Volume 103, Issue 2 Monday, September 9, 2013
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University alleges it is “victim of systematic demands”
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Molly Korab | The McGill Daily
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s McGill’s legal fight against a number of access to information requests (ATIs) makes its way through Quebec’s justice system, two disputing parties met in front of the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec on Thursday. The hearing centred around whether the Commission has standing to decide McGill’s request for the authority to deny future ATI requests from anyone on a list of specified categories of individuals or submitting requests on specified topics. The right to access administrative documents, according to the Commission’s website, covers over 2,800 Quebec public bodies. ATIs are typically used by students, journalists, activists, and other interested parties to legally obtain information from public bodies – such as McGill. If a public body refuses to grant ATI requests, the Commission acts as an administrative tribunal to mediate negotiations and make decisions. At the hearing, the University’s two lawyers advocated for one of two responses from the Commission: either that the Commission grant the University the right to disregard future ATIs from select categories of persons, or the requirement that those within the categories receive authorization from the Commission before submitting ATIs to the University. The select categories of persons that the University seeks to prevent from submitting ATI requests includes blanket terms such as “persons associated to McGilliLeaked” or “persons that could reasonably be linked to such requestor,” and that show characteristics such as being “overly broad,” “frivolous,” “target[ing] trivial documents and information,” or “associated to one or more categories of documents and information published on McGilliLeaked.” Prior to this summer, the University also sought to include the term “students at McGill,” but later dropped that part of the language when the Daily Publications Society asked to be made a respondent on the case, on the grounds that the motion would directly affect student journalists. At the hearing, which was held in French, the respondents’ lawyer labelled McGill’s request to deny future ATI requests at its discretion as having a “discriminatory character,” and claimed that the University is asking to change the law in order to suit its demands. Essentially, the respondents’ lawyer argued, McGill would be asking the Commission to delegate its power, giving the University the power to decide on and dismiss ATI requests, typically the responsibility of the Commission – and a move that would be unprecedented if decided in McGill’s favour. “This type of demand has no precedent in the law,” she said in French at the hearing. In response, the University’s lawyers argued that a large number of ATI requests from students and others created a complex set of “systematic demands,” a phenomenon that they claimed reduced efficiency and cost money to fulfill. McGill’s lawyers argued that the University, as a public organization, has the right “not to be the victim of systematic demands.” Quebec law allows for public organizations to disregard ATIs – if the ATIs in question are deemed to be “improper” in nature, due to a repetitious or systematic character. Respondents argue that the “systematic and abusive” nature of the requests has been “manufactured by
artificially grouping together a number of students and non-students who have made ATI requests on vastly different subjects,” Kevin Paul, one of the respondents present at the hearing, told The Daily. Another of the respondents present at the hearing, Isaac Stethem, expressed similar sentiments. “I just find it really frustrating and disingenuous,” he said. “[It’s] frankly disturbing and saddening that the University is using this kind of language and allegations and tactics.” The University defended its decision, and disputed the notion that it is seeking to circumvent existing access to information laws. According to Secretary-General Stephen Strople, who is responsible for responding to ATI requests at the University, “The University is seeking authorization from the Commission to disregard applications for access to documents that are improper because they were too broad, repetitive, systematic, frivolous, and asking for information that is obviously personal and therefore cannot be disclosed – all of which is not permitted by the law,” he wrote in an email to The Daily. “The law provides a recourse to seek authorization to disregard such requests. This is the recourse we used and that is now in front of the Commission,” he said. “[The law] also gives rights to those from whom the documents are requested.” Speaking to the University’s amendment regarding pre-Commission approval of ATIs, Strople added, “If the Commission does not want to grant us permission to ignore future requests of the type we describe, then it could require that such requests for access first be submitted to the Commission for review before the University has to deal with them.” Ultimately, Stethem said, the University’s request to disregard future ATIs comes down to power. “It’s fairly clear where the balance of power lies here,” he said, pointing to the University, which has more legal, financial, and labour resources than students typically do. “The commission is there to mitigate that imbalance, but the University is seeking to exempt itself from that oversight.” The requests named in the current motion date back to November 2011, after the campus strike of nonacademic workers. The requests named in the current motion largely revolve around several categories: fossil fuel investments, alleged military research at the University, and administrative finances. In the motion submitted by the University, the requests are grouped together in “waves” – despite the respondents’ denial that any collaboration was made. “They’re lumping all of these information requests together in order to make the point that there are too many requests being made, that there’s some coordinated effort,” Mona Luxion, a former Daily columnist, and one of the respondents, told The Daily in January. However, respondents deny that there was any collaboration between groups on the requests, as alleged by the University. The Commission is expected to decide over the next few weeks on which elements of McGill’s motion – specifically, its request to deny future requests at its discretion – are within its purview. Following this, if the case is not resolved in mediation, it will go to trial later this year, with dates tentatively set for October and December.
The McGill Daily
News
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Monday, September 9, 2013
One year later: the PQ government
Protesters take to the street in sardonic ‘celebration’
NEWS
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The ongoing ATI battle One year of the PQ government Mental health and counselling hit by budget cuts Book fair cancelled due to construction
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COMMENTARY
Looking beyond organic and local food The futility of the new bike gates McGill’s contributions to military research
08 FEATURES
6Party and the after party
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SCI+TECH
Hybrid carbon pricing schemes What’s happening in science? The internet’s carbon footprint
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SPORTS
Athletes speak out on Russian anti-queer laws
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HEALTH & ED
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CULTURE
Quebec, minorities, and human rights
New veggie restaurant Anarchist art The Hippodrome dream
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COMPENDIUM!
Campus news briefs Suzie’s first day The Weekly’s new advice column!
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EDITORIAL
Education for undocumented children
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Jordan Venton-Rublee and Dana Wray | The McGill Daily
n the early evening of September 4, a group of just over 100 people met at Metro Jarry for a ‘celebration’ of the one-year anniversary of the election of Premier Pauline Marois and the Parti québécois (PQ) government. “It’s a way to show the PQ that a year after the election, the people are not asleep,” explained Steve, a demonstrator, in French. He also told The Daily that he didn’t see any real difference between the current government and the former. “The PQ has the same politics as the Parti libéral du Quebec (PLQ).” Judith Barnett, another demonstrator, shared similar sentiments, adding that she thought the government had actually changed for the worse over the past year. Following St. Denis from Metro Jarry all the way down to Émilie Gamelin Square, the crowd swelled from around 100 to approximately 300 people, many of them banging pots and pans in the casserole style of protest. After speeches at the square, the group marched east on Ste. Catherine before finishing at Ontario and Moreau. Despite the fact that the protest was declared illegal almost immediately under bylaw P-6 – which allows police to deem marches unlawful if organizers do not divulge their route beforehand – it remained peaceful. Bylaw P-6 also prohibits protesters from wearing masks, scarves, or hoods that obscure their face. To circumvent the law, protesters put cardboard masks of Marois’ face on their bikes, sticks, or the backs of their heads. “She couldn’t be here tonight,” one of the protesters, Geneviève, said in French, pulling the mask over her face, “but she is… sort of.” Protesters waved communist flags, wore red squares, pushed their bikes, and held their children, but all were there for a similar reason: to show the government that they were not pleased. The previous year of the PQ government provided plenty of fodder for outrage – from anti-union legislation, to state-enforced secularism, to tuition hikes. Here’s an overview of some of the most important – and most criticized – issues of the year. Anti-union legislation In August, over 175,000 unionized construction workers in Quebec went on strike, citing wages and work conditions as their crucial grievances. While over 98,000 workers managed to negotiate an end to their strike after only a week, over 77,000 workers remained on strike. When negotiations broke down for the second group of workers after the second week of the strike, the PQ pushed through Bill 54, a highly unpopular piece of back-to-work legislation. If union leaders, employees, and associations did not respect the legislation, they were threatened with fines from $100 for an individual offender to $125,000 for a union or employers’ association. Both the workers who negotiated an end to the strike and those who were forced back to work received annual pay increases of 2 per cent per year – 1 per cent lower than they initially asked for. Plan Nord While Plan Nord was announced by the previous Liberal government in May 2011, it was carried on by the PQ. Plan Nord is a 25 year long, $80 million development and resource exploitation project, touted by the
Khoa | Photographer government as an economic booster that will create or consolidate 20,000 jobs per year in Northern Quebec by digging mines, expanding forestry, and damming rivers. The Plan was heavily criticized by environmental activists, Aboriginal peoples, and labour unions for its destructive potential – not only to the environment, but to the Aboriginal peoples whose communities are on the land. It was also criticized for its lack of transparency and consultation with Quebec’s Aboriginal population. When the PQ introduced their new “North for All” plan, which will invest $868 million over five years into Northern Quebec, they were blasted for the plan’s similarity to Plan Nord. The PQ admitted that the two plans were similar, but highlighted promises to work more closely with communities on sustainable social and environmental infrastructure. At the protest on September 4, a demonstrator named Dominic told The Daily he was upset that the PQ, which he believed had run as a socially and environmentally friendly alternative to the PLQ, had simply renamed this environmentally destructive plan instead of shutting it down. Summit on Higher Education In February, the PQ held its Summit on Higher Education, a day-and-a-half long summit that involved the government, 61 different organizations, and leaders from student federations. Quickly criticized as being simply for show – Heather Munroe-Blum, then-principal of McGill, called it a “farce” – many thought the PQ had already made its decisions behind closed doors. While the PQ government stood in solidarity with students during the student strike of 20112012, opposing the PLQ’s proposed tuition hike from $2,168 to $3,793 over five years, the summit saw the government unveil a plan to increase tuition by 3 per cent annually. Although the PQ called it indexation, students and protesters took to the streets to decry what they saw as the government’s empty gesture. Many of the protesters who attended the demonstration were there to support students. One protester named Valerie stated that she felt that students had been “abandoned” and that she was there “in solidarity with the students arrested during last year’s riots.” Bill 14 and French language laws Bill 14, formerly known as An Act to amend
the Charter of the French language, saw sweeping legislation introduced into the National Assembly late last year that would amend the use of French in schools and workplaces. While the Bill has yet to be passed, the debate surrounding it was reignited in the spring when the PQ introduced hearings over the proposed Bill, which was met with fierce opposition from the PLQ. Amendments proposed included allowing the provincial government to revoke the bilingual status of a municipality if the anglophone population drops below 50 per cent. Another proposed amendment specified that businesses with 26 employees or more needed to make French their everyday work language. The proposed amendments would also give inspectors the ability to seize anything they believe is an offence against the Charter. Additionally, the Bill could see diplomas denied to CEGEP students if they do not meet a government-approved level of spoken and written French. Selective secularism Most recently, the PQ has provoked outrage across Quebec and Canada for its planned Quebec Charter of Values. Before the election in September, the PQ announced it was drafting the Charter, which would prohibit the wearing of religious symbols by public-sector employees in workplaces such as hospitals and schools. The Charter has come under fire as it proposes a ban on symbols such as hijabs, veils, and kippahs, but does not extend to the crucifix – although it violates the Charter – which the PQ claims is part of Quebec’s history. Marois was blasted for her comments, published in Le Devoir, that equated what she called the English model of multiculturalism with bombings. Despite outrage across Canada, with many calling the Charter xenophobic in its selectiveness, the PQ still plans to slowly implement the plan in a step-bystep manner. With files from Elisabeth Bogart, William Mazurek, and Arianee Wang.
An earlier edition of this story was previously published online on September 4.
The McGill Daily
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Monday, September 9, 2013
Mental health and counselling services charge $20 fee Services suffer after budget cuts
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Dana Wray | The McGill Daily
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s of September 1, McGill Mental Health Services and McGill Counselling Services have both implemented a one-time $20 registration fee for new and returning students who wish to use their services. In addition, both services have put a flexible cap on the number of sessions a student can have at 16 and 15, respectively. The decision to implement this direct fee was envisioned years ago as a way of managing demand for services that increased faster than enrolment, according to Jana Luker, Executive Director of Student Services. She also strongly emphasized that no student would ever be turned away if they could not pay the fee. Both Mental Health and Counselling Services fall under under the funding of Student Services. 70 per cent of the Student Services budget comes from student fees, while the other 30 per cent comes from McGill’s operating budget. It was in this 30 per cent that budget cuts hit the hardest, Luker explained. Student Services lost almost $500,000 due to universitywide budget cuts. Instead of limiting clinical hours or increasing wait times, the $20 fee was the “best thing in a not-so-great world,” in Luker’s words, that could be done to mitigate the loss. Dr. Vera Romano, head of Counselling Services, told The Daily that all of the money would go directly toward access for students through paying staff and preserving innovative services. “It’s not like an accumulation of funds to be used elsewhere or later, it’s like now,” Romano said. However, Romano admitted that as a service relying on a social justice model, they
were “worried about privatization” but felt it was necessary to keep the quality of service. According to Dr. Robert Franck, head of Mental Health Services, paying for the contracts of salaried staff is a big expense for Mental Health Services, and the $20 registration fee will help cushion the blow. “Last year, our mental health budget was in a severe deficit because we had put on contract a number of psychologists who were specialised in certain services, especially cognitive behaviour therapy,” Franck told The Daily. Long wait times at Mental Health and Counselling Services have been a common complaint of students. According to Franck, in November 2012, Mental Health Services had 480 students on their waiting list, 280 of whom were waiting for a first appointment. According to Romano, getting a session at Counselling Services takes around four to six weeks, but without the fee and cap, would shoot up to eight weeks or more, she estimated. Both Franck and Romano told The Daily that compared to getting a first appointment, obtaining regular therapy involves longer waiting times. “That is what we are trying to address with the 16 session limit,” Franck said. “[We want] to create turnover, so that students [... would] not have to wait on the waiting list for therapy.” 15 or 16 sessions, according to Romano, was not just an arbitrary number. “Usually Counselling Services works from a shortterm model because we work from a positive psychology, resilience-based model,” Romano said. “We don’t believe that most students will need counselling or psychotherapy for years and years. But some do, so
Sarina Gupta | Photographer we do provide those as well.” “Honestly, because we don’t have enough staff, the reality is, even if we did not have the session limit, in reality most students could not be seen more than that, because there’s more and more students seeking services,” Romano added. However, Franck was careful to point out that the cap was flexible, and that no student would be turned away if they needed more help. According to Franck, if students needed long-term care and had access to their parents’ insurance, one solution would be to refer them outside of McGill. If not, “we will follow them, we’re not going to just abandon somebody who [...] is going
to need ongoing care.” Because of emergency intake, possibilities for long-term care, and other services provided such as group therapy, “we don’t believe that vulnerable students are falling through the cracks,” Romano said. SSMU VP University Affairs Joey Shea acknowledged that it was unfortunate that Student Services, one of the most “pro-student” units at McGill, had to take these cuts, but pointed to the larger picture. “It’s part of a trend where services can no longer be provided by the University and therefore students are paying more directly, or are responsible for the financial burden essentially,” Shea said.
McGill Book Fair cancelled due to construction Construction completion date pushed to December
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he annual McGill Book Fair will be cancelled this year due to ongoing construction outside of Redpath and McLennan libraries. This is the first time since its initiation in 1971 that the fair has been cancelled. The late August press release announcing the cancellation stated that the fair was scheduled to run this year from October 22 to 24. According to Sally Cooper, the coordinator of the Book Fair, the 2013 date had been known “for about three years,” as most dates are scheduled years in advance. The fair is usually held in the autumn of each year, and is entirely volunteer-led. Over the decades since its inception, the fair has raised funds of over $1.6 million, with all proceeds donated toward providing McGill scholarships. Dan Doran, the Associate Director of Project Management in Facilities, Operations, and Development – part of University Servic-
Sarina Gupta| News Writer es – addressed the ongoing construction in an email to The Daily. “The Book Fair had always been scheduled at a time that would conflict with the terrace construction,” said Doran. Prior to construction, during the planning portion of the project, a meeting occurred between Doran, the project manager, and all the project stakeholders where “it was explained that the Book Fair this year would not be able to be held in its normal location.” Cooper said that the “decision to cancel was taken by a group of volunteers during the summer,” and was then brought to the attention of Vice-Principal (Development and Alumni Relations) Marc Weinstein and the McGill community. Despite the fair’s cancellation, Cooper told The Daily that the staff has continued sorting and pricing the books they have received, and intends on collecting books again
in the spring for next year’s fair. According to Cooper, as construction continued earlier this year around Redpath, the prospects for the fair appeared dimmer. “At first it seemed that [the construction] wouldn’t be too big a problem, but then we heard more details and discovered that they would [... be] closing all the doors that open onto the terrace,” she said. As construction regulations required that a wall be built across the fair’s space in the basement in order to replace the Redpath windows, volunteers were left without an adequate entrance or exit. “We tried to find another way to keep bringing in the books, but nothing worked so we made the decision to stop accepting books after June 6,” Cooper said. That lack of space, combined with delays from the Quebec construction strike, left few options to fair organizers other
than to cancel. Despite the cancellation being “unfortunate,” Cooper confirmed that “the only safe thing to do was cancel the sale,” and acknowledged that the ongoing construction is “very badly needed.” The projected date of completion for the construction was November 15, but because of construction strikes during the summer, the date has been extended several weeks. The province-wide strike involved 175,000 construction workers in Quebec. After two weeks, the 77,000 workers that had not negotiated an end to the strike were forced back to work by Bill 54, which threatened to fine groups and individuals who refused to comply. The tentative completion date for the library construction has now been set for earlyto mid-December. According to organizers, the annual Book Fair will resume in October 2014.
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Commentary
The McGill Daily
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Monday, September 9, 2013
Eating organic and local food isn’t enough Try a bite of food justice 9 Aaron Vansintjan | The McGill Daily
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ou might be worried about the food you eat. One thing you can do is buy organic food, or buy locally. So you go to the store and find some organic raspberries; they’re cheap and the plastic box says “Produit du Québec.” But what does that actually mean? Who are the people who make local food happen? Someone who made their way to Canada through the temporary foreign workers’ program probably plucked the raspberries. Their pay is below minimum wage. They have no legal protection, no guaranteed health care service, and they get deported if there’s any labour dispute. When the season is over, they go back to their home country. If they stay, they’re seen as illegal, hunted down by authorities, and deported. If you’re worried about the state of the food system, “going local” might seem like an easy choice, yet it’s harder on others. But what can you do besides buy locally or organically? *** On August 29, I attended a barbecue hosted by the Réseau d’Entraide de Verdun. The Réseau – as people call it – is a food bank located in the basement of a community centre in Verdun, down the street from a McDonald’s. The Réseau cooks meals, hands out food, and organizes collective kitchens for people to get together and cook. The atmosphere at the BBQ was classic: children refusing to eat kale, grown-ups demanding more relish, and sweet tunes playing from the speakers. But this was a special BBQ, co-hosted by the Food For All committee of Solidarity Across Borders. Solidarity Across Borders is a network of activists fighting for a ‘Solidarity City’ – a place where people can access all essential services, regardless of who they are or where they come from. The goal of this event was to raise awareness and bring people together around the issue of food access for people without residency status – often referred to as “illegal immigrants,” an extremely dehumanizing term. Aaron Lakoff, a member of the Food For All committee, listed some of the reasons why it’s also dehumanizing in practice. “If you’re an undocumented migrant living in Montreal, you’re probably going to be living a very financially unstable life, for the very simple reason that you can’t get a work permit, so you have to work under the table, often-times in very low-wage jobs. [...] You have to live in substandard housing. People have a problem accessing cheap and healthy food. Add to that this really insidious practice of food banks demanding official documentation that non-status migrants can’t get, just for the very fact that they’re nonstatus in this country. It means that there’s a real, serious food security problem.” According to another member of the collective, Gwendolyn Muir, organic food and other ‘back to the land’ ideologies are inac-
Rachel Nam | Illustrator cessible to most. “We’re taking a very different approach and talking about access as the starting point, in order to try and change the structures that people have to deal with every day.” When you hear the term “alternative food movement” you might think about Michael Pollan, farmers’ markets, or organic labelling. However, this is the food movement for the rich. Thinking that organic food is going to change an unfair food system is like trying to win Monopoly by buying only the most expensive property: the other players aren’t always going to land there. In recognizing this, Muir and Lakoff are part of an alternative alternative food movement, often referred to as “food justice.” Food justice activists are people who realize the whole game is rigged, and if you’re unlucky, you lose. Food justice comes down to the idea that, in order to change our food system, we need to work together with those who are the most affected by it. In this case, the Solidarity Across Borders network works with migrants who are often pushed to work in Canada because multinational corporations forced them off their land in the first place. Migrants are refugees of international capitalism, trying to find a way to
support themselves and their families despite the odds. As Muir points out, “There are no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ immigrants. There are people who come here, who risk everything to search for a better life, who bring their families, and who deserve to stay. We [in Solidarity Across Borders] fight for the freedom to move, the freedom to remain, and the freedom to return.” As I was interviewing Lakoff, a police car pulled up and several cops strutted onto the sidewalk. Thumbs hooked under their belts, they asked to speak to someone in charge. A tense hush descended on the previously pleasant scene. No doubt many present didn’t have too many good memories of police – Verdun is a poor neighbourhood, which comes hand-in-hand with a strong police presence and excessive racial profiling. The irony wasn’t lost on me that this party, intended to raise awareness over the trouble undocumented people have in accessing food services, was crashed by these professional party-poopers. Their presence reminded me of the fear that many Montrealers carry with them all the time: fear of not having enough food to eat, fear of not even being able to attend a food bank, fear of deportation, fear of
not being able to pay rent next month. This isn’t disconnected from the food I eat; it is intrinsically connected to an international food market, local food in Quebec, and what I can get at the grocery store. Fighting against an unjust food system also means fighting for migrants’ rights. *** If you’re looking to break beyond attending pricey farmers’ markets, there are many things you can do. If you’re at a loss, you can email any of the organizations or individuals listed below. To get involved with the Food For All campaign, email food4allmontreal@gmail.com. To get involved with the Réseau, stop by at 4400 Boulevard LaSalle, Verdun or email them at info@entraideverdun.org. To learn more about the Solidarity City campaign, visit www.solidarityacrossborders.ca. Aaron Vansintjan is a second-year MSc. student studying Renewable Resources. If you have comments or questions about food justice, you can contact him at avansintjan@ gmail.com.
The McGill Daily
Commentary
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Monday, September 9, 2013
Bikes on parade
The inefficacy of the new bike barriers at Milton gates
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Malcolm Araos-Egan | Commentary Writer
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niversity Services recently installed a new set of barriers at the Milton Gates entrance to campus. The new contraptions consist of elongated car barriers that are flush with the curb, and swinging aluminium gates at waist height on the sidewalks. The barriers are the newest tools in the University’s ‘no biking on campus’ campaign, which is promoted with stencils and posters, and security guards instructing cyclists to dismount. However, this campaign carries no legal obligation except on McTavish, a pedestrianized street, where cyclists may be fined by the City of Montreal for failing to dismount. The gates are inefficient at making campus safer. By further withdrawing campus space from its surrounding neighbourhood and creating obstacles to entry, they also conflict with McGill’s stated commitment to community involvement and accessibility. Robert Couvrette, Associate Vice-Principal (University Services), said in a McGill Reporter article that the gates’ only purpose was to “make campus safer.” The options for cyclists are to either ride through campus, or bike along Sherbrooke, one of the busiest arteries in the city without a bike lane. It would be worthwhile to compare collision statistics – I suspect cyclists on Sherbrooke are in more danger from car traffic than pedestrians on campus. The new barriers have little effect, as cyclists routinely get off their bikes to cross the gate and then cycle on again. With a little coordination, it is even possible to bike through the middle of the pedestrian gates. If a cyclist was comfortable breaking the ‘no biking’ rule before the gates, it is naïve to think that they would now stay off their bike. Furthermore, how does McGill reconcile its ‘no biking’ rule with its allowance of delivery vans, construction trucks, and security SUVs on campus? These vehicles perform a function on campus, but collisions between motorized vehicles and pedestrians are a far more pressing issue than bike crashes. A real solution would be to designate bike lanes on campus, so cyclists know where to
safely bike and pedestrians know where to safely walk. This model already exists in comparable urban campuses such as University of California Berkeley and New York University. It is much easier to allow people to bike conveniently than to convince them not to bike at all. Cycling, and promoting cycling by exposing pedestrians to bikes, inspires physical activity, reduces traffic congestion, reduces emissions, and helps reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. It is disheartening that McGill is so committed to discouraging this activity. The barriers at Milton Gates are also part of McGill’s newest effort to insulate campus from its surrounding community. Since its establishment, this campus has sought to create an anglophone foothill enclave. A spiked steel fence lines Sherbrooke. There is a blatant lack of connection between McLennan library and Sherbrooke – the area outside the library has been under construction for over a year with no hints at improving accessibility. Courtney, a U3 Geography student, says the new gates make them feel “caged in, especially with the security guards there.” These are deliberate architectural and infrastructural choices. If McGill were intentionally trying to create a fortress-like campus, then this would reflect a debate that exists at the societal level: some people prefer privacy and exclusiveness on their property, while others accept open and shared alternatives. If McGill were honest about its anti-cycling, fortressed design, then students could decide whether they want to be students at a university with these values. The problem is that McGill declares itself an open, accessible, connected campus, while simultaneously acting in opposition to those declarations. Official campus media often brags about McGill’s connectedness to downtown Montreal, to the Milton-Parc community, and to the Quebec province. The University adopted the Office for Students with Disabilities’ planning standards, which call for a “barrier-free campus.” Yet the school is constantly shutting off entrances and building obstacles. Official
Robert Smith | The McGill Daily McGill media often broadcasts research from Transportation Research at McGill (TRAM) praising the benefits of commuting by bike. It seems incongruous to then take measures to bar bikes from campus. I will continue to clang my way through the gates and cycle through campus until McGill implements more sensible bike policies. This
university is home to top-ranked transportation researchers – so it shouldn’t be too hard. Malcolm Araos-Egan is a research assistant in the Geography department, who recently graduated with an honours undergraduate Urban Systems degree. Malcolm can be reached at malcolm.araosegan@mail.mcgill.ca.
On thin ice
How far will McGill go to keep drone research under wraps?
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t is a matter on which the authority of Empire tends to go uncontested – that of establishing which means of indiscriminate killing are acceptable and which are not. Sarin gas, bad; drones armed with Hellfire missiles, generally alright. The lethal unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is methodical; it is civilized. Unless, that is, the pilot in a Nevada bunker slips up, or it hits stormy weather and crashes under the weight of ice accretion. Fortunately, a vast network of military agencies, defense contractors, and university research labs is refining the science of winged robots that kill people. This network extends to McGill and its Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Lab, chaired by Dr. Wagdi G. Habashi. The CFD Lab researches and develops advanced 3D simulation software for planes, helicopters, UAVs, and jet engines. Down the hall from
Demilitarize McGill | Commentary Writer the CFD Lab in 688 Sherbrooke, Habashi sells the product of his lab’s research, a software package called FENSAP-ICE, to military drone manufacturers through the company he owns, Newmerical Technologies. In 2004, Habashi co-authored research with the unmanned air combat division of Northrop Grumman, which makes drones for the U.S. military. In 2009 he suggested that “unforeseen […] icing encounters” in UAV missions in Afghanistan signaled a need for new forms of ice protection, to be modeled and refined with FENSAP-ICE. Among the corporate partners of the CFD Lab is CAE, a Montreal flight-simulation company that will be training U.S. Air Force drone pilots in a deal potentially worth $100 million. The CFD Lab’s military aspirations reach beyond drones. Habashi’s known clients include Lockheed Martin, which purchased
FENSAP-ICE for the development of the F-35 fighter jet. Meanwhile, defense contractor Pratt & Whitney, manufacturer of the F-35’s engine and buyer of FENSAP-ICE, has enlisted Habashi as a senior research fellow. In the fall of 2012, questions surrounding what had emerged about the CFD Lab’s activities prompted some members of Demilitarize McGill to submit targeted requests to the University under Quebec’s access to information (ATI) law. Rather than provide the information requested, the University has taken these, and other, students to court. The University alleges that they orchestrated a “complex system for acquiring documents” as “retaliation” for unspecified events during the 2012 student strike, and seek the authority to deny outstanding and future requests. The hearings began Thursday. We would like to know how much of our tuition money McGill is spend-
ing in legal fees on this case, but we don’t think our ATI request would be answered. Whether McGill will be compelled to disclose the requested documents remains to be seen. Yet the University has already failed, insofar as its battle to suppress inconvenient information only draws more attention to the fact that when, hours or days from the time of writing, the U.S. Air Force bombs targets in Syria, it will in all likelihood benefit from technology developed at McGill. U.S. imperialism is a genocidal regime, killing and destroying the lives of poor people of colour on a scale that statistics cannot communicate. It is also a for-profit business, one in which this university is an active partner. Learn more at www.demilitarizemcgill.com. Want to help us disrupt military research on campus? Get in touch at demilitarizemcgillnow@gmail.com.
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6Party and the morning after A critical look at the occupation 9 Davide Mastracci | The McGill Daily
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n a cold February morning in 2012, 20 McGill students calmly walked from the bus station on Docteur Penfield toward the James Administration building. Many were wearing clown wigs and carrying backpacks, while others brought balloons and a cake. After a hidden student signalled that security was not around, the group passed through the unlocked back door of the James Administration building. As these students walked up to the building’s sixth floor, they were simultaneously stepping outside of McGill’s inefficient student democratic system to solve their problems they had. Yet their strategy failed, partially due to a series of serious mistakes on their part. This is why 6Party (as the occupation would come to be known) became a important source of lessons. I present a collection of lessons I took from this moment in history at McGill, realized through research but mainly from interviews I conducted with the occupiers. My hope is that future students can be inspired to take action by 6Party and learn from their strategic mistakes. ***
The 6Party occupation took place in the volatile 2011-12 academic year. In November, CKUT and QPIRG – two campus independent student groups – were scheduled to hold existence referendums which would determine if they continue to exist. However, this was not the only concern the organizations had on their mind. In 2007, CKUT and QPIRG had an online opt-out system forced upon them by the McGill administration. CKUT and QPIRG wanted the in-person opt-out system reinstated as it allowed them greater security in the face of financial instability. Thus, CKUT and QPIRG incorporated their desire for the end of the online opt-out system into their referendum questions. The questions were formatted so that only two options were possible: either the organization would continue to exist and would be opt-outable in person, or the organization would no longer continue to exist. The questions’ wording would later prove to be an issue, but they were approved by various checks and balances and were placed on referendum ballots. By November 10, the results of the referenda were in. CKUT and QPIRG both won, by 72 and 56 per cent, respectively. This should have meant that both organizations would return to existing outside of the jurisdiction of the online opt-out system. Things did not turn out to be that simple. Two months later, the McGill administration announced that the results of the referendum would not be recognized. The administration claimed that the referendum questions were in direct violation of the SSMU Constitution as they allegedly contained two questions (one regarding existence, one regarding the opt-out system).
Nicolas Quiazua| YouTube Still *** McGill’s decision to invalidate the referendum results was an abuse of power. The only body at McGill technically allowed to overturn referendum results is the Judicial Board (J-Board). Two students had launched a case against QPIRG’s referendum results through the J-Board, but this was irrelevant as McGill made its decision on the matter clear. The McGill administration decided to circumvent McGill’s democratic process to impose its ruling. The cumulative effect of poor administrative decisions that year finally boiled over, leading a group of McGill students to begin planning 6Party. At this point these students had found an important cause that many students were concerned with. Yet from here on out, most of the decisions the students made backfired. *** The first mistake the occupiers made occurred during the planning stages of the occupation. Many members of the McGill community saw an earlier occupation in November as threatening due to the masks and black clothes the occupiers wore. The occupiers then decided to make 6Party more positive by styling it as a resignation party; they would wear clown wigs, bring balloons and a cake, and set up speakers to hold dance parties. They would also ‘party’ until their two main demands were met: the recognition of CKUT and QPIRG’s referendum results, and the resignation of Morton Mendelson, the Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning), who the occupiers partially blamed for the administration’s behaviour.
This idea backfired as many McGill students did not view 6Party as a fun occupation with a serious message. Instead, they saw a group of seemingly ‘immature’ students dressed up and dancing in the midst of midterm season. Danji Buck-Moore, a former McGill student and 6Party occupier, expressed his frustration with this perception claiming, “What was disappointing I guess was that people saw it as being very childish; that was the word that was being thrown around a lot, or being immature. From my perspective I thought the backlash was almost hypocritical […] Do this one way and it’s perceived as being threatening and violent, do it another way and you’re perceived as being childish and immature.” Rather than preventing the occupation from being threatening, the party theme prevented it from being taken seriously.
coffee and we were having such a wonderful time downstairs and we made the administration building our own.” The first floor occupation had evacuated by the next morning, leaving only 20 occupiers on the sixth floor. 6Party was not large enough, even for an occupation unconcerned with mass representative democracy, because it did not present a serious financial or logistical threat to McGill. ***
Due to 6Party’s failure to present a serious financial threat to McGill, it should be classified as a symbolic action rather than a direct action. Current McGill student and 6Party occupier Alex Lacroix described this distinction in relation to 6Party claiming, “People have this divide between symbolic actions and direct actions. So like, ‘No, I’m not going to go on a march, I’m going to go smash a bank window.’ *** […] These people shouldn’t be fooling themThe occupiers’ next mistake occurred on selves. That’s not a real action. That’s what the day of the occupation itself. The occupiers will show up on the news the next day. So that set up a distraction rally in support of CKUT means they go in trying to have this incredibly and QPIRG to allow themselves easier access direct action and what they get is probably the to the James Admin building. When they en- most highly mediated action.” Though 6Party was more of a symbolic tered the building unimpeded, students at the rally received the news and rushed to the site action, a symbolic action can be as effective of the occupation. McGill student and 6Party as a direct action. Yet as a symbolic action, occupier Solomon* was hidden on the first 6Party was even more lacklustre than as a floor. They ran past security to open the now direct action because it failed to gain mass locked doors, allowing the mass of protest- popular support. Primarily, the 6Party occupiers failed to ers to flood in. Solomon described the scene vividly, “We were all singing ‘It’s a Wonderful use social media properly. When the occupiWorld’ and this huge crowd of people comes ers entered the James Administration buildin. And then Midnight Kitchen comes in and ing, they knew they would be faced with an all these people are there. We’re handing out uphill battle. Most McGill students are fine
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with ignoring student politics until they nized opposition arose to ensure that 6Party can’t; then, they typically crack down on would fail as a symbolic action. The opposiwhoever caused them to have to break their tion’s first move was creating a Facebook routine and pay attention. In this case, the event titled “The James 6th Floor Occupiers culprit was the 6Party occupation. The reac- Do NOT Represent me.” The event warned tion to the party theme Buck-Moore men- of a group of radical students taking over tioned made it difficult for students to listen campus politics who had to be stopped, to the occupiers’ actual demands. Yet the and was an effective display of clicktivism. press source that came to represent 6Party, Over 2000 students marked themselves as and which would have been crucial for a suc- attending this event in the first couple days cessful symbolic action, made the occupiers’ of the occupation. public image even worse. The students who created this event, In the opening hours of the occupation, however, were no more in line with the 6Party had no means set up to communicate “silent majority” than the occupiers. Most with the outside world. A blog started by of these students had taken part in orgaMcGill student on leave and 6Party occupier nizing politically motivated opt-out camEthan Feldman, known as the Milton Avenue paigns against CKUT and QPIRG in the past, Revolutionary Press (MARP), inadvertent- which were not broadly supported either. ly filled the communication void. MARP Still, the medium of activism these students offered a live blog of what was going on used was perfectly designed for largely apainside the James Admin building with a thetic McGill students. Solomon explains satirical style, mimicking pieces of Maoist the troubling nature of the opposition’s propaganda. Feldman claimed that other tactics saying they were “coming at it from a “extreme leftists” critiqued the blog calling neutral perspective. They were saying they it “too masculinist, too stupid.” He added were the voice of reason and […] moderation. that MARP “was vulgar and vile and it didn’t One of the most insidious ways of making really fit the super positive party theme.” your voice seem like it’s not the oppressive MARP’s inflammatory content became a voice is to hide it in the veil of tolerance [… ] serious problem for 6Party when McGill sent I think if we were to decouple [them] from a mass email to all staff and students linking this, we would have had much more power to the MARP on the second day of the occu- […] All the liberals on the fence listened to pation, claiming that the occupiers’ demands them. The best thing to do is to win over could be found on the blog. At this point, the people on the fence; the liberals.” The thousands of students were exposed to the conservative opposition had gained mass MARP’s content, permanently scarring the support from the general “liberal” students, face of the occupation. Solomon expressed at least on paper, destroying 6Party’s ability frustration with how seriously the blog was to be a successful symbolic action. taken, stating, “People who went to MARP and pulled out stuff and then used it for *** whatever they were going to argue, we were just like, ‘No! Don’t go to MARP cause MARP Finally, the McGill administration’s is just calling everyone fascists.’ [laughs] response to the occupation prevented Whoever is not part of the communist revo- it from becoming a successful symbolic lution is a fascist! That’s what MARP was action. The administration’s most importalking about. And if you can’t recognize the tant decision was to refrain from callabsurdity of that then…” Yet Solomon also ing in the police immediately as they had added that the blog’s intentions didn’t matter done earlier in the year, which had led to when it was being received in a far different students and professors on campus being way by most students. pepper sprayed and beaten indiscriminateBy the time the administration linked ly. Instead, the administration used other tactics to force the occupiers out. This included cutting off power, internet, food access, and eventually bathroom access for the occupiers. Though there was some backlash to these events, it did not do much damage to McGill’s public image. Eventually the administration decided to use the threat of force against 6Party. On the sixth day of the occupation an eviction notice came knocking on 6Party’s doors. McGill security guards and several police officers informed the occupiers that they had five minutes to gather their things and get out of the building and off campus. The occupiers complied with police demands. There was little outcry regarding the police Solomon presence on campus used to force the occupiers out, as the administration had let the occupation drag out until it lost momentum. Buck-Moore claimed, “We were there to MARP, official 6Party press sources [6Party] very clearly in a moment when existed that provided relevant informa- we weren’t welcome to be there. There tion. So, McGill certainly used their email weren’t any people who ‘weren’t doing anysystem to deal a strategic blow to 6Party. thing wrong’ who got police action brought While this was inappropriate, it should against them. That was very much a differhave come as no surprise to the occupiers ence from November 10 […] There was a who were well-versed in the administra- massive moment of the student body feeltion’s shady behaviour. ing unsafe on November 10 […] Whereas in February […] I don’t think anyone else *** felt like the police presence affected them on campus.” 6Party ended six days after it Though the occupiers’ action, and lack started, with none of its demands met and of proper media strategy, made it easy for the issues the occupiers had fought for still McGill students to react negatively, an orga- at stake.
‘No! Don’t go to MARP cause MARP is just calling everyone fascists.’ [laughs] Whoever is not part of the communist revolution is a fascist!
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Monday, September 9, 2013
Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily Archive
We were there [6Party] very clearly in a moment when we weren’t welcome to be there. There weren’t any people who ‘weren’t doing anything wrong’ who got police action brought against them. Danji Buck-Moore
*** In the coming days and weeks, the issue was settled through the system the 6Party occupiers sought to avoid. The J-Board case launched by two McGill students concluded with QPIRG’s results being invalidated. Though many doubted the legiti-
macy of this ruling due to the plaintiff ’s history of political opposition to QPIRG, it was clear that the official system had disagreed with the occupiers’ belief that the referendum questions were legitimate. However, during the occupation the McGill administration announced that the existence portion of CKUT and QPIRG’s referendum questions would be recognized. Still, if these organizations wanted to have the online opt-out system revoked, they would need to hold another referendum. CKUT announced they would be holding another election in March. They failed to win this referendum, with only 42 per cent support, a notable drop from the 72 per cent they had previously held. QPIRG chose not to hold another referendum. The online opt-out system is still in place for both organizations. 6Party likely contributed to CKUT’s loss of support, as many students ended up associating CKUT and QPIRG with 6Party. Louise Burns, a board and staff member at CKUT, described the negative effect of this connection. “I’m sure there was a negative backlash,” she said. ‘It was bound to have a negative backlash just in terms of students who, practically speaking, were inconvenienced, or from people who perhaps would have felt neutral towards CKUT or QPIRG who now had a reason to be annoyed or irked by us.”
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The occupiers were also aware that this connection may have been possible. Some directly stated that the occupation probably did harm CKUT’s referendum, while others noted that they couldn’t be sure, but felt it was a possibility. *** I perceive 6Party as a cycle of sorts. The occupiers were enraged by McGill’s disregard for student democracy. Due to this, the occupier’s launched 6Party as a means to empower themselves to solve the issues they had, without waiting for a system they felt was stacked against them. However, the action failed. Because it wasn’t destructive enough financially, it had to rely on the force of public opinion for its impact. Yet most students at McGill seemed to be against 6Party, which prevented the administration from having a serious crisis on its hands. The occupiers’ failure caused them to come full circle back to the inefficient system
It was bound to have a negative backlash just in terms of students who, practically speaking, were inconvenienced, or from people who perhaps would have felt neutral towards CKUT or QPIRG who now had a reason to be annoyed or irked by us. Louise Burns
they despised to resolve the issues they had. Their action stacked this system even more against them than before, partially causing none of their demands to be met. In my interviews with the occupiers, it was clear that they took their movement seriously and are not unaware of its deficiencies. In fact, they were quite open and frank about where 6Party failed, and what could have been done better. In terms of judging 6Party by its explicit demands, most of the occupiers agreed that it was a failure. Yet, the occupiers also listed ways it succeeded including the connections and friendships they made through it, the feeling of support they got from some fellow students, and its potential to inspire others in the future. 6Party’s potential to inspire is its most important feature. While 6Party failed, it did no serious damage to CKUT or QPIRG, as both organizations continue to exist and have attempted to make up the funds lost through the online opt-out system by raising their student
fees. As for the occupiers, though they were forced to go through trials, most of the occupiers came out with a mere warning as punishment. As such, 6Party did no permanent damage to the occupiers, CKUT, or QPIRG. The issues the occupiers partied for are still plaguing McGill. This is why the need to inspire is so important. Unless students are willing to take a few moments out of the daily grind of academic life, McGill’s student politics will only continue to deteriorate. While they certainly could have done things better, the most important thing the occupiers did was make a moment in history that McGill students won’t forget. As long as the problems 6Party fought for continue to exist, students who are troubled by them will as well. If 6Party can provide these students with the spark needed to set a political fire to McGill, it will have been a worthy venture. Until then, it’s clear that the party isn’t over. *Name has been changed
The Daily is looking for columnists! Commentary commentary@mcgilldaily.com Culture culture@mcgilldaily.com Health & Education healthandeducation@mcgilldaily.com Science+Technology scitech@mcgilldaily.com Sports sports@mcgilldaily.com Each applicant must submit two sample columns of 400-500 words and a short statement of intent. Columnists are expected to have a unique theme within their section. No experience necessary, just enthusiasm!
Applications due September 22nd Email inquiries to the relevant section
Message from the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec
is liable to criminal penalties for what is known as illegal practice. This applies even if you have an engineering degree!
The Act needs to be updated
Modernizing the Engineers Act to better protect the public In June, the National Assembly of Québec added Bill 49 M. Daniel Lebel, Eng., FEC, PMP to its agenda. This bill is designed to amend the laws that President apply to various professions, including the Engineers Act. Members of the National Assembly are supposed to begin to review the bill in the fall and we have every hope that it will be adopted by the end of the year.
Why an Engineers Act? Although the Engineers Act is important for professionals who practice engineering, it is even more important for the general public. In fact, the Act is one of the tools used by the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec (OIQ) to help it fulfill its mission of protecting the public. The Act establishes the legal framework in which the engineering profession must be practiced. It basically sets the boundaries of the playing field, establishes the rules of the game and names the players who may play the “sport” of engineering in Québec. In concrete terms, section 2 of the Act provides a list of the works that constitute the field of practice of engineers. The list is long so I will provide just a few examples: public roads, dams, viaducts, chemical processes, the foundations and frameworks of certain types of buildings, mechanical systems and many others. Section 3 of the Act lists the acts that are to be performed by an engineer when they relate to the works mentioned in section 2: giving consultations and opinions; preparing reports, computations, designs; preparing plans and specifications, etc. This law also gives the OIQ the authority to decide who may practice engineering in Québec. Here, like elsewhere in Canada and in other countries, you need more than an engineering degree if you want to practice engineering. You must also be a member in good standing with the OIQ, which means that you must meet requirements such as passing the admission examination. Anyone who practices the profession but is not an OIQ member
Let’s go back to the bill, which was welcomed by the entire profession when it was tabled, and for a very simple reason: The current Act dates back to 1964, which is almost 50 years ago! This is why the government needs to complete the process of updating the Act that it has now begun. The current version of the Act reflects neither the changes in scientific knowledge nor the emergence of new fields of engineering practice in the last few decades, such as aerospace, information technology, the biomedical sector, the environment, automated production and logistics. As a result, tens of thousands of engineers practice every day in fields of engineering that are not recognized by the Engineers Act, which means that their full potential cannot be appreciated. That is why the Act needs to be adapted to contemporary engineering practice so that it covers the expertise of the engineers practicing in these fields. The new Act should also make it mandatory for an engineer to supervise any work in connection with an engineering structure. An engineer’s supervision is very important because it specifically ensures that an engineering structure is built according to design plans and specifications and can therefore be reliably used. Despite all the changes that need to be made, the objective of the new Act will remain the same: provide the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec with an effective tool to protect the public. The bill should follow the regular steps in the legislative process before it comes into force as an Act. However, the OIQ hopes that the National Assembly will quickly review the bill, so that the public and the entire profession can count on an Act that is in step with current realities starting in 2014. Daniel Lebel, Eng., FEC, PMP
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It’s time to implement hybrid carbon pricing schemes Why recent cap-and-trade programs need replacing
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Angela Zheng and Keat Yang Koay | Sci+Tech Writers
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he recently released “State of the Climate in 2012” report, published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, presented a dire assessment of our global climate. The peer-reviewed paper, with contributions from hundreds of authors worldwide, reported that 2012 was one of the ten warmest years on record. Furthermore, average global sea levels attained a record level in 2012, while global mean CO 2 concentration reached a level of 392.6 parts per million (ppm). In 2005, the concentration was 379 ppm – and it is important to note that 450 ppm is commonly regarded as the maximum allowable concentration before temperatures rise to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. In June, President Obama offered a few green initiatives, such as investment in technolog y to improve energ y efficiency, development of f lood mitigation
programs, and encouraging renewable energy projects. Other governments have taken bolder approaches. Quebec, Alberta, and British Columbia have implemented a carbon tax, and Quebec has also recently introduced a cap-and-trade scheme. In a cap-and-trade, the government sets a cap on the amount of emissions that can be released by industries. Through an auction process, the government then distributes emission permits to industry members. Firms that have taken measures to reduce emissions and have not exceeded their quota can sell their excess permits to other firms that have already passed their limits. Furthermore, Europe and, more recently, China have also adopted cap-and-trade schemes; however, Europe’s emissions trading scheme has been plagued by a low (almost nil) carbon price from an excessive amount of permits f looding the market. Experts predict
economic tool for curbing emissions. Since humanity’s impact on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions affects the earth’s climate adversely, the importance of a universally binding treaty on climate change policy is paramount. The Durban Platform is a key step toward that goal, but we note that the architecture of a GHG emission control mechanism is non-trivial. It would take concerted efforts from all stakeholders: policymakers in execution and providing transparency, and the citizenry through research, analysis of information, and protecting the integrity of a system from self-inflicted catastrophe. Interested readers can read an analysis of carbon pricing programs and review the results of estimates on the Quantdary website at quantdary.wordpress.com. The series will be released in a fortnightly basis, starting from September 13.
Tall tails of bacteria
Science blurbs: What’s happening in science at McGill.
China’s emissions market may succumb to the same fate. The outcome of these regional cap-and-trade markets mirrors the outcome of the United Nations’ (UN) Clean Development Mechanism, which was declared “imperilled” by a high-panel UN dialogue convened to explore the price collapse. Political efforts have increasingly concentrated on reducing CO2 to address the greenhouse gases effect; however, progress is stunted by discourses on the dilemma of choosing between carbon taxes and capand-trade systems. The experiments, pursued by various countries, have revealed significant vulnerabilities when either system is implemented in isolation; problems which were exacerbated by clashing parochial interests and the sway of lobbying efforts. Hence, it seems that a hybrid pricing scheme, which combines aspects from both systems, is the most appropriate
Using cranberries to ward off infections
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Lindsay Cameron | Sci+Tech Writer
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ails, or flagella, are what allow bacteria to migrate in groundwater, contaminate hospitals, and colonize the human body. Bacteria are the source of many diseases and can spread like wildfire. The key to their success is their ability to rapidly migrate. This process is called swarming, and is currently under investigation by Nathalie Tufenkji, a professor in McGill’s Chemical Engineering department. Tufenkji explains that “by improving the understanding of [microbial interactions with their environment], we can develop improved medical devices, water treatment processes, and soil remediation technologies.” Her latest work focuses on the antibacterial properties of cranberries. The story starts with implanted medical devices, the practicalities of which are immense: they decrease the number of hospital visits, cut costs, and save time, all of which ultimately allows patients to lead more typical lives. Examples of these devices include catheters, hip replacements, heart valves, implanted ocular lenses, and even contraceptive devices.
Still, implanted devices present a number of problems. “Infections resulting from contaminated indwelling devices are initiated by bacterial adhesion to the device surface,” Tufenkji reported to The Daily, “leading to risk of infection or device failure.” Catheter-associated bacterial infections are the most common form of hospital-acquired infections. The trick is to stop bacteria from spreading by targeting flagellar transport. In the process of infection, some bacterial strains can manufacture thousands of flagella to swarm and migrate to surfaces such as medical devices. Tufenkji is currently working on developing or modifying materials that deter bacterial attachment, to replace the often ineffective or costly ones used today. Cranberries have been traditionally used to treat and prevent urinary tract infections, which are often caused by the microbe Proteus mirabilis. The active chemical in cranberries has not been identified by scientists to date, but cranberries themselves have been shown to hinder bacterial
attachment to surfaces and impair bacterial motility. Tufenkji’s efforts revealed that cranberry-derived materials (CDMs) critically interfere with flagellar production by decreasing the amount of the protein (called flagellin) required. This renders the bacteria immobile, preventing swarming and spreading. This summer, Tufenkji incorporated the CDMs into the silicone used to make catheters. The experiment proved to decrease the production of flagellin in both E. coli and P. mirabilis, thus inhibiting their motility (ability to move spontaneously and accurately) and preventing the spread of infection. This suggests that treatment for these types of bacterial infections may not be needed if incorporation of these substances into biomedical materials is an effective prophylactic. The creative application of traditional methods to modern medicine is invaluable. Tufenkji’s work constitutes another convincing argument for the creative application of traditional treatments in modern medicine.
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Monday, September 9, 2013
The costs behind the clicks
The environmental impact of internet use
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Chris Mills| Sci+Tech Writer
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oogle searches are free, easy, and probably one of the best things to happen to library-shy students. Although there’s no monetary cost for hitting search, every time you query Google for an answer – or, actually, visit a web page, send an email, or check the weather – electricity is used. Add all those little actions together, and suddenly it’s clear that the internet isn’t quite as green as Silicon Valley would have us believe. Data centres worldwide – the backbone of every internet site, from Google to Netflix, or even McGill’s own websites – consume around 1.9 per cent of the world’s electricity. At their most basic, data centres are nothing more than vast collections of servers, doing everything from hosting websites to fulfilling web searches and re-encoding YouTube videos. As a result of all the computing power they need to function, data centres struggle with cooling. As anyone who’s ever had an overheating computer on their lap will know, computers run hot – a computer’s central processing unit routinely runs at around 85 degrees Celsius. Take into account the hundreds of thousands of individual servers in any given data centre, and cooling becomes a serious – and energyintensive – problem. To combat the problem, data centres rely on industrial-level air conditioning, using thousands of fans to pump cool air into the server rooms, and then even more computer fans to stop the individual components from melting. All that takes a lot of juice. Add that to the electricity that powers servers in the first place, and you have the bulk of the internet’s electricity usage. Of course, there are ways to try and offset the environmental impact of using so much power. Google has proudly maintained a ‘carbon-neutral’ footprint since 2007 both by using 34 per cent renewable energy and developing a series of carbonoffset programmes. Other companies are far worse custodians of the environment, though; Salesforce, one of the world’s largest providers of cloud computing services, gets just 4 per cent of its energy from renewable sources, according to an energy
report by Greenpeace in April 2012. The same report identifies Apple as one of the worst offenders in terms of carbon emissions, which gets over 55 per cent of its electricity from coal, arguably the dirtiest way of producing electricity. That said, an industry trend toward renewable energy is evident – the same Apple that relies so heavily on fossil fuels has more than doubled its use of renewable energy in the space of a single year. Despite the fact that the bulk of the internet’s environmental impact is the result of a handful of gargantuan companies, consumers have an impact as well. Individual actions on the internet have an effect; according to Google’s own estimates, a single search uses 0.3 watt-hours of electricity – equivalent to turning on a 60W lightbulb for 17 seconds – a fact that the vast majority of people don’t consider before hitting search. Google searches are just the tip of the iceberg. More data-heavy applications, like streaming a movie off of Netflix, consume more energy than you’d expect. A study by researchers from the University of Massachusetts found that streaming a movie over the internet is twice as bad for the environment as just shipping a DVD in the mail or, even better, walking around the corner to your local Blockbuster (R.I.P.). That somewhat surprising fact is mostly due to the aforementioned costs of running a data centre. Storing just one movie takes hundreds of gigabytes of storage space, since one film has to be kept in dozens of different file formats, and each format in several different resolutions. Then, once you’ve decided to stream a movie, the data has to travel from a Netflix server in, say, California, through dozens of switches, possibly an underseas pipe or two, pass by your very own internet router, and then be processed by whatever computer you’re watching your flick on. Although it’s a process that’s completed in milliseconds, it requires dozens of machines to be switched on, talk to each other, and crucially, use power. Yet electricity’s just one of the environmental costs of the internet. Nearly 40 per cent of internet browsing is now done
Amina Batyreva| The McGill Daily using mobile devices – devices which have batteries, almost always lithium-ion batteries. Lithium mining is a extremely damaging activity for the environment, generally using open-pit mines that leave permanent scars in the landscape and take decades to clean up. That’s a particularly pressing problem for Canadians and Quebec residents: the Canada Lithium Corporation recently reopened an open-pit mine in Northern Quebec, producing 20,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium per year. With lithium prices steadily rising, and the smartphone craze showing no sign of slowing down, lithium mining is a problem that’ll only get worse. By this point, you’re probably wondering just how the internet gets away with being such a dirty industry. The fact is, though, that the internet’s environmental impact, one way or another, is paltry compared to the negative side-effects of manufacturing industries or the greenhouse gases produced by farming. The online industry only
contributed around 2 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions last year – the same as the aviation industry, but still just a proverbial drop in the bucket. The benefits of the internet to the environment, though, are almost limitless. Although streaming movies over Netflix might not be quite as eco-friendly as you may think, the internet has drastically reduced the need for far more polluting activities. As Google likes to point out, one web search can take the place of driving to the library to research a fact, an act that’s orders of magnitude more polluting than the couple of watts it takes to power a Google search. So, although the internet as a whole might be beneficial for the environment, the manner in which it’s executed could still be better. Yes, the internet is only a minor player on the world’s environmental footprint, but when the stakes are so high and the numbers so huge, every little bit helps.
Sci+Tech is looking for one columnist email scitech@mcgilldaily.com for more details
Sports
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Monday, September 9, 2013
Athletes speak out (for once) against Russia The NHL and opposition before Sochi 9 Evan Dent | The McGill Daily
Carmen Fenech | Illustrator
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his summer, as you may have heard, the Russian government passed a law that attempted to ban queer ‘propaganda’ (i.e. public displays of queer-ness and really just being queer) in the country. The law is the latest in a long line of queer repression by the Russian government. Since queer rights are a particular focus in North America right now (and also, it’s the 21st century), many people have been aghast at these developments. And since this year’s Winter Olympics are to be played in Sochi, Russia, the hockey world was dragged into the argument. I say dragged in because these days, professional athletes are loath to make political statements of any kind, lest they cause a controversy that attracts media attention, drives away corporate sponsors, or draws the ire of team management. The few players in professional sports who do often speak out – such as soccer player Mario Balotelli, hockey’s Tim Thomas, or football’s Brendon Ayanbadejo – are usually derided by at least some portion of
the media, or run the risk of having their careers cut short. So once the Russian law was announced, there was a whole round of National Hockey League (NHL) players being asked their thoughts on queer rights in society. There was also talk of an Olympic boycott, either by all athletes in the U.S. and Canada, or just the hockey players (the thought being that Russia is hockey-obsessed, and if a full boycott is not possible, at least hit them where it hurts). First off, the boycott, while the best possible outcome, is not going to happen. Olympic boycotts usually happen during times of major international dispute – like in 1980, when the U.S. and a handful of other nations boycotted the Moscow games over the USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan. As much as I wish the U.S. and Canada cared about queer rights, the governments are not likely to push for a boycott over this. In addition, the national Olympic Committees depend on corporations for athlete sponsorship; companies want
to see their brands displayed on a worldwide stage, and, like the government, often don’t care enough about queer rights to make a bold stand in their favour. And since the corporations don’t want a boycott, the Olympic Committees aren’t going to push too hard, either. In my dream world, there is a boycott. In reality, we have this clusterfuck of corporate interest and government indifference. The positive outcome from these discussions is the uniformly strong stance that the players have taken in wake of the news. Sidney Crosby, probably the most famous hockey player in the world, came out against the laws, as did Henrik Lundqvist and Shea Weber, among others. This public reaction is due in part to the NHL’s cooperation with the You Can Play project, which teams with athletic programs – professional and amateur – to create videos and other media that supports queer athletes in their respective sports. The NHL was the first league to enter an official partnership with the organi-
zation and now serves as a sort of watchdog for the NHL and its players, giving counselling when a player says or does something expressly homophobic. (One such example was when Tyler Seguin, a forward for the Dallas Stars, ended a tweet with the hashtag #nohomo, and had a meeting with the head of You Can Play to discuss the ramifications of that phrase.) Unfortunately, much of the discussion fostered by this program has centred on the acceptance of queer athletes but not queer rights in a broader, societal context. But hey, it’s better than nothing. In lieu of a boycott, an actual grand statement that could show the Russian government and the international community support for queer rights, we get some athletes claiming support for queer rights. Is it enough? Not quite. But in an era when athletes are notoriously tight-lipped, and queer people – particularly the young ones struggling within a heteronormative society – need all the support they can get, it’s a pleasant surprise.
Health & Ed
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Monday, September 9, 2013
Know your rights
The Silk Road discusses Quebec minorities and human rights
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Ralph Haddad | The McGill Daily
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Equality, dignity, respect, pluralism,” opened Shirley Sarna, the EducationCooperation coordinator for the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission. The venue: Atwater Library & Computer Centre. The topic: Quebec, Minorities, and Human Rights. The ominous cloud floating over the panel was the imminent Charter of Values proposed by the Parti Québécois (PQ) earlier this month. The event was organized by The Silk Road Institute, in collaboration with the Political Science Student’s Association of Concordia. “Quebec is home to 600 different religions,” Sarna continued, a fact barely a handful of citizens currently residing within the province – one that supposedly celebrates pluralism – probably know. Freedom of Religion makes up Article Three of the Quebec Charter of Human Rights. In light of that fact, Sarna highlighted that forcing someone to make their religion private holds no legal ground – a simple but resounding statement that could mean the proposed Charter of Values could get the axe if presented in a court of law. Going further, Section 43 of the Quebec Charter of Human Rights states, “People belonging to ethnic minorities have the right to develop and promote their culture...” Obviously, the PQ needs a better legal consultant. Their proposed charter would, according to Sarna, be impossible to implement in light of the Charter of Human Rights, which takes precedence over all other laws in Quebec. The way things are phrased in government and the media counts as well; as Sarna put it, calling an ethnic entity a “cultural community” instead of a “minority” devoids it of any rights it may lay claim to. For the Rights Commission, discrimination is an all-too-familiar foe that has yet to be defeated. The Commission has collaborated with the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal on cases of racial profiling (they have admitted this, and proposed a five year plan of action to eradicate this discriminatory practice on behalf of its officials). The Commission also released a report stating that foreign doctors trained in Quebec are being turned away on the basis of ethnicity, even though Quebec severely lacks healthcare professionals. It also denounces the three month waiting period immigrants have to sit through in order to obtain proper healthcare coverage. The Commission has also uncovered findings that suggest visible and ethnic minorities are not being hired by Quebec corporations and businesses; the employment equity program (which monitors the employment of “visible and ethnic minorities, women, first nations, and people with disabilities”) in Quebec is nothing short of a disaster in need of serious reform. Sarna also could not help but highlight how inaccessible Montreal is when it comes to non-able bodied citizens. But there are clearly limits to how much the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission can accomplish. When asked by The Daily about what the Commission’s stance is on Bill 35 and the general
Alice Shen | The McGill Daily infringement on trans* rights, Sarna could only conclude that trans* rights are the next platform of discussion. She ended on an advisory note, in a tone that would suggest not following her advice would only lead to further discriminations, “The best way to ensure human rights is by creating an informed citizenry [...] this is not the society we are hoping to create…and not the future that I hope to promote.” Ihsaan Gardee, the Executive Director of the National Council of Canadian Muslims (formerly CAIR-CAN), opened his piece with a joke, a refreshing icebreaker to a scarce audience that welcomed him with dispersed laughs. His segment touched upon how the Quebec Charter of Values will impact minorities in the province; he likened the possible aftermath of the Charter to a ripple effect. “The effects of this Charter will occur at the micro level,” Gradee stated; that of the individual sphere, the lives of the people involved, and their interpersonal relationships. It will also occur on the “macro level,” that of the Quebec socio-economic sector. Jobs will probably
turn away possible applicants, fire current employees, and migration and immigration to Quebec will go from rivers of potential immigrants, to streams of them, with the ever looming possibility of an immigration drought. “Quebec has witnessed net losses in migration,” Gardee claimed. His spiel centered around putting the debate on the Charter within a historical context. He mentioned the Quiet Revolution in Quebec as inciting the ongoing stigma of any form of religion spilling into government practice, policy, and institution. “This debate parallels [that] of the hijab in France,” he declared; albeit that debate is one laden with scapegoat excuses like secularism, French supremacy, and nationalism. In Gardee’s words, “The state should not be in the business of deciding what is a bona fide religion, provided this religion does not infringe on other people’s rights.” The Daily asked Gardee the tough question of whether this Charter is fueled by internalized anti-semitism and Islamophobia, to which Gardee replied that the government has specifically said
that it is not. His argument, though, is that the Charter’s wording makes it sound antisemitic and Islamophobic, about which we can only speculate. In more surprising news, according to a recent Léger-Le Devoir poll, as reported by CTV Montreal news, the PQ gained five points in popularity since June, up 32 per cent, a close contender with Parti Libéral Québécois popularity at 36 per cent. It is also even more popular among francophones after the reported leak of the news on the Charter of Values. The impact of the Charter? The potential to foster fear and exclusion, green-light further physical and emotional discrimination of religious minorities, and, in Sarna’s opinion, incite people with religious prejudices to freely act on their prejudices. The basics of what is happening, Gardee asserted, is a “forced homogenization from the top-down” of a province inherently afraid of losing its heritage and core identity when so many new cultures and identities are being poured into the melange every day. The fact is, the PQ are in denial, and, as Gardee reiterated, “Quebec is in desperate need of immigrants.”
Culture
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Monday, September 9, 2013
The white box, interrupted
An exhibition in honour of anti-exhibitionist Christopher D’Arcangelo
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Juan Velasquez-Buritica | The McGill Daily
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n March 9, 1978 Thomas Gainsborough’s painting “Conversation in a Park” lay on the floor of the Louvre, while the wall where it used to hang stood bare. Its journey from wall to floor was instigated by Christopher D’Arcangelo, an American artist known for his contributions to Institutional Critique of the art world and anarchist sensibilities. Anarchism Without Adjectives: On The Work of Christopher D’Arcangelo (1975-1979) is the first attempt at creating “a posthumous exhibition or coherent analysis” of the artist’s work, according to its curators, Dean Inkster and Sébastien Pluot. Displayed at the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery at Concordia University, the exhibition features texts and visual archives that document D’Arcangelo’s life and work. Made possible through a donation by Cathy Weiner – the artist’s girlfriend at the time of his death – and the D’Arcangelo Partnership, the collection has travelled to several venues in New York City, Spain, and Belgium before arriving in Montreal last Tuesday. D’Arcangelo became notorious in the 1970s for his confrontational performances intended to question the institution of art. Focusing his critique on the curatorial process and the way art is viewed, D’Arcangelo constantly deconstructed the museum as a space, as seen in his action at the Louvre. He gained some notoriety in 1975 when he chained himself to the door of the Whitney Museum during its biennial exhibition and remained there for about an hour as visitors
walked past. The exhibition dwells heavily in the past via second-hand accounts to tell D’Arcangelo’s story. Recorded interviews with art historians and other artists – including the likes of Lawrence Weiner and Benjamin Buchloh – give attendants a broad grasp of the introspective critique of his art. Throughout the space, one also gains a sense of his network of collaborators, including big name artists like Louise Lawler and Cindy Sherman, with whom he participated in a display at Artists Space in New York City. Although the D’Arcangelo oeuvre did not fall into complete oblivion, his work was largely ignored in comparison to these artists. Anarchism Without Adjectives, therefore, is a display that evokes the ethos of his work. In the video installation “Yours in Solidarity,” Nicoline van Harskamp creates “a global network of anarchists in the 1970s” by displaying mail correspondence between them and making a video re-enacting the text in the letters. The piece helps to call to mind the political climate informing D’Arcangelo’s work. D’Arcangelo’s unwavering commitment to this critique of art shaped the form of his work to the fleeting and immaterial, making it especially challenging to document and construct his legacy. Because the exhibition achieves the goal of conjuring his anarchist spirit and political determination, it is crucial to question the way in which it is set up. In spite of explicitly engaging
Courtesy of the Leonard and Bina Ellen Gallery with a critique of art, the fact remains that this is an exhibition displayed in the traditional space of a gallery. In this sense, as his work is materialized, its uncommodifiable character is destroyed, making it readily accessible for the comfortable consumption of gallery attendants. To be sure, the exhibition displays original works that serve a different political function than D’Arcangelo’s, and are not to be examined under the same light. But to keep his legacy alive, and commit to the intention of the exhibition, it is crucial to call into question the way this exhibition is dis-
played. Anarchism Without Adjectives lack the immediate, ephemeral, and communal aspects of his work. Many have drawn parallels between his work and Occupy Wall Street, which is perhaps a useful analogy as both are manifestations of radical non-conformism, something not found in a gallery at Concordia. Anarchism Without Adjectives will be running until October 26 at the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Room LB-165, J.W. McConnell Library Building, 55 Maisonneuve.
Bright, shiny, and vegan Café Verdure isn’t for hippies
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hen I think of vegan gluten-free restaurants, I immediately picture a restaurant called Gorilla Food in downtown Vancouver that greatly resembles the Amazon room at the Vancouver Aquarium in both smell and decor. Think of a muggy, dimly lit basement room filled to the brim with all sorts of vegan paraphernalia, from spirulina smoothies and sprout salads to dehydrators and gluten-free fudge. No judgement – I have been to Gorilla’s more than once for their fresh salads and fruit drinks; however, for some people, ripe dungeon ambience could take away from the experience, especially as a lot of vegan food is more expensive due to its specific ingredients. Cut to Montreal’s Café Verdure: a clean, bright, vegan gluten-free restaurant that in no way resembles the Amazon! Located on Mackay near Sherbrooke on the main floor of a walk-up, the large front windows were letting in the afternoon sunlight as we wandered to the counter at the back of the room. The walls were decorated
Maggie Rebalski | Culture Writer with mint green and white wallpaper, and the high ceilings and clean minimalist look made for a serene experience. We sat in a window seat next to two big pots of flowers. It was immediately evident that my friend and I were the only people in the restaurant – though another customer did come in to buy baked goods as we were ordering. I ordered the Italian veggie balls with tomato sauce, cheese, brown rice and garden salad, and a green tea. My friend ordered the butternut squash, carrot, and rosemary soup ,and an iced coffee sweetened with almond milk and maple syrup. Our food took half an hour to arrive, and because they are going for cafeteria-style service, we had to get up and walk across the empty room to get our meals from the only waitress working at the cash. Nevertheless, the food and drinks were delicious. The veggie balls were flavourful and had a good texture, despite their lack of meat or gluten. The salad was simple but complementary – fresh greens, sprouts, and
pea shoots with a citrus dressing. The soup was rich and tasty, though it was hard to taste the rosemary under the strong flavours of squash and carrot. The iced coffee was also excellent – a good strong coffee on ice with whipped almond milk poured overtop. The maple syrup as a sweetener surprisingly complemented the nutty almond milk nicely. Ultimately, Café Verdure seems like a good place to go for full meals or just coffee and dessert. The food is also relatively inexpensive, with most entrees around $10; however, the slow service was a drawback, especially for the amount of people in the restaurant. But as the restaurant has only been in business for one month, the service may quicken with time. Another annoyance is the lack of a bathroom; when I asked the waitress she said it was for staff only (my friend and I had been biking that afternoon and at least wanted to wash our hands before we ate). Finally, we both had to change our orders twice because three items on the menu were not being offered that day.
It would have been nice if the waitress had warned us of this before we made a decision. Alternately, Café Verdure could adapt their menu on a daily basis to avoid tempting customers with food they don’t have. Though it was a pleasant experience and the food surpassed my expectations, there are still a few wrinkles in the customer service that this brand-new restaurant needs to iron out. In Vancouver, it is evident how the vegan lifestyle is becoming increasingly mainstream, aligning with the fit and healthy vibe of the city against its idyllic backdrop of mountains and ocean. My friend who worked at Gorilla Food this summer often told stories of local celebrities visiting her little dungeon cafe (e.g., the Real Housewives of Vancouver). It’s hard to picture figures such as those in a place like Gorilla Food unless they happen to be slumming. It seems that restaurants like Café Verdure have picked up on this, offering instead to meet the mainstream where it lives.
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Culture
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Monday, September 9, 2013
The little neighbourhood that could Dreaming of a utopia for the Hippodrome project
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Nathalie O’Neill | The McGill Daily
Robert Smith| The McGill Daily
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surprising number of Montreal residents are unaware of the massive abandoned race track near the Décarie expressway. If you have heard about the Blue Bonnets racetrack, later rebranded the Hippodrome, chances are it has something to do with the 2011 U2 show – the only time the space has been used since it closed as a racetrack and casino in 2009, ending over a century of racing glory. Now there’s talk of the Hippodrome area undergoing a total makeover starting in 2017, as the City plans to create a utopic neighbourhood with green spaces, cafes, public schools, pedestrian areas, and lots of local businesses. In 1991, the city bought the Blue Bonnets racetrack from a real estate developer for $50 million, renaming it the Hippodrome. In 1997, the City sold it to the provincial government at a loss, for $35 million. Last year, in March, Quebec announced it would let the city decide the Hippodrome’s fate, provided half of the profits from property sales end up in the provincial coffers. There’s still a lot of time left – property sales and development on
the Hippodrome site are only slated to begin in 2017. The Hippodrome area, located in the Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough, is 43.5 hectares, or the equivalent of 80 Canadian football fields – about the same size as the Vatican City. Creating a new neighbourhood here is no small feat; once developed, the Hippodrome neighbourhood could eventually be home to 20,000 residents in 8,000 housing units – about the population of Westmount. The City’s official website for the project lists the main challenges of the Hippodrome site as being “surrounded by rail lines, Décarie Highway and an industrial area,” with “no infrastructure, public utilities or local stores.” Bleak prospects. But there’s a twist urban planning fiends may appreciate. The City is proposing “an ambitious five-year planning project to create a new neighbourhood built around sustainable development principles” on the Hippodrome site. “The city will establish an inclusive model community on this site,” explains the City’s
website. “It will develop a world-class living environment incorporating [the] best practices of sustainable development, urban design and community participation.” This urban utopia is set to include car-free areas, parks, community gardens, green roofs, public transit, green architecture, and local services catering especially to families with children. No condos this time. Well, hopefully not – but the City’s love of the big dollars that come with condos is a powerful force. For the Hippodrome project to work, Montreal’s municipal government needs to put aside its desire for immediate profit. The City has put little effort into developing more single-family residential units with two or more bedrooms in the past few years, a type of unit that has facilitated the creation of tightknit, family-friendly communities in some of Montreal’s established neighbourhoods. “[This project] is a fine example of utopianism,” said Nik Luka, a Professor in McGill’s School of Architecture and Urban Planning, and member of the city’s advisory committee for the Hippodrome project, in an interview
with The Daily. The idea that the Hippodrome site will be car-free seems pretty wild. This blank slate of a neighbourhood, only about nine kilometres away from downtown Montreal, is surrounded by the Décarie expressway. So public transit or not, residents of the Hippodrome neighbourhood will be hard-pressed to escape the lure of the automobile. It wouldn’t come as a surprise if the City’s idea of encouraging public transit was just building up condos with no parking spots, leaving residents with the unappealing choice of either making the long trek to the one metro station near the Hippodrome site (Namur) or endlessly circling for the elusive parking spot. The dream of a Hippodrome utopia is bound to slightly fade while we wait for the municipal elections coming up on November 3; we still have to elect the mayor who will have the final say in the Hippodrome’s fate. “The project seems totally moribund now, at least until the municipal elections have come to pass,” explained Luka. The time has not yet come for the little neighbourhood that could.
What’s the only thing cooler than being a McGill Daily Culture writer?
Being a McGill Daily Culture Columnist!!! We’re looking for two columnists. email culture@mcgilldaily.com for more information
Compendium!
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Monday, September 9, 2013
Lies, half-truths, and my first day
Campus news briefs Students agree on mouse problem on McGall campus New poll results have been officially released by the Students’ Headquarters of McGall University (SHMU), showing that 87 per cent of undergraduates “strongly agree” with the statement, “There is a mouse problem at McGall University.” The mice on campus have been a persistent source of trouble for decades, though the last few years have been particularly worrisome. SHMU VP Internal, Bran Fibrenom, spoke briefly with The Weekly by email. “As students, we know that political apathy is its own kind of epidemic here at McGall. But the voting percentage in the mice demographic is just appalling, no matter how you look at it.” Historically, the mouse population at McGall has seen low voter turnout in SHMU GAs and referenda, as well as mouse-specific elections. The best mouse turnout for any event at McGall was 13 per cent, when an unexpected number of mice rallied to vote against the Arts faculty student strike in 2012. A member of the McGall Equality Office and Workplace (MEOW) commented that SHMU members should be cautious against judging fellow McGallians regardless of size, fluffiness, or political engagement. “I don’t pretend to speak for all mice, and neither should you. You don’t necessarily understand the mouse experience.” No mice representatives contacted would provide official comments. Source of “gut feelings” identified Last week, a groundbreaking new paper was published in Schmience by McGall researchers in the Department of Brain
E.k. EK | The McGall Weekly Thinky Problems, detailing an ongoing experimental analysis of so-called “gut feelings.” The paper sheds new light on a widely shared experience of being emotionally compromised by one’s stomach. Ph.D student and lead researcher on the paper, Dane Juros, spoke at a small press conference in the McIntern Medical Building. “Everybody’s had to deal with gut feelings before. They are persistent and intense. My team really wanted to know the source of those feelings, and consequently, the ways we can all learn to live with them.” The study shows that ‘gut feelings’ are remarkably similar to ‘brain feelings,’ in that they are produced by a conscious mind. While this may seem commonsensical, many people may be surprised in the
My first day as principal
A message from Vice-Baroness Forte
S
ince it was announced that I would become the Principal and Vice-Baroness of McGall University, people from across time and space have sent me their words of welcome and warm wishes. This, more than anything else, speaks to McGall’s noble history and dazzling accomplishments, built from the sweet, salty tears of hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting people. As my first order of business, I have signed an executive order which authorizes McGall Security and its proxy paramilitary force to use “all necessary and appropriate force” against anyone suspected or unsuspected of utilizing a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle on our fine campus. Since biking increases your heart and respiration rate, cyclists actually exhale more CO2 emissions than pedestrians and
motorists combined. Like all public institutions, McGall must do its part to fight global warming by reducing the amount of CO2 on campus. With this new eco-conscious measure, our university will become the first bike-free institution of higher learning by the year 2015, and finally, joyfree by the year 2035. At McGall, we believe education should be a long, gruelling process of disillusionment that leaves you with a sense of profound existential dread – preferably, somewhere between the right and left ventricle of your heart. If you have any suggestions, feel free to write them down on a piece of paper and set it on fire. —Suzie “McLavish” Forte Principal and Vice-Baroness of McGall University
realization that, in their abdomens, reside autonomous beings with individual desires, personalities, and, of course, feelings. Juros described the challenges of his research. “As is the case when studying the brain, it’s difficult for us to accurately track the activity of our gut minds, or ‘gutmunculi.’ This is due to electrical interference produced by the surrounding body parts, as well as [other complicated science stuff ].” A new method of study was developed on our very own campus, which Juros referred to as “basically inserting a window into the abdominal cavity, like a literal window that you can look into.” This research may be the first step in returning us to more civilized Aristotelian-era theory of mind. This would
break free of all-too-common modern neuroscientific beliefs that restrain us to a paradigm of the brain as the sole source of mental activity. The new paper has already come under fire, even from prominent Brain Thinky Problem-Solvers on our own campus. Ostrey Size, professor emeritus in the department, was in the crowd at the press conference, and stood during the question period to announce that he found the study “pretty fucking ridiculous,” before storming off. —Compiled by E.k. EK Longer versions of these briefs can be found in the extremely legitimate source of news known as the McGall Reported, in the Grasping at Straws section.
McGall Weekly advice
Answering the questions you were afraid to ask Dear Weekly, I’ve been dating this great guy for a couple months now. I recently came out to him as bisexual, and he was pretty calm when we were talking about it, but I feel like something’s changed between us. He seems convinced that I’m going to cheat on him with a woman. He’s being so weird about it, and last night he called me a “slut” when I brought it up again, but he apologized right away. What the fuck? He’s been really chill otherwise – definitely not a homophobe, at least as far as I can tell. I have no idea where this is coming from. How do I talk to him about it? —Baffled Baffled, Have you considered a crisscross stranglehold? (See Fig. 1 for help.) —The Weekly
Fig. 1
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Alice Shen | The McGill Daily
T
he Quebec Education Act guarantees for every child the right to elementary and secondary school. On paper, it would seem that universal access to education for children is not an issue – but the reality on the ground in Quebec is quite different. Undocumented, or non-status children – those without immigration papers or legal status, or those with non-status parents – face significant hurdles in attending school. The decision to admit non-status children into schools is left up to individual school boards in Quebec, but school boards are rarely sympathetic. This is complicated by Quebec law, which requires that all children have a permanent code (PC) to register for school. To obtain a PC, children must have birth certificates or other official documentation. Non-status immigrants don’t have these documents, and if they try to obtain them, they face the possibility of deportation. Even if an exception is made, and non-status children without a PC are allowed to attend public primary or secondary school, families can be made to pay upwards of $5,000 per year per child – and without a PC, even children who graduate can be denied their diploma. This is not a situation found in many regions of North America. In Ontario, children only have to provide proof of a local address; it is illegal to refuse education based on status. In the United States, schools are not permitted to refuse education based on children’s status. Montreal and Quebec don’t have any excuse for barring non-status children from their right to education.
The Education Across Borders Collective, a part of the migrant justice group Solidarity Across Borders, is one of the most visible organizations fighting these prohibitive rules. A small number of migrant justice activists and parents of non-status children attend the monthly meetings of the Commission scolaire de Montréal and fight for the education of non-status children. The organization has been critical of the PQ government’s most recent adjustments to the rules for non-status children, as they largely amount to minor administrative changes that will make very little real difference in the lives of migrant families. According to Solidarity Across Borders, there are 40,000 non-status families – and thus thousands of non-status children – in Quebec. The arbitrary requirement of status to access free education, which is a fundamental right, is systemically racist and antiimmigrant. For all the furor around tuition hikes and budget cuts in recent years, and all the arguments for education as a universal right, non-status children have been all but erased from the public consciousness. If Quebec considers itself a place where human rights are respected, there is only one solution: allow all children to go to school. —The McGill Daily Editorial Board To stay updated on meeting times and actions, see the Solidarity Across Borders Facebook page, www. facebook.com/CiteSansFrontieres, or their website, www.solidarityacrossborders.org.
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