Volume 111, Issue 2 | Monday, September 13, 2021 | mcgilldaily.com Marinating since 1911
The McGill Daily is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory.
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table of Contents
September 13, 2021 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
Table of Contents 3
editorial • Defund – Don’t Fund – the SPVM
4 • News Queer McGill Zine Launch • New Student Organizations • SSMU Protest and Admin Panel – Health and Safety at McGill
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features • An In-Depth Look at Greek Life
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culture • Flashback: Ultraman • Review: The Chair
commentary • Young Voters
SCI + tech • Billionares in Space
12 • cOMPENdIUM! Horoscopes
EDITORIAL
Volume 111 Issue 2
September 13, 2021 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
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editorial board
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Fund Communities, Not Police content warning: gun violence, police brutality
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n August 29, Projet Montreal announced that the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) would be receiving an even larger share of the city budget – an additional $5.5 million in funding towards oppressive, racist police initiatives that negatively impact our communities. In a press conference held Sunday, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante announced the funds were distributed to “fight against criminal groups,” but the continued investment in police resources instead of social services demonstrates a fundamental lack of care for the individuals most affected by rising crime and its roots in systemic discrimination. The announcement came in response to an increase in gun violence and shootings in Montreal and Quebec. City leaders claim that this summer saw a particularly high rate of gun violence, with five people shot and killed in the Montreal region during the month of August alone. Criminology experts have attributed this uptick in Montreal to “conflict between different criminal groups over territory, drugs, debts, or disagreements” – a reductive approach to gun violence that neglects to address the systemic roots of harm. Systemic inequities have only worsened for marginalized groups over the course of the pandemic, accompanied by pre-existing socioeconomic strain which increases tensions. This sudden uptick has attracted media attention, and put pressure on city officials to take action on the cusp of municipal elections. However, the action taken – the addition of 42 staff members to the SPVM – is a lazy and harmful approach to remedy violent crime. The SPVM was founded in a context of brutality and often fatal violence against racialized, unhoused, and neurodivergent peoples. Drug addiction, mental health crises, and self defence are then used as a justification to avoid taking responsibility. As is the case in many American and Canadian jurisdictions, the hegemonic systems of law enforcement more often than not exonerate SPVM officers for their use of often fatal force, thereby allowing the institution to uphold its violent existence. Allocating more funds to the SPVM supports this oppressive system and puts communities targeted by law enforcement at a greater risk of police violence and of being implicated in the prison-industrial complex. Bolstering police presence is an ineffective remedy to violence. Joint research conducted by the Community Resource Hub (CRH) and Interrupting Criminalization (IC) contends that increased police presence has no effect on deterring violent crime. Police are not preventers of violence – they are perpetrators of it. They encourage the vicious cycle of force and brutality to continue. Data from the CRH and IC shows that violent
crime is more prevalent in neighbourhoods where residents face severe financial stress, while current rising crime rates can be attributed to “pandemic stress, increased gun sales, and closure of community institutions.” Therefore, the safest communities are those with the most resources to address these issues, not the most police. Research has continually proven that the creation and funding of organizations focused on initiatives like crime prevention, neighbourhood development, substance abuse prevention, job training and work development, and recreational and social activities for young people mitigate increasing rates of violent crime. Allocating national, provincial, and municipal funds to organizations such as these would be a much more effective investment in community safety. Furthermore, police abolition could open pathways to reimagined systems of community safety that do not rely on institutions rooted in white supremacy. Communities need enforcers of safety that don’t play into the cycle of carceral harm and retributive justice. SPVM’s city budget has been steadily rising, totaling $30 million in increased funding this year alone. Montreal is not alone, as many jurisdictions in Canada and the US are also expanding their police budgets. In Montreal, Mayor Plante fed into the fear-mongering narrative, stating that the recent rise in armed violence must be dealt with “quickly and effectively” and that “police officers are at the front, everyday, to counter armed violence in Montreal.” This rhetoric is harmful and generates fear within the public, wrongly presenting police as saviors to a larger public, when in reality they only serve to protect the white and wealthy. If Plante wanted to meaningfully curb armed violence in the city, instead of giving into public fears and funding harmful and hegemonic systems of oppression, she would focus on preventing violence starting at its root cause by defunding the SPVM and funding communities. It was announced Wednesday that $5 million would be allocated towards “violence prevention and urban security,” yet this investment pales in comparison to the police budget (approximately $700 million in total). It’s as crucial as ever to continue working toward a noncarceral model of community safety which can never be achieved through the violent institution of police. With the upcoming municipal election on November 7, it is of the utmost importance that we continue to pressure candidates to support movements to defund and abolish police. Get involved with abolition movements, like Defund the SPVM and Solidarity Across Borders, as well as the Toronto Prisoners’ Rights Project. Support mutual aid initiatives and community-based organizations, like
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September 13, 2021 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
news
SSMU Protest Demands Safe and Accessible Campus
Admin ignores student and faculty calls to action Saylor Catlin News Editor
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n September 1, the first day of classes of the Fall semester, students congregated in front of the James Administration building from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in a protest organized by SSMU. Protest organizers called on the University to create more comprehensive guidelines and equitable accommodations relating to COVID-19 and the return to in-person classes. Protesters were masked and socially distanced. Organizers shouted their demands through megaphones, while attendees were encouraged to write postcards to be delivered to the McGill administration listing their concerns. In an August 31 email, SSMU called on students to attend the protest and outlined five specific demands: (1) accommodations for international students unable to return to Canada at this time; (2) accommodations for students who are unable or for whom it is unsafe to return to in-person activities; (3) proper and equitable support for students; (4) a comprehensive and equitable vaccine mandate, and; (5) student consultation in decisionmaking concerning COVID-19.
rapid testing would be required for students on campus, leaving McGill even further behind other universities’ policies. In a media roundtable held August 27, Deputy Provost Fabrice Labeau stated that in creating health policies – specifically those related to a vaccine mandate – the University is bound by the existing Quebec legal framework; “Having the choice [to undergo a medical procedure or not] is a fundamental right to the individual here in Quebec,” he explained. He further stated that there’s a way that the university can go above this precedent if “it is absolutely necessary to do so,” specifically if the situation were to worsen and the university had “no way to operate without a vaccine mandate.” Labeau did not clarify the threshold at which this would be possible. In the meantime, however, he claimed that given the University’s high vaccination rates and the health measures put in place on campus, there is not enough to “warrant that Participants expressed frustration we infringe on these basic rights.” at the University’s failure to require These statements were made after vaccinations for students returning an open letter, published on August to campus. According to protest 23 by 35 lawyers within McGill’s organizer Claire Downie, SSMU law faculty, began circulating VP University Affairs, McGill is online. This letter highlights the failing its students. “We’re one of inconsistencies between Quebec the last big universities in Canada law and the legal reasoning put forth without a vaccine mandate,” she by the university, and ultimately explained at Wednesday’s protest. argues that a vaccine mandate The statement was made two days would be possible in the province. Sacha Delouvrier, SSMU VP after UBC’s announcement that proof of vaccination or regular External Affairs, also highlighted
“We have a set of demands that aren’t that hard considering that almost every other university in Canada has implemented them.” – Sacha Delouvrier, VP External Affairs
Saylor Catlin | News Editor the ways in which McGill’s preparedness pales in comparison with other universities and lacks adequate accommodations for students. “We have a set of demands that aren’t that hard considering that almost every other university in Canada has implemented them,” he told the Daily, “We want accommodation for immunocompromised individuals, remote learning options, [and] student consultation on COVID policies.” In the August 27 media roundtable, when questioned about remote learning accommodations for students who feel unsafe or uncomfortable returning to in-person activities, Associate Provost Chris Buddle stated that “we are confident in what we’re doing in terms of layers of protection in the classroom environment, so students can feel good about coming in and taking their in-person classes.” He explained that there is a COVID accommodation form available on Minerva that students may fill out if their situation inhibits them from coming to campus (for example, if a student tests positive for COVID). He added, however, that “direct accommodations for students who are feeling [...] fearful of coming to campus [are] not likely.” Labeau further claimed that “we do realize that a lot of people don’t feel safe, and I think it’s important to realize that in many cases that doesn’t mean that they are not safe.” In an interview with the Daily, protest organizer and Menstrual
Health Products Coordinator Emily Black explained how the lack of accomodations are impacting them: “I’m immunocompromised and I feel very unsafe coming back to school [...] McGill told me and other immunocompromised students to take a leave of absence. I can’t do that because I’ll lose my funding and would have to drop out of school.” On accomodations, Black added that “there are none. There is no flexibility. Immunocompromised and disabled students on campus [...] do not have the same access needs.”
“Students shouldn’t have to worry about catching COVID on campus.” – Claire Downie, VP University Affairs Despite Buddle and Labeau’s claims, student and faculty anxieties remain unappeased. “I’m very worried about catching COVID on campus and spreading it later to vulnerable loved ones and members of the community,” Downie said, “Students shouldn’t have to worry about catching COVID on campus,
and that’s the reality of where we are.” She explained that in response to the protest, SSMU has received a wide range of support from students and faculty regarding their list of demands. “We’ve been chatting with people since this morning, and people are really receptive,” she said, “most people agree that everyone should feel safe on campus.” Downie stated that SSMU has not heard a response from the University regarding their recent open letter nor the protest. Campus security, however, was sent to kick media recording off campus around mid-morning. Delouvrier explained that CTV and CBC were on campus for less than an hour before they were removed: “[McGill] knows that their accommodations are lacking, they know that they should be ashamed, and they forcibly, with security, kicked off free speech and free press from a public campus,” he commented. “That’s unacceptable.” As the semester progresses, the future remains unclear. “There is a strong commitment to remaining in person with our teaching and our research activities,” according to Buddle. He explained that should the situation worsen, the university has plans to reinstate distancing and even online classes should it come to it. In the meantime, however, student and faculty demands for comprehensive, equitable accommodations and vaccine mandates remain unheeded.
September 13, 2021 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
news
Queer McGill Launches Their Summer Zine
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QM discusses resources for queer students
Juliette Fournet News Contributor
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s students head back to campus after a year of online classes, student services are reopening and Queer McGill is preparing to reopen their doors. This studentrun service, created in 1972, provides queer students at McGill with a wide range of resources and advocates for queer student rights at McGill and in the greater Montreal community. In an interview with the Daily, Resource Coordinator Cal Pease described Queer McGill’s role within the university: “[Queer McGill] works to uplift queer voices through our multiple creative events, such as our zine launch, art shows, and open mics. This work is fundamental because of how much queer voices are usually oppressed in these fields.” The organization is set on advocating for queer students’ interests. “We work with the Gender and Sexuality Commissioner to focus on improving the queer student experience at McGill within the SSMU,” Pease said. “In addition, our administrative coordinator sits on numerous committees that advocate for queer students such as the McGill
Joint Board-Senate Committee on Equity (JBSCE) Subcommittee on Queer People.” This Subcommittee has, among other things, spoken out against events that are harmful to trans and nonbinary youths and hosted worshops and conferences for queer students. In addition to providing queer students with a community and a voice within SSMU, Queer McGill also aims at offering support for the broader queer community. Administrative Coordinator Brooklyn Frizzle highlighted Queer McGill’s political purpose: “We take stances on relevant queer related political issues in order to heighten student awareness, actively promote queer issues, and prevent prejudicial action against our members and allies.” On August 29, Queer McGill launched their Summer Zine, which is accessible through their website and Facebook page. It features art pieces submitted by McGill students, in accordance with the organization’s goal of providing more queer representation and visibility. The zine also serves as an update of the resources and events Queer McGill offers, both material
Pandora Wotton | Coordinating Editor and informational. According to Pease, among those are “safer sex supplies such as condoms, dental dams, HIV self test kits and more; gender affirming gear such as binders, gaffs, packers, [...] and menstrual supplies such as menstrual cups and reusable pads.” Students can access their full catalog on Queer McGill’s website; to request resources, students can fill out their resource reservation form. Pease also added that within the SSMU building (located at 3600
McTavish Street), Queer McGill facilitates a staffed safer space in Room 432, where students can take advantage of a room free of overstimulating lights and scents, and an English language queerspecific library in Room 408. The organization additionally serves as a resource for information about other queer organizations in Montreal. Regarding this year’s events, Pease specified, “Queer McGill will be hosting our weekly Gaymes Nights/ Movie Nights alternating between in person and online. Every month will
also have one online event and one in person event. We’ll be hosting some events that you may remember from pre-Covid times, such as our Bob Ross Night and Palentine’s Gay, as well as another Zine Launch.” Queer McGill kicked off this year with their first in-person movie night on September 1 and welcomed everyone back with a picnic in Parc Jeanne-Mance on August 28. They also have brand new events planned for this year, such as a virtual escape room on November 13 and gingerbread house decorating on December 11.
New Year, New Clubs
A selection of new student organizations at McGill
Abigail Popple Coordinating News Editor
SSMU’s annual Activities Night is taking place online this week, on September 13 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. SSMU is also holding an “After Hours” party on September 14 to celebrate the return of student life at McGill. This year, Activities Night boasts over 250 booths showcasing the clubs and societies which McGill has to offer. With the return of in-person, student-run organizations comes the creation of new organizations as well: here, the Daily has rounded up some of the new organizations that McGill students have recently founded.
Course Comics Club:
Black Students’ Financial Society:
This is a new organization within the Management Undergraduate Society founded by third-year student Vanessa Richardson. It seeks to “Promote financial literacy and the growth of Black-owned businesses in the McGill and greater Montreal community.” Their plans for the year include starting an annual Black Student Entrepreneur Showcase and High School Outreach Program, along with coordinating seminars, grant opportunities, and workshops.
Making Drugs More Accurate:
Officially launched on September 10, Making Drugs More Accurate offers drugchecking services and education on harm reduction to McGill students. Organizers will distribute drug-testing reagents to students upon request via an anonymous Google Form. Additionally, members of the organization say they will circulate QR codes throughout campus, leading students to a Google Document with information on the necessity of harm reduction, how testing kits can be requested and used, and how reagents work. They currently have a Google Drive with more information on how students can access their services.
Founded by Vera Lynn, this organization seeks to give a creative outlet to McGill students by having them illustrate comics about the material they learn at school. According to a Facebook post that Lynn made regarding the founding of this club, teaching the content of a lesson is a way to develop a deeper understanding of class material – thus, participation in the club can serve as a way for students to study both effectively and enjoyably. The deadline to apply for executive positions is September 15.
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features
September 13, 2021 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
Is it Great to Go Greek?
A critique of the Greek system in the US and Canada
Anna Zavelsky Culture Editor
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old, visible, the street of fraternity and sorority houses known as Greek Row is often lined with historic manors, architectural feats; across 800 US campuses, fraternities own roughly US$3 billion worth of real estate. Power is derived through visibility and exclusivity on campus and online, both literal and digital visual markers of wealth. By monopolizing and capturing an enticing social space that embodies a stereotypical college experience of parties and lifelong friendship, the predominantly white (PW) Greek system maintains relevance amongst college students. Greek life parties are one of the main ways in which students at US colleges engage in party culture, with large fraternity house basements creating ample opportunity for drinking below the age of 21. It’s therefore not unreasonable to suggest that Greek life has played a notable role in spreading COVID-19 throughout the pandemic, particularly on college campuses and particularly with the mass return of students to campus universities in the US. COVID-19 cases on college campuses during the 2020/2021 academic year were largely sourced from the unmasked and not socially distanced gatherings by Greek life members, including events organized and publicized by the Greek Letter Organizations (GLOs). Although – according to a former-McGill Greek life member – the commitment and pressure to be social in this capacity is less applicable to Canadian GLOs, multiple University of British Columbia (UBC) frat parties have violated public health regulations. Such a socially-oriented conception of the “college experience,” according to sociological researchers Elizabeth A. Armstrong and Laura T. Hamilton, is exemplative of what they call “the party pathway.” Their book, Paying for the Party, examines how colleges maintain inequality, based on their research of an unnamed university in the Midwestern United States (MU, Midwestern University). They find that the “college experience” is not universal, but socially classed, coining the term “pathway” to describe “when the university structures the interests of a constituency into its organizational edifice.” Armstrong and Hamilton describe the unnerving centrality of frat parties, mixers, and the
Eve Cable | Illustrations Editor expansive calendar of Greek events to be exemplary of the “party pathway.” Many students in this pathway have familial wealth and are able to pay full university tuition without aid. Majors characterized by “a heavy focus on appearance, personality and charm” are provisioned by the university to enable the party scene. They allow a student to be relatively successful post-grad, despite spending proportionality more time socializing than studying. Armstrong and Hamilton look at why a student would
prefer the notoriously cockroachspawned, no-AC, hair-stuck-incommunal-shower-drain party dorm compared to a dormitory with more resources, explaining that these dorms are desirable because they have a reputation for being social hubs, “havens for people with similar backgrounds, interests, and orientations toward college.” Part of the party dorm’s desirability stems from a student’s desire to experience “true college life,” a notion that often correlates with affluence and what they call “the socialite experience” of college.
“Just as roads are built for types of vehicles, pathways are built for types of students. The party pathway is provisioned to support the affluent and socially oriented… built around an implicit agreement between the university and students to demand little of each other.”
The first fraternity, Phi Beta Kappa, was founded in 1776 at William and Mary College, and excluded anyone who was not white, cisgender, and wealthy. PW GLOs grew in popularity in response to increasing university diversity, and thus for the purpose of exclusion on the basis of race, ethnicity, class, religion, sexuality. It was not until 2013 that the last sorority formally desegregated. These exclusive GLOs mean that only certain demographics are granted access to the connections provided by a membership, connections in “high places” that are often already provisioned by white generational wealth. This perpetuates a cycle which guards access to power, from homogenous university-level pledge picking to Supreme Court nominations based on frat-sorority siblinghood nepotism. Lawrence Ross, historian and member of the first historically Black fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha, writes that “Greek organizations resisted class and race diversity. Frats were a way for white upperclass men to separate themselves from an increasingly diverse student population” in his book Blackballed:
the Black and White Politics of Race on America’s Campuses. Ross writes of the Divine Nine, nine historically Black Greek Letter Organizations made to socially and academically support Black students, and help them succeed after college through an alumni network. However, statistical evidence shows that participation in Greek Life by white and Black students is not reflective of student body demographics in most US and Canadian universities. Such disproportionate participation suggests that PW Greek Life is unwelcoming to BIPOC students, and that the rush process is explicitly or implicitly discriminatory against BIPOC students who rush. Recruitment is subjective, partial, and is supposedly conducted based on personality. But one sorority girl at MU admitted, “sororities have the reputation of selecting on the basis of attractiveness.” A largely homogenous selection of those who are afforded pretty privilege, inextricably linked to white privilege. Brianna (she/they), a member of a sorority at McGill, conversely described that what drew them to their sorority was
features the chapter’s diversity: “No two people look the same or are from the same place, have the same life experiences, but you can tell that they were all really united in their common values.”
“Greek organizations resisted class and race diversity. Frats were a way for white upper-class men to separate themselves from an increasingly diverse student population.” BIPOC students within GLOs at Vanderbilt, UPenn, Columbia University, Whitman College, to name a few, have written of their experiences of being tokenized within their respective GLO in university publications. A common thread between their stories is that they are aware of, sometimes explicitly told of, their token status but nonetheless choose to participate, as they believe the benefits of Greek Life ultimately outweigh the institution’s racist history and microaggressions one would experience – benefits such as the professional network it allows one to make. Brianna, while acknowledging “access issues” to membership, namely economic, described sorority involvement to be a “super valuable networking opportunity.” The Abolish Greek Life movement describes Greek life as a “pipeline to power:” 85 per cent of Supreme Court Justices since 1910,
September 13, 2021 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily 63 per cent of all U.S. presidential cabinet members since 1900, and, historically, 76 per cent of U.S. Senators, 85 per cent of Fortune 500 executives are fraternity men. Social GLOs, gendered according to the binary and allowed to exercise gender-based exclusion, are places of gender expression and performance. That is not to say all trans students are barred from or have negative experience in GLOs. Brianna, a non-binary member of a McGill sorority, believes sororities to be spaces of antipatriarchal gender expression. Armstrong and Hamilton describe the frat house and frat party as spaces of toxic and competitive masculinity, measured by excessive drinking and relations with women. In a 2015 qualitative study titled “Gay and Greek: The Deployment of Gender by Gay Men in Fraternity and Sorority Life,” Anthony Clemons observed that “there are strict rules of hegemonic masculinity embedded in fraternity life where members value heterosexuality” which “leads gay men in fraternities to conceal behavior socially labeled as “gay” and therefore nonmasculine.” Homophobia within Greek Life manifests itself through microaggressions, slurs, and compulsory heterosexuality. A 2019 study, based on the assumption that “fraternity culture perpetuates traditional masculinity ideologies,” was inconclusive in its findings about whether the fraternity selected for such men, or whether the members were socialized to perform in a toxic masculine way due to the fraternity environment. In an MU article published in 2010, a fraternity member spoke of “the trusty 1-10 system for rating girls.” A rating of a nine, for example, “will get you mad points out the wazoo […] raise your self-esteem, popularity, and other girls will suddenly find you more attractive.” According to
“I’m someone who’s lived my life as a woman, and I’m a comfortable femme identifier to a degree. [...] I think for lack of better terms, [...] we need spaces for women. I do not feel the same way about fraternities. I think those are bad. I think they’re bad because affluent men do not need a space, whereas women and non-men, gender diverse people do need a space.” - Brianna, McGill sorority member
Armstrong and Hamilton, such a rating system is exemplary of “how men and women gain rank in peer cultures: Both derive status via the type of erotic attention that they can attract. The more attractive, desirable, popular they are considered by their opposite-sex peers, the more likley they are to have a power position – and vice versa.” Social capital is derived through how attractive a sorority member is to the male gaze. After all, fraternities hold the parties as there are rules in place barring sororities from keeping alcohol in their houses; “because men were often the party hosts and women the guests, men dictated who got into the party, what their guests wore, and even how much they drank.” Frats’ social power coupled with their atmosphere of rape culture, contributes to the increased likelihood of sexual violence to occur within the frat house. The monopoly that fraternities have on campus party culture, especially in the US, make them an unavoidable place for women who want to engage in larger social or drinking events. The first Canadian GLO, Zeta Psi, was founded in 1879 at the University of Toronto and opened a chapter at McGill University in 1883. UBC, with ten fraternities, eight sororities and thousands of students involved, houses the largest Greek system in Canada — numbers that reach nowhere near Greek life participation at US universities. At the University of Alabama, over 10,000 students, 34 per cent of the student body, are part of the Greek life community. There are reasons as to why the Greek life system is a much more prominent part of college life in the U.S as compared to Canada. For one, McGill University and University of Toronto admin do not recognize fraternities and sororities as official campus groups; Queen’s University has had an explicit ban on GLOs since 1993, and UBC students claim that admin keeps them at “arm’s reach.” Alexander Panetta of CTV attributes the higher prevalence of Greek life in the US than in Canada to the higher drinking age and to more students studying away from home: “Ronald Reagan signed into law the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, making it harder for anyone under 21 to score booze in a commercial establishment. It just so happened that campus clubs were sitting on a few billion dollars’ worth of private property, accumulated since the early 19th century – frat houses. These houses have provided a sanctuary for insobriety in a way Canadian kids might not appreciate,” and are able to dominate the social scene. Internal initiatives within GLOs do exist to address sexual violence and their historically
discrimantory practices and outcomes. Brianna spoke on the several systems their sorority has in place to reform issues that have historically been a problem within GLOs: the position of VP inclusivity and accessibility at Greek Week, a Vice President and director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at their chapter that “work on facilitating workshops and opening discussions […] to increase accessibility in Greek Life,” a mental health chair, removing legacies, and the “interGreek letter council which is working on combatting sexual violence within sororities and fraternities at McGill specifically,” an informal IRP (Involvement Restriction Policy) and a “list of standards that fraternities and sororities need to abide by, predominantly focusing on sexual violence, and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.” Brianna described McGill chapters with a “soft power” of blacklisting a chapter that has been involved with a violation of these standards. Blacklisting means “not to interact or mix’’ with the violating chapter “until the issue with the member had been resolved.” GLOs “are not recognized by SSMU [or McGill], which means that we cannot get access to the IRP,” Brianna said, “and if something happens to a sorority or fraternity member, whether it be on campus or in a sorority house or in the McGill community, we cannot report it through McGill, so I would like to say that McGill kinda screwed us over in that regard, but we’ve taken matter into our own hands.” This blacklist initiative, after fizzling out, is coming back this year so there has not yet been an “opportunity to implement it” – “we have some of the fraternities,” but “not all of them,” “on board and actively participating in working on this initiative.” Those in support of abolition say that reform is not enough. The Abolish Greek Life movement took root in the summer of 2020, championed by former sorority and fraternity members, college students, alumni, and activists who believe that the oppressive, exclusionary, and often violent system of PW Greek Life cannot be reformed, and should instead be banned to create more inclusive and equitable campuses. With branches at 52 US universities, their work largely consists of “uplifting the voices of students harmed and victimized by fraternity and sorority life” through social media, and helping current fraternity and sorority members deactivate from their chapters. Abolition, however, is difficult and perhaps “isn’t possible, at least in the near future, because of the way it’s so ingrained within our school culture
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and student organizations,” Mississippi chapter member Taylor said, in a 2020 interview with Vox.
The Greek system is in the financial interests of a university, and although this is less of the case at McGill or in Canada considering the proportionally lower GLO membership, the vested wealth of GLOs cannot be ignored. “Many of these fraternities and sororities have been on campuses for decades, and that’s led them to accumulate a strong alumni network that can be tapped as donors,” said Noah Drezner, a Columbia associate professor of higher education who researches alumni giving, “Greek alumni are disproportionately represented on trustee boards and in administrative positions.” The Greek system is in the financial interests of a university, and although this is less of the case at McGill or in Canada considering the proportionally lower GLO membership, the vested wealth of GLOs cannot be ignored. Greek Life has been embedded into pop culture and into a collective conception of the “college experience” – to separate Greek life from the university experience is difficult and another obstacle to abolition. The structure and bureaucracy of Greek Life, a unified front across US and Canadian universities through the North-American Interfraternity Conference and National Panhellenic Conference, make it difficult to dismantle; it is highly structured and hierarchical. However, this should not prevent us from seeking out the ways we can reduce the harms perpetuated by Greek life, whether it be a call for total PW Greek abolition, abolition of PW frats, or further reform efforts.
September 13, 2021 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
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culture
Netflix’s The Chair Falls Short A disappointing subplot severely detracts from a narrative full of potential
Eve Cable Illustrations Editor
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andra Oh is, unsurprisingly, a powerhouse in Netflix’s The Chair, a new six-part Netflix miniseries from Amanda Peet and Annie Julia Wyman. The show follows Ji-Yoon Kim (Sandra Oh) in her role as a newly appointed Chair of the English department at the fictional Pembroke University, the first person of colour to hold the position. While we see Ji-Yoon fight for the tenure of her Black colleague Yaz McKay (Nana Mensah) – a complex storyline shining a light on the difficulty to evoke change in University administrations – a more disappointing subplot shows Bill Dobson (Jay Duplass) go unrealistically viral for doing a mocking Hitler salute during a lecture. This subplot takes up swathes of an already too-short series’ time, and while the rest of the show engages audiences with realistic experiences of women of colour in academia, this storyline risks a loss of interest and reads as a somewhat lazy moment of writing.
“One of the things I’m very proud of about the show is that you’re seeing two women of colour, of different colours, actually really speaking.” -Sandra Oh Bill is filmed doing the Nazi salute when punctuating the word “fascism” during an absurdism lecture – the students have begun filming following a few tame quips from the Professor regarding alcohol and marijuana. The moment feels overly convenient, written in to allow for Bill’s offence to be caught on camera. The plot point may be indicative of a lack of young voices in the writer’s room, who could have provided clarity about the real nature of current classroom environments where it’s unlikely that so many students would be filming such an initially minor event at once. Moreover, the accusation against
Eve Cable | Illustrations Editor Bill is “neither compellingly realistic [...] nor outrageously parodic” – it’s something there just isn’t time for in a series that runs only three hours long. This subplot does somewhat re-centre Ji-Yoon’s narrative: it highlights the burden on women, particularly on women of colour, to clean up the white man’s mess. However, it’s ultimately a distraction from the more compelling plot line of Yaz’s battle for tenure, which is constantly obstructed by the interests of donors and older men in the field. The Chair would have been a more compelling series had this subplot been given more time and attention, and it’s a real shame that this plot line is not followed in more depth given the all-too common nature of the story in the real world. Yaz’s story also feels derailed by Bill’s blunders, where student voices are delegitimized and portrayed as overly woke – a disappointing generalization when these are the same students fighting in support of Yaz’s battles with administration. It’s worthwhile still to consider the merits of the show aside from this subplot. As always, Sandra
Oh is a beacon in the cast, shining as the lead, and complemented well by the equally talented Nana Mensah in the role of Yaz. In commenting on their characters,
women of colour in academia are platformed in a way that has perhaps never been done so deftly before. The show serves as a relatable
The students are depicted as overly accusatory foolish young people, who know nothing about the accusations they claim and are oddly unclear in their requests for a resolution, which is a betrayal to the more serious plot lines in which these same students play a pivotal role. Oh expressed the importance of the characters’ intertwining plot lines: “One of the things I’m very proud of about the show is that you’re seeing two women of colour, of different colours, actually really speaking.” This is definitely one aspect of the show that is highly successful; Yaz and Ji-Yoon’s experiences as
narrative to individuals whose own narratives are not often so well represented on screen, particularly in the fraught relationship between Ji-Yoon and her adoptive daughter, who has a great deal of struggle in her own identity. Moreover, the storyline does seek to empower, dealing with stories at the intersection of race, gender
and class. As Oh notes, these intersections make this a crucial story to tell: “With all those plates spinning, millions of people and millions of women are doing the exact same thing 24/7.” Ultimately, though, Bill’s subplot detracts from the focus on these stories. It feels like it’s pandering to “cancel culture critics who think white men are being forced to apologize for things they didn’t do,” and makes the show feel timid in its writing, not daring to dive into more serious conversations of on-campus life. The students are depicted as overly accusatory foolish young people, who know nothing about the accusations they claim and are oddly unclear in their requests for a resolution, which is a betrayal to the more serious plot lines in which these same students play a pivotal role. Though this is disappointing, the show is otherwise wellmade, phenomenally acted, and full of potential in its dissection of outdated and discriminatory academic practices, giving viewers hope for more cutting plot lines and less lazy writing should it be renewed for a second season.
September 13, 2021 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
CULTURE
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Flashback: Saraba, Ultraman
Aliens, dreams, and the making of Ultraman (1966) Atsushi Ikeda Culture Contributor
did fly, it was his figurine on piano wire, the camera tilted at an angle. Practical effects force you to red comet falls from the sky be practical. That would be a and crashes into a Science cute little pull quote, sure, but Patrol jet, killing the pilot, Shin Hayata. In what looks like the inside of a crystal ball, a giant alien from Nebula M78 looks down on Shin through the fog and offers his life in order to revive him, effectively merging them into one being — Shin returns with a “beta capsule” which allows him to transform into Ultraman upon command to face whatever space monster arrives on Earth. And arrive those monsters did, through the 39 episodes of the that’s not what I want to preach 1966 Ultraman series. They hailed on behalf of my younger self. not only from far-off planets, It’s more that it builds a certain but also, occasionally, from the imagination when a kid watches costume departments of bigger a show and senses where the tokusatsu productions which were hinges are, how the thing was booming from the ’50s onwards; put together, time and time again. one episode features a clearly You realize that 100 people doing reused Godzilla costume with a one small thing right can be its frill added around the neck. At own kind of superhuman effort. other times, the production team Serial kids’ television — not would modify costumes from “good” or “bad” television, but previous episodes, paint them plainly engrossing, candy-colored over to give the monsters a fresh name and backstory. The budgetary and time constraints for the first Ultraman series seem laughable now in the face of what it grew into: a global media franchise including games, movies, manga, and merchandise that hauls in billions annually for Tsuburaya Productions (Marvel even released a five-issue Ultraman comic book series last year). As far as I know, kids in Japan are still into it; every year there’s yet another Avengersstyle Ultraman movie. But the first Ultraman didn’t fly with that sort of sprawling financial safety net. It was a kids’ sci-fi serial, sure, so each episode moved with a predictable logic, but with all its constraints — the episodic form, target audience, time, money, materials — there was a (literally) handson dedication that came out of turning the old into the new. Necessity may be the mother of invention, but in the best cases, ingenuity can be born too. Each episode had explosives experts ensuring that the model buildings would detonate in sequence, a team of painters spending a night to finish the backdrop of a sunset, sculptors building little highways and making them look realistically dirty, even if all the effort amounted to a three-second throwaway shot of the highway collapsing. And when Ultraman
A
mulch — teaches you to imagine in episodes. You learn to build as much as you can in a sandbox (in my case, a sketchbook) because it will all come toppling down
The best kind of looking back is when you realize something belongs there, like an old sketchbook you flip through just to see how much time you had on your hands as a kid, how well you wasted it. in a half hour. You can reuse designs, you can tell one story 39 ways, and in some cases you should, because growing up you finally appreciate the whole arc, the changes in scenery that obliquely add up to more than the plot in front of you. So why not steal from the things around you that hum with potential? The showrunners themselves loved thrifting from the French. The alien Dada was named after, yes,
the avant-garde art movement that pushed for randomness and irrationality as praxis. The alien Baltan was named after Sylvie Vartan, a French singer who was famous at the time in Japan. And the rationale behind that alien’s costume? As one of the directors Toshihiro Iijima has it, “his design is like a cicada crossed with a crayfish crossed with a human.” 55 years since the first Ultraman series, the humanin-a-suit vs. kaiju model has of course been played out to death, along with all its tropes — paperthin protagonists, man-made monsters, a deus ex machina in the final battle — but what seems too smooth and formulaic about the newer Ultraman movies or Pacific Rim was still being worked out on screen in the original series. From the fight choreography which is much like a mix of backyard wrestling and amateur gymnastics, to the sound design that feels uncannily reminiscent of ’70s krautrock band CAN (their debut album was named Monster Movie), the show
was scrappy in more ways than one. It was endearingly janky, and yet remains so well put-together. This isn’t me trying to convince you to sit through 39 episodes of what might look like Japanese Star Trek (with giants). As with most media you grow out of, I get more enjoyment now learning about the work the creators put into it, the “what if ” and “why not” behind every little decision. The best kind of looking back is when you realize something belongs there, like an old sketchbook you flip through just to see how much time you had on your hands as a kid, how well you wasted it. There’s a scene in Episode 34 where the Science Patrol is interrupted by an emergency call as they’re eating curry. At some point during the filming, director Akio Jissoji leapt from his chair in a lightbulb moment to tell Shin to run out onto the roof with his spoon, mistaking it for the beta capsule. What a brilliant and dumb idea.
Pandora Wotton | Coordinating Editor
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September 13, 2021 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
COMMENTARY
Blocking the Student Vote
Make voting accessible to youth: Vote on Campus Disha Garg Copy Editor
W
ith the Canadian Federal Election soon approaching – the Liberals having called a snap election for September 20 – people across the country are preparing to vote in this unique election, the outcome of which could have drastic impacts for Canada’s future. This year, 40 per cent of all eligible voters in Canada are Gen-Z and Millennials; and yet, no efforts have been made to ensure that voting is accessible to one of the largest voting groups. Elections Canada recently announced that it will not be making available the Vote on Campus Program, which in the past has dramatically propelled voter turnout among students and youth. They cited “student presence on campus [being] uncertain because of the pandemic” and having “no clear fixed election date” as justification to cancel the program. Students and student organizations are voicing their concerns about the impacts of this decision on their ability to vote – and consequently, voter turnout. Camellia Wong, the communications director of Future Majority, a non-profit organization educating and empowering young Canadians to vote, spoke on behalf of Millenials and Gen-Z’s who feel that their vote is being devalued: “We see this cancellation as damaging to our democracy.” In a reader’s letter to the Toronto Star, Diane Letsche stated that in not implementing the Vote on Campus Program, Elections Canada has “dismissed [students’]
right to vote.” An online campaign created by student Esmé Decker, circulating on You Lead Now and advocating to resuscitate the Vote on Campus Program, has garnered over 21,000 signatures by supporters. It claims that as they are already away from home, students find it increasingly difficult to take time out of their busy schedules to go far from campus and vote. There is also the added problem of finding adequate and reliable transportation. Calling the reasons for cancelling the Program “unjustified,” the campaign accuses Elections Canada of “voter suppression.” Even the New Democratic Party’s (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh urged Elections Canada to “reconsider its decision to not have on-campus voting stations in an effort to make voting more accessible for young people.” Not only is the suspension of the Vote on the Campus Program detrimental to students’ democratic rights, it also affects their ability to vote for their home riding. Often, students in colleges and universities are away from home, in different cities and provinces. Vote on Campus made accessible to these students External Service Points (ESPs) – polls which gave students the opportunity to vote for their home riding through special ballots, regardless of which riding they were at. With the Program scrapped for this year, the only methods through which students can vote for their ridings are by going in-person to an Elections Canada office, by mail, or by travelling to their home riding in advance and casting their vote there. The Undergraduates of Canadian Research-Intensive
Pandora Wotton | Coordinating Editor
Pandora Wotton | Coordinating Editor Universities (UCRU), a coalition of student associations of which SSMU is a part, have written an open letter to Elections Canada, demanding that ESPs be secured on university and college campuses across Canada. In an opinion article published by the Globe and Mail, Wong notes how the 2021 elections are different from those of past years, due to rising concerns about climate change and employment instability in light of the pandemic. Justin Fletcher, a postgraduate student at the University of Toronto, also quotes these two issues as the main focus of this year’s elections. These are issues that directly and significantly impact the youth, who have no way to effectuate concrete change. When the Vote on Campus Program was first rolled out on 39 campuses across Canada during the 2015 federal election, the 18 to 24 age group saw a significant voter turnout in comparison to previous years. In the 2011 election, voter turnout was 38.8 per cent, which in 2015 increased to 57.1 per cent, a significant turnout difference of 18.3 per cent thanks to Vote on Campus. Despite the successful initiation of the Program, the National Youth Survey conducted in the same year highlighted that one of the main reasons why youth turnout was still lower compared to other age groups was their perceived lack of accessibility to voting. Youth were less aware of the process to vote, less likely to
them in political discussions and voting, in partnership with Abacus Data, found that there was a ten-point increase in the youth’s – people aged 18 to 30 in this case – interest in Canadian politics from 2019 to 2021. This information makes it all the more important for the Vote on Campus Program to be implemented and for the youth’s voices to be heard. After all, studies have time and again shown that habitual youth voters make for lifetime voters, and why not create a generation of lifetime voters when we have the opportunity to do so? I encourage all students at McGill who are eligible to vote to use the resources available to them and cast their votes in the upcoming elections. CTV News released a quick guide on voting in the 2021 federal election. It includes some general information about the parties running and their leaders, as well as potential ways to vote. Elections Canada outlines the different methods through which you can vote, including voting on election day, voting through mail, and voting at an Elections Canada office. You can use the Voter Information Service by Youth voter turnout decreased Elections Canada which allows by 3.2 per cent in the 2019 federal you to enter your postal address elections despite the expansion of and locate polling booths near Vote on Campus, raising concerns you, candidates from your riding, that the turnout rate might drop and other important information. even more in 2021, especially Visit Apathy is Boring for FAQs with Vote on Campus suspended. and a template to make your However, a survey by Apathy is election plan. Be sure to send in Boring, an organization fostering your vote before Election day on a community of youth to engage September 20. be given a Voter Information Card (VIC), and thus considered the voting process to be difficult. If youth find elections inaccessible even with the Program in place, this knowledge only calls for more accessibility; if anything, this survey highlights the pressing need for the continual implementation and expansion of Vote on Campus.
40 per cent of all eligible voters in Canada are Gen-Z and Millennials; and yet, no efforts have been made to ensure that voting is accessible to [them].
September 13, 2021 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
SCI+TECH
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Billionaires Join the Space Race The Western fixation on billionaires’ “magical solutions”
Victor Chen Staff Writer
O
n July 20, Jeff Bezos boarded the New Shepard rocket, flying 351, 210 feet into the atmosphere. This makes him yet another billionaire to have flown into space among Richard Branson and Elon Musk, marking the end of the “billionaire space race” that had taken social media by storm. During the 11-minute joyride, Bezos potentially turned a profit of US$1.57 million, six million times the wages of his employees earning US$15 per hour. The crew consisted of himself; his brother, Mark Bezos; Oliver Daemen, the 18-year-old son of Somerset Capital Partners’ CEO; and Wally Funk, an aspirant astronaut.
[Workers] create the wealth for the multinational corporations, yet they are continually abused and reap none of the benefits. The debauchery of this escapade is most highlighted by the mysterious bidder for the extra ticket. An anonymous bidder had paid US$28 million to receive the honour of boarding the ship, but cancelled last-minute due to “scheduling issues.” To be able to casually toss US$28 million away showcases the dissonance between the pampered billionaire class and the workers who toil everyday. They create the wealth for the multinational corporations, yet they are continually abused and reap none of the benefits. Amazon exploits workers and engages in non-consumer friendly practices, and is now looking to exploit optimistic spacefarers as well. Amazon has been notorious for coercing their workers into urinating in bottles to meet productivity quotas, having workers work over 12 hours a day, wage theft, busting unions, and astroturfing on Twitter – that is, setting up corporate accounts masquerading as employees to spread anti-union propaganda. While this space race
made headlines, it was simply a reenactment that cannot compare to the technological advancements of the real space race 60 years ago. A reenactment that can confront the original would be the wealth inequality created during the pandemic. During the pandemic, over 650 billionaires had their net worths increase by over US$1 trillion. Pre-pandemic, income inequality in the United States had already surpassed the times of slavery, and the increase in wealth for those profiting off the pandemic serves to exacerbate this issue. This Western hyperfixation on billionaires showboating into the atmosphere creates a sharp dichotomy with the development of high speed rails (HSRs) for transportation in Asia. Most notably, a 600 kilometre per hour maglev debuted in Qingdao, China, on July 20, the same day Bezos was making his trip. The maglev is a train that uses electromagnetic force to levitate contactless above a rail, and is capable of traversing 1,225 kilometres from Beijing to Shanghai in around 2.5 hours, a distance comparable to twice the distance between Montreal and Toronto. China is not the pioneer of such technologies – in 2015, Japan developed the L0 Series which had the capability to reach 600 kilometres per hour, though it was not available for commercial use.
emissions, and Canada is the only G7 country yet to implement them. The implementation of an HSR is a worthwhile discussion, despite the contention on whether or not it would be a viable or profitable investment for Canada. Even though the development may not be profitable, public infrastructure should be developed with the expectation of taking a loss, as long as it is beneficial to the public and makes transportation more accessible to everyday people. The presence of high-speed rail systems in other nations shows that Canada could develop something similar to build up our modern passenger rail service, increasing our ease of transport as well as being a step forward that Canada could take to reduce carbon emissions. Most of the rockets produced during the billionaire space race expelled emissions into the atmosphere, by virtue of needing a propellant. Though sources have stated that the New Shepard did not produce carbon emissions, it’s also important to note that carbon emissions do come from its research and production process. The passenger capacity has been limited to only a few people, yet gases are still directly emitted into the upper atmosphere. Further limitations include accessibility issues; spacefarers have historically required physical training, so there will be individuals who would be unable to handle the speeds of spaceflight. Even if this form of transportation HSRs have long been an is faster than current technologies, accessible, efficient method of the previous caveats outweigh this long-distance transportation hypothetical benefit. An interesting outlook is capable of reducing carbon
Public infrastructure should be developed with the expectation of taking a loss, as long as it is beneficial to the public and makes transportation more accessible to everyday people.
Viola Ruzzier | Staff Illustrator provided by the development of these transportation technologies. In Asia, transportation was developed by the people for the people, applicable to everyday scenarios. In the West, this technology was developed by the people as well, the difference being that it is based on workers’ exploitation and that this technology is far from accessible to the ordinary working class – it is just flaunting wealth with subtext in the form of intangible empty words about commercializing space travel.
burning up. Wildfires and record-breaking heatwaves are devastating Western Canada and the rest of the world, and this is only the harbinger of what’s to come. These pipe dreams are quite easy to drift into in the face of dire events, but it is also important to think critically, as these fantasies are illogical and antithetical to the solution of these problems – if technology could be utilized to terraform Mars to a habitable state, it should also be applicable to Earth. Our focus for research and development should be on the
In the West, this technology was developed by the people as well, the difference being that it is based on workers’ exploitation and that this technology is far from accessible to the ordinary working class – it is just flaunting wealth with subtext in the form of intangible empty words about commercializing space travel. There has been an increased focus on spaceflight in the media, consequently sparking pipe dreams like terraforming Mars and creating frivolous commercialized space travel. Inaction and hope for future technologies to act as a deus ex machina only serve to create complacency and distract from how our planet is quite literally
planet humankind is currently inhabiting, not trying to start a colony based around indentured servitude on Mars. A target for this focus, where the technology is attainable and where other countries have already adopted, is public transport, which will incidentally address pressing climate change and wealth inequality issues.
September 13, 2021 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
compendium!
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hot queer autumn horoscopes Aries
(Mar 21 Apr 19)
embrace camp
(Jun 21 Jul 22)
wear an old sweater...the mothier the better.
Libra
(Sept 23 Oct 22)
enjoy some refreshing b00ble tea ;)
Capricorn (Dec 22 Jan 19)
ur doing everything right u r perfect and hot
(May 21 Jun 20)
(Apr 20 May 20)
reject plateau oat milk, embrace mile end oat milk.
ur hair looks great
Cancer
Gemini
Taurus
Leo
(Jul 23 Aug 22)
throw out your nutritional yeast. it does not taste like cheese, the vegans are gaslighting you.
Scorpio (Oct 23 Nov 21)
take up fibre art! buy yarn in bulk! you won’t regret it!
Aquarius (Jan 20 Feb 18)
feeling lonely? adopt a sourdough starter (don’t shop!)
Virgo
(Aug 23 Sept 22)
when was the last time you washed your tote bag?
Sagittarius (Nov 22 Dec 21)
only you can be the girlboss of your own heart
Pisces
(Feb 19 Mar 20)
requeer the hypebeast
