Vol103iss11

Volume 103, Issue 11 Monday, November 11, 2013

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McGill’s sports culture under scrutiny Page 18

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

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News

03 NEWS

Sexual Assault Resource Centre opens at Concordia

Concordia opens new sexual assault centre Biking on campus against fossil fuels PGSS referendum results No progress for safe conditions for sex workerrs

3

The McGill Daily

Monday, November 11, 2013

Centre addresses need to combat prevalent rape culture

Al Gore visits McGill

Mark Tartamella | News Writer

4Floors and budgets topics at SSMU Council Professor appeals committee decision of harassment

08 COMMENTARY A first experience with drag Misremembering the victims of war Letters

11

FEATURES

Decay and Sustain: Fiction

by E.k. Chan

14

SCI+TECH

Cosmic lighthouses Researching researchers Making sense of science

16

HEALTH&ED

Limiting access to medication in the developing world

18

SPORTS

Sports culture, rape culture, and an institutional failure

20 CULTURE A different Afghanistan Method Acting has nothing to do with Marlon Brando Should you be feeling guilty about your Value Village sweater? Yeah, kinda Ender’s Game: a movie with baggage

23 EDITORIAL Going beyond electoral politics

24 COMPENDIUM! The installation of Suzie Forte Boustan: worth it?

Robert Smith | The McGill Daily

O

n November 11, after two years of campaigning, protesting, and petitioning, a Sexual Assault Resource Centre will finally open at Concordia University. Jennifer Drummond, a social worker and McGill graduate, will be the new centre’s coordinator, managing both volunteers and the centre’s services.

Located on the downtown campus at the Guy-Metro building, the new centre will offer “crisis intervention, advocacy, accompaniment, a resource room, referrals, volunteer opportunities and educational outreach,” according to Drummond.

She also said she hoped that the centre would “provide students, staff, and faculty a space for support, discussion and learning,” in order to create “a culture of respect and consent on campus.”

Julie Michaud, Administrative Coordinator at the Centre for Gender Advocacy, described Drummond’s approach as “very survivor-oriented,” as she “help[s] survivors take the steps that they

feel are right for them, whatever those may be.”

The Centre for Gender Advocacy, which offers services and resources to the Concordia and greater Montreal community in addition to campaigning for social justice causes, is at the center of the two-year long push. Their petition received over 1,000 signatures, pushing the university into action back in April 2013.

Michaud highlighted the importance of a resource like this on campus. “Sexual assault centres should be in place at all [educational] institutions because around one in four students will experience some type of sexual assault during their post-secondary education.”

“The fact that a quarter of all students go through this is obviously very concerning, but even if the rate were lower it would still be worth addressing,” Michaud continued, adding that the definition of sexual assault is not limited only to rape, but “all unwanted sexual contact.”

Michaud says that the statistic “is hard to believe because we

tend to think of sexual assault as a penetrative act that is perpetrated by a violent stranger in a dark alley.” In reality, she said, “over 80 per cent of survivors know their perpetrator, and it doesn’t have to [involve] physical violence.”

Survivors often face many other problems when dealing with sexual assault, such as skepticism and victim-blaming when deciding to share this information with friends or family. “Survivors learn quickly not to speak out” for fear of not being helped or even taken seriously, she said.

“It’s the unfortunate reality of living in a rape culture,” Michaud said, adding that it was “essentially the knowledge of [these] fact[s] that motivated [the Centre for Gender Advocacy] to campaign for the creation of the Sexual Assault Resource Centre.”

Unlike the administrative support for Concordia’s sexual assault centre, McGill has the Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society (SACOMSS), a volunteerbased centre located inside the

Shatner building. SACOMSS has run on student fees since the 1990s.

Michaud pointed out that there are similarities and differences between the two resources.

“Like SACOMSS, the Sexual Assault Resource Centre will offer meaningful volunteer opportunities, but unlike SACOMSS, it will not put the burden of running the centre on volunteers.”

Drummond’s full-time position, according to Michaud, “will provide an important degree of reliability in the availability of service – something that can understandably be lacking in volunteer-run centres during busy times for students.”

Staff and volunteers from the Centre for Gender Advocacy will also be lending support to the Sexual Assualt Resource Centre.

“The opening of the centre is a very important step forward for Concordia, and I believe [it] will have a positive impact on the health and well-being of the entire Concordia community,” Drummond told The Daily.

The McGill Daily

4

News

Monday, November 11, 2013

Divest McGill stages protest against fossil fuels Students bike in opposition to cycling policy William Mazurek | The McGill Daily

M

orning campus traffic was disrupted on Wednesday morning as a group of around 35 demonstrators rode bikes through campus to protest McGill’s continued investments in fossil fuels.

The protest also aimed to support the idea of bike lanes on campus, which would allow cyclists to ride their bikes across the lower campus, rather than walk them, as they are currently required to do.

The demonstration began at 10:30 a.m. near the Milton Gates.

Around two-thirds of the demonstrators rode their bikes in a circuit passing by the Arts building, Leacock, and McTavish Street, before ending up on the steps of the Arts building.

No significant security action was noted in response to the demonstration. One lone guard was seen vigorously pointing to a sign instructing cyclists to dismount and walk their bikes.

“Divestment is the tactic, climate justice is the goal,” the demonstrators chanted as they rode through campus.

The remaining demonstrators

Khoa Doan | The McGill Daily walked to the Arts building waving signs and banners encouraging the University to divest from fossil fuels.

The demonstration was put on by Divest McGill, a group which seeks to end the University’s continued investment in fossil fuel companies.

The group came into the spotlight in May when it unsuccessfully petitioned McGill’s Board of Governors to divest from investments in com-

panies profiting from fossil fuels. “[We’re] highlighting the contrast […] between all of the energy that goes into targeting bikes versus like basically none of the energy that goes […] into addressing tar sands [and] climate change,” remarked local climate activist Curtis Murphy to The Daily.

“We think that we should be focusing not on blocking sustainable

solutions, like having bikes on campus, but more on things that are productive,” noted Divest McGill member Kristen Perry.

“It supports the rejection of fossil fuels,” said a demonstrator who identified only as Loïc, when asked about the potential for bikes on campus. “It’s a better way to commute around.”

The demonstrators were quick to

point out that their main focus was not specifically bikes on campus, but rather the broader issue of divestment from fossil fuels as a whole.

“The climate crisis is now,” yelled protest organizer Lily Schwarzbaum from the steps of the Arts building.

“When we talk about taking down the [fossil fuel] industry, we are taking down the most powerful group […] in the world. Their business plan, which is to burn through the reserves past our carbon budget, puts all of our lives at danger.

By taking them down we are fighting for our very survival,” Schwarzbaum continued.

“Our hope is that they’ll divest,” Perry remarked when asked how she hoped the University would respond to the demonstration.

“Just making sure that [the University] knows that we’re not going to go away just because they said no the first time is really important. [...]

Just keeping the pressure up and just making sure that they understand that we’re here to stay because climate change is not going away,” Perry noted.

Post-grads say “yes” to campus media, writing centre, post-doc student services

T

his year’s autumn elections saw all three referendum questions passed with over 50 per cent voter support, according to the preliminary results. Voter turnout was at 12.6 per cent. Post-grads voted to pay a $0.75 per semester fee for the McGill Tribune, making them members of the Tribune Publications Society. Other questions included a levy of the McGill Writing Centre fee to $1.50 per semester in order to prevent the termination of one-on-one tutorial services for graduate students, and making the student services fee for post-doctoral fellows non-opt-outable.

For a breakdown of the results, see infographics.

Infographics by Hera Chan

McGill Tribune Yes - 52.59% No - 41.13% No Opinion - 6.3%

McGill Writing Centre

Post-Doctoral Student Services

Yes - 66.45%

Yes - 52.97%

No - 28.65%

No - 44.86%

No Opinion - 4.9%

No Opinion - 2.2%

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News

Monday, November 11, 2013

A look into the criminalization of sex work in Canada Criminal Code of Canada continues to create unsafe working conditions Cem Ertekin, Juliana Hayden, and Nina Jaffe-Geffner | News Writers Illustrations by Anna Shi and Alice Shen

The first laws regarding sex work were inherited from the United Kingdom, and were later brought into the Criminal Code of Canada.

“

In order to avoid getting arrested, they’ll just hop into someone’s car as soon as they stop so that they can avoid being charged with communication. That has been reported as increasing the dangers towards people who are working,” Robyn Maynard told The Daily when speaking on the current legal restrictions that risk the safety and dignity of sex workers.

Maynard is a street worker with the community-based initiative Stella, a ‘by sex workers for sex workers’ group that strives to provide resources to, and improve the health and safety conditions of, sex workers.

Currently, being a sex worker in Canada is legal; however, certain sections of the Criminal Code of Canada (CCC) restrict the freedom with which sex workers can operate.

According to Article 210 of the CCC, “Every one who keeps a common bawdy-house is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years.” However, according to Maynard, the consequences of Article 210 have the potential to profoundly affect the livelihoods of sex workers.

“A lot of women like to work together with a larger group of people, so that they can work with security,” Maynard told The Daily,

Article 212 makes it illegal for third parties to solicit sex workers to clients. It also makes it illegal to “live on the avails of prostitution,” meaning it makes living on money earned from prostitution of another person illegal.

“but this was made illegal by 210, which means people can be evicted, lose their apartments, and be charged criminally just for being in a place where they’re working.”

“[Article 213 essentially] makes it illegal for people to actually discuss any of the details around sexual services, whether that’s negotiating condom use, or even taking time to talk with the client to feel out if this is somebody that they would or would not like to see.”

Robyn Maynard According to Maynard, this also

means the workers are less likely to keep condoms and other safe sex materials onsite, for fear of the materials being used as evidence against them in a criminal charge for being found in a bawdy-house.

Among other things, Article 212 of the CCC makes it illegal for third parties to procure or solicit sex workers for clients, and makes “enticing another person to engage in prostitution” illegal.

“There’s a part of [Article] 212 called ‘living off the avails’ that makes it illegal for women who are working in the sex industry [to] hire security [... or] a receptionist to screen their calls,” Maynard said. “[There are many] things that people put in place for their safety.

[These are] currently illegal and treated the same as, say pimping, or exploitation, which no one is fighting to decriminalize. They’re also treated as one and the same under the law.”

Article 213, on the other hand, details the restrictions of sex work, limiting solicitation in “public places.” Sex workers may not receive clients in the same place more than once. As a consequence, time and space for consensual agreements become limited. “[Article 213 essentially] makes it illegal for people to actually discuss any of the details around sexual services, whether that’s negotiating condom use, or even taking

Article 213 details the restrictions of prostitution practices, limiting solicitation in ‘public places’ and by way of stopped motorized vehicles.

time to talk with the client to feel out if this is somebody that they would or would not like to see,” said Maynard.

Some strides are beginning to make way. In 2009, sex workers Terri-Jean Bedford, Amy Lebovitch, and Valerie Scott brought forward their case, which came to be known as Bedford v. Canada, to court in Toronto. After a year of deliberation, in 2010, Justice Susan Himel struck down these articles on the grounds that they were in

“A lot of those laws that seem like they’re for women’s rights [...] actually have extremely negative effects in terms of the working conditions and safety of sex workers.”

Robyn Maynard violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The federal government later appealed the decision. In 2012, the Ontario Court of Appeals struck down the bawdy-house provisions as unconstitutional; however, it maintained that Article 213 – which deals with solicitation – did not go against the Charter.

The applicants of Bedford v.

Canada, which is currently on appeal at the Supreme Court of Canada, argue that these articles directly violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Section 7 of which reads, “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.”

In addition, the applicants also claimed that the CCC makes their right to communicate with their clients illegal, and that this is another violation of the Charter, which is supposed to protect “freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression.”

“A lot of those laws that seem like they’re for women’s rights [...] actually have extremely negative effects in terms of the working conditions and safety of sex workers,” said Maynard. “Those laws are not being brought forward by sex workers – they’re being brought forward by people who want sex workers to not exist in general.”

The McGill Daily

News

7

Monday, November 11, 2013

SSMU talks Costume Campaign at 4Floors Council faces deficit once again in recently released budget

T

he Legislative Council of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) convened for their bi-weekly council meeting on November 7, discussing Halloween costumes, the upcoming Special General Assembly (GA), and SSMU’s revised fall budget.

4Floors and SSMU’s anti-racist Costume Campaign VP University Affairs Joey Shea and VP Internal Brian Farnan reported their satisfaction with the annual 4Floors Halloween event hosted by SSMU. This year, SSMU put together a Costume Campaign in an attempt to avoid last year’s incident, which saw photos of students wearing blackface at the party and sparked controversy on social media.

The Costume Campaign, inspired by the Costume Sensitivity Campaign at Ohio University, asked students to consider, among other things, whether their costumes “mock or condescend historically oppressed people and/or cultures.” However, the Campaign drew some ire when it was posted on Facebook, with some questioning whether it was appropriate to create a new campaign featuring students in blackface and other racist costumes, instead of using existing campaigns.

According to both Shea and Farnan, most students dressed in accordance with these guidelines, which also falls in line with SS-

Lauria Galbraith | News Writer MU’s Equity Policy. Anyone who was wearing a questionable costume was “taken into another room to discuss it,” Shea said.

There were a few costumes that fell into a grey area, the two said, including one attendee in particular who dressed up as a basketball player with an afro. Services representative Élie Lubendo commented, “That person came in with a purpose [...] He was trying to challenge the rules.”

Motion for anti-oppression in Rez Project Emily Yee Clare, former VP University Affairs in 2011-12, presented a motion for Council’s support of a proposal for funding from the Sustainability Project Fund (SPF). Her presentation described the project as an initiative that would “expand the scope of Rez Project to include training on issues of race, religion, and privilege.”

Clare wants the project to “support first-year students and ensure that they have the mechanisms in place to access the support that they need.”

President Katie Larson expressed her delight that Clare was applying to the SPF for “something that is outside of environmental sustainability.”

The motion passed, with Council voting to endorse the proposal.

2013-14 revised budget released VP Finances and Operations

Khoa Doan | The McGill Daily Tyler Hofmeister presented the revised SSMU fall budget for 201314. This year, a new Information Technology (IT) budget was split off, as a permanent staff position was added. In addition, according to the budget report, the department faces larger expenses due to outdated hardware.

Once again, SSMU faces a large budget deficit, a result of “the ongoing lease negotiations with the University and the foregone revenues from tenants in the SSMU building,” according to the report. To mitigate what the report called a “significant deficit,” cuts were made to execu-

tives’ personal budgets, General Administration, Building, IT, and Club budgets.

Last year, SSMU’s deficit totalled $274,751, due to higher expenses, lower revenues, and the uncertainty of lease negotiations with the University.

In addition, the professional fee for SSMU’s Legal Counsel has risen, largely due to lease negotiations with the administration and contributions to the current Table de concertation étudiante du Québec (TaCEQ) legal cases, among other things.

Council approved the budget, with 21 in favour and 8 abstentions.

Special General Assembly After losing quorum at the annual Fall GA, SSMU decided to hold a Special GA on November 13 to appoint members to its Board of Directors, a process that cannot be accomplished by the Council. Larson asked councillors to report on their promotion efforts for the upcoming Special GA so that quorum could be reached; many reported using social media or word-of-mouth.

The speaker also reminded councillors that if the Board of Directors were not elected, SSMU would have difficulty renewing its liquor permits for Gerts.

Al Gore speaks at McGill

Addresses capitalism, technology, and a “declining” U.S.

L

ast Tuesday, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore delivered a keynote speech on “Technology and the Future of Democratization” during Media@McGill’s annual lecture at its Beaverbrook Conference. While both technology and democracy were addressed, the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate spoke more generally about the world’s current state of affairs and this generation’s imperative role in shaping its future.

After a 30-year political career, Gore unabashedly spoke of an increasingly capitalized and problem-ridden “Earth, Inc.,” as he termed it, as well as a “declining” U.S.. He drew upon historical and scientific anecdotes to address global issues in the eco-

Jane Zhang | News Writer nomic, political, environmental, and societal spheres.

Gore explicitly criticized profitdriven capitalism. “The ‘one per cent’ is not an Occupy Wall Street slogan – it is a fact,” he said. He called for systemic changes in economic policy toward a “sustainable capitalism,” one that abolishes “short-termisms,” changes incentives to account for externalities, and redefines growth.

As to what a new paradigm would look like, Gore was unable to give a clear picture. “I don’t know the answer, and I don’t think Al Gore does either,” said Saurin Shah, a U2 student in Cognitive Science.

According to Shah, Gore’s message was that, “‘All the pieces are there, someone just needs to pick it up’

and not ‘we need to build a new system’ […] He didn’t say capitalism is not sustainable.”

Shah did agree, though, that Gore evoked “a sense of urgency.”

Gore also addressed both the potentials and consequences of rapidly developing technologies in today’s quickly changing world.

“The future of democracy depends on the choices we make, in relation to these new [technological] capacities,” he said.

In this respect, Gore addressed the student crowd directly: “These times now call for young men and women such as you to shape the future and make it what it should be.”

Payal Patel, U3 student in Political Science and Psychology, said she felt empowered after the talk.

Although the content was not new to her, she said, “It was cool to see things from my political science class, my arts and science class, and my psychology class all come together […] and made me think about how it’s all integrated.”

Gore spoke openly about the U.S. – its current decline as a superpower, and its dysfunctionality as a country “radiating into global governance as a whole.” Shah, an American student at McGill, appreciated that Gore took a critical stance on America’s “crushing bureaucracy [and] increasing inequality of a developed nation of its size.”

Gore even called the recent government shutdown “pathetic” and “pitiful,” a far cry from what he called “an avatar for democracy

around the world.”

In addressing this “democracy in decline,” Gore optimistically pointed to the internet as a powerful tool to participate, collaborate, and “win the conversation of making the right choice” – though he did not specify which, or whose, conversation.

However, Shah pointed out that Gore ultimately equated real change with institutional decisionmaking. While Gore admitted to declining confidence in the current capitalism-democracy model, he rejected neither, and in fact believed that they remain the best paradigms in governing society today. “[As] a career politician, he is not really willing to […] condemn any government and say [their] method of democracy isn’t working,” said Shah.

The McGill Daily

8

News

Monday, November 11, 2013

Professor in El-Orabi case appeals harassment ruling Graduate student who left McGill receives no financial compensation Nicolas Quiazua | The McGill Daily

G

ary Dunphy, the McGill professor charged with issuing death threats to a graduate student, has appealed the decision rendered by the McGill Committee on Student Grievances. Earlier this year, the Committee ruled against the Natural Resource Sciences professor. The committee decision qualified Dunphy’s behaviour as constituting “harassment” and “threat of physical violence” toward his student, Amr El-Orabi.

The case began on November 19, 2012. When El-Orabi was departing the professor’s office upon announcing that he was leaving his lab, Dunphy yelled at him to “get the fuck out of the country.” And in response to El-Orabi asking if there was anything else the professor would like, Dunphy replied, “Yes, your death.” El-Orabi captured the exchange on tape.

The Senate Committee on Student Grievances, which arises out of University regulations, received a grievance from the graduate student against his supervisor on February 14. In his grievance, El-Orabi outlined three violations to his rights as described in the Charter of Students’ Rights: “death threat,” “religious, cultural and personal offences,” and “intrusion of his privacy.”

The Committee, with its nine voting members – four students and five professors – has final authority within University jurisdiction, and is “empowered to order such final or interim actions as it sees fit” for appropriate redress. However, Professor Frank Mucciardi, an academic member on the Committee, clarified that “the Committee cannot impose any kind of decision, it makes recommendations higher up and it is up to them to implement the decision.”

In September, the Committee wrapped up its investigation. While the decision was in favour of El-Orabi for the most part, his application for redress – or financial compensation – toward the money he invested in an interrupted education at McGill was denied. Moreover, the Committee found no violation of El-Orabi’s rights under section 2.1 of the Charter of Students’ Rights, which ensures that the right to equal treatment by the University “not be impaired by discrimination.”

This is despite the fact that the recording clearly establishes Dunphy saying, “You have nothing new to offer [...] your race is not that unique.”

In order to appeal the Committee decision, Dunphy had to notify the Secretary of Senate of his intention to do so within 14 days of receiving offi-

cial notice of the decision. The Code of Student Grievance Procedures outlines that an appeal procedure can be sought only: “(1) Where new evidence which was not available to a party at the time of the original hearing has been discovered; or (2) Where a breach of natural justice has occurred,” and where the decision taken by the Committee could have been “substantially affected by any of the above circumstances.” If the Appeal Committee determines that the decision of the Senate Committee on Student Grievances was reasonable, the original decision is final and “implemented without delay.”

In September, several authorities at McGill responded to reporters from The Daily by saying they had to keep the information confidential “given the ongoing investigation,” despite the fact that the decision was already reached in August.

Additionally, McGill told El-Orabi he was not to divulge the nature of the decision and the possible sanctions against the professor “to avoid breaching a clause of confidentiality.” McGill cited section 1.4 of the Code of Student Grievance Procedures, a section that states that all documents submitted to the Committee must remain confidential. Nowhere in that section was there a mention about a non-divulgence of the decision.

Doug Sweet, McGill’s Director of Internal Communications, later informed The Daily that it was University regulation for McGill not to reveal the results of the process; however, “the parties themselves can, in the sense that the regulations do not spell out that they can’t.” Although the Secretariat encourages parties to maintain confidentiality, “there is no power to compel compliance in that regard.”

In the decision El-Orabi agreed to share with The Daily, the Committee found that Dunphy’s verbal comments “constitute harassment of Mr. ElOrabi,” explicitly violating El-Orabi’s student rights under Article 3, which states, “every student has a right to the safeguard of his or her dignity and a right to be protected by the University against vexatious conduct by a representative of the University acting in an official manner.”

Regarding Dunphy’s mention of El-Orabi’s death in the context of an abrasive conversation, the Committee ruled that the comments “were legitimately interpreted by Mr. El-Orabi as a credible threat of physical violence.”

Dunphy therefore violated El-Orabi’s rights under Articles 7 and 8, and “made Mr. El-Orabi fearful for his

Alice Shen | The McGill Daily physical safety and his life ultimately leading to his departure from McGill and from Canada.”

The Committee also discussed possible actions of redress for the “psychological damage that Mr. ElOrabi may have suffered;” however, El-Orabi was informed that financial compensation was outside the purview of the Committee and was therefore not considered.

Finally, the Committee recommended that the Department of Natural Resource Sciences, the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies “move to ensure that Prof. Dunphy’s other graduate students, and any postgraduate researchers in his labs, be protected from harassment of this sort” because of his “bizarre and sometimes confrontational style.” One of the actions proposed by the committee included “insistence on co-supervision of all researchers and on the presence of a third party during all conversations.”

When asked to evaluate the process for filing a grievance complaint at McGill in retrospective, El-Orabi stated that he has heard of various similar incidents going unreported because “students are afraid to complain as they might jeopardize everything they are working for. I felt the same thing.”

Before El-Orabi decided to make his case public, and before filing a grievance complaint, he was in touch with various professors at McGill and with the Ombudsperson

for Students, Spencer Boudreau. At that time, he said, there were a lot of signs that something was not right. “I quickly realized that nothing would happen, I wouldn’t have had my grievances heard if I would not have gone public.”

In fact, from January until March, nothing much was done by the University, according to El-Orabi. An unofficial investigation was opened when El-Orabi first talked with McGill personnel, and further closed without any prior notice to him. Prior to the closing, there was no contact from McGill, according to El-Orabi. “They didn’t tell me what they were doing and suddenly the case was closed [...] somehow the actions are confidential and I can’t even get a written documentation.”

Since April 11, however – the date that the first news article and audio clip were released by Global News – El-Orabi stated, “the University has been consistent in contacting me.”

According to the last annual report on the “Policy on Harassment, Sexual Harassment, and Discrimination Prohibited by Law,” the number of overall harassment complaints has decreased in the past six years, from 43 in 201011, to 24 in 2011-12. Complaints based on discrimination, however, have increased in proportion to other complaints, rising from 2 per cent in 200607 to 21 per cent last year.

Amira Elghawaby, Human Rights Coordinator at the National Council

of Canadian Muslims, told The Daily, “Especially now with the context in Quebec, and the Charter of Values, we hope that students won’t be further marginalized on campus.”

The Council had contacted ElOrabi to provide counsel and support throughout the grievance process, and is seeking to work with the University to change their policies to prevent Islamophobic harassment in the future.

Close to a year has gone by since El-Orabi left McGill to return to Egypt, and he does not consider going back to McGill an option. “For the University to say that they have found alternatives for me, in order for [me] to finish this degree, is a lie.”

As a former student of anatomy and cell biology, El-Orabi does not see the possibility of a future career in his field in Egypt, and therefore changed his career path. “I started to look into different things and [to] re-evaluate what I wanted to do.” He ended up switching into aviation and recently graduated from the Egyptian Aviation Academy.

Dunphy is still offering two classes this semester, BIOL 350: Insect Biology and Control, and AEBI 120: General Biology. “Every year I like to do that. Students seems to like to have that class offered,” he said during a call with The Daily in September. He did not comment on the case itself at the time, and again for this story.

When The Daily reached Alan Watson, Dunphy’s advisor during the case, he declined to comment.

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The McGill Daily

Monday, November 11, 2013

Sore feet and smokey eyes My first night out in drag Eric White White Noise

“

Every gay guy should dress up in drag at least once,” a friend – a seasoned drag performer – told me this past summer. Although I listened, the idea of walking around in public or performing while wearing makeup, women’s clothing, and heels, was daunting. I didn’t think drag was for me.

Nevertheless, having seen a few drag shows I understood what it does for people and knew how liberating it could be. I saw how drag let someone be who they were never otherwise allowed to be. In drag queens, I’ve seen men who weren’t men, and never wanted to be men. I’ve seen beautiful, graceful divas, strutting their stuff and not letting anyone see or think of them as being anything but beautiful.

In September, a friend of mine performed in drag for the first time. I was honoured and delighted to be a part of the process, as they chose to get ready at my apartment and we attended the event together. I know it was an emotional process for them, but I think an overall positive one. As I watched them transform from an average gay guy into a symbol of feminine beauty, I felt empowered.

I was inspired by witnessing her beauty and angelic presence, and I started wondering when my turn would be.

I couldn’t really see myself performing on stage, and couldn’t see myself dressing up just for a dance party, even if it was in the Village or mostly attended by queer people. I decided Halloween, a night when anyone can be someone else, would be the perfect night to experiment with drag.

I had no idea who – or what – to be. After a few weak ideas, my costume threw itself together at the last minute. At a thrift store I bought a little black dress with a deep, goldsequined neckline. I borrowed my roommate’s wig, a black bob that she had worn the previous Halloween as Mia Wallace, Uma Thurman’s character in Pulp Fiction.

With no other ideas, I decided that I too would be the iconic, swing dancing, cocaine-snorting mob boss’s wife. I bought some bright red lipstick and borrowed a black choker. My friend Amy, who did the rest of my makeup for me, was able to find some painfully perfect black suede flats at a thrift store that day.

Rosemary Dobson | Illustrator A women’s size 11.5, the shoes were a tight fit and would later bloody my heels and toenails, but nothing else would’ve complemented my outfit so perfectly.

Once fully dragged out, I looked hot. I felt unstoppable. I went with Amy and a few other queer friends to a costume party with mostly queer people. Although it was Halloween, which made me less nervous about being seen in public, it was definitely good to start my night off around people who I knew would better understand my costume choice.

Except, for me, it wasn’t just a costume. Even though it’s a night when everyone has the chance to be someone else, for me it was so much more. I took drag seriously. I wasn’t the same boy that had been raised to be a man. All of those expectations for me to be masculine, to act a certain way

and to live up to an ideal, were thrown out the window. I was Mia Wallace. With my gait, my posture, and my mannerisms, I was more fabulous a woman than I could ever have dreamed of.

After the party, we went to one of the Plateau’s great dive-y dance bars. We danced our asses off to everything but top 40 hits and had a great time. Multiple guys told me I was “très sexy,” and even though at one point I got my ass slapped, I just rolled with it.

Overall, my first experience in drag was a great one. The next day, I chose not to shower before going to class. Even though my feet were bloody and hurt like hell, I strutted to campus in a proud walk of shame, wearing the heavy eyeliner and mascara from the night before.

I relished the last hours of my divine feminine beauty, and the way that the darkness brought out my

eyes. For a few more hours, I could be fabulous.

I can definitely see myself dressing up in drag again, although I’m not exactly sure when or how.

Although the idea daunts me, maybe I’ll give performance a shot someday. More intimidating than performance itself is the idea of being in drag in public. Outside of the context of Halloween, I know I’d be vulnerable to stares and potential abuse. The night I watched my friend perform in their first drag show, they were verbally harassed and followed on their way home. That kind of discrimination scares the shit out of me. As much as I tell myself I don’t care what other people think, and although I’ve gotten immense support when sharing my drag experience with friends, I know that there are people and places where I wouldn’t receive the same support. After

my one night of fabulousness, I’ve returned to my conformist, boring, average aesthetic.

I can’t help but think about the next time I’ll dress in drag.

I feel it might be sooner rather than later. In the meantime, I can try to care less about what people think of me on a day-to-day basis.

Although at this point I wouldn’t feel comfortable wearing makeup to class on a regular day, maybe I’ll get there.

Nevertheless, I still have this Halloween to look back on as the night when I reached a potential for beauty that I never knew I had.

I was beautiful. I rocked it. Sooner or later, I’m going to rock it again.

White Noise is a column exploring what it means to identify as gay or queer in McGill and Montreal communities. Eric can be reached at whitenoise@mcgilldaily.com.

The McGill Daily

Commentary

11

Monday, November 11, 2013

Misremembering warfare

The selective memory of Remembrance Day at McGill Demilitarize McGill | Commentary Writer

I

t may appear dissonant that while McGill hosts a ceremony today commemorating those who died in Canada’s wars, its researchers are hard at work in underground labs helping to develop more lethal weapons for Western armies. Once a year, McGill urges us not to be alarmed by the loud sound of gunfire, so that the sacrifices of Canadian soldiers for their country may be remembered. Today, we should seek to expand our field of reflection, to question how and why we are asked to remember, and to understand how this University’s ongoing complicity in waging war connects with the grand display of mourning to which it offers a stage.

The rhetoric of Remembrance Day goes far beyond the mourning of individuals killed in wars: it celebrates the actions of soldiers, and warfare more generally, as necessary for the defense of our ‘freedom’ against an indefinite network of enemies. This narrative serves to obscure the true motives of past and present wars, waged to an overwhelming degree for the purpose of securing colonial state interests.

Such wars – the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq as prime examples – tend to be driven by imperialist quests for natural resources and paternalistic views of non-Western societies. The ‘War on Terror’ has assured the destruction of life on a massive scale, while it inevitably produces new enemies to serve as justification for continually expanding conflict.

McGill’s participation in advancing this dominant discourse of remembrance serves to distract from the actual quality of the Universi-

Letters

letters@mcgilldaily.com

A witch responds Re: “Ding-dong! The witch is not dead” (Features, October 28, pages 15-17) I appreciate this timely, if unfocused, article this year. I am not sure if either of the writers practice witchcraft, but as a closeted practitioner I was excited to see this in The Daily.

I found this article to make a strange draw between feminism and witchcraft – these two are intricately combined throughout a history where women were maligned to remove power, particularly the power to heal

ty’s complicity in war, a complicity coldly grounded in the profitability of military-industrial development.

McGill provides material assistance to military research objectives not in search of the valour that Remembrance Day falsely assigns to the defence of Canadian freedom, but because of the lucrative potential of direct military funding, partnerships with defence contractors, and grants from research agencies increasingly compliant to the private sector. As an institution adhering to capitalist logic, the University places profit before human dignity, but also before the abstract values it purports to give centre stage every November 11.

Yet, McGill remains invested in Remembrance Day’s particular way of producing feeling. The event is designed to reiterate an affective order governed by the systems of domination that flow from and maintain colonial, capitalist state power. We are asked to feel the sacrifice of the dead white men who followed orders so that today we may live in a world of endless choice.

This remembrance upholds white supremacy, when we need not even reflect on the idea that the lives of ‘our’ soldiers are more deserving of commemoration than those of the people of colour targeted for distant assassination by CIA drones. This remembrance upholds patriarchy, when it erases the sexual violence regularly perpetrated as a weapon of war against women and girls – an erasure required by the myths surrounding military heroism.

This remembrance makes invisible the economic ordering of society when it imagines that the soldiers who died manifested a unified na-

and lead. This parallel is deep and rich, not something that is just drawn up by the writers of this article. The implication that they had to come to this conclusion on their own I think takes a lot of credit away from the skilled witches who have painstakingly transcribed our history and gendered struggles, often at great risk.

There is a conflation of witchcraft as a religion, which is not always the case. Witchcraft does not have to be a religious act. While some folks, like myself, self-identify as witches, others have had this label forced upon them. Though reclamation is a powerful act of healing for many witches, like all reclaimed words and practices there is still an element of privilege to that reclama-

Alice Shen | The McGill Daily tional will and were not, rather, compelled to their deaths by a draft they were too poor to evade or by the absence of other ways to survive. Still today, both the Canadian and U.S. armies target high schools in poor areas for intensive recruitment.

The day is a rehearsal of selective feeling as much as selective memory.

It both responds to the demands of nationalism and develops a justification for the continued imperialist exercise of military power.

McGill’s investments in the refinement and expansion of this power through weapons research and military collaboration in the production of knowledge give rise to an investment in the annual spectacle of Remembrance Day. It is in McGill’s interest that students not think too much about the countless lives de-

tion that should be acknowledged.

This article is also written without acknowledging that the witchcraft practiced by Indigenous people, women and two-spirited people in particular, has been persecuted brutally and McGill and The McGill Daily sit on stolen territory. My experiences with silencing of Indigenous witchcraft, as a settler, is limited to the west coast of this country, but I imagine that Montreal has similar issues that should be a priority when discussing the persecution of any witchcraft or practices that have been forcibly labeled as witchcraft. These are serious issues facing witches today, and it is a large oversight to not address this.

—A McGill Witch

stroyed by the imperialist wars that the established modes of engaging with law, politics, and economy help propagate. It is in McGill’s interest for students to have no strong feelings about the thousands of victims of thermobaric bombings from Vietnam to Afghanistan and Iraq. It is in McGill’s interests that students not remember the miners who gathered for dinner in Zowi Sidgi, North Waziristan, on July 6, 2012 and were killed by a Predator drone strike, or the villagers who sought to help the wounded and were killed by a second strike moments later – a U.S. practice known as a “double tap.” For at least the span of a cold morning in November, under the guise of remembrance, the University defends these interests.

The work of the Shock Wave

Physics Group, the CFD Lab, and others, continues undisrupted, as the spectators gathered outside silently separate its ultimate casualties and survivors from the realm of their remembrance. In the absence of the spectacle, the colonial nation-state of Canada is not worth dying for any more than the defence of Western society justifies the endless invasions, occupations, and massacres conducted in its name. And so, the crowds will be back next year, to start again.

Demilitarize McGill organizes with the aim of ending military research on campus. If you have questions or comments, or want to get involved, get in touch with them at demilitarizemcgillnow@ gmail.com, or visit their website: www.demilitarizemcgill.com.

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www.mcgilldaily.com The struggle for student rights in Egypt On the history of remembrance and the poppy

Features

The McGill Daily

Monday, November 11, 2013

12

DECAY AND SUSTAIN

Features

The McGill Daily

13

Monday, November 11, 2013

Fiction and illustrations by E.k. Chan

T

he noise was constant. It was a dim rumble for most of the day, when the sounds of cars rolling on asphalt or the persistent din of conversation rose above it. But it was always there, hovering, and it always found me in moments of silence, in the rare quiet between beats of the day-to-day thrum, when everything converged on a split second of silence before the wave of noise crashed down again.

The drone was low and deep, shuddering in my skin when the air around me was still enough for a moment. It hummed steadily in my ears, waiting, every moment of every day. I can’t remember when it started, nor could I describe the exact quality of the sound other than its constancy, its deepness. I don’t know where it came from. It seemed to reverberate in different spaces, seemed to emanate from every direction sometimes, and from within myself other times. I could never tell if its echoes were bouncing off the walls around me or between the walls of my skull.

The noise vibrated behind my eyes when the headaches came and went, and it gnawed on the rawness of my nerves as they frayed from stress. It was loud enough to wash out the quieter sounds in my life – I could not fully hear a lover’s murmur in my ear, or the particular resonance of a piano’s notes after hands were lifted from the keys. Whether the constant anxiety was caused, or just made worse by the hum, I suppose I’ll never know. The two had become inextricable, an endless loop of irritation and aggravation.

I couldn’t remember a time I’d heard real silence, outside of my sleep. And sleep did come with difficulty, as the hum became more noticeable when my eyes were closed and I tried to lay still. It ate away at me worst of all when I tried to relax myself, to find a way to calm the grating sensation of the constant noise. But eventually, every night, I slept, and occasionally I dreamt.

Every time I had the dream, the awakening was the same. I awoke in pitch

blackness, the chill soaked deep into my skin where not even the scalding hot water of my shower could reach it and chase it out. It was not the dream itself that draped itself across my shoulders, a creeping cold dread that clung to my skin all day. It wasn’t the dream that settled itself into my flesh and left my teeth clattering together in my mouth.

In the dream I am restful, lying on my side on a bed of furs, my legs tucked against my chest. Long curved horns extend from the ground and arch above me, creating a domed cage in the air, keeping me in – and keeping everything else out.

When I look up past the criss-crossed bones, the air is dark and speckled with the gold flakes of starlight.

I sense something standing outside the bony cage, near my head – a silhouette of pure light against the night sky. I know it’s looking down at me, and I know it’s smiling, though its lack of a face indicates neither. I roll onto my back to meet its gaze, my neck craned back. Its figure is a soft, ochre-tinted glow. Its arms part and suddenly a bright, white light pierces my eyes.

I want to look away, but I can’t. My eyes strain with the blinding pain, and I watch as a single eye comes into focus, bright in the middle of the figure’s forehead, a spotlight that sears into my skull.

I feel a sting, a tickling pain in my scalp, and I am warm all over. I feel something tugging at my skin, pulling the folds in my forehead apart until they tear, and my third eyelid opens, in some kind of response to the figure standing above me. I grit my teeth. I want to reach up to wipe away the blood I feel trickling toward my temples, but I find my arms immobilized.

My third eye blinks away the pool of blood and tears collecting on its surface, and it sees – I see – with sudden clarity, the figure’s face. It is familiar and kind. Its single eye is a brilliant, shimmering gold, and in the absolute blackness it radiates warm light that reaches its fingers between the curled

horns and gilds my whole body with its gentle, careful touch. The silence is deafening and pure, every particle in the air frozen exactly in place in that moment, with not so much as the rustling of a breath audible in my ears. I want desperately to respond, to call out, to stretch my arms up to the figure, but I am left to stare, with all three eyes wide and a desperate yearning building in my chest and throat.

When I wake up from the dream I am alone, and it is the emptiness of my dark bedroom that brings that unsettling cold under my skin. The nighttime air casts a blueness over everything and it is in that cold, empty air that I start to shudder.

The low hum always returned when I awoke, playing on in my ear. When I woke from the dream it always seemed closest, almost as though it came from under my own skin. *** One day, I woke from the same dream, the same iciness sinking into my skin, sifting through my muscles and into my bones.

The sadness had become a strange routine of mine. I rubbed at my aching limbs, stiff with the cold as I accustomed myself to the familiarity of the noise once more. And as I sat up in my bed as always, shivering with the cold and the quiet, it happened. The noise changed.

It was just a single pulse, a tiny blip of an interruption to the steady drone. It startled me, shook me right out of the familiar dread that I felt settling in my chest.

I looked around, bewildered, as though my eyes would somehow right the wrong my ears found. Nothing.

I held my head still, listening intently to the deep hum, but it was the same as ever. I found myself gripping the quilt, my breath caught in my mouth. I sat there, immobile, breathing as quietly as possible, listening to the drone for the better part of an hour. I was afraid. Of what, I was not sure, other

than the unsettled feeling that had so disturbed the routineness of despair. For the first time, I tried to seek comfort in the noise, to ground myself with its constancy, to find reassurance in that unchanging horizon of sound.

I was gripped by tense anticipation for days – for what, I wasn’t sure, but I waited. I listened. And sure enough, a week later, the noise changed again. Another single, short break in the drone, and I heard it clear as day as I ate lunch in a park near my office.

I chewed on my sandwich slowly, methodically, trying to replay the sound in my head.

Just a small break – a split second of true silence. Trying to imagine that absence of sound against the constant backdrop of the hum proved futile, and the harder I tried, the more frustrated I became. I tried to cling to the hope that it would return, and I became fixated on finding that relief again, growing more and more impatient.

I became unable to hold conversation for longer than a few minutes, as my mind would drift, ever searching. People became all but faceless shapes that melted into one another around me – I was alone with the sound and it swallowed me whole, wrapping itself up with my senses. When I put my fingertips against a wall or a desk I could feel the reverberant tremor. When I closed my eyes, it shuddered against my eyelids.

The next blip came faster – three days later. I was at home, alone, distractedly trying to read. My entire mind felt itchy with the want for silence. That consuming need had become as persistent as the humming itself, and when I heard it I gasped audibly.

I tried to savour the moment but as soon as it registered as a thought in my mind, it was gone again. Something in me snapped then, and I was overcome with a loneliness unlike any other. I put my head in my hands and cried, grabbing fistfuls of my hair and wishing I could simply pin down the silent reprieve that found me in those dreams, that (continued on page 14)

The McGill Daily

14

Monday, November 11, 2013

(continued from page 13) now taunted me in my waking hours too.

I screamed into my palms until my throat went hoarse, trying to drown out the noise myself, if it would refuse to leave me.

That night, the dream changed, too.

The figure appeared above me as before, and through the long horns it watched me.

Some subconscious part of me knew my third eye would open again, but I was surprised when the skin of my forehead split – it seemed more painful, more forceful. A scream started to form in my throat, but it was lost in the still air, extinguished before it left the tip of my tongue.

My forehead stung and my ears rang, but everything fell away into an utter calm when I let the figure’s light wash over me again. There was a new blissfulness in that night’s dream, in the totality of the silence, the warmth, the light.

When I woke up, my eyes hurt – they itched terribly, like a dried scab, like thickbodied insects crawling over my eyelids. In a half-awake panic I clawed at my own face, feeling only smooth skin. I ran to the bathroom to look at myself in the mirror, and saw nothing out of place, other than the fresh red scratches across my forehead, under my brow, and down my cheeks. I watched myself panting in the mirror for a moment, and so I saw it in my own eyes when the drone was interrupted with two short silences, a second apart – a beat. I recoiled visibly at the second silence, and stared at myself in the mirror for a moment as I collected myself. I leaned on my hands on either edge of the bathroom sink, and stared down into the cracked ceramic basin as I prayed for it to come again.

I heard more pauses over the next few days, more small beats in the constant drone. Some better judgement in me resisted the hopefulness that grew in my chest, but I could not help the feeling that maybe – maybe soon – the silence would outweigh the sound.

The arrhythmic, irregular stops made it so that I could not predict the timing, but they soon grew to a point where I could expect to hear one every few hours. One evening I walked a familiar path around my quiet neighbourhood, down to the riverside a few blocks away. I dragged my heels on the gravel path deliberately, savouring the crunch and crumble of the stones under my feet, audible above the drone. Then I heard a second of silence, and in that second the crispness of the wind rustling the leaves around me was perfect. I smiled to myself with a small satisfaction, and picked up the pace along the trail to make my way home.

I heard another silence as I walked.

Then another. And another. Seconds apart, they still didn’t form a musical beat, but they were growing closer together. I looked around as my heart picked up its pace, trying to find a source, a cause for the change.

I spotted somebody in the distance. I could distinguish nothing from their figure, and as we approached one another – I was inexplicably drawn – I found my eyes unable to focus on the figure, unable to find a place to rest my sight. At last, the silences were forming a regular, steady tap-tap-tap-tap and the figure was nearly in front of me. She looked up.

She was a small, slight girl, with dark eyes that pierced into my skull. “It’s you,” she said. The silences and the drone were now playing in equal measure, forming a buzzing, low beat that mirrored the pounding of my heart as I stared at her. “You hear it too.” Her eyes did not waver, but I could not hold her gaze. I looked around her – her hair, her cheek, her ear, her shoulder.

I nodded shakily in response, my mouth dry with fear. She seemed to loom over me, though she was no taller than me. I watched the corner of her mouth as it softened into a wry smile. “I think we’ve been looking for each other.”

She stepped close to me. I gasped, and tried to step back, but couldn’t. The beat

grew louder and quicker, becoming a frantic drumming closing in on my ears. My eyes flitted back and forth from one side of her face to the other. “Look at me,” she said softly. I clenched my jaw. My gaze slowly moved from her mouth, up to the tip of her nose, and agonizingly, I forced myself to look into her eyes.

The noise stopped. It truly stopped. My blood was pumping frantically, I heard it rushing in my ears, a gust of wind whistled by, and somewhere far away, a dog barked.

I heard with incredible clarity the sound of breath filling my lungs. I stared into her deep, brown eyes, and I saw small flecks of gold, a small and distant sky reflected there.

I heard a strange, human noise suddenly, and realized it was my own laughter, choked through dry lips. I laughed again, still staring into her. “Will it stay gone?”

She nodded. “I think so.” Her smile was now unhesitant, spreading into a true grin as she laughed too, before throwing her arms around my waist. She crushed herself against me, and I held her. We stood there on the gravel, soaking in the unobscured sounds that surrounded us.

We eventually parted our embrace, staring and unable to stop ourselves from laughing as we both revelled in the entirely mundane soundscape. “I hear an owl, far away,” she whispered reverently. Suddenly, she took my hands in hers. “Let’s… listen,” she said in a hush. And we did, walking along the path for what seemed like an age. The croak of frogs, the murmur of cars driving down streets beyond the trees that concealed the city in the distance. There was a true wonderment in the way she smiled every time the noises died down for a moment, to allow the empty silence to resonate.

Finally we wound our way back to my apartment, delighting in every tiny echo of our footsteps along the weathered cement.

We embraced again in front of my door.

“Thank you,” I said, and she shook her head.

“I should be thanking you,” she laughed. A silence passed between us, our eyes locked,

Features

and then she averted her gaze to look down the empty road. A fear flashed across my mind then – fear that when she was no longer with me, the hum would return. When she turned to leave, a hundred questions that I wanted to ask suddenly surfaced in my mind, but all were paralyzed by that fear. I stood by my door and watched her figure grow smaller in the distance, and she looked over her shoulder to give me one last smile before she seemed to melt into the darkness down the road. The noise did not return. And I stood alone, hearing the quiet buzz of the lightbulb above my head, staring down that deserted road.

I unlocked the door and headed up the stairs, entering the wondrously still air of my quiet apartment. The floorboards creaked beneath me, and I could even hear the soft percussion of my palm against the wall, as I leaned on it to remove my shoes. I made my way to the bathroom, splashing water on my face and rubbing at my eyes. I towelled off, then looked at myself in the mirror. I could not help smiling at myself.

I made my way to my bedroom, flicked on my bedside table lamp, and propped myself up against the headboard. I reached over to the window and tapped the glass experimentally, listening to the tiny ringing noise my fingernail elicited. I pushed my hands around on the bedsheets, the rustling of fabric a sound for sore ears. I stopped for a moment and laughed at the strangeness of the act, feeling for all the world like a newborn exploring an alien, unfamiliar world.

I grabbed the book I had laying on the floor beside my bed, and leafed through the pages, finding my place in a chapter I had been struggling to concentrate on for the past few days. I sighed, leaning heavily into the pile of pillows behind me, and it was then that I felt it – something shifted suddenly, beneath the skin on my forehead.

Something round. Something large. And it started to itch.

Sci+Tech

The McGill Daily

Monday, November 11, 2013

Pulsars: the cosmic lighthouses

15

Discovering our galactic backyard

C

arl Sagan wrote in his best-selling science book Cosmos that “the surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean.” Generations of emboldened astrophysicists have expanded our knowledge of the universe up to this decade. Today, we can follow the Curiosity Rover as it cruises over Mars, and the Voyager 1 spacecraft, launched in 1977, after it finally penetrated the interstellar space beyond our solar system in September. The Kaspi lab at McGill focuses their gaze on the pulsars that sprinkle our own Milky Way like lighthouses on the cosmic shore.

Vicky Kaspi, a Canada Research Chair in Observational Astrophysics and the head of the McGill Pulsar Group, has spent over 20 years examining one such phenomenon in our solar system. Neutron stars are the remnants of stars four to eight times bigger than our sun.

These stars end their lives with a bang – blowing out their outer layers in a spectacular supernova explosion. The gravitational pull from the explosion causes the cen-

Naomi Eterman | Sci+Tech Writer tre of the star to collapse, creating a neutron star. Pulsars, a subset of neutron stars, span 20 kilometres across, and spin hundreds of times each second, emitting lighthouselike beams of radio waves from their poles. A teaspoon of these celestial objects weighs several thousand tons, and occasionally, unexpectedly, they explode – “particularly when we go on vacation,” Kaspi jokes.

Kaspi’s lab uses orbiting NASA satellites and large, ground based telescopes in Arecibo, Puerto Rico and West Virginia to capture X-ray and radio waves to study the pulsar emissions. The light from their rotations is detected from Earth at periodic intervals. These ‘pulses’ come so regularly that their accuracy is comparable to the highest atomic clock standards.

Pulsars act like ships sailing through the cosmic ocean producing gravitational ripples in the fabric of space and time. Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity suggests that space and time exist on a continuum, with time as the fourth dimension. In this space-

time continuum, faster moving objects will experience time at a slower rate. Large masses will cause this space-time fabric to warp and this warpage – known to us as gravity – shapes the orbits of celestial bodies.

In rare instances, two pulsars may exist in a binary orbit around each other, creating perfect conditions for the examination of Einstein’s theory of relativity.

Robert Archibald, a graduate student in the Pulsar Group, studies a highly magnetized kind of pulsar called a magnetar. Magnetars, at only a few thousand years old, are some of the youngest stars in the galaxy, and are among the most magnetic objects in the known universe. If the moon were a magnetar, it would wipe out all the electronics on our planet. Archibald first heard of Kaspi’s work in 2008, when Kaspi appeared on an episode of CBC Radio One’s science program “Quirks and Quarks.” He recently published the first firm piece of evidence of a decrease in the rotation period of a magnetar, an important discovery in the study of these objects. “These are conditions we can’t create in a laboratory on Earth,”

Alice Shen | The McGill Daily he says. “They are the only places where you have matter behaving at these extreme conditions.”

A major concern for radio astronomers is the increasing saturation of Earth’s atmosphere with radio signals. “Radio quiet zones” such as the one surrounding the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, are increasingly hard to come by in the age of laptops and iPhones.

Still, scientists are harnessing new

technologies to improve detection methods beyond anything we have ever imagined; for example, extrasolar planets, or ‘exoplanets,’ are emerging from cosmic obscurity to teach us more about planets that reside outside of our galaxy, and give us renewed hope in the search for extraterrestrial life. For Kaspi, however, our galaxy is fascinating enough – as she says, “I’m busy in my backyard.”

Researching the researcher A journey through the life of an immunologist

G

iven today’s technological landscape, learning about a lab’s research is probably – for the interested and motivated individual – quite easy. The internet allows us to read about new scientific findings minutes after they are published. But behind every researcher is a story. Learning about the scientists involved and the experiences that inform research can be a great source of inspiration and ideas. Here is a story about a doctor whose desire to improve the lives of patients led him to the field of research in immunology. The Daily sat down with Dr. Joaquin Madrenas, a professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, to hear what inspired his research.

Madrenas’ story begins in Barcelona during his medical residency in nephrology, the division of medicine concerned with kidney diseases. He noticed that patients who had lost kidney function and required dialysis suffered from poor quality of life, most often due to immune reactions against materials used in dialysis machines. Dialysis filters

Sivakami Mylvaganam | Sci+Tech Writer your blood through an artificial membrane, ridding the body of wastes, extra salts, and water.

This inspired his first venture into research, in Paris – studying the compatibility of patients’ blood and the dialysis membrane.

In particular, Madrenas studied a molecule called platelet activating factor (PAF). He found that the patients’ undesirable response to dialysis was due to this molecule. By depressing the molecule’s activity, he hoped to improve dialysis for patients. “This really got me into research,” he said, noting the realization that a good idea could go a long way in improving the quality of life of his patients.

After returning to his practice in his hometown, Madrenas felt that dialysis, although improved from earlier versions, was still not ideal.

The better option was transplantation, then a newly emerging practice. The desire to study this process took him to Alberta, where he studied kidney transplantation under John Dossetor, a father of the field.

During his time in Alberta, Madrenas became interested in or-

gan transplant rejection. Recognizing that rejection was immunologically mediated, he sought a better understanding of the immune system, on a PhD in Immunology with Dr. Phil Halloran. After obtaining his PhD, he made the full transition into research, abandoning medical practice and moving to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland.

At the NIH, Madrenas delved into the study of T-cell activation.

T-cells are a type of white blood cell that help the body fight disease and infection as part of the immune system. T-cells recognize foreign harmful substances via a T-cell receptor (TCR). Madrenas’ research revealed that the TCR does not work in an on/off manner, but instead modulates its signalling and action according to the quality of ligand, or foreign molecule, that it recognizes. He identified different antagonists and partial agonists of the TCR in addition to different signalling patterns that are set off upon recognition of a harmful substance.

Madrenas’ current research focuses on the mechanisms of regu-

Tanbin Rafee | Illustrator lation employed during T-cell activation. Broadly speaking, he seeks to understand what makes T-cells turn on or off. This is of special clinical relevance as transplant rejection, and a number of autoimmune diseases including Type I diabetes, Multiple Sclerosis, and Psoriasis, are attributed to undesirable T-cell activation.

At McGill, he studies the interactions between a prevalent super-

bug Staphylococcus aureus and the immune system. Using a variety of systems biology techniques, including proteomics and metabolomics, his lab seeks to understand the mechanisms that make this bug a health threat while being a common microbe in healthy individuals. In learning about this dichotomy, his lab hopes to discover alternatives to antibiotics to be used in the treatment of infections.

The McGill Daily

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Sci+Tech

Monday, November 11, 2013

Fact or Fiction?

Finding truth in science Zapaer Alip | Sci+Tech Writer

Midori Nishioka | Illustrator

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e live in a world that is constantly connected to the internet and as a result is overloaded with information. Filtering out fact from fiction can be challenging in both mainstream media and peer-reviewed literature. At this year’s Lorne Trottier Public Science Symposium Series, the question everyone asked was, “Is that a fact?”

The symposium took place on October 28 and 29 at the Centre Mont Royal, and was organized by the McGill Office of Science and Society (OSS). The symposium is an annual event held for the purpose of informing the public, encouraging debates, and raising awareness around contemporary issues in science.

Joe Schwarcz, Director of the OSS and the symposium moderator, opened the symposium by describing the confusion caused by the sheer number of academic studies with contradictory results. One example he gave was debate surrounding the benefits of Vitamin D. “We don’t know who or what to believe, especially when it comes to nutrition,” Schwarcz explained.

The reliability of peer-reviewed literature John Ioannidis, a professor of medicine at Stanford University, echoed the need for caution when it comes to scientific peerreviewed literature. Ioannidis conducts meta-analyses – a method involving combining and comparing findings of various studies – on the validity of scientific studies, and his research has shown that a large number of peer-reviewed studies are flawed. Ioannidis presented some staggering statistics for the 1996 to 2011 time period: there were 15,153,100 scientists publishing papers in major scientific journals with 25,805,462 papers published. With the sheer volume of scientific claims being made, the question remains about the accuracy of these claims and their ability to pass the test of time.

“Scientists are under pressure to deliver very nice papers in order to get published and receive funding,” said Ioannidis. Science runs on the principle that successful replication of results is required to validate the accuracy of scientific discoveries. However, the push to keep publishing significant and

novel results is accompanied by a lack of replication studies to ensure quality control. According to Ioannidis, there are several reasons for the lack of such studies.

Replication studies can be seen as mundane compared to the hype of new discoveries; they are also expensive to carry out and more difficult to receive funding for.

According to a Lancet paper published by Ioannidis in 2005, most of the claims of statistically significant effects in traditional medical research are either false positives or substantial exaggerations. The lack of replication studies has serious effects in both academia and industry. In a Nature study published in 2012, scientists were only able to reproduce 11 per cent of findings in 53 published papers on pre-clinical cancer research.

To increase the reproducibility of studies, Ioannidis proposed a new system to be used for publishing papers – which he describes as “upfront registration of studies.” Authors would share certain information with the scientific community during the publication stage, such as the data analysis or

methodology used. This would allow the scientific community to correct any biases or errors at an early stage, while gaining knowledge as to how the claims made by the paper were formulated.

Health in the headlines Timothy Caulfield, a law and public health professor at the University of Alberta and author of The Cure for Everything!: Untangling the Twisted Messages about Health, Fitness and Happiness, stressed the importance of critically looking at health headlines. He even explained that the title of his own book was misleading to some as it does not actually contain the ‘cure for everything’ but rather describes the search for the ideal healthy lifestyle.

There are hundreds of unhealthy diets and lifestyles advocated for by celebrities. Celebrities, who hold a prominent place in the public eye, can have powerful impacts on society. Often, these diets and lifestyles have no scientific basis and can have negative health effects on those who choose to follow such regimes. Caulfield pointed out the recent Jenny McCarthy

anti-vaccination campaign as an example of bad health practices being propagated by a celebrity through the media.

According to Caulfield, despite the vast number of diets and lifestyles presented to the public with miracle results and benefits, only five major factors account for 95 per cent of a healthy lifestyle: avoiding smoking, exercising, eating a balanced diet, managing weight, and following safety regulations. Some other emerging studies suggest potential benefits of sleeping, standing more often, and having good relationships with people.

Unfortunately, as Caulfield said, “Non-science sells more than science,” when describing the abundance of bad science in mainstream media. Popular notions surrounding exercise and diet are often untrue. It is important to approach scientific headlines with a critical eye and not take everything seen for granted.

You can watch all the lectures online: www.mcgill.ca/science/ events/trottier-symposium/webcast

Health&Ed

The McGill Daily

Monday, November 11, 2013

No access to medicine?

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How the U.S. plans to limit access to medication in the developing world Universities Allied for Essential Medicines | Health&Ed Writer

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art of the world’s economy is about to dive into an extensive ‘deal’ which, if passed, could have a huge social and economic impact in Canada and 11 other countries. The problem is, apart from the 30 people actually negotiating the deal, no one is allowed to know what the main actors involved are agreeing to.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is an extensive free trade agreement that is presently being negotiated between 12 countries – Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Vietnam, Canada, the U.S., Brunei, Singapore, New Zealand, and Chile. This agreement was initially established in 2005 between four nations – Brunei, Singapore, Chile, and New Zealand – with the intention to liberalize, or relax government restrictions on, economic relations in the Asia-Pacific region.

However, in the span of eight years, and as new countries, including the U.S. and Japan, have come on board, the power and socially harmful provisions of the TPP have dramatically increased.

Free trade agreements, like the TPP, are pacts between countries to lift most or all tariffs, quotas, special fees, and other barriers in trade negotiations between the countries involved. The benefits and consequences accrued from liberal trade agreements vary between each nation. Professor Mark Brawley, of McGill’s Department of Political Science, explained to The Daily that “in theory, liberalized trade is a good thing because it delivers more economic benefits,” because each country can produce whatever it produces best and share that product with everyone at else at a cheaper cost.

Sounds nice, right? On the flipside though, Brawley says that there are concerns with free trade, namely that giving up certain kinds of decisions or conceiving certain aspects of governmental rule can be dangerous from a social perspective. Some of the issues currently being negotiated include deregulation and taxation for the trade of goods between countries involved, creating a food safety standard between countries, privatization of state-provided utilities such as water and electricity, environmental regulations, internet control, and most importantly, stringent intellectual property provisions for all countries within the partnership.

Details on the current state of TPP negotiations are strictly con-

cealed from the public. Ron Kirk, U.S. trade representative, has expressed to the Huffington Post Canada that for “practical reasons, for our ability both to preserve negotiating strength and to encourage our partners to be willing to put issues on the table they may not otherwise, we have to preserve some measure of discretion and confidentiality.” While this secrecy is certainly beneficial for the negotiators, it is very worrisome for the public. In a democratic state, we are supposed to be able to put a lot of faith in our leaders, and supposed transparency in their actions keep them in check. By having this agreement codified into law without any transparency or public input until finalized, could lead to regulations that benefit the negotiators and leave the public in the dark, coping with the consequences. It also goes against the fundamental philosophy of a democratic nation that an agreement be finalized without public knowledge and input. Further aggravating matters, the Obama administration has attained ‘fast-tracking’ status for the agreement, meaning that the U.S. Congress would be allowed a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ vote, and amendments to the agreement would not be permitted.

In other words, this would be a great deal for that top ‘1 per cent’ running large corporations, and potentially not so great for the other ‘99 per cent.’

This agreement would promote privatization of commodities, and would enable corporations to be less inhibited by local governments’ regulations and taxations.

In other words, this would be a great deal for that top ‘1 per cent’ running large corporations, and potentially not so great for the other ‘99 per cent.’ Since large corporations would be more than happy to have these provisions pass, it would be naïve to assume that backdoor ‘promotion’ of the TPP to

Kristian Picon | Illustrator Congress members by these corporations would not seriously affect their votes.

Canada has followed the U.S.’s example, keeping the agreement very private. Many Members of Parliament (MPs) are protesting that they have been forbidden to look at this document, including New Democratic Party MP Don Davies. Fortunately (for Canada), information about the TPP that has been leaked so far doesn’t put Canada’s population at quite the same disadvantage as it does for developing countries. One of the main concerns with the TPP is in privatization and patenting of healthcare, medicines, and medical innovations – and since Canada has already implemented ‘universal healthcare,’ this does not affect its population to the same extent.

However, medicines not covered by provincial healthcare would become much costlier, for reasons discussed later.

The TPP’s looming impact on the future of global health is extremely worrying as the public gets hold of more information. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, reports that leaked drafts of TPP negotiations discuss the possibility of implementing far more vigorous policies regarding the protection of intellectual property. Currently, more than 80 per cent of AIDS drugs used that the MSF uses, as well as drugs to treat malaria and other communicable diseases,

are generics coming out of India.

Greater protection of intellectual property would mean that pharmaceutical companies have the right to hold onto drug patents much longer, a huge obstacle in the production of generic medicines.

Such policies would hinder access and delay provision of affordable life-saving drugs to low- and middle-income nations. MSF also outlines how the proposed TPP agreement can become a standard for any future agreement on intellectual property, the concern being that these provisions may be forced upon other developing nations and ultimately limit the supply of medicines that could save millions.

In fact, according to Sean Flynn at infojustice.org, Chile, an original member of the agreement in 2005, publicly vocalized a consideration to leave the agreement, largely due to the U.S.’s numerous and highly restrictive intellectual property clauses. Chile fears these will have significant effects on the country’s ability to provide generic medications to its citizens.

Universities are central in developing medical research and technologies, and global accessibility of life-saving research depends heavily on how universities manage their intellectual property.

Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) encourages universities to uphold a responsibility in providing research that meets the needs of people in both developed and developing coun-

tries. McGill’s commitment to licensing medical discoveries in ways that promote access and affordability in developing countries is very much lacking, Even as one of the top publicly-funded universities in the world. Based on the University Global Health Impact Report Card developed by UAEM, McGill ranked 30th overall of the 54 universities surveyed with an overall grade of C- – far below other Canadian universities such as McMaster University, the University of Alberta, and the University of British Columbia.

In the end, the TPP agreement will severely affect the population of the countries involved, without the input or knowledge of those populations. This is not only an infringement on the principles of a democratic state, but with 40 per cent of the world economy tied up in this agreement, economic and social consequences will be vast. While many socioeconomic changes will result from the passing of the TPP, the harm that it will cause to advancing accessible and affordable medicines for all is catastrophic. The battle to place basic health as a human right, not a luxury, will be lost with the passing of this agreement.

Universities Allied for Essential Medicines is a student advocacy group that promotes access to medicines and medical innovations for low- and middleincome countries.

Sports

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The McGill Daily

Monday, November 11, 2013

Robert Smith | The McGill Daily

The Town Hall discussion on sports culture at McGill

McGill athletics, rape culture, and a failure to act What’s most important to discuss about sports culture Igor Sadikov and Evan Dent | The McGill Daily Trigger Warning: This article contains discussion of rape and rape culture.

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he Political Science Students’ Association (PSSA) held its first Town Hall debate of the year last Tuesday, on the topic of athletic culture and school spirit at McGill. The attendees discussed the state of athletics at McGill, the reasons for the lack of a strong athletic culture, and the desire to promote athletics in order to foster a panuniversity community spirit.

The discussion was meant to continue the debate recently initiated by the student press. Unsurprisingly, reports by the Montreal Gazette that three Redmen football players are facing sexual assault charges were also brought up. The students were charged 15 months ago, but the University has not taken any disciplinary action.

“A lot of people would argue that [...] we still have sports teams that allow students to ‘get away with things,’” suggested Lauren Konken, VP Academic of the PSSA, who was moderating the discussion. “In the American context, there’s been a lot of situations where athletes [...] engage in criminal behaviour, be it sexual assault or another variety, and yet

[...] the University doesn’t take any necessary concerted action because they, as an athlete, are considered an asset to the university.”

Yet, many attendees were quick to dismiss concerns of a possible link between the players’ actions and athletic culture at McGill. “You can’t put an emphasis on football in that sense, [the players] hold a different power [than in the United States]; [...] it’s no different from someone participating in Model United Nations,” said one attendee.

“It’s not something to do with the football team, it’s [with the players] as individuals. There was a misplaced emphasis on the athletics aspect,” added another.

Reports of homophobic behaviour were also dismissed as isolated incidents. “It’s unfair to point out one event,” said an athlete who was present at the discussion.

Some of the students present suggested that McGill was “alternative” and mostly immune to the negative effects of sports culture.

“If we start going to games, [...] there’s no way we’re going to let it get to the jocky atmosphere,” one student claimed.

“What is a jock, what comes with sports culture, that’s a whole set of generalizations that I don’t really think applies to athletics at

McGill,” concluded Konken. *** With rare exceptions, the general tone of the Town Hall was that the negative parts of our sports culture are merely outliers, the insignificant ‘other’ in an otherwise welcoming environment. The argument about McGill’s sports culture has become polarized: is it totally exclusionary or is it a force for good? In essence, are we dumb jocks or smart student athletes? In reality, the culture stands in a grey area between these poles, and it’s necessary that the McGill community, and, more importantly, the athletic community, self-reflect and wonder why sports are such a good incubator for misogyny, homophobia, and rape culture. This process allows the opportunity to make sports culture at McGill more inclusive, regardless of whether this creates a stronger sense of school spirit. Yes, these problems exist in the broader society; but they exist in sports and are often perpetuated by sports culture. This is not to say that all athletes are guilty of perpetuating these ills, but there are still some, and some is too many. This is especially when athletes at

The McGill Daily

Sports

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Monday, November 11, 2013

Alice Shen | The McGill Daily this school are so heavily promoted – being an athlete is not just like being in the Model United Nations – there aren’t huge posters of Model UN participants around campus.

Misogyny and homophobia are inherent in much of sports – men’s sports, in particular. (An excellent piece by Jezebel’s Erin Gloria Ryan notes that female sports teams noticeably lack exclusive, negative cultures.) This is not a McGill-specific problem. Rather, it is applicable to sports culture generally, and to the broader culture, but that doesn’t erase the fact that it exists within the McGill athletic community. The competition and hypermasculinization of sports – McGill briefly had a “BE A MAN” athletics poster on campus, to name one example – creates an exclusive community based on who fulfills the typical masculine tropes best; one of the byproducts of this is a culture of misogyny (one can see this from the narratives of women at a McGill Rugby team dinner), and, often, of homophobia (since non-heterosexuality is not associated with traditional manliness.) While not specific to McGill, one narrative of growing up gay and trying to fit into sports culture as described in Juan Camilo VelásquezBuriticá’s article in The Daily last

year is indicative of the struggle that many may face, as is McGill Tribune columnist Tyler Michaels’ assertion that a student was called a “fag” at McConnell arena before a game.

These are individual events, but they can’t be dismissed as mere exceptions. To say that homophobia and misogyny are outliers at McGill is to externalize the problem instead of facing the ugly truth: that much of sports culture here is exclusionary, and that it’s part of a larger problem.

Rape culture exists within McGill’s sports culture and this, of course, is tied to a culture of misogyny. Athletes all across the world have been traditionally held as the ultimate masculine figure, which creates a sense of entitlement among athletes – think of the cultural trope of the athletes being the king of the community. While this is not as big a problem at McGill, athletes are still in a elevated position at the school – no other extra-curricular participant is as promoted by the University as the athlete. This entitlement leads to some athletes feeling they ‘deserve’ any woman they desire, and fosters the idea that women are the spoils of victory. The valorization by the community often leads to the community being on the athletes’ side when they are

charged with crimes. We can see this sort of entitlement and community valorization present in the Steubenville and Maryville rape cases, where prominent athletes in small communities are favoured over the survivors of sexual assault.

The sports culture at McGill is not as pronouncedly and obviously bad as those two communities, but it is still far from ideal with respect to perpetuating rape culture.

McGill’s response to the alleged events of September 2011 has been particularly dismaying. While there is something to be said for the idea of innocent until proven guilty, McGill and its Athletics department haven’t given the athletes implicated in the sexual assault charge any sort of punishment. The innocent until proven guilty idea in the context of this case is somewhat troubling, as it falls into the stigmatizing myth of false reporting.

While false reporting certainly does happen – the Duke University rape case is a recent example of this in an athletic context – its prevalence is much lower than is believed. England’s Crown Prosecution Services released a study that in England and Wales, over a 17 month span during 2011-12, there were 35 prosecutions of false rape

accusations as opposed to 5,651 prosecutions for rape. The American Prosecutors Research Institute claims that 2 to 8 per cent of rape accusations in the U.S. are false, but those numbers are also plagued by inconsistent definitions of ‘false’ that often blame survivors, such as the insistence that rape cannot be committed by a friend. In addition, reporters of sexual assault are questioned intensely by police and put through invasive, oftentimes scarring, procedures to verify the claim – and it is not in the prosecutors’ interest to press charges they don’t think they can win. The fact that charges have been filed is in itself a marker of the seriousness of the claim.

While the McGill Tribune has rightly pointed out that McGill’s disciplinary policies did not allow them to take disciplinary action (which is in itself a failure – why doesn’t McGill have an effective sexual assault policy?), the Athletics department’s failure to act is particularly striking.

Some balk at the idea of an indefinite suspension, put into place once the department and coach were made aware of the accusations, one that would keep the players out until the situation was put through court, due to the fact that they may be in-

nocent. But what about even a minor action, even just a slap on the wrist, anything? Plenty of schools in the American collegiate system (to name just two recent examples: Florida University and Oklahoma University) suspend or dismiss athletes for alleged crimes before going through the entire legal process; in enacting something as small as a one to two game suspension – even just that bare minimum of a punishment – McGill Athletics could have shown the inexcusability of being charged with any crime, especially one as heinous as sexual assault. McGill Athletics’ inaction to this point displays an institutional failure – and, at this point, the accused have already finished this season, and are expected to graduate at the end of this year, so effective punishment is limited.

McGill, and McGill Athletics, have done all they can to distance themselves from the actions, allowing rape culture to persist on this campus, and within the athletic community. What’s needed is a serious, introspective look, not at why McGill students are apathetic toward sports, but at how McGill can become an exemplary institution (in respect to smashing rape culture) with an exemplary sports culture, one that truly is an outlier compared to the rest.

Culture

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The McGill Daily

Monday, November 11, 2013

Photographing the lesser-known Afghanistan “Wakhan, Another Afghanistan” and the objectivity of photography Rosie Long Decter | Culture Writer

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arial Cédric Houin’s current exhibition at Galerie Arsenal, “Wakhan, Another Afghanistan,” is an interdisciplinary representation of one of the regions of the world least visible to the West.

The Wakhan Corridor is a mountainous link between the Himalayas – the Hindu Kush mountain range of Afghanistan – and the closed borders of China, an area unaffected by conflict. Houin, a Montreal-based artist, trekked through the corridor in 2011 with his partner Fabrice Nadjari, documenting the area with his camera. His exhibit, with contributions from Nadjari, uses photography and video to translate the “peaceful coexistence” of the two groups who live in the Wakhan Corridor, the Wakhi and the Kyrgyz.

The nature of the exhibit is very intimate, a treatment of the Corridor that strives to reproduce candid, quotidian snapshots of Wakhan. The photos themselves are done either in inkjet print or UV ink printed on aluminum, each one lit by a spotlight from the ceiling. Houin’s pictures focus heavily on individuals, or groups of two and three, depicting how they work, play, dress, and smoke. The up-close and personal quality of the pieces in the exhibit acts as a kind of study of facial expression. Houin

himself becomes a part of the photo in such pieces as In Between Two Laughs and Who Are You, where the expressions of curiosity or uncertainty of the subjects seem to be in direct response to the man behind the camera. This focus on the individual is evidence of Houin’s attempt at an honest portrayal of the people of the Wakhan Corridor.

The photos that do not depict people are photos of the land, stunning images of mountains and stars.

The Wakhan Corridor is so devoid of urbanization, technology, and population that one is tempted to label it as barren, but Houin’s representation is one of simplicity, and, to use his words, “purity,” not despair.

The exhibit claims to be a political act through its provision of an alternative to the stereotypical view of Afghanistan. Its political nature also manifests itself through the representations of Western infiltration into the “purity” of Wakhan. One of the most striking individual portraits, Just Do It, is a full-length image of a young boy wearing a dirtied, ripped Lacoste t-shirt. Houin’s film Kasch Goz, 1979 features a boy pretending to be a soldier, saluting the camera, and shooting at it with a pretend gun. The exhibit itself is also set up by the shipping crates on which

Robert Smith | The McGill Daily the photos are mounted. However, in its critique of Western infiltration, the exhibit loses some of its objectivity, partially because Houin himself represents a facet of that Western intrusion. Houin’s photos and studies of Wakhan emphasize the supposed “beauty and simplicity” of these traditional cultures over the poverty and hardships of the region, which he acknowledges in his artist’s statement, but does not represent.

While Arsenal claims the exhibit is “devoid of any criticism,” it is a critique, as well as a political act, in and of itself. In order to represent

Wakhan in a political way, Houin has constructed his personal image of the Corridor. In order to do this, it seems that Houin has avoided any attempts to include the viewpoints of the Wakhi and Kyrgyz, doing little to even discuss the differences between the two cultures.

Houin strives to reveal a part of the world generally unheard of in North America, attempting to dispel the many generalizations and dismissals of Afghanistan as a zone of terror. His stunning photos of the Wakhan mountains and intimate explorations of its people certainly

serve their purpose in introducing Montreal to Wakhan. The pieces themselves appear remarkably natural. Houin has achieved his goal of broadening horizons; however, he has not done so without incorporating personal bias. “Wakhan, Another Afghanistan” provides an extremely Western view of a nonWestern society, a study of faces as opposed to voices.

“Wakhan: Another Afghanistan” will be running until December 21 at Arsenal Montreal (2020 William).

Art for the few

Curatorial mishaps in “Method Acting Today”

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he private contemporary art gallery Parisian Laundry, located in the heart of St. Henri, launched artist Justin Stephens’ first solo exhibition titled “Method Acting Today” on Wednesday, October 30. While Stephens hopes that his abstract art will reach a broad audience, the curatorial choices of gallery director Jeanie Riddle limit the accessibility of the exhibit.

With a master’s degree from the Glasgow School of Art, and works exhibited in the Quebec Triennial of 2011, Stephens is a new name to look out for in the contemporary art scene. According to Riddle, “Parisian Laundry presents a rigorous and fearless presentation of current contemporary art practice,” and Stephens’ current exhibition that “situates tropes of abstract paintings” aims to embody just that. According to the gallery’s website, in his work “things are often exactly as they appear, yet never quite what

Celine Caira | The McGill Daily they seem. [They are] existing in states of quantum indeterminacy.”

His paintings, which vary in size and are reminiscent of the colour markings found on cow hides, are like the inside of pockets since almost anything can be found on their surfaces: coins, bits of plastic, felt, and doorstoppers. Even more can be found in their ideology, according to the gallery’s website, which states, “Every other movement from the past fifty years of painting’s history has found its way into his method.”

While Stephens is clearly knowledgeable about painting techniques such as colour blending and aesthetic balancing, the gallery’s wordy statements about his works and their “deep methodical approach to abstraction” leave the viewer wondering how exactly they embody these hefty claims.

“Regular visitors appreciate the rigorous nature of this painting

practice,” said Riddle. “That said, we do not have ‘average’ viewers, rather, a public that is vested in art making.” Considering that Parisian Laundry is located in St. Henri, whose working class demographic contrasts with the much wealthier Westmount, the gallery seems to present its somewhat esoteric content, catering to a more exclusive artistic crowd, in a manner that discourages many residents from visiting the gallery. “People generally don’t need explanation because they are people who already know about the gallery and Justin [Stephens’] work,” Riddle explained when asked why there were no captions to accompany the exhibit’s paintings. Presumably, some of the information would have been less welcome to art lovers, since these works were on sale for up to $5,500.

Stephens had something completely different to say about the reception of his work by gallery

visitors. “Hopefully [the exhibit is] to communicate with the average very well and occasionally happily spectator, regardless of their prior misunderstood!” said Stephens. Un- knowledge of art.

With such clashing visions like Riddle, Stephens believes that his works can find common ground between artist and gallery direcwith people who are not exclusively tor, whether any discussion of the art connoisseurs. “Paradoxically, intended audience for Stephens’ the average viewer usually thinks works took place remains unclear. the art in front of their nose is some- “Method Acting Today,” displayed thing they cannot interpret and are in a large empty room with high not privy to understanding,” said wooden ceilings, is exactly what Stephens. “This gap in interpreta- you would expect of a contempotion in art would be much smaller rary art exhibit, sophisticated galif most artists could embrace more lery staff and all. It is disappointof the unknowing in their practice, ing that Stephens does not include introducing a common ground be- a simpler artistic statement of his tween artist and viewer. I like to own to accompany this exhibit, and that the true intention behind his think I do this.”

Stephens combines the noble works could only be gleaned by inand the humble in his works by terviewing him personally. covering what look like roughly painted Rothko colour-fields with unremarkable objects such as felt “Method Acting Today” will furniture glides or doorstoppers. be running until November 30 at By including everyday objects on Parisian Laundry (3550 St. Anhis paintings he hopes to be able toine W.).

The McGill Daily

Culture

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Monday, November 11, 2013

That’s a bargain (or is it?)

The ethics of thrift shopping Nicole Coon | Culture Writer

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ince the Victorian era, fashion has been influenced by the enduring capitalist creed dictating temporary and short-lived styles. Times changed, and fashion followed suit. In the 1960s, a new fashion subculture emerged. Perhaps consumers were simply politicizing against the clothing industry, or maybe they just couldn’t see themselves wearing the trendy mainstream styles. In any case, the trend for adopting past looks seems to be here to stay. But many consumers are not satisfied by the way in which the fashion industry re-appropriates previous eras’ distinct styles. Rather, what has emerged is a desire to possess these styles in the most authentic way possible – getting the original pieces themselves. Our generation has become fixated on the desire for secondhand clothing.

What are the politics behind this newfound fad? By rejecting mass-produced clothing and turning to second-hand retailers to achieve a ‘thrifty’ fashion look, people often find themselves breaching a clothing market that is intended to provide for lowerincome people. For more well-off young students, who could afford to shop at H&M and the like, there is a strong claim that we are taking these clothes away from someone who may actually not be able to buy a brand new getup. Next time you’re standing in front of a row of worn-yet-adorable knit sweaters, you may want to ask yourself whether these are items you really need. What may appear to be just a bargain, or a free-for-all, represents much-needed affordable clothing for others.

In Montreal, many of these stores, such as Renaissance, act as aid organizations, intended for lower-income people to purchase clothing. Not many people would sleep in a homeless shelter, or go to a soup kitchen because they enjoy the stay or the taste of the food – so why is it so different with second-hand shopping? The ethics of thrift are actually more complicated than they may first seem. For many, the attraction to second-hand clothing is not just a fashion statement but also a political one, given the associated reduction of waste. Second-hand clothing and other items provide a more sustainable way to consume, and deviates these clothes away from landfills, as well as

helping to reduce the consumption of new items.

But do these environmentally conscious people have a better claim to shopping for secondhand attire than the person who solely tokenizes ‘thriftiness’ to fit the trend? The most ethical path for the second-hand devotees would be to look into different second-hand stores to understand where their profits are going and how they make their revenue before deciding it’s worth spending money there.

Both Value Village and Renaissance offer more affordable clothing then retail brands, but they have very different end goals.

Value Village, contrary to popular belief, is in fact not a charity. Value Village is a private for-profit organization that retains approximately 60 per cent of the value of donated goods. People can still make a positive influence by donating clothing, as Value Village makes bulk purchase agreements with local charities – but the impact is relatively small. There has also been controversy over the increasing price of merchandise over the past decade, an indicator of the influence middle class shoppers are having on the second-hand industry. Any forprofit business will increase their prices if they have the necessary demand. Value Village’s economic nature does not appear to be in touch with that of lower-income people but, rather, an attempt to build a middle class clientele.

Shoppers should ask themselves whether the 40 per cent that Value Village donates to charity outweighs the more dubious end goals of the chain.

On the other hand, Renaissance provides clothing for lowerincome people while giving back to the community. 100 per cent of Renaissance’s profits go to their community-based employmenttraining program, which trains and employs people at higher risk of unemployment. The ethics within the store itself are more forthright, but can the same be said about Renaissance shoppers?

Renaissance offers consumers of a variety of incomes the opportunity to shop in a more ethical manner, because although they are still buying cheaper goods, the company depends on these profits in order to maintain their community building programs, while also encouraging customers to donate

Sarina Gupta | The McGill Daily clothing themselves.

Unfortunately for all ‘vintage’ aficionados, vintage boutiques are perhaps the most unethical way to buy second-hand-clothing. Although vintage shops offer no charitable guise and are often openly directed at consumers with greater purchasing power, their merchandise largely comes from the second-hand stores discussed above. Many vintage stores search through secondhand for the more marketable (read: trendy) pieces, then sell

them at a pretty exorbitant price (considering the fact that they’re used). Vintage stores have found their niche as a less time-consuming and swankier alternative to second-hand shops, while making profits off of second-hand stores’ charitable efforts.

So how can we ethically shop second-hand? There is no reason why shoppers cannot turn a recreational hobby into a more ethical practice by keeping a couple of observations in mind. Shopping at a second-hand store with

a charitable intention often goes hand-in-hand with actually donating to second-hand stores. If possible, shoppers can donate items with a greater value then the ones they are buying in order to give the store a helping hand. The bottom line is that shoppers need to be aware of where their money is going, whether it’s to a downtown retail giant or a second-hand boutique. With a conscientious approach, it is possible to make thrifting both stylishly rewarding and ethical.

The McGill Daily

22

Culture

Monday, November 11, 2013

Death of the author

Is a boycott of Ender’s Game worth it?

Emmet Livingstone | Culture Writer

Alice Shen | The McGill Daily Trigger warning: This article contains examples of extreme homophobia.

T

o slither into an already played-out debate is often gratuitous – but in this case necessary. Ender’s Game, a sci-fi blockbuster, was released on November 1 across North America, amid controversy. The film is based on a book written by notably homophobic author Orson Scott Card (OSC in sci-fi circles), and since the summer the film has faced calls for boycott from gay activist groups.

Gallons of ink have already splattered various print media regarding the validity of the boycott; a few drops more won’t hurt.

OSC’s attacks against the gay community are legion. Writing in Sunstone, a Mormon magazine, in 1990, OSC argued that “those who flagrantly violate society’s rules of sexual behavior cannot be permitted to remain as acceptable, equal citizens within that society.” Not exactly the patron saint of tolerance – especially when it comes to criticism of his own views. As he said more recently an interview with Salt Lake City newspaper Deseret News, “I’ve had no criticism. I’ve had savage, lying, deceptive personal attacks, but no actual criticism because they’ve never addressed any of my actual ideas.” Eagerly embroiling himself in the recent public wrangling over the issue of gay mar-

riage, he suggested that gay people were the result of a “tragic genetic mix-up” and that married same-sex couples “won’t be married, they’ll just be playing dress-up in their parents’ clothes.”

The announcement of the release of Ender’s Game neatly coincided with the very public drama of same-sex marriage debate in the U.S., and OSC’s politics were thrust into the public domain. Demands for a boycott, then, are unsurprising. Most prominent among the opposition to the film is Geeks OUT, an organization gathering together self-professed “LGBT geeks.”

Geeks OUT campaigns on the basis that box-office tickets for Ender’s Game “fuel the anti-gay agenda” and that the film must be avoided in consequence. The group launched a series of events across North America at the time of release to, in their words, “offset any damage that might accrue from Ender’s Game becoming a blockbuster and making a new fortune for Orson Scott Card.”

Critics point out that OSC doesn’t stand to make any profit on the movie, his money having been made years ago when the rights to the film were bought. But he does still own the rights to the Ender’s Game novel, and stands to benefit from the boost in book sales that will likely accompany the movie’s release. Accordingly, Geeks OUT have conceded that their boycott

is unlikely to cause financial damage to the project – their boycott is symbolic.

The threat of homophobia is worryingly ever-present and Geeks OUT is absolutely correct to draw attention to it. The wider question though is whether the film really should be boycotted because of the author’s stance. A large section of the audience does not consider the politics of the people who create the entertainment they consume. That might ruin the fun.

Unity of opinion on the right of the political spectrum has long been the envy of the left, and true to form, progressive opinion is in disarray.

The subject matter of Ender’s Game, both book and film, does not broach the subject of sexuality. Humanity battles an alien species – stock scifi shtick – but the film invites the audience to ponder the morality of violence rather than revel in it unthinkingly. Surely this is a welcome departure from the aestheticized, exalting violence of most Hollywood blockbusters?

Ender’s Game has nothing to do with OSC’s homophobia, and his politics remain largely separate from his work. There is of course the unfortunate naming of the alien species as ‘buggers’ (Google to find out the connotations in British slang), but the association, reportedly, was not deliberate. In any case, the film’s entire cast have distanced themselves

from OSC’s medieval views and asserted the fundamentally positive message of Ender’s Game. “It’s well known Orson Scott Card and I have different views on the issue of gay marriage and gay rights,” Harrison Ford, who starts in Ender’s Game explained to the Guardian. “It has been a real dilemma for me: I love the book Ender’s Game, it’s all about tolerance and compassion, and understanding the other.”

Ford underlines the main debate of this particular media frenzy: art is, more often than not, seen as an entity separate from the person that created it. The attitudes and personal history of an artist may make some uncomfortable, but they don’t necessarily preclude enjoyment of, or at least acknowledgement of the importance of, their work. Despite persisting evidence of his pedophilia, it’s impossible not to acknowledge the enduring influence of Woody Allen’s work in the worlds of comedy and film. Similarly, Ender’s Game, released in 1985, is a cornerstone of many sci-fi fans’ early development. The book becomes a thing of hermetically-sealed nostalgia, divorced from the uncomfortable views of the man who wrote it.

Geeks OUT is not calling for a ban, but a boycott, recognizing the author’s right to say whatever he wants (likely a good PR move on their part). OSC himself has accepted that he is at odds with a huge seg-

ment of popular opinion and that in the eyes of many, he’s already lost the argument.

Viewers should not guiltily see themselves as treacherous scabs if they watch Ender’s Game. It’s a relatively harmless sci-fi film.

More practically, OSC has no stake in the back end of the movie — he’s already made his money. He does stand to make some more off of the inevitable boost in book sales that accompanies most instances of “Novel: The Movie,” but that has more to do with the inexorable Hollywood PR machine than the choice of an individual viewer.

In seeing Ender’s Game you are not using your freedom of speech to further Card’s views – the PR machine is already doing that.

Boycott for symbolic reasons or don’t: you can enjoy the entertainment Hollywood’s conjured up for us without reproach. There’s no single correct way to engage with Ender’s Game. For concerned parties that agree with Geeks OUT, there’s a MoveOn.org petition to sign, even if you missed their “Skip Ender’s Game” parties on the night of the premiere. Some who want to see the movie vow to donate at least the amount they paid for their ticket to an LGBTQ organization.

Whether you decide to see the movie or not, simply engaging with the issues at play is a move in the right direction.

Editorial

volume 103 number 11

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E.k. Chan | The McGill Daily

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contributors Zapaer Alip, Celine Caira, Nicole Coon, Demilitarize McGill, Khoa Doan, Rosemary Dobson, Cem Ertekin, Naomi Eterman, Lauria Galbraith, Sarina Gupta, Robin Holloway, Nina Jaffe, Emmet Livingstone, Rosie Long Decter, William Mazurek, Sivakami Mylvaganam, Midori Nishioka, Kristian Picon, Nicolas Quiazua, Tanbin Rafee, Igor Sadikov, Bianca Taberna, Mark Tartamella, Eric White, Jane Zhang

O

n Sunday November 3, Montrealers elected their new mayor, Denis Coderre. Voter turnout this year was at 42 per cent, up from 38 per cent in the last election, but still indicative of a basic apathy among citizens. Why cast a vote for a candidate who might be brought up on charges of fraud within a few months?

This disillusionment with the electoral process, especially at the municipal level, is nothing new.

Just in the past year, there have been four different mayors: Gérald Tremblay resigned following allegations of corruption and was replaced by interim mayor Michael Applebaum, who resigned when he was arrested for fraud and corruption, and Laurent Blanchard had been serving as interim mayor until Coderre’s win. And all this as the Charbonneau Commission hearings – an investigation into provincial corruption – continue. Little wonder Montrealers feel like nothing changes around here, as a rotation of token leaders engenders little change.

Candidates often come off as opportunists, using empty rhetoric backed with little concrete policy to capitalize on identity politics and popular opinion to gain votes. Despite all the talk of change, there’s little action with regard to systemic issues.

A number of refreshing candidates have recently become involved in the otherwise stale national political scene. Charmaine Borg, Matthew Dubé, Mylène Freeman, and Laurin Liu – all young McGill students or graduates – were elected as Members of Parliament for the New Democratic Party in 2011, and are all new to the political stage, bringing a different perspective to Parliament. While their election evidences the possibility for change, there

are still fundamental problems with the electoral system. The elections fail to address the concerns of anti-establishmentarian thinking proliferating in the city, exemplified by those who aren’t satisfied by the options in the official system, and take their grievances to the streets.

Citizen participation in politics does not have to be limited to voting. While the power afforded to the public by official political channels may be inadequate, there are other ways to exert influence, whether it be through demonstrations, strikes, economic disruption, petitions, or even simple consciousness-raising discussion. A prime example of non-electoral political action is the recent, widespread student protests against tuition hikes, and their influence on politics. The Parti Québécois took advantage of the Maple Spring movement to take power from the Parti libéral du Québec, but then enacted a budget that followed in the previous government’s footsteps toward privatized education.

Although the fight is not over, the massive mobilization succeeded in making student fees a central electoral issue.

It’s easy to lose faith in the democratic system when the people feel like they lack representation, but it’s no reason to give up on creating change. The endemic corruption in our city should not rule out all political participation. Casting a ballot is only a small part of our political system, and it’s far from the most powerful. Political participation is an everyday thing, and we must not rely solely on representational politics to effect change.

—The McGill Daily Editorial Board

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Compendium!

24

The McGill Daily

Monday, November 11, 2013

Lies, half-truths, and chic, c’est la vie

Suzie Forte installed as elaborate artwork Exhibit a draw for prospective students and collectors E.k. EK | The McGall Weekly

A

solemnity hung thick in the air of Sadpath Hall last Thursday, as Suzie “McLavish” Forte, new Principal and Vice-Baroness of McGall University, approached the podium.

Visibly nervous, Forte seated herself in the throne as the blaring of bagpipes reached a dramatic crescendo, drowning out the reverent murmurs that ran through the crowd. One final, magnificent honk sounded out in the reverberant space, before silence descended on the attendees.

All eyes turned to Forte as she closed her eyes and reclined against the jewelled seat. After a moment of absolute stillness, her mouth opened and the sound of a babbling brook began to play from two small speakers located on either side of her head. Long strands of tissue paper billowed up from the floor, blown by unseen fans in an imitation of fire, and a red light illuminated the stage. The crowd ‘oohed’ and ‘aahed’ appreciatively amid the racket of photos being snapped.

The vernissage was a smash hit with the small number of students present, who were selected

by a secret draw. Simply titled “McLavish,” the installation will remain open in Sadpath Hall until November 15. Due to its strong social media advertising campaign, the exhibit is expected to bring in over 1,000 external visitors each day, with a number of McGall student volunteers introducing the Principal in her artistic form to guests.

The ceremony was vintage McGall, with several cloaked figures present, their faces obscured by shadow as they hummed in unanimity, swaying gently from side to side in two long rows on either side of the long room. The Hummers, as they are informally known, set a reassuring mood for the vernissage. “The installation is rooted in McGall history,” said Governor General Smithy BlandBlandston, who was in attendance. “Yet it moves the University ever forward, heralding new creativities. And Forte’s statement of intent was as intriguing as the installation itself.”

The statement was assembled with proteins crystals extracted at Forte’s previous lab at Qwop’s University, and was imaged

Malice Shins | The McGall Weekly through X-ray crystallography and projected onto the screen behind the throne. “We are at a carrefour, a time of confluence,” it read. “We are the great collider. And even if the collider overheats, this is where you find the most exotic particles.”

As the most recent continuation of a long history of principalian installations at McGall, expectations were high for the new exhibition.

While many McGallians seemed contented with the display, others were quick to criticize.

“This installation is a disap-

pointment,” declared Wan Velocitous-Burrito, a U2 Pretension Studies student who was among the lucky few students invited to the vernissage. “Tissue paper flames? I mean really, is this a high school play? We’re supposed to be a world class university here.”

Boustan

Is the ordering experience worth the phone call?

Moses Spanakopitos | The McGall Weekly

F

or the abundance of orderout options that Montreal offers, the quality of the ordering experience can be described in varying degrees of mundanity.

While the city offers a variety of variable and acceptably interesting takeout experiences, its phone ordering offerings devolve into a white-noise-like mess of addresses and estimated times. Once you’ve ordered one hot dog from Alto’s, you’ve ordered them all.

From this world of unimaginative greetings and predictable questions emerges Restaurant Boustan, a fine establishment serving Lebanese cuisine, but located west of campus. For such an establishment, ordering is the only thinkable option, and so, the quality of the ordering experience be-

comes of paramount importance.

The first point of contact with Boustan is through its menu, which is conveniently located online, on the restaurant’s website.

The offerings of the menu are organized into columns, with prices next to them. This is a logical way of organizing menu items as it allows the potential customer to identify how much each food item costs. For example, the customer can easily deduce that a shish taouk trio is $6.90. Sometimes, the menu items are accompanied by photos. One assumes these photos correspond to the menu items; this is also a rational design choice, as it allows the customer to visualize their options. Furthermore, the items are separated into various subsections, like Appetiz-

ers and Couscous. This allows the customer to target specific types of food or plan a multi-course meal. However, the lack of inclusion of tax and tip – a fact this reporter discovered at a late stage in the ordering game, upon payment at time of delivery – is a massive oversight and seriously jeopardizes the success of this menu.

The Boustan website promises a unique experience through the use of the internet as a means of communicating desired menu items. When one attempts to select this option, however, they are greeted only with a message, bolded and italicized, in large yellow font, informing them that the option is “coming soon.” Alas, one is only left the meager option of communication by phone.

The phone call to Boustan is just what you’d expect, if you expect to talk to someone on the phone who takes your order for food and then tells someone else so that they can bring you the food. For a phone call, the relatively clear connection and question about your location make it a reasonable way to order food with the expectation that you’ll receive it. The whole exchange takes about two minutes, making it just about the same as any other ordering experience you’ll ever have. The lack of uniqueness in the telephonic interaction is slightly off-putting, but one can perhaps find it in themselves to appreciate at least the efficiency of the whole thing.

Some time later, a phone call will emerge from the ether, con-

tacting the customer at the specified phone number, alerting them to the arrival of their food. The wait totalled around 45 minutes, though this is understandable, as the restaurant is located on Crescent, which is farther than say, if it were located just across Sherbrooke. The food is warm upon arrival, which is a good indication that it was “made-to-order.”

From beginning to end, the ordering experience offered by Boustan is slightly above mediocre, but fails to dazzle. While the potential for future internetmediated ordering is intriguing, at present the clarity and logical organization of the menu can only go so far to bring this establishment’s quality of phone interaction above average.