committee on Accreditation of Canadian Medical schools (CACMS).

One of the concerns was that there was “significant under-representation in the student and faculty body of identified groups, including women in leadership positions, and aboriginal faculty.” Then, in April 2016, The Daily reported that a McGill medical student filed a lawsuit against the Faculty of Medicine after he was put on academic probation, alleging that he had not received adequate accommodations for his disability.

Gareau believes that McGill’s Faculty of Dentistry faces similar issues of systemic discrimination to those alleged against the Fac-

ulty of Medicine. “This is just my story – just one – and there are forty students in each year,” he said. Aside from the concerns of discrimination, he also cites a lack of adherence to clinical protocols and sound teaching practices as reasons for his appeal.

“I wish more students stood up, but they’re so scared,” said Nathalie. “[Dentistry is] not like mathematics, where it doesn’t matter if they like you or not, if you have the right answer. Dentistry is [...] very subjective. If they don’t like you, they’ll give you hell.”

“I’m having nightmares of the people who told me that I would never succeed when I first started going to school,” Gareau told me. “It is hard to remember all of the supportive words from the elders in my life because I am so far removed from that kind of support.”

Dentistry is [...] very subjective. If they don’t like you, they’ll give you hell.”

—Nathalie* McGill Dentistry Student “I have also made it clear to the Dean of Dentistry that, when I am confident that my safety has been made a priority by the school, that I am willing to once again open my heart and move the faculty of Dentistry’s relationship with Indigenous communities forward.” *name has been changed

What does this mean for McGill Dentistry?

In the Faculty of Dentistry, failing any supplemental or remedial examination means that the student is required to repeat the year. Gareau had failed two courses, DENT 310 and DENT 318 – failing the supplemental exam for the latter – which led to the decision not to promote him to DMD-IV. However, Gareau told me that while he was writing exams, including his remedial exam for DENT 318, he was interrupted multiple times, and called the interruptions a “tactic.” “I would be writing my exams at the dental building with an OSD invigilator.

Someone would continuously come in and ask me if I needed a washroom break, every 15 to twenty minutes,” he told me. “Finally I said, ‘the protocol is that I request a stopwatch break time as part of my accommodations, and I go to the washroom, and I just let the invigilator know.’”

The letter from the SPC cites “low productivity,” and “not adhering to clinical guidelines” as reasons why Gareau failed DENT 310, even though Gareau provided documents that show he completed well above the average number of restorations (also known as fillings) for the class, and his student evaluation forms consistently show him “meeting expectations” or “exceeding expectations.”

In a letter Gareau received from Shahrokh Esfandiari, Esfandiari wrote, “Greg, I remind you that you were admitted into the DMD program based on your qualifications that have placed you above many other highly competitive applicants, and for this reason I am confident that you have the ability to become a competent health care

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Kevin Tam | The McGill Daily

Sci+Tech

November 7, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Let’s talk biodiversity

14

We have officially left the Holocene

Diamond Yao Sci+Tech Writer

T

he “Anthropocene” is upon us. On August 29th, 2016, the Working Group of the Anthropocene, a group of scientists working on the formal definition of a new geological era, voted to formally designate our current geological epoch the “Anthropocene” and presented the recommendation to the 35th International Geological Congress, one of the largest geological conferences in the world of its kind. If the term is approved, we would have officially left the Holocene. The prefix “anthropo” implies that humans have a deep impact on it. The “Anthropocene” has been discussed as a term since the 1960’s, but it is now officially recognized. The worst part is that the overwhelming majority of us are not even aware of this change as we mill about our everyday lives, unknowingly pushing ourselves deeper and deeper into the abyss of this terrifying geological epoch.

Welcome to the Anthropocene The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) predicts that 67 per cent of species (relative to 1970 levels) will be lost by 2020. The organization has just released an alarming new report stating that the number of animal species has already plummeted 58 per cent from 1970 levels. Three oft-cited culprits are to blame: the destruction of wild habitats, hunting and pollution. Some truly horrifying statistics have emerged from this report. Unsustainable fishing causes aquatic ecosystems to be depleted more rapidly than they can regenerate themselves. This is caused by numerous factors such as more technologically sophisticated fishing equipment and international watermaking it hard to monitor. In addition, poaching has caused more than three hundred mammalian species to have become extinct. More specifically, vultures in Southeast Asia have been decimated over the last twenty years.

Rivers and lakes have seen animal populations freefall from 81 per cent of their previous levels. In concrete terms, the magic number that we need to avoid is a two degrees Celsius rise in temperature.

Origins of the green movement The Canadian Federal, Provincial and Territorial Working Group on Biodiversity, established by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment in 1992, defines biodiversity as the variety of species and ecosystems on Earth and the ecological processes of which they are a part of. The history of the green movement itself goes back even further. As early as 1802, William Wordsworth, one of the preemi-

nent English Romantic poets, criticized in his work the rapid industrialization that was happening around him. “The world is too much with us,” he writes in his famous masterpiece, “late and soon, getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; little we see in Nature that is ours; we have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!” The first case of forest conservation legislation came in the mid-19th century, spearheaded

by Alexander Gibson, a Scottish surgeon and botanist. Alexander Humboldt, a Prussian geographer and naturalist who linked deforestation, increasing aridity and temperature change on a global scale, was instrumental in putting in place a state governed system of forest management in the then British colony of India.

Biodiversity has been a piece of our collective consciousness since James Watt’s steam machine gave us the ability to change the fate of our planet.

What about now?

More than two hundred years later, environmental issues are still not getting the attention they deserve. It’s hard to worry about the state of the biosphere when you hardly ever see nature. “As a student living in a city like Montreal, it’s easy to feel extremely disconnected from nature and the issues that surround decreasing biodiversity,” says Mari Claire Paoli, the lead organizer an upcoming public Student Environment Action Network and WWF conference discussion on biodiversity. “Yes, the impending extinction of hundreds of species is a tragedy, but how much can it really impact us, privileged firstworld citizens?” Montreal, after all, gives us food from halfway across the world that comes in too many disposable packages year-round, instant heating and air conditioning when we are freezing cold or burning up, clothes made in developing countries that we throw away when a new fashion trend comes around, meat overconsumption and instant access to hot showers. “As humans, it is common for us to feel unaffected by biodiversity loss,” says Celeste Welch, founder and president of WWF McGill. Many of us rarely venture out of this industrious city; making it all too easy to forget that we are intrinsically and inescapably intertwined with our environment.

We delude ourselves into thinking that our personal issues are more important than the destruction and loss of the world that we evolved from. It’s hard to think about biodiversity when our own city gives us the illusion of being shielded from what is really happening in nature. However, such ideas are misguided, largely because industrialization and citis are only

Jennifer Guan | The McGill Daily made possible because there is biodiversity in the first place.

On the occasion of World City Day this past Halloween, the United Nations (UN) Decade on Biodiversity, as recommended during the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties, and referring to the decade between 2011-2020 created new plans. This decade declared by the UN General Assembly to support and promote implementation of the objectives of two plans that have a goal of significantly reducing biodiversity loss (Strategic Plan for Biodiversity and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets) released a message on why biodiversity is a central issue for city dwellers. It states that “Ecosystems provide many kinds of services to the city: provisioning of food, fibre and fuels; regulating through purification, detoxification, buffering of heat islands and mitigation of droughts and floods; increasing real estate value due to valuation of green spaces, and enriching the spiritual, aesthetic and social life of urban dwellers.” Biodiversity makes cities function and thrive. “[By destroying biodiversity], we are also creating an environment in which we ourselves cannot survive.

We fail to see the bigger picture that all of life is interdependent.

We forget that, without our environment, we are nothing,” elaborates Welch. Paoli echoes similar feelings, “saying that] a morphing biodiversity will have ripple effects is a huge understatement.

On very concrete terms, entire ecosystems will shift to new equi-

librium states, creating environments that we are not used to and do not understand.” In fact, in 2012, the University of Michigan released a comprehensive study examining the effects of humangenerated biodiversity loss in different environments. The measured environmental impact of species loss in regions with higher levels of extinction (41 to sixty per cent) were deemed to be comparable to those of other big drivers of environmental change such as ozone pollution, and acid rain.

And there is no telling where this process will go in the future. A study published in Nature in 2014 gave over a thousand possible scenarios depending on the actions we take today.

What does the future hold?

If we want to stay on track and keep temperature levels from rising by more than two degrees Celsius, measures across all environmental sectors must be adopted. But instead, we are currently on track to raise our global temperatures from 3.2 to 5.4 degrees Celsius, one of the worst climate scenarios predicted by current climate models.

Humans today have the power to act in order to prevent the most catastrophic scenarios, but our window of opportunity is closing fast.

Not taking action can be dangerous.

“We bury our heads in the sand to stay blind to the crux of the matter: that we are a species, just as U. maritimus or B. mysticetus are species. H. sapiens – a species, and a dangerous one at that,” says Welch.

The intrinsic interconnectedness of the environment therefore makes it impossible to neglect even one issue without it affecting all the others – and biodiversity is as good a place as any to start.

“It’s important to take the time to discuss the very real issues that many people around the world, including Canada, are already experiencing as a consequence of shifting ecosystems,” says Paoli as one of the things she hopes to get out from next week’s discussion conference. Indeed, the past summer has seen interesting changes in biodiversity close to Montreal.

Narwhals, a species that usually dwells in the Arctic-sunfish and capelins all have all increased in numbers in the St. Lawrence.

Scientists suspect warmer waters for the change in species composition. It is too early to tell whether that is a good or a bad thing, but it is probably wise to not wait it out. David Hooper, a professor at the University of Western Washington, suggests some simple actions people can take right now to mitigate species loss: reducing pesticide and fertilizer use to decrease the runoff of those chemicals in aquatic ecosystems, composting and recycling to decrease the amount of waste that clog up natural habitats, and using environmentally friendly cleaning products that do not contain harmful chemicals. Ultimately, it is our responsibility to think about the well being, the future, and our deep impact on the ecosystem that we evolve in.

Culture

It’s in the stars

November 7, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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Constellations strings together quantum mechanics, relativity, and love

Rahma Wiryomartono | The McGill Daily

The brochure of the play.

Lanya Feng Culture Writer

C

onstellations made its first appearance at Centaur Theatre on October 4, inspiring conversations on existentialism, string theory, and beekeeping.

Written by Nick Payne and directed

by Peter Hinton, the play’s dialogical structure explores the potential existence of parallel universes – and themes beyond the physical world, as it questioned free will and the power of fate.

No matter which direction the worlds explored, the will of fate overcame the will of self.

The play was built on the successive dialogues between two lovers, Marianne and Roland. Each new conversation represents a subtly different universe, as the lovers experience how choices affect the outcomes of their relationship. As the play progresses, different narratives are interwoven by the result of the couple’s actions.

Staged on a large, rotating platform resembling a wheel, the couple shifts back and forth between different uni-

verses whenever the lights flicker and the platform revolves. Each dialogue exists independently and never intersects with another world. Marianne, played by Cara Ricketts, is a passionate physicist who meets and falls in love with Roland, a beekeeper played

by Graham Cuthbertson. When they begin a relationship, the two start their journey toward an unexpected future.

In one universe, during the burgeoning stages of their relationship, Marianne asks Roland: “Do you believe in parallel worlds?” Frustrated, Roland smiles back, awaiting an answer.

“In the quantum multiverse, every choice, every decision you’ve ever made and never made exists in an unimaginably vast ensemble of parallel universes,” she explains, passionately discussing her work in quantum physics.

“This is genuinely turning me on,” Roland says, right before kissing her.

As their voices fade, an awkward atmosphere ensues that reveals the couple’s contrasting priorities: Marianne’s existential contemplation and Roland’s sexual preoccupation. In the preceding moments, the stage begins to spin. The concept of multiple universes is introduced, providing the answer to Marianne’s previous question. Later, this dialogue is repeated in different settings in alternate universes – representing the change in individual perceptions over time.

This scene sets the pattern that would continue throughout the

play: subtle changes continue to reveal the diverging priorities of the characters.

Are we, on this earth, manipulated by the invisible hands of fate, or are we the directors of our lives?

As the lights fade and the wheel in the centre of the stage starts to spin, the universe undergoes a transformation. The dialogues between Marianne and Roland took place once again. With each spin of the wheel, the dialogue was repeated with minor variations. These details, however, would compound and demonstrate the power of individual actions and the impact they have to transform outcomes.

Tensions increase between Marianne and Roland as they move through the stages of their relationship on differing universes. The stories not only depict the emotional trials of a relationship, but also explored Marianne’s different reactions upon discovering that she was diagnosed with cancer. The couple

attempt to combat fate across space and time, yet they were hopeless when the end drew near.

The theories of physics were articulated in understandable language that allowed audience to ponder fate and free will without stumbling over scientific words. The concepts of quantum mechanics reveal the subjectivity within high level science. The play displayed love using science as a tool of emotional connectivity instead of cold, hard, rational facts to which it’s usually associated.

If parallel universes exist, to what extent are humans manipulated by fate? Are humans able to make their own decisions? Free will, in Constellations, exists in all the choices made by Marianne and Roland – as they ultimately chose different paths. In one universe, they were merely friends. In another, they married happily. In every universe presented, the couple undergoes different paths. However, it seemed to the playwright that none of these choices matter. No matter which direction the worlds explored, the will of fate overcame the will of self.

The playwright incited the audience to think about the tension between one’s fate versus the choices one makes. Are we, on this earth, manipulated by the invisible hands of fate, or are we the directors of our lives?

Lucia Kowaluk, a seasonal pass holder of the Centaur Theatre, was clearly astonished by this question.

“This is the best show they have put together in while,” she told The Daily, “The directing and acting are absolutely brilliant and beautifully articulated.

It explored so many intense societal problems such as sex, relationships, death, and it is clearly accurate [in it’s portrayal of these societal issues].”

Constellations presents long-debated philosophical concepts in a simple, succinct, and light-hearted way that leaves the audience entertained.

Constellations presents longdebated philosophical concepts in a simple, succinct, and light-hearted way that leaves the audience entertained. “As [Lucia] said, the show was beautiful and dense,” Jean Crawford, another season pass holder, told The Daily. “The [cellist solo] added to the meaning and enhance the stories. It is definitely worth seeing and recommending.”

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November 7, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Culture

From Fukushima

Politics and natural disasters

Sonia Ionescu | The McGill Daily Xavier Martinez Culture Writer

E

ver since its reptilian silhouette and chilling roar first emerged on the big screen, Godzilla has become one of Japan’s most recognizable and profitable cultural icons.

Ishiro Honda’s 1954 film places the creature directly against the fearful and despondent society of postwar Japan – still deeply afflicted by the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As a result, the “King of the Monsters” has grown to become not only a source of entertainment, but also a lasting allegory of nuclear devastation and the consequences of humankind’s tragic arrogance.

This allegory has been updated and reconfigured in Shin Godzilla, the latest film in the Godzilla series. Directors Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi were compelled by the success of Gareth Edwards’ 2014 Godzilla.

Edwards’ film, however, places the Japanese cultural icon within an American context. Shin Godzilla replied to Edwards’s film by reclaiming this symbol and examining its historical ties to Japan, as well as the power of allegory to demand change within the Japanese government’s bureaucracy. As a result, the film was considered an outstanding success in Japan, more so than in the U.S., demonstrating how cultural context frames and politicizes a film in different ways.

Shin Godzilla represents the turmoil inflicted on Japan by the 2011 Tohoku and Fukushima natural disasters.

In contrast to many other films in the Godzilla series, Shin Godzilla doesn’t draw inspiration from the heritage of nuclear bombings.

Most critics believe that Honda’s 1954 film represents Godzilla as a physical manifestation of a nuclear bomb, thus punishing mankind for creating the bomb in the first place. Instead, Shin Godzilla represents the turmoil inflicted on Japan by the 2011 Tohoku and Fukushima natural disasters. The message in Anno and Higuchi’s film, however, holds the government – not human kind – responsible for encouraging the monster’s destruction. Subsequently, the film criticizes the government’s failure to take decisive measures against Godzilla and ensure the wellbeing of its civilians as they flee from the chaos and destruction, because of the government’s need to secure their own interests before all else.

[Godzilla] has grown to become not only a source of entertainment, but also a lasting allegory of nuclear devastation.

In Shin Godzilla, the titular monster has evolved into a terrifying combination of tsunami, earthquake, and nuclear meltdown, embodying the triple disaster that occurred on March 11, 2011 in eastern Honshu. As it

emerges from the depths of Tokyo Bay, the creature begins its onslaught by wreaking destruction through the bayside neighborhoods. Godzilla is first seen plowing within massive torrents that engulf cars and boats and tear the bricks and concrete off buildings while civilians run away in terror. As the monster then evolves from a primitive worm-like creature to a fully advanced leviathan, the Earth begins to quake in the presence of its fearsome power.

The city, now evacuated, leaves only the remnants of Tokyo; roads and monorails grow cracked and jagged, while apartment buildings and commercial skyscrapers crumble down to the streets below in a pandemonium of smashing glass and crushing concrete. Finally, when the military first attempts to destroy the creature, it unleashes its full

November 7, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Culture

rises Godzilla

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meet the King of the Monsters nuclear power. Godzilla’s atomic breath is now complemented by devastating energy rays shot from its dorsal fins, which blaze down the city and envelop its ruins into the darkness of the night.

The government evolves into a role of secondary, passive antagonist, while Yaguchi and his team are the ones that fight back against deference and buck-passing.

Following these different scenes of destruction, the film shows government officials as they attempt to control damage and provide emergency services to civilians. The cinematography then closely mirrors photos that surfaced from the actual disasters.

We are given shots of the mobilizing blue-suited civil servants combing through huge piles of debris strewn across the devastated city, overcrowded underground shelters where terrified and confused civilians sit amidst unsettling lights and sounds, and politicians donning their emergency jumpsuits and convening emergency press conferences. The way these scenes are staged starkly echoes the way real-life journalists and reporters documented the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear meltdown on March 11 and afterwards.

Even Godzilla’s massive tail – jagged and cracked with radioactive energy just like the rest of its new body – swishing over residential quarters evokes memories of the nuclear fallout sent wafting over towns and cities. By mediating images of the triple calamity through the monster and its destructive acts, Shin Godzilla thus reveals

the trauma that still lingers in the collective subconscious of Japanese society.

Aside from these visual callbacks to the 2011 disasters, Shin Godzilla also succeeds as a highly potent commentary on the state of contemporary Japanese politics and its incapacity to deal with such a crisis in an efficient way. Early on in the story, as the Prime Minister’s cabinet members assemble to evaluate the first reports of the monster, we already see them indulge in self-interested and complicated formalities to determine the right executive course of action. This portrayal evades the two stereotypes about politicians that can undermine the political element of any action film. Politicians can be presented either as benign, sappy figures who naïvely put their nation and their people above all else and do not show the slightest self-interest in the outcome of the narrative, as demonstrated by filmmakers like Michael Bay and Roland Emmerich, or as caricatures who stay indifferent to the pain and oppression of the populace and are only preoccupied by their equally bland self-interests of power accumulation, as demonstrated by filmmakers like Oliver Stone. Instead of resorting to these tropes, the screenplay instead opts for a critical, sometimes even satirical, but ultimately pragmatic and thoughtful tone when showing the interplay and steps of decision-making between the different officials.

Shinzo Abe, the current Prime Minister of Japan, has endorsed the film, and said before a military gathering in September that “[he] heard that the chairman of the Joint Staff Council and members of the Self-Defense Forces appear in the film and are depicted as being very heroic.” Abe seems to believe that the legacy of Godzilla is rooted in the “unwavering support the public has for Self-Defense Forces.” However, this idea of “unwavering support” is contested within the film. Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi portray the Self-Defense Forces not in a way that evokes patriotism, but invites skepticism.

The film openly values the restoration of Japan’s power in the context of contemporary politics,

especially over its relationship with the United States. The younger political generation, represented by protagonist Rando Yaguchi and his team of so-called “nerds and scientists” who dedicate all of their efforts to conceive a weapon against Godzilla, represents the need for Japan to reaffirm its power within its bargaining and cooperation engagements. It’s important to recognize, however, that the film doesn’t advocate Japanese militarization to stand their ground. While advocating the return of Japan’s bargaining power, it still keeps a critical eye on the use of the military to resolve this kind of crisis.

The film’s essential point of view on Japanese politics creates a critical assessment against the “cover-yourass” technique used by older Japanese bureaucracy.

In Shin Godzilla, the Japanese government is portrayed as an old guard who finds itself to be mostly out of touch with modern society, sticking to overly complex and corpulent bureaucratic dynamics. The hierarchical nature of the political system is reinforced as government officials use their political power to protect their interests at the expense of the civilians.

It is not that the government is sinister or mean-spirited, but simply inept and averse to any course of action that would compromise their positions. By minimizing the drastic effects of Godzilla’s rampage during press conferences, or cherry-picking the rosiest of situation assessments provided by

experts, they disregard the city’s best interest and rest in a state of comfortable but unproductive indecision. The government evolves into a role of secondary, passive antagonist, while Yaguchi and his team are the ones that fight back against deference and buck-passing. These people take initiative to construct a potent weapon to overtake Godzilla, thus illustrating the film’s claim of hoping for a younger, bolder, more dedicated political generation to lead Japan to a brighter future.

The depiction of a rigid government, perpetually mired in their standard operating procedures, echoes the actual decisions of former Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his cabinet in the aftermath of the Tohoku and Fukushima disasters.

The film accurately reflects the opinion that Kan’s administration mishandled the scale and longterm effects of the disasters. Kan’s administration downplayed the meltdown and suppressed reports of high radiation levels in order to supposedly retain their reputation, secure their power, and avoid the costs of the disasters. However, widespread criticism led to Kan’s eventual resignation from office.

The film’s essential point of view on Japanese politics creates a critical assessment against the “coveryour-ass” technique used by older Japanese bureaucracy to protect themselves from possible criticism or legal repercussion. This, in turn, greatly compromises the effectiveness of public action in the face of disaster and afflicts the welfare of the nation as a whole.

By comparing the legacy of the 2011 Tohoku and Fukushima disasters with the rampage and devastation wrought upon society

by Godzilla, the political message of Shin Godzilla is this: people in positions of power have to take responsibility for their actions.

Despite how those actions might compromise their personal interests, government members must use their power, granted to them by the democratic process, for the sake of their nation – especially during a crisis such as this. The team of informal but hardworking scientists assembled by Yaguchi spends a good part of the latter half of the movie by stating that,

if all goes wrong with their plan, they will take the blame. This theme brings the film full circle and delivers the emotional payoff, that someone is finally willing to take ownership of the problem and put their career on the line for what they believe is the right course of action.

While advocating the return of Japan’s bargaining power, it still keeps a critical eye on the use of the military to resolve this kind of crisis.

This criticism of government inaction towards grave situations, and how officials make the problem worse by failing to respond immediately, can potentially strengthen a sense of political collaboration. When confronted with such distressing events, actors have to strive towards a common goal no matter the costs. Although this may seem idealistic in today’s society given the abundance of government complacency, the destruction caused by Godzilla produces a solid reflection on inefficiency, lack of accountability, and misuse of power within the government. As such, if the message of the film isn’t destined to gain much influence in politics, it still holds an undeniable power on the people who end up watching it, as they can relate to the narrative and subsequently renew their critical judgment of their government. This sentiment is inspired from a work of fiction, but it is one that goes beyond simple entertainment and becomes much more significant to human reality.

Shin Godzilla had its North American limited theatrical run in October, but should be released on VOD (video on demand) and home media in the near future.

Border by Coco Zhou

EDITORIAL

Volume 106 Issue 9

November 7, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

18

editorial board

3480 McTavish St., Rm. B-24 Montreal, QC H3A 1X9 phone 514.398.6784 fax 514.398.8318 mcgilldaily.com

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

Sonia Ionescu

coordinating@mcgilldaily.com

managing editor

Ralph Haddad coordinating news editor

Ellen Cools news editors

Police surveillance violates freedom of the press

Xavier Richer Vis Marina Cupido commentary & compendium! editors

Khatira Mahdavi Inori Roy culture editor

Taylor Mitchell Coco Zhou features editor

Saima Desai science+technology editor

Igor Zlobine sports editor

Vacant

multimedia editor

Chantelle Schultz photos editor

Kevin Tam

illustrations editor

Marina Djurdjevic copy editor

Anne-Cécile Favory design & production editor

Rahma Wiryomartono

web editor

Marc Cataford

le délit

Ikram Mecheri

rec@delitfrancais.com

cover design Sonia Ionescu contributors Alainah Amir, Astha Agarwal, Claire Avisar, Niyousha Bastani, Hanna Bee, Kayla Branson, Phoebe Colby, Maxine Dannatt, Lanya Feng, Fiona Glen, Micah Flavin, Jessica Goldson, Catherine Jeffrey, Christopher Junn, Rayleigh Lee, Jed Lenetsky, Xavier Martinez, Nora McCready, Sophie Panzer, Jay Van Put, Sophia Seward, Katey Wattam, Diamond Yao

E

arlier this week, the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) revealed that it had been monitoring the phone of La Presse journalist Patrick Lagacé, who was believed to have been in touch with a police officer suspected of fabricating evidence. The aim of this surveillance was to reveal Lagacé’s sources, and police chief Philippe Pichet has attempted to justify the surveillance by saying it can be used “under exceptional circumstances.” 24 surveillance warrants for Lagacé’s phone were issued by courts this year, which allowed the SPVM to track incoming and outgoing numbers, as well as to monitor the phone’s location.

These surveillance tactics go beyond an invasion of Lagacé’s personal privacy. Surveilling journalists hampers their freedom to critique and hold state actors accountable, and impedes the protection of their sources. The surveillance of journalists, even under purported “exceptional circumstances,” is a symptom of the normalization of government surveillance, which must be challenged.

The SPVM has a history of suppressing freedom of the press, and shows little inclination to change. Pichet launched a questionable investigation to “crack down on media links” in June 2016 in response to media coverage of the investigation of unethical behaviour within the SPVM. As a result, many journalists have had their phones tapped, and more are coming forward each day. However, Pichet claims that Lagacé was the only journalist under surveillance. Lagacé told the CBC that this is “an attempt to intimidate members of the police force who want to share information with journalists.” Moreover, the way in which these search warrants are obtained shows clear abuse of the judicial process.

The SPVM has been accused of seeking out judges who will ensure their requests are granted. “[This] raises the debate of the independence of all the powers in our society,” Quebec’s Public Security Minister Martin Coiteux said in an interview with the CBC. The SPVM blurs the boundaries between city

hall and the police force, wielding their consolidated power to undermine people’s right to privacy, and freedom of the press.

Lagacé’s story is just one example in a larger history of state surveillance, wherein many cases go unnoticed. A month ago, Michael Nguyen, a Montreal journalist, had his laptop seized by provincial police because he was reporting on a judge’s alleged abusive misconduct. Backlash ensued, and a unanimous vote to protect journalists was conducted by the provincial legislature shortly after. However, despite public support of journalists, the provincial police force continues to use their power to control information and suppress freedom. Bill 87 was introduced to the Quebec National Assembly in February to “facilitate the discourse of wrongdoing within public bodies,” but failed to protect whistleblowers from unwarranted police surveillance. The lack of legal resistance to police inspection lends itself to the idea that surveillance has become normalized. Surveillance has been used by police forces and governments alike to control information and violate individual rights and freedoms. With the aggressive expansion of the surveillance apparatus, we must call into question the legal and ethical basis of such surveillance, and recognize the divide it perpetuates between the state and the people.

Whistleblowers and journalists are necessary to hold the state accountable. The SPVM, through their surveillance of Patrick Lagacé, has abused its power and undermined the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The culture of state surveillance is an issue that affects every member of society; it needs to be structurally recognized and collectively challenged. Starting in Montreal, laws must be enacted to protect whistleblowers from surveillance, and the process for police to obtain search warrants must be given greater scrutiny.

—The McGill Daily editorial board

3480 McTavish St., Rm. B-26 Montreal, QC H3A 1X9 phone 514.398.6790 fax 514.398.8318 advertising & general manager Boris Shedov sales representative Letty Matteo ad layout & design Geneviève Robert

Mathieu Ménard

dps board of directors

Zapaer Alip, Niyousha Bastani, Yves Boju, Marc Cataford, Julia Denis, Sonia Ionescu, Ikram Mecheri, Igor Sadikov, Boris Shedov, Alice Shen, Tamim Sujat All contents © 2016 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.

Errata “McGill’s buildings are falling apart” October 31, News, page 5. In the quote that begins “On a per square metre basis,” the grade referred to should, in fact, be an E. The McGill administration initially indicated that the grade was a D. The Daily regrets this error.

Editorial

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November 7, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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In response to a SSMU Equity complaint about anti-Semitism, mentioning The Daily

he Daily has recently been named in a SSMU Equity complaint about anti-Semitism which was submitted by members of the McGill Jewish community, regarding the content and internal culture of the paper. The Daily editorial board takes allegations of anti-Semitism seriously, as we recognize that anti-Semitism is a persistent and pervasive reality of our society. Two of our editors met with the complainants, and the editorial board discussed the complaint. However, upon reviewing this complaint, we found that it largely rested on the conflation of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism,

which we understand to be distinct from one another.

The Daily maintains an editorial line of not publishing pieces which promote a Zionist worldview, or any other ideology which we consider to be oppressive.

While we recognize that, for some, Zionism represents an important freedom project, we also recognize that it functions as a settlercolonial ideology that perpetuates the displacement and the oppression of the Palestinian people. We acknowledge, however, that there exists a lack of clarity with regard to the standards by which we reject or accept articles. Going for-

ward, we will be making our editorial guidelines and procedures more detailed so that contributors have a clearer understanding of what we will and will not publish.

In the last two years of our publication, as part of our antioppressive training, The Daily has received workshops from members of the Montreal Jewish community in order to be better informed on the issue of anti-Semitism, and will continue to do so. However, beyond these trainings, most of the times we have reached out to members of the Jewish community have been in the context of antiZionism, and reaching out in this

context is harmful and erases the diversity of the Jewish population.

In the future, we are committed to covering more issues relating to the Montreal Jewish community, as well as taking more proactive measures to prevent this from recurring. While the broader Daily community contains Jewish voices, the current editorial board does not include any Jewish members.

This means no one on the editorial board has the lived experience of being Jewish; however, having Jewish members on editorial board would not preclude us from furthering our understanding of antiSemitism and seeking consultation.

We would also like to address specific concerns regarding the satire piece “White Tears Increase on Campus” which we published on September 26. We acknowledge that the conflation of whiteness and Jewishness implied in the article is harmful. While this was not our intention, the effect was perpetuating the homogenization of Jewish identities, and we acknowledge our wrongdoing. We will work to make sure ideas like this, whether implicit or explicit, are not condoned by or published in our paper.

—The McGill Daily editorial board

SSMU General Assembly Endorsements “YES” to Motion regarding SSMU Support for Cost-Free Birth Control Coverage

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he Daily endorses a “yes” vote for the Motion regarding SSMU support for cost-free birth control coverage brought forth by McGill students for the New Democratic Party. The motion calls on SSMU to publicly support cost-free access to prescription birth control, which would require the SSMU Health and Dental Review Committee to review SSMU’s health insurance plan and negotiate with their student healthcare insurance provider. It also asks that the committee report their progress on this matter to SSMU Council or at the General Assembly at the end of the academic year. Currently, prescription birth control is not fully covered under SSMU’s health insurance for non-Quebec students. We believe that access to birth control is a right and should be accessible to everyone. It is unfair that this right is not afforded to non-Quebec student.

We would also like to acknowledge that the motion does quote a study that refers to those who use methods of contraception as “heterosexually active Canadians.” However, the Daily understands this to mean anyone who can get pregnant and/or anyone who can impregnate.

“YES” to Motion regarding Global Access to Medicines Policy

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he Daily endorses a “yes” vote for the Motion regarding Global Access to Medicines Policy brought forth by the McGill chapter of Universities Allied against Essential Medicines (UAEM). We believe that the principle of increasing global accessibility to healthcare, which this motion promotes, should be supported by the McGill student body. The motion, if it passes, would hold McGill University accountable for how it licenses research. The current way that licensing occurs at the university level makes it so that companies can monopolize the innovation that comes out of university research, and dictate market prices of medicines. This restricts global access to healthcare because it impedes financial accessibility; in many places, people would not be able to afford these market prices. UAEM McGill proposes this motion to push for a global access licensing framework for technology transfers to the private sector.

It should be noted that Sonia Larbi-Aissa, the Co-President of the UAEM McGill, is a former Daily editor.

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Compendium!

November 7, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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Lies, half-truths, “If a man does not have the sauce, then he is lost.

But the same man can be lost in the sauce.” —Gucci Mane

Misty Monthlies

Supernatural Sue

Aquarius Aquarians are known for their laidback, generous, bohemian personalities and lifestyles. Why can’t you just fit into this category? How do you expect me to forecast anything for a tight, uptight Aquarian anomaly! You’re a disappointment to your sign, man.

Pisces Your irrational aversion to selfie sticks – which was more based on fear than taste – will be suddenly validated on the 15. Every stick will spring, fully-extended, into life as part of an unprecedented rebellion.

I’m not even going to tell you what they want, or how they’ll make us do it, it’s too sickening… But just remember, they know our faces.

Aries It’s a period of transformation

and possibility in your life. You have ingested so many e-numbers combined with late night Wimbledon replays that when you wake up on Tuesday, all your body hair has become the colour and texture of tennis ball fluff.

Luckily for you, since fashion’s cursory flirtation with vitiligo has dwindled, there’s a new trend for models with unusual body hair. Under the pseudonym ‘Juicy Deuce,’ you will be famous by the end of the month’s new moon.

Taurus You are a real materialist, Taurus.

That’s just not fashionable these days – now is a great time to make a change, for once in your life. It’s gonna feel real good, gonna make a difference, gonna make it right.

Oh, and by the way, the Leonids meteor shower mid-month is going to make you damn rich – good to know, right!

Crossword

Across 1. Chemicals that hurt the ozone layer 5. Minor celebrities (i.e Kathy Griffin) 10. Worshipped figure 14. Heaps

Gemini As a natural enquirer, ponder this question - if a tree barks in the forest, does it make a sound...?

Cancer As Uranus winks this week, a window will open inside you (metaphorically, no panic). Although everyone associates Cancers with cool, your devastating sense of un-coolness tends to leave you shuffling around pretending to be a Libra instead. It’s time to claim ownership of your life. The library in the best hang, and you know what? You don’t just do assignments. You are assignments.

Leo You’ve got it, you’ve finally got it! There is indeed a secret code, yes, you sniffed It out long before the others. They are so blind. Ha! Snakes in the grass, but you’re the

lawn mower, and they are rubber snakes. They’ll see soon though.

Soon.

Virgo This month there will be a Supermoon crossing into your otherwise void cosmic sphere. That’s a badass kind of moon, just for you! On top of that, this particular Supermoon is also known as the ‘Full Beaver’ Moon – I’ll leave you to imagine what that might bring you this fine November…

Libra This month, your planets are dancing with the stars, and things are going to get a bit wavy. Your world will be rosetinted, for real. Tonight is so right for love. Groovy like a Sunday morning, my dude. This week, ain’t no hurry, ain’t no worry. Keep cruising, ride on, turn the people on.

Scorpio You’re that guy at the rave always blowing a ‘party’ whistle. Everyone hates that guy. You sound like a traffic warden crossed with a soccer coach, on speed. Although this is what you actually are, PLEASE take a day off with the blowing…

Sagittarius Don’t thank your lucky stars – they should thank you!

Capricorn There is an electric energy in the cosmos for Capricorn this week – one which defibrillates your inner child’s cheeky little heart. Together, you readdress your life with a naivety which is underrated in adults, starting by filling in that super-official government job application using homemade potato stamps. You’re just the free-thinker they’ve been waiting for.

Jay Van Put Official Crossword Wizard

15. Jewish circle dance 16. Back of the neck 17. ____-tripping (getting high off of robitussin) 18. Company that made Pong

19. South Park character 20. Spanish tusked whales?

23. Technology obsessed youth in Japan 24. Caspian or Aral, for one 25. Jordanian jumper?

33. etc. for Caesar 37. Baseball plate 38. Neeson of The Grey 39. ____ D’Ivoire 40. Excited 42. Teammate 43. Alien spaceships 44. Prefix: Middle 45. Coldplay’s “___ for the weekend” 46. Dominican coal mine bird?

50. Protein synthesis 51. Swiss ski resort 56. Fish’s relatives from Turkey?

63. In the near future 64. Pop fly 65. Not strong 66. Respiratory system organ 67. Hole __ __ 68. Not punctual 69. Fencing sword 70. Mitigated 71. Killed a dragon Down 1. Loading that an athlete might do 2. Avoid sinking 3. Poisonous snake 4. Broth 5. Indian lentil soup 6. ___-Quebec

7. Afghanistan’s neighbor 8. Singer Bareilles 9. Want a drink 10. “God willing” to an arab 11. Input 12. Gemstone 13. Part of a camera 21. USA in France 22. Tiny bit 26. Degree in Desautel’s 27. ___ Mia 28. Birch-like tree 29. Slang, Must have 30. Fatty 31. Type of tree or reading 32. ___ Muil from Lord of the Rings 33. Size above 34. Meat alternative 35. 14 across, exaggerated 36. Bellatrix from Harry Potter 41. Directory (abbr.)

47. ___ Taylor (clothing company) 48. Taxi driver 49. Half of God? 52. Author of A Theory of Justice John 53. L’_____ shampoo company 54. Type of board or shop 55. Crooked 56. Land surrounded by water 57. Dish with a spoon 58. Musical pitch 59. Radius neighbor 60. Bathrooms in Britain 61. ___ Ranger 62. Raced