The McGill Daily Vol105Iss19

Volume 105, Issue 19 Monday, February 8, 2016

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BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, AND SANCTIONS Page 3 & 11

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News 03 NEWS SSMU base fee not increased McGill BDS launched McGill Interfaith Day organized Canadian Ambassador to Burma comes to McGill McGill African Students’ Society holds convention Student strikes, neither legal nor illegal

08 COMMENTARY What is good white allyship?

Student teachers deserve support Letter Indigenizing education at McGill

11 FEATURES Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions and McGill

14 SCI+TECH

Zika and a race against time Unlocking the key to happiness in the brain

17

CULTURE

L’elisir d’amore revitalizes an old love tale Pig Girl and gendered violence against Indigenous women Fighting repression with love The Daily Reviews

19 EDITORIAL

Quebec needs stronger accessibility laws

20

COMPENDIUM!

Crossword A SHMU executive consults Anarchist Aunt Abby

February 8, 2016 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

3

SSMU base fee not increased “Unallocated money” to be trimmed

Vincent Simboli The McGill Daily

O

n February 3, the results of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Winter 2016 special referendum were announced. The referendum question to increase the SSMU membership base fee by $5.50 failed with 49.7 per cent, a margin of 18 votes, while the question regarding the restructuring of the executive portfolios passed with 72.1 per cent of the votes.

In an interview with The Daily, Erin Sobat, a member of the “yes” committee for the fee increase, said that the results of the referendum question are “disappointing.”

“Those who voted “no” with [the information we communicated] – we obviously respect that and we are glad that they had the opportunity to look through it and make an informed decision,” Sobat said.

“What is disappointing is knowing that with a 16 per cent turnout, [there are a] number of

students out there that simply did not hear about the campaign, did not care enough to vote, or did not feel that they had the information or knowledge to see it as important or relevant,” Sobat continued.

Consequences of the “no” vote SSMU VP Finance and Operations Zacheriah Houston explained that the “no” vote will have immediate results. Houston said that he was in the middle of working on the February budget revision before the referendum, and that all relevant departments had already submitted their preliminary drafts.

However, Houston told The Daily that he did not start reviewing this draft, “because I knew that I needed to know whether or not [the] base fee passed to really make these decisions.”

“For this year, we will want to reduce spending, but [will] not necessarily need to cut things drastically, because we saved so much on salaries this year. For example, an already planned project of the

VP University Affairs would not necessarily get cut, but if the VP University Affairs’ mental health budget has some extra money with no direct plan – [we’re] definitely trimming all that off now. Any unallocated money and budgets will get cut,” Houston said.

SSMU VP Clubs & Services Kimber Bialik explained to The Daily that the cuts would affect how much assistance her portfolio would be able to provide to help run student group events.

“In the context of my portfolio, the biggest issue that I have on the student group side of things is that we are wildly understaffed,” said Bialik. “A big part of the base fee increase [would have meant] being able to hire more staff – student support staff and eventually a full-time student group support staff.”

Executive restructuring According to the results of the executive restructuring question,

the VP Clubs & Services position will be converted into VP Student Life, and the VP Finance and Operations position will be divided in two. The restructuring will also reallocate some of the responsibilities of current positions to accommodate for the seventh executive.

Bialik explained that the new VP Operations portfolio would require someone who is focused on planning for the “big picture, thinking long term, and coming up with a new vision for what we want our operations to be.”

“There are so many things that have a lot of potential in that portfolio, there’s a lot that can be done with Gerts, the Student Run Cafe [...] and the [Shatner] building,” Bialik said. “We really need someone who is focused on consultation and figuring out what students want, and figuring out a long term plan for how to actualize that.”

An earlier version of this article was published online.

Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign launched at McGill Campaigners to bring BDS motion to SSMU General Assembly

Cem Ertekin The McGill Daily

O

n February 4, a group of McGill students and student organizations, called McGill BDS Action Network, brought the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement to campus by launching a BDS campaign at McGill.

In an interview with The Daily, Laura Khoury, one of the organizers of the campaign, explained that the campaign “particularly calls on university campuses to divest from companies that profit off of the occupation of Palestine.”

“That includes any businesses that allow these companies to profit off of anything that the State of Israel uses to continue to expand its occupation and its settlements on occupied territories, which is against international law,” Khoury said.

For its first action, the campaign held a demonstration at the Y-intersection on February 4, handing out flyers to passers-by with information regarding the campaign. In addition, the demonstrators held a sign stating, “Stand against oppression, stand for justice in Palestine.”

The demonstration was also ac-

companied by the launch of a website, detailing the goals of the campaign.

Currently, McGill has investments in four companies which, the campaign organizers claim, directly profit from the occupation. These companies are the British private security systems corporation G4S, surveillance and reconnaissance systems provider L-3 Communications, Israel’s fourth largest commercial bank Mizrahi-Tefahot, and the real estate company RE/MAX. According to Khoury, the campaign is also attempting to bring these investments to the attention of the McGill Board of Governors’ Committee to Advise on Matters of Social Responsibility (CAMSR), which could consider recommending divestment if the McGill community proves that the companies’ business activities constitute “social injury.”

Members of the campus environmental justice group Divest McGill have been attempting to appeal to CAMSR in a similar fashion since 2013, asking that McGill divest its holdings in tar sands and fossil fuel companies.

At this point, the BDS campaign is officially endorsed by many groups, including the McGill Syrian Students’ Association, McGill Students in Solidarity with Palestinian

Human Rights, Cinema Politica McGill, Midnight Kitchen, the Black Students’ Network of McGill, Divest McGill, the Union for Gender Empowerment, and McGill Students for Feminisms.

Apart from appealing to CAMSR, however, the campaigners are also planning on bringing up a BDS motion at the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Winter General Assembly (GA) on February 22. Two motions regarding Palestine were brought up at the two GAs in the previous academic year.

The motion brought up at the Fall 2014 GA was tabled indefinitely, while the one brought up at the Winter 2015 GA was voted down.

Muhammad Anani, another organizer with the campaign, differentiated the upcoming motion from last year’s motions regarding Palestine. The upcoming motion will explicitly call on SSMU to support BDS campaigns on campus, and to lobby the McGill Board of Governors to divest from corporations deemed complicit in the occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Zahra Habib, another organizer with the campaign, explained that while the motion is one of the campaign’s concerns, it is not the only concern. Habib explained that the main purpose of the campaign is to

raise awareness regarding Palestine on campus.

“We created this campaign to [...] raise awareness on campus about the motion, for students to both get a background and to mobilize, and to come to the SSMU GA and vote – regardless of whatever side they’re on,” Habib told The Daily.

Between now and the Winter GA, the campaign will be holding various events, including a talk on BDS and anti-Semitism by Rabbi Cantor Michael Davis on February 18, a screening of Palestinian short films by Cinema Politica on February 17, and a “Concert for Justice” on February 20.

Fuad Quaddoura, a U0 Science student and a Palestinian himself, expressed that he was glad to see students mobilizing around this issue.

“I was headed to my math class, and seeing this was an eye-opener. I was really happy, pleased. The fact that so many people – Palestinian, non-Palestinian, white, all races – are signing up for the cause is just really heartwarming,” Quaddoura told The Daily.

An earlier version of this article was published online.

Copy Editor Chantelle Schultz did not edit this article due to her involvement with McGill BDS.

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February 8, 2016 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

5

Interfaith Day brings students together to share faiths

Series of events creates space for greater interfaith dialogue George Ghabrial News Writer

O

n January 29, McGill Interfaith Day invited participants to attend a variety of religious services and events on and off campus. The series of events was hosted by the McGill Interfaith Student Council (MISC), based out of the McGill Office of Religious and Spiritual Life (MORSL), and in conjunction with Ghetto Shul, the Muslim Students’ Association, the Sikh Students’ Association, the Thaqalayan Muslim Students’ Association, and the Newman Centre.

Speaking to The Daily, Kripa Koshy, a member of MISC, said that interfaith events help foster dialogue between the McGill community and different faith groups, as well as dialogue between the faith groups themselves.

A Jumu’ah prayer, a Catholic mass, a Sikh meditation, Shabbat services, and a roundtable discussion were all a part of the day’s events.

According to Koshy, “Our diverse team of faith representatives often uses the resources their respective groups have to facilitate one event specifically aimed at demystifying their faith to those outside of the faith tradition.”

Each student-led, on-campus organization hosted an event repre-

sentative of a feature of their faith, and all of these groups joined the roundtable discussion.

Koshy went on to emphasize how the roundtable discussion spoke to the purpose of Interfaith Day. “Rather than engaging in complex religious rhetoric, [it was] an informal chat where students of faith [discussed] the challenges they encounter while fulfilling their study objectives and faith commitments,” said Koshy.

“Exploring these spaces allows me to better understand my neighbour, and thus offer better support to religious minorities and communities in our multicultural society.”

Phoebe Warren, a U2 Political Science and History student, told The Daily that she heard of Interfaith Day through her involvement with the Unitarian Church of Montreal.

Speaking about the Shabbat services hosted by Ghetto Shul, Warren said, “It was wonderful.

Our individual beliefs weren’t particularly important during the religious part of the evening, and we were able to focus on enjoying the practices and rituals for what they are and how they compare to our own.”

The services were followed by a community dinner. Warren recalled a conversation she had that night, saying, “I was able

Courtesy of Kripa Koshy

McGill Interfaith Day. to engage in a discussion [...] no holds barred, about our beliefs, why we believe them, and how it impacts our worldview.”

In an interview with The Daily, Cassie Frankel, a U3 Political Science student involved in Ghetto Shul, spoke about the same event, saying, “It gave the anthropological opportunity to observe different religious prayer customs while also providing a social forum to

meet other interested students of faith in a more low-key setting.”

“I also really enjoyed the opportunity to bring my own friends along to something so important to me, that is such a regular yet not necessarily understood part of my life at McGill,” Frankel added.

Koshy also attended the Shabbat services, and, regarding the Torah passage shared during the services, said, “[It] really reso-

nated with me, as it narrated a story of how new perspectives can add great value to existing traditions and can in fact help strengthen communities.”

Speaking more broadly about Interfaith Day, Koshy said, “What I found most noteworthy was how beautifully the diverse faith groups worked together to connect their communities and offer a warm welcome to friends and strangers alike.”

Ambassador discusses Burma’s transition

Canadian Ambassador to Burma explores development work amid ethnic conflict Ellen Cools The McGill Daily

O

n February 4, around twenty people attended a talk given by the Canadian Ambassador to Burma (Myanmar) Mark McDowell about Burma’s democratization, development, and relationship with Canada. The lecture was part of the Institute for the Study of International Development (ISID)’s Global Governance Program Speaker Series.

McDowell began by giving a brief history of the country. Burma – renamed to Myanmar by the ruling military junta – was one of the most authoritarian countries in Southeast Asia. In 2010, a new government was elected, which, according to McDowell, surprised observers by enacting a “triple transition.”

This triple transition meant there were reforms in terms of politics, the economy, and the peace process.

But Burma has experienced the

world’s longest running civil war between several ethnic groups. Despite an agreement with the government, tensions still exist, such as the conflict between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in the Rakhine State.

Student perspectives Many students and faculty at the talk asked questions regarding the current political and economic situation in Burma, and emphasized how beneficial McDowell’s visit was in providing a greater understanding of contemporary Burma.

When asked why she attended the lecture, U2 student Gabrielle Denis remarked that her initial interest came from a political science class on Southeast Asian politics.

Shirley Zhang, a U3 Arts and Science student, speaking to The Daily, said, “It’s a pretty rare occasion and we’re very fortunate to have an ambassador […] who has real experience in terms of Cana-

dian and international diplomacy.

[It’s] a lesson we cannot learn from a classroom setting.”

In an interview with The Daily, McDowell added that the lecture was lent depth by students’ and faculty’s questions, remarking, “There were certainly more questions than we had time for and a lot of pretty spoton questions about some of the more complicated aspects of reform.”

Lack of awareness Despite the interest shown by attendees, McDowell emphasized that there is a lack of awareness in Canada about politics in Burma. He further added that the media has often portrayed Burma’s move toward democracy as a very unsure process.

McDowell told The Daily, “I think Burma is a country that has been sort of exoticized and only known through a few tragic events in the past 25 years.

I think now is the time for people to be focusing on Burma as a country that

McDowell and attendees.

Marie Labrosse | The McGill Daily

seems to be leading a very dramatic democratic transition.”

McDowell added that when he started in this position, there were few economic ties, little developmental programming, or contact with high level politicians, but the embassy is building relationships in the country.

Regarding the need to raise awareness, McDowell said that he has visited five universities. He stated, “[We’re] not just publicizing what we’re doing. It’s a chance for us to listen to what Canadians are interested in, what their concerns are. It’s us studying as well.”

6

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February 8, 2016 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com

Panel reconsiders narrative of Africa Panelists discuss development, challenging Western stereotypes

Saima Desai The McGill Daily

O

n February 4, the McGill African Students’ Society (MASS) hosted a panel discussion titled “Seeing Success: Media, Content Creation and the Aesthetic of Growth” as part of the annual Africa Development Convention.

The convention spanned three days, from February 4 to 6, and included five events, centred on the theme of “‘Africa’ Interrupted: Switching the Channels of Development Discourse.” In addition to the discussion on media, three other panels were held, touching on topics of environmental activism, mental health, and academia in the context of Africa and development discourse. The series concluded with a keynote speech by Mukoma Wa Ngugi, author, activist, and assistant professor of English at Cornell University.

Marilyn Verghis, an International Development Studies student and MASS VP Education, spoke to The Daily about her involvement in organizing the event series.

“The concept was interrogating development through different lens-

McGill

DAILY L

es. We traditionally look at it through economics, through GDP [gross domestic product] growth, through state capacity, and by those measures, there are so many places in the ‘Global South’ that the European countries can characterize as ‘underdeveloped,’” said Verghis.

“What we’re trying to do is really challenge that assumption by measuring development in different ways and challenging the hegemonic construction of what it means to be a ‘developed country,’” she added.

Panelists at the February 4 event were Pius Adesanmi, director of the Institute of African Studies at Carleton University; Yann Jr. Kieffoloh, creator of the OVSWebTV channel; Wilfried Fowo, editor in chief of afrokanlife.com; and Djamilla Toure, the founder of SAYASPORA, a platform dedicated to highlighting the successes of African women and the African diaspora.

The panel discussion revolved around the use of social media to reclaim narratives and construct counter-narratives to challenge Western stereotypes of Africa, as well as promote intra-African discourse.

“We each have an image of what Africa is for us,” said Toure. “It’s important to tell our stories, but to

also acknowledge that all perspectives are subjective.”

Adesanmi addressed some of the most common narratives of Africa told in the media, such as the kidnapping of Nigerian schoolgirls by Boko Haram, and governmental corruption. He discussed the 2014 Ebola crisis, describing “how something that happened in four countries came to define almost the entirety of Black humanity.”

Apart from the media portrayals of negative events such as terrorism, disease, and poverty in Africa, panelists also problematized typically ‘positive’ portrayals of Africa, such as the optimistic development narrative of Africa’s economic and social progress, captured in the term “Africa rising,” which first gained popularity in 2007.

“When you search ‘Africa rising’ in Google, look at what comes up. [...] You’d get to page three or four before you encountered your first African voice,” said Adesanmi.

“I think it’s really important that we own our stories,” Kieffoloh said in response. “We tend to show our culture, our history, in the [same] way that the Westerners do.”

“The concept of owning your own story and telling your own

The panel.

Gee Hung Leo Cheung | The McGill Daily

story doesn’t mean a refusal to acknowledge those kinds of [negative] stories and situations. [...] It means resisting being reduced to just that,” added Adesanmi.

Speaking to the importance of having such a conference at McGill, Verghis said, “There is often a lack of representation of people from the ‘Global South’ by themselves, and for that reason we really wanted to offer the convention – the entire series

– as a means of reclaiming that space in this campus.”

Verghis continued, “The honest truth is that I feel development is understood in a very problematic way at McGill. I think the academic offerings try to kind of give space for alternative discussion, but students themselves really need to be the champions of that.

They really need to interrogate beyond the classroom, beyond the required readings.”

The McGill Daily, Le Délit and The Link present

STUDENT JOURNALISM WEEK 2016 0 2 .

B E F Y A D R U T A S O T 3 1 .

B E F S AT U R D AY FEB. 13: Conférence hivernale de la Presse étudiante francophone

C

French presentations by Fabien Deglise (Le Devoir), Judith Lachapelle (La Presse), and Roland-Yves Carignan (Libération, The Gazette) followed by a panel discussion for members of the student press. 12:30-6:30 pm at Gert’s (Shatner). Admission: $5

FEB. 15: Racism and the Media Workshop with Kim Milan. QPIRG Concordia, 6:30-8:30 pm.

FEB. 16: Environmental Journalism Panel with Charles Côté, Henri Assogba, and more. Arts W20, 6:00-8:00 pm.

FEB. 17: Feminist Approaches to Journalism

Check our website for details: www.mcgilldaily.com

Panel with Kai Cheng (Everyday Feminism, xoJane), Hepzibeth Lee (Dragonroot Media), and Studio XX. QPIRG Concordia, 6:30-8:30 pm.

FEB. 18: Investigative Journalism Panel with Henry Aubin, Linda Gyulai, Marie-Maude Denis, and Vincent Larouche. South Side Cafeteria (Shatner), 6:30-8:30 pm.

FEB. 19: Arts Criticism With T’cha Dunlevy, Daniel Viola, Lorraine Carpenter, and Crystal Chan. Club Lounge, 6:00 pm.

FEB. 20: Making a Journalism Career With Kate McKenna, Eric Andrew-Gee, and Laurent Bastien Corbeil. Followed by a reception (details coming soon!)

News

February 8, 2016 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

7

Students’ right to strike in legal limbo, Court of Appeal rules

Activists encouraged by opportunity to establish legality of strikes Rayleigh Lee The McGill Daily

O

n January 27, the Quebec Court of Appeal concluded that the legality of students’ right to strike has not been established. The decision came in response to a Quebec Superior Court decision that granted an interlocutory injunction to the Association générale des étudiants de la faculté des lettres et sciences humaines (AGEFLESH) at the Université de Sherbrooke.

The injunction was granted during the anti-austerity movement that culminated in a massive student strike in the spring of 2015. It demanded that members of AGEFLESH refrain from blocking classes.

In an interview with La Tribune, AGEFLESH spokesperson Raphaëlle Paradis-Lavallée had said in French, “Students’ struggles must be done politically, and not through judicial ways. The injunction impedes upon the right to strike.”

Also during the spring of 2015, students at Concordia University and the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) faced disciplinary reactions, this time in the form of disciplinary tribunals.

Since the beginning of the 2016 Winter semester, students targeted by these tribunals have been receiving the results of their trials from their respective universities. Eamon Toohey, a member of Concordia Against Tribunals (CATS), told The Daily that the entire process has been “a gruelling nine months for all the students involved.”

Toohey continued, “As of now, the first group of students have gone through their tribunal and received letters of reprimand from the University. While this doesn’t necessarily limit future actions, it goes on their records. This endangers their standing when applying

for grad school, and makes them targets should they continue with student activism.”

The charges against the Concordia students were filed by professors under article 29g of Concordia’s Code of Rights and Responsibilities. The students’ actions allegedly caused “obstruction or disruption of University activities,” even though at least three of the students who received complaints were not actually involved in the protests.

Toohey also pointed out that while the strikes occurred at the beginning of April, professors pressed charges at the end of the month, “despite the entire Political Science Students’ Association making a democratic decision to strike.”

According to Toohey, the tribunals have not only affected the students directly involved, but have set a dangerous precedent for future student movements, whereby universities can impede upon students’ autonomy to take action.

“It’s not an immediate restriction but rather sets a dangerous precedent for student activists, limiting their ability to freely mobilize without fear of retribution. [...] The importance of actually having the freedom to strike as students is that it puts us on equal footing with all the other parties involved, it’s another step toward having equal control over the productive labour of education we are involved in,” Toohey added.

Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) VP External Emily Boytinck said that the Court of Appeal’s decision regarding the Université de Sherbrooke injunction was a useful clarification. “Although the legality of student strikes is still sort of [up] in the air, [...] we now know that it’s not definitely illegal to be blocking classes,” Boytinck told The Daily.

Boytinck said that while some strikes may disturb regular class

An anti-austerity demonstration on October 31, 2015. activity, such disciplinary actions can discourage students from participating in broader student movements in the first place.

“Students should be able to fully participate in the student movement. It goes down to the same thing as getting ticketed. [...]

These types of things would serve to […] make people feel scared to participate. […] People who would otherwise really want to participate are scared because they are going to get an injunction, or get a ticket, or get tear-gassed.”

Although there have not been cases of student injunctions at McGill during the spring of 2015, there have been cases where the McGill administration carried out disci-

Mert Kimyaci | The McGill Daily

plinary actions against students who participated in political activities.

For instance, in 2012, the University terminated the contract of a floor fellow due to his participation in the occupation of the office of Morton Mendelson, who was the Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) at the time. In addition, the University issued a provisional protocol strictly outlining students’ rights to demonstrate on campus.

Boytinck explained that strike regulations at McGill can be ambiguous and that this can be used against the students by the administration.

“The student code of conduct [Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures] at Mc-

Gill is extremely vague […and] can incriminate students for […] making somebody feel unsafe, which is totally vague, and can be used at basically the discretion of the committees. Personally, I find that to be not exactly setting up McGill to be protecting all its students,” Boytinck said.

Boytinck also emphasized the importance of strikes as an effective pressure tactic in combatting government decisions like tuition increases and austerity cuts.

“I really do think that student strikes shouldn’t be illegal, and that should be clarified. Students should feel safe using pressure tactics of whichever form they deem necessary,” Boytinck concluded.

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February 8, 2016 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

8

White Privilege III

Macklemore isn’t the only white voice taking too much space

Rahma Wiryomartono | The McGill Daily Inori Roy-Khan Minority Report

W

hen I heard that Macklemore had released a song called “White Privilege II,” I’ll admit that my initial reaction was to roll my eyes. As someone who has witnessed the rise and fall of Macklemore in the public eye, from gentrifying thrift shopping to being inappropriately considered by some to be a saviour of the LGBTQ+ community with “Same Love,” Macklemore’s so-called allyship has been cause for polarized debates on the issue of dominant voices speaking about marginalized peoples’ narratives.

“White Privilege II” is, essentially, a song about Macklemore. It’s a song about the role that he plays in the struggle for racial equality for black Americans and other people of colour, and it’s a song in which he’s clearly trying to acknowledge the insidious power structures and privileges that lift him up as a white man and condone violence and oppression against black people. Macklemore starts off by admitting that the movement he is supporting is not a movement for him or about him – he is at least self-aware enough to realize that he resembles the oppressor far more than he does the oppressed, and that his presence begs the question, “Should I even be here marching?”

However, in the second verse of the song, “White Privilege II” starts to collapse on itself. The turning point is Macklemore’s calling-out of white artists like Miley Cyrus and Iggy Azalea who have been guilty of cultural appropriation. In perhaps the greatest recent instance of the pot calling the kettle black, white

rapper Macklemore thought it was wise to call out other white rapper Iggy Azalea, pointing a finger at her for appropriating the style of music she performs. Don’t get me wrong, Iggy Azalea should be called out a thousand times over for the rampant racism and appropriation present in her music. But Macklemore, too, has profited from the same appropriation of rap, a historically black art form rooted in struggles against oppression and created specifically as a form of expression unique to American blackness. Macklemore has built his empire in the same “fascist and backward” (his words, not mine) manner as Iggy Azalea – but does he acknowledge that his money is just as dirty as hers? No. “White Privilege II” may be Macklemore’s genuine attempt to practice allyship after years of legitimate criticism over his silence on the Black Lives Matter movement, but it meets the same fate as many similar acts of white allyship taking place at the forefront of American media and in everyday life. As sound as Macklemore’s intentions may be, his methods end up reinforcing the dominance of white voices over minority voices on matters of racism.

His one song will no doubt garner more page hits and likes than the efforts of many activists of colour who have the same message to spread – if not a better one. Being a white ally in a social justice movement is like being invited to a screaming contest where you’re given a microphone and several loudspeakers, while your competitor has laryngitis.

Leonardo DiCaprio, another popular white man known for sporting this same brand of whitewashed ‘allyship,’ found himself in a similar

situation at the Golden Globes in early January. In his acceptance speech after winning Best Actor for The Revenant, DiCaprio spoke about the experiences of Indigenous peoples being exploited for land and capital.

“I want to share this award with all the First Nations people represented in this film and all the Indigenous communities around the world. It is time we recognize your history and protect your Indigenous lands from corporate interests and people who are out there to exploit them.”

While DiCaprio’s words were likely sincere, they garnered mixed reactions from Indigenous people and activists around the world. While some applauded him for taking the time to acknowledge Indigenous struggles, others pointed out that his efforts were minimal at best, and applauding him for expressing basic levels of decency results in the continued elevation of white voices while Indigenous voices continue to be ignored.

In the days after his speech, DiCaprio donated $3.2 million to Indigenous groups in Ecuador whose rainforests are currently being exploited by massive petroleum extraction efforts.

This act was certainly far more effective than his pretty words on stage had been. That being said, there is still more that he could do to elevate Indigenous voices with the power and sway he holds in Hollywood.

DiCaprio’s efforts have been compared to one noteworthy, but little-known, incident of white allyship in Hollywood’s history. In 1973, Marlon Brando was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of character Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather.

However, upon winning the award, Brando was not to be seen – instead, in his place came Native American

activist and actress Sacheen Littlefeather, who went on Brando’s behalf to reject the award in protest of Hollywood’s treatment of Native American characters on screen. Littlefeather was met with open hostility, and was not allowed to complete the speech – instead, she was ostracized from Hollywood in the aftermath, and was the target of mockery and hatred for decades after the incident.

Despite the vicious fallout from Littlefeather’s appearance at the Oscars, which was unfortunately to be expected in the climate of racism and prejudice against Native Americans, Brando’s act can be seen as a better model of allyship – he took the opportunity not to speak for Native Americans, but instead to give Native American activists a platform to talk about issues in their communities. Brando also took concrete action in support of the cause – he was an active presence in the Native American civil rights movement, including the Wounded Knee incident of 1973, one of the largest violent civil rights clashes in contemporary Native American history.

The priority for white allies should always be to make space for racialized people to speak about their experiences of marginalization, rather than talking over them.

However, many activists acknowledge a truth that contributes to what some consider the necessity of white allyship: the fact that many white people are more comfortable listening to other white people. Being confronted about race and racism by racialized people is said to feel, to many white people, like a personal attack or accusation.

The desire to temper the voices of people of colour with white voices is not exclusive to mass me-

dia; it can be seen as close to home as McGill residences. During Race Project, a new series of mandatory workshops on race, a white facilitator was required to be present alongside a black, Indigenous, or person of colour (BIPOC) facilitator for all workshops. This was, largely, to lighten the burden of emotional labour on racialized facilitators, but also served to assuage the feelings of white students who may be made uncomfortable by discussions of their privilege and oppressive structures. However, in situations like these, the question then becomes: is white comfort being prioritized over the agency of racialized people? And is it valid to perpetuate systems that silence racialized people to make your message more palatable to white audiences?

For many, the short answer to these questions could be yes and no, respectively. These answers are valid. In conducting the deeper conversation about the nature of white presence in anti-racist movements, the most important factor to keep in mind is that the voices of racialized people should be made the priority – those who face marginalizing experiences as part of their everyday lives know them better than anyone else. It is crucial that white allies listen to the instruction and guidance that racialized people may choose to provide, and that racialized people have the agency to be treated as they want to be treated, not how white allies believe they should be treated.

Minority Report is a column that deconstructs racism through an intersectional lens. Inori RoyKhan can be reached at minorityreport@mcgilldaily.com.

Commentary

February 8, 2016 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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Speak louder than racism

A call for support for students of colour in Education Anonymous Commentary Writer

D

ear Internships & Student Affairs Office of the Faculty of Education, I just experienced my personal hell, and we need to talk about it.

Before I tell you my story, I want you to know that I love teaching. I have always wanted to be a teacher; in fact, I was overjoyed when I found out at which school I would be completing my third student teaching practicum. I was so excited to learn with my students, to meet the staff, and to engage with the school community. This excitement, however, was also accompanied by anxiety.

Student teachers can be placed in vulnerable situations while on their field experiences; there is a strong, uneven power dynamic between the student teacher and the cooperating teacher (CT) that they work under, and this can sometimes lead to harmful, sticky situations.

I was placed in a classroom where I felt unsafe and was always on edge. I was paired with a CT – in a school that I will not name – who had a very different approach than I did, to put it lightly. Over the span of the semester, I witnessed inappropriate conduct toward students, hateful conversations about students and student teachers, and experienced racism. As a person of colour, I felt extremely vulnerable, helpless, and isolated. Ultimately, I felt that there was an absence of empathy and a lack of understanding from McGill staff in my program – people that I wanted to trust and people that I was told would support me.

Over the course of 15 weeks, I heard my CT refer to her students as “fuck face” and mimic their voices in an insulting and demeaning manner.

I heard this teacher scream and yell

at her students in a voice louder than I could ever have imagined. When students would cry in front of this teacher, she would look at me and say, “I am not dealing with this,” with her legs and arms crossed as she sat at her desk, rolling her eyes. Looking at her students, she’d say, “I don’t care if you cry – it’s not my problem.”

I felt my students become increasingly anxious and scared of this teacher. And I was too. At lunchtime, my CT would complain to me about her past student teachers; in fact, one day, she looked up some of these past student teachers on Facebook and started making fun of their profile pictures with other staff members. I was swept with rage. However, I told myself to deal with these frustrating emotions quietly and discreetly in the interest of keeping my placement at the school.

When I tried to speak to my supervisor from McGill about my concerns, I was cut off and told that this CT was “dynamic” and I was “quiet,” and that if I wanted to do well, I needed to be less quiet and try harder to be louder. My concerns about my CT’s conduct with regard to her students and student teachers were ignored and not taken seriously by my supervisor, so I then decided to try speaking to the professors teaching other courses in which I was enrolled while on my placement. I was quickly told that I needed to keep quiet and “just get through it.” I was told that talking about it with others would make it worse, and that there was nothing I could do. I felt defeated. I tried to take this advice and brush it off, telling myself that the best I could do was to count down the days until my student teaching placement was over.

However, during the last day of my student teaching placement, I experienced a conversation that

The Education building. made me absolutely livid. My CT asked me – while the students were in the classroom – “which students will you not miss when you leave?”

When I answered honestly, “I have never thought of that before. I am going to miss all of my students,” she ignored me and began to write furiously on a piece of paper. After a few minutes, she showed me her paper and said, “This is my list. Are any of these kids on yours?”

I immediately noticed one thing about her list: every single person on it was just like me. They were all: a) female and b) people of colour.

This was not a coincidence.

When the students were out for recess, my CT started listing past students she had taught who also were on this list. And, much to my disgust, she noted which of these students were immigrants. Thinking of this makes me nauseous. It is revolting that an educator, someone who should have the interest and well-being of her students at heart, would speak about these students in such a hateful and prejudiced way.

Now, before you say anything,

Kevin Tam | The McGill Daily let me be very clear: yes, I should have said something. This is not okay and this teacher obviously should not be teaching.

But I didn’t say anything, and I didn’t do anything.

I didn’t act because I feared I would not be believed. Because I didn’t think people would understand what I was going through.

Because there was no witness in the room and my CT’s words had more power than mine. Because I was afraid that my CT would accuse me of lying and fail me on my placement. Because I felt like there was no one like me – a person of colour – who could listen and support me through my student teaching placement.

The fears that led to this hesitation were not baseless; my previous concerns about my CT had been ignored. Why would I expect a different reaction to these new concerns?

So, I did not even bother speaking to my supervisor or my professors about the racism. I kept quiet about my concerns as I did not want someone to tell me that I was “mak-

ing a big deal” out of something that “is not a problem,” and that “it’s just better to keep quiet about this.”

This needs to change. It is no exaggeration when I say that there is an urgent need for professors in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education to be equipped with the resources and tools to support students of colour in the program. This begins with honouring – not dismissing – our stories and sitting through the discomfort with us. This means that our supervisors and professors must listen to our concerns and not brush them off – even if these concerns may seem insignificant to them – so that if we are in situations where we feel discriminated against or unsafe, we know that we can trust our supervisors and professors to help us. We must have staff in the department who understand and acknowledge the vulnerabilities student teachers face in their field experiences and who are willing to work through the ugly and the difficult sides of these experiences with us. Because I do not want to do this alone. I cannot do this alone.

The situation as it stands is just not good enough. The circumstances I experienced while student teaching are not acceptable.

I hope that no one is ever put in a situation similar to the one that I experienced. I hope that you can use my experience as a catalyst for serious change in the department and work with staff so that all students feel supported, represented, and safe.

Sincerely, A student of colour who hopes for change The author wishes to remain anonymous. To contact them, email commentary@mcgilldaily.com.

Letters

Submit your own: letters@mcgilldaily.com

Clarification on full-time status for international students Regarding the article “International students can run for SSMU executive positions” (January 18, News, page 5), I would like to emphasize the following: All international students studying in Quebec and who hold a Certificat d’acceptation du Québec (CAQ) are required to maintain a full-time status. This is pursuant to Immigration Quebec’s Règlement sur la sélection des ressortissants étrangers, subsection 47(b)(ii), which requires international students to make study their principal activity.

Although the requirement to maintain a full-time status stands, Immigration Quebec has loosened their assessment of it in the sense that they are now allowing students to renew their CAQ despite not maintaining fulltime status – if and only if they prove a reasonable justification for their part-time status and support this with solid documentation.

Although Immigration Canada does not require study permit holders to pursue their studies full-time, students are required to remain enrolled until completion of their studies and actively pursue their studies.

All international students must be enrolled in full-time studies in order to work on or off campus. This is pursuant to subsections of 186(f ) and 186(v) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations.

Immigration Quebec’s willingness to consider a student’s reasonable justification as to why they did not respect their obligation to maintain full-time status does not imply that they have relaxed their requirements for CAQ holders, nor does it imply a change in the federal regulations’ requirement that international students must maintain full-time

status in order to work on and off campus during academic sessions.

The federal and provincial immigration requirements apply equally to all international students regardless of nationality.

I recommend that all international students who are planning to pursue their studies on a part-time basis come to the International Student Services office to speak to an advisor about their situation.

—Pauline L’Ecuyer, Director, International Student Services

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Commentary

February 8, 2016 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com

Decolonizing our universities

On unlearning history and making space for Indigeneity Ayesha Talreja Commentary Writer Note: I write from the perspective of a non-Indigenous person, as a non-white immigrant settler. My aim is to share what I have learned by taking courses in Indigenous studies, through talks, films, and other means, and through personal observation. I would like to thank Nicole from the planning committee of the “Resurgence, Reconciliation, and Revitalization” conference, Paige Isaac from the First Peoples’ House, and professor Allan Downey for their insight and input.

I

n the last few years, you may have heard a land acknowledgment given at the beginning of events on the McGill campus.

The speaker would acknowledge that Montreal is located on Kanien’kehá:ka land, a historical gathering place for different First Nations. The statement stops there, and, feeling that the work is done, the group can move on to the ‘real’ discussion at hand. The land acknowledgement becomes routine, empty, and tokenizing, rather than a meaningful effort to recognize the historical and ongoing colonization of the people of this land. The decolonization of our university requires such a genuine effort, both at the personal and institutional levels.

My family comes from South Asia, a region massively impacted and divided by British rule. Many of the same histories, methods, and distortions of colonialism are present in Canada, this new place where we have settled. As I attempt to grapple with why I am in Canada and why this country is the way it is, I have come to realize that my understanding is based on a mixture of facts, misrepresentations, and outright lies. The task of decolonizing my education has forced me to take a more critical look at the history of this country.

The peace and prosperity that Canada has offered to some has come at the cost of tremendous violence toward its Indigenous inhabitants. The myth that Canada was an empty land, benignly occupied and then built in a peaceful fashion is just that: a myth, as is the perception of Canada as an inherently diverse and multicultural land, where our open values ensure that opportunity abounds for all.

The terror and shame of residential schools, the last of which closed in 1996; the disastrous Indian Act, which established the reserve system and remains in effect today; the Potlatch Ban;

Marina Djurdjevic | The McGill Daily countless treaty violations – these are not isolated acts, but are part of a settler-colonial nation-building process and ideology that remains alive today. The current state of Indigenous housing is abhorrent, as is the terrible underfunding of schools on reserves. Thousands of missing and murdered Indigenous women have been virtually ignored by governments past and present.

Clean drinking water and reasonably priced food are hard to come by on many reservations, and Chief Edward John of the Tl’azt’en Nation in British Columbia has warned that Indigenous languages around the world are going extinct.

Suffice it to say that the exploitation of Indigenous people is embedded in our very culture and institutions.

processes on which this country is founded, and, hopefully, guide settlers in what we can do as allies to Indigenous resistances. The minor program was the fruit of the labour put in by many students, faculty, and staff, and currently includes an introductory course and a seminar in Indigenous Studies, as well as interdepartmental courses on Indigenous art and on histories of the colonization of the Americas.

Many will argue that this is enough, but this would be an inaccurate, cowardly assessment. How can an educational institution sit on this land if so much of its community knows so little about what has happened and is happening here?

How can we produce meaningful knowledge about this school, this

Although the minor program is a step in the right direction, McGill needs to work more on retaining Indigenous staff, faculty, and students, as well as bringing Indigenous perspectives to the forefront of our values and actions.

The recently implemented Indigenous Studies minor, launched about a year ago as part of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, offers a way for students to confront the violent colonial

city, this country when so many of us don’t understand its history?

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established in 2008 to examine the legacy of the residential school system in Canada,

aiming to serve as “a sincere indication and acknowledgement of the injustices and harms experienced

by Aboriginal people” and “a profound commitment to establishing new relationships embedded in mutual recognition and respect.”

Completed last June, the TRC has released 94 “calls to action,” including some that concern universities, “in order to redress the legacy of residential schools and advance the process of Canadian reconciliation.”

The TRC’s recommendations include integrating Indigenous teaching and knowledge methods to counteract dominant Eurocentric frameworks and ways of knowing and teaching Indigenous law and anti-racism in universities. Since the publication of the TRC’s report, the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia has expanded its course offering in Indigenous law, and the University of Saskatchewan has hosted a forum on how universities can best implement the TRC recommendations.

These universities also have substantial numbers of Indigenous tenured and tenure-track professors, while McGill has only a single Indigenous tenure-track professor. Although the minor program is a step in the right direction, McGill needs to work more on retaining Indigenous staff, faculty, and students, as well as bringing Indigenous perspectives to the forefront of our values and actions.

McGill also needs to provide greater support to initiatives such as the upcoming academic conference “Resurgence, Reconciliation, and Revitalization: Diverse Indigenous Perspectives” to be held in March.

This work cannot and should not all be done by Indigenous students, faculty, and staff.

As students who care about justice, equality, and knowledge, we have to ask: what is this education worth if it perpetuates colonial myths and pays no attention to Indigenous perspectives? As students, we must re-frame our own classes in a way that takes into account Indigenous perspectives, and connect the struggles of Indigenous peoples in this country to those going on globally. By looking at alternative histories and new ways of telling them, and having conversations that prioritize marginalized voices, settlers among us can reposition Indigenous issues from the periphery of our consciousness to the centre.

Those of us who are settlers, and those of us who have been subject to colonial rule elsewhere, have to unlearn what we ‘know’ about the past. Decolonization must happen in our educational spaces and institutions, as well as in our minds and our hearts.

Ayesha Talreja is a U3 Arts student. To contact her, email commentary@mcgilldaily.com.

Features

February 8, 2016 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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TOWARD BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, AND SANCTIONS AT MCGILL

Written by Dan MacFadden | Visual by Sarah Meghan Mah

The author of this article has chosen to use a pseudonym and is part of the McGill BDS campaign.

S

ix years before the fall of the South African apartheid, an editorial by The Daily (“South Africa Love it and Leave it,” September 12, 1985, Editorial, page 4) noted optimistically, “Now, even the most conservative authorities are recognizing that revolution is inevitable. Now, they are divesting not on principle, but out of self-interest.” McGill would later, in November 18, 1985, join dozens of other North American universities in divesting its holdings from South Africa, also becoming the first Canadian university to do so – something that played an important role in taking down legislated apartheid in the country.

Thirty years later, the end of Israeli apartheid appears distant on the horizon, as it has been ever since the occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel in 1967. The use of the term “apartheid” is a parallel drawn by human rights organizations and activists between the past racial segregation of South Africa and the Israeli concept of Hafrada (“separation”), whereby Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are literally walled off via the Israeli West Bank barrier and the Gaza barrier.

Palestinians in the West Bank, one of two self-governing Palestinian territories as per the Oslo Accords of 1993, live under Israeli military occupation, or are confined

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Features

February 8, 2016 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com

to small islands of land under limited self-control. The Gaza Strip, the other Palestinian territory, home to 1.8 million people in one of the most densely populated areas in the world, suffers the consequences of Israel’s blockade and over a decade of periodic wars with Israel.

Israeli settlements in these territories, including East Jerusalem, are considered illegal under international law, especially the Fourth Geneva Convention, though Israel disputes this.

Meanwhile, Israel expands its domination over all the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, driven by the most right-wing government in the country’s history. While many Palestinians continue to resist this situation with remarkable steadfastness, no conservative authorities are making the claim today that a “revolution is inevitable” in Palestine, or are divesting from Israeli corporations out of self-interest, let alone on principle.

Documents from McGill’s Office of Investments show that the University holds investments in at least four companies that profit from activities in the occupied territories.

But the growing influence of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns have the potential to impose a cost on the ordinary operations of Israeli apartheid. The BDS Movement was launched in 2005 by a call from 171 Palestinian Civil Society organizations and was “inspired by the struggle of South Africans against apartheid,” to quote the call. It specifically called on “people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel […] until [it] meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to

self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law.”

The dominant trend for BDS campaigns has included passing divestment resolutions that target Israeli and multinational corporations that are complicit in the violations of the rights of Palestinians. Such campaigns don’t strictly adhere to the 2005 call, which supports “boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns against Israel,” rather than multinational companies profiting from the occupation. However, such campaigns are generally supported or initiated by the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) – the organization in Palestine responsible for directing BDS campaigns worldwide – and have successfully compelled companies to withdraw their services from the occupation and settlement expansion.

The creation last week of the McGill BDS Action Network, or simply McGill BDS, is a part of the spread of these campaigns, and the network’s first goal is to pressure the University to divest from companies profiting from the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

Documents from McGill’s Office of Investments show that the University holds investments in at least four companies that profit from activities in the occupied territories. They are: G4S, L-3 Communications, Mizrahi-Tefahot Bank, and RE/ MAX. The money invested in these companies constitutes a small portion of the McGill investment portfolio – less than 1 per cent of the University’s total investments – making divestment a reasonable possibility, fiscally speaking.

The McGill Board of Governors’ Committee to Advise on Matters of Social Responsibility (CAMSR)’s terms of reference make explicit their stance toward investing in companies like these that arguably do cause social injury. CAMSR defines “social injury” as “the grave injurious impact which the activities of a company is found to have on consumers, employees, or other persons, or on the natural environment. Such activities include those which violate, or frustrate the enforcement of rules of domestic or international law intended to protect individuals against deprivation of health, safety, or basic freedoms, or to protect the natural environment.” One can argue that many of Israel’s actions in the occupied territories and within its own ter-

ritory constitute serious violations of human rights and international law, and the complicity of these companies in such activities gives reason to believe CAMSR can be persuaded to divest.

Support for the prison system The British private security systems corporation G4S has become the target of BDS campaigns in Europe and worldwide, mostly due to its service to the Israeli Prison Service (IPS), especially after 13 Palestinian organizations made a statement calling for action against the company in 2012, in the midst of hunger strikes by Palestinian political prisoners.

A 2013 UN report wrote that even “Palestinian children arrested by [Israeli] military and police are systematically subject to degrading treatment, and often to acts of torture.”

According to Who Profits, a research centre that details commercial involvement in the Israeli occupation, the company has “provided a perimeter defense system for the walls of the Ofer facility [in the West Bank] and installed a central command room inside, from which the entire facility could be monitored.”

Who Profits also states that the company also “provided the entire security system for the Ketziot Prison, a central command room in the Megiddo Prison and security systems in the Damon Prison,” all of which are located in Israel and detain Palestinians. G4S systems have also

been installed at the Jerusalem and Kishon interrogation and detention centres.

Israeli prison facilities often hold Palestinians under administrative detention – that is, detention without charge or trial, which can last for periods of several months, sometimes years. By comparison, according to the Associations for Civil Rights in Israel, Israelis living in Jewish-only settlements throughout the West Bank are judged under an ordinary criminal court system, in which they live as right-bearing citizens under Israeli law and the Israeli court system.

The difference in these legal systems was even recently acknowledged by the American Ambassador to Israel, who rightly stated that “it seems Israel has two standards of adherence to rule of law in the West Bank – one for Israelis and one for Palestinians.”

Palestinian political prisoners are known to be tortured at Israeli prison facilities. A 2013 UN report wrote that even “Palestinian children arrested by [Israeli] military and police are systematically subject to degrading treatment, and often to acts of torture.”

Under intense pressure from European BDS groups, G4S stated in 2011 that “when certain contracts expired [they] would not renew them,” and reaffirmed this in June 2014. The ongoing campaign has had success with interrupting the usual operations of the IPS, and bringing awareness to the illegitimacy of administrative detention and the treatment of Palestinian political prisoners.

BDS campaigns against G4S will continue, however, following a call from the BNC to escalate efforts against the company until it cancels all the contracts the company has with Israel.

Support for the military occupation G4S and L-3 both provide goods to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), enabling violence against Palestinians.

Research by Who Profits on both companies shows that they provide equipment to military checkpoints in the West Bank and to the Erez (border) Crossing into the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by the IDF in order to limit the flow of goods and people into the Strip. L-3’s

Features

subsidiary L-3 Combat Propulsion Systems also signed a multi-year contract with the Israeli Ministry of Defense for the “production and remanufacture of diesel engines for tank and armed personnel carriers.” According to a news release by L-3 dated November 6, 2007, the company’s subsidiary L-3 Communications MAS and Israeli drone manufacturer Elbit Systems “built on their respective knowledge to offer the state-of-the art Hermes 900 UAS [Unmanned Aerial System],” which was used for the first time in Operation Protective Edge, the 2014 military operation launched by Israel, resulting in the wounding and death of thousands of people, many of whom were Gazans.

Israel’s periodic military assaults against Gaza are another method of imposing its control over the Strip, the most recent of which was Operation Protective Edge. Israel deployed battle tanks and UASs on a large scale in this assault, including the Elbit Hermes 900. Elbit Systems and the IDF are secretive about the details of how their drones operate, although advertisements for the Hermes 900 boast that the drone’s multi-payload capacities help to close “the sensor-toshooter cycle, quicker than ever before.”

Further the matrix of military checkpoints in place throughout the West Bank restricts the free movement of Palestinians between cities. Who Profits reported that G4S provided these checkpoints with luggage scanning equipment, metal detectors, and services, while L-3 provided them with SafeView magnetometric scanners and ProVision personal screening machines used to detect concealed objects on individuals. Any Palestinian from Ramallah wishing to visit their relatives in Jerusalem, for instance, will be one of hundreds or thousands of people herded through the Qalandia checkpoint each day. Here, they may be detained and searched alongside other Palestinians of all ages – and possibly scanned with equipment from L-3 and G4S – delaying the short journey by several hours.

Meanwhile, according to Who Profits, the IDF uses the same scanners at the Erez Crossing into the Gaza Strip.

While scanners provided by G4S and L-3 are used for screening people entering Gaza, and not economic goods, it is still relevant to note that Israeli control over Erez and all other crossings into the territory is maintained in order to enforce the

February 8, 2016 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

blockade of goods into Gaza, strangling the Gazan economy and maintaining Israeli control over most aspects of daily life for the 1.8 million people living there.

Support for the settlements The remaining two companies, RE/ MAX and Mizrahi-Tefahot Bank, profit from settlement activity in the West Bank. The issue with these settlements is that they are built on occupied Palestinian territories, an act which could be considered illegal under article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. According to this article, so long as the territories stay occupied, “the Occupied Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civillian population into the territory it occupies.”

A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report from January 19 notes that “in November 2015, for example, [RE/MAX] listed 80 properties in 18 settlements on its Israeli website,” and that the company operates an office in Ma’aleh Adumim, one of the largest settlements in the West Bank.

By selling real estate in these territories, usually to settlers coming from Canada and the U.S. or from within Israel’s internationally recognized borders, the company facilitates the transfer of Israelis into the West Bank. UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied since 1967 Richard Falk in a report for the UN General Assembly said that the company “assist[s] in the growth of settlements […] by selling settlement properties.”

settlement growth and expansion.

Settlement construction is financed by “accompaniment agreements” made between construction companies and Israeli banks, in which the banks “provide the loan for the construction and protect buyers during the construction phase,” according to the HRW report. According to Who Profits, one such agreement was signed with Mizrahi-Tefahot and Israeli construction company Kotler-Adika to develop a housing project in Ma’aleh Adumim. Furthermore, it is also alleged that the bank has financed the building of several hundred housing units in other settlements.

For these reasons, RE/MAX and Mizrahi-Tefahot have become targets for BDS. The United Methodist Church in the U.S. blocked Mizrahi-Tefahot from its investment fund last month, and Luxembourg’s state pension fund divested in 2014, while a campaign led by U.S. anti-war group Codepink is encouraging people to boycott RE/MAX.

The rationale for BDS Divestment from these companies could have meaningful effects for Palestinians. RE/MAX and Mizrahi-Tefahot are significant candidates for divestment not simply because of their services to and operations in Israeli settlements, but because they play a crucial role in helping transfer Israeli citizens into occupied territory. BDS initiatives targeted against these companies and others like them have the potential to restrict further

Israel’s periodic military assaults against Gaza are another method of imposing its control over the Strip, the most recent of which was Operation Protective Edge in 2014.

Mizrahi-Tefahot, the fourth-largest commercial bank in Israel, operates branches in the settlements of Karnei Shomron, Alon Shvut, and Ramat Eshkol.

More significantly, it provides mortgages to homebuyers in settlements, and finances settlement construction. Their mortgage services to these homebuyers, like RE/MAX’s real estate sales, enable

Israeli colonization of the fragments of land belonging to Palestinians.

Campaigns aimed at companies servicing Israel’s military or prisons, like L-3 and G4S, also serve their own purpose.

Although such initiatives have yet to result in Israel losing contracts with the defense industry, successful campaigns have the potential to impose a real eco-

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nomic cost on the occupation. Furthermore, the anxiety created in Israel by the prospect of BDS campaigns against the Israeli military infrastructure could prevent state violence against Palestinians.

For instance, in the fall of 2015, the Israeli repression of a growing revolt by young Palestinians elicited protests and actions around the world under the banner #SolidarityWaveBDS. Actions like these – especially if they’re targeted at military infrastructure – might compel IDF soldiers to exercise some caution in their operations, perhaps by avoiding use of live ammunition on demonstrators, in order to prevent the possibility of provoking greater international support for BDS.

The efforts of BDS organizers, if guided properly, might prove important in supporting resistance to further colonization and oppresion in Palestine.

The BDS movement obviously won’t lead to Palestine’s emancipation. But the efforts of BDS organizers, if guided properly, might prove important in supporting resistance to further colonization and oppression in Palestine. There is a willingness amongst many non-Palestinian organizers to ask the difficult question of how to properly exercise solidarity with these struggles. Lending support to BDS campaigns is by and large the best way to do this, as it allows non-Palestinians to work alongside Palestinians, using the resources available to those abroad, in countries such as Canada and the U.S., to impose pressure against Israel, while working within the framework outlined in the initial call for BDS. This way, efforts abroad can supplement Palestinian struggles for self-determination without infringing on them.

Sci+Tech

February 8, 2016 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com

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Hitchhiker’s guide to the Zika virus We can’t fix what we don’t know

Priscilla Wang Sci+Tech Writer

V

iruses are hitchhikers from hell – criminal masterminds that enter your body and take complete control of your cell functions.

What the media has been calling the new deadly virus in town, the Zika virus, has actually been around since the 1950s, concentrated in a narrow equatorial belt in Africa and Asia. In 1947, the virus was first isolated near the Zika Forest of Uganda; a crossspecies jump of the Zika virus was identified in 1968, when a Nigerian man developed the common symptoms that came to be known as Zika fever. Soon after, numerous reports of Zika virus infections began emerging from all over Africa and Asia. And in 2014, it started its spread toward Central and South America. It was only here that the Zika virus came to the forefront of Western media.

This reaction, due to ignorance of the virus’s effects, is too late, as the virus has already ravaged multiple impoverished communities.

Although new reports of Zika mention sexual transmission as a possibility, its rapid spread has been primarily facilitated by mosquitoes of the genus Aedes, common vectors that allow infectious viruses to move from one host to the next. They spread diseases such as Dengue virus, Yellow Fever virus, and West Nile virus. These viruses, along with Zika, are part of the Flaviviridae family of viruses, which generally cause a variety of symptoms, from a mild fever to a potentially deadly encephalitis – acute inflammation in the brain. Only one-fourth of those infected with Zika develop symptoms, with most cases being very mild and short-lived, a rash being the most distinctive symptom.

This recent spike in media attention has also been due to a possible correlation of microcephaly and the Zika virus. Upward of 4,000 babies in Zika-affected communities have been born with microcephaly, and there has been next to no major response until now. Microcephaly is a neurodevelopmental disorder that shrinks the head circumference and size of the brain. This is believed to occur when pregnant people infected with the virus pass the disease to their child, infecting the developing fetus. There are many potential reasons for this abnormality in newborns, as occurrence also spiked following the dropping of atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. Despite this, the current spike is believed to be caused by the Zika virus: the World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that the evidence is overwhelming, although it could take at least half a year until this correlation can be proven as a true symptom.

However, it is this symptom that is inciting the most worry in peo-

Rahma Wiryomartono | The McGill Daily ple internationally. Officials of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in the U.S. noticed the link when the virus was found in the tissues of newborn babies that suffer from microcephaly. Officials at the CDC are advising those who are pregnant to avoid travel to Zika-infected areas, and those who already live in those areas to avoid pregnancy.

However, this is easier said than done. Unplanned pregnancies and the lack of sex education in many of the places most affected by the virus make it very difficult for people to simply delay pregnancy.

The WHO declared Zika an international public health emergency earlier this month. The Zika virus is now at a pandemic level, the highest possible degree of an infection, characterized by extremely rapid spread at international magnitudes. This is the fourth declaration of emergency in the entire history of the WHO. This sense of urgency has multiple causes: the possible correlation with birth defects; large populations of mosquito carriers; the rapid spread of the disease; and the lack of a vaccine. It is estimated that 4 million people will be affected by the end of the year, with over 1.5 million in Brazil. With the summer Olympic games planned to take place in Brazil, the virus is likely to spread even faster. The virus has also spread to over twenty

countries in the Americas alone, and there are reports of infections in some U.S. states, such as Florida, Texas, and California. Although such reports are mostly of travellers who picked up the virus abroad, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan warns that “it is now spreading explosively. The level of alarm is extremely high.”

The Zika virus is now at a pandemic level, the highest possible degree of an infection.

This announcement has spurred the race to stop the spread of the Zika virus into high gear. This includes the urgent mobilization of research toward vaccine development and the cooperation of nations to work toward the common goal of prevention and treatment. Companies and scientists are racing to produce a vaccine as concern for the dangers of the virus spreads worldwide. Selena Sagan, associate professor and a researcher of Flaviviruses at Mcgill, told The Daily, “We currently know too little about the molecular biology

and pathogenesis of Zika virus, so it is hard to predict how long it will take to develop a vaccine. Up until recently, Zika was only known to cause a mild fever and rash in those infected. We never thought of it as a threat because we didn’t realize the association with the birth defects now observed in South America.”

Sagan continues, “This has sparked greater interest, so quick action is important to try and mitigate risks and to understand the virus more thoroughly. There is currently a shadow of doubt surrounding Zika, and it should be of foremost importance to establish causation and then work on developing a vaccine to prevent infection and the birth defects that are causing panic.”

To deal with the current emergency, the most organized form of prevention happening right now are soldiers going door-to-door to destroy anything infested by mosquitos. This is similar to the mosquito brigades in Panama during the early 1900s, intended to get rid of mosquitoes that carried the Yellow Fever virus. However, this is not enough: the issue stems from the problem of a lack of funding for important basic research on neglected tropical diseases. There is a belief that such diseases are neglected only because they occur in impoverished countries, but, much of the neglect is also due to a lack of sufficient knowledge

of the virus and its possible risks – most of these neglected tropical diseases are deemed harmless or mild with negligible fatality rates, and research is pushed to the side in favour of more imminent diseases.

So when a neglected virus causes the development of severe symptoms in an infected individual, chances are low that it would be noticed by the international community because too little is known about its transmission and origins.

A recent example is the 2014 outbreak of the Ebola virus. Compared to the symptoms of Zika, Ebola is much deadlier, as it causes hemorrhagic fever in those infected. There were high amounts of criticism directed toward the WHO for not taking immediate action on the issue, and as a result, Ebola spread worldwide, killing over 11,000 people. A similar panic caused by the correlation between Zika and microcephaly has taken over the media and it has become a household name. Vaccine development and preventative measures have been put into place after the WHO declared Zika a public health emergency of international concern. And although the response toward Zika has been much quicker compared to the Ebola crisis, it shouldn’t be necessary to wait until the disease is at our doorsteps to begin basic research in an earnest search for a vaccine.

Sci+Tech

February 8, 2016 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com

15

Searching for joy in the brain Neuroscience may unlock the key to happiness

Jessica Hunter Sci+Tech Writer

H

appiness is a state we all strive toward in life, but what does happiness really mean?

Most people view happiness as a subjective phenomenon, since what makes one person happy will not necessarily bring another person joy. When Kyoto University researchers sought to study subjective happiness in the brain, they investigated it in a relatively novel and unexplored fashion. The team, led by researcher Wataru Sato, wanted to measure the neural correlates of happiness, essentially asking: “Where does happiness happen in the brain?”

Previous research has shown that subjective happiness is a stable trait. This is the assumption that each person has a baseline level of subjective happiness to which they consistently return despite fluctuation in happiness levels, in the same way that personality largely remains consistent over time. The Kyoto researchers defined the measures of happiness as the combination of both emotionally positive and negative mood states and cognitive self-assessment of life satisfaction, which is also influenced by genetic factors. The team hypothesized that subjective happiness likely maps onto an underlying structure or a neural network within the brain.

To investigate this hypothesis, the Sato team used a combination of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) paired with questionnaires designed to evaluate the levels of subjective happiness as a function of both intensity of emotions and participants’ self-assessment of life satisfaction. MRI is increasingly a staple technology in health and research that provides an image of activity in the brain changing with patterns of increased blood flow in activated brain regions. When certain brain regions are activated during a task, such as answering a question concerning one’s level of happiness, it is presumed that these areas have a direct relationship to the task at hand. In this case the activated region would be tied to happiness.

Sato’s team found one area that particularly stood out: the right precuneus region of the medial parietal cortex. The parietal cortex is important to several large functions of human operation, including motor function, somatosensation (touch), and aspects of language and communication. The parietal lobe is located toward the top back of the head, and within

that brain cortex the precuneus is in the middle of the right side.

Sato’s results show a significant relationship between subjective happiness ratings, as measured by the questionnaires, and grey matter volume in the right precuneus.

The elevated levels of grey matter indicate a greater number of neurons that are more densely packed in this specific area – this increased number of neurons means more connections in that region, which would imply a better ability to integrate different types of information important to happiness. Indeed, an extensive body of knowledge on the medial parietal cortex has indicated that this region has widespread neural networks throughout the brain, suggesting that it is important for integrating different types of information, such as memory, sensation, cognition, and emotion. Furthermore, other research has found that the medial parietal cortex region is key to the processing of self-referential knowledge: information about one’s inner self that involves both past memories and future plans. Taken in tandem, it is likely that the precuneus forms important links between our emotions, cognitive appraisals of happiness, and self-knowledge in order to temper and mediate our overall happiness.

The Kyoto University team recognizes that the exact neural mechanisms that perform this integration remain unclear, though prospective research may bring about exciting new lines of study.

For example, they have suggested that this work may have implications on the field of public policy. They envisage a future where policymakers may use neuroimaging to provide objective measures of population happiness to better form policy for the people. However, there are multiple reasons why this is unlikely. Not only is MRI expensive and difficult to perform, especially on a large, systematic scale, but the data collected may also not be cross-culturally viable or applicable to certain populations like those living with neural disorders like autism, ADHD, or Down’s syndrome.

Studies have shown that psychological activities like meditation have changed the structure of precuneus grey matter through neural plasticity. Neural plasticity refers to the fact that the human brain is an incredibly dynamic organ capable of reorganizing and shaping itself according to the person’s experiences. This work suggests that meditation and other similar interventions may actu-

Amanda Fiore | The Mcgill Daily

Sarah Meghan Mah | The McGill Daily ally increase overall happiness at a neural level by increasing the amount of precuneus grey matter.

It is important to note that these findings may present a problem of directionality: does a larger precuneus dispose one toward being happy, or do higher happiness levels lead to the development of a larger precuneus? The evidence that meditation increases the size of the precuneus points to the latter, but only further study will shed more light onto this matter.

The precuneus area of the brain is not necessarily the only area involved in happiness either.

This line of logic is referred to as “localization of function,” which posits that different parts of the brain have distinct and separate responsibilities. Despite being increasingly popular in psychology and neuroscience, many researchers argue that this view of the brain is reductive and overly simplistic. Localization of function does not fully encapsulate the vast complexity and nuance in the human brain, nor does a purely neurological understanding of happiness fairly represent the range of social, biological, and environmental factors that influ-

ence human experience.

Nonetheless, these results are exciting and may influence the future of “happiness therapies” as experts focus on ways to strengthen and enlarge the precuneus via different psychological training techniques such as mindfulness meditation or yoga. Identifying these regions of the brain associated with individual happiness or other emotions could be an important step in opening new doors to understanding and treating mental disorders that affect a person’s emotions such as depression or bipolar disorder.

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February 8, 2016 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Recipe for a love elixir

17

Opera McGill transforms a mythical tale

Carly Gordon Culture Writer

T

he opening of L’elisir d’amore is much like that of Beauty and the Beast: a throng of cheerily sociable – and, as we later learn, highly impressionable – townsfolk sing a rousing, rustic, and somewhat cheesy chorus, while our Belle, the alluring Adina, sits alone with her nose buried in a book. Yet, despite the bright colours and memorable earworms that lent Opera McGill’s production a jubilant Disney aesthetic, the similarities end there. Where Belle is scorned for her brains, Adina is celebrated. An audience of villagers eagerly gathers to listen to the beautiful bibliophile, played

by Chelsea Rus, a sparkling and agile soprano whose performance was among the show’s highlights, recount the mythical love story of Tristan and Isolde.

According to an old tale, Tristan seeks counsel from a revered magician, who offers him a powerful love potion as a remedy to Princess Isolde’s persistent rejection. Upon Tristan’s first sip, Isolde’s heart is softened. But it is not the legendary elixir that lends L’elisir d’amore its title. Rather, it’s a bottle of ordinary Bordeaux, peddled by a quack doctor, which nonetheless proves to have magical qualities of its own.

The performance on January 30 was one in an intense, fourshow run. Lead roles were double-cast – one set of singers on Thursday and Saturday and another on Friday and Sunday, giving a greater number of talented students their moment in the spot-

light. Vocal performance majors at the Schulich School of Music auditioned for the roles in September and have been preparing since.

After all, it isn’t easy to memorize two and a half hours’ worth of Italian lyrics.

A nearly full audience of students, faculty, and other Montrealers packed into the Schulich School’s 600-seat Pollack Hall, joined by a virtual audience via CBC Music’s live webcast.

L’elisir d’amore, written in 1832 by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti, is nothing short of a rom-com: someone falls in love, but get rejected, and goes to great lengths to win their love over; misunderstandings and hilarity ensue.

Opera McGill’s energetic cast delivered a performance full of heart and humour. Saturday’s comedic standouts included Megan Miceli as the wily gossip Giannetta; Jesús Vicente Murillo as the impossibly impish, fourth-wall-breaking Doctor Dulcamara; and Bruno Roy as Sergeant Belcore, a role that he approached with all the cynical swagger (not to mention the moustache) of an operatic Groucho Marx. Accompanying Belcore was a phalanx of bumbling soldiers, whose crisply uniformed antics paired a Monty Python sensibility with Napoleonic aplomb.

Jan van der Hooft lent stilted charm to the role of Nemorino, a sentimental character-in-love and, not the brightest crayon in the box, whose hopeless affections for Adina lead him to drink Doctor Dulcamara’s cureall “elixir.” Van der Hooft’s subdued tenor is perhaps better

Courtesy of Brent Calis fit to the dulcet melodies of an older, Baroque opera, rather than the stirring anthems of the 19th century bel canto style to which L’elisir belongs. Nonetheless, his stumbling Nemorino, emboldened by the “potion,” left the audience in agitation while the singers on stage summed up Act I with a chorus that roughly translates to “go home, Nemorino, you’re drunk.”

Stage director François Racine encouraged these over-the-top portrayals. “For this work, I’m inspired by the Commedia dell’arte; that is, simple stock characters written larger than life,” Racine writes

in the press release. “I’m banking on the intrigue found within the come-from-away charlatan, who promises everyone happiness and healing purchased with a fake potion. And yet ultimately, true love and integrity will conquer.”

The other stars of the show could be heard but not seen.

Members of the McGill Symphony Orchestra, hidden in the pit below the Pollack Hall stage and led by conductor Patrick Hansen, made Donizetti’s celebrated score feel as fresh as a hot new EP. During Nemorino’s famous aria “Una furtiva lagrima,” bassoon soloist Chris

Kostyshyn’s remarkable melody rivaled a heartfelt van der Hooft.

Spoiler alert: at the end of the opera, Nemorino and Adina get together. Their victorious embrace was met by cheers from the audience (spurred by an encouraging wave from Doctor Dulcamara) — and that, perhaps, was the most enchanting part of the performance. Not the miraculous elixir, nor the triumph of true love, but the audience, transported and enthralled by a love story and united in laughter throughout an entirely enjoyable evening of humour, magic, and music.

Confronting prejudice and misconception Pig Girl educates audience about crimes against Indigenous women

Jordan Gowling Culture Writer Warning: This article contains descriptions of violence against Indigenous women.

A

rt is often assumed to be a reflection of our times, manifesting the problems that pervade beneath the surface of our society and motivating art admirers to dig deeper. This is exactly what Imago Theatre’s production of Pig Girl did to its audience at Centaur Theatre for a full hour and a half on February 4, having first appeared on Montreal’s stage in late January. Pig Girl is an enthralling and distressing story that captivates the audience, exposing them to the issue of violence against Indigenous women in Canada – a topic which still remains largely ignored.

The play is loosely based on a series of crimes committed by

Robert Pickton in the 1990s in British Columbia. Pickton, a pig farmer, murdered several sex workers, many of whom were Indigenous women. Colleen Murphy, the playwright, uses the reference as a starting point, addressing violence against marginalized women by alluding to this horrific instance in Canada’s past.

The production’s initial reception in Edmonton in 2013 was controversial. Some members of Indigenous communities felt it was too soon for the family members of victims to see past traumatic events enacted on stage and questioned Murphy’s right to tell the story as a non-Indigenous person.

However, Murphy has since made it clear that her intention is to educate audiences about the dangerous position Indigenous women occupy in Canadian society.

Pig Girl pits misconceptions about gendered violence toward

Indigenous women with the reality and pervasiveness of these crimes through the characters’ stories. The play consists of only four characters: the Dying Woman, the Killer, the Sister, and the Police Officer. Two narratives are shown simultaneously throughout the play – on the one hand the Dying Woman fights the Killer, and on the other, the Sister confronts the Police Officer. The audience follows the intertwined events of the Dying Woman fighting her killer and the Sister confronting the Police Officer, who fails to find her family member over the span of several years.

Murphy’s storytelling leads the audience to a developed understanding of these characters through their reflective monologues. For instance, the conversations between the two sisters and the descriptions of their shared experiences showcase their funda-

mental connection to each other.

Pig Girl’s cast masterfully conveys the characters’ complex lines, each of them at times displaying strength and vulnerability that elicits empathy from the audience. The Dying Woman’s stream of childhood stories and the Police Officer’s confession about his reasons for joining the force are essential to understanding this multidimensional and complex issue. Embedding personal narratives in the play makes the viewers ponder how these characters have found themselves in their circumstances. Personal accounts also carry an underlying theme of pleading to be heard, acknowledged, and helped.

The set design consists of four separate dirt graves located within a triangular wood in planked structure. It is angled toward the audience, with each character standing on a separate grave. The scenery is effective in demonstrating the isola-

tion and harshness of the characters’ experiences.

Pig Girl forces the audience to question and reframe their preconceived notions about Indigenous women in Canada.

This is achieved through director Micheline Chevrier’s decision to have all the actors face the audience throughout the performance, even during dialogue.

Art is often assumed to be a reflection of our times. It also is supposed to force audience members to have conversations that they are afraid to have. This is what Pig Girl attempts to do through artistic expression. The play’s powerful voice encourages us as a society to take steps to address the national issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women by advancing national inquiry of the matter and, most importantly, recognizing Indigenous women’s lives just as much as any other.

18

Culture

February 8, 2016 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com

Through revolution with love A Syrian Love Story documents struggle for freedom

Sabrine Mandala Culture Writer

I

n the documentary A Syrian Love Story, director Sean McAllister depicts the heartbreaking narrative of left-wing Syrian activist Raghda Hassan and Palestinian activist Amer Daoud, two political dissidents who meet in the brutal prisons of the Assad regime and fall in love.

It was filmed over five years and released in 2015, with the Montreal premiere taking place on Febraury 1, hosted by Cinema Politica Concordia.

The story begins in Syria’s Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in 2009, where Amer and their three children Bob, Kaka, and Shadi eagerly await Raghda’s unexpected release. Soon after, Raghda is incarcerated again, this time for publishing a book about her and Amer’s love story in prison.

The film portrays the struggles of ordinary people in a crumbling system. At the Cinema Politica Concordia screening of the film, McAllister said that the project was often questioned by the BBC, and the moviemaker was pressured to conduct other missions in neighbouring countries instead of shooting a Syrian documentary. Despite this, the filmmaker wouldn’t let it go, returning to Syria to work on the project secretly.

As the Arab Spring protests develop in Syria in March 2011, the documentary follows Amer, his children, and the crowds of peaceful protesters as they march to demand the release of political prisoners and freedom of speech under the Assad regime. They are all severely beaten

and arrested by government forces.

The documentary presents international media coverage of the protests leading to the release of political dissidents as part of sham “reforms” – Raghda is among those released, but her return home is far from cheerful. The torture she suffered in prison has left a lasting mark on her psyche, as she is haunted by flashbacks and nightmares of the tortured bodies of prisoners condemned to the interrogation techniques of the Mukhabarat, the military intelligence agency. As portrayed in the film, Raghda was not an exception to brutal beatings as punishment for holding membership of the opposition and “betraying” Assad.

Through personal narratives, the film departs as much as possible from the dehumanizing coverage of Syria often apparent in Western media. It does a remarkable job of giving a powerful voice to the protagonists by capturing the intimate family moments where each person struggles with the destruction of their old lives. Political contextualization is kept to a minimum, and the film instead highlights the impact that the conflict has on the family’s psyche. McAllister stated after the film screening, “I wanted to show what the media [doesn’t] cover.”

No stone is left unturned in the hunt for dissidents, and McAllister soon finds himself in prison for having filmed Raghda and Amer. He is later released, as the demonstrations multiply and the army focuses its efforts on shooting protesters in the streets. McAllister intertwines

the recollections of the characters with brief shots of protests, but puts more emphasis on the strong emotions of each character during pivotal moments in their personal lives. The close-ups portray the blunt reality and intimate battles, making it difficult for viewers to look away, and the charming eloquence of the protagonists makes it just as difficult not to listen.

As Syria becomes excessively dangerous for the family, they flee to Lebanon in 2012, where Raghda quickly decides to leave Amer and the children to continue her activism in Syria. Raghda eventually returns, although it is never clear why or how, and the family is granted political asylum in France due to Raghda’s reputation as a political opposition figure.

The editing of the film preserves its authenticity with the jumps from one year to the next, and creates a sense that a lot of context was left behind. However, in those rough transitions from one scene to another, there is a consistent focus on portraying the family’s struggles. The divide between the lovers grows in the face of Raghda’s distance from the heart of the revolution. She remains a relentless activist, and is forced to balance time spent with family and her devotion to establish justice.

McAllister includes himself in the documentary, following the couple in Syria and mediating between their endless disputes. Among the most haunting images is the bathroom vignette displaying the dark markings on the wall left by Raghda

Young Jin Cho | Illustrator after her suicide attempt when she discovers Amer’s infidelity. This event marks the beginning of an end between them, and McAllister’s close-ups starts to feel more intrusive as he probes into each one’s deep wounds with questions or silent filming.

Despite the heaviness of their exile, the protagonists manage to find slivers of humour, and the viewer can’t help but smile at the endearing moments they share fawning over their youngest son Bob. It is obvious that great love remains between the children and their parents and between all of them and Syria, even as it fades between Raghda and Amer. The scenes at the end of the movie are especially decontextualized, but eventually the viewer understands that Raghda has left to work as a cultural advisor for the exiled

opposition government in Turkey.

Everything from the beginning of the documentary has changed, and the last scene shows Amer cutting leaves in his small garden in France to a backdrop of silence.

In the question & answer session on Monday, McAllister said that even though neither Raghda nor Amer could make it to Canada, Raghda sent him an email to pass on to the audience: “The Revolution is alive. Keep hope.”

Perhaps, the most powerful aspect of this film is that all these events are real and undeniably striking with the deadly crackdown against political dissidents continuing in Syria to this day. A Syrian Love Story is profoundly compelling, because of the relatability of losing love, fighting for freedom, and striving for change politically and individually.

The Daily reviews

Charlie Hilton’s Palana and Smileswithteeth’s Walk Forever Deanna Duxbury Culture Writer

C

harlie Hilton has a lilting, lovely voice strengthened by a rich combination of sound. The artist breaks into her debut solo album with outstanding mastery, departing from lead vocals and guitar in Blouse, to create a work entirely her own. Released on January 22, the album’s title refers to Hilton’s given Sanskrit name. After finishing school she remade herself as “Charlie.” This feeling of transition and self-making defines Hilton’s unique solo album.

The album retains a base of Blouse’s early work but experiments and adapts to mix a pronounced sense of self-expression with an equally beautiful musical talent.

“Pony,” an attention-grabbing single of the debut, illustrates Hilton’s sharp lyrics: “Get off my back / I’m not your pony / I’m getting tired of what you’re handing out.”

Palana moves effortlessly from the single’s psychedelic edge to a

sweet, silvery guitar in “100 Million,” featuring vocals and music by Mac DeMarco. An ode to the small eternities of romance, the duet is effortlessly charming. “No One Will” is, in a similar vein, contributing to this soft, simple sound. A serenade in its true form, Hilton’s lyrics describe a love that is honest and easy. Other songs such as “Snow,” “Palana,” “WHY,” and “The Young” complete the artist’s vision of a hazy lullaby.

At times, however, the mellow lull of the tracks backfire. The clarity of Hilton’s lyrics is usually brilliant with occasional blunt moments in an otherwise extraordinary album.

“Funny Anyway” is filled with rolling rhythm and melody, but falls flat due to its dull monotone and lack of lyrical insight.

The album is not lacking in bright self-expression, however. Alive with colour, Palana includes an assortment of rhapsody. Hilton chants to impulsive youth: “We don’t have to plan it / I never liked routine.”

Another track, “Something for Us

All” breaks out in an eclectic harmony that, for all its creative combination of alternative tones, doesn’t disappoint. “Long Goodbye” complements the song set, giving Hilton’s debut an impressive range.

In Palana, Hilton is bouncing synths, saccharine acoustics and everything in between, which makes for a stunning set. This album is a starkly modern take on vintage sound of the psychedelic era with something interesting for every listener.

Juliana Guzy Culture Writer

W

hen enveloped by Walk Forever’s bubbling synths, swelling vocals, and wind chime melodies, you can’t help but feel a rush of vitality. On January 21, Montreal dream pop band Smileswithteeth released their five-track EP, a cultivation of resonance that is simultaneously upbeat and meditative. Walk Forever creates a soundtrack

to that hazy limbo of rushing thoughts and mellow calm.

In the album’s description on the band’s website, Smileswithteeth frontman Gabriel Gutierrez says the EP was inspired by his desolate and contemplative semester spent in Paris. Upon returning to Montreal, Los Angeles-raised Gutierrez pulled himself out of the recesses of loneliness, took a walk in the sunshine, and was overtaken by a newfound energy and optimism. This spirit was channeled into sound, resulting in the formation of two new band projects.

Walk Forever, backed by Lillian King and Kyle Hutchins, extends a hand so that we can join this journey.

Smilewithteeth’s recent release has a lighter, more refined sound than the band’s previous album, Everyday Always. The sentiment of maintaining a positive and dynamic existence is what ties the two productions together. In Walk Forever, this positive energy reaches its apex in the ticktock tempo of “Sup,” a song described

by Gutierrez in an interview with

Exclaim as “a tune made for peach sorbet at an imaginary beach.”

This is music to listen to while in motion, and music that will keep you in motion – regardless of where you’re walking to. From King’s haunting voice in the opening track to sampled passing laughter and mumbled conversation appearing later in the album, Smileswithteeth captures the texture and rhythm of a city street, evoking a sense of aimless wandering and instilling a desire for constant movement.

Walk Forever transcends the sound of footsteps on concrete sidewalks – you can hear raindrops filtering through a forest canopy, the warmth of a sunny beach, and the energy of life manifested. The result is a dreamlike buoyancy, but also a rhythmic stability that is grounding and palpable. Walk Forever is a reminder that we are surrounded by a boundless world of energy, light, and sound, and when we allow ourselves to roam and to be embraced by this world, no recess of loneliness is too deep to rise from.

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cover design Sarah Meghan Mah contributors Gee Hung Leo Cheong, Young Jin Cho, Marina Djurdjevic, Deanna Duxbury, Amanda Fiore, George Ghabrial, Carly Gordon, Jordan Gowling, Jessica Hunter, Mert Kimyaci, Marie Labrosse, Rayleigh Lee, Sabrine Mandala, Inori RoyKhan, Vincent Simboli, Ayesha Talreja, Kevin Tam, Xavier Richer Vis, Priscilla Wang

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S

ince the beginning of 2016, four Montreal foster homes that provide care for people with mental and physical disabilities have had to close their doors, with as many as 170 more at risk across the province due to the provincial Liberal government’s budget cuts. This is just the latest in a long history of the government undermining disability rights in Quebec. The province’s accessibility laws as they stand are inadequate, lagging behind accessibility legislation elsewhere in Canada, and even these insufficient laws are seldom enforced. Rather than cutting resources from institutions that provide support to thousands of people with disabilities, the government must act urgently to adopt new accessibility laws with concrete targets and binding requirements for both the public and private sectors.

The current situation for accessibility and disability rights in Quebec is dire. More than one-third of discrimination complaints to the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission are about disability discrimination – a higher rate than any other type of complaint. However, individual complaints are simply not sufficient for dealing with large-scale systemic issues in public institutions. For example, only 9 of 68 metro stations in Montreal have elevators, and, at the current rate, the system will not be fully accessible until at least 2090. McGill, a publicly funded institution, also lags in accessibility, with a number of buildings with inaccessible entrances or that are entirely inaccessible altogether.

The Quebec government does not have a systemic plan to address inaccessibility, and the relevant laws are weak and unenforced. A 2004 bill requires municipalities and public agencies to submit annual accessibility plans, but there are no penalties for unsubmitted reports and no requirement to

follow through. By 2011, only 16 out of 34 transit agencies in the province had submitted even a single annual plan.

The bill also required the government to enact regulations regarding the accessibility of public buildings, which was never done; according to disability rights group Québec accessible, a 2008 report showed that only 54 per cent of public buildings are accessible. In the private sector, many types of buildings are exempt from accessibility requirements in the Building Code.

In contrast, Ontario adopted a bill in 2005 that aimed to make the province fully accessible by 2025 – including Toronto’s metro system, where 34 of 69 stations currently have elevators. The bill provides for the progressive implementation of accessibility standards in several areas, such as employment and transportation; requires the publication of independent implementation reports every three years; and applies to the private as well as the public sectors. Unlike Quebec’s lack of enforcement provisions, Ontario’s bill mandates inspections and fines for individuals and companies that fail to abide.

New accessibility laws in Quebec would not solve the province’s accessibility issues on their own, but could be the first significant step toward strategic and systemic improvement. As Quebec accessibility measures stand now, the government’s disregard for disabled individuals could not be more evident. Since the adoption of Ontario’s accessibility law, other Canadian provinces have followed suit in taking steps toward ensuring accessibility as a basic human right, and Quebec is overdue to join them.

—The McGill Daily editorial board

Errata

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

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dps board of directors Zapaer Alip, Niyousha Bastani, Joseph Boju, Hannah Besseau, Deeva Bowry, Julia Denis, Ralph Haddad, Igor Sadikov, Alice Shen, Tamim Sujat, Dana Wray 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.

The article “International students can run for SSMU executive positions” (January 18, News, page 5) incorrectly implied that international students are no longer required to be full-time students to keep their immigration status.

In fact, the requirement stands, but Immigration Quebec may now allow them to keep their immigration status even if they are part-time students under exceptional circumstances.

Due to an editing error, the letter “Librarians and faculty urge divestment” (Commentary, January 25, page 9) incorrectly stated that CAMSR’s consultations on the Divest McGill petition were conducted on camera. The letter should have read, “CAMSR’s consultations [...] have been selective and conducted in camera.”

The article “Race Project’s first semester sees issues of execution” (News, February 1, page 8) incorrectly stated that Rez Project has been in effect since September 2013. In fact, Rez Project has been running since 2005.

The article “What’s hair got to do with it?” (Features, February 1, page 12) incorrectly stated that Arîn is a creator of the Middle Eastern Feminist Facebook page. Arîn is in fact an editor of the page.

The Daily regrets the errors.

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19

Compendium!

Lies, half-truths, and political despair.

Crossword

Katrina Kairys | The McGall Weekly

February 8, 2016 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

20

y b b A Anarchist Aunt Abby An anarchist solves your problems!

Dear Anarchist Aunt Abby, I am so tired. Not only did I work almost 100 hours this week, but my colleagues and I had to spend the entirety of our remaining leisure time campaigning for a fee referendum, attempting to convince our fellow students to keep our penniless student union alive. We were so close, but the students betrayed us, and we failed.

Abby, where did we go wrong? Why did it have to be this way? We’ve given our all for the students we represent, and this is how they reward us? This is simply not fair.

Please help me. There is no meaning to my life anymore.

—Overworked SHMU executive

Across

Down

1. A food, as permitted by the Quran 6. “__ you tie them...”: song lyric 7. Have 10. Where muggles buy their wands 11. __-Magnon 12. It has lobes 13. Transport for Prince George 16. To buffet 17. Those who send tweets 19. Hindu songs of praise 20. Rehab staff: abbr.

21. Wine collection 22. Joaquin Phoenix flick 24. Direction opposite WNW 25. Outfit 26. Latin root meaning “foot” 28. Playful 29. Biological encoder 31. Cobra’s sound 32. Suffix of Latin comparatives 33. Refined 36. Ms. Saldana 38. Where you can find Cooper and Gupta 39. Member of an organic kingdom 40. The ___ of Baywatch 41. Out 42. Bark equivalent 43. Nevertheless 45. Iron 47. Korean pop-star 48. Reiterate, reiterate 51. West African nation 54. A friend in Marseille 55. River in Scotland 56. Puerto ___ Check

1. Jack Black rom-com character 2. In or at another place 3. Not extinct 4. Allege as fact 5. It can be rendered 6. Standup Jimmy ____ 7. After seven in Cusco 8. “Not worth the paper it’s ____” 9. Have-____ 13. Stock at face value 14. Supped 15. Vexatious behaviour 18. Closes 21. Embargo 23. Electronic checkout: abbr.

26. Not reasonable 27. Oops 30. Dress 31. Populous financial centre 33. They’re paired with cocktails 34. Lennon’s bride 35. More than needed: acronym 36. de la Vega’s other side 37. Outrage 40. Pass 44. They’re studied in sleep labs 46. It has a platform: abbr.

49. Channel with The Walking Dead 50. Narrow river inlet 52. Done, in poetry 53. Dare in Paris

back next week for solutions.

Dear Overworked, Let this be a lesson for those who still hold liberal sensibilities. You only wanted the best for your student union – but capitalism harshly punishes the communitarian impulse. The life of a McGall student is a precarious one; it leaves no time for political aspirations. Past the Roddick Gates, it’s every student for themselves, their lives nasty, brutish, solitary, and short.

Under these conditions, trying to overcome students’ total alienation from their student union is a near futile endeavour – though I’ll say that I admire your attempt.

Your ambitiousness was truly without par, and the movement you have built is impressive indeed.

But mark my words, Overworked – there can be no political revolution without a radical attack on the upper classes of this institution. Without such an assault, no attempt to build a mass movement against the establishment on its own terms can ever hope to succeed. The master’s referenda will never redress the master’s underfunding.

Luckily, you don’t have to play into their games. What you lack in strength you must make up in cleverness; you must employ the tried and true techniques of radical direct action.

Your student union needs money; go after the 1 per cent and take the money where the money is.

The deep-pocketed barons in the Hotel Motel Faculty of Predatory Capitalism are an obvious target. Infiltrate the Predatory Capitalism Undergraduate Board’s weekly 4à7 and sell a strangely addictive drink (inconspicuously costing $5.50).

Even better, set up camp by the James Defenestration building and lure in the upper administrators with irresistible soup and breadsticks (conveniently priced at $5.50).

These measures should give you the necessary resources to continue operating the student union, until you gather the revolutionary strength necessary to turn the university into a self-managed commune, and truly take matters into your own hands.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, Overworked. You must lead this charge, and be the leader that your union needs, not the one it deserves. I predict doom shall fall otherwise. From the ashes must rise a flock of phoenixes, to shatter the chains of power, to annihilate hierarchy, and establish the rule of all by all for all.

In the meantime, I wish you luck.

flex your comedic muscles in

compendium!

McGill’s premier satirical page compendium@mcgilldaily.com