Vol103iss12

od o og t s p e St 3) : AL ge 2 I R Pa O T I ip ( D E ysh all

Volume 103, Issue 12 Monday, November 18, 2013

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News 03 NEWS

Safe space and equity in engineering Talking climate justice with Charity Hicks

Engineering Undergraduate Society discusses safe space and equity Awareness-raising workshops in development for Winter 2014

Senate and Board of Governors discuss mental health SSMU projects a $50,000 surplus SSMU Fall Referendum results Sustainability lifts off at McGill AUS Council talks Leacock restructuring

09 COMMENTARY Strategies for a healthier environment Letters Hope and solidarity on the Transgender Day of Remembrance Problems with presuming innocence A letter of support for Indigenous Studies

12 FEATURES

Crime and the science behind punishment

15

SCI+TECH

Canada’s take on tech accelerators The controversy around GMOs

17

HEALTH&ED

Movember: “slacktivism,” discrimination, and microaggressions Anxiety is not trivial

19

SPORTS

The persistent athlete redemption story

20 CULTURE

Players’ takes on The Tempest The gods are in print The Daily reviews Leafing through McGill’s art magazines

23 EDITORIAL

Steps to good allyship

24 COMPENDIUM!

Workshops for better self-aggrandization at Ally Days

3

The McGill Daily

Monday, November 18, 2013

Sarina Gupta | The McGill Daily

O

n November 12, the Engineering Undergraduate Society (EUS) held a discussion regarding equity issues and safe space within the Faculty of Engineering. Hosted by EUS Equity Commissioner Christopher Tegho, the discussion largely focused on brainstorming ways to tackle current equity issues and a lack of awareness about safe space among students in the Faculty.

Tegho noted that the Faculty currently faces “problems regarding inclusivity,” such as “problematic titles for events, or events and Frosh that are all about drinking and do not include non-drinking options.” He additionally mentioned the presence of rape culture in engineering events such as “engineering chants during Frosh [that] mock people from other schools and other faculties.” “[The chants] give mixed messages about Frosh and being equitable,” stated Josh Redel, a participant in the discussion, and former president of SSMU in 2012-13 and EUS in 2011-12.

Some ideas to alleviate equity issues included introducing safer space through workshops, Frosh, Rez Project, and professors in a classroom setting. A main goal for the discussion was to find ways to fit social equity and justice into the Engineering curriculum to make students aware of the importance of instilling an atmosphere of safe space within the Faculty.

According to Redel, the EUS lacks policies related to social sustainability and equity “because of [the Engineering Faculty’s] extremely rigid curriculum.”

One key issue to tackle amongst Engineering students is the use of the term “safe space” itself.

Robert Smith | The McGill Daily According to Redel, the term is deemed by many students to be a “joke,” which creates the problem of getting Engineering students to actually attend workshops.

“People will not go to something they perceive as a joke,” he said. As a result, Tegho noted in a follow-up interview with The Daily that he strives to make the equity policy in Engineering “more active rather than reactive.”

Another equity issue among Engineering students discussed at the meeting was “the classroom experience” which, for example, excludes “pronouns other than he [and she]” and “allows for racist and transphobic comments and jokes,” said Tegho.

A participant at the meeting also mentioned that EUS should

“approach social equity to Engineering students differently than it would with students of other faculties because engineers are quick to tune things out.” This situation, noted Tegho, creates “a lack of support toward people who experience intimidation, and any kind of oppression.”

To resolve issues such as the ones listed above, Tegho, along with others in attendance, agreed that holding workshops in Winter 2014 and thereafter could be an effective way to teach students about the idea and effects of creating a safer space.

Another idea included critically analyzing the work of students in the EUS and organizers of EUS events to “provide them with tools and resources,” such as a checklist,

that “make the EUS more inclusive,” noted Tegho in an interview with The Daily.

He also mentioned that communicating with professors about equity could be useful; for instance, one of the professors teaching FACC 100: Introduction to the Engineering Profession, is “looking for ideas and inputs,” implying that the course’s curriculum allows space for the inclusion of “the subject of equity.”

Tegho noted that overall, “the talk was successful because it brought lots of good ideas.”

At the end of the discussion, one participant, reflecting on the entire talk, noted that, despite the new ideas being introduced, “there’s still a lot of work to be done to reach our end goal.”

WEB-ONLY NEWS CONTENT www.mcgilldaily.com/category/news Protesters disrupt class of professor accused of death threat: Professor Gary Dunphy, who last year was accused of harassing a graduate student, faced angry chants as ten students broke up his class.

SSMU Special General Assembly: After they failed to meet quorum at their bi-­annual GA, SSMU tried once again to approve their Board of Directors and their auditing firm. Did they manage to pass the two motions?

Coming soon: Our reporters cover anti-­austerity protests in Montreal, and travel to Oka park for a day of Indigenous resistance against pipelines.

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Monday, November 18, 2013

Detroit organizer talks climate justice in Montreal

Calls for community and policy-level solutions Janna Bryson | News Writer

O

n November 14, Detroitbased organizer Charity Hicks presented the third installment of CKUT’s “Under the Weather” climate change series with a lecture on the importance of community organizing in the ongoing movement for climate justice. Hicks stated that her aim was to “define ecological dilemmas facing the earth, identify the implications for our communities, and strategize solutions to resolve these dilemmas.”

Hicks identified the global economy as one of the main drivers behind climate change, saying “I don’t really want to quote President Clinton but… it’s the economy, stupid!”

She described how the “industrial, globalized, and capitalist economy” has led to a series of crises including a lack of water, an overload of waste and toxins, diminishing cultural and biological diversity, restricted food and agriculture, and a conflict between the climate and energy.

“Every 14 days, an ethnicity and a language is under annihilation,” Hicks explained. “Communities are being destroyed, people are being displaced.”

U2 Political Science student Yasmin Ali thought Hicks offered a unique perspective on the connection between climate change and social disruption.

“It was just interesting what she said about the Arab Spring.

Never once have I heard my professors kind of connect the socioeconomic issues that led to the Arab Spring actually happening to ecological issues, and that migration from rural to urban settings.

I thought that connecting that was such an interesting framework to look at this issue that has already been analyzed in so many ways,” she told The Daily.

Hicks also explained that, due to what is termed the “lag effect,” the world is currently experiencing the environmental effects of carbon emissions from the 1960s. She argued that the impacts of today’s emissions are still to come: “In your lifetime, the Arctic will be free of ice […]. The earth doesn’t discriminate [who it impacts], but the global economy does.”

Throughout the lecture, Hicks discussed solutions alongside the environmental issues. “We have to start growing food locally and regionally,” she said, giving examples of local food projects in Detroit, such as those by the Detroit Food Justice Task Force. She suggested a goal of 25 per cent locally grown food for Montreal.

Hicks touched on the importance of movements led by Indigenous populations to climate justice solutions. In a recent article for The

Charity Hicks speaks at the event Media Coop on the Idle No More movement, Hicks said, “As the oldest cultures that are place-based and rooted in ecosystem-based knowledge and exchange and reciprocity, that [Indigenous] wisdom is like a roadmap […] they represent a way of knowing and being in place that we’ve lost.”

Hicks stressed that “[Our solutions to environmental issues] must

Robert Smith | The McGill Daily

be what is really needed and be politically realistic.” She maintained that there is a need to combat false solutions, and that “environmental champions” in government and policy-making are a necessity.

Discussing the balance between optimism and urgency, Hicks told The Daily, “I have kind of moved away from the doom and gloom. I don’t think we function

under depression. Our change can either be intentional, or the result of a collapse.”

To close her presentation, Hicks extended a call-to-action to Montrealers, asking them to “be a part of the shift” toward climate justice. To those skeptical of climate change, she urged, “Montreal, do not be a cynic. This is not a hoax, this is for real.”

Joint Board-Senate addresses mental health at McGill Meeting criticized for lacking concrete solutions

O

n Wednesday, McGill’s senators, governors, staff, and students, convened for the annual joint Board of Governors (BoG) and Senate meeting. This year’s meeting revolved around the issue of mental health, focusing on the broad issues of awareness and stigma.

The keynote presentation, given

by Lynne McVey, Executive Director of the Douglas Mental Health Institute, talked about the issue of mental health, as well as stigmatization and stressors for students. “It’s an illness like any other,” McVey told the crowd, pointing to research done by scientists that showed that mental illness is a biological and genetic problem.

After another presentation by

Jordan Venton-Rublee and Dana Wray | The McGill Daily Jeff Moat, President of Partners for Mental Health, the meeting broke out into small tables to discuss case studies.

Arts Senator Claire StewartKanigan mentioned that one of the proposals that she put forward at her table was incorporating mental health training into the pedagogical training Teaching Assistants (TAs) receive. “Since you already have that structure institutionalized, it would be easy to add a mental health component so TAs can be supportive and aware of where to direct students.”

However, Stewart-Kanigan was critical of the meeting for overlooking issues related to gender or sexuality present within the cases.

Brian Cowan, professor of history at McGill and a member of Senate, also pointed to the fact that the meeting lacked people who have dealt with mental health issues speaking. “Nobody was speaking to the group who actually had experienced mental illness, which actually struck me as odd,” Cowan told The Daily.

Although there is currently a working group under the Student Services portfolio that brings together different players to brainstorm recommendations, the meeting lacked concrete solutions for the state of mental health resources at McGill.

“I actually would have liked to have known what the University is doing now,” Cowan said. “And

areas where it thinks it should improve. That would have been useful, and we didn’t really have a whole lot of that.”

Mental health has been a much-discussed issue on campus recently, and Vera Romano, Director of Counselling Services, was happy that it was made a priority at the meeting. “The number one concern [regarding mental health] of McGill students is anxiety and stress – both academic anxiety and stress, and social anxiety and stress,” Romano told The Daily, referring to a study of McGill students conducted by Romano and Lisa Di Genova.

“Mental health is one of those things that everyone has an opinion [on], they want to talk about it, and it

is very prevalent [...] I think going into it everyone was ready for discussion,” Elizabeth Cawley, the Post-Graduate Students’ Society of McGill University Member Services Commissioner, stated in an interview with The Daily after the meeting.

Cowan noted that the selection of the topic itself was a good sign. “That’s one thing I found quite positive about this whole affair: the simple recognition that this is a problem. If you can’t recognize that you have a problem, you’re not going to do anything about it.”

“All the right things were being said; this sounds like progress to me,” Cowan added. “On the other hand, the devil’s in the detail and there were very few details.”

The McGill Daily

6

News

Monday, November 18, 2013

SSMU Fall budget projects $50,000 surplus Initial deficit overcome through budget cuts Alexander Calderone | News Writer

H

aving originally forecasted a deficit of $90,000 for the 2013-14 fiscal year, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) has recently revised its budget with the aim of improving its financial situation.

The revised budget now includes a $50,000 surplus that is expected to be generated by the society.

SSMU was able to significantly reduce its deficit by cutting executives’ personal budgets, as well as General Administration, Building, Club, and Information Technology (IT) budgets. The official report on the budget states that the most significant cuts occurred in the General Administration category – which, according to the report, totalled $85,568.

Further examination reveals that approximately $74,600 of this amount arises from cuts in salaries and benefits of employees. The report explains that the Student Sala-

ries Budget has been reduced by 10 per cent in order to account for the fact that 90 per cent of the budgeted hours for student staff are worked.

“The cuts were decided based on SSMU’s stated values and the overall services that we provide to students.

The cuts were made as to minimize their effect on the services that SSMU provides,” VP Finances and Operations Tyler Hofmeister told The Daily when asked about how these cuts were determined by SSMU. However, Hofmeister said that he could not disclose which categories of employees would be most affected by these cuts, for legal reasons.

This projected $50,000 surplus is to be transferred into a fund known as the Capital Expenditures Reserve Fund (CERF). In 1985, SSMU created the CERF to set aside money for long-term expenditures, renovations, student projects, and the like. Excess rev-

enues are transferred to the CERF and the Student Life Fund annually, as deemed necessary. Sometimes money is transferred out to cover deficits, as happened last year when SSMU’s deficit of $211,320 was covered by money out of the CERF. Hofmeister stated that the previously projected $90,000 deficit for this fiscal year was very high because it “includes a conservative amount for rent and utilities given the current state of lease negotiations.”

“Currently, SSMU has not been paying its lease during negotiations, but once an agreement is signed, SSMU may have to pay retroactively so it is important that [these potential costs are] included,” said Hofmeister.

One large expense that contributed significantly to the deficit was the $21,000 loss incurred at this year’s Frosh, a fact confirmed

by Hofmeister. According to an answer VP Internal Brian Farnan

gave at SSMU’s Special General Assembly on November 13, accounting mistakes were to blame for the majority of the five-figure loss.

SSMU used PayPal for Frosh, but miscalculated the percentage of fees that the company asked for. Money was also lost through sponsorship, as SSMU made mistakes calculating taxes. A new system that split up sponsorship revenues between faculties also contributed to the errors.

According to Farnan, the approximately $200,000 Frosh budget will be maintained next year by SSMU’s accounting department, instead of SSMU executive members.

In a recent interview with the McGill Tribune, SSMU President Katie Larson suggested that the SSMU base fee might need an increase in order to accommodate future deficits. Hofmeister told The Daily that “a student referendum would be required” to change the base fee.

Another alternative could be “changing the investment portfolio to an endowment fund,” which would require “chang[es to] the relevant bylaws and would require the approval of [Legislative Council],” said Hofmeister.

Although SSMU cut its budget in its General Administration department, it also increased spending for areas such as contract services and interest fees from bank charges. Furthermore, SSMU has also increased its spending on security, as they are considering hiring more security and outsourcing less.

The IT department is also facing large expenses, as much of their hardware is out-of-date and needs to be replaced. Although a portion of this year’s budget is allocated to it, some purchases are being pushed back a few years in order to reduce financial pressures, setting SSMU up for a potential deficit in the future.

SSMU Fall Referendum results

Midnight Kitchen, Daycare, Constitution all get majority ‘yes’ votes Dana Wray | The McGill Daily

T

SSMU Constitution Yes - 88.84% No - 11.16%

Midnight Kitchen’s Existence

he Students’ Society of McGill University’s (SSMU) Fall 2013 Referendum saw all four questions passed with a majority ‘yes’ vote this year. With voter turnout at 18.3 per cent, most questions got a response rate of over 80 per cent – except for the referendum question regarding the Constitution, from which 48.3 per cent of voters abstained.

SSMU’s Constitution is now updated so that all parts of it are legal, according to the SSMU Executive. The fee for the SSMU Daycare – which provides priority spots to undergraduate students, and costs parents only $7 per day – is now $2.50, an increase of $1. Midnight Kitchen (MK) will continue to exist as a recognized student service until their next existence referendum in Fall 2016. In addition, the student fee for MK will rise by $1 to $3.25 per semester until Fall 2016, allowing MK to pay their staff liveable wages and continue to provide accessible food.

The questions regarding indexing the MK and SSMU Daycare fees to inflation both passed.

SSMU Daycare Fee Increase Yes - 79.76% No - 20.24%

Midnight Kitchen Fee Increase

Yes - 86.95%

Yes - 72.56%

No - 13.05%

No - 27.47%

The McGill Daily

News

7

Monday, November 18, 2013

McGill’s quest to become a sustainable campus A look into Vision 2020 Juliana Hayden | News Writer

O

n the evening of November 14, staff and students gathered in the McGill bookstore for the launch of the first draft of McGill’s sustainability strategy – otherwise known as Vision 2020.

Vision 2020 is a consultation and planning process that aims to set a sustainability strategy for the McGill community. It was established in Winter 2012 by McGill’s Office of Sustainability and funded by the Sustainability Projects Fund (SPF). In Vision 2020’s 2013 Vision and Goals Report, its mandate is described as the process of turning McGill into an institution that “walks the walk of sustainability in all that [McGill does].”

Lilith Wyatt, SPF Coordinator and a founding member of Vision 2020, told The Daily that she was thrilled with the turnout and with the support. “The coolest part about Vision 2020 is that it’s not just for the community but genuinely from the McGill community.”

Vision 2020 has not always generated such successful results.

Earlier in 2013, the project published a failure report outlining Vision 2020’s own missteps. “We got a little bit caught up in being a campus darling,” wrote Julia Solo-

mon, senior communications specialist at University Services. “We let [visibility] distract us from the more basic questions: [...] Are we taking advantage of this moment in the spotlight to communicate clearly about why sustainability, this process, and goals built through it, are important?”

Wyatt also reflected on these mistakes. “A university can’t be excellent if it doesn’t publicly fail and learn from it.”

Vision 2020’s first draft of the Sustainability Strategy has been met with positive feedback from other McGill organizations, such as funding from the Social Equity and Diversity Education Office (SEDE).

When discussing the projects’ dialogue with the senior administrative team of the University, Wyatt admitted, “At first what we heard from [the senior administrators] was hard for us to hear because it was a bit of a change to our original dates; however, the bottom line was that they were actually really supportive.”

Wyatt emphasized that McGill has had a long history of demanding a more sustainable campus, saying that, in the past, “there were student grassroot movements, but they were totally disconnected from

Khoa Doan | The McGill Daily high-level policies.”

The development of relationships between administration and student movements on the topic of sustainability is key in the success of Vision 2020. Wyatt called this partnership “really important

in the DNA of the McGill Office of Sustainability. It has always been a partnership between the two – especially in a campus context which has held a lot of tension between the students and the administration, so it’s always been a place where stu-

dents and staff have been able to find common ground.”

When asked what’s next for Vision 2020, Wyatt said, “Right now there are 51 actions, and the administration has asked us to narrow it down to a few priority actions.”

AUS Council discusses restructuring

Concerns about creation of administrative hubs voiced at meeting Cem Ertekin | The McGill Daily

T

he Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) had its biweekly Council meeting last Wednesday, adopting two motions declaring that the AUS endorses “yes” votes on the two SSMU referendum questions regarding Midnight Kitchen.

In addition, Associate Dean (Academic Administration and Oversight) Gillian Lane-Mercier attended the meeting and gave a presentation about the “People, Processes & Partnerships” project that has been going on since the previous academic year.

Lane-Mercier’s presentation focused the project’s plans for administrative restructuring that will take place in the three locations: Sherbrooke 688, Arts/Ferrier, and Leacock.

Among other restructuring and

regrouping maneuvers, Lane-Mercier affirmed that administrative restructuring will occur in Leacock, as two new administrative hubs will be created – although the faculty has backed down from transforming the third floor of Leacock into a reception area.

AUS VP Internal Enbal Singer later commented in an interview with The Daily that her expectations regarding the proposed plans were low.

“Student size is growing, physical space is hardly growing. [The University] buy[s] more houses in the area, on Doctor Penfield [...] and Bronfman expanded to the CIBC building. So there is a little expansion, but not at the same rate that [the student body is] growing. That’s where the problem is,” Singer said.

However, Lane-Mercier emphasized the environment of austerity impacting the project.

“We are trying to make these administrative hubs robust enough to sustain the early retirement departures and upcoming normal retirements, which will continue to come forward. And we are not allowed to hire [new administrative officers], there is a complete hiring freeze and we don’t know how long that will last. And we also don’t know if the Quebec government will begin to reinvest in Quebec universities,” she said during the presentation.

“We’re not 100 per cent convinced that there will be a reinvestment in the administrative services.”

During the question period after the presentation, Matthew Crawford-Appignanesi, of the McGill Industrial Relations Association asked

whether or not the faculty has any plans to integrate the Interdisciplinary Studies coordinator with one of the two hubs in Leacock.

Lane-Mercier responded by saying that the answer to this question was not quite clear yet, but it was definitely on their “radar screen.”

Singer brought up the issue of the McTavish rowhouses, and asked what would happen to the rowhouse that is currently being held by the Department of Jewish Studies, which will move to the Leacock Building, and the one that was previously held by the Department of East Asian Studies, which moved to Sherbrooke 688 over the summer.

Lane-Mercier cited long-term concerns in explaining the decision to move the Departments of Jewish

Studies and East Asian Studies out of their rowhouses on McTavish.

“The Arts Faculty is in a little bit of competition with [Student Life and Learning] who would like to one day see McTavish a 100 per cent student corridor, apart from the Faculty Club. [...] Arts doesn’t like that idea, at least not now. We don’t have enough space, we need the space. But we’re worried that the University is not going to invest much in this space until it decides what it’s going to do with it,” LaneMercier explained.

In a phone interview with The Daily, AUS President Justin Fletcher said, “While there is a lot of uncertainty in how those spaces are going to be rethought, I also think it’s an opportunity for us to have a big say in what student space means.”

The McGill Daily

8

News

Monday, November 18, 2013

Queering bioethics

Institutionalizing homophobia in organ donation

Information from Canadian Blood Services

Joelle Dahm and Nina Jaffe-Geffner | News Writers

I

Study conducted by Canadian Blood Services to determine proportion of donors with deferrable risks

Pamphlets on HIV introduced in blood screenings to donors

Policy change to five-year deferral instead of indefinite

. . . . . .

1977

1983

Widespread HIV in North America restricts donors

n Canada, 4,000 people are waiting for an organ donation, yet only 1,803 organ transplants were performed during the past year. 185 people died while waiting for an organ.

With such a large need for organ donors, Jason Behrmann, a postdoctoral fellow at McGill in the Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies (IGSF), questions why donor regulations exclude homosexual men. As part of the IGSF’s “Esquisses” series last Tuesday, Behrmann addressed this issue.

“Sex, gender, and sexual orientation are factors that have a huge influence on health [...] and health policy,” Behrmann told The Daily. “Correspondingly, [sexual orientation] has a dramatic influence on the structuring of your healthcare system and the availability of very [...] scarce resources in health.”

The late 1970s saw thousands of people infected with HIV and hepatitis, often related to blood transfusions. In particular, HIV was prevalent in the gay community at that time. In 1977, men who have sex with men – referred to as MSM

by Health Canada – were banned from donating blood or organs.

This meant that if a man had

1988

2006

Five-year deferral introduced in blood screening via questionnaire

had sex with another man anytime since 1977, they would not be eligible to donate. This regulation also applied to intravenous drug users, sex workers, prisoners, and anyone sexually involved with these groups, as well as people directly exposed to HIV, Hepetitis B (HBV), or Hepititis C (HCV) infected blood, as published on the website of the Parliament of Canada.

In summer 2013, the government changed these policies to a five-year deferral on MSM. According to Canadian Blood Services, “The change means that any man who has not had sex with another man in the last five years and meets other screening criteria may be eligible to give blood.”

During the “Esquisses,” Behrmann contested this regulation, stating that technology has developed rapidly to control infectious diseases in blood, so that only 1 in 7.8 million transfusions ‘tainted’ with a transmissible disease evade the tests.

However, in the context of the five-year deferral period, Behrmann said that, “These policies [...] exclude a certain group from contributing to society. Gay, bisexual and MSM people have come to

be called freeloaders of society.”

Behrmann also raised the issue of sperm donation in Canada.

“It seems really strange that someone is banned until the day they die, from being an anonymous sperm donor, just because they happen to be MSM.” Behrmann claimed that these restrictions are intrusive, with the government overly involved in individual, private reproductive freedoms. He also asserted that the quality of health services received by patients from the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans* Queer (LGBTQ) community may be negatively affected, as they would not feel as comfortable consulting medical services.

“It does raise tensions and a negative perception of the gay community toward the medical community. This is rather wellknown. These regulations do dissuade people from seeking medical attention,” he said.

Behrmann also looked at the gender discrepancy in the organ donor pool.

“The fact that we have regulations that exclude or try to exclude men who have sex with men – an exclusively male population that’s cut out of the donor pool – inad-

2008

2013

National LGBTQ working group from Canadian Blood Services forms to increase education and awareness on LGBTQ community vertently requires the female population having to make up for that slack. That burden gets placed on the backs of women.”

Behrmann also discussed a loophole provision known as “exceptional circumstances,” which allows for organs from the MSM population to be used in life-ordeath situations in which there are no available organs from other eligible populations and the patient has given consent.

This provision does not generally apply to blood or sperm donations and still prevents MSM donors from giving certain organs such as kidneys. While the overall scarcity of available organs results in up to half of donated organs coming from ‘undesirable’ populations, Behrmann emphasized that there are still many problems with this MSM donor criteria, as well as other high-risk populations.

“It reinforces this notion that organs are not equal. It’s not just a human thing, it’s a gay thing. You would have what is deemed ‘highrisk’ organs because they come from a gay donor and you would know it.”

He claimed the current policies enable the discrimination and stigmatization of homosexual men,

and deter them from participation in the healthcare system.

“We look [at] how when we structure health interventions for the [MSM] population, we can inadvertently stigmatize people and force this othering and notions of unwantedness of certain population groups.”

Behrmann addressed the ways in which he believed the current donation policies could be improved.

Among others, his proposed changes included reducing the fiveyear ban on blood donation to 12 months. He also recommended organizing surveys and collecting data that quantify the waste produced by excluding MSM organ donations.

Raising awareness of these issues for doctors would also ameliorate the issue, according to Behrmann.

Although implementing such changes would not be easy, Behrmann remains confident in the positive impact they could bring about in the future.

“The question is: now can we change these regulations that exclude broad members of the population, and still keep a very safe and effective system, without increasing the risk of disease. I believe through my proposals that we can achieve those goals.”

Commentary

9

From bike protests to global campaigns

SACOMSS Sexual Assault Center of the McGill Students’Society

Strategies for a low carbon society Anna Zisa | Commentary Writer

O

n November 6, demonstrators carrying orange flags – the colour of the North American-wide ‘Fossil Free’ campaign – chanted, “Don’t target bikes, target fossil fuels,” while biking across McGill campus. With the noticeable disagreement about riding bikes on campus, Divest McGill found another way to draw the attention of the McGill community. With over 400 campaigns in institutions in the U.S. and Canada asking for divestment from the fossil fuel industry, the growing movement deserves attention from the public.

Despite the denial of the Board of Governors’ (BoG) Committee to Advise on Matters of Social Responsibility to recommend the BoG to divest from fossil fuels last May, Divest McGill has continued to build momentum. The number of activists in the November 6 demonstration was considerably larger than in any of last year’s demonstrations. Yet Divest McGill believes it still needs to gain more support to build proactive and grassroots power for its demands to the administration.

Regarding the actions of Divest McGill, some McGill community members ask, “How can we demand divestment from the industry on which our lifestyles are totally dependent?” This is where the demonstration on bicycles becomes symbolic.

Mitigation of carbon emissions or climate change adaptation requires multiple strategies to shift current practices and foster ethical attitudes.

Strategies that cultivate the flourishing of humankind and the environment, instead of those that threaten

Free.

Confidential.

Non-Judgmental.

514-398-8500

www.sacomss.org

Khoa Doan | The McGill Daily our survival by enhancing the wreck- portant role to play in how we tranage of the planet, need to be under- sition toward sustainable, healthier taken at different scales by everyone. societies less dependent on fossil fuDivesting from the fossil fuel indus- els. Our University should be a moral try at the University level and instead beacon for society, and align its investchoosing to invest that 2.5 per cent ments with its values, mission, and viof the endowment fund in ethically sion. McGill exists to create a future sound and progressive alternatives is for all of us.

Let’s be caring and not ignore the one strategy. Biking or walking when possible instead of using fossil fuel sufferings of Indigenous communipowered vehicles at the individual ties affected by the pollution of the tar level is another one. Single strategies sands. Let’s be holistic and understand that all of us depend psychologically alone will not suffice.

Universities are great places to and physically on the health of the research and experiment with tactics planet. Let’s be creative and come up that lessen our dependence on fossil with better investments, and design fuels, unleashed by creative ideas of ways to diversify human-powered diverse youth. The faster we develop, mobility on campus. Let’s be proactive coordinate, and adopt those strategies, and together push our University to the more resilient and buffered we be- make the right choices. Let’s be wise come to the real and upcoming crises and divest. of climate change and peak oil.

As a global leading institution Anna Zisa is a member of Divest invested in improving the future McGill. To get in touch, email anna. through education, McGill has an im- zisa@mail.mcgill.ca.

Letters

Misrepresenting Canada

Re: “Misremembering warfare” (Commentary, November 11, page 11) Whoever the authors of this piece are, they stepped over the graves of Canadians and hid behind the anonymity afforded to them by Demilitarize McGill. They tried to blur the lines between U.S. and Canadian military endeavors and practices, and pretended that we share the same history.

Worst of all, they disrespected something they don’t seem to understand.

Remembrance Day isn’t about current or continuing warfare; it’s about the strife, hardship, and loss of life that has affected Canadian soldiers and their families. It’s not about celebrating war, it’s a continued practice so that we never forget the Canadians who fell in combat, regardless of why they were fighting. This is

We’re here to listen.

who we think of when we say ‘Lest We Forget’ and ‘Je Me Souviens.’

Seeing as the opinion of Demilitarize was published though, I should point out how they are shaming their cause with misinformation, generalizations, and loose conjecture.

First of all, just like the U.S. and Canada are separate and independent nations, the Canadian military is not, and does not represent, the U.S. armed forces. Canadian forces have not been fighting alongside the Americans in the Iraq War, and seeing as the authors are using the context of Canadian military presence on campus, I see no reason why the Iraq War should be cited. For decades the chief activity of the Canadian forces has been peacekeeping; but that doesn’t count, right?

As for “the people of colour targeted for distant assassination by CIA drones,” the authors are surely aware that the CIA is a U.S. federal agency.

Also, the drones used by Canadians are unarmed and primarily for surveillance, such as in the far north. Finally, when it comes to the American Civil Liberties Union report on the recruitment of minors in the U.S. that was cited in the article, a simple control-f and we find that Canada isn’t mentioned once in the text.

Demilitarize McGill should focus on finding solutions for the issues they present rather than writing shock commentaries and thoughtlessly protesting Canadian traditions.

—Emilio Assuncao U3 Linguistics and Psychology

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Commentary

Monday, November 18, 2013

For moonlight siblings on the Transgender Day of Remembrance Kai Cheng Thom From Gaysia With Love

T

o: Islan Nettles Fashion Intern, Harlem, New York City An Open Letter

Re: Our lives, intertwined “The dead leave us starving with mouths full of love.” – Anne Michaels, “Memoriam” Dear Islan, Did you ever hear the story of Sadako Sasaki, the girl who folded 1,000 paper cranes? Sadako was two years old when American atom bombs exploded in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The radiation from the bombs fell like a shadow over Sadako’s destiny, poisoning her body, and at the age of ten, she was diagnosed with leukemia with less than a year to live. In the hospital, she began to fold paper cranes, in accordance with the Japanese legend that whoever folds 1,000 will be granted a wish by the gods. Sadako hoped to wish for life. But as her disease progressed, and it became clear that no number of paper cranes could alter her destiny, Sadako changed her wish. According

Alice Shen | The McGill Daily to the story, she wrote a haiku on her last crane before she died: “I shall write peace upon your wings, and you shall fly around the world so that children no longer have to die this way.”

On November 20, two days after the publication of this letter, it will be the Transgender Day of Remembrance once more. Every year, the list of our lost and murdered grows longer. This year, Islan, your name will be on it. And I will struggle, as I always do, to make sense of my connection with you, with the dead – whose shadows fall indelibly over my own destiny whether I like it or not.

It is a strange and selfish project to write letters to the departed.

Every story we tell about the dead becomes, in the end, a story about the living. It is so easy, Islan, so tempting, to co-opt the story of your death to tell the story of my life – to hold you up as a symbol, a martyr, a political project in the name of liberation of all trans women of colour: Look at this beautiful, brown, murdered girl, I want to say, to shout, to scream. Look at her, beaten to death by a man on a

Harlem street in the middle of the night for no other reason than she was a different kind of woman than the kind he wanted to rape. Look at me. This could happen to me. Save my life from Islan’s death.

But I am starting to believe that kind of remembrance is an injustice all its own. You are not a symbol, a sign, or a sacrifice through which I, or anyone, can attain political currency. You weren’t someone that I knew in life; I cannot claim a false intimacy with you or the dreams that flew out of this shattered world when you were killed. This is the truth as I know it: you were 21 years old when you were murdered last summer. You were beautiful.

You wanted to be a fashion designer. I would never have known about you had your death not made the news. And yet now, somehow, your shadow walks alongside mine.

I see you in the moonlight when I am walking home alone. When men stare and catcall and follow me on the street, demanding to know if I am a man or a woman. Your shadow walks alongside mine, and Gwen Araujo’s, and Lawrence King’s, and Marsha P. Johnson’s, and countless

unnamed persons’ whose deaths will never make the headlines; I am followed in every step by a line of trans* people, many of colour, who died and never knew me. We never knew each other, Islan, but in the moonlight, we are kindred. Your name is written on my bones. I cannot forget. I am never alone.

Islan, I am starting to think that transgender people are a community connected by a web made of ghosts. Every story we tell of our dead is also a story of those of us who still live: a cautionary tale, a political fable, a remembrance of what happened, and what is still happening. Trans* youth are seven times more susceptible to suicide than the average youth; trans* people are disproportionately represented in homelessness, forced sex work, sexual assault and murder. It feels, sometimes, like there is nothing we can do to change our destinies – nothing except remember, and pray.

Islan, there comes a time, I think, when all of our stories, the details of our individual lives, must enter the line of ghosts. They must be folded into the greater narrative

that is the struggle for freedom.

Trans* people, people of colour, any of us marginalized in every way – we have two kinds of hope: the fire we use to fight the battles that we live, and the flames we pass on when we pass away. Your shadow dances beside mine, and someday mine will dance behind someone who lives while I am gone. And this is why I am writing you a letter for the Transgender Day of Remembrance, Islan, strange and selfish though it is – because, whether we like it or not, our stories will reach and touch people in ways we’ll never know. For the rest of my life, I will write letters to the departed, sending them out like cranes into this shattered world.

And maybe someday, children like us will never have to live or die this way.

Forever loving, remembering you, Kai Cheng From Gaysia With Love is an epistolary exploration of intersectionality by Kai Cheng Thom.

They can be reached at fromgaysia @mcgilldaily.com.

The McGill Daily

Commentary

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Monday, November 18, 2013

Realities of harm

The flaws in presuming ‘innocent until proven guilty’ Lily Hoffman | Commentary Writer “Just because somebody felt victimized does not mean that the alleged perpetrators are guilty of a crime.” “[Court cases] often [have] substantive evidence…[not] simply a case of one party’s word against the other’s.”

“Condemning the (disgusting) nature of the sexual assault does not mean that we ought to be prejudicially condemning individuals who have not yet been convicted of it.”

“If these guys get prosecuted and are found guilty with just a word of mouth, it’s going to send [sic] a dangerous precedent which is that women are not [sic] longer responsible for their actions.”

T

he above statements were taken from comment sections of various online publications relating to the sexual assault charges posed against the three Redmen football players. All echo the sentiment often expressed of ‘innocent until proven guilty,’ implying unquestionable faith in the legal system and its ability to achieve ‘justice.’

The notion of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ is systematically flawed, not only in the aforementioned case, but in most that go through the legal process. First, it assumes that the laws under which people are tried in this system are just, simply because they exist. There are countless examples of laws throughout history and at present that most would consider unjust: slavery, residential schools, spousal sexual assault, and criminal-

ization of homosexuality are among the acts condoned by historical Canadian laws, for example. ‘Innocent until proven guilty’ enforces the idea that crimes are only to be taken seriously when laws are broken; what of crimes or harm where no law is broken? Within our existing criminal-legal framework, these behaviours are given no legitimacy.

The idea that courts and legal systems are the best and only methods for holding people accountable to their harmful actions ensures that the state is the only judge for deciding and maintaining social values.

Laws are decided above the general population. The state, through legal structures and other institutions, acts as an authority on what are considered ‘real’ crimes and harm, thus ensuring that the state has control over people’s behaviours and social values more than the communities actually affected by them. Not only does this disempower real people from determining their own values and implementing them in their communities, it also assumes that the state and its legal system are inherently just.

Any look at the disproportionate number of people of colour incarcerated in Canadian prisons, for example, indicates the racial biases of our socalled ‘justice’ system. Racial bias is one of many well-documented biases that permeate the criminal justice system: classism, transphobia, and sexism are others. The idea that an unjust

Midori Nishioka | The McGill Daily system is the only authority on harmful behaviour belittles people’s own experiences and notions of safety.

Putting blind faith in the notion of a fair process for the accused centres the perpetrator of harm in any accountability process. It forces those who have been victimized or harmed to be put on trial, placing more trust in those who have negatively affected others than those who are negatively affected. This can easily shame, blame, and attack those

who are victims. This is one of the many reasons why so few sexual assault cases are legally reported.

Accountability for harm that is caused to others is a necessary process for any community or society.

However, that process must give legitimacy to any and all expressions of harm, regardless of whether they traverse existing laws or established rules. It hurts when someone takes advantage of me, and that must be addressed regardless of whether the

specific actions are defined by the state as a ‘crime’ or whether or not there is sufficient evidence to prove their guilt. Guilt and innocence are ideas designed to perpetuate the status quo, and fail to take seriously the complexities and realities of violence and community relations.

Lily Hoffman is a member of the Union for Gender Empowerment Collective at McGill. They can be reached at lilysimon1@gmail.com.

Indigenous Studies gains momentum

AUS’ support for the creation of an Indigenous Studies program at McGill

A

t the October 30 session of the Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) Legislative Council, the AUS adopted a stance of support for the development of an Indigenous Studies program at McGill. The AUS endorses the proposal for a Minor Concentration in Indigenous Studies that is currently undergoing the approval process, as well as both the expected expansion into a Major Concentration and the creation of a Chair in Indigenous Studies. The AUS Equity Commissioners have also expressed their enthusiastic support of these goals.

The AUS recognizes and affirms the necessity of offering an Indigenous Studies program at McGill.

Given our location on traditional Haudenosaunee territory, we have a responsibility to support the growth and understanding of Indigenous

Jacob Greenspon and Claire Stewart-Kanigan | Commentary Writers ways of knowing, worldviews, languages, traditions, histories, contemporary realities, and cultures.

An Indigenous Studies program will provide the opportunity for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students to engage in this process, and support the resurgence of Indigenous cultures and peoples. We hope the development of an Indigenous Studies program will be a positive step in McGill’s relationship with the traditional keepers of the land and Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island, and contribute to building an accessible environment for current and prospective Indigenous students, faculty, and staff.

The push from students and community members for an Indigenous Studies program has been longstanding. Now, after several years of dedicated efforts by KANATA:

McGill’s Indigenous Studies Community, Allan Vicaire and the Social Equity and Diversity Education Office, the Aboriginal Law Students’ Association, the Indigenous Student Alliance, First Peoples’ House, the Aboriginal Affairs Working Group, the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada (MISC), the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), and many others, the program is closer than ever to fruition.

With the report completed earlier this year by SSMU Student Researcher Brett Lamoureux based on the extensive consultation process facilitated by the aforementioned students and staff, and the faculty support provided by Will Straw, Director of MISC, a full proposal for a Minor Concentration was submitted to, and approved by, the Faculty of Arts Curriculum Committee on November 11.

The program will be facing the next stage of approval at the November 26 meeting of the Faculty of Arts Curriculum Committee. Although several steps of Senate-level approval will follow this meeting, supportive attendance at the November 26 meeting is welcome. The AUS hopes to see the proposal reach the necessary deadlines of committee approval for the Minor to be offered to students by the 2014 Fall semester.

Indigenous Studies programs have been long-standing features in many other peer institutions. With establishment dates beginning in 1969 to 1982 to just this year, Concordia University, University of Toronto, University of Saskatchewan, and University of British Columbia are among the many major Canadian universities with successful programs in the field. McGill’s addition to this list

is long overdue. Independent of the precedent set by peer institutions, McGill has an obligation to provide Indigenous students the opportunity to use academic channels to learn about their own peoples from an approach grounded in Indigenous ways of knowing, and a responsibility to facilitate more informed, respectful understandings between non-Indigenous and Indigenous peoples whenever possible. The AUS supports the fulfilling of these responsibilities as soon as possible.

Niá:wen to all of the groups and individuals behind reaching this stage in the proposal process.

Jacob Greenspon (AUS VP Academic) and Claire Stewart-Kanigan (Arts Senator) write on behalf of AUS Legislative Council, and can be reached at artssenator2@ssmu.mcgill.ca.

Features

The McGill Daily

Monday, November 18, 2013

THE BRAIN BEHIND BARS

On criminal responsibility and the justice system

by Diana Kwon Illustration by Alice Shen

D

ating as far back as 1772 BCE when the Code of Hammurabi – one of humanity’s oldest known legal codes – came to be, the criminal justice system has run on a punitive, reactive model. A crime is committed, the perpetrator is captured, and a sentence befitting the crime is given. Legal systems have, for a long time, operated under the general assumption that individuals are responsible for their actions.

Scientific studies on criminality have begun to shed light on the fact that the question of criminal responsibility is not so black and white. Genetic and environmental factors shape our biology, and determine the person we become. For some, these factors lead to a greater vulnerability to commit criminal action. This knowledge begs the question: to what extent are criminals responsible for their behaviour?

Consider Charles Whitman – a Texan man who in the span of two days killed his wife and mother and went on a mass shooting rampage, killing 17 and injuring many more. The night before the massacre, Whitman sat at a typewriter and wrote this letter: “I don’t really understand myself these days.

I am supposed to be an average reasonable and intelligent young man. However, lately (I can’t recall when it started) I have been a victim of many unusual and irrational thoughts […] after my death I wish that an autopsy would be performed to see if there is any visible physical disorder.”

Whitman himself was at a loss to explain his sudden violent behaviour. As per his wishes, an autopsy was performed. When medical examiners opened Whitman’s skull, they found a nickel-sized tumor affecting several of his brain re-

12

The McGill Daily

Features

13

Monday, November 18, 2013

SNAPSHOT OF CORE CORRECTIONAL PROGRAM PARTICIPATION BY SECURITY LEVEL 35.6%

12.5%

12.0% 8.4%

MAXIMUM

MEDIUM

MULTI-LEVEL

TOTAL

STATISTICS ON INDIVIDUALS FOUND NOT CRIMINALLY RESPONSIBLE ON ACCOUNT OF MENTAL DISORDER In Quebec, between

350 and 400 people are declared not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder

85% are Men 1/3 live in Montreal 1/2 do not have criminal records gions, most notably the amygdala – a region known to be involved in emotional regulation. Cases like Whitman’s are rare, but they provide evidence that individuals do not always possess the free will to act as they please.

Criminal responsibility and the brain Under Section 16 of the Canadian Criminal Code, individuals who commit a crime without the capacity to understand its wrongful nature are deemed not criminally responsible for their actions.

Those who fall under the Code’s definition of not criminally responsible (NCR) generally only include a select group of individuals who have a mental illness or are severely medicated at the time of the trial.

Criminal responsibility runs under the presumption that criminals are autonomous, rational decision makers; however, advancements in studies on decision making by neuroscientists such as Daeyeol Lee at Yale University and Michael Shadlen at Columbia University are shedding light

The MAJORITY are diagnosed with a

SCHIZOPHRENIA SPECTRUM DISORDER The average age is

36 years

1/2 live in the Montreal region on the fact that decisions people make may not, in fact, be as autonomous as once believed.

The field of neuroscience and law – known as neurolaw – seeks to bring neuroscientific findings to the courtroom. Neuroscientists and psychologists are working to understand how social and biological factors shape our brains in order to identify predictors of criminality. It is known that genetic and environmental factors play a role in shaping people’s brains and their decisions, and some of these lead to

higher predispositions for criminal behaviour.

In The Atlantic, David Eagleman, a neuroscientist who directs the Initiative for Neuroscience and Law at the Baylor College of Medicine, describes genetic predispositions to crime: “If you are a carrier of a particular set of genes, the probability that you will commit a violent crime is four times as high as it would be if you lacked those genes. You’re three times as likely to commit robbery, five times as likely to commit aggravated assault, eight times as likely

to be arrested for murder, and 13 times as likely to be arrested for a sexual offense. The overwhelming majority of prisoners carry these genes; 98.1 per cent of death-row inmates do.”

Genes are plasticity variables; in other words, they alter our sensitivity to our surroundings.

Young children are particularly responsive to their surroundings, as their brains are not fully developed until adulthood. From as early on as in the womb, influences such as mothers’ alcohol and drug abuse can change the

The McGill Daily

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Features

Monday, November 18, 2013

MENTAL HEALTH IN PRISONS The proportion of offenders with mental health needs identified at intake has DOUBLED between 1997 and 2008

13% of male inmates and 29% of female inmates were identified at admission as having mental health problems

30.1% of female offenders compared to 14.5% of male offenders had previously been hospitalized for psychiatric reasons

brains of young children. In a study published in Development and Psychopathology, scientists described a set of children whose genes made them extra sensitive to their environment.

They called these individuals “orchid children.” Orchid children, when raised under conditions of adversity such as poor parenting and abuse, are much more susceptible to developing behavioural and conduct problems – both risk factors for delinquency later in life. However, remarkably, when raised under nurturing circumstances, these children thrive and become more resilient than their peers. These children, like orchids, will blossom under good conditions, but wither under bad ones.

“We’re not putting enough energy into the preventive part.

We’re doing a lot of reactive things [and] only when something happens do they intervene.”

Anne Crocker Behaviour and conduct disorders have been consistently found to be strong predictors of adolescent and adult criminal behavior.

Sheilagh Hodgins, a researcher of antisocial behavior and mental disorders at the Université de Montréal and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, conducted a longitudinal study that assessed the ability of teachers’ behavioural ratings in over 3,000 six-to ten-year-old children to predict

criminal convictions in young adulthood. The study was published in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry and revealed that children with high conduct and behavioural problems were four to five times more likely to commit both violent and nonviolent crimes later in life.

Prevention is protection These findings point to the importance of prevention and early intervention programs. Providing programs for at-risk children has been shown to prevent criminal behaviour later in life. According to Hodgins, “There is much evidence that conduct problems in childhood precede adolescent and adult criminality. There are interventions that have been shown to be effective for reducing childhood conduct problems and yet they are not widely available.

Why do we wait until a child commits a crime before intervening?

Why build new prisons and penitentiaries instead of intervening with young children who are having difficulty?”

Prevention programs can be of use both before and after a crime is committed. Individuals who are released from prison do not often have a supportive social circle and face more difficulty finding a job. High recidivism rates can be partially attributed to the lack of services addressing these individuals’ psychological and social needs.

Relapse prevention through rehabilitation could also be effective for those who have already been incarcerated. According to a 2011-12 report from the Office of the Correctional Investigator in Canada, correction programs in prisons are known to be valuable when provided in a timely, accessible, and appropriate manner.

However, assessment of programs available in Canadian institutions revealed that only 12.5 per cent of individuals were enrolled in these programs, while those on waitlists exceeded 35 per cent.

“The problem is that there are so few places available for the programming that people end up on waiting lists for a long time,” Ivan Zinger, the Executive Director and General Counsel at the Office of the Correctional Investigator, told The Daily.

In Canada’s prisons, the proportion of people with mental health issues is also increasing.

According to the same report, people with mental health issues are over-represented in the prison system, and between 1997 and 2008 the number of individuals admitted with mental health problems doubled.

Anne Crocker is a researcher at the Douglas Mental Health Institute whose work focuses on mental health and law. She has been involved in the Programme d’accompagnement justice-santé mentale – a mental health court in Montreal. Mental health courts are one-way prevention programs that provide help and resources for people in the criminal justice system with mental health disorders. Those with mental health disorders who are not placed in the category of “not criminally responsible” under the law are given the option to enter this program. Preliminary assessments have found that participation in mental health courts are associated with lower recidivism rates, compliance to treatments, and decreased costs. However, mental health courts currently only exist at the municipal level, and there are no known parallels in the provincial and federal systems.

Crocker emphasized the shortage of preventative measures in the current Canadian justice system. “We’re not putting enough energy into the preventative part. We’re doing a lot of reactive things [and] only when something happens do they intervene,” she told The Daily.

The Canadian justice system In March 2012, the Canadian government passed Bill C-10 – col-

loquially known as the “Safe Streets and Communities Act.” Changes in legislation included increases in mandatory minimum penalties, more difficult procedures for obtaining parole, and restricted use of conditional sentences.

The Bill was passed at a time when Canada was experiencing its lowest crime rates in almost 40 years.

According to the 2011-12 Correctional Investigator report, “increasing costs of corrections in Canada and rising inmate numbers are inseparable from a number of significant legislative measures.” The policy reforms implemented by Bill C-10 will lead to an increase in the number of incarcerations in an already strained prison system.

The same report states that the increased number of incarcerations has resulted in overcrowded prisons, forcing institutions to resort to double-bunking in cells. In response to these increases, the government plans to add approximately 2,700 new or renovated cells to over 30 existing facilities at a cost of more than $630 million in the next two to three years.

The Bill was passed at a time when Canada was experiencing its lowest crime rates in almost 40 years.

More recently, the Canadian government passed Bill C-54, known as the “Not Criminally Responsible Reform Act,” another bill that received much criticism and opposition from psychiatrists and mental health groups. This bill, which the government said will enhance the safety of victims, involved cre-

ating a “high-risk designation” for those in the “not criminally responsible” category who have committed particularly terrible crimes. These changes mean tighter restrictions including a three-year wait to be reviewed by a mental health board and non-eligibility for unescorted passes. Additionally, this highrisk not criminally responsible designation would only be able to be revoked by the courts.

Though the government assured that these individuals will still be provided with the services they need, there are concerns that this bill would make it more difficult for these individuals to adjust back into the community and stigmatize those with mental illness.

Criticism has surrounded the fact that these changes are not evidence-based and were proposed without consulting mental health groups or criminal justice organizations. Howard Sapers, the Correctional Investigator of Canada, also expressed concerns that this bill will result in more people in prison than in hospitals.

“In terms of intervention, risk assessment, and services for people with more impulse-type behaviours, there is a big gap between what science has shown in the last 20 years and what’s actually being done in practice,” explained Anne Crocker, whose researcher focuses on forensic psychiatry.

A forward-thinking legal system Canada could benefit from implementing a more forwardthinking legal system. While keeping criminals behind bars may serve the purpose of temporarily punishing wrong-doers and protecting victims, it is not the end all be all solution. Wellfunded and properly implemented rehabilitation and prevention programs are known to reduce crime rates and create a safer, more inclusive society. As science moves forward, time will only tell if the justice system will do the same.

Sci+Tech

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The McGill Daily

Monday, November 18, 2013

Accelerating the future

Can a Canadian not-for-profit do tech startups better?

Chris Mills | The McGill Daily

T

echnology startups are undisputedly big business nowadays: the top tech investment firms manage funds worth tens of billions of dollars; apps that make literally no money can afford to turn down buyout offers with nine zeros on the end; and programmers now command starting salaries well in excess of bankers or lawyers.

Fuelling this boom, in part, are tech accelerators: startup bootcamps, where fledgling ideas have the respectability of a business plan stamped on them, are packaged with upward-trending graphs aplenty, and then sold to the baying crowd of investors.

However, as much praise as seed accelerators often accrue, they’re very much focused on selling a product to investors, rather than nurturing the people behind the plan. A Canadian not-for-profit, called The Next 36 (N36) and based in Toronto, is trying to change that, with a different model for what it thinks a seed accelerator should be.

At heart, a seed accelerator is an incubator for technology startups. Companies exchange equity – normally around 5 to 10 per cent of their total worth – in exchange for a bit of startup capital, and an intensive programme of mentoring and networking from an all-star cast of mentors, often including the CEOs of companies like Twitter. It all culminates with a make-or-break pitch to investors, where they’ll try and sell off a little bit more of their company in return for a much greater wad of cash. Firms’ success or failure is very much judged on their abil-

ity to attract venture capital (VC) backing; either they get funding, and develop their idea, or they’re back to the drawing board, no further along than they were when they started the process.

The Next 36 takes a different approach. For starters, unlike the biggest seed accelerators in the U.S. such as Y Combinator and Techstars, it’s a not-for-profit, funded by donations and any operating profits it makes. That’s because the main aim of N36, according to Jon French, the programme’s Director of Marketing and Events, is “to accelerate the growth of individuals, rather than necessarily their ventures.” N36’s aim is to encourage the next generation of entrepreneurship in Canada, using the seed accelerator model as “a hands-on approach to teach a select cohort of entrepreneurs the skills they’ll need.”

As such, the model of this accelerator, and its philosophy, is dramatically different from others’. Applicants apply as individuals, and on the basis of their own background, rather than pitching an actual venture. Applicants are also all final-year undergraduates, or recent graduates.

More interestingly, only around a third of the applicants have a technical background – a marked difference from Silicon Valley accelerators, where the overwhelming majority of candidates are “geeks with computer science degrees and an over-inflated sense of self-worth,” according to one venture capitalist who wished to remain anonymous.

At N36, around a third of any particular cohort are from a business

Kristian Picon | The McGill Daily background, a third technical, and a third from “all other walks of life,” according to French.

The program’s structure is also radically different from other seed accelerators. Each N36 cohort is in the program for nine months, starting in November each year. The 36 budding entrepreneurs are partnered into teams of three, with a rough division of skills. It’s an immediate start: according to Brian Luong, a McGill alumnus who was part of the most recent N36 cohort, the first night is an intense experience. “You’re thrown into a team with people you’ve never met before, and you work through the night to get a business idea to pitch the next morning.”

But the most telling difference between N36 and other accelerators is the lack of emphasis on getting VC funding. Because the accelerators themselves only get income if the value of the startup grows – and their share of the startup grows in value along with it – the atmosphere can often be so pressured as to appear hostile, with the accelerators’ mentors putting immense pressure on the founders to sell themselves to potential investors.

One founder who went through a well-known tech accelerator in New York City in 2011 told The Daily: “I’d say it verges

on bullying… [the atmosphere] was so pressured, and everything so high profile, that if you didn’t get funding, [the mentors] would probably stop you ever succeeding again.”

On the other hand, the N36 atmosphere is more welcoming to mistakes. According to Sepand Norouzi, another McGill alumnus who was in the most recent N36 cohort, “it’s all about growing you as an individual. They give you a safe space to either succeed or fail, but either way, you end the programme much better equipped to be an entrepreneur than before.”

French echoes this sentiment: “For us [N36], it’s much more about the long-term: we’re not looking at the next few years, we want to create entrepreneurs who will be active for the next 10, 20 years.”

There’s another issue that has often dogged big-name accelerators: discrimination. By now it’s almost a universally accepted fact that women are woefully underrepresented in the technology sector, and sadly, N36 is more or less average when it comes to the gender breakdown: in the most recent cohort, 6 of 36 entrepeneurs were women. That’s barely better than high-profile Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator, which languishes at 10 per cent.

When challenged on the issue,

N36’s French used the traditional excuses: “applicants mostly come from STEM-based programs, where women are under-represented,” “there’s only so much we can do,” or “we’re neutral to the gender of our applicants.” While those things are undoubtedly true – and while it’s clear that N36 doesn’t actively bar women from its ranks – it’s still disappointing to see. Furthermore, only 7 of N36’s 28 mentors are female, which doesn’t encourage the kind of female-friendly environment that needs to exist as part of a longer-term shift to increase women’s representation in technology.

N36 claims that they’re addressing “Canada’s deficit of high impact entrepreneurs and nation-building business leaders.”

While that’s an excellent goal to start with – and N36 is clearly succeeding in teaching valuable skills to an impressive cohort of budding entrepreneurs – no plan focused on fostering a generation of leaders should be so willfully negligent to one of the most glaring problems, namely women’s under-representation, in technology. That N36, a not-for-profit in a perhaps unique position to do something about it, simply sits back and blames a lack of female applicants is a disappointing perpetuation of the status quo.

The McGill Daily

16

Sci+Tech

Monday, November 18, 2013

Genetic modification: a growing controversy A panel discussion engages both factions Thomas Raissi | Sci+Tech Writer

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enetically modified foods are everywhere, and are intensely controversial. Food is a topic close to everyone’s hearts (and stomachs) and genetic modification (GM) is one of the most divisive issues today. To promote engagement between the anti and pro-GMO advocates, the “Mind The Gap” panel, held at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, brought together a scientist, a Greenpeace activist, a Monsanto spokesperson, and an artist to take part in a discussion of the merits of GM. Illimar Altosaar, a professor of biochemistry, microbiology, and immunology at the University of Ottawa, opened the discussion.

Emphatically pro-GM, he provided impressive examples of rice, eggplant, and cotton engineered to be insect-resistant, explaining that they dramatically reduce labour and pesticide use. By the end of the discussion, the anti-GM participants had talked about the food system, corporate control, and agricultural practices, but hardly mentioned the organisms Altosaar brought up. The crux of the evening’s panel and the GM debate as a whole is that it isn’t only GM itself, but everything surrounding GM – the governments, regulatory agencies, companies, farms – in short, the food system as a whole – that creates controversy.

Eric Darier, the Senior Campaigner on agriculture at Greenpeace Canada, opposed GM. He talked about the importance of crop rotation for soil quality and

the widespread use of food to feed inefficient livestock. Claire Pentecost, a professor of photography at the School of Art Institute of Chicago who has studied the GM issue, added that heavy pesticide and fertilizer use which often accompanies GM foods can have unintended effects on soil quality and cause weed resistance. Darier agreed, describing GM as the “continuation of industrial agriculture.” But Altosaar pointed out that GM is “scale-neutral,” making the point that technologies based on GM plants – which increase resistance to parasites – are useful regardless of the size or type of farm. In this way, GM helps reduce pesticide and fertilizer use.

Darier later went on to speak about the danger of allowing a handful of companies (including Monsanto) to control the seed market. He criticized the regulatory system in Canada as ineffective. When others said GM has been widely studied and found to be safe, he responded that close relationships between regulators and industry, as well as the fact that scientific funding came from biotech giants like Monsanto, undermine its credibility. A show of hands in the audience confirmed that two-thirds shared Darier’s distrust of regulatory agencies. When the public no longer have confidence in the independence of scientists and regulators, this takes science off the table in the GM debate.

Both Pentecost and Altosaar noted that there is little funding to conduct studies on GM food, except

Robert Smith | The McGill Daily for funding provided by the developers themselves. This leaves a body of research that the public remains skeptical of – no matter how thorough and rigorous – because of its ties to industry.

Trish Jordan, Director of Public and Industry Affairs at Monsanto Canada, emphasized that farmers are free to choose if they want to purchase GM seeds and, if so, from whom they want to purchase them. Darier responded by outlining the risk that “whoever controls the food system con-

trols society,” and said that only six companies control most GM seeds. Widespread adoption of GM would concentrate great power in the hands of those corporations.

Near the end of the discussion, Pentecost concluded, “Science isn’t just about science. And science doesn’t have a monopoly on the truth.” At the core, GM isn’t an issue of science; it’s an issue of politics and trust. Information that both sides believe is scarce. At one point, Jordan said to Darier, “just because you say it doesn’t make it right.” A

lot of things are being said in the GM debate, but evidence that everyone agrees on seems out of reach. With so many questions and so few answers, deciding on the future of our food system is not going to be easy.

But with 800 million hungry people and an unprecedented global population , it is essential.

“Mind the Gap” ties in with Seeds, a documentary play about GM foods playing until November 24 at Centaur Theatre.

Sci+Tech, Email scitech@mcgilldaily.com, Health&Ed healthandeducation@mcgilldaily.com and Sports or want YOU to sports@mcgilldaily.com write for us! for more information

Health&Ed

17

The McGill Daily

Monday, November 18, 2013

Movember as microaggression

“Slacktivism,” and way too many awkward moustaches Ralph Haddad | The McGill Daily

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inktober – Breast Cancer Awareness Month – ends only to be replaced by Movember – an awareness campaign for men’s health that takes place throughout November. It’s characterized by too many moustaches, overarching shows of masculinity, and a general overload of testosterone. The pure and charitable sentiment is there – raising money for prostate and testicular cancer research, and fighting mental health problems among men – but what once started out as a harmless campaign has become sexist, racist, transphobic, and misinformed.

My father had prostate cancer – caught fairly early and treated – but for a long time he couldn’t admit it to himself, or come to terms with the outcome. I realize that Movember helps men acknowledge that they are not immortal, not pillars of immaculate health and glory. It forces them to face their illnesses head on – and overall, prostate cancer awareness is great. But there are so many holes that can be poked through this campaign that it’s hard not to notice.

Despite Movember claiming to be a global movement, it assumes privilege and a certain relation to class on behalf of the participant., which is only found in certain parts of the world. It is also wrong that Movember aims to

To be completely clear, you don’t have to be a man to have a prostate, and you don’t have to have a prostate to be a man. Being a man, according to Movember, implies an archaic view of gender that implies that only a male/female gender binary exists, and that you aren’t really a man if you don’t necessarily identify with that binary. The idea of suggesting that men show solidarity with each other by growing moustaches is completely absurd.

The facts concerning prostate cancer are clear. According to the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (SEER), the survival rate for prostate cancer is 99.2 per cent. Black males are also twice as likely to develop, and die with or from, prostate cancer than white males. This begs the question: who are all these white cisgender men fundraising and growing moustaches for? This is not to say that SEER statistics are without fault, as they fail to show any facts outside of the established and outdated gender binary. No wonder Movember is exclusionary to trans* people: how are people who do not identify with that binary and have a prostate supposed to partake in this cause? This is also because there are no facts concerning their demographic, and the campaign in question specifically targets cisgender men.

238,590 ESTIMATED NEW CASES OF PROSTATE CANCER IN 2013

14.4 PER CENT OF ALL NEW CANCER CASES IN THE U.S.

29,720 ESTIMATED DEATHS FROM PROSTATE CANCER IN 2013

5.1 PER CENT OF ALL CANCER DEATHS link masculinity and being a man to secondary male characteristics, including having a prostate and being able to grow a moustache.

Movember is also sexist. Cisgender women, called “Mo Sistas,” are encouraged to help their “Mo Bros” raise money during

November, but god forbid these women try to let their own body or facial hair grow in support of this campaign. Quiteirregular.com, a blog run by blogger Jem Bloomfield, compiled a few polite tweets written during/about Movember, aimed at their female counterparts. The tweets range from, “Just a heads up, No Shave November is not for women. Don’t be disgusting, ladies,” to, “I know it’s no shave November but please ladies know this month is not made for you to take part of. #Gross,” and, “Ladies, if you’re participating in No-Shave November, we cannot be friends. I’m gonna ask nicely that you continue your routine maintenance.” (It is important to note that people often mix up Movember and No-Shave November, although they both support prostate cancer awareness.)

Bloomfield then remarks that, “This campaign, intended as a project by men for men, has immediately been turned into a pretext for demanding that women submit themselves and their bodies to male approval,” going on to add that, “I don’t want to be told that a moustache makes me a man, or that my identity depends upon shaming women into being presentable to the male gaze.” No- Shave November’s website asserts, “guys and girls alike unite in the height of laziness agreeing to not shave their beards or legs (respectively) for the entire month of November.” But Bloomfield is right in saying that the campaign has been twisted into a misogynistic tool by its own users.

Movember is also a huge advocate of regular Prostate SpecificAntigen (PSA), testing for men (PSA is a specific type of protein found on the prostate gland, and this test examines the level of PSA in a man’s blood.) An article published on ecancer.org, entitled “U.S. task force decides against PSA screening,” concludes that PSAbased screening results in detection of more prostate cancers but “small to no reduction in prostate cancer-specific mortality after 10 years; [as well as harms] related to false positive [PSA] test results, subsequent evaluation, and therapy, including over-diagnosis and overtreatment.” The same task force warned against PSA screening for asymptomatic men. Margaret McCartney, a General Practitioner based in Glasgow who also

runs her own health blog, wrote that PSA testing “doesn’t work well as a screening test, and is not part of an [National Health Service] Screening programme.” She adds that, “Movember presents PSA testing as something a good citizen would do, not something which performs very poorly. Nor do they link to information such

to get screened? Does it tell you how you can prevent prostate cancer (if you even can)? Does it tell you the symptoms? Does it tell you who’s affected?” Yes, Movember might raise awareness, and a good deal of money ($146.6 million just last November, according to their website) for a good cause, but that isn’t an excuse to ignore its major

# new cases per 100,000 persons by race: prostate cancer

228.5

144.9

WHITE

BLACK

# of new deaths per 100,000 persons by race: prostate cancer

50.9

21.2

WHITE as decision aids [which help decide whether or not to have a PSA test] for PSA screening (which, incidentally, tend to lead to more men not wanting the test)”. Movember does not take into account the risks identified with PSA testing, and this, in turn, spreads misinformation and thoroughly narrows a person’s choices with regards to testing if the Movember website is their only source for information on prostate cancer.

Blogger Ashley Ashbee, who calls Movember a type of “slacktivism,” puts it perfectly when asking participants, “Does your moustache share information about the importance of screening, or where

BLACK flaws. The point of articles like this is also to raise awareness to inherent microaggressions (interactions between people of different races, genders, sexualities, and cultures that represent small acts of non-physical violence) and discrimination that campaigns like Movember help perpetuate, whether directly or indirectly.

This awareness is raised in order to take something, like Movember, help fix it up and make it more accessible and less misogynistic, and turn it into something better.

Do some basic research, educate yourself on the issue, and think twice before growing a moustache this, or any other, November.

The McGill Daily

18

Health&Ed

Monday, November 18, 2013

Stigmatizing anxiety

On shrugging it off, and why it’s important to seek help Melanie Gedeon, Claire Iroudayassamy, and Kira Ludmer-Kott | Health&Ed Writers

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tudents can suffer from a lot of anxiety, and anxietyinduced stress. Whether it is from having to submit essays, or having to deal with pressures from work or personal issues, students go through a lot. But how significant of an issue does stress become for an individual?

What is anxiety?

According to Melanie Dirks, assistant professor in McGill’s Department of Psychology, anxiety disorders may often present themselves as discreet, internalized problems and consequently are often overlooked. However, although not always diagnosed, people suffering from anxiety have to endure difficult conditions that do in fact impact them and those around them.

The strong negative emotion or tension we refer to as anxiety is usually accompanied by physiological symptoms that are often debilitating. Symptoms may include physical sensations such as an increased heart rate, sweating or nausea. The individual may also exhibit signs of panic. Moreover, individuals may demonstrate cognitive shifts such as suicidal thoughts or difficulty concentrating, in addition to irregular behavioural patterns such as avoid-

Tanbin Rafee | Illustrator ance or unusual crying. Avoidance can be a helpful coping strategy in the short term but often augments anxiety over time. A student may, for example, put off studying for an exam that they are particularly worried about. Though this will reduce negative emotions related to the upcoming exam temporarily, anxiety will likely be stronger the next time that the student attempts to study. Anxiety disorders have high prevalence rates – 8 to 27 per cent – among studemts. They also span across a person’s lifetime, and are also related to other major issues, such as depression, drug dependency, and academic difficulties.

Tough it out There still exists a lot of stigma with regards to mental illness in our society. This causes most people to take the ‘tough it out’ approach because they are too ashamed to ask for help. The symptoms of people suffering from these disorders are trivialized due to this stigmatization. In turn, this could have a very serious effect on how someone views their own situation. Samantha Goldwater-Adler, who holds a PhD in Psychology, describes the ‘tough it out’ approach as very harmful. “When stress becomes so intense or long-standing that the

person has difficulty functioning and experiencing enjoyment in life,” said Goldwater-Adler, “feeling the need to tough it out can really get in the way of seeking out much-needed help.” She adds that this only increases “the risk that the stress persists, worsens, and takes a […] toll on the person’s mental and physical health.” Goldwater-Adler does mention that toughing it out may, in fact, be fine for stress that is mild and does not interfere with daily life or cause significant distress, and suggests that dealing with mild daily life stressors on your own is fine; however, when this stress begins to interfere with your quality of life it is important to seek help. Traditionally, people with mental health problems were viewed as broken or faulty, and any mental health issues, no matter how mild, were held within the same scope.

People often won’t know where to seek helps – or even whether to seek it in the first place – when it comes to anxiety. Additionally, people still suggest that all someone needs is a good shake and the desire to truly want to get rid of anxiety in order to make everything better.

Is it that serious?

Simply speaking, yes. Most people assume that anxiety-induced

stress is an everyday part of life and we should all wait it out until it goes away. As mentioned, this may be true in some minor cases.

In some cases it seems as though stress and anxiety may act as a motivator in order to stop procrastination; however, if the problem is constant, high levels of stress can be extremely debilitating and can have adverse effects on long-term health. Stress can be so paralyzing that the body essentially shuts down and the mind blanks out as a result of lack of sleep or lack of focus. Apart from the physical manifestations of stress and anxiety, these effects can also lead to ‘burning out’ and depression.

What to do?

If you do need help, you should seek it out; however, it seems as though the McGill community has a lot of issues with its own Mental Health Clinic. Judging by some classroom discussions and conversations between students on campus, one of the biggest concerns with the Mental Health Clinic is how inaccessible the services are.

The waiting time to make appointments, and for the drop-in clinic, are extremely long. According to a Daily article entitled “Moving toward a different model of mental

health,” published on October 17, the average wait time for a first appointment is two weeks, while the wait time for a follow-up appointment averages six weeks.

QPIRG offers alternatives to the Mental Health Clinic, such as the Inclusive Mental Health Collective, which recently gained working group status. It is run by students, for students, and advocates a safe and open space for sharing experiences related to anything that has to do with mental health. The Collective offers weekly camp circles and meditation groups, shared experience groups relating to depression, anxiety, life on and off medication, as well as specific workshops such as personal empowerment, yoga, conflict resolution, social justice, and mental health.

Stress is not an insignificant problem, and if you are feeling as though your anxiety is debilitating and chronic, be brave and strong enough to seek help for it.

Brushing it off will only make it worse and have truly damaging side effects on your mental and physical health.

If you would like any more information on the Inclusive Mental Health Collective, email them at inclusiveMH@gmail.com.

Sports

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The McGill Daily

Monday, November 18, 2013

Back, but from what?

The persistent redemption narrative in sports Evan Dent | The McGill Daily

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here’s nothing more enduring than the redemptive athlete narrative. Usually, on a Sunday morning, on your TV or in the newspaper, there is the story of the athlete who was either injured or had recently gone through a personal problem – a death of a family member, a divorce, trade rumours, a suspension, et cetera – and who has come back and is playing well again. The athlete speaks somberly of their troubles, the music gets brighter, and then we see them recover and get back to – or rise above – their previous playing ability. It’s the opportunity for every reporter to bust out the soft-focus lighting and the tinkling pianos in order to tell a story that will warm your heart. Reporters have made their careers out of telling these stories, week after week. Problem is, sometimes they have to keep telling these stories, and so we get the stretches.

As Deadspin’s Samer Kalaf pointed out in his post “Riley Cooper Hasn’t ‘Been Through’ Anything,” this sort of narrative arc has been applied recently to Riley Cooper, a National Football League (NFL) receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles who was caught on camera this summer, at a concert, shouting a racial epithet and offering to fight any black person there. Controversy ensued, and he had to go to sensitivity training as a result. A couple of weeks ago, he caught three touchdown passes in a game, and, somehow, some were claiming that Cooper had “been through so much” and had just somehow triumphed over his adversity. As Kalaf pointed out, Cooper hasn’t been through anything besides being an asshole.

Somehow, the narrative of redemption has become more about playing well again than actually becoming a better person. As long as the athlete provides canned quotes about how much they’ve learned, and starts producing athletically, the media will immediately jump on the redemption bandwagon.

Tiger Woods’ return from scandal is a particularly good example of this narrative. In 2009, Woods was caught in a very public divorce scandal, and withdrew from all golf competitions for five months. Since then, the main narrative about Woods has been whether he can return to his previous status as golf ’s top player.

Every time he wins a tournament, the story becomes “Tiger’s back!”

Christine Tam | Illustrator There have been countless somber interviews with Woods since his infidelity about how he’s become a better guy, and how his play will soon match that. In essence, once he wins another major, he will have overcome his entirely mediacreated adversity.

The same goes for LeBron James, the National Basketball Association’s best player. After he chose to leave his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers to join the star-studded Miami Heat, the media and many fans eviscerated him for his perceived dishonesty. After a season where he seemed to embrace being a villain, the narrative the next season was about how James had learned from his mistakes and was now more humble.

James’ poor reception by fans became part of this redemptive story, in which he was hated for a year, came back apologetic, and then was able to succeed.

Deadspin’s Kyle Wagner wrote a column entitled “Pot Isn’t Life and Death, and Tyrann Mathieu isn’t a Redemption Story” last Thursday denouncing how Tyrann Mathieu

– whose career was in trouble because of marijuana use – has received the same treatment by the media. Mathieu didn’t do anything especially bad – depending on how you view marijuana use – but now that he’s been through rehab, and plays in the NFL, he’s been cast as this inspirational story. All because of moralist objections to marijuana use by young athletes.

The hero narrative is simplistic and boring, and confounding in so many ways. For one, it casts human redemption – one of the richest, and most layered stories someone can tell – as a simple matter of playing sports well. Seriously, there have been long novels written about someone atoning for past misdeeds, but in sports, all it takes is a sorry-sounding interview and improved play for sportswriters across the country to cast the athlete as an inspiring story.

Perhaps worse is how far writers will go to cast anything as adversity. The Onion probably said it best when they released the satirical video “College Basketball Star Heroically Overcomes Tragic

Rape He Committed.” Of course, it’s an exaggeration of the truth, but it’s scarily not far from it. Cooper has come back from yelling a racial epithet; last year, Nick Cousins, a hockey prospect, was touted as having overcome the adversity of a sexual assault charge (the charges have since been dropped).

It doesn’t matter what kind of adversity you face – whether it is increased media scrutiny, a suspension, what have you – all that matters is that it can be fashioned into a story.

I guess this kind of comes off as “you should do redemption stories this way, not that way.” But there are compelling stories out there, of players who have come back from injury, or a death in the family – a true problem for the player, an outside event, that they overcome personally, that allows them to play at their previous level. Players can recover and truly be changed. I also think that truly great stories are rare, and fleeting, and that the result of change isn’t just canned quotes or good statistics. True change takes time. In the rush for their story of

the week, something that will hit readers right in the heart, sportswriters have blanketed the sporting world for anything that they can construct as a redemption story. It’s a comforting story, a way to inject the magic of movies into the everyday sports website.

Recently, the NFL has been overtaken by a conversation about bullying. Jonathan Martin, an offensive guard for the Miami Dolphins, abruptly left the team after being incessantly bullied by his teammates. Richie Incognito, another guard, was singled out as the ringleader, and was subsequently released from the team. I imagine that Martin will come back to the NFL, probably for a different team, and will be the subject of hundreds of puff pieces – and for good reason: he went through something of a psychological hell. If Incognito comes back to the NFL – it’s up in the air at this point – I fear he’ll get the same treatment by some writers, of how he learned his lesson and became a kinder guy, no matter what actually happens. Because it just sounds better.

Culture

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The McGill Daily

Monday, November 18, 2013

Painting the Bard’s words in vivid colours Players’ Theatre puts on Shakespeare’s The Tempest Louis Denizet | Culture Writer

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ast Wednesday, November 13, Players’ Theatre unveiled its third show of the season, Shakespeare’s alleged last play, The Tempest. Although sticking to the original text, Players’ The Tempest offered a rich visual experience and compelling acting, allowing it to draw contemporary audiences in.

The comedy in question centres around Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, as he disbands a group of Neapolitan shipwrecked survivors, including his usurping brother Antonio, in an attempt to play tricks on them. As the story unfolds, Prospero’s loyal spirit Ariel and three mischievous fairies help him manipulate the survivors, who become players in his wicked game of life and death. Fortunately for some, love is found in these unexpected circumstances. Unfortunately for others, Prospero has a few tricks up his sleeve to punish those who wronged him.

While Shakespeare’s humour can be difficult to grasp, the cast of The Tempest deserves praise for the emphasis that they placed on unflowery elocution, which rendered the Bard’s complex text accessible and intelligible. All 18 actors also honoured the reputation of The Tempest as Shakespeare’s most physical play by being as energetic as possible, therefore keeping audi-

ence members on the edge of their seats at all times. One way in which this was achieved was through director Juliet Paperny’s ingenious idea to ask actors to regularly break the fourth wall and interact with audience members. Seldom did Caliban, Prospero’s enslaved island monster, miss an opportunity to lock eyes with viewers, which added an appreciated touch of excitement to the production.

The décor, which consisted of artificial sand and water spraypainted onto the ground itself, as well as foliage, trees, nets, boulders, and more, was aesthetically pleasing due to its restrained colour palette which ranged from azure blues to golden yellows.

Costumes reflected a historically accurate interpretation of what Italian shipwrecked survivors from the 17th century would have been likely to wear. In terms of makeup and body paint, intricate sinewy designs, as seen on the fairies’ faces, added to the visual pleasure of the play, while tribal patterns and chaotically applied body paint, as seen on Caliban’s body, helped audience members understand characters’ identities.

Yves Abanda’s interpretation of Caliban’s role was one of the high points of the night. His relentless twitching, trembling, grimacing, yelping, jumping, and cascading,

Robert Smith | The McGill Daily which lasted for more than two hours, must have demanded a rigorous physical training and a considerable amount of willpower. The boisterous and expressive Anurag Chaoudhury and Nick LePage, as, respectively, Stephano and Trinculo, were also highly entertaining. The trio, composed of Caliban, the Neapolitan King’s perpetually drunken steward Trinculo, and the jester Stephano, had great stage presence, energy, and complicity.

The tricks they played on one another added a welcome slapstickcomedy aspect to the show, complementing the otherwise nuanced humour of the play.

Productions of Shakespeare’s plays are not rare in Universitylevel theatre troupes, and it is therefore prudent to wisely choose which performance to put on before heading brashly into executing what might be a tedious three-hour long play. Paperny’s interpreta-

tion of The Tempest, however, is far from monotonous. Au contraire, her fresh new perspective on Shakespeare’s last masterpiece cannot fail to transport audiences to a foreign spatiotemporal zone in which humour, love, and magic reign.

The Tempest will run from November 20 to 23 at 8 p.m. at Players’ Theatre (3480 McTavish, 3rd Floor). Visit ssmu.mcgill.ca/players for more information.

God in his underwear

Anders Nilsen’s Rage of Poseidon explores the lesser-known lives of the gods

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o you’re a Greek god, or the Christian God, or what-haveyou, and you’re trying to cope with the harsh realities of modern life, what Henry Thoreau called that “quiet desperation” of day-today existence, along with those big issues like (what is) life and (what is) death that seem to surround us all the freaking time. Enter, thus, into the world of shadow, silhouette, and dark humour that is Anders Nilsen’s book, Rage of Poseidon, where each chapter incites us to take on the personas of the gods, in all their twisted glory, as they simultaneously assimilate us, in one long quest for life’s meaning.

Throughout the quest, human and god alike fall victim to anguish, insecurity, and existentialism, along with, ultimately, a vestige of hope.

Nilsen’s modern interpretation

Brittany Cost | Culture Writer of our supposed classical heritage, along with the good ol’ Christian Bible, is nothing new. The gods have been making casual appearances in Western literature and art for centuries since, well, the printing press.

Who does Dante meet in the eighth circle of Hell but Ulysses, that great Classical hero who sojourned oceans upon oceans and corrupt lands to return home, only to wind up in Hell? Who does Dante meet in the outermost sphere of Hell but Lucifer and Judas, and Brutus, et cetera, et cetera? Not to mention Dante’s well-versed tour guide, the Roman poet Virgil.

After Dante, there was Milton, raving on about Adam and Eve and Paradise. Then, a bit later, with the blossoming of mass media, there was Percy Jackson and The Passion of the Christ. Classical and Christian

figures have been providing fodder for Western art and pop culture longer than the Greco-Roman world even existed. It seems more apt to say that we can’t escape Classical or Christian references, rather than that we’ve ever forgotten them.

What’s new in Poseidon is Nilsen’s fusion and critique, along with the book’s innovative format.

Nilsen’s book folds out like an accordion, most likely because the book was first shown in a gallery as a series of panels before it was ever printed. The book is assembled with a precise attention to detail, from the crispness of the graphics to the pithiness of the copyright page.

Even the paper quality is superior to the average office print-outs. The only problem, perhaps, is function: don’t fold out the pages too much, or they won’t want to fit back in.

The novelty of the format aptly introduces the irreverence of Nilsen’s work, which is a kind of fan fiction about Western heritage.

Specifically, Nilsen chooses three stories about Greek gods, two about Christian figures, and two, paradoxically, that star everybody, with a healthy amount of conceptual inter-pollination in all seven. Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom, is used as a Christ figure, and the Christian God is shown “curled up in a ball in his bed [...] in his underwear and just one sock,” blurring the boundaries of weak and powerful, moral and downright indecent. Nilsen’s creation is at once admissive of a Western tradition and reflexive of that very tradition. For example, he renders the Judeo-Christian God, generally portrayed as a benevolent and all-powerful being, as needy,

sometimes careless, and maybe a little insane. Nilsen’s God is the image of the humans he created, instead of the other way around.

Nilsen asks readers to alter their perspectives and put themselves in the place of the gods.

Supposedly, they could answer our prayers if they wanted to, but are they really listening? Would you really care about you, if it weren’t kind of necessary? Nilsen assumes that gods are a universal (read: Western) form of identification, and he uses that commonality to show us the violence and tenderness of his philosophy on life and the grief that seems inherent to our lives. In his deceptively humourous depictions of gods and of humanity, we lose our religion a little, perhaps, but not our faith. Because, really, what else is there?

The McGill Daily

Culture

21

Monday, November 18, 2013

The Daily reviews Kashka, Get Scared, Afrobeat Airwaves 2, Blood Orange Rochelle Guillou, Hillary Pasternak, Joseph Renshaw, and Reba Wilson | Culture Writers

Kashka – B OUND SOCAN/ BMI

Various artists – AFROBEAT AIRWAYS 2: REFLIGHT TO GHANA, 1974-1983 Analog Africa

Get Scared – EVERYONE’S OUT TO GET ME Fearless Records

Blood Orange – CUPID DELUXE Domino Records

2010’s Afrobeat Airways: West African Shock Waves, Ghana & Togo 1972-1978, a compilation of rare tracks by Analog Africa’s Samy Ben Redjeb from afrobeat’s golden age, was an unexpected hit with the music press that year, and no wonder, considering the quality of the songs and extensive and interesting liner notes. If anything, the scope on Afrobeat Airways 2 is broader. It extends to 1983, and as such has a more varied sound, taking in cheesier 1980s tracks, like Tony Sarfo & The Funky Afrosibi’s “I Beg,” and Waza-Afriko 76’s “Gbei Kpakpa Hife Sika,” which even has some harmonica in it. This definitely isn’t a genre that gets much exposure in the West (aside from the influence Afro-pop has had on uber-white indie rockers Vampire Weekend).

Perhaps the only criticism that could be levelled at Afrobeat Airways 2 is that many of the artists from the first record appear on this one, like Ebo Taylor Jr., Uppers International, K. Frimpong, and The African Brothers – not to mention several incarnations of De Frank. With close to a decade’s worth of music to choose from, surely there are more than 15 artists out there worth showcasing?

That said, the above were all titans of the scene, and the sheer quality of the tracks makes any attack on the selection a spurious one. Brass is present throughout (as is Doorsesque organ), but on opener Uppers International’s “Aja Wondo” it is particularly irresistible. The rhythm section of the songs is also wonderfully varied. The bass on Waza-Afriko 76’s “Gbei Kpakpa Hife Sika” is pushed to the fore, whilst the drums on Ios Issufu and His Moslems’ “Kana Soro” could have come from the heavier rock songs of the period. But the highlight has got to be Rob’s flawless “Loose Up Yourself,” which combines delicate guitar and outrageous levels of funk. The tracks on Afrobeat Airways 2 may be billed as rarities, but they nonetheless serve as a great introduction to the genre.

The emo of the previous decade was a strange beast. A generation of suburban bands took the sound of pop-punk, the aesthetics of goth rock, and the histrionic poetry from their high school diaries, and created a musical movement that was catharsis for a certain type of angsty teenager, and a useful punchline for everyone else. But that was in 2008.

Decades ago in musical microtrend years.

Utah five-piece band Get Scared (Nicholas Matthews, Johnny Braddock, Adam Virostko, and Bradley “Lloyd” Iverson, and Dan Juarez), have apparently missed the bandwagon with their new release Everyone is Out to Get Me. They hail from the slightly goth strain of emo that borrows as much from 1980s metal as it does from hardcore.

It’s a combination that’s worked before. The Used and From First to Last traded in similar tropes to great effect. But Get Scared is missing their undertone of real desperation. The vampiric undertones here are more Edward Cullen than Nosferatu.

Out to Get Me isn’t without its pleasures: “For You” is bouncy and pop-y. Like early My Chemical Romance, but maybe with a little added whine. Also erring on the side of accessibility is “Us In Motion,” which aims for big and romantic, with its swelling chorus and ringing wall-of-sound power chords. It’s when they aim to capture strains of depression and vindictive paranoia promised in the album’s title that Get Scared seem to get a bit stale, as if they don’t have much new to say on the subject.

If Out to Get Me had been released between seven and ten years ago, it could have been a bona fide hit, riding the coattails of flashier, more talented acts. But emo has had to evolve. Scene success stories like Fall Out Boy and AFI have made their comebacks recently, but they’ve done so by embracing new influences – hip hop beats and electronic dynamics. Unfortunately, there are no sign of that here.

Sultry, smooth, synthy, and hypnotic are all adjectives that describe British musician and songwriter Devonté Hynes’ most recent musical creation, the album Cupid Deluxe. With vocals from Samantha Urbani and elements borrowed from various genres – rap, jazz, and disco – the album is cool personified. Released November 18, Cupid Deluxe is part of a profusion of creative endeavours for Hynes; in the past he has written and produced music for artists such as Florence and the Machine and Solange Knowles.

Cupid Deluxe begins with a hypnotic beat and shuffling, reverb-laden percussion, including repeated riffs. Suddenly, suavely, Hynes’ voice pours in the lyrics of “Chamakay.” Next up is “You’re Not Good Enough,” a catchy 1980s funk tune with smooth vocals. Then “Uncle Ace” fills the room with sounds redolent of disco, updated for 2013. Vocals and jazzy saxophone solos combine with disco-inspired riffs to create a musical hodgepodge that can only be described as delicious.

Songs like “No Right Thing” and “On The Line” are more laid back, with the latter offering up a R&B vibe. Smooth saxophone and a woman talking in a French accent update “Chosen,” which might otherwise resemble a 1980s pop ballad. The album takes a digression through rap ballads “Clipped on” and “High Street.” The latter, about gaining inspiration from the streets and persevering on the path of musicianship, is a cleverly worded and intelligent song. The lyrics are most important here, instrumentals serving as a backbone.

Some films make you laugh and cry; this album does the musical equivalent, as it takes you on a genre-instigated tour of an array of feelings. Despite this variety, Blood Orange’s sound is consistently able to captivate.

TURN

If Kashka’s new album Bound was taken off of iTunes, it’s likely only her close relatives would notice. Most people would argue that being in the top ten albums on iTunes or having over 100,000 views on YouTube does not mean that your music is better in any way, but a certain amount of recognition often correlates with an artist’s significance. After all, a little fame does mean that you’ve managed to grab the public’s attention. And this is where Kashka falls short.

Her music is not bad, it just doesn’t stand out enough to merit repeat listens or referrals among fans.

In Bound’s first track, “Never Had It,” her voice is soft and sweet, sounding a bit like a more acoustic Lorde. But once the track moves on from a string of “maybe I was a fool to...” murmurs, it’s only to get stuck in a never-ending repetition of “baby we never had it anyway” which makes you want to throw out Bound for good. There are original elements in some of her songs, as she blends guitar and piano sounds, using a tambourine to give it tempo. But then the beat will pick up in a familiar, pop-y way and begins to bring to mind upbeat trying-too-hard-to-be-indie elevator music mixed with a teenager’s Disney debut.

There are two reviews online and one of them points out the “something modern” that can be found in the new album. It’s true that if you pay close attention to the background sounds you can glimpse that it was thought-through, but you have to be really looking for it. All in all, Kashka’s new album Bound is missing a voice of its own. Sadly, it’s the type of music that no one will remember.

—Rochelle Guillou

—Reba Wilson

—Joseph Renshaw —Hillary Pasternak

The McGill Daily

22

Culture

Monday, November 18, 2013

Express yourself?

McGill’s art magazines Vareesha Khan | Culture Writer

E

ven in the most flexible of faculties, McGill keeps academia at the core of its curriculum. While this allows students to maintain the university’s reputation, it has the unfortunate side effect of keeping creative talent hidden. This is exacerbated by the lack of visual art classes at the school. As a result, art magazines (a surprisingly small number, though) have sprung up to fill the vacuum. A student interested in having their writing published has the choice between The Veg or Steps, while Folio curates artistic talents in visual and print media.

Can’t decide between The Veg and Steps for your newest chef d’œuvre? More traditional poetry and prose has a home in Steps, whose “focus is good writing, plain and simple.” On the other hand, more modern, radical, and experimental work can be found in the more alternative magazine The Veg, as they “aim to publish a diverse collection of writings that take risks and challenge readers.” To broaden its community and scope, The Veg does not make rules on who can submit to the magazine or join as a board member (it also offers a prize in “the hopes of encouraging […] literary pursuits”). Steps’ current board consists of two editor-in-chiefs, three prose editors, and two poetry editors. Folio’s non-hierarchical board is exclusively composed

Alice Shen | The McGill Daily of undergraduates.

Folio is the most established of the three, something that comes through not only their past issues but also their relationships to the school and the city. The board keeps one or two editors to deal primarily with administration and funding, and it has forged relationships with the cultural community. Folio works with Montreal’s independent music community by promoting local musicians at their launch parties (if art and music is your thing, consider attending!).

It also aligns with a more experimental artistic world, since it defines art broadly. In addition to traditional mediums, it also publishes music scores, film stills, and collages on its website. In their words, “your work doesn’t need to be ‘art’ – we’re interested in anything that can be captured and printed on a page. In fact, we love things that you wouldn’t ordinarily think of as art.”

The Veg prides itself on straying from academic writing, since they believe that school provides enough opportunities for the latter with its plethora of analytical essays, research papers, and honours theses. Additionally, The Veg seeks out diverse pieces with strong critical views. While there is no grading rubric to sort through submissions, more radical and controversial entries have been favoured.

Then again, it comes down to the

chemistry between the current editorial board and the pieces sent in for each edition, so this approach is never set in stone. Unlike Steps, which only publishes written pieces, The Veg does publish some black and white art, which makes it competitive with Folio as well.

Despite the differences between them, all the art magazines share a common value: fair and unbiased judgment. This principle is upheld by an anonymous submission policy, ensuring that only the work is being looked at, rather than the contributor’s personality or past submissions. Folio decides on only twelve pieces, but gives each person a two to four page spread.

The other magazines are more flexible with the number of pieces published, since this tends to depend on the length of the work, while art takes up more space and usually has more colours, and is more expensive to print. For the editors, consensus is extremely important, which is why review sessions usually take hours. Steps sends an editor to work with the accepted authors if any revision is seen as necessary, while the other magazines do their editing independent of contributors.

Evidently, running an art magazine is difficult and time-consuming work. No wonder the editions of Folio, The Veg, and Steps only publish bi-annually. Works are submitted around February and

March for the Winter editions, while October and November are the cut-offs for the Fall editions.

After deciding on the entries, the editors spend weeks designing the layout of the magazine and working through the process of publishing, funding, and proliferating.

Perhaps funding is a reason why only three magazines exist for a campus of nearly thirty-five thousand. Folio, for example, expressed concern for its future as a magazine; while Folio has support from McGill’s Dean of Arts Development Fund, the Fine Arts Council of the McGill Arts Undergraduate Society, and the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), they still depend on launch parties to raise money for printing costs.

While these three art magazines have put in substantial effort to accommodate the creative talents at McGill, there are still gaps that other new ventures could address. Not only do the magazines have specific writing styles that they look for, corresponding to each publication’s identity, but they can only publish a fraction of their submissions. By having more options for the McGill community, more opinions and ideas could be made available. The more involved students are in exploring their fellow students’ works, the more McGill will be able to have a cohesive art scene. While we defi-

nitely like the idea of having art magazines to represent our identities at the school, we do not make the effort to interact with and support these outlets. Having looked at these three entities, the lack of artistic appreciation McGill’s academic structure provides becomes apparent. We have adjusted by starting our own groups around campus; however, McGill needs to be more engaged with its students at a more fundamental level.

While the editors I spoke with were clearly passionate about their work, they also lamented the difficulties of getting funding and recognition from the administration. With such a lack of creative experimentation within our classrooms, SSMU and the university administration should do more to encourage artistic expression by providing the means for current and future art magazines to exist.

You can find the archives for Folio ( foliomagazine.ca), Steps (stepsmagazine.wordpress.com), and The Veg (thevegmagazine.tumblr.com) online. The Veg’s Fall edition will be published at the end of November, and you can attend their reader series on November 25 at Le Cagibi.

Folio and Steps are still working on processing submissions and curating the pieces. You can also expect their Fall editions to appear in the next few weeks.

Editorial

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The ongoing process of allyship

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Alice Shen | The McGill Daily

W

hen SSMU ran their Costume Campaign in the weeks leading up to their 4Floors Halloween event, they ran it with the goal of preventing incidents of racist and culturally appropriative costumes at the event. The campaign was started in part as a response to numerous instances of these types of costumes at last year’s event. But in trying to be helpful, they ran photos of students in blackface and appropriative costumes, taken explicitly for the purpose of the campaign, displaying exactly the kind of insensitivity they were trying to combat.

This is a prime example of allyship gone wrong.

An ally is an individual – or in this case, organization – that recognizes and actively works against the oppression experienced by marginalized groups. An example of effectively combating racist costumes is the campaign of Ohio University’s student group Students Teaching About Racism in Society, entitled “We’re a Culture, Not a Costume.”

This campaign – in fact, the inspiration for SSMU’s Costume Campaign – featured people of colour holding up signs of people in culturally insensitive costumes with the words “This is not who I am, and this is not okay.” This, rather than featuring students in racist costumes, is an example of good allyship; instead of perpetuating oppressive actions, it allows marginalized peoples to express their own perspectives.

Being a good ally has less to do with offering your own opinion as it does with listening to those of the people you’re aiming to support. Someone speaking from a relative place of privilege often has the advantage of space to make their voice heard.

It’s necessary to acknowledge this when venturing into a space or movement created for a marginalized group, as it may be one of the few places re-

served for members of that group to speak. It’s their turn to be heard.

With mouths shut, and keyboards silent, listening and reading become priorities for allies. Accounts of the experience of oppression are some of the most valuable tools of political education.

Luckily for us, they’re plentifully available online, on issues ranging from disability, race, citizenship status, class, gender, and more, on sites like Racialicious and Tranarchy, in addition to the myriad personal blogs.

The best use of an ally’s voice in most cases is to direct other people of privilege to the words and interpretations of people belonging to the group they wish to support. One such opportunity is coming up on November 20, the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, organized as a tribute to those who have been killed as a result of transphobia. Cisgender allies should take this day to listen to and support the voices of their fellow trans* community members as they memorialize their dead. Throughout the rest of the year, McGill-centred events like Social Justice Days and Culture Shock take place with the aim of educating and raising awareness about issues ignored in the mainstream.

However, these resources and learning opportunities are only starting points. Allyship is not an identity one can assume, but is instead crucial, ongoing process. Having completed one good deed doesn’t mean completing the transformation into an ally. There is no point at which an individual is ‘finished’ with the process, as it is one that requires continual evaluation to prevent complicity in the oppressions that marginalized people face, and one that demands daily, critical attention.

—The McGill Daily Editorial Board

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Amina Batyreva, Jacqueline Brandon, Théo Bourgery, Hera Chan, Lola Duffort, Benjamin Elgie, Camille Gris Roy, Boris Shedov, Samantha Shier, Anqi Zhang All contents © 2013 Daily Publications Society. All rights reserved. The content of this newspaper is the responsibility of The McGill Daily and does not necessarily represent the views of McGill University. Products or companies advertised in this newspaper are not necessarily endorsed by Daily staff.

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Compendium!

24

The McGill Daily

Monday, November 18, 2013

Lies, half-truths, and aggressively agreeing with your friends

Ally Days draws strong support at McGall Attendees nodded empathically, told marginalized people “that must totally suck” E.k. EK | The McGall Weekly

A

llies on McGall campus rallied together under a unified voice as several events were held last Thursday and Friday as part of Ally Days at McGall. The first annual allyspecific event included workshops and panels that openly addressed topics such as self-congratulation, deliberate misreading of personal narratives, and telling other people how to identify.

National Ally Day (November 14) was only instituted six years ago, but has a long unofficial history of allies everywhere vigorously agreeing with each other over the dynamics of oppression. The event was organized by the McGall chapter of the Quebec Political Action and Research Group on Humanism (QPARGH), and facilitated by the Students’ Headquarters of McGall University (SHMU).

QPARGH Action Coordinator, Ann White-Pearson, explained that Ally Days at McGall was conceived as a way to address the systemic undervaluing of allies. “You hear a lot of gay people, for example, talking about gay issues. And I think a lot of people wonder, ‘What about straight people’s opinion of gay issues?’ That’s the kind of critical direction we tried to take with these workshops.”

“McGall is one place where I definitely don’t feel allies are given enough space,” White-Pearson said. “If I want to talk about the ways disabled people are underrepresented, why can’t I do that?

I’m told that I’m ‘talking over’ people by explaining their feelings to others. I think that’s a serious problem.”

“Steps to More Effective SelfBack-Patting” “It’s a powerful experience to have a good cry about oppression sometimes,” Jack Lemoore said as he began his workshop. “I sometimes like to imagine what it must be like to face microaggressions and it gets me so worked up, I just–” Lemoore then broke off for a moment, pressing a closed fist against his lips and looking off to the side, tears beginning to form in his eyes. “I just get really emotional, and really inspired to do good.”

The workshop was introduced as a way to help allies feel affirmed in their support of marginalized people. Lemoore

E.k. EK and Malice Shins | The McGall Weekly detailed several strategies for “totally empathizing” with the victims of daily oppression. One suggestion was to “refuse to take no for an answer” in demanding information from marginalized people. Lemoore explained, “The only way you’re going to learn about intersectionality is by getting emotional, personal testimonies from people, so don’t be afraid to ask questions.”

“As an ally, your most important job is to be a voice for those who have no voice,” Lemoore explained. “You just have to tell everybody that even though you’re not part of that group, you really get it. You are an ambassador for those people.” Lemoore himself is a proud ally of ‘LGBT’ people (though he largely referred to gay men), and is “definitely close” with “at least three” queer people.

When the workshop opened for questions, one unidentified attendee said, “You realize that you’re taking up space that marginalized people could use to speak for themselves, right?” Lemoore answered, “Huh?”

“Identity Crisis: Living with Allyship” This panel discussion opened with a heartfelt description of the coming-out process for Lemy Tok, a self-described ally of people with mental illnesses. “I gained a real understanding for what it’s like to be mentally ill,” Tok said. “One of my friends is bipolar and I found myself really inspired by her courage when I saw her taking her medication one day. It was a huge moment for me.”

Tok went on to describe the gradual process of telling his friends about his support for people with mental illnesses. His sentiments were mirrored by the other panelists, who had similar stories of inspiration and realization after encounters with marginalized people.

Another panelist, Manny Feals, described the hardships of dealing with marginalized people who “demand attention,” and of being shamed for her allyship. “People have sarcastically asked if I ‘want a cookie for saying that trans* people are people,’ and I find that really hurtful. I don’t know why

it’s okay to tell me to ‘stop talking and listen to trans* people.’ As a woman, I already understand how oppression works, so I don’t need to be lectured that way.”

One suggested method for dealing with such discrimination included taking breaks from allyship, as it would be “ridiculous” to assume that one could just always be a vocal supporter of marginalized people.

“Pedantry for Fun and Profit: Using the Dictionary to Derail” “We all know that racism is bad,” began Julian Pettifogger, a member of the Canada-wide group Pedants of Privilege. “But what exactly does racism mean?” Pettifogger went on to list several incredibly banal dictionary definitions of racism as a belief that races have inherent differences that can be used as a means to discriminate against some. “So in this simple exercise, we’ve already proven that racism can be used in any direction. As allies, the dictionary is a powerful tool.”

Building on his original example, Pettifogger further explained

the uses of essentialism when engaging with marginalized people.

“If, for instance, your friend of colour says they’re really ‘tired of white people,’ you need to call them out on that, because that’s a form of racism, as we’ve seen in the dictionary.”

Pettifogger dispelled the notions that one should accept that reality is not necessarily married to description and strict definition. “Let’s not get carried away by vagueities about ‘power’ and ‘intersectional dynamics’ now, these all have specific connotations that should not be misconstrued just because somebody’s feelings are hurt.”

When asked his opinion on constructed words to define specific identities (the example given was ‘genderqueer’), Pettifogger said, “Oh, come on. We can’t just make words up and expect people to know what they mean. Language doesn’t just evolve new vocabulary like that, which is why we’re all still speaking Middle English right now. Er, wait…” Pettifogger then excused himself for the remainder of the workshop time.