Vol103iss21

Volume 103, Issue 21 Monday, February 24, 2014

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February 24, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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Accessibilizing Montreal

NEWS

Taking on accessibility in Montreal Indigenous Studies minor finally approved

New group aims to bring accessibility issues to the forefront

Crossing guards seek new collective agreement McGill unions dispute pay equity adjustments Rad Sex Week fills a need Student roundtable sees turmoil

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COMMENTARY

In favour of Canadian republicanism Pronoun use and social inclusivity The importance of the equity process Dear Janet Mock: on ‘making it’ as a trans woman of colour

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FEATURES Tamim Sujat | The McGill Daily

The lie of objectivity in journalism

THE ART SUPPLEMENT

15

SCI+TECH

Giving the power of design to the people What neuroscience tells us about free will The science behind love

19

HEALTH&ED

Social inequality caused by study abroad programs

20 SPORTS #Sochiproblems and western biases

21

CULTURE

Players’ Theatre takes on Peter Pan Loving women, graphic novel style

23 EDITORIAL The homelessness marathon and combatting stigma

24 COMPENDIUM! Fuck this: a masterpost

Dana Wray The McGill Daily

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n the winter, Montrealers often gripe about the inconvenience of snow and wet roads. For Paul Tshuma, however, the city’s snow removal sometimes piles up on the ramp outside of his apartment, making it impossible for him to leave.

“I cannot just decide and say ‘I’m going out, I’m going downtown,’” said Tshuma, a member of the group Accessibilize Montreal, which tries to raise awareness about discrimination against people with disabilities in the city. “I have to call special transport, and I have to plan all my days in advance. That’s why I’m limited in Montreal.”

Accessibility in Montreal is an issue often overlooked by large swathes of the population. “I’ve realized that there’s a lot of ignorance,” Tshuma said. “If you don’t have a friend or a family member that has a disability, [certain things don’t] ring a bell in your head.”

“The thing that [Accessibilize Montreal is] asking for, perhaps the most, is just openness among Montreal residents,” said Aimee Louw, cofounder of Accessibilize Montreal.

“Just [...] hearing our message and trying to make things more inclusive for everybody.”

Accessibilize Montreal was born out of discussions with Louw’s friends about different experiences of accessibility in Montreal. Although the group is still fairly small, Louw said that membership is not identity-based. “It’s cool to have such diverse perspectives too [...] and it only strengthen[s] how we

view accessibility.”

The group currently blends traditional political activism, such as lobbying for changes in infrastructure, with workshops and “Strateg-teas,” or meetings where members can share their stories.

“We also want to change the mindsets of people in Montreal, because it’s one thing to have a physically accessible place for people with physical disabilities, [but] it’s another [...] to have an accessible or open perception of people in Montreal,” Louw said.

Access to the public transportation system managed by the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) is one of the focal points of Accessibilize Montreal. Currently, there are only seven metro stations that have elevators, and although a few bus routes are wheelchairaccessible, information is often unavailable or incorrect.

Accessibilize Montreal has started to organize “Question Bombs” at the question and answer components of monthly STM board meetings. Prior to the group’s participation, Louw explained, most of the people at the question and answer sessions were people with disabilities, “a sign that things need to change.”

“I’m going to be honest, it’s a slow process [...] there have been hundreds of people, if not more, fighting for it since the beginning of the STM; it’s not a new fight,” Louw said. “But what we’re hoping to bring is some more public awareness so there’s a stronger base of support for it.”

According to the CBC, the STM is behind on a ten-year transport plan adopted in 2008, which pledged to renovate three

metro stations per year. The plan is currently behind schedule due to a lack of funds, according to a City of Montreal employee.

Money is often cited as a barrier to renovations of the current STM service, Louw said. “In any big institution, I find that excuses for not making things better are because of finances. So there’s pretty much a unanimous statement that there just isn’t enough money to make the regular transit [and the paratransit] system more accessible.”

Accessibility at McGill At McGill, the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) helps students with physical, mental, and other disabilities. For smaller accommodations, such as switching the classroom for a course, students contact the OSD. After years of questions about how to effectively handle bigger requests from students with physical disabilities, the Universal Access Capital Projects Working Group was formed. With a budget of around $400,000, according to Frédéric Fovet, director of the OSD, the Working Group will channel any requests for renovations or other large-scale projects.

The next impending project – renovations to make the First Peoples’ House accessible – will take place in the summer. A project to renovate Morrice Hall was approved by the Working Group on February 10, and a project at Otto Maass Chemistry building is undergoing a review process.

According to Louw, there are significant barriers to making McGill’s

campus more accessible, and McGill’s administration is one of them. She pointed to McGill’s alleged unwillingness to renovate the CKUT and QPIRG building on University as an example of “McGill [...] putting aesthetics above universal access, which is a big problem.”

However, according to Fovet, McGill’s hands are tied by strict municipal regulations regarding alterations to a building’s historical appearance. “At [the] First Peoples’ House, building a ramp on the front was never an option,” he said. “That’s why they started looking at access through the Brown building, and going for the first floor instead of going through the street [entrance].”

“Universal access to all the buildings is unfortunately not feasible, simply because if you did a tally of the costs, it would go beyond anything that McGill has available, or that even the government would be willing to provide,” Fovet said, estimating the cost of renovating one of the historical houses on Peel or University at over $1 million.

“It’s not just McGill, it’s something that affects the whole city and province, the [...] lack of interest in disability. But it is surprising given that it’s a place of learning and a place of openness and free talk,” Louw said.

Fovet was hopeful overall about the state of physical accessibility at McGill. “I can’t tell you it has been great in the past few years, because nothing much has happened,” he said. “Thankfully [now] there is movement that is actually [...] going in the right direction.”

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News

February 24, 2014 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com

Indigenous Studies minor approved Student Assessment Policy questioned at Senate Cem Ertekin The McGill Daily

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fter years of effort on the part of advocates and students alike, on February 19, Senate approved the creation of an Indigenous Studies minor, along with several new academic programs as part of the 453rd Report of the Academic Policy Committee (APC).

The meeting also saw direct action against the People, Processes & Partnerships (PPP) plan to reorganize the Leacock building.

Just before the meeting started, demonstrators from Support Our Staff-McGill (SOS) handed out letters addressed to Principal Suzanne Fortier.

Gretchen King, a fourth-year doctoral student in Communication Studies, told The Daily that SOS-McGill wanted to address Fortier directly, because they felt that their concerns about the PPP plan have not been heard by Dean

of Arts Christopher Manfredi.

“We wanted to be sure that the principal knew that there were anti-democratic things happening within the Faculty of Arts, and decision-making that’s not transparent. And we think that kind of goes against an ethos [Fortier] has tried to establish,” King explained.

While the letter SOS-McGill distributed was not brought up during Senate discussions, Fortier later said in an email to The Daily that the Faculty of Arts, under the leadership of Manfredi, was well in place to manage its resources regarding the PPP. Indigenous Studies program Though it was not discussed extensively at the meeting, the APC report sought the approval of some new Masters and Bachelors programs, including the new minor concentration in Indigenous Studies.

The Indigenous Studies minor

will be officially introduced in the 2014-15 academic year. The approval also opens the path for the creation of two new courses on Indigenous Studies.

“This is really the last stage of what has been an immensely long project, starting from the early 2000s and beating so many obstacles along the way [such as] lack of institutional support [and] lack of faculty support. It was really a big student push that catalyzed this,” said Arts Senator Claire Stewart-Kanigan in an interview with The Daily.

University Student Assessment Policy Senate discussed the University Student Assessment Policy, which guarantees in section 6.1.3 that the maximum weight of a final examination in a regularly scheduled course shall be no more than 75 per cent of the course grade, with certain exceptions.

A motion passed at the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) General Assembly on February mandated SSMU to support the inclusion of an abbreviated outline of student academic rights, with an emphasis on the aforementioned section on course outlines.

With this in mind, student senators inquired about the steps the University is taking to promote awareness of and compliance to this policy, and how the University is ensuring that the said policy is being respected and followed.

In his official answer to the question, Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Ollivier Dyens stated, “Normally, there ‘should’ be more than one evaluation for a course. However, as long as the evaluation is fair and reasonable, one single evaluation for a course is permitted.”

Speaking at Senate, SSMU VP University Affairs Joey Shea asked Dyens to point out the specific

parts of the policy where these exceptions were explained.

“I can’t respond to that at the moment,” Dyens replied.

In an interview with The Daily, Stewart-Kanigan stated that she and the other senators were not satisfied with the answer given by Dyens.

“Other than Law and Medicine, there are no other exceptions included in the policy, and the language is [that] the assessment shall not be over 75 per cent. Whereas in Dyens’ response to our question [...] he said that the language of the policy actually should not. That’s a misquoting of the policy,” StewartKanigan explained.

“The effect of his answer was saying that the policy was more of a suggested guideline for professors,” she continued.

Dyens told Senate that he would report findings and recommendations back to Senate through the APC.

ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR THE SELECTION OF AN OMBUDSPERSON FOR STUDENTS To:

McGill Community

From:

Professor Anthony, C. Masi, Provost

An Advisory Committee on the Selection of an Ombudsperson for Students has been struck. The composition of the Committee is as follows: Senate Representative: Professor Emine Sarigöllü Professor Prakash Panangaden Board of Governors Representative: Cynthia Price

Student Representative: Yasmeen Gholmieh, SSMU Representative Elizabeth Cawley, PGSS Members Service Officer Cameron Butler, MCSS Senate representative Anna Gorkova, President MACES

Resource Person: Drew Love, Director Athletics and Recreation Chair: Professor Ollivier Dyens, Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Secretary: Linda Webb Office of the DP(SLL) Nominations for the position of the Ombudsperson for Students are invited for a term beginning September 1, 2014. The Ombudsperson’s primary responsibility is to provide an independent, impartial and confidential process through which students may seek the just, fair and equitable resolution of any university-related concern where normal non-adversarial administrative channels for addressing such matters are inappropriate in the circumstances or prove ineffective.

Candidates for this position should hold a tenure-track academic appointment at McGill University, be well respected by both students and other members of the McGill community, and be familiar with the University and its policies and procedures. Facility in both English and French is desirable.

The post of the Ombudsperson for Students is a half-time appointment with a non-renewable fiveyear term. An office and secretarial support for the Ombudsperson are provided by the University.

Nominations or application for this position will be considered as they are received until the position is filled. Nominations and applications may be submitted to my attention via mail to HR.DPSLL@mcgill.ca.

All such communications will, of course, be kept in the strictest confidence.

News

February 24, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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Crossing guards call for new collective agreement Federal changes complicate negotiations Igor Sadikov The McGill Daily

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ontreal’s crossing guards are seeking a new collective agreement with the city, arguing that the federal government’s employment insurance reform has left them at a disadvantage. Crossing guards in the city have been without a contract since August 2011.

The changes to employment insurance made by the federal government, in place since January 2013, require frequent claimants to undertake a “reasonable job search” to continue receiving benefits, and to accept any job for which they are qualified that offers at least 70 per cent of their previous wages. Seasonal workers, such as crossing guards, typically apply for employment insurance during the time that they do not work.

With the changes, Montreal’s approximately 650 crossing guards risk losing their unemployment benefits, as they do not work during the summer or the winter break while school is not in session.

“Now, they will have to actively seek work, even during the [winter] holiday season, to remain eligible,” Carole Bouchard, representative at the Canadian Union of Public Employees, told The Daily in French.

Moustapha, a crossing guard who works in western Montreal, has

experienced the effects of the reform firsthand. “Last year, I didn’t get unemployment benefits during the summer. Usually we have it, but this year, I didn’t even submit an application, as I knew it would be complicated,” he told The Daily in French.

The crossing guards are requesting that Montreal’s mayor Denis Coderre grant them six paid vacation days during the holiday season, as is already the case for other city employees and for the majority of crossing guards across Quebec. This would allow them to evade the requirement to seek work during the winter holidays.

“We’re asking the employer to offer crossing guards paid statutory holidays, as it does for all the other salaried workers at the City of Montreal, to save them from [an] active job search during the winter holidays,” Bouchard told The Daily.

While negotiations are underway, the union’s demands have been met with indifference. “[Our request] has been refused. The employer says that as long as the government provides [employment insurance], it doesn’t have to give anything to the crossing guards,” added Bouchard.

For Fernande Tremblay, president of the Montreal union of crossing guards, these are reasonable demands. “We’re not asking Mr. Coderre for the moon. We wish to preserve our

Tamim Sujat | The McGill Daily job and our income in spite of the restrictions on employment insurance.

We’re asking for a little more acknowledgement of our work, which has children’s security at stake,” she wrote in French in a press release.

Coderre has refused to provide details on the negotiations. “We’ll make our position known at the negotiation table, as we do not wish to negotiate in public,” he wrote in French in an email sent to La Presse.

Finding a job during the summer

is difficult for crossing guards, who are paid $14.62 an hour and are on average 58 years old. “The problem is that we’re only unemployed during the summer vacation – that’s barely over two months,” noted Moustapha.

During the school year, working a second job is inconvenient because of their irregular schedule.

“They’re paid four hours per day, but they’re busy during the entire day; they have to be at their crossings in the morning, at noon, and in

the afternoon. So they cannot have another job,” Bouchard explained.

As they are a part of the Montreal police force, crossing guards are classified as an essential service, and cannot go on strike. They must therefore use alternative pressure tactics to convey their message.

“Maybe we’ll do [similar to] the security guards in the metro – wear a vest [dossard] – without endangering the security of anyone, very basic things,” said Moustapha.

McGill clarifies pay equity adjustments Unions demand rationale behind calculations Jill Bachelder The McGill Daily

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s the deadline for pay equity adjustments fast approaches later this month, many McGill employees have expressed concern with salary adjustment calculations.

The adjustments largely affect the salaries of McGill employees in lower-paid, female-dominated positions.

Pay equity refers to the equalization of pay between male- and female-dominated jobs performing work of similar value, as per the Pay Equity Act. In February 2013, the University met with the Pay Equity Commission and committed to retroactively adjusting all employee salaries dating back to 2001, when the pay equity adjustments were initially introduced. This decision was made in response to a complaint filed by the

McGill University Non-Academic Certified Association (MUNACA) concerning how the adjustments were initially calculated.

The retroactive adjustments, made in compliance with the Pay Equity Act, must be made by February 28, one year after the University’s agreement with the Commission.

“Those that were subject to retroactivity will receive lump sums, going back as far as 2001,” MUNACA President Kevin Whittaker told The Daily.

On February 14, the University began making retroactive payments and sending letters informing employees of the amount of the adjustments.

Since then, many McGill employees have expressed dissatisfaction with the pay equity adjustments.

To start, the letters that employees received allegedly contained only the magnitude of the adjustment and no indication as to how it

had been calculated.

“There are a lot of people with complicated situations who’ve moved around in positions,” one MUNACA employee told The Daily.

“I guess that makes it even more complicated to track, but if you don’t have a formula [...] how do you know you’re not being short-changed?”

According to an email from Association of McGill University Research Employees (AMURE) president Sean Cory, McGill told unions in an email that, “The amount of money that people received could go up or down and to keep it in mind that the money might have to be returned.”

“That upset a lot of people as there are no clear reasons why the money people received might be decreased,” he added.

Furthermore, AMURE and MUNACA only recently found out that McGill has only applied the pay ad-

justments to employees hired before 2005, leaving the unions displeased.

“MUNACA and AMURE argue that it is the pay scales of the positions being adjusted and employees hired after 2005 should still receive the benefits of those adjustments,” Cory said.

To deal with complaints, McGill Human Resources (HR) is holding informational sessions, and will be dealing with individual concerns on a case-by-case basis.

On February 20, at one of the informational sessions provided by McGill HR, Alice Kieran, Director, Total Compensation at McGill HR, explained the formula used to calculate the adjustments.

Only female-dominated jobs – where 60 per cent or more of the employees are female – whose salaries fall below a “pay equity curve,” have their salaries adjusted. The curve is calculated by pitting job

value – determined by a system that allots points based on characteristics of jobs such as qualifications and physical and mental effort – against the job’s maximum salary. McGill originally used a linear regression, which resulted in less of an adjustment for fewer jobs.

When asked why McGill has refrained from releasing the exact calculations it used for the pay equity adjustments, Kieran responded by saying that sending out specific numbers to each McGill employee was not feasible.

According to Whittaker, MUNACA will soon be meeting with McGill. “We’re still awaiting a time to meet with the University to discuss this, because they have a deadline of February 28 [...] for us to come up with an agreement to cover the people that we have already identified they missed,” he said.

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News

February 24, 2014 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com

Rad Sex Week fills a need in Montreal Event series pushes boundaries of conventional understandings of sex Joelle Dahm The McGill Daily

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his past Wednesday marked the beginning of the Union for Gender Empowerment (UGE) and Queer McGill’s (QM) sixth annual Rad Sex Week, which aims to broaden the conventional understanding of sexualities and to give people more exposure to radical sex. According to QM Resource Coordinator Sabine Grutter, radical sex is defined as “Any sex that is consensual, outside the norm, and not talked about in the mainstream media.”

Lily Hoffman, a member of the UGE, explained to The Daily that the organization helped put together the series because “we don’t feel like there is enough of a platform for alternative radical sexual conversation and practice to happen.”

“We wanted to give a platform to people who are already doing these things and working in these organizations, to share these ideas with other people, and also to give a chance to people to explore things that they maybe have never heard of,” Hoffman added.

Cameryn Moore, a playwright, performer, and sex activist, expressed appreciation for the series and its links between politics and sexuality.

“I think that radical politics give us a chance to really explore and be free,” said Moore. “Generally when we are moving outside of the box, and when we are taking our sexuality outside of the box, and [...] consciously thinking about what it is that we want and how we want it, there is a lot of territory there to discover, and that’s very exciting.”

Similar to other initiatives on campus, such as Rez Project, Rad Sex

Week is a mobilization against events such as Frosh. “Based on my own understanding [... and from] continuous involvement in McGill, [events] that happen like Carnival or Frosh set kind of a standard of what sexual culture at McGill is,” Hoffman said, adding that this standard was “pretty non-consensual, intersects a lot with drug and alcohol use, and is very heteronormative and sexist.”

Rad Sex Week also allows students to interact with communities outside of the McGill bubble. “There is not always a connection between Montreal and McGill, and it is really great when those organizations that try to reach out and people that are interested are able to meet,” Amanda Unruh, Student Health Services Health Promotion Coordinator, told The Daily. Examples of these organizations are Stella, a sex workers’ organization, and Head & Hands, a group that provides medical, social, and legal services to youth.

Even though initiatives focused on alternative sexual education can be found in Montreal, they usually tend to be located in specific milieus.

One major reason for this could be the lack of funding or public interest.

“I think that most of these groups and organizations that work on specific sexual issues or sex education issues are often non-profit, and struggling for funding and sustainability,” Hoffman said. “They usually have a pretty awesome group of committed people who want to make that happen, but always struggle for resources and struggle for recognition and validation.”

Grutter added that it is important to keep room for those initiatives. “[These spaces] are important because they didn’t exist beforehand.

And if we are not going to create

Tamim Sujat | The McGill Daily them, they are not going to be available to be explored.”

Moore, who originally came from the U.S., stated that Montreal was a much more open space for alternative sex practices than other cities. “Generally, I think the [one reason why] there is not a lot of room is maybe that there is not as much of a nightlife, like lifestyle clubs or play party clubs,” Moore said. “There is not a whole lot of that happening [in other cities].”

As the founder of Sexploreum, an immersive art-sex project, Moore tries to open more spaces for people of all genders to explore their sexuality. She is responsible for events in Montreal such as the Masturbate-athon, “an annual solo sex play party,

where it’s all genders, no touching anybody else,” and monthly events like the Porn Café, which features screenings of classic porn followed by discussions.

According to Unruh, it’s not only conversation on rad sex that is missing in Montreal; sex education in Quebec is greatly lacking. “[Reforms] in 2005 got rid of the class that used to teach sex education [...] The health side of things ended up in the science class, so there still is this health and [sexually transmitted infection] prevention – which is mostly fear-based education, unfortunately – and pregnancy prevention, but nothing else.”

“There is no set curriculum that students have to go through; it hap-

pens in haphazard ways, sometimes not at all, and sometimes really awfully,” Hoffman added. “If the Quebec school system is not creating a way for people to learn these tools, or for people to be exposed to these things, then the only thing that we can trust that high school-aged youth will be exposed to are images of sex in the media, and depictions of sex, that for the most part are super sexist, heteronormative, racist, normative, and super non-consensual.”

“I can’t say that [sex is] going to save someone’s life necessarily, but it affects one’s quality of life and mental state so much,” said Moore. “That can transform people’s lives in a very serious way.”

SSMU adopts mental health policy Lauria Galbraith The McGill Daily

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he Students’ Society of McGill University’s (SSMU) Legislative Council convened on February 20 to vote on a new mental health policy and electoral by-laws, and discuss the state of equity on Canadian campuses.

Council unanimously passed a motion to adopt the new mental health policy, created by an ad-hoc mental health committee that was formed at the beginning of this year.

Medicine representative David Benrimoh told The Daily that the policy was an important step forward. “It was very important to us

that we had not just a philosophy and ideas, but a concrete set of steps that will lead to actual change […] it will serve as the foundation for a new mental health network.”

The policy will become the groundwork for a mental health network, comprised of existing student resources for mental health, and will focus on awareness, resources, advocacy, and solidarity.

The motion also included a coordinating five-year plan, which calls for the hiring of a SSMU mental health coordinator and the creation of a website, among other things.

After recent campus-wide debate over equity issues, Chelsea Barnett,

one of three student SSMU Equity researchers, gave a presentation on the current findings of their review of the SSMU Equity institutions.

The researchers compared SSMU to the student unions at six other universities across North America.

According to Barnett, “SSMU is doing a lot more than anyone else,” and SSMU Equity’s research discovered that “SSMU is the only school that we surveyed […] to have an equity policy of its own.”

She recommended to Council that, “An executive position be added that would oversee equity […] equity is on the forefront; it’s important for us.”

Ben Fung, Elections SSMU’s

Chief Electoral Officer, came in to present a motion to amend several by-laws that apply to SSMU elections. The motion states that Elections SSMU created these changes based on research on 15 universities across Canada. Major changes included an updated campus publication definition, to encompass publications who publish more than four times a year, thus putting publications like the Bull and the Bear on par with The Daily and the McGill Tribune, and allowing them to make candidate endorsements.

A discussion was also sparked in Council regarding a specific bylaw to ban slate candidacy. Slate candidacy is when multiple can-

didates run in multi-seat elections on a similar platform. Clubs and Services Representative Zachary Rosentzveig proposed an amendment to strike this by-law change from the motion. “Being able to be on a slate doesn’t favour any party over any other party, it simply allows candidates to work together to develop stronger possible proposals[...],” Rosentzveig said.

Fung insisted that, “The logistics of banning slate candidacy [are] much less [difficult] than the logistics of allowing slate candidacy [...]

It’s much harder to allow slate candidacy than to ban slate candidacy.”

The amendment was opposed and the by-law motion passed.

News

February 24, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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Student roundtable turmoil continues with resignation Future uncertain as member associations hold disaffiliation referenda Jordan Venton-Rublee The McGill Daily

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he Table de concertation étudiante du Québec (TaCEQ) faced yet another setback on Friday when the Vice-Secretary General of Communications and Internal Relations announced his resignation in a letter addressed to the student association. Guillaume Fortin, who was elected in May 2013, stated in the letter that he thought he “could work in this degrading situation, but I can’t anymore.”

Fortin’s resignation is just one of several pressing problems within the student roundtable, which has seen tension between members throughout the year. Recently, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) took first steps to leave the organization, with a motion passed during the February 6 SSMU Council creating a ref-

erendum question asking SSMU members whether they wish to leave the roundtable association.

SSMU VP External Samuel Harris noted that since the University of Sherbrooke’s graduate student society, Regroupement des étudiants de maîtrise, de diplôme et de doctorat de l’Université de Sherbrooke (REMDUS) voted to disaffiliate from TaCEQ this semester, SSMU is one of three student associations left in the organization.

“For TaCEQ the thing is, because REMDUS has already left, there are only three associations left, including McGill […] it’s kind of falling apart,” Harris told The Daily.

Additionally, with the loss of REMDUS, SSMU has lost its major ally in the roundtable association.

Regarding Fortin’s resignation, Harris said, “In terms of his job of communications, there

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really isn’t that much to do communications-wise – or even politically – because [TaCEQ] is starting to wrap up.”

Fortin stated in his resignation letter that one of the issues prompting his resignation was the cancellation of an inter-association congress originally planned for the fall of 2013.

In an interview with The Daily, Fortin addressed the issue, explaining, “We were putting a lot on this congress to make things better at TaCEQ, but in the end it got cancelled, so many people were sad and mad about this.”

Fortin noted that after four months of preparation, the cancellation caused tensions between member student associations.

“SSMU and REMDUS were pretty pissed off about [the congress] and it made for a very unpleasant meetings.”

According to Fortin, this also caused a roadblock for the rest of the work TaCEQ could have done this year.

With Fortin’s resignation, there are only two secretary generals left, but since one of the remaining secretary generals, Xavier Laberge, is from REMDUS, he will also be gone at the end of the month.

“In terms of actual secretary generals, as of March 1, there is only going to be one of three that started the year,” Harris told The Daily.

However, he noted that Laberge will be hired back as a paid employee without his former title, as his role of finance and administration is critical to the organization.

Harris said he would be very surprised if TaCEQ elected a new person to fill Fortin’s absence.

“I think everyone kind of agrees there is no point in doing communications and social media if Ta-

CEQ has nothing to announce,” a feeling that Fortin himself echoed, stating, “Right now with the current state and current situation with TaCEQ […] there was nothing really going on with the communication side of TaCEQ.” As to the future of TaCEQ, Fortin explained that along with SSMU, one of TaCEQ’s two other member organizations, L’Association des étudiantes et des étudiants de Laval inscrits aux études supérieures (ÆLIÉS), will be holding a referendum on disaffiliation in February, leaving only the Confédération des associations d’étudiants et étudiantes de l’Université Laval (CADEUL) in the roundtable.

“It is pretty much the end for TaCEQ, I think,” he said.

SSMU members will vote on whether or not to leave TaCEQ during the SSMU referendum period, from March 14 to 21.

Commentary

February 24, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

8

Pawn takes Queen Toward a Canadian republic

Daniel Woodhouse The McGill Daily

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don’t have any right to tell you what to do, but as a Brit who has lived here for year and a half, I do feel like I can tell you that you can definitely do better than this.

Or more specifically, better than ‘us.’ Now that I’ve recovered from the shock of crossing the Atlantic to find Her Highness’ face gracing your currency I feel almost obliged to urge you that there are better things that could be occupying this space (and I don’t just mean on your money). I have no doubt that it would be more appropriate for that space to be filled with something a little more, well, Canadian.

Queen Elizabeth II is currently equally shared with fifteen other independent countries. While the Queen is in fact just one old lady with a lot of different hats, each country’s monarch is legally distinct. For the most part, the Queen resides in the United Kingdom and governmental and ceremonial duties in Canada are enacted by various representatives of the crown.

David E. Smith admits in the introduction to his book The Invisible Crown, a “degree in constitutional law is almost a prerequisite for clarifying an arrangement of power that recognizes as head of state a non-resident monarch.” The Monarchist League of Canada’s (MLC) chief executive officer went so far as to say that “indifference” rather than republicanism is the Crown’s real threat.

I am a republican: that is to say, I am in favour of power residing with the population, and dismantling the undemocratic institutions of our past.

I believe that the monarchy, along with the House of Lords, should be abandoned in Britain, and it is in Canadian interests to follow the same path. The debate is an old one, but one I believe important to revisit.

One source of continual controversy is the cost of the monarchy to Canadian citizens. The MLC takes it upon itself to provide figures and concluded that just under $57 million was spent in the routine cost of the ‘Maple Crown’ in 2011-12, coming out at $1.63 per head. This does not include the cost of the diamond jubilee celebrations in Canada, which came to $64 million.

The MLC offers the not unreasonable comparison to the Senate (approximately $90 million), National Gallery (approximately $51 million) and the Library of Parliament (approximately $41 million).

The MLC is also at pains to point out that this money is spent on Ca-

Alice Shen | The McGill Daily nadian constitutional activities, and not for the royals in any other capacity. That said, it is easy to understand why Citizens for a Canadian Republic felt it was gratuitous when they discovered that their country was expected to pay $1 million for the Queen’s attendance in Ottawa on Canada Day in 2010.

Among the questionable arguments in favour of Canada retaining its monarchy is the outright absurd claim that they are a cornerstone of stability and unity in the democratic state.

While similar administrative costs might be incurred irrespective of what kind of head of state Canada chooses, the fact is that it represents an investment on the part of Canada’s citizens. This makes it essential that they actually have the opportunity to choose a constitutional arrangement that is more in their

interest – ideally, one whose main interest isn’t to maintain anachronistic delusions about empire and Britain’s place in the world.

It is worth noting that the crown was increasingly sidelined until the arrival of the recent Harper administration which fetishizes a certain kind of conservative view of history.

This often manifests itself in strange ways, such as in September 2011 for example, when the order went out to all Canadian embassies to ensure portraits of the Queen were on display. Left unresolved, this kind of exacting pettiness could end up escalating into more questionable assertions about Canadian identity.

Polls conducted last year show that support in Canada for abolishing the monarchy found that the 45 per cent in favour of abolition had fallen to 37 per cent after the birth of Prince George. Monarchists held this up as a sign that the royals were as relevant as ever and that George would offer a new era of a popular monarchy. As wonderful a thing it is when a child is born, for that to be the supporting sentiment of a nation’s constitutional system degrades the meaning of both life and the institution.

The uncomfortable fact of British life is that the nation’s collective consciousness has increasingly become poisoned by tabloid culture.

The royal family represents a quasihistorical ideal of glory and empire.

Yet at the same time the public reads of their disgrace, whether in divorce,

affairs, or personal lapses of judgement. As the late Christopher Hitchens once wrote, “This is what you get when you found a political system on the family values of Henry VIII.” Baby George may hold the British media in his thrall, but rest assured that once he is of age he won’t escape their barbed hooks and the cruel court of public opinion. Why Canada, with its more unassuming and well-adjusted public sphere, would wish to aspire to the degradations of British public life truly escapes me.

Among the questionable arguments in favour of Canada retaining its monarchy is the outright absurd claim that it is a cornerstone of stability and unity in the democratic state. To see how spurious this assertion is, you only have to look back across the pond. Right now the United Kingdom is looking distinctly less united. The growing divide between the north and south of Britain has been a major national problem for many years. In September, Scotland will undertake a referendum on independence – a threat to British national unity – and the monarch seems powerless to intervene. Suggesting that the royal family might unite the country in single spirit can only be taken in jest.

Canada will no doubt sympathize with such issues of national sovereignty. Support for the Canadian monarchy is far from universal or evenly distributed; unsurprisingly low in Quebec and relatively high in British Columbia. That said, the is-

sue seems to be ignored when compared with other Commonwealth countries. Australia, for example, has long had a serious republican movement, and in 1999 went as far as having a referendum on the issue – the monarchists carried the day with 54.87 per cent of the vote.

But recent political events, specifically the collapse of the Bloc Québécois and the rise of the NDP in Quebec, suggests that flexible federalism is in everybody’s interest. What better way to build on this potential than when Queen Elizabeth II sheds her mortal coil and instead of King Charles filling her spot on Canadian banknotes, something more Canadian fills his place?

The best safeguard to stability is empowering our democratic institutions and extending the franchise. In many Western countries, political apathy and disillusionment is prominent among the challenges to maintaining the democratic ideal. Reforming the constitutional system so that it is more relevant, comprehensible, and accessible to the Canadian people is an obvious opportunity to move against this trend. It might simply be better to have a head of state representing Canada, who is not only Canadian, but whose greatest achievement is something more than inheriting a collection of solid gold hats.

Daniel Woodhouse is a PhD 2 in Mathematics. To contact Daniel, email commentary@mcgilldaily.com.

Commentary

February 24, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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Conjugating inclusion ‘They’ will overcome the gender-binary Magdalene Klassen Commentary Writer

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n her poem recently published in The New Yorker, Canadian poet Anne Carson explains the origins of the titular “Pronoun Envy”: is a phrase coined by Cal Watkins of the Harvard Linguistics Department in November 1971 to disparage certain concerns of the female students of Harvard Divinity School.

In a world where God is “He” and everyone else “mankind,” what chance do we have for a bit of attention? seemed to be their question.

This question has not yet been answered – although ‘hu-’ has been added to ‘mankind,’ the English language continues to have difficulty paying attention to everyone.

By now, proponents of grammatical equality not only advocate for equality between male and female pronouns, but also seek representation for people who do not identify with either side of this linguistic gender binary.

For instance, in the following sentence, gender is irrelevant: “If somebody wants to bicycle in winter, [pronoun] should be very careful.” Other sentence structures can mention specific people who do not identify with either traditional gender: “[X] bought winter tires, so that [pronoun] could bike through the snow.”

Both these sentences illustrate cases where using the s/he dichotomy is inappropriate.

In response to the problem,

some have tried to develop a new pronoun, with minimal success.

‘Ey,’ ‘Ne,’ ‘Ve,’ ‘V,’ ‘Xe,’ and ‘Ze’ all have their own champions (who tend to also be the creators of the new word), but this multiplicity defeats the purpose of a pronoun, which is by nature generic. The Gender Neutral Pronoun Project offers gender-neutralized excerpts of Alice in Wonderland on its blog, using different pronouns to demonstrate how each one works within a text. However, due to the rarity of their usage, these deliberately fabricated pronouns often feel somewhat contrived.

‘They’ is more commonly used to ensure gender neutrality since it is already an established pronoun.

Some object to this use of ‘they’ as a singular pronoun for grammatical reasons, arguing that it leads to awkward and incorrectly constructed sentences such as “[X] unlocked their bicycle.” In this

sentence there is a disagreement in number; the subject is singular while the pronoun is seemingly plural. Though this may be a little awkward, it is much less awkward (not to mention less hurtful and ignorant) than a disagreement in gender would be. What’s more, the hypothetical confusion caused by the former disagreement is nothing that context and common sense can’t remedy.

Though it may be considered inelegant, using ‘they’ as a generic, neutral pronoun has a long history. Even Shakespeare employed it, in lines such as: ‘God send every one their heart’s desire!’

(Much Ado About Nothing, Act III, Scene 4). Shakespeare is also notorious for having introduced countless words that are now indispensable: accuse, bedroom, critic; the list goes on. This serves to remind us that language is not static, that it is meant to change,

especially as what it is used to express changes.

The widespread adoption of a gender neutral third pronoun is fair and logical because of the legitimacy it offers to the struggles of people who cannot find themselves within the confines of the current linguistic binary, and for the way it allows discussion of people without the mention of a specific gender. Still, the success of such a pronoun depends on standardization, and I personally find that ‘they’ seems to have the best chance. Facebook’s recent development of customizable gender, and the option to use ‘they’ as a singular pronoun shows that popular awareness is growing.

In this case, where social media leads, we should follow.

Magdalene Klassen is a U0 Arts student. To contact Magdalene, email commentary@mcgilldaily.com.

We can’t define each other’s triggers or oppressors On the complicated process of equity Robin Reid-Fraser The McGill Daily

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controversy has erupted recently regarding an apology email sent out by SSMU. As many readers will know, the apology was for a previous email sent out containing a fake GIF of Barack Obama kicking down a door. The apology by VP Internal Brian Farnan claimed that the GIF reinforced stereotypes of men of colour as being violent, and as such constituted a microaggression.

The email garnered quite the reaction. The response from some has been incredulity as to why the inclusion of the GIF would constitute a microaggression, and why Farnan should have to apologize for it. A letter by Ameya Pendse in The Bull & Bear criticized the apology, and just this week the National Post covered the story.

Pendse’s piece blamed the presence of a “radical vocal minority” for the apology, and similarly, in a different article, the National Post cited lawyer Julius Grey as saying the climate on campus is “stifling of free speech.”

Becayse I’m a self-described member of the “radical minority” on campus and I’m writing in The Daily, I’m sharing my support for the equity process, and some

thoughts about why. As a white woman, I will never experience racial microaggressions. But I have experienced the SSMU Equity process, particularly in my position as VP External of SSMU last year.

The apology email did not come because the ‘radical minority’ at McGill had a protest about it. The apology came because at least one student experienced the GIF as a racial microaggression, and took the time to go through the long SSMU Equity process in order to make that known.

Equity is just that: a process. In a world filled with instances that cause different kinds of harm to people with different experiences, the work of responding to oppressive behaviour is far from easy or straightforward.

The process will not satisfy everyone. It will upset a lot of people.

But while any number of voices leap up to criticize the apology email, there remain many whose opinions will never be published. While Pendse may claim to speak for the “silent majority,” the fact is that the student body is not a homogenous group. I don’t know how many students appreciated the apology, and I probably never will, but I have no right to assume that just because they’re not all writing commentary pieces, they aren’t there.

Tamim Sujat | The McGill Daily It is interesting to note that in the article in the National Post, most of the people quoted are white. It also feels worth mentioning that just this past week, the jury reached a verdict in the case of Michael Dunn, who shot and killed 17-year-old Jordan Davis after an argument over the volume of Davis’ music. Similar to the Trayvon Martin case, Dunn, like George Zimmerman, testified that he feared for his life before killing

the young black man. I feel that this is an important point to bring up, as it shows that although for many people the GIF may be a simple joke, the stereotyping that the Equity complaint addressed can have much deeper implications in terms of the value placed on the lives of black men by the judicial system.

An apology isn’t going to hurt anyone. Some may claim that it has harmed the concept of equity, or of

free speech. Yet for others it is important, and long past due as we witness more young black men dying outside convenience stores for the simple, unjust, and racist reason that other people think they’re scary to be around.

Robin Reid-Fraser is a U3 Environmental Studies student and was SSMU VP External (2012-13). She can be reached at robin.reid-fraser@ mail.mcgill.ca.

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Commentary

February 24, 2014 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com

Just ordinary girls Toward the end of exceptionality Kai Cheng Thom From Gaysia With Love

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o: Janet Mock (Ms.) New York, NY United States of America Re: gratitude, solidarity, and the danger of being special “So what if we are really insignificant like the dot on the map from freshman year?

Why does it matter? What if we are nothing? What if that is beautiful?” Alok Vaid-Menon, “We Are Nothing (And That is Beautiful)” Dear Janet, I’m sort of ashamed to admit it, but the day your autobiography, Redefining Realness, was released I ran – literally ran, I slipped on the ice – to the first store in Montreal that had a copy in stock. Yours is the first book I’ve bought in years, but I knew I was going to put down money for this one. I had February 4 marked in my mental calendar, had been counting down the days till I could get your story in my fangirlish hands. I took Redefining Realness home that afternoon and finished the first of several readings in the evening.

I have followed your career ever since you exploded onto the mainstream media and social justice scene, arguably as America’s most prominent transgender advocate, icon, and spokesperson.

That’s probably a funny thing to read; it’s certainly strange to admit. I didn’t want you to be my transgender role model, my heroine – and you probably didn’t set out to be one. Yet here we stand in this twisted world full of invisible walls and violence, and you burn like a star leading the way to a different possibility for people

like me. When I watch your interviews, when I read your story, I am flooded with complicated, conflicting emotions: gratitude, jealousy, cynicism, hope. I am so grateful for your existence; I am in awe of your accomplishment and strength.

But I am angry and sad that we exist in a time where trans women of colour who ‘make it’ personally and professionally, who live to adulthood, are exceptional. I wish that, instead of being a celebrity to me, you were someone who, given opportunity and time, could be a mentor and friend. I wish that the act of living as transfeminine people didn’t make us special, or even revolutionary. I wish we could be just ‘ordinary’ girls – who occasionally do special, revolutionary things.

In the author’s note to Redefining Realness, you write: “Being exceptional isn’t revolutionary.

It’s lonely. It separates you from your community. Who are you, really, without community?” Reading these words, I started to cry. Alone in my room, I rocked and cried, threw your book at the wall, picked it up and smoothed the jacket, and cried some more. My whole life, I have been exceptional, had to be to survive. I don’t know how much longer I can be.

I grew up an ocean away from your own hometown of Honolulu, in Vancouver. Like you, I grew up in a racialized community, where race and class oppression were rarely spoken of, yet constantly felt. In my working class, East Asian family, exceptional achievement was the expectation. High academic performance was our holy grail, our golden ticket to class ascension, cultural assimilation, and living the model minority dream – a dream conceived and carried out over four generations of struggle and sacrifice. My older sister and I carried the hope of all

I don’t want you to be exceptional, a transgender heroine, my icon by default as the only role model available to me, because I am terrified that I am not strong enough to follow in your footsteps.

I don’t want us to have to be exceptional because exceptionality is the only option.

Alice Shen | The McGill Daily our impoverished, migratory ancestors. Our assigned gender roles were unquestionable and rigidly enforced by our parents, peers, teachers, and elders. It was in this pressure cooker of social forces that my fledgling feminine identity was born – and, like you, I (barely) got through it all to become a university-educated writer, activist, and community worker.

I have told and sold my story of by-the-bootstraps accomplishment more times than I can count. To friends and coworkers.

To queer and racialized youth to whom I am trying to offer hope when there is none. To paying audiences. To lovers. To professors, philanthropists, community councils, and grant providers. I have made a living out of tokenism, of being the kind of queer person of colour who is palatable to powerful, liberal cis white people.

When I was 17, I was put on a plane to Toronto, where I told my story and was awarded a lifechanging scholarship for “young leaders” that lifted me out of my racialized, working-class community of origin, out of my chosen community of streetwise, suicidal, resilient, incredible queer youth of colour, and into an elite Canadian university full of middle-class, cis white people. I have told my story of exceptionality so many times, so strategically, that it is no longer mine. Janet, I am so far from where I started that sometimes I don’t know who I am anymore. How do you remember who you are?

This year, I started a Masters degree in social work. You are one of perhaps three trans women of colour I know of who have a university degree (let alone two), and I am struck by how formal education is complex terrain for marginalized people, at once a privilege and a site of oppressive violence.

I know so many trans women for whom post-secondary education is far from a possibility. I know of too many trans women who did not make it past high school, who did not live past high school.

I think about all the trans women who are not in class beside me, because they were blocked or died before they could get here. I am haunted by Islan Nettles, and all the girls who die of transphobic violence, may they rest in peace.

You write about survivor’s guilt in Redefining Realness, and I am right there with you.

And to be honest, I am not always so certain about survival. I want what you seem to have: beauty, family, a career, a loving partner, a body that I am comfortable with. Yet sometimes, getting there seems impossible – as you often acknowledge, to set your life as the standard for all trans women is unrealistic and inaccessible. Even with the privilege and gifts I have been given thus far, as I contemplate hormone therapy and surgery and breaking into a field notorious for its conservative politics, I am sometimes overwhelmed by the myth of my exceptionality, by the impossibility of going any farther than I have already come. I have

made a lifetime of being calm and articulate in the face of systemic oppression. Janet, sometimes I am so, so scared.

I don’t want to be exceptional, a path-breaker, or a revolutionary leader, because that means that what I am doing – living as an out, vocal trans* person of colour – is near impossible. I am too tired to do the impossible anymore. I don’t want you to be exceptional, a transgender heroine, my icon by default as the only role model available to me, because I am terrified that I am not strong enough to follow in your footsteps. I don’t want us to have to be exceptional because exceptionality is the only option. I want us – all trans women – to be just ordinary girls, capable of extraordinary things.

Yet here we stand, in this twisted world. And if I must follow stars, then it is my honour to follow you, Ms. Janet Mock. The truth your book tells, that I am struggling to realize, is that the night sky is full of stars; that the trans* community is one in which each of us demonstrates exceptional resilience, resourcefulness, and strength. Maybe someday, they’ll see us all. Thank you so much for giving me your realness. Someday, I’ll find my own.

In solidarity, in sisterhood, in love, Kai Cheng Thom From Gaysia With Love is an epistolary exploration of intersectionality by Kai Cheng Thom. They can be reached at fromgaysia@mcgilldaily.com.

Commentary

February 24, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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Oil and all his friends A researcher’s account on the war against biofuels Mohamed Leila Commentary Writer

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o spare you the boredom paired with long cliché introductions about global warming and energy crisis, I am jumping straight to the point: we probably have enough oil to keep our engines running for another century. What we can’t afford though, is the ongoing climate change caused by fossil fuel emissions. Environmental issues aside, industrialized countries will continuously suffer from disruptions in oil exports caused by conflicts in the Middle East. Some will try to strengthen their grip on supply by ‘democratizing’ large oil producers while others will seek local alternatives. Although heavily criticized by some environmental groups, biofuels provide a convenient substitute to fossil fuels.

There are two types of biofuels in the world: ones that compete with food crops and cause famines, and others that use agricultural waste and non-edible crops. Not being huge fans of world hunger, most of us prefer the second type.

Biofuel Network (BFN) is a Canadian initiative that brings together academic and industrial institutions working on economically and environmentally sustainable fuel options; McGill is the proud host of this organization (don’t get excited, McGill was also the proud host of the Petrocultures conference earlier this month). As a PhD student, I am working with Professors Joann Whalen of Natural Resource Sciences, and Jeffrey Bergthorson of Mechanical Engineering, on comparing different alternative jet fuel technologies.

Despite our efforts, there is a fierce political battle currently be-

ing fought against biofuels in the U.S. which might affect the Canadian transition to sustainable, renewable fuels.

The story begins in 2005, when the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) was established under the Energy Policy Act as the first minimum volume mandate for renewable fuels in the U.S.. Later in 2007, the congress issued RFS-2 as part of the Energy Security and Independence Act, which dramatically increased the mandate and included new types of second-generation biofuels. RFS-2 also necessitated that fuels undergo a life cycle assessment analysis (considering all emissions from raw material extraction to utilization phase) to validate that they produce fewer greenhouse gases overall than conventional fossil fuels.

Congress gave the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the power to change the annual targets of renewable fuel blends.

If you are ever in a U.S. gas station, for example, you’ll probably notice the ‘E10’ sticker on the gas pump, indicating that the fuel contains 10 per cent ethanol. In November 2012, for the first time in history, the EPA proposed to lower the annual volume of 2014 RFS targets. The proposal, moved by the Obama administration, was hailed by the oil industry and interest groups, while it came as shocking news to hundreds of biofuel companies and corn producers.

Hardcore biofuels opponents such as the American Petroleum Institute (API), which is lobbying to completely repeal the RFS, commented that the EPA proposal was a step forward but not enough.

“Ultimately Congress must protect consumers from this outdated and unworkable program,” said Jack

Letters On the School of Social Work Last week, The McGill Daily published a letter about a Human Rights complaint made against the School over a recent faculty appointment (“Standing up to racism and McGill’s hiring practices,” Commentary, February 19). Although I am not able to comment on the specific case, I want to reassure members of the McGill community of the following: · The University contests the allegations of racial discrimination in the hiring process; · The qualifications for the posi-

tion in question, which required professional working experience in Quebec, were clear and were respected. · The School of Social Work has processes in place that respect diversity and counter discrimination.

I believe our School has demonstrated, through its recent external reviews, that it provides the highest standards of education in this field.

—Wendy Thomson Director, McGill School of Social Work

Midori Nishioka | The McGill Daily Gerard, president of the API, according to the Washington Post.

On the other hand, biofuels proponents have expressed their shock and disappointment in the EPA proposal. According to Bob Dinneen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association, the EPA proposed trimming the RFS targets for 2014 to “capitulate” the fossil lobby. In anticipation of an annual increase in RFS targets, farmers planted 93 million acres of corn.

Now with the trimming threat, more than 500 million bushels (with one bushel equivalent to eight fluid gallons) of demand have been compromised.

The effect of reducing the RFS targets in 2014 (or repealing the targets altogether if pressure

from oil lobbies continues) is not limited to the U.S.. In a 2012 action plan issued by the Obama administration aiming to incorporate biofuels in the military fuel supply chain, the U.S. recognizes feedstock grown in Canada as “local.” The geographical proximity of Canadian fertile soils, and the demand encouraged by the RFS2, provided a real opportunity for Canadian agribusinesses and bioenergy crops. It also served as a motive for Canadian policy makers and environmental groups to push for further governmental support for biofuels development (such as the Biofuel Network, which McGill is an active part of ).

My personal concern with the EPA proposal’s implications is

twofold. First, the direct consequences will include downsizing of existing ethanol value chains, and consequently people losing their jobs. My second concern is the message this repeal is sending to youth. Can we really afford further discouragement to young researchers planning to work on alternative energies? Is this that the message the ‘progressive’ Obama administration would like to convey to future scientists and entrepreneurs?

Don’t bother with biofuels, solar or wind energy. Oil has won. Oil and all his friends.

Mohamed Leila is a PhD student in Natural Resources Sciences, and can be reached at mohamed.laila@ mail.mcgill.ca.

Want to respond to a piece in The Daily?

Submit a letter! Pieces 300 words or less, with no hateful or discriminatory content or language, will be accepted. letters@mcgilldaily.com

Features

Written by Hannah Besseau Title Illustration by Alice Shen Photo by Tamim Sujat

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man called me a few weeks ago at The Daily office, looking for a news editor to complain to. It was about a report published back in October on an anti-Charter of Values protest. After talking at length about the article at hand, the man finally took a breath, and got to the point: the article published was – in his words – biased journalism. “You only spoke with anti-Charter people and Muslim people!” he said, outraged, calling the article’s interviews “one-sided.” He continued: “tell me – why didn’t you talk to any pro-Charter people? I’m sure you could have talked to professors at McGill on pro-Charter opinions to balance the piece.” The conversation ended abruptly when the man reached his wits’ end and asked, “Tell me, do you believe in objective journalism or not?”

“No sir, I do not,” I replied. He promptly hung up. And so, to the man who holds objectivity so dear, here I am, laying my subjectivity out on the table: objectivity doesn’t exist.

Tools of objective journalism “I would say that ‘objectivity’ is a weapon of the corporate media,” said Martin Lukacs, a writer for the Guardian who has also worked for community media outlets such as the Media Co-op. “Objectivity takes on a different meaning in its propaganda usage. Being in journalism basically means repeating what it says in the corners of power.”

Objective journalism is considered the

February 24, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

gold standard in mainstream and corporate press. The crux of this practice is the aim to provide unbiased and balanced reporting, and present the media consumer with straightforward facts so that they can form their own conclusions. This form of journalism aims to remove the journalist from the reporting, and by doing so, to offer media consumers ‘nonpartisan journalism.’ “[In journalism school] we are taught to write stories as clear, concise, to the point,” a journalism student at Concordia, Saturn de los Angeles, told me. “And with that we’re taught to write as an inverted pyramid. At the top is the five W’s, who what when where why, and then you move into the details […] We’re taught objectivity as getting both sides of the story; [...] in journalism school we’re always reminded that we can’t be biased without stories, but in reality thats another thing.”

But after pulling back the curtain of objectivity in journalism, it becomes clear that much gets lost on the way.

“I think that objective journalism [...] presents the problem of false balance,” said Gretchen King, community activist and journalist.

False balance is the practice, common in mainstream media outlets, of presenting an issue as having two equally valid sides, regardless of the actual validity of those viewpoints.

Stefan Christoff, who also identifies as both a community activist and journalist, brought up the idea of false balance when we spoke about objectivity.

“I think objectivity essentially means siding with power most of the time, because of the [...] political and economic forces that dominate our

society,” he said. “If you’re giving those forces equal weight to another voice which is marginalized, in that dynamic of power because our society prioritizes certain voices, those people without question have more power.”

“If you continually replicate the idea that those voices are equal then you end up with the situation where the more marginalized voice becomes more marginalized in the piece, in the report, in the story, because you’re just reinforcing the power dynamics that exist by claiming objectivity, when in fact you’re only reinforcing power,” Christoff went on to say.

Both Christoff and King’s dual identity as community activist and journalist is one that would be considered contradictory by almost all mainstream media outlets. Journalists aren’t supposed to be activists; they’re too busy being journalists.

The man called our office asking for ‘balance’ in the piece; in fact, what he sensed was an imbalance – an uncomfortable shift of weight away from the dominant and ‘legitimized’ voice on the article’s topic. His reaction could be viewed as an extension of a symptom of objective journalism: privileging the voices of power to the extent that those who are actually implicated in the lived experience are no longer considered legitimate voices of authority.

Professionalizing journalism “I think a large majority of people in journalism these days, or who even study journalism, have learned that objectivity is something that was created over time within the practice of journalism to say ‘this is professional jour-

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nalism and this is not,’” explained King.

The notion of objective journalism is actually relatively new in the media landscape. The 19th century media landscape was dominated by overtly opinionated outlets. The printing and penny press were part of this phenomenon of free and open media. “Any person who could afford to and was literate could print something,” King told me. “You had this rise in newspapers and newsletters that were very much from social movements from certain perspectives and so on.”

Lukacs also brought up the difference between earlier journalism and the way it’s practiced today. “[Objectivity] came into vogue in the early 20th century when corporations started consolidating control over media. Labour unions owned papers, ownership was much more diverse and papers were unabashedly partisan.”

One of the main forces in the shift toward the professionalization of journalism was the rise of the war reporter. The journalistic form came into its own throughout the two World Wars. “You saw this professional class of journalists who were just there to tell the objective story and get the news out [...] and journalism becoming a practice by professionals and not something that just anybody can do,” said King.

And yet, it wasn’t really until the early 20th century that corporations began consolidating control over media. “[Objective journalism was] almost in response to [the fact] that you see a professional class of journalism rising to say ‘We’re separate from them, we’re different than them’ but when you look at that objectivity you see

“LEANN” CATHERINE POLCZ

THE ART SUPPLEMENT

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THE ART SUPPLEMENT | FEBRUARY 24

“SPRING” TANJIHA MAHMUD

“LIVING SACRIFICE” BRIAN ZHU

THE ART SUPPLEMENT | FEBRUARY 24

“DECIDUOUS” MADISON BENTLEY

“ELECTRIC ARMY” JENNIFER GUAN

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THE ART SUPPLEMENT | FEBRUARY 24

“ANITA” CATHERINE POLCZ

“DIVE” MADISON BENTLEY

“MARGIT” CATHERINE POLCZ

THE ART SUPPLEMENT | FEBRUARY 24

“ROOTS” SARAH NOGUES

“SECRET” SARAH NOGUES

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THE ART SUPPLEMENT | FEBRUARY 24

“INNER CITY” JENNIFER GUAN

“PICTORIAL PLANET” VALINA SINTAL

“CABLE RAILWAY” JENNIFER GUAN

THE ART SUPPLEMENT | FEBRUARY 24

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“A QUIET DEATH” BRIAN ZHU

“ENCOUNTERS” JANE ZHANG

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THE ART SUPPLEMENT | FEBRUARY 24

“FRILLED-LIZARD WRAPPED WITH RIBBONS” VALINA SINTAL

“DEATH OF MICKEY MOUSE” CHRISTINE TAM

Features

it’s very much geared toward advertisers, toward the profit of the newspaper, toward the political opinion of the newspaper editor,” King told me.

The process of professionalizing journalism has, over time, worked to construct the idea that there is ‘legitimate’ and ‘illegitimate’ reporting, where objectivity is pitted as the voice of absolute truth in its supposed removal of the reporter. As Lukacs points out, “What the corporate media prints is considered objective, and what it doesn’t is considered non-objective.”

In this process, non-objective journalism is deemed biased, ‘emotional,’ and sympathetic, language used as political strategy to dismiss any legitimacy for the practice of subjective journalism.

A case for honest journalism There’s a real danger to supporting the ideal of objective journalism. It is not just a question of whether objectivity can even exist in practice, but more importantly, one of the greater implications of supporting objectivity as it currently stands in wielding dominant power in media.

Journalistic practices that embrace subjectivity open up space for a diversity of voices, perspectives, and experiences; all of which tend to become diluted through the processes of objective reporting.

“A lot of mainstream journalists – corporate journalists – say things like ‘You can’t participate in a protest, that’s crossing a line, it’s quote unquote too involved.’” Lukacs told me. “I always wonder why they don’t ask

February 24, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

themselves [if it’s] becoming too involved if you go to, let’s say, a corporate gala or [...] become embedded in work with the Canadian army in Afghanistan.”

Lukacs believes that corporate media serves to police the boundary of acceptable debate, and furthermore, to keep this boundary quite narrow. By the standards of objectivity, he said, “When you fall outside these lines is where you become biased.”

It is this regulation that is responsible for the violence to those voices and communities that become silenced and ignored as a result.

Campus and community radio station CKUT 90.3 FM offers a great example of actively breaking the silencing, in particular with the Homelessness Marathon, an annual national radio event that brings the microphone to the hands of people who are homeless so that they can speak for themselves about their lived experiences.

During the 2012 Homelessness Marathon, an anonymous speaker from Vancouver spoke on how they felt media treated them, “What would I want the news to report? You can’t really reach [people who are homeless] in the news,” they said. “What we have to say is more complicated than what the media can do for us.”

Lukacs also pointed to the role journalists assume in stepping on the toes of those they report on.

“Journalists tend to appoint themselves too much power [...] imagining that they’re more important than they actually are. [They] should never forget that real power rests with social movements not with journalists [...].

That’s one of the intoxicants of the professional class of journalists – [to] give themselves the conception that they’re removed from ‘ordinary people,’ and that’s something that results in [a conception of ] a close identification with people in power.”

Another speaker at the 2012 Marathon also identified a neglect on the media’s part to acknowledge what they felt were key issues, referring specifically to media coverage of an Occupy Vancouver event. “I think that [the] media ignores the fact that mental health issues are going on. That was the biggest hurtful thing, was that people who were on the street were ignored [by] most of society, people didn’t see directly how [people with mental health issues] helped [each other],” they said.

How objective media fails “The reader [of objective journalism] loses out on a lot,” King said, referring to the hidden nature of objective journalism’s goals.

King explained that context is often lost in process of creating objective reporting. “The reporter has to remove a lot of context because it might not be considered objective to tell a point of view that’s not the mainstream point of view,” she said. “Anything that would be perceived as going against the status quo could be considered as advocating a political end goal, so objective journalism would try to remove a lot of these things.”

Both Christoff and King gave the example of a policed protest. In this case, there is a tendency for mainstream corporate media to remain outside the protest and to interview police. “The police aren’t the ones who called

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the demos, the police aren’t the ones putting their bodies on the lines,” said King, speaking about the armour and weapons police wield when regulating protests. “There’s an overreliance on official sources. Often official sources are not even named, we’re just told they’re official.”

The police’s voice, and other ‘legitimate’’ voices, are often used in mainstream media as ‘official sources’ despite the fact that they have no stake in political protests aside from their role in enforcing their regulation.

In objective journalism, quoting ‘legitimate’ sources is considered unbiased reporting.

Media consumers in all forms have to ask themselves: whose agenda is being put forth in objective journalism?

“I think that embracing one’s subjectivity is actually more honest than pretending to produce an objective piece of journalism,” said King. “Embracing subjectivity means that you put your politics on display […] That kind of honesty is what’s missing from the so-called professional journalists who hide behind a curtain of objectivity.”

Embracing subjective journalism is necessary in the fight to dismantle the hegemony of corporate media and the myth of objective journalism, in its relentless crusade against giving a platform to the lived experiences of those directly implicated in the stories it reports. So to the man who called looking for objectivity: you won’t find it here.

The clips cited in this article can be found in its online version at www.mcgilldaily. com/2014/02/unmasking-objectivity/.

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Sci+Tech

February 24, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

15

3D printing: A disruptive technology How additive manufacturing gives the power of design to the people Matthew Mayers Sci+Tech Writer

“

I’d love to tell you what’s coming down the pipe, but if I do, I could literally go to jail,” said Bre Pettis, the chief executive office of MakerBot. MakerBot is a 3D printing company based out of Brooklyn that was recently acquired for $403 million

by Stratasys, a larger 3D printer manufacturer. Pettis talked to The Daily about the future of 3D printing and design. Because of a legally binding promise of secrecy, his discussion of the future for their iTunes-like digital store was shrouded in mystery. The service, released in January, allows anyone to purchase the design file for a 3D model design, created in-house at MakerBot. This will ultimately allow individuals to print an assuredly high-quality product with their own 3D printing device.

3D printing is an additive manufacturing technique and is often referred to as a ‘disruptive’ technology. This means that it’s going to force many industries to change and adapt, as the internet did in the 1990s. As Pettis explained, “It makes ordinary people feel empowered.” The first step in revolutionizing the layperson’s ability to design is to give them the right tools. Right now, many powerful design software platforms are inaccessible. Programs like SolidWorks and AutoCAD are expensive (Solidworks is $150 for a student, and several thousand dollars for everyone else) and are difficult to use even for those with technical experience. MakerBot’s upcoming app, PrintShop, hopes to change that by making the design process more user-friendly.

“We’re coming at it from the other way by making it absurdly easy to use, [with] super friendly tools […]

We’re making it so easy for people to be designers that by the time they’ve made something, they sort of realize in retrospect that they’ve made something,” Pettis said proudly. “I think we’re converging on a time where it’ll be a lot easier to design things.”

Producing a vast new generation of designers might be the secret ingredient needed to convince future adopters of desktop 3D printing devices that the products of the advanced manufacturing technique are worth the investment. Fiona Zhao, a professor in the faculty of Engineering at McGill, believes that older, more experienced designers

Tanbin Rafee | The McGill Daily may be unable to design in a world absent of conventional manufacturing constraints. Zhao expects that it’s going to take a new generation of fresh, inexperienced individuals to take full advantage of additive manufacturing technology. I asked Pettis if he agreed with this. “My great grandfather had a radio, and my grandfather got to see TV happen. My dad got to see computers happen. But then when you look at what’s happened in just the last twenty years […] I think we’ve probably had ten generations of technology happen in ten years. So your professor may be right that it’ll take a generational change, but my guess is that the generational change will be faster than ever before,” responded the MakerBot CEO. The International Chamber of Commerce expects that by 2015, counterfeit goods globally will exceed $1.7 trillion, over 2 per cent of the world’s total current economic output. The desktop 3D printing industry is paving the way for amateur designers, but it is also distributing tools that allow for professional designs to be easily imitated. There’s a whole group of

patent holders trembling in their shoes at the thought of someone taking away their intellectual property. For example, you’re browsing the aisles of Bed Bath & Beyond and you come across some napkin rings that would be perfect for that upcoming dinner party to which you regret inviting your boss. You go home and find that someone has created a 3D model of napkin rings which, for your purposes, will do just fine. You download the file from an online design repository and send it to your personal 3D printer. A short while later, you have made yourself awfully similar napkin rings for a fraction of the cost. Or you could use Shapeways, another New York-based 3D printing company which will do the printing for you. They might even be monogrammed for each guest.

There may be a solution, or at the very least, a method of combat that doesn’t require restricting the evolution of technology.

In the future, professional designers and their retail outlets may be able to sell models on online 3D print design repositories. This would provide a logi-

cal step in protecting designs that can be replicated on a desktop 3D printer. Perhaps companies like MakerBot will open the doors to their Digital Store and allow professionals to sell their designs; or maybe designers and companies will open their own digital stores.

“I think we’re converging on a time where it’ll be a lot easier to design things.”

Bre Pettis MakerBot CEO Pettis, unable to disclose any information about the future of the Digital Store, detailed his views on the current position of the service.

“In many ways, it’s an experiment.

We’re going to find out if people are willing to buy 3D models.”

Shapeways has already begun

this practice by selling 3D printed objects designed by anyone. However, they sell the physically printed objects rather than the digital design files. Since anyone can submit designs, there is no assurance of quality. This also applies to MakerBot’s Thingiverse, where anyone can offer their designs for free. If the price of a certifiably high quality design is valued at a lower cost than the time and effort it would take to steal and print the file illegally, then maybe people will embrace this type of service – as iTunes and Netflix have done with the music and film industries, respectively.

The sun is just starting to come up for 3D printing. The concept is staggeringly simple, but the doors it will open for both industry and individuals are still undiscovered. As design becomes easier, the industry will work to find ways to solve the problems this may cause. While the curtains on the endless possibilities won’t rise instantaneously, companies like MakerBot are catalyzing the industry’s growth. You might be your own industrial designer sooner than you think.

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Sci+Tech

February 24, 2014 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com

“It’s not my fault, my brain made me do it!”

Does neuroscience challenge our view on free will?

Fernanda Pérez Gay Juárez & Daniel Vosberg Sci+Tech Writers

I

magine you have an important article due the following morning, but you succumb to your desires to spend the night drinking heavily. What drove this decision? Would you accept responsibility for such an action?

Could you have acted otherwise?

If you think that the answer to the last question is yes, then maybe you believe in what philosophers have called “free will.”

Historically, the question of freedom has been at the forefront of academic and political conversation. Legal systems in most parts of the world are based on the assumption that human beings have the ability to act in accordance with their intentions; however, scientific evidence reveals that this story is not so black and white.

Neuroscientific experiments conducted during the 1980s and 1990s revealed controversial results which challenged the commonlyheld conception of free will.

If the brain is a physical entity, embedded in a physical universe, governed by causal relationships, is there space for free will?

One of these experiments was carried out by Benjamin Libet, a former researcher at the University of California San Francisco. He asked participants to perform a simple decision-making task which involved pressing a button while observing a clock. They were asked to report the clock’s position at the moment the decision was made. Concurrently, the brain activity of the participants was measured using electroencephalographic recordings (a technique that records electrical activity in the brain with electrodes attached to the scalp). The researcher found that there was significant brain ac-

tivity in the SMA (supplementary motor area), a neural region responsible for initiating motor action, 350 milliseconds prior to the time when subjects reported being aware of their own choices.

More recently, in 2007, JohnDylan Haynes and colleagues conducted a study using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), a method that assesses neural activity by measuring blood flow and oxygenation in the brain. They tried to more closely assess what was happening in the brain prior to a decision while looking at a decision with two alternatives rather than one. Participants had to press one of two buttons with either their right or left index fingers. At the same time, they were looking at a series of changing random letters, and were asked to recall the letter they observed when the decision was made. The analysis of the results showed an increase in metabolic activity of two motor areas of the brain up to five seconds before the conscious decision.

The findings of these experiments were interpreted by some determinists – who believe that all events are caused by prior events – as evidence that free will is an illusion and that our decisions are predetermined by unconscious brain processes. This controversial position initiated the ongoing discourse between philosophers and neuroscientists, regarding the existence of free will.

These concepts were addressed in IRCM’s most recent Café Scientifique, “It’s Not My Fault, My Brain Made Me Do It!” During this event, three perspectives were presented to the general public, including those of Daniel Weinstock, a law professor at McGill; Lesley Fellows, neurologist and neuroscientist at the Montreal Neurological Institute; and Veljko Dubljevic, neuroethicist at the Institut De Recherche Clinique De Montreal (IRCM).

Weinstock started by reviewing the main ideas on the relationship between the brain and mind. He introduced the concept of dualism, which views the physical brain and subjective mind as separate entities. The more prevalent position among scientists is monism, the belief that the mind and brain are a single entity.

If the brain is a physical entity,

Eleanor Milman | The McGill Daily embedded in a physical universe, governed by causal relationships, is there space for free will? Although he is a monist, Weinstock considers that human beings are sensitive to reason (we can rationalize and explain our decisions), and that this fact must be integrated with our understanding of decision-making. Further, he also emphasized the mistaken conception that neuroscience will explain all aspects of human nature. “There is an irrational exuberance on the expectations of what neuroscience can tell us. Other levels of description are needed to understand human beings,” said Weinstock.

Fellows began by addressing the link between human behaviour and brain processes. She affirmed that all human behaviour can be explained by neural activity; however, she considers that the neurological basis of our actions does not threaten free will.

Fellows spoke up against the misinterpretation and exaggeration of scientific findings. When talking about the Libet and fMRI experiments, she explained that, “Being able to predict behaviour doesn’t mean it’s determined.” She also believes that only simple systems in our brain are predictable, whereas higher order decisions (e.g., deciding on which school to apply to) are governed by complex

circuits and random events. She concluded that none of the neuroscientific evidence removes responsibility for our actions.

“There is an irrational exuberance on the expectations of what neuroscience can tell us.

Other levels of description are needed to understand human beings.”

Daniel Weinstock Law professor at McGill The final speaker, Dubljevic, began by stating that misconceptions exist on both sides of the argument: among neurologists and neuroscientists, but also among philosophers and ethicists. In order to integrate the scientific findings and the philosophical concepts, a new discipline has emerged: neuroethics.

From his point of view, “free will” is a metaphysical concept and therefore it can’t be explained nor refuted by physical findings. He believes it should thus be reframed as “selfcontrol” and “autonomy,” which are more compatible with the scientific approach to the problem. According to him, there is a meaningful difference between a patient with frontal lobe damage who cannot exercise self-control, and a person without brain damage who can. He then described liberty as the capacity to exercise choices in the absence of coercion or compulsion. Dubljevic believes in the importance of practical applications rather than philosophical debates.

This fascinating multidisciplinary dialogue illustrates the challenges in rationally or empirically validating an elusive concept like free will. Despite the variety of perspectives, the three speakers agreed that there is no neuroscientific annulment of free will. Nevertheless, the evidence derived from recent experiments has opened the door to debate the source of our choices. These discussions not only enrich our understanding of human nature, but also helps to answer the difficult question of whether society considers individuals responsible for their own actions.

Sci+Tech

February 24, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

17

What is this thing called love?

Undergrads try to shed light on the science behind love Klara Keutel Sci+Tech Writer

E

ach year on February 14, couples everywhere take a day to celebrate their love. This year, McGill’s science outreach program hosted a Freaky Friday on Valentine’s Day dedicated to love.

Freaky Friday is a monthly event that normally features experts presenting their research to the public in an accessible way. For example, in 2011, John Lydon, a professor in social psychology at McGill, presented his theory on speed-dating, the role of physical attractiveness, and the eternal triangle of love.

This year, the organizers decided to shift the focus. Rather than giving the stage to renowned researchers, it was given to undergraduate students. Three McGill undergraduates were given four minutes to present their own theories of love and defend it against a panel of judges consisting of recently graduated McGill science students.

Love is the drug The evening started with the neurochemical drivers of two early stages in love: lust and attraction.

According to the first student, Adam Iskric, being in love is comparable to being on, and addicted to, drugs. Various hormones and neurotransmitters are involved in the feelings of love – testosterone, dopamine, adrenaline, and serotonin. “Dopamine, for instance, has the same effect as cocaine. It stimulates the desire and reward system in the brain and gives us this intense feeling of pleasure,” explained Iskric. Increases in dopamine levels are associated with increased levels of energy, loss of appetite, less need for sleep, and focused attention toward a partner. In that sense, we are getting addicted to our partner.

Trust me (this is love) “Imagine this. Meet a random

Alice Shen | The McGill Daily stranger, sit together on a bench, exchange intimate personal experiences for half an hour, and then stare in each other’s eyes for four minutes,” described the next student speaker, Alexander Rosenthal.

This experiment, conducted by Arthur Aron, a professor of social psychology at Stony Brook University, was supposed to make people fall in love in 34 minutes. Interestingly enough, after the session, most of the assigned pairs did feel highly attracted to each other. Two couples even got married.

According to Aron, eye-contact facilitates the release of oxytocin. She went on to explain that, “Oxytocin plays an important role here. It is also called the lovehormone, as it is released while

having sex, giving birth, breastfeeding, and other activities that involve trust. Oxytocin makes us feel closer to the other person which is crucial in order to establish a long-lasting relationship.”

Bizarre love triangle The final student presenter, Ethan Yang, focused on the social aspect of love. “As a person who grew up in different countries and cultures, this was what always interested me most. Love means different things depending on the dominant values and norms in society,” he said. Yang claims that from a biological point of view, love’s a phenomenon based on a cocktail of neurochemicals. However, whether we fall in love heav-

ily depends on our surroundings and can be influenced by how we perceive and classify love. This touches, for example, on different images of the family throughout history, gender roles, sexual orientation, and intersexuality. He summarizes this conception by using the triangular theory of love.

“There are three main aspects of love: passion, intimacy and commitment. The type of a relationship depends on the mixing proportions of all three. These three aspects alone can be explained with neurochemical processes in the brain.

The mixing proportions are shaped by the social context.” Hence, Yang concluded the evening with a synthesis of the previous approaches.

Though the talks didn’t pres-

ent particularly cutting-edge research, it was an opportunity for to highlight student researchers rather than the usual professorcentered presentations.

Ingrid Birker, science outreach coordinator and organizer of Freaky Fridays, saw the evening as a great success. “I am thrilled about the high quality of the contributions. Another event like this is definitely something worth considering.” There are, however, no concrete plans for another freaky science competition.

Next time your heart flutters and your eyes go googly, remember the biological, psychological, and social aspects going on in your mind and body. There is science to the silly little thing called love.

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Health&Ed

February 24, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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The study abroad conundrum How international study experiences might lead to social inequality

Joelle Dahm | The McGill Daily Klara Keutel Health&Education Writer

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nternationalization has become one of the main trends in the world of education. Studying abroad or gaining alternative international experience through working, travelling, or volunteering has become increasingly popular among students. Employers and recruiters for graduate schools include these international experiences more and more on their checklists, associating them with personal growth, open-mindedness, intercultural skills, and independence. It signals assertiveness, and the ability to work in teams of people with different backgrounds. Depending on the destination, studying abroad can also help in developing language skills that could be beneficial later in life.

In Germany, around a third of all university students spend at least some time during their studies abroad, while the U.S. keeps up with about 20 per cent of its students partaking in the experience. In Canada, even though the tendency is rising, the numbers are less significant, with only around 10 per cent of all univer-

sity and college students taking part in any study abroad programs. Katie Idle, the coordinator of the Study and Go Abroad Fair organized by Recruit in Canada, told The Daily that there is rising interest in international study experiences. “We started with 400-500 visitors the first year we organized in in Montreal in 2010.

Now we expect between 800 and 1,000 visitors.”

According to the “Open Doors Report” from 2012, the supply of study abroad programs has become much more diverse and accessible. When studying abroad started becoming popular in the 1970s and 1980s, the duration of the programs was much longer.; however, a recent trend shows that students prefer shorter stays abroad. “The Open Doors Report” points out that 58 per cent of the students going abroad are registered in an 8-weeks-or-shorter summer program. 38 per cent spend between one and two semesters abroad, and only 4 per cent study or work for at least a year in a foreign country. Hence, there is a continuously growing availability of short-term programs, including summer courses, internships, and work opportunities. “Popular,

for instance, is teaching English during summer. South Korea and Japan are the current hot spots.

But South America is [also] increasingly considered as the place to go,” says Janice Tester, who is a career advisor at McGill’s Career Planning Service (CaPS).

While it seems to be becoming increasingly regular, if not expected, to gain international experience – be it through teaching English in South Korea, doing summer school in Brazil, or studying for a semester in France – it is undoubtedly a matter of finances as well. Depending on what sort of international experience one is opting for, costs can be substantially higher than the fees paid for studying at home.

Travel costs, potentially higher living expenses, and supplementary program fees can quickly end up accumulating. The “Open Doors Report” states that there has been a notable increase of institutions offering scholarships and other financial support, from 63 per cent in 2000 to 81 per cent in 2007; however, the Canadian Bureau for International Education’s “World of Learning Report” in 2009 emphasized that for 69 per cent of students, lack of funds

or financial support is still the most common barrier to studying or working abroad. “There are increasingly funding and financial support opportunities,” explains Idle. “The government provides more funds in order to make studying abroad attractive for Canadians. But there is an according uptrend among universities and companies, as well.”

Tester adds that while students with more limited funds might not have as many options for their stays abroad, there are still opportunities available for them. For example, some of the working programs, for instance teaching English in Asia, are paid.

This might be a viable option if the degrees needed to teach were free. Kester adds, “If a student really wants to go abroad, there normally is a way to make this possible. There are many students consulting me and my colleagues who do not have the required funds themselves.” This statement, however, ignores the fact that many students are not able to spend money or time on study programs, as this would restrict their time to work in order to afford a degree.

“It is also a question of inter-

national networks,” says Tester.

“Many students going abroad arrange their work and stay via friends, family and acquaintances.” This requires, however, that one already be part of an international network, and know how to use it. Studies have consistently shown that students are more likely to study abroad if they are in an environment that is able to support this decision. A family that is internationally oriented, or is at least approving and encouraging of a stay abroad, might play a substantial role. The findings of the “Open Doors Report” show that racial minorities are underrepresented among the students heading abroad, which is inequitable, considering the benefits that come with taking part in these programs. Since people from different socioeconomic backgrounds might be less likely to take part in these programs, this can lead to social inequality when it comes to getting hired or getting into grad school. Even though universities and the government try to strike a balance by providing students with scholarships or paid working opportunities, the high cost of the programs will remain a problem for many.

Sports

February 24, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

20

Not our problems On #SochiProblems and Western bias Evan Dent The McGill Daily

T

he rumblings in the Western media about the Winter Olympics in Sochi began long before the opening ceremony’s gigantic bear holograms took permanent residence in our nightmares. They started sometime around Russia’s passing of anti-gay propaganda laws, leading a bunch of professional athletes – especially hockey players – to display Olympic-level question- dodging when asked how they felt about LGBTQ issues.

A boycott was quickly dismissed, because, after all, the athletes had worked so hard, and the sponsors paid so much, and we couldn’t miss the Olympics for this!

That’s right, during a gigantic collection of literally almost every nation in the world, somehow there should be not a peep of politics, somehow these games should exist independent of any political spirit, even as the athletes wear their nation’s flag on their chest and listen to their national anthem when they win a gold medal.

Next came a laundry list of worries, including terrorist threats and, finally, about two weeks before athletes were scheduled to arrive, the fact that the Olympic Village wasn’t

Carmen Fenech | The McGill Daily exactly finished yet. Despite assurances that all would be ready, media arrived in Sochi to hotels still under construction, unclean drinking water, missing shower curtains, roving crews sent to kill stray dogs, and on and on. You probably saw at least some of it: #SochiProblems quickly spread across the internet, with the assorted media tweeting every indignity they faced. What shocked Yahoo!

Sports’ Greg Wyshynski the most, however, was that used toilet paper didn’t go into the toilet, but into a bin instead. How strange!

There were legitimate gripes to be had about Sochi’s Olympic Village – an event that has cost $51 billion should probably have clean drinking water, or decent plumbing – but a lot of the problems in Sochi were borne out of Western bias and expectations, and the coverage of the Olympics by many in the media has been filled with misunderstanding, thinly veiled contempt, and hypocrisy. Deadspin columnist Drew Magary, tongue firmly-in-cheek, called Russians people “you can make fun of […] without anyone getting mad!” Sadly, it’s become all too real: Russia’s problems have been a way for the West to feel better about itself, to pat itself on the back without addressing any of its own issues.

For a nation that prides itself on the idea of free speech, it was pretty

fun to see NBC, as it showed the tapedelayed opening ceremony, cut out the only brave moment of the whole evening. During what is usually a staid speech celebrating the Olympics, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach subtly addressed Russia’s numerous human rights abuses and its anti-gay laws by stating that the Olympics promoted equality for everyone, and that, in the future, it would be possible “to live together under one roof in harmony, with tolerance and without any form of discrimination for whatever reason […].” NBC hasn’t addressed why this was cut from its broadcast; the whole thing was cut down for time, and it’s somehow an accident that the only halfway bold political statement was axed from the broadcast. This is another display of the desire by many, especially broadcasters and advertisers, to remove politics from the Olympics.

That’s right, during a gigantic collection of literally almost every nation in the world, somehow there should be not a peep of politics, somehow these games should exist independent of any political spirit, even as the athletes wear their nation’s flag on their chest and listen to their national anthem when they win a gold medal.

Perhaps most glaring is the American media’s harsh condemnation of Russia’s anti-gay laws. This criticism comes from the same place that, after

football prospect Michael Sam came out as gay, allowed multiple pro football personnel men to anonymously comment that football wasn’t ready for an openly gay player, that his draft stock would fall, and that he would rip apart a locker room’s chemistry because of his sexuality. “But how will a gay athlete get through Sochi?” they wondered, while allowing people to hate Sam, while they watched as Arizona passed a law that allowed businesses to deny service to anyone based on religious belief (in effect, a business owner could deny service to a gay person due to religious beliefs), and Indiana coming perilously close to passing a state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Is it as bad as Russia’s anti-gay laws? Probably not, but when you’re arguing over the degree of how bad you are at something, it’s hard to sit on the high horse.

The same can be said for criticism of Russia’s treatment of protestors, most visibly the arrests and beatings of members of the Pussy Riot band.

North America would never have a justice system so corrupt, we say, as its prison-industrial complex grows, and, in places like Montreal, the right to protest is slowly eroded.

As for fear of terrorist attacks, the U.S. media seems to have completely forgotten the fact that the Atlanta games were bombed back in 1998; yet the threat on the Sochi

games somehow reveals another Russian shortcoming.

Besides, what will we remember from these games? The social issues that arise every Olympic year eventually fade away in the consciousness. Whether it be the treatment of workers leading up to the game, laws that permit hate, the environmental impact (such as the Beijing controversies in 2008), the ridiculous amounts of money spent by the host nation or the public space wasted by little-used infrastructure (have you looked at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium lately?); these become secondary.

The achievements of the athletes are talked about for years to come; the issues that arise from the collection of these athletes in one space are merely topical. After the games, we leave all those problems there.

This is not an attempt to hold up Russia as a paragon of the world that has been slandered by the West – what Russia has done, and is doing, is abhorrent in many ways, and criticism is warranted. But the sense running underneath aspects of the coverage of these games, the predilection to point the finger at Russia’s problems while ignoring our own, is a pernicious trend. Real change at home will take longer if we continue to externalize our issues and assure ourselves that, at the very least, it’s worse elsewhere.

Culture

February 24, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

21

A children’s classic with a gothic spin Players’ Theatre presents Peter Pan Louis Denizet The McGill Daily

L

ast Wednesday, February 19, was the opening night for the Players’ Theatre production of James Matthew Barrie’s Peter Pan. While Players’ rendition is an entertaining opportunity to revisit a childhood classic many of us are familiar with, its contemporary “gothic spin” fails to create a compelling alternative to the original.

The original tale, best known to all from Walt Disney’s animated movie, tells the story of a child’s never-ending youth on the imaginary island of Neverland.

As the leader of the Lost Boys, children who fell out of their prams and were never reclaimed by their parents, Peter Pan tells them countless tales and fables which they believe to be true.

While mainly interacting with the fantastic creatures of Neverland, Peter Pan occasionally returns to the real world. After having lost his shadow at the Darling household, he meets Wendy (Charlotte Doucette) and her brothers, who agree to follow Peter Pan to his world. Wendy will eventually become a sort of surrogate mother to the Lost Boys.

In recent years, the story of Peter Pan has been heavily criticized for its stereotypical representations of Indigenous peoples as conceived of by European co-

lonialists in the 18th and 19th centuries. As Kelly Richmond, the play’s director, explained, the insertion of offensive and erroneous conceptions of Indigenous cultures in the original narrative was certainly due to their “commercial appeal for young boys.”

In an attempt to sidestep the racism embedded within Barrie’s original, Richmond chose not to depict Indigenous peoples and to instead present Tiger Lily (Lucy Gripper) as a tough and shadowy girl, constantly surrounded by her threatening female posse. While Players’ attempt to minimize the play’s racist potential is laudable, their decision to use a gothic posse instead is questionable. Richmond’s version differed from the original due to its “gothic spin,” mostly consisting of Tiger Lily’s vixen posse, as well as in the physical absence of fan-favourite characters Tinker Bell and the Crocodile, who were nonetheless still present thanks to ringing and tick-tocking sound effects. Neverland, as an imaginary land home to fairies, pirates, the Lost Boys, and more, made the insertion of Tiger Lily as an intriguing and glamorous figure fit the narrative perfectly, yet failed to provide as much depth as Barrie’s problematic Indigenous characters.

The scenery, set on several levels, was elaborate and wellcrafted. The lighting, mainly consisting of twinkling lights on

Khoa Doan | The McGill Daily strands hung all over the walls of the theatre, offered rich golden and yellow tones that created an intimate ambiance, reminiscent of the ones children love to create to tell each other stories. Yet there was not much evidence of the spectacular strobe lighting that the play’s program promised.

The costumes and the makeup of the actors themselves, which were subtle yet intricate, were most impressive. The decision to

Khoa Doan | The McGill Daily

get Peter Pan, Captain Hook, and Tiger Lily to wear azure, emerald, and ruby contact lenses was particularly pleasing, rendering each character’s gaze eerily piercing and all the more compelling.

Rebecca Pearl’s impressive physical energy made for an im-

Richmond’s version differed from the original due to its “gothic spin,” mostly consisting of Tiger Lily’s vixen posse, as well as in the physical absence of fan-favourite characters Tinker Bell and the Crocodile, who were nonetheless still present thanks to ringing and tick-tocking sound effects.

peccable rendition of Peter Pan as a hyperactive and headstrong little boy. Pearl, with her petite frame, seemed like the perfect human incarnation of the Disney Peter Pan most of us know. Actor Maka Ngwenya’s versatility and vivaciousness was also a high point of the play, offering viewers excellent renditions of an overdramatic Mrs. Darling and a sassy Captain Hook. Ngwenya was a very overthe-top Captain Hook, with a huge cigar and an oversized hook, a touch of comic effect that made the character that much stronger.

While the first act went by very smoothly, the second act featured many exhaustive battle scenes.

Although they were impressively choreographed, and made to come to life vividly by the whole cast of 20 actors, the extended scenes of youthful fighting that were entertaining to us as children are not as appealing to a grown up audience.

In sum, the success of Players’ Peter Pan lies in the quality of its acting and the richness of its decor. Yet for many, the main lure of attending this production is the fact that it will certainly make you reminisce about your childhood days, the meaning of growing up, and whether your adult self has met the expectations of the child that you once were.

Peter Pan runs from February 26 to March 1 at 8 p.m. at Players’ Theatre (3480 McTavish). Tickets are $6 for students.

22

Culture

February 24, 2014 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com

Love in the time of comics Diane Obomsawin tells tales of budding love Daniel Woodhouse The McGill Daily

A

lison Bechdel’s long-running comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For was an early and pioneering instance of comics as a medium to discuss lesbian and gay life and as a representation of lesbians in American society. The comic, featuring commentary on the politics of the day alongside ongoing character drama, set a high standard. “The Bechdel Test,” first introduced in the comic, has now gone on to become standard shorthand for female underrepresentation in film. Anyone looking to make their mark in the medium will find themselves challenged to bring a fresh perspective.

One cartoonist who certainly has something to contribute is Montreal-based animator and underground comic veteran Diane Obomsawin. On Loving Women is her latest collection of comics, published this week by Montreal-based Drawn & Quarterly.

This short collection (80 pages) features a series of accounts following the sexual awakening of Obomsawin’s friends or lovers.

Her panels aren’t populated with people as we recognize them, but rather a variety of simply-rendered anthropomorphized animals with huge goofy cartoon eyes that dominate their faces.

In the first story, six-year-old Mathilde covers her bedroom walls with drawings of horses. She goes on to explain how all “the women I fall for always have horse faces.”

Sure enough, whereas a boyfriend she has at school is a mouse, the women that Mathilde falls for literally have horses faces. This touch is reminiscent of Art Spiegelman’s depiction of Jews as mice and Germans as cats in Maus, a graphic novel about the experience of the author’s father as a Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor. Fortunately, this is as far as the potential symbolism goes, with the choices of particular animals often left mysterious, more like Matt Groening’s

Matilde’s story from Diane Obomsawin’s On Loving Women. Courtesy of Drawn & Quarterly self conscious rabbits in his longrunning comic strip Life is Hell than Spiegelman’s mice. With its bold simplicity and idiosyncrasy, Obomsawin’s art brings a unity to the various accounts.

While Obomsawin’s characters, drawn in simple black and white, may seem unassuming and almost childlike, we soon find them ready

to get some action. The stories manage to capture a variety of experiences, charged with the exuberance of the young characters who are discovering their identities. Confusion turns into self-assured desire as Obomsawin’s characters find themselves, and lovers.

Artists and audiences have rightly focused on the hostility

that many gay and lesbian teenagers are met with as they grow up, an issue that Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” internet-based program brought into sharp focus.

On Loving Women manages to capture a different, yet complementary perspective: how personal confusion eventually leads to self discovery. And discovery

can be found in all kinds of places, from the school yard to a long train journey having lesbian erotica read out by the niece of a nun in the next door cabin.

These stories capture the excitement of being young and discovering yourself, and despite recounting one particular experience, manage to capture something universal. Where On Loving Women succeeds the most is where the memories being shared are those the author’s friends and lovers seem happiest to remember. Obomsawin’s efforts to convey their sentiments are nowhere clearer than in her decision to end on a high note.

That is not to say everyone in these accounts has it easy. Marie’s mother sends her away to Ontario to separate her from her girlfriend, and later moves her to a different school when she starts a relationship with a fellow pupil. Confusion leads another girl on a bout of serial promiscuity with every kind of man. There is also jealousy as girlfriends are stolen, and disappointment when advances are spurned in dramatic fashion – not to mention the sorry string of boyfriends who are left baffled.

One of the book’s successes, which falls in line with Drawn & Quarterly’s other publications, is in capturing a snapshot of life in Canada, and specifically Montreal. Maxime takes us to Babyface, one of Montreal’s first lesbian bars, where we learn “there was always a lot going on in the restroom.” Like Bechdel, who would often editorialize on the politics of the day, Obomsawin weaves the legal reforms of the 1970s that decriminalized homosexuality in Canada into Maxime’s story. All in all, On Loving Women is a provocative and powerful use of the comic medium, evocatively documenting the experiences of a generation of lesbians.

On Loving Women is available at Drawn & Quarterly (211 Bernard W.) for $16.95.

Let’s be honest, culture is the best section.

Write for culture! email culture@mcgilldaily.com for more information

Editorial

volume 103 number 21

editorial board 3480 McTavish St., Rm. B-24 Montreal, QC H3A 1X9

February 24, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Radio from the streets

phone 514.398.6784 fax 514.398.8318 mcgilldaily.com coordinating editor

Anqi Zhang

coordinating@mcgilldaily.com coordinating news editor

Hannah Besseau news editors

Molly Korab Jordan Venton-Rublee Dana Wray commentary & compendium! editors

E.k. Chan Emmet Livingstone

culture editor

Nathalie O’Neill features editor

Carla Green

science+technology editor

Diana Kwon

health&education editor

Joelle Dahm sports editor

Evan Dent

multimedia editor

Hera Chan

photo editor

Tamim Sujat illustrations editor

Alice Shen copy editor

Davide Mastracci design & production editor

Rachel Nam web editor

Igor Sadikov le délit

Camille Gris Roy

rec@delitfrancais.com cover design Alice Shen and Tamim Sujat contributors Jill Bachelder, Madison Bentley, Khoa Doan, Cem Ertekin, Carmen Fenech, Jennifer Guan, Fernanda Pérez Gay Juárez, Klara Keutel, Magdalene Klassen, Mohamed Leila, Tanjiha Mahmud, Matthew Mayers, Eleanor Milman, Midori Nishioka, Sarah Nogues, Kristian Picon, Catherine Polcz, Robin Reid-Fraser, Joseph Renshaw, Valina Sintal, Christine Tam, Kai Cheng Thom, Daniel Vosberg, Daniel Woodhouse, Jane Zhang, Brian Zhu

Alice Shen | The McGill Daily

T

his Wednesday night, community radio station CKUT 90.3 FM, along with 35 radio stations across Canada, will be broadcasting the 12th annual Homelessness Marathon from outside the Native Friendship Centre Montreal. This pan-Canadian event is a night-long live broadcast intended to raise awareness, change perspectives, and spark dialogue on homelessness and poverty in Canadian communities. The national broadcast is collaboratively produced by community radio stations in 13 cities across Canada, and this year is primarily hosted by CJSR-FM, a campus-based station in Edmonton.

The Homelessness Marathon is broadcast from the streets, and aims to amplify the voices of people affected by homelessness. As they share their experiences and participate in discussion, people who are homeless give their perspective on issues that affect them. The Marathon stands in sharp contrast with the usual media coverage of homelessness, which often gives the spotlight to so-called authorities on the topic, rather than to people who live the reality of homelessness every day.

Moreover, discussion of homelessness in the mainstream media is usually framed in economic terms.

Homelessness is treated as an economic inconvenience to society, with those affected viewed as a burden to taxpayers. Under this view, the alleviation of this burden is the primary motivation for the reduction of homelessness. Combined with a lack of awareness regarding the lives of people affected by homelessness, this leads to a misguided approach. By providing a platform to the people affected, the Homelessness Marathon contributes to a more accurate understanding of homelessness.

People affected by homelessness are still stigmatized by mainstream media today, portrayed as entirely responsible for their situation, as opposed to being put into an economic situation involving homelessness by

circumstance. Homeless people are alternately painted as drug abusers, as not seeking help for mental illness, as well as not being economically productive members of society. This narrative erases the much more complex reasons for homelessness and discounts the possibility that some might choose to be homeless. It purports to justify the government’s lack of social services and infrastructure set up to accommodate those affected by homelessness. This excuses the government’s failure to make existing services and resources more accessible.

Last Thursday, the provincial government promised $6 million in funding for the improvement, and creation of outreach services for people affected by homelessness. Another $270 million, financed through the AccèsLogis Québec program, will be put toward creating 3,250 social housing units – 500 of which will be designated for the homeless or those deemed at risk of homelessness. Already, a spokesperson from the Collectif pour un Québec sans pauvreté – a group working to eradicate poverty – said the proposed funding is “insufficient,” as indicated in a Montreal Gazette article published on February 20.

CKUT will broadcast the Marathon for 21 hours, beginning on February 26 at 5 p.m. and ending the next morning at 9 a.m. The broadcast will bring in voices to talk about issues such as gentrification, the rights of sex workers and drug users, mental health, Indigenous rights, and prisoner justice and recidivism. Beyond simply stopping by the marathon broadcast outside the Native Friendship Centre, it is also important to give your time to the many shelters and services for those affected by homelessness. This broadcast can be seen as a starting point to engage with a community that has largely been marginalized.

—The McGill Daily Editorial Board

Errata 3480 McTavish St., Rm. B-26 Montreal, QC H3A 1X9 phone 514.398.6790 fax 514.398.8318 advertising & general manager Boris Shedov sales representative Letty Matteo ad layout & design Geneviève Robert

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dps board of directors Queen Arsem-O’Malley, Amina Batyreva, Jacqueline Brandon, Théo Bourgery, Hera Chan, Benjamin Elgie, Camille Gris Roy, Boris Shedov, Samantha Shier, Juan Camilo Velásquez Buriticá, 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.

Printed by Imprimerie Transcontinental Transmag. Anjou, Quebec.

ISSN 1192-4608.

In the article “Enough money to survive” (February 17, Features, page 14), The Daily stated that the Comité consultatif de lutte contre la pauvreté et l’exclusion sociale (CCLP)’s proposal for minimum income would exclude municipalities greater than 300,000 individuals, therefore excluding Montreal; in fact, the proposal includes all of Quebec but dollar figures are calculated based on municipalities of fewer than 300,000.

In the article “Halal options on campus scarce” (February 17, News, page 6), The Daily incorrectly labelled Monique Lauzon as an Aramark representative. In fact, she is the Marketing and Nutrition Counselor for Student Housing and Hospitality Services.

The Daily regrets the errors.

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23

Compendium!

February 24, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

24

Lies, half-truths, and rage

FUCK THIS: a masterpost Fuck February, and fuck graduation

Fuck the middle class Fuck the goddamn middle class and their whiny, entitled children, who think that because they only got to go to Disneyworld twice that they’re fucking poor. Fuck their judgmental bullshit about welfare and whining about people with no power while the wealthy fucking rob them blind. Fuck middle-class moderates and bullshit arguments about how if you’re polite enough the powers that be will just fucking take their boot off your fucking neck. Fuck people who grew up with separate bedrooms

and cars and RESPs and then dumpsterdive and act like it’s some fucking act of revolution. Fuck this idea that hard work and ingenuity will get you fucking anywhere, and then sneering at people for being poor when they work three jobs just trying to feed their kids. Fuck the middleclass moral panic about how many children poor people have, and especially fuck people who like that ‘Idiocracy’ bullshit about the poor outbreeding everyone for eugenicist motherfuckers.

Fuck February. Fuck its shortness which makes everything else seem long in relation. Fuck waiting for news. Fuck waiting for news about the future, in particular.

Fuck having to think about the future. Fuck graduating, which, to be real, is only a marker signifying the passage of time and some mild accumulation of fact that will literally have no impact on my or anyone else’s lives.

Didn’t I celebrate this exact thing four years

ago? I think I was better at it then, too. Fuck this slow sink into oblivion, and fuck people who say you’re taking yourself too seriously when you make the mistake of mentioning that. You know what, well-adjusted people?

You know what, people who aren’t even graduating? Yeah, you. Fuck you. And fuck this process. I would say I can’t wait to get the fuck out, but I don’t even know what the fuck is out there. I was never fucking taught.

Fuck you haters Fuck Canada Fuck Canada. Fuck Canadian beer, which tastes like rusty machinery water and costs an obscene amount. Fuck this place’s inability to make one goddamn good slice of pizza, or come halfway close to making good Mexican food. No, all they can do is throw a fucking ladle of gravy on top of fries and cheese and call it a delicacy. Fuck this place’s terrible fucking history that no one wants to talk about. Fuck their thin veneer of false humility and kindness that immediately disappears whenever hockey is involved. Fuck the fact that this country stakes its entire fucking psyche on the game and would fall into the next Great Fucking Depression if they didn’t win a gold medal. Fuck all the shitty music that comes out of this country – the government even knows how shitty the music it is

but forces radio stations to play it.

Fuck the fact that I’ve spent three years here, and love it, but hockey makes me despise everyone, especially people who don’t watch a second of hockey outside the Olympics and then think they can talk shit. Fuck the total jingoism this country embraces at the same time as belittling Americans for their nationalism. Fuck Sidney Crosby’s dumb fucking face, and Patrick Sharp’s dreamy face (stupid sexy Sharp!). Fuck how much everything here costs. It’s cold all the time, and even the nice days are rainy.

Fuck. Fuck! I’M LIVING IN A NIGHTMARE. GET ME OUT OF HERE, BUT, ALSO, KEEP ME HERE, BECAUSE I LIKE A BUNCH OF OTHER THINGS. Get me to the woods, pronto.

Fuck grad school Fuck grad school. Fuck this stupid exploitative system with four PhD students all vying to replace a single retiring prof.

Fuck this system that churns out PhDs with no fucking chance of a career in their field, just so your university can brag about all the world-class research that gets done while people burn out and leave. Fuck expecting people to work 14-hour days. Fuck this joking about how long you spend in your lab and never see the sun or have a life. Fuck investing years of your life for the chance to spend years more moving around from job to job, waiting for a tenure-track position to

open. Fuck this lie about how university will lift you out of poverty when you can just die starving as an adjunct lecturer. Fuck all the free work you’re expected to do, reviewing journal articles while publishing companies make millions making you pay to publish, and making libraries pay for their journals.

Fuck the mass transfer of public money to private hands when it’s $3,000 to publish research that was funded by public money.

Where the fuck else are content providers expected to pay for the privilege of providing content? That’s some fucking bullshit right there.

Fuck fun people Fuck you, extroverted, fun-having, gregarious, party-going, excitable, BuzzFeedquiz-loving, inane-Facebook-post-making, happy assholes. I fucking hate you. Go the fuck away and stop trying to get me to come out to your stupid parties or like your stupid posts. I hate the pressure to be fun and likable. You know what? I’m fucking crum-

bling under the pressure of school and work.

I feel like I’m going to fucking implode with stress for all of the 20 goddamn hours a day I’m awake and doing fucking work, and even my fucking dreams are stress dreams.

I’m too fucking busy for your bullshit so stop telling me I’m a party pooper before I poop in your fucking mouth.

I've always been nice to others, and despite most people's disbelief at my selfless behaviour and their endless doubt in how genuine my kind gestures are, I've always stood guard for one principle: ‘To be the positive change that I'd like to see in my world.’ That being said, just because I'm nice and optimistic as a default manner, that doesn't mean I am incapable of feeling anger and hatred towards all those who personally attack me by ignoring my words and invading my space.

So fuck all you haters who hurt me because you think that I am meek, and weak, and silent. And fuck all you ignorant imbeciles who judge and belittle me for being the better person I want to be. Fuck you because no matter how capable or incompetent, beautiful or ugly, happy or upset, wise or naive, true or fake I seem to you, I am simply an imperfect human being just like you. And I don't fucking give a damn if you listen or not since your attention means nothing to me.

Fuck you. =)

Fuck writing Fuck writing. Fuck reading. Fuck dealing with people who apparently can’t do either, despite having gone through multiple years of higher education. Really, how did you get a Master’s without learning to deliver a cogent argument, and better question, how are you able to, like, GET A JOB, while I’m floundering in a sea of self-hate and discarded Cheetos bags?

Fuck trying to make people have opin-

ions. Fuck trying to pull opinions out of people like they’re teeth but like, at least when you pull teeth the patient’s asleep and not STRUGGLING like you’re trying to corrupt their soul or something. Honestly, when did it become okay – or actually, desirable? To not feel a single thing or believe a single thing? Don’t you feel dull? I feel dull FOR you, when I’m not busy feeling frustrated for me.

Fuck undergrads Fuck ’em. There’s a special rung in hell for judgy undergrads who don’t do readings, then judge the TA for a bad conference, the devil take them. Fuck the rude fuckers who come in five minutes late, sit at the back hiding behind other people, and then start whispering. Motherfuckers with their laptops open need to get smacked the fuck up – this isn’t Starbucks and I’m not giving you credit for your trite answers lifted from

Wikipedia. Fuck your awkward silences to easy as fuck questions, and fuck the stupid glances you share with each other when I make it clear I expect you to have an answer.

Fuck steering the conversation to things you want to talk about so that you look clever.

You don’t look clever. You look like you want to look clever. Fuck your stand-offishness, and fuck your annoying neediness during exams. Fuck all you motherfuckers.

fuckthis@mcgilldaily.com There hasn't been enough zealous swearing on the back of this paper recently, and we need your help! Send us a 'Fuck Yeah!' about something fucking awesome that happened. Or if you're FUCKING PISSED OFF about something, send us a 'Fuck This!'. Fuck Yeah! for Fuck Yeah!s! Fuck that awful thing that happened, but Fuck Yeah! for Fuck This!’s too! Fuck Yeah! for this meta-Fuck Yeah!