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n io t ac t c re le in e i : D ro anc L IA y a ist R TO pla res I ED ust nt ) m ude 23 st age (p

Volume 103, Issue 24 Monday, March 24, 2014

McGill THE

DAILY

Droning on since 1911 mcgilldaily.com

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

A look at healthcare in Canadian prisons Page 11

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News 03

NEWS

Another year of SSMU Anti-colonial march in Montreal Nothing to hide? Access to information requests reveal little Harm reduction officer appointed

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

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Tariq Khan elected SSMU President by only 78 votes 2014-15 SSMU executive, referenda results announced

New leadership at PGSS Suzanne Fortier sits down with the press

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COMMENTARY

Intersectionality theory offers few solutions The potential harm of Tinder’s campus advertising An open letter on McGill’s Sexual Assault Policy

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FEATURES

The hurdles blocking access to healthcare in prison

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SCI+TECH

Turning a blind eye to science Flushing down blue gold

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HEALTH&ED

The effects of Bill 60 on students and staff

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SPORTS

Martlets capture fourth national championship

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CULTURE

Exploring identity away from home Emerging artists in “Skeletonic exhibit” Inkwell

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COMPENDIUM!

Radicals too distracted to mobilize Clinton inspires middlingly political speaker series at McGall

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EDITORIAL

Direct action must play a role in student resistance

From left to right: Chaim, Khan, Stewart-Kanigan, Bradley, Moustaqim-Barrette, and Fong Dana Wray The McGill Daily

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ith only 78 votes over his closest competitor, Tariq Khan was elected as Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) President for the 201415 academic year. The vote was fractured among four candidates, with Khan securing 29.8 per cent, Courtney Ayukawa securing 28.5 per cent, Austin Johnson securing 24.5 per cent, and Aaron Friedland securing 17.2 per cent. Voter turnout was 31.4 per cent, a slight improvement over last year. All of the referendum questions passed, except the questions regarding the University Centre building fee, which seeks to alleviate the financial burden placed on SSMU by the terms of the lease signed this year with McGill. This result leaves SSMU in a state of uncertainty about its finances. Khan’s platform revolved around accountability at SSMU and creating more jobs on campus for students. In debates, he underscored his commitment to creating more work-study positions and internships on the wider campus and within SSMU. “I feel as if this is a victory of diversity, it’s the toughest thing that I’ve done in my life and there’s a lot of trust that needs to be won, built,” Khan told The Daily, but added that there was work to do on creating a cohesive executive. “I think

we have a very strong team, but we need to obviously sit down together, we have to earn each other’s trust.” Prior to being elected as President, Khan served as Engineering Representative to SSMU Council during the 2011-12 academic year. This year, he was the Interest Group Coordinator, where he worked under the Clubs & Services portfolio. On March 21, during the campaign period, Khan was publicly censured by Elections SSMU for having students who were not on his campaign committee send unsolicited text messages. Running unopposed, Claire Stewart-Kanigan was elected as VP University Affairs with 92.1 per cent of the vote. With extensive experience as Arts Representative to SSMU, Arts Senator, and working with ethical purchasing plans and equity policies, Stewart-Kanigan focused on bringing a strong student voice to the administration. “I’m really excited to have a really diverse team of folks to be working with next year,” StewartKanigan told The Daily. “The results totally caught me off-guard, so I’m looking forward to figuring out and seeing how that will all work.” The position of VP Clubs & Services went to Stefan Fong, the incumbent VP, who ran for a second year – an unusual move for the SSMU executive, where positions usually see a high turnover rate. While his opponent Sandhya Sabapathy ran on a platform of creating a

Tamim Sujat | The McGill Daily

more accessible clubs portfolio, she was also publicly censured for offering “to secure jobs and positions of note” in exchange for campaign support, according to an email sent by Elections SSMU. Fong took a share of 56.1 per cent of the vote, and Sabapathy took 43.9 per cent. “I feel good, I can finally go back to work now which feels really good,” Fong said, adding, “The fact that the building fee didn’t pass is something that I’ll have to deal with next year.” Kathleen Bradley, the only candidate for VP Finances & Operations, clinched the position with 93.1 per cent of the vote. Bradley has had experience in sustainable food initiatives, such as the McGill Farmers’ Market, and has held a position as a head chef at the student-run café The Nest, in addition to working under the portfolio of her predecessor Tyler Hofmeister. “We’re definitely going to have to have a talk about campaigning integrity, but I look forward to working with the executive this year,” Bradley said when asked about the team. Divest McGill member and current SSMU Campaigns Coordinator Amina Moustaqim-Barrette won the position of VP External, taking 60.2 per cent of the vote. Her opponent Enbal Singer, who spent the past year as AUS VP Internal and Community Affairs Coordinator at SSMU, won 39.8 per cent of the vote.

Moustaqim-Barrette’s election comes in the wake of SSMU’s impending disaffiliation from the Table de concertation étudiante du Québec (TaCEQ), a student roundtable that has served as one of SSMU’s links to greater Montreal and Quebec. J. Daniel Chaim won the position of VP Internal, for which he ran unopposed. He took 90 per cent of the vote. Chaim spent the previous two years working with Arts Orientation, as the sponsorship coordinator and the operations coordinator. Referendum questions regarding the creation of fees for Organic Campus and SSMU First-Year Council both passed. Questions regarding the renewal of the Athletics and Recreation Facilities fee, the SSMU Ambassador Fund, the SSMU Access Bursary Fund, the SSMU Campus Life Fund, and the SSMU Library Improvement Fund, all passed. Questions regarding the existence of, and a fee increase for, the Legal Information Clinic at McGill passed. Students also voted in favour of disaffiliating from the Quebec student roundtable TaCEQ. However, the question pertaining to the lease of the Shatner building, which asked for a fee of $6.08 per full-time student to pay for increased costs, only secured 46.4 per cent of the votes in favour, with a 34.2 per cent abstention rate. —With files from Lauria Galbraith

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DR. MARTIN A ENTIN LECTURE IN THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE

“The New Age: An Experimental History�

News

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

Montreal march protests colonialism, racism, and Quebec Charter Protesters advocate for more concrete action

Tuesday April 1, 2014 at 6:00PM-Redpath Museum REDPATH MUSEUM : AUDITORIUM 859 SHERBROOKE WEST, MONTREAL H3A 0C4

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Ralph Haddad | The McGill Daily

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Janna Bryson The McGill Daily

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n March 21, demonstrators gathered at the Mont Royal metro station for a demonstration and march against colonialism, racism, and the proposed Quebec Charter of Values. The peaceful two-hour demonstration, part of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and a recognition of the anniversary of the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa, was organized by Ensemble contre la Charte xĂŠnophobe. According to information on the organizers’ website, the march was meant to address many issues that are prevalent in Quebec. The site reads, “We support the self-determination and sovereignty of all Indigenous peoples in ‘Canada’ and ‘Quebec.’ [...] We remember and salute the anti-racist struggles of the past, especially the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. [...] We are opposed to the proposed Quebec Charter of Values (Bill 60), which is an electoral ploy that encourages racism and xenophobia in Quebec society. We march for many more reasons, united in opposition to all forms of oppression and in the belief that our solidarity and unity against colonialism and racism is our most effective tool.â€?

Demonstrators took the opportunity to address issues of Indigenous land rights. In a speech prior to the march, an activist for Indigenous issues from Calgary (Treaty 7 territory) maintained that recognizing injustice is not enough to combat systemic oppression. “I would of course first like to acknowledge that this demo is taking place on unceded Haudenosaunee territory,â€? the activist said. “And, having said that, I want to further acknowledge that recognizing that we live and work on stolen territory should be just the first step in respecting those whose lands we are occupying.â€? “To be respectful guests on others’ lands requires more than just a simple acknowledgement, and I encourage all settlers and visitors to learn [...] and be a good guest while you’re here.â€? Many protesters also advocated against the Quebec Charter of Values, proposed by the Parti QuĂŠbĂŠcois (PQ) in September 2013. The Charter would prevent “overt and conspicuousâ€? religious symbols from being worn by public servants. The ability of the PQ to pass the Charter hinges on the results of the next provincial election in Quebec, which will take place on April 7. Orlando, a demonstrator who identified himself as a member of the “Montreal Localâ€? of the International Communist League, attended

the demonstration to protest the Charter. “The Charte [des valeurs] is a racist law that targets a minority of women, mostly, and also Jewish people and Sikhs,â€? stated Orlando. “At the same time, [the Montreal Local] talk[s] about the hypocrisy of English Canada, who attacks the Quebec government, but it forgets that it deports immigrants all the time. There are similar laws, although not as radical as this one, in English Canada.â€? On the timing of the march, Orlando added, “We believe that elections are a time when people get political.â€? An anonymous demonstrator, who identified themselves as a Concordia geography student, related their issues with the Charter back to the student movement of 2012. “I was really involved with the student strike in 2012, and it would just seem really shitty to not go on the streets for [‌] a more important cause, I think.â€? Aggravated, they continued, “This Charter makes me very angry. [...] There has got to be better ways to address everyone’s concerns, instead of this talk-down, polarizing thing.â€? People of all ages participated in the march, from young children to seniors. One colourful group, The Montreal Raging Grannies, closed the march with a song for Quebec Premier Pauline Marois.

News

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

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University releases heavily redacted access to information requests Anti-military research campus group to continue quest for information Emma Noradounkian The McGill Daily

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s part of its ongoing fight for access to information (ATI) requests from McGill concerning the University’s military research, Demilitarize McGill, a campus group that aims to end military research at McGill, has recently released selections from its ATI requests to the University. The group aims to make all such documents public in the upcoming weeks. The disclosure of the documents is the result of a settlement in January between the University and a group of respondents. The settlement, which gave McGill until late February to begin to disclose the long-standing ATI requests, also ruled that the University could not deem requests systemic or abusive in nature. Despite the disclosure of the documents, the actual information remains heavily, if not completely, redacted. “For […] my request of the documents [that I received from McGill], there was quite a bit of redaction, quite a bit of black marker. Doz-

ens of pages were blacked out,” Isaac Stethem, a member of Demilitarize McGill, told The Daily. Stethem noted, “In a couple of cases, the University wrote to us that third parties had essentially vetoed the release of any documents, so we didn’t even get black documents, we just have mysterious research agreements – we don’t necessarily know what [...] they’re for.” In a press conference held on March 7 for campus media, Line Thibault, McGill’s General Counsel, told The Daily that one of the reasons behind documents being heavily redacted could be “because the third parties told us, ‘We don’t want you to [release the information].’” According to An Act Respecting Access to Documents Held by Public Bodies and the Protection of Personal Information, the University is required to consult third parties whose information may be disclosed in an ATI before releasing the request. If the third party rejects such disclosure, the University cannot reveal the information in question. “But the students could decide

to go to the [Commission d’accès à l’information] and say, ‘This is incorrect. The third parties are applying the exceptions too broadly,’” stated Thibault. “And the Commission will try to [do] a mediation, and then [if ] that’s not successful, we will call a hearing […] and then the Commission will decide whether or not the documents [should be] disclosed.” When asked whether they would appeal to the Commission, Stethem said, “It’s a possibility [...] It’s something we’re trying to figure out.” Although most of the information provided in the documents received by Demilitarize McGill was redacted, Stethem described one of his received ATIs, which included the unredacted name of a company with which the University is currently conducting military research. “I received one in terms of military research between McGill at the Aerospace Mechatronics Laboratory and Lockheed Martin, one of the largest military manufacturers and suppliers in the U.S. […]

What the research is [however] is still not known.”

“When all of them are redacted, it mainly just goes to show the efforts that the University has taken to hide this information.” Kevin Paul Member of Demilitarize McGill The disclosure of Lockheed Martin’s involvement with McGill research also comes on the heels of documents released in recent

weeks, not connected with the settlement, which detailed contracts between researchers at McGill and the Canadian military for research into drone software. This information led to a blockade last week of the Aerospace Mechatronics Laboratory by Demilitarize McGill. Kevin Paul, a member of Demilitarize McGill, spoke to the lack of openness on the part of the University, upon also having obtained heavily redacted military research documents following a request to the University. “When all of them are redacted, it mainly just goes to show the efforts that the University has taken to hide this information,” Paul added. “The result of the way that they’re handling ATIs is that there’s no possibility of an open dialogue, an open debate, on the issues running on military research on campus.” Demilitarize McGill intends to release a summary, as well as an analysis of all documents requested through the ATI process that it has received thus far, in the next few weeks on its website.

University creates ‘harm reduction’ position Action follows public backlash over sexual assault case Igor Sadikov The McGill Daily

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n March 31, Bianca Tétrault will take office as McGill’s Liaison Officer (Harm Reduction), a newly-created position reporting to the Dean of Students, according to an announcement from Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Ollivier Dyens. Tétrault will “act as a central liaison for the units and groups involved in the prevention and reduction of discrimination, substance abuse, aggression, sexual assault, and other forms of harm,” as well as “develop and implement [...] educational programming, resources, and events,” according to an email sent on behalf of Dyens. In November 2013, a Montreal Gazette article revealed that three McGill football players were allowed to remain on the team in spite of an active sexual assault case

against them. The public backlash inspired a series of actions on the part of the University, including a Forum on Consent held in February, an annual Forum on Safe Space to be held starting next October, and the creation of Tétrault’s position. “[The position] came out of the backlash stemming from that incident, and also [from] highlighting the fact that there’s not a single person yet at this university who is dedicated to matters of sexual assault – even though these issues are quite prevalent, particularly on university campuses,” explained Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) VP University Affairs Joey Shea. Shea, who was the only student serving on the hiring committee for the position, spoke favourably of Tétrault. “I think she’s absolutely perfect. [...] She was by far the most qualified candidate [...] for this position,” Shea told

The Daily. “I felt she would be able to work really well with the student groups – she speaks their language, she is a graduate of McGill in Social Work, she’s been a crisis support counsellor for many years, and really understands the issue quite well, so I am very pleased with her being picked.” Tétrault’s course of action will first be to examine the sexual assault resources already in place at the university, and to then work on coordinating policy and designing outreach programs, according to Dean of Students André Costopoulos. Costopoulos indicated that the Liaison Officer will “look at all the policy pieces we have in place in different places [...] and see how we can bring them all under one package, one umbrella, and then ask ourselves: Is that enough, is that sufficient, or do we need more, and if we do, what more do

we need?” Costopoulos emphasized the importance of working with existing student groups. “We’ve [...] been talking with SACOMSS [the Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society], with the [Feminist Collective at McGill Law], the UGE [Union for Gender Empowerment], and a bunch of other groups, and they’ve been involved in discussions with us as we think about this position,” said Costopoulos in an interview with The Daily. “One of the first things that [Tétrault] needs to do is get in touch, connect [...] with all those constituencies, and listen to them,” he added. The Daily could not reach Tétrault for an interview before press time. In an open letter published online last Friday and republished in The Daily this week, student

groups recognized the University’s “increasing attention to issues of sexual assault on campus,” nonetheless expressing their disappointment with the administration’s “lack of consultation with relevant campus groups, who have demonstrated a long-term commitment to tackling the prevalence of sexual violence and rape culture in our community.” SACOMSS, the Feminist Collective at McGill Law, and the UGE are among the signatories. Shea hopes that the University will display its commitment to combatting rape culture on campus by working closely with student groups and institutionalizing the position. “Right now it’s only a year-long contract, so I really hope that the University sees this as an issue that’s important enough to make a permanent position and not just a year-long contract,” she said.

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH CREATIVE WRITING PRIZES AND AWARDS The MONA ADILMAN PRIZE IN POETRY, estimated value $500 or estimated value $250 for two students, is open to undergraduate or graduate students registered in the Faculty of Arts for the best poem or group of poems relating to ecological or environmental concerns. The CLARK LEWIS MEMORIAL PRIZE, estimated value $400, is open to major or honours students in the Department of English. The prize is awarded annually or from time to time for original plays staged in the course of the academic year. The CHESTER MACNAGHTEN PRIZES IN CREATIVE WRITING (two prizes, one of estimated value $600 and another of estimated value $300) are open to undergraduate students of the University for the best piece of creative writing in English, i.e. a story, a play, a poem, an essay, etc. Printed compositions are ineligible if they have been published before April 15, 2014.

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News

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

Post-grads welcome new executive Referendum question in support of Midnight Kitchen passes

The PETERSON MEMORIAL PRIZE, estimated value $2,000, is open to undergraduate or graduate students registered in a degree program in the Department of English with distinction in English Literature (CGPA 3.30 or above) who has also shown creative literary ability. The LIONEL SHAPIRO AWARDS FOR CREATIVE WRITING, three prizes of estimated value $1,300 each, to be distributed if possible among the genres of poetry, fiction, screen writing and playwrighting. Each prize is to be awarded on the recommendation of the Department of English to students in the final year of the B.A. course who have demonstrated outstanding talent. (A note from your academic adviser verifying you will have completed your program requirements and the minimum credits required by the Faculty of Arts MUST accompany your submission.)

These competitions are restricted to students who have not previously won the First Prize. Forms to be completed are available online at www.mcgill.ca/english or in the Department of English General Office, Arts 155. Submissions must be IN TRIPLICATE.

DEADLINE: Tuesday, April 15, 2014

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING The AGM of the Daily Publications Society (DPS), publisher of The McGill Daily and Le Délit, will take place on th

Wednesday March 26 Leacock 26, 5:30pm Members of the DPS are cordially invited. The presence of candidates to the Board of Directors is mandatory.

CALL FOR CANDIDATES The Daily Publications Society (DPS), publisher of The McGill Daily and Le Délit, is seeking candidates for

student directors on its Board.

Positions must be filled by up to eight (8) McGill students duly registered during the current Winter term and able to sit until April 30, 2015. Board members gather at least once a month to discuss the management of the newspapers, and make important administrative decisions.

Candidates should send a 500-word letter of intention to chair@dailypublications.org by 5:00 PM on March 25th. The nomination period opens on March 11th.

Please contact chair@dailypublications.org for more information.

The new PGSS executive at Thomson House Jill Bachelder The McGill Daily

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ast Friday, the preliminary results of the Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) elections were released, naming Juan Camilo Pinto as Secretary-General. Pinto ran unopposed for the position and was part of a slate of executives running under the same platform, all of whom were elected. Four of the seven referendum questions brought to vote passed, including increased funding for the grants program, and a renewal of funding for the health and dental plan. The elections saw a turnout of 1,102 voters, or 13.6 per cent of those eligible to vote. The results are not yet final and may be contested within the next three days if pertaining to an individual candidate, or seven days if there are criticisms of the process as a whole. The only position that was not uncontested was that of Academic Affairs Officer, for which Jennifer Murray was selected. “I worked really hard on this,” Murray told The Daily. “So it’s nice to know that I can do the job.” In her platform, Murray stated that she wants to increase access to library resources, to improve student-supervisor relationships, and to bring together graduate students from different departments. Aside from Murray, all the exec-

Tamim Sujat | The McGill Daily

utives who were elected had campaigned under a single platform, also known as a slate candidacy. “When we found out most of us were running unopposed, we started talking and figuring out what we [wanted] to do for next year,” explained Nikki Meadows, who was elected as Financial Affairs Officer. “We have a lot of really fun and exciting things planned, so hopefully we’ll be able to put them in action really soon.” “Slate election doesn’t happen very often in PGSS,” added GeSa, newly-elected Internal Affairs Officer. “It’s great that we’ve got a common platform. We all got elected so that we can carry on that common platform which we promised to our voters.” The incoming executives plan to focus on a set of issues that they feel are most relevant to PGSS members, including independence from the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), revising the grant policy, and improved mental health services for graduate students. Meadows explained that one of her main objectives will be to revise the grant policy. “I think right now [the] wonderful projects that grants are submitted for aren’t getting funded because [of ] the way the grant policy is currently written,” she told The Daily. “They are not given as high a priority as other projects that in spirit are probably

not as exciting.” “Since my position is kind of political,” Julien Ouelett, newlyelected External Affairs Officer, told The Daily, “I will base my strategy [...] on the results of the provincial elections.” Ouelett said that he also plans to lobby the government concerning the PGSS lawsuit against the CFS. Brigita Lungu, newly-elected Member Services Officer, was not available to make a statement to The Daily at the time the election results were released. The referendum questions passed include standard renewals of the health and dental plan, a fee levy to fund Midnight Kitchen, a new fee for the bursary fund, and increased fees for the PGSS grants program. However, fee increases for the athletics fund, graduate applications, and PGSS membership were all voted down. “The only [referendum] that I’m sad [about] that didn’t pass, because we need it, was the membership fee,” Pinto told The Daily. “We needed that one to pay for the lease of Thomson House.” Overall, current PGSS Secretary-General Jonathan Mooney said that he was pleased with how the elections turned out. “We’re going to have a great team next year,” said Mooney, “and [I’m] looking forward to seeing all that they accomplish.”

News

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

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Principal sits down for annual campus media meeting Discusses rape culture, access to information, and divestment

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n March 21, McGill’s Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Suzanne Fortier, met with campus media for the Principal’s annual recap of both the University’s high points, and the improvements needed for the upcoming year. Fortier opened with what she believed were McGill’s current strengths, such as the University’s level of alumni retention, its relative size to other universities in Canada, and its location in the heart of culturally diverse downtown Montreal. She argued that the University must set a few priorities for further improvement: namely, the creation of an intellectually engaging environment, a connected community, and an improved physical campus structure. The McGill Daily (MD): Recently, Demilitarize McGill has finally obtained a response from McGill about their access to information (ATI) requests, and the documents have been heavily redacted. There has also been a lot of controversy over labs at McGill and McGill’s conduct with respect to research funded by the military. What are your views on this? Do you think that it is a contradiction to say that research done with the military funding might not be for military purposes? Suzanne Fortier (SF): No, I don’t think it is a contradiction at all. [...] There’s a lot of research you would do with the military that is extremely important research, and I don’t think there’s any problem in doing research for [the Department of National Defence]. If there is a problem, it’s in the specific intent of the research. A very telling test that you would do is – is this research going to be published in the public domain or is it research that is confidential? I believe that in the case that you mentioned, [the] research is totally public, there’s no research here that is proprietary or confidential. The documents you’re referring to – that’s a different story. We’re not talking about the outcome of research here. There are laws in Canada that govern us in terms of privacy protection and access to information, two principles that often challenge one another. My understanding is that – and I have of course been seeing those requests for information for many years – the redaction is often done to follow the

Suzanne Fortier speaking to campus media. law with respect to privacy. Le Délit français* (DF): During your mandate, we have seen a good evolution of the place of French on campus, for example, conferences entirely in French, the creation of the French theatre [Franc-Jeu], so many student initiatives. On your side, being francophone, how have you led this evolution within your administration? SF: There has been an evolution also within the administration, in the sense that we are increasingly working in both languages. [...] I think we have to give our students the opportunity to learn French, to take advantage of Montreal’s bilingual environment, but I don’t think it’s a good idea for McGill to become a university where instruction is given in French, because we have very good French-language universities in Montreal. That’s why I came here; if I wanted to be taught in French, I would have gone somewhere else. It’s a choice that even French-speaking students have made, and I respect that. The Bull & Bear (B&B): Regarding administrative issues and technology, is there anything tangible already set in stone or anything that is currently being planned? SF: Yes, we are planning a num-

ber of things. We need to make progress in the number of classes that are well-equipped digitally and in terms of our library. We already have specific actions that we’d like to put in place. At the moment, because we are entering an election, we don’t have a budget yet from the provincial government and are unlikely to have one soon. The McGill Tribune (MT): With the government’s planned reinvestment in universities in the coming year, what are the priorities for where the money would go? SF: A lot of it has to do with improvement to the learning environment in the area of student advising, because that’s an area that the community feels that we need to have more human resources in. We were working on an agreement with government, but with the election, nothing has been confirmed. So we will have to wait to see if, indeed, we get the money as was anticipated. [...] Not a single university in the province has a signed agreement at this point. We’ll have to wait until after the elections. We don’t know at this point – c’est la vie. B&B: Given the political situation that’s going on right now, how do you see that affecting our school? SF: I believe that McGill will

Tamim Sujat | The McGill Daily always see that as an important part of who we are – not only to be welcoming, but to be promoting cultural diversity on campus. From the very beginning, when we started to have conversations, when we spoke about the Charter of Values, we shared the views of the McGill community, fairly and strongly, and that will always be quite important. MD: One of the big stories this year at McGill was the sexual assault case that the Montreal Gazette broke. Do you think that the University has to do more to combat rape culture, and what is your opinion on the slow and poor response to the sexual assault case? SF: I don’t want to refer to that specific case, because it’s a very complex case, but generally there certainly is a need in society, not just on campuses of universities, to make people more sensitive to these issues. We’ve evolved as a society [since the 1980s], and that whole thing has evolved as well. [...] I must say, I find it very courageous of people to address those issues which are incredibly difficult. [...] The attribution of guilt and so on, that gets very complicated when you have individuals who are not in the best situation in terms of judgement. I think it is important that we talk about it very openly, but it is hard.

DF: We’ve heard a lot of talk about divestment from fossil fuels. SSMU has already chosen to renounce these investments, the many actions by Divest McGill, the incident that occurred during the Petrocultures conference. Do you think these events have had an impact on McGill? Is the University on the path to divestment? SF: Firstly, yes, there has certainly been an impact. We were at the moment of the review of the Committee to Advise on Matters of Social Responsibility’s terms of reference, and for the first time in history, we decided to consult the larger community. [...] People from Divest McGill have asked us to integrate an element of research in the process, so that decisions can be made on the basis of solid data. [...] It was well-received by the members of the Committee; we’ll be taking a new look at the process. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. — Compiled by Emma Noradounkian and Igor Sadikov, with files from Drew Wolfson Bell *Questions from, and responses to, Le Délit français have been translated from French.

Tuesday, April 8 will elect the rest of

The staff of

the mcgill daily

the 2014-15 editorial board Because we hope you’re interested in joining the non-hierarchical team, here’s a quick intro guide on how to become a Daily editor, how the election process works, and how to get in touch with us.

the basics Unlike most student newspapers, our editors are elected by Daily staffers rather than hired by committee. To run for an editorial position or to vote in the election, you must be Daily staff.

the positions To be staff, you must have contributed six points. Articles, photos, graphics, and illustrations count as one point each. Writing a feature or coming in for a production night counts as two points. If you’re not staff yet, there’s time before the election, so email an editor to get involved!

Twenty editors share equal voting rights on issues, and work together to produce the newspaper every week. Each editor receives a small monthly honorarium. For more information on individual positions, contact each section editor (emails can be found on page 23 of this issue). You can also stop by The Daily’s PGmDF JO 4IBUOFS #

deadlines the editors Commentary & Compendium! Culture Multimedia (2x) Web Community

The Daily requires all candidates to submit a one-page application, including ZPVS RVBMJmDBUJPOT BOE JOUFSFTU JO SVOOJOH as well as one sample of writing, photos, illustrations, or design. Contact the relevant section for more information. Final applications are due to coordinating@mcgilldaily. com by April 6 at 11:59 p.m.. Rundowns and elections are April 8 at 6:00 p.m..

candidate statement

candidate rundown and election

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April

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4VCNJU B POF QBHF application to coordinating@ mcgilldaily.com.

All staffers who want to vote in the election must BUUFOE SVOEPXOT JO 4IBUOFS # $BOEJEBUFT XJMM interview in front of all voters at the election.

Commentary

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

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The need for a new analysis Intersectionality theory cements the problems it tries to solve

Carmen Fenech | The McGill Daily Jake Kinzey Commentary Writer

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he activist buzzwords you’re likely to hear nowadays revolve around the idea of privilege, and its theoretical counterpart, intersectionality. Perhaps you’ve never heard of intersectionality, but you’ve likely come across terms such as ‘white-normativity,’ ‘safe(r) spaces,’ or ‘privilege.’ These terms haven’t entered the mainstream by accident; their relative popularity is due to the fact that the intersectional approach is currently the predominant outlook among activists in North America (as well as being fairly widespread in Australia and the UK). Its ubiquity in North America has caused a heated debate between its supporters and detractors. To its credit, intersectionality has provided a generation of activists and academics with new ways of thinking through old problems. The main issue challenged by proponents of intersectionality is that many activists still think of the ‘oppressed’ as a homogenous block, rather than as a diverse group of people. Stereotypical images of the white, workingclass male will simply no longer do. In this respect, intersectionality is about understanding the different types of oppression that individuals might encounter, along with how

these different oppressions interact with one another. It is best thought of as a response to activists who focus on one form of oppression to the exclusion of other types, a reductive stance known as ‘essentialism.’ One gets the feeling, however, that the general attack on ‘essentialism’ is targeting a very specific type of essentialism. This is the dreaded ‘class essentialism.’ To counter this reductive view of class, proponents of intersectionality like to highlight the importance of what they see as non-class issues, such as racism, ecology, sexism, et cetera. In this, intersectionality has been quite useful. But when intersectionality is considered in terms of its ability to help solve those issues, it’s found a bit lacking. Consider the widespread use of the term classism among intersectional theorists. Classism refers to the “unfair treatment of people because of their social or economic class.” A few decades ago, it was more common to talk about class exploitation, or the fact that exploitation is inherent to any society with classes. Problems were conceptualized in a more systemic way, and the solutions often involved some sort of systemic (and revolutionary) change. Today, many activists still hold to the idea of revolution, but do so in a more individualized way. In-

stead of exploitation, we now talk about classism. It shifts the attention to the impoliteness the different classes show toward one another, rather than to their existence in the first place. For example, consider what an ‘intersectionalist’ would say about Elite Daily’s list of “The 20 Mistakes You Don’t Want To Make In Your Twenties,” particularly number six. This is the mistake of “spending your money on women who aren’t escorts” (much of this entry has now been removed). The author writes, “Your sex life is an investment – and the smarter the deals you execute, the savvier of an investor you become.” He goes on to suggest that while some “may immediately jump to the negative connotations of a woman who is paid for sex, we suggest you take one step back. As an entrepreneur herself, why would you not want to deal with someone who has the same honesty and integrity that you do.” A proponent of intersectionality would most likely perceive the author as being, among other things, classist and sexist. They also agree with the author’s opinion that prostitution should destigmatized. These things are true, but don’t get to the most problematic aspect of the article, which is in considering one’s sex life as an investment.

One could, in theory, take away all of the ‘classist’ and ‘sexist’ elements from the transaction being described, and still have it be a capitalist transaction. In the same manner, a boss can be nice to their workers, eschewing any particular acts of classism, racism, or sexism, but at the end of the day, they’re still the boss. This is because class (like race, sex, gender, et cetera) primarily indicates a social relationship, not a ‘quality’ that individuals possess. The individual is not the fundamental unit within society. This brings us to the most troubling aspect of intersectional theory – it pays lip service to the idea of systemic change, but can only offer individual solutions. The way in which class becomes mainly about ‘classism’ is a perfect example; if one doesn’t believe that class can be overcome systemically, why not settle for individual (and reformist) solutions like ‘redistributing privilege?’ It is part of the general logic of capitalism and, in particular, neoliberalism, to individualize social problems. This individualization is shown in how intersectional theorists often think about the categories of race, gender, and class, and their relation to the capitalist economy. The usual trick is to treat class and the economy as if they were the

same thing. In reducing the economy to class, two key things occur. The first is that this explanation glosses over the fact that the economy is more socially encompassing than the category of class. The second is that economic factors are hidden away in the category of class, rather than being seen as the medium in which the categories of race, class, and gender interact. This need to segregate the economic and hide it in the category of class produces an unexpected result. Intersectionality’s insistence on the ‘connectedness’ of different types of oppression turns into its opposite. The goal of intersection turns into a desire for separation. Rather than placing the emphasis on people connecting and intersecting through mass movements, activists go into their own corners and tend to narrowly focus on their specific concerns. They do so because they believe that their (particular) concerns can be solved through reform instead of revolutionary transformation. This is not to downplay the positive aspects of reform; it is just pointing out that it cannot ultimately solve the problem it tries to fix. The same goes for intersectionality. Jake Kinzey is a U4 Education student. He can be reached at jacob.kinzey@mail.mcgill.ca

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Commentary

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

When Tinder fails to spark Dating apps, advertising, and unsafe spaces Lily Chapnik Commentary Writer

T

he messages appear in a few places around McGill’s campus, peppy but not overstated. Scrawled around the mirrors in bathrooms, in neon pink marker, are hashtags endorsing the popular networking app Tinder, urging the viewer to #takeaselfie. The bottom of each mirror features the ubiquitous tear-drop flame that serves as the company’s logo. While this is a creative technique for spreading the word about a service pertinent to many members of the student population, the fact remains that the message propagated is one that imposes an inappropriately normative view of sexuality upon the student population. The numbers show that as a service and a company, Tinder must be doing something right. It boasts over one billion matches, mostly among young millennials hoping to ‘swipe right’ on their smartphone screens to find social and romantic connections. In an email to The Daily, Justin Mateen, Tinder’s co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer, enthusiastically claimed, “Our goal is to make the process of meeting people more efficient, whether it be in the context of friendship, dating, or even business.” He followed this with the

O

slightly enigmatic claim that, “As the product evolves it will move in the direction of social discovery in general,” thus expressing his desire for the type of communication Tinder champions – quick, instinctive, and perfunctory – to become normative. The product that Tinder offers is not under fire here. While its modus operandi may be based on a superficial judgment of attraction, its high number of users and ratings show that the company is meeting a demand for such a service. It is their methods of advertising on campuses that are contentious, and they should be reconsidered if they are to appeal to students in a respectful manner. The most troubling issue with Tinder’s campaign on McGill’s campus is that when a person looks into a mirror that features the campaign, their face is framed by the words endorsing the product, and they become an unwitting mascot for Tinder. Regardless of whether this person uses the app, or even knows what it entails, the image of their face within the frame is unofficially ‘claimed’ by Tinder as a potential user, solely by virtue of looking in the bathroom mirror. In the bathroom, which can be a vulnerable space for many people, a person should be free of the danger of being fetishized as a consumer.

Tamim Sujat | The McGill Daily The campaign also lacks respect for those for whom the advertisements might act as a trigger. An individual who is a survivor of sexual violence may not want their image implicitly sexualized when they glance into a mirror at school. Somebody who is avoiding certain expressions of sexuality for religious or other lifestyle reasons may resent being automatically placed in a stereotypical category of “experimental college kids” who are gung-ho about

casual dating and sex. A person who is anxious about their own physical appearance might feel excluded from the superficiality which characterizes the app. Nobody should be made to feel that their choices, or their lifestyle, are sidelined, just by entering a school bathroom. In light of these considerations, the public relations representatives at Tinder who are responsible for these advertisements should receive the following message.

For some people, it is clear that your product enriches lives, however, it does not seem appropriate that individuals on college campuses should be associated with it simply by virtue of looking into a mirror. The social and sexual lives of students do not need your endorsement. Now stay out of our bathroom. Lily Chapnik is a U2 student in Jewish Studies and Music. Lily can be reached at lily.chapnik@mail.mcgill.ca.

An open letter on the sexual assault policy

n February 26, 2014, the McGill administration hosted a Forum on Consent, where student panelists introduced a Sexual Assault Policy Proposal that the undersigned campus groups have endorsed. While we recognize the recent efforts by the administration to begin addressing rape culture and sexual assault on campus, we call upon you to carefully consider our recommendations regarding a Sexual Assault Policy and a Sexual Assault Response Coordinator position as outlined below. Furthermore, we ask that you include the undersigned in ongoing consultation in order to have a campusbased approach to the issue of campus-based sexual violence, and to treat this issue with the sense of urgency it deserves. This open letter and Policy Proposal is a call to action in the aftermath of the highly publicized response to allegations of sexual assault made against three varsity football players at McGill University. Considering this case and oth-

ers at McGill (for example, the 2005 hazing), and in conjunction with ongoing cases and administrative responses on campuses across the continent, it is clear that rape culture and sexual assault on our campus warrant a stronger response. We envision the McGill administration having a crucial role in enacting change on our campus. We are encouraged by the McGill administration’s increasing attention to issues of sexual assault on campus, and the ongoing hiring process for the Harm Reduction Coordinator, a new position that will aim to improve services relating to sexual violence on campus. In an article in the McGill Reporter, Dean of Students André Costopoulos stated that many aspects of our Sexual Assault Policy Proposal “exist already in various sections of McGill policies and codes of conduct.” Nevertheless, until comprehensive, concrete services for survivors and a formal Sexual Assault Policy have been formalized, the administration’s commitment to improvements will remain an empty promise.

We are also disappointed by the lack of consultation with relevant campus groups, who have demonstrated a long-term commitment to tackling the prevalence of sexual violence and rape culture in our community. This ongoing work has equipped our groups with expertise in survivor support and in the development of pro-survivor policies regarding sexual violence on university campuses. We therefore submit a Sexual Assault Policy Proposal as a proactive step toward being heard regarding initiatives to create a safer campus. In light of the publicly expressed commitments made by Costopoulos and Ollivier Dyens, Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning), we urge the McGill administration to adopt our Policy Proposal and to incorporate our continuous input in developing a university-wide Sexual Assault Policy. Our main recommendations include: • Developing a comprehensive, accessible, pro-survivor Sexual Assault Policy that takes a proactive,

rather than reactive, approach to the problem of sexual assault and rape culture on campus. • Hiring a Sexual Assault Response Coordinator who will work closely with the signing parties, provide safety measures and listening support for survivors, and advocate for them. The Coordinator will also serve the community through policy development and campaigns targeting rape culture on campus. • Ensuring that the Policy applies to all members of the McGill community; students, administration, faculty, and all other employees. • Including clearly articulated safety measures for building a safer space on campus for survivors and the community at large. Given that, according to a study by Students Active For Ending Rape, and V-day, an activist movement to end violence against girls and women, 83 per cent of the 299 universities surveyed had clearly outlined disciplinary procedures regarding sexual assault, and given the current

climate across Canadian campuses pertaining to sexual assault, it is imperative that McGill promptly address its lack of a sexual assault policy and of institutionalized survivor services. Let us be at the forefront of universities worldwide, not only in academia, but also in building safer campus communities. Community groups and members at large are invited to endorse this policy at www.ipetitions.com/ petition/mcgill-community-for-asexual-assault-policy. Signed, The Students’ Society of McGill University Executive, The Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society, The Union for Gender Empowerment, Queer McGill, The Students’ Society of McGill University Equity Committee, The Feminist Collective at McGill Law, Women and the Criminal Law, Quebec Public Interest Research Group McGill. This open letter was previously published online at www.sexualassaultpolicyatmcgill.com.

Features

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

AN ABATEMENT OF CARE THE STRUGGLE FOR ADEQUATE PRISON HEALTHCARE

Written by Molly Korab Illustrations by Alice Shen

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It’s hard not to fall in love with people in prison,” said Mo Korchinski, a former prisoner in provincial correctional centres in British Columbia (BC). Mo spent almost six years in prison serving several different sentences. “You hear their stories, and you hear them crying, and they really want help… It’s really humbling.” She now works with formerly incarcerated women at the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) Collaborating Centre for Prison Health and Education, helping the women take care of their healthcare needs within the first three days of release. The first 72 hours are a critical step in protecting many prisoners from relapse. Because so many are imprisoned due to addiction-related issues, those three days are also crucial in terms of ensuring quality, continuous healthcare. If the prison system were to meet a rehabilita-

tive ideal, the transition from prison to mainstream society would be seamless. It would be taken care of entirely by the state, with the goal of preventing recidivism – or relapse in criminal behaviour that often ends in re-imprisonment. Even though crime rates have been on the decline since the early 1990s, the Harper government implemented a “tough on crime” policy that led to cuts to the prison system and a skyrocketing prison population. Far from prioritizing the needs of prisoners, such an attitude sidelines their most basic well-being by failing to provide adequate healthcare. Quite frankly, most governments in the world don’t, because for most people, prisoners are criminals, and criminals are considered the scourge of society. “When we see a growth in the population, not only do we see an increase in the number of men and women going to prison, we’re also seeing an in-

crease in the amount of time that they stay [there],” said Howard Sapers, the correctional investigator of Canada, whose office oversees the corrections system and is charged with evaluating the system through a human rights lens. “This is very important for Corrections because the health profile of federally-sentenced offenders is a far different health profile than Canadians as a whole. Offenders tend to [...] have more illness [...] – they tend to have more complex health demands.” Sapers’ office fields over 20,000 correctionsrelated complaints per year. And although prisoners are an incredibly vulnerable and high-needs population in terms of healthcare, the need hasn’t translated. Healthcare complaints, particularly complaints regarding access to healthcare in prison, make up the biggest category of complaints that the correctional investigator’s office receives.

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

I. Peter Collins has been imprisoned for the past 30 years in Ontario. During his time in prison, he has worked as a peer health counsellor and has been an outspoken voice for prisoner justice. In 2008, he won a Human Rights award from the Canadian HIV/ AIDS Legal Network and Human Rights Watch due to his work in prisoner health education. Peter spoke plainly about the challenges that prisoners face in acquiring decent healthcare. “It’s always been a challenge to be seen by ‘healthcare’ at all the prisons that I’ve been in, and it’s getting worse now that there’s less money and more people being squeezed into these places,” he says. “But before that, aside from the recognition that there’s obviously [...] some good nurses and doctors working in these places, the culture of prison lends itself to being dismissive and not really attentive, or being non-responsive to people’s needs.” “[Healthcare] is not a priority, and it’s because they don’t care about us,” he added. And for that indifference, Peter blames a society that stigmatizes anyone who passes through the prison system. “You can see that in society’s general stance toward prisoners. We’ve educated ourselves as a society to consider anybody who’s been convicted of a crime to be some kind of pariah not deserving of many, many things – and it’s just so ingrained in our social structure that often taking away certain things is viewed as the right thing to do by the majority of people who don’t think about it. Because they’ve been desensitized to the fact that there’s people in these places, and that these people are their brothers, fathers, mothers, sisters, children.” Not only are prisoners’ needs just as urgent as those of people who are not imprisoned; the health of prisoners is intrinsically linked with public health; the overwhelming majority of prisoners are eventually released and then need to be reintegrated into society. Their health issues are a matter of public health, and the debate over whether or not we should “care” about prisoners should be recognized as utterly irrelevant.

II. Anne* spent almost 20 years in and out of the prison system, and was most recently in a mixed federal-provincial level women’s prison in BC. She’s been out for five years now, and works as a peer health counsellor to help women transition their healthcare needs from prison to reintegration. Her story begins with problems that she attributes to a challenging childhood, leading her to make decisions that took her into prison for nearly two decades of her life. “I ended up getting involved with drugs at a very young age – like 12 or 13 – and I left home at like 15,” she said. “By the time I hit 24, I had been in prison half a dozen times, but once I hit 24, I began chemical addictions. I was into heroin and a cocaine addict, and I used to do property crimes – shoplifting, sell drugs, fraud – to support my addiction. So I was in and out of corrections all the time.” Anne’s addictions also led her to contract Hepatitis C, which contributed to her poor health. Although she was never in prison for a particularly long time, she got trapped in the “revolving door” of recidivism and corrections – an issue closely linked to the problems with continuity of healthcare once outside prison walls. “I started out with small sentences, like 30 days, 60 days, and my sentences didn’t really get that big, but it was consistent. Sometimes, the longest I could stay out was two months – three months was like a record for me.” But for Anne, prison provided her with more resources to rehabilitate herself than were available to her on the outside. She associates this with a sense of stability that she found everyday life lacked. And many former prisoners said that maintaining their health behind bars provided them a sense of agency over their own bodies – a sense of ownership and personal control that’s typically lost in the highly-regulated prison environment. “I never saw any healthcare providers when I was on the street. I would go to prison and I would get tests done, and start looking after my health, start getting healthy, looking good, feeling good, and then, boom, I’d get kicked out of the door with absolutely nothing but the clothes on my back and nowhere to go.” “A lot of people say, ‘Oh, prison’s so bad,’ but I don’t say that because prison saved my life,” she said. “It saved my life numerous times. […] I wouldn’t care if I went to prison. I would be using as hard as I could, as much as I could, and I didn’t care how much crime I did, because I really didn’t care if I got caught.” But while some people, like Anne, find that their health benefits from time in prison, not everyone has the same experience. Prisoners face rates of HIV and Hepatitis C that are 10 and 30 times higher (respectively) than that of the general Canadian population, often due to sharing needles – both behind bars and in the outside world.

Features

III. In prison, healthcare works differently. Prisoners must file requests to see a doctor. Because doctors are typically busy, they often end up seeing nurses, and sometimes, serious issues fall through the cracks. Prisoners have little power to see a doctor of their own initiative, because they first have to be approved to see one. Tammy spent about ten years in the provincial and federal systems, serving multiple sentences. While in prison, her health and well-being came at the expense of security concerns. During her sentence, Tammy came down with what felt like a cold. In her mind, though, going to see a doctor was not worth the trouble. “After you’ve dealt with healthcare a number of times in prison, you never get the same doctor twice, there’s all kinds of things, like you kind of have to almost be halfdying before you even bother, because it’s not worth it, right?” Soon – after about three days – she found she wasn’t getting any better, and she put in a request to see a doctor. Because her symptoms appeared to align with those of a common cold or flu, she never saw a doctor. “At that point, I was so deathly ill that I couldn’t even get out of bed. Like it was terrible. And so then, the correctional officers that work on the living units were like, ‘Oh my god, what is wrong with you?’ like eight days later.” Tammy was taken to the emergency room after about two days – though the process of getting to the hospital was much slower, due to security concerns. “When I got to the hospital, because you’re handcuffed and shackled, which means you’re chained around your ankles, and all of those things are attached to something called a belly chain, which goes around your waist, so you’re attached to all that, so of course when I got to the hospital the treatment was –” she paused, taking a deep breath, “Holy smokes, jeez, even thinking about this stuff makes me emotional because I haven’t thought about it in so long.” “Of course I was treated as a sub-par human being, because people are scared,” she continued. “They’re scared of what they don’t know, right? And then it took ten hours to get into the emergency [room], and when I did I had to have emergency surgery right then and there – I almost died.” “I had the surgery all handcuffed and shackled to the table, which was crazy, and the guard even wanted to come in with me, but the doctor was kind enough to let me have a modicum of respect and privacy and told the guard no, to wait outside the door, that I would be fine. […] I didn’t have to stay overnight – they sent me back to prison right away with instructions on how to stay well. And they gave me a prescription for painkillers, which I was not allowed to have in prison because they were a narcotic-based painkiller, so they didn’t let me have them.” Instead, Tammy says, she took over-the-counter painkillers after her surgery – and never received any follow-up treatment. While the use of narcotics in prisons is limited, again, because of security concerns, spending on prescription medications within the healthcare system has gone up overall, according to Sapers. And according to Tammy, the most proactive healthcare that she and many other prisoners received while incarcerated was in the form of prescriptions for psychotropic medication. “If you talk about the fact that you feel depressed or down, they immediately want to put you on some type of medication so that you’re not an issue for security within the prison,” she said. “[But] I don’t know all the

Features

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

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“You can see that in society’s general stance toward prisoners. We’ve educated ourselves as a society to consider anybody who’s been convicted of a crime to be some kind of pariah not deserving of many, many things – and it’s just so ingrained in our social structure that often taking away certain things is viewed as the right thing to do by the majority of people who don’t think about it.”

inner workings of the correctional system, I just know what happened to me.” The increase in spending on prescription medications appears to largely be related to mental health concerns, as several regions of the country – particularly the Atlantic region – have seen a spike in the use of psychotropic medications. Tammy, who now works as a peer health counsellor with women upon release, hears of the same patterns continuing. “When [women] come out, I hear the same stuff, like, ‘Oh my god, it would just be easier if I was – you know, you have to be half-dead before I want to go to healthcare.’ […] You have to go through this whole line of security, right? First, you have to get through the guards, and then you have to talk to the nurses, and then sometimes the nurses end up thinking they’re doctors, and they’re diagnosing you, when all you really want to do is see a doctor and let them tell you what’s wrong. And then when that’s done, unless you follow up yourself – unless you have the mental stamina or the ability to advocate for yourself, it is really hard, you get lost in the system.”

Peter Collins Activist and current federal prisoner IV. In 2008, Christine Hemmingway filed a lawsuit against BC Corrections, Surrey Pretrial Services Centre, and Alouette Correctional Centre for Women. She claimed that there had been a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the poor healthcare she received while in provincial prison. When Christine fell ill in prison, she only grew sicker as she was continuously denied care. Christine’s case, in many ways, demonstrates the tension between security and healthcare found behind prison walls – a tension that is only made worse by the fact that in BC, prison healthcare is private. Christine’s troubles began with a basic bladder infection. While she requested an appointment with a doctor – a standard practice for prisoners seeking care – she was denied. That bladder infection soon turned into a kidney infection, later to morph into kidney stones. Christine’s health soon spiraled downward, resulting in blood infections, blood clots, and multiple visits to the emergency room. “Every time I was ill, I kept requesting to see the doctors and saying, ‘There’s still something wrong with me,’” she says. Christine’s medical problems eventually snowballed into an emergency blood transfusion – though she claims that, instead of being allowed to stay in the hospital for supervision after

the transfusion, she was shuttled straight back to the prison. “I survived all these illnesses which were unnecessary to start with,” she says. “So I decided that I’m going to take them to court.” After spending approximately $5,000 of her own money, Christine settled with BC Corrections in February – making the system acknowledge its wrongdoing in handling her healthcare. “It was never really about money,” she says, “It was about getting them to admit that they had not given the proper treatment inside the jail.”BC is unique in that its provincial system outsources prison healthcare to a private contractor, creating a dynamic that Christine sees as pushing profit over well-being or safety – greater, even, than the already-existing tension between security and healthcare. Advocates have been pushing for BC’s provincial prison healthcare system to be transferred and placed under the Ministry of Health, arguing that it would reduce recidivism rates, result in more consistent treatment of tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C, and STDs, and help ensure continuity of care upon release. But for Christine, the fact that her healthcare was provided by a private contractor meant something far more insidious. “It’s all about the bottom dollar,” she says. “It’s all about saving money. So they’re going to cut corners wherever they can.”

The complex healthcare needs of prisoners seem daunting. According to Sapers, 70 per cent of federally sentenced women have histories of sexual abuse, and 86 per cent have been physically abused at some point in their life. 80 per cent of federal prisoners face addiction or substance abuse issues – and two-thirds of federal prisoners were intoxicated when they committed the index – the most serious of the crimes that landed them in prison. And according to several former prisoners, drug use is rampant even behind bars, contributing to the spread of infectious disease within prison walls – an issue that only grows worse with increasing crowding in prisons. But the system is still working to catch up with their needs – or arguably, isn’t working all too hard to meet them in the first place. And the ongoing friction between security and healthcare has only grown worse with crowding, according to Sapers. “Crowding creates a scarcity of resources – and that’s all kinds of resources, including human resources. When you’re operating your prisons at capacity or over capacity, you’re really faced with some real operational issues. […] Everything is okay, as long as nothing out of the ordinary happens. But as soon as an extraordinary event happens – as soon as there is a medical emergency, as soon as there’s things like a power outage [...] it interrupts the prison routine. It just has a cascading effect.” Bridging the gap between release and community remains a crucial issue – but even

more pressing is the need for better harm-reduction measures to ensure quality care before putting people behind bars. “I would never say that prisons shouldn’t be health providers because people in custody will always have health needs,” says Sapers. “But on the other hand, it seems to me to be counterproductive and extraordinarily financially inefficient to meet healthcare needs for people by putting them in jail. If you’re dealing with somebody who is profoundly ill, we should be dealing with them primarily as patients. And if they also happen to be offenders, we can deal with the security needs. [...] I believe that we’ll get a much more therapeutic outcome and a more financially responsible outcome if we deal with their healthcare needs primarily.” Peter echoed the sentiment, noting the general societal indifference to prisoners. “If you’re truly interested in dealing with social problems, you would deal with poverty, and you would deal with disenfranchisement, you would deal with the systemic racism – all the negative things in our society that impact this. The inequality [...] – all that stuff. If you’re interested in solving crime. But [Harper]’s not. He’s interested in having a scapegoat.” *Name has been changed

Art Essay

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

Tanbin Rafee Embers of humanity “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

Want to see your artwork published in The Daily? Email illustrations@mcgilldaily.com for more info about the art essays!

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Sci+Tech

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

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Turning a blind eye to science Scientists, journalists, and activists unite against Harper’s “War on Science” Diana Kwon The McGill Daily

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overnment control over communication between scientists and the public, closure of libraries, and shutting down of research areas – no, this is not the start of an Orwellian novel, but a description of the climate of science in Canada today. Last Tuesday, scientists and nonscientists gathered at Redpath Museum to hear and discuss the issues pertaining to the Harper government’s “War on Science.” The panellists were Chris Turner, author of the book The War on Science, Katie Gibbs, executive director of Evidence for Democracy, an advocacy group for the transparent use of science, and Mike De Souza, a freelance environment and science journalist. The audience’s distaste for Harper was evident – audible groans could be heard in response to the description of the Conservatives’ recent atrocities against science; applause followed statements about ridding Canada of Harper and his policies. Environmental science has been at the front lines of Harper’s “War on Science.” The Conservative government has been particularly adamant about turning a blind eye to climate change. In June 2012, the Harper government passed the omnibus bill C-38 – cleverly dubbed the “Jobs, Growth, and Long-term Prosperity Act,” which struck a huge blow to environmental protection and research. It imposed restrictions on reporting environmental effects and weakened habitat and species protection while easing the process for approving new pipelines. Since 2012, the government has gutted environmental agencies and research centres responsible for gath-

ering important data that often provide damning evidence against many of the Conservative government’s economic plans. They stripped funding from the Centre for Offshore Oil, Gas, and Energy Research, the one agency responsible for environmental assessments for offshore drilling. The National Round Table on Environment and the Economy, an independent policy agency aimed at discussing sustainable development, has also since been abolished.The Experimental Lakes Area, the world’s leading freshwater research centre, also lost its federal funding, but was later saved by the provincial governments of Ontario and Manitoba.

“The idea is simple and straightforward – to make Canada the most attractive country for resource investment and development.” Chris Turner Author of “War on Science” And it doesn’t stop there. Environment Canada’s recent report on financial plans has revealed that it plans to cut spending from $1.01 billion in 2014-15 to $698.9 million in 2016-17. Meanwhile, Environment Canada’s projections indicate that Canada will not meet its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 17 per

From left: Mike De Souza, Chris Turner, and Katie Gibbs

Kiyoko Gotanda | Photographer cent below 2005 levels by 2020 – in fact, current measures show that emission levels have remained almost unchanged. To top it off, the National Energy Board approved the Enbridge Line 9 pipeline reversal earlier this month – a decision opposed by critics who argue this will put communities at risk and threaten water supplies and surrounding wildlife. This trend of ignoring inconvenient scientific evidence arguably began much earlier than the current Conservative government. The cod fishery collapse from over two decades ago provided what Turner called a “sneak preview” of what the relationship between science and the government has become today. The Grand Banks of Newfoundland, once overflowing with fish, were nearly depleted in the early 1990s. Between 1960-75, large scale fisheries collected the same amount of fish as the previous 250 years combined. During this time, previ-

Kiyoko Gotanda | Photographer

ously ‘arms-length’ governmental bodies – developed by Mulroney and the last Conservative government – began to mesh with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. This meant that the science would be ‘massaged’ by bureaucrats before getting to the policy level – which prevented the much-needed reductions in quotas, ultimately leading to the collapse of the cod fishery. “The lesson should have been that whatever you’re going to do, get the science right […] what the current government seems to have learned is that if there are bodies [that] keep coming up with evidence you don’t like, get rid of them,” said Turner. Science in Canada has largely become about progress and prosperity rather than curiosity and discovery. This has been made clear by the recent shifts in federal funding to industry-friendly areas of research, and the incentives to increase collaboration with industry partners. The National Research Council has undergone restructuring to shift focus from basic science to applied science, introducing a concierge service for industries seeking resources for growth. A recent announcement was made by the National Research Council that $50,000 vouchers would be given out for industry research through their Industrial Research Assistance Program. “The idea is simple and straightforward – to make Canada the most attractive country for resource investment and development,” Turner told the audience. Canadian scientists have begun to publicly speak out against Harper and his policies. This year, scientists gathered in “Stand Up for Science” rallies all across Canada; however, frustration is mounting as no visible

improvements are being made. According to Gibbs, part of the problem is that scientists are not always willing to talk to the media, he claimed that “Often they’ll self-censor themselves […] There is a culture of fear that’s going to be hard to overcome.” These fears are not unfounded – the government has implemented strict communication policies to control the information flowing from scientists to the media. Journalists are unable to talk to government scientists without going through communications officers, who are often present during interviews, and will stop scientists from sharing sensitive information. “Once journalists mention a term like ‘oilsands,’ requests will automatically be filtered by the government,” says De Souza. A telling audio recording of an interview between David Tarasick, a government scientist, in the presence of a media relations officer, and De Souza, is posted on Youtube. In it, Tarasick says, “I’m only available when media relations say I’m available.” Even if Harper’s policies are reversed, some of the damage incurred by the Conservatives is permanent. There will be gaps in long form census, loss in data from shuttered research centres, and the loss of scientists who could not do research due to funding cuts. There are many issues that Canada will face in the coming years, but climate change is the biggest and most pressing issue. In order to develop solutions, the government’s policies must consider the evidence presented by scientists. The cod fishery collapse serves as an example of what will happen if we do not. If we fail to address the environmental issues of our time, we will have a much bigger problem on our hands.

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Sci+Tech

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

Flushing down blue gold How do we get people to care about conserving water? Lee Park Sci+Tech Writer

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any Canadians think that we don’t have a problem with drinkable water, but we do. Though Canada holds 7 per cent of the world’s fresh water, it is not immune to the global fresh water shortage. The lack of legalization to protect water and the imminent shortage of clean water both pose a pressing problem for the future. “Canadians will have a big problem with water soon. We have one of the weakest legislations in protecting water. We don’t prioritize drinking water as a human right,” Victoria Goodday told The Daily. Goodday is a previous employee of Waterlution – an organization that promotes community involvement in water sustainability – and presently a Master’s student studying water laws at the University of Dundee. “Water legislation is a human right. We need to protect ecosystems and set mandatory limits on extraction for energy production. Setting limits would force these industries to innovate. We have no national water strategy. Every ministry, every industry, deals with water in a different way, so there’s no clear oversight on managing the whole system.”

“Only in crisis will there be change, that is the human way [...] we almost need a good drought to change.” Hanspeter Schreier Professor at the University of British Columbia This lack of integration across industries and fields also seems to prevent us from tackling our water issues in Montreal. In response to these issues, a group of eight women have met weekly since October to organize the fourth annual McGill Sustainability Symposium, which took place on March 13. The symposium focused on water and ways to sustain it, while fostering ideas and connections to address these pressing environmental challenges. Pascale Biron, a geology professor at Concordia University, expressed the urgent need for a

collective approach to manage our rivers. “One of the biggest problems with river management is that we don’t understand natural processes which explain why they erode [river] banks and why they flood regularly.” Biron said we could save millions of dollars over the next 50 years if we allow rivers to have their “freedom space,” meaning space to move naturally and flood. We currently force rivers within a zone to ensure they don’t move, limiting the space for wetlands to play their natural role. This inevitability causes rivers to deteriorate, making them less valuable. “We keep doing things, because we’re used to doing them a certain way in the past. We need to look at the system with a new perspective – a multidisciplinary perspective,” says Biron. But what if nothing changes and we continue along the path the same path? “By 2050, there will be big questions to answer,” says Claude Demers, a private consultant and a previous employee at Hydro-Québec. “The issue is in the summer in Quebec, when it’s very, very hot; very few cubic metres of water are available in Southern Quebec rivers.” Regardless of the shortage in water, people continue to water their grass and fill their pools, further exacerbating the water shortage. Demers informed The Daily that 90 per cent of people in Quebec live in the south, and most of these people don’t think about what their behaviours are doing to their surrounding environment. Demers goes on to say that while Quebec has advanced hydro technology, the problem is that “we have all of the eggs in one basket.” In Quebec, water is used for just about everything. According to Demers, 99 per cent of electricity is generated using water, and Quebecers are some of the largest consumers of electricity in the world. This lack of knowledge is not limited to Quebec. Hanspeter Schreier, a professor at the University of British Columbia specializing in geomorphology and resource management, told The Daily how tragic he finds the way we value bottled water. Bottled water is sold at around $2 a bottle while the city’s fresh drinkable water is priced at 63 cents for every 1000 litres. “Bottled water has a high sodium and nitrate content, which passes food regulations, but would not pass health regulations. Bottled water that has been lying around at room temperature is a perfect specimen for bacteria to grow in, and unlike city water, it is not tested twice a day,” explained Schreier. Schreier described current Cana-

Sylvan Hamburger | Illustrator dian water laws as archaic with their “first in time, first in place” system where the first one to get the permit has water rights. These laws were implemented in the 1880s, and are long due for an update. He advocated for three immediate changes: low-flush toilets, saving and using rain water for outdoor use, and restoring pipe leakages in our city water systems. Everyday reduction in water consumption is definitely possible, especially when our regular toilets flush 20 litres every time we use it. However, larger amounts of water are needed for other vital essentials, like agriculture, to maintain its mass production. Greg Gerrits, a farmer who owns Elmridge Farms in the Sheffield Mills area of Nova Scotia, says he has experienced the government

hindering farming progress while providing little help to develop a healthier practice. He informed The Daily that he had his water permit taken away in the 1990s. “There were two years in a row that were extremely dry so they decided that they couldn’t renew any permits. So the result was that our permits were left to expire for a year. When I went back to them the next year, they told me point blank that the application process would be difficult.” Gerrits says he now spends most of his time in the office rather than out in the field. “I spend very little of my time actually farming to meet all of the government demands. They keep coming up with more demands and more record-keeping.” According to Gerrits, farmers absorb all costs. “We are expected

to compete dollar for dollar with the entire world when the environment is being destroyed. People who buy local are paying prices that are based on a world price that doesn’t reflect our Canadian-regulated cost of production.” So the cost of our water in everyday consumption and in food production doesn’t seem to reflect its real value, which then in turn makes us reckless in how we use this water. It’s difficult to make people appreciate a free commodity. The question then becomes: how can we change people’s perceptions, attitudes and behaviours? Schreier believes that humans will not change easily. “Only in crisis will there be change, that is the human way [...] we almost need a good drought to change.”

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QPIRG McGill’s Annual General Meeting Thursday, April 3rd, 18h00 Room 151 , 1001 Rue Sherbrooke O Audited financial statements, reports from Board, Staff, and Working Groups, Election of the Board and Complaints Committee

Deadline for Board and CRCC nominations is Friday, March 28th. Childcare and whisper translation between French and English will be provided. Snacks and light refreshments will be served.

For the agenda and Board nomination packages, go to qpirgmcgill.org/annual-general-meeting.

Culture and commentary are looking for writers! If you have strong opinions and want to talk about them, email commentary@mcgilldaily.com Want to talk about art, music and theatre instead? Email culture@mcgilldaily.com

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Health&Ed

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

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McGill and the Charter The implications of Bill 60 for the campus environment

Antu Das | Illustrator Sarah Fortin Health&Ed Writer

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uebec has 17 universities that attract students from Quebec, other Canadian provinces, and other countries. Out of these universities, 14 are in the city of Montreal, the largest city in the province. With a rich history, a relatively strong arts scene, and of course an expansive nightlife, Montreal is a perfect city for students coming to study at McGill, Concordia, or any of Montreal’s universities. Quebec offers more than it seems at first sight, and not all of it is positive. Even with a lot of cultural diversity and a large migrant population, Quebec’s latent xenophobia is becoming stronger. If passed, the Charter of Quebec Values, or Bill 60, would institutionalize intolerance, and increase feelings of fear and of being unsafe for many groups on campus. According to Kira Page, external coordinator at the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) McGill, the Charter, as well as the proposed changes to already-existing language laws, would have a negative effect on Quebec’s international image. More importantly, it is already having effects on people of colour and migrant communities in Quebec. As an example, a survey conducted by Geneviève Pinard Prévost at the Université de

Sherbrooke showed that “88 per cent of Muslim women said they no longer feel safe leaving their homes.” Pinard Prévost’s sample size of 388 might be small, but such a high ratio can nevertheless not be ignored. Pinard Prévost said herself that, “It may not look like a lot of women in the total of Muslim women in Quebec, but it’s a lot of women who live with this kind of problem in the province.” Beyond making communities and individuals feel unsafe, Page states that Bill 60 would create an access barrier to employment for many people. Ellen Aitken, Dean of McGill’s Faculty of Religious Studies, firmly believes that Bill 60 would affect faculty members, in that they would “in a sense, be forced to hide part of their identity.” Aitken continues, “It would create an environment in which the fullness of who we are as human beings, as scholars, and as social beings interacting with one another could not be expressed fully, and I think that is a very chilling environment in which to learn.” Page explains that in Quebec, “various iterations of a political and social need for things like cultural protection, sovereignty, or the self-determination of francophone communities have often turned into a xenophobic, antiimmigrant politic that is deeply white supremacist, colonial, and

racist.” No matter its original intention, Bill 60 is now used as one of Quebec’s many soldiers of xenophobia. While traditionally defined in the New Oxford American Dictionary as an “intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries,” xenophobia can be further defined to include a dislike or fear of other cultures, languages, and religions. At McGill’s tri-annual debriefing in December, Suzanne Fortier stated that Bill 60 is already affecting McGill’s recruitment of faculty and students, with certain faculty members already considering leaving. Outside the limits of McGill, Aitken says that Bill 60 and Quebec’s xenophobia would “be a real disincentive for anyone applying from outside. It would probably even be a real disincentive for some Quebecers coming to McGill.” In January 2014, McGill submitted a brief to the National Assembly commission working on Bill 60, in which it made clear that it would have a strong detrimental effect on the university’s environment, and would destroy what a university is and should be. The brief states that a university is “an environment that brings them [the students] face to face with a reality that goes beyond the experience they have had until now, and helps them to develop their

judgement and critical thinking.” It is very clearly implied that Bill 60 would hinder and negatively

“It would create an environment in which the fullness of who we are as human beings, as scholars, and as social beings interacting with one another could not be expressed fully, and I think that is a very chilling environment in which to learn.” Ellen Aitken Dean of McGill’s Faculty Of Religious Studies

affect this environment. As well, the brief says that Bill 60, if implemented, would fundamentally alter the nature of the university as an institution, as “the institutional autonomy of a university is defined as the ability to manage its mission according to its own rules of governance, in complete freedom and without interference from any third party, including the government.” Taking Aitken’s position of Bill 60 affecting McGill’s faculty, this same brief clearly states that Bill 60 would have a negative effect on the student population itself, as “McGill hires nearly 3,500 of its students on teaching contracts in their disciplines (as lecturers or teaching assistants), to supervise examinations, work in the University libraries or bookstore, do office work that is partly subsidized by the central budget, fill research assistant positions, or serve as floor monitors in the student residences.” Beyond institutionalized bills such as Bill 60, xenophobia is clearly present in language issues. In 1977, Quebec’s National Assembly passed a bill called the Charter of the French Language, or Bill 101, which has been controversial even amongst Quebec residents. Very broadly, this Charter is meant to define the role of the French language in the province, and the accompanying language rights. While Bill 101’s many articles all serve to strengthen the French language, they can have negative aspects, especially on some anglophone populations. After the implementation of the Bill, Quebec experienced a large emigration of these populations, leading to the closing of many anglophone schools. Under Bill 14, businesses that serve the public would have needed to communicate in French with their customers. Furthermore, buisnesses with 26 to 49 regular employees would have had to make French the language of the workspace. Such rules make it much more difficult for immigrants in Quebec to create and run a business and make a living if their French language skills do not meet the required standard. All of these aspects of presentday Quebec do not paint a very attractive portrait of the province, a fact simply exacerbated by certain components of next month’s electoral platforms. With so many universities, it would be unwise for Quebec to close the door, or at least make the door very hard to open, to international students because of its cultural policies and behaviour.

Sports

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

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McGill Martlets capture Canadian hockey championship Defeat rival Carabins in double overtime Drew Wolfson Bell The McGill Daily

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he McGill Martlets defeated the Université de Montréal (UdeM) Carabins in double overtime to claim their fourth Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) championship since 1998. The last time the Martlets played the Carabins, McGill was met with disappointment. Not only were they defeated 6-2 on home ice, but the game sealed the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) conference championship for UdeM. It is safe to say that the Martlets and the Carabins have a long-standing rivalry. UdeM was responsible for breaking the Martlets’ regular season win streak at 43, but they were also responsible for eliminating McGill from national championship contention in 2012-13. After their most recent loss, a new narrative emerged: doubt was cast on the Marlets’ ability to defeat UdeM. This narrative, however, is completely false. Out of the nine times the two teams met this season, the Martlets walked away with five victories. Of the four they lost, Martlets head coach Peter Smith states that he thought his team outplayed the Carabins in all but two contests. People tend to put a lot of weight on playoff losses. They feel that everything that happened in the regular season is negated, and that the postseason is the true test of a team’s skill. Losing in the finals played into this theory of thought. Despite losing in the RSEQ finals, McGill was still granted a berth in the CIS national tournament. After working its way through the tournament, McGill found itself in the finals against a familiar foe.

“It’s what this group and this program is all about, moving forward.” Peter Smith Head Coach of the Martlets Confidence is a crucial element whenever entering a game where a championship is on the line. The Martlets faced the prospect of playing in the finals against a team that had just beaten them in the confer-

ence finals. This would cause most teams’ nerves to surface. The Martlets did not see it as such. Heading into double overtime, Smith told his players to stick with the game plan, and that it would only be a matter of time before they broke through with a goal. This CIS championship puts an exclamation point on an already fantastic season. The Martlets went 18-2-0 in the RSEQ conference. This stellar record can be largely attributed to McGill’s offensive power and excellent goaltending. The Martlets averaged an impressive 3.7 goals per game and 34.6 shots per game. Forwards Katia ClementHeydra and Gabrielle Davidson ended their season ranking one and two in the RSEQ scoring race. Both players also cracked the top five in the CIS point leaders rankings. Among the RSEQ goaltending leaders, McGill’s Andrea Weckman was also ranked first overall, boasting a .922 save percentage. The one disappointment in McGill’s season was the inability to secure a conference championship. Smith stated that, “Clearly we would have liked to win our conference, but we had bigger things in mind [as well] and moved forward […] It’s what this group and this program is all about, moving forward.” The Martlets have faced challenges, but they were able to battle though this adversity. This national title is proof that they were one of the most dominant teams in Canadian women’s hockey this year. The main problem with the Martlets season is that it has come to an end. The unfortunate nature of university sports means that the most seasoned players are often lost to graduation. Next season, the Martlets are losing Weckman, captain Darragh Hamilton, defenceman Michelle Daigneault, and forward Chelsey Saunders. Moving into next season, the loss of these players may seem like a major blow to the team. Weckman has been outstanding between the pipes, a stabilizing presence for the team. Yet as Smith points out, “I never looked at it as having one goalie and two backups; we have three goalies all capable of playing.” Alternate goaltenders Brittany Smrke and Taylor Hough have also posted impressive numbers this season and should be able to step up and fill the void left by Weckman. Hamilton proved herself as a tough, hard- working leader, with

Joanna Wang | The McGill Daily confidence that inspired her team. Though the Martlets are losing their captain, by no means are they losing their leadership. McGill will still have three out of four assistant captains returning. This is also helped by the fact that the Martlets look to every player for leadership, even if they don’t have an A or a C on their jersey. Despite these losses, McGill still looks to be one of the dominant teams in the RSEQ division next year. They are retaining a large portion of their team and

this foundation is invaluable going into next season. Within this group, the Martlets also hold on to Gabrielle Davidson, Leslie Oles, and recently-named CIS player of the year Clement-Heydra. This trio has combined for 101 goals and 103 assists this season. On defence the Martlets will keep most of their roster with the exception of Daigneault, meaning that they will still have depth on the blue line. A combination of returning veterans like Kelsie Moffatt and Adrienne Crampton, paired with

rookie Emily Davis, should keep McGill anchored on defence. As for goaltending, McGill will now look to Hough and Smrke; luckily, Hough has experience playing in this conference. She has played seven games this year and captured the fourth spot on the RSEQ goaltender leader board. The Martlets are, and will remain, a strong team. They are driven, talented, and committed. The Martlets look to repeat this success next season, and with their current line-up, they have the tools to do it.

Culture

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

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Diasporic longings How moving away has complicated my identity Nida Razack Culture Writer

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few months after I moved to Montreal from Bombay, I stumbled upon Tashan Performing Arts, a dance group operating under the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU). Being a predominantly South Asian dance group, it was filled with people who shared and appreciated South Asian culture. I was dancing a mixture of Garba (from Gujarat, in western India), Bhangra (from Punjab, in the northwest), and Kathak (from Kerala, in southern India), infused with jazz, hip hop, and contemporary. And, of course, we also incorporated some Bollywood moves. Since getting involved with Tashan, I have never felt more ashamed of having pushed aside my culture. These were dances that originated in my home country, yet aside from festive occasions where I could just follow someone who

seemed to know what they were doing, I never really ‘learned’ the technique or the history of these classical Indian dances. I wasn’t trained in classical dance, though I had the chance. Off the top of my head, I can name at least five classical dance schools in my home neighbourhood, but I preferred to learn the steps of the tango, street jazz, and salsa. I know three or four friends who completed their classical dance training and about 20 friends who have attended Western-style dance institutions. Now, an ideal night in for me is samosas, a Bollywood movie, genie pants, and heating turned up high. Maybe it’s because this is what’s most easily available, maybe it’s because I want to use very evident, stereotypical symbols of my culture, or maybe it’s because these are things that I actually enjoy. Whatever the reason, familiarity has never been more comforting. When people here asked me

Eleanor Milman | The McGill Daily how I could understand Friends references as an Indian, or if I ever really saw elephants in the street, I was pretty pissed off. But I’ve had to learn to deal with it. If a question begins with, “I don’t mean to offend you,” people probably shouldn’t be asking it. People don’t seem to be able to wrap their head around the fact that Western culture has been woven into Indian culture for centuries through a brutal history of colonialism. But we no longer think of Jeopardy! as ‘yours.’ Have you ever heard an Indian ask you, “So, how come you’re so fond of yoga? Who introduced you to the concept?” It saddens me that it took displacing myself to appreciate what I had. I have to come to terms with the fact that I felt I was a horrible member of society. I’ve taken advantage of India’s rampant corruption to get things done faster. I’ve bribed my way out of tickets. And as weird as it may seem, I miss it, despite realizing it’s morally questionable. But I miss it. I miss being able to cross where I like, or being able to buy a single cigarette instead

of a whole pack. I miss familiar. I miss being more than the colour of my skin and the repercussions that come with it. And I think I always will miss it. I disregarded my country. I

Suddenly, I became a foreigner who didn’t belong, part of a minority. Of course I stumble – it’s disorienting here. Of course I find solace in what’s familiar to me. But I refuse to be compartmentalized by your unconscious.

turned my back on everything it had to offer. I disregarded its laws. I disregarded its culture. I’m not here to sell you on India! Trust me, I know it has a long way to go. Still, there are so many wrongs here I wish I could make right. I miss how back home, I was “Nida,” not some ‘brown chick.’ Back home, I was an ordinary student, a citizen, and an individual. Suddenly, I became a foreigner who didn’t belong, part of a minority. Of course I stumble – it’s disorienting here. Of course I find solace in what’s familiar to me. But I refuse to be compartmentalized by your unconscious. I walk away from recoiling against the culture shock with the lesson to not let things slip by. I’m still finding myself, figuring out how to fight being stereotyped, and open myself up to limitless cultural influences. So though I complain about the cold, though I’m clueless about my future, though I still hate walking up that dreaded hill at 8 a.m., I don’t want to let this experience go by without appreciating what I can find right here, in the heart of Montreal.

Culture

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

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White, black, and everything in between “Skeletonic” showcases emerging artists’ work Joseph Renshaw The McGill Daily

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‘Skeletonic’ is the powerful disintegration of colour to its purest universal chaotic form,” explained Mira, the curator of the new exhibit featured at Cinéma du Parc. As it turns out, the “purest form” basically translates to “black-and-white” in this exhibition, put together by Sugar for Brains, a McGill-based, not-forprofit visual arts initiative. With a focus on showcasing emerging artists from all walks of life, the pieces are varied, interesting, and hit more often than they miss.

“Combined, the pieces might seem overwhelming and chaotic, but that’s just what a stream of consciousness is: unadulterated thought.” Mira “Skeletonic” curator Inspired by a love of old movies, Mira explained that, “initially I was going to make the exhibition a simple homage to black-andwhite films.” But the idea grew, so that now the exhibition plays out like someone’s thought process. “Combined,” Mira elaborated, “the

I N K W E L L

Shells Shivan Kaul

Tamaryn de Kock | Photographer pieces might seem overwhelming and chaotic, but that’s just what a stream of consciousness is: unadulterated thought.” So “Skeletonic” does not present a coherent message, but that’s not really what it’s going for. Sugar for Brains is more interested in promoting “overlooked, emerging artists (regardless of educational background),” explained Mira. At the moment they’re working in Montreal, but eventually Mira hopes to reach the rest of Canada, and then maybe further. While Mira acknowledges that “McGill doesn’t have a visual arts program, so there aren’t many opportunities for McGillians to showcase their pieces,” anyone – not just McGill students – could

submit their work for “Skeletonic,” and over 150 artists did. The talent on display is certainly impressive, and the “great mix of voices” Mira wanted is evident. Barred from using colour, the artists have turned to different media for variety. There are ink drawings, digital paintings, collages, lithographs, photography, charcoal works, pastel works, and painting on canvas and wood. The theme avoids its potential for monotony, but this is largely due to the immersive quality of the work rather than, as Mira claims, black-and-white works’ power to let viewers “fill in their own colours with their imaginations” (much like a black-and-white film might do).

Music exists In the space between us. It’s tender. It’s wordless. It’s sandy and ancient and Foreign and awkward and so fragile, like the Gossamer tale of a Sufi poet. It Touches me, lightly couched in Khayyam’s verses, and all I want is A word, a whisper and thou. So many conversations build up

Naomi Aldrich’s Trace Variations, which consists of simple ink patterns on paper, are startling and resemble the Rorschach Inkblot Test, while Sarah Galarnea’s lithograph Planet 1 (Tomato) is eerie in the extreme, a picture of a distant galaxy with the contrast turned way down. Mark Lavorato’s photos are very compelling, recalling the organic human geometry captured by Henri CartierBresson, and Iris Apostolescu’s digital painting Voyage matches the relatively new medium with a forward-looking, almost sci-fi vision of children at play. Jono Currier’s three drawings, which vary from a map-like landscape to a subdued portrait, are linked by the arc of a flare in the night. It’s inge-

In the ether; Building tension, but my affection is a Turtle.

nious, and feels like it could be the beginning of a project with nearinfinite scope. Almost every work deserves to be lingered upon, and Mira isn’t exaggerating much when she says “each piece has a powerful idea” behind it. Considering “Skeletonic” is Sugar for Brain’s first exhibition, the prospect of what could follow is exciting. In fact, work has already begun on the next show. Apparently the theme is suggested in the final piece of “Skeletonic” – but Mira isn’t giving much away, so viewers need to head on down to Cinéma du Parc to try and figure it out themselves. “Skeletonic” is on display at Cinéma du Parc (3575 Parc) until April 4.

I want to be solemn and heavy, but I shall force lightness upon myself; I shall Be funny and frothy, and with my words I shall chip away at your shell, and live From midnight conversation to midnight conversation, And every night more music shall pour out and dance In the spaces between us, and perhaps eventually Your shell shall wear down, and then And then I shall touch you.

Compendium!

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

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Lies, half-truths, and if I were a Shakespearean character, I would be Lady Macbeth

Radicals distracted by pointless online games, quizzes Administrators and police “pleased” with general calm E.k. EK The McGall Weekly

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phenomenon has swept the loosely defined ‘radical community’ at McGall campus and more broadly in the city. It threatens to undo the work of years of organization and mobilization. It runs deeply and insidiously, more difficult to pin down and challenge than any external force. “Protests are devoid of young people,” said Jambon Bramdom, community activist and organizer in an interview with The Weekly. “Last week I was at a demonstration against austerity. You know, usual stuff. But nobody under the age of 30 was to be seen.” Bramdom pointed to an app open on hir ePhone. “I think stuff like this is to blame.” Ze was indicating the recently released puzzle game, 2,178, which ze described as “some bullshit about moving numbers around a board? Whatever.” Peein’ More, a former activist and member of the Board of Directors of Association of McGall Employees Working Staff (AMEWS), explained his recent departure from several different organizing committees. “It started with a little public transit simulator game… look, it’s hard to explain.” AMEWS, and other organizations, have felt the strain of los-

ing student members in a slow but steady drain, as word spreads between them. When pressed for further comment, More waved his hand absently before returning to his phone. Former editor at The Weekly, Anne Gee, was similarly vague as she discussed her resignation from the paper. “I just need this. I need it,” Gee hissed, talking to nobody and yet everybody who would listen. Gee continued, “I’m so close this time. 2,178. 2,178. I see the grid when I close my eyes.” An anonymous tip suggested that Gee played the game for ten hours straight the day before her interview with The Weekly, but Gee declined to comment. “I don’t see time anymore,” Gee explained. “Just the grid.” Speaking on half of the McGall administration, Media Relations Aficionado Sweetie Boy-Sweet described the situation as “an exciting time to be alive.” “There used to be a lot of fear about the power of social media. You know, all these young people talking to each other and organizing these awfully public demonstrations. But now, all they’re doing is talking about what character from Girls they would be. The tables have turned.” The Moontreal police force are taking a more proactive ap-

E.k. EK | The McGall Weekly proach, reportedly teaming up with BuzzFeed, an entertainment website and host of many such quizzes, to better target a “radical demographic.” Quizzes such as, “Are you

a Slavoj or a Noam?” and, “What subset of anarchism best suits you?” are already gaining increased traffic among young radicals. “I’ve never seen anything like

it,” Bramdom said, referencing the efficiency of such distraction tactics. “It’s like they want them to win. I mean, come on. Who even wants to be a Slavoj?”

Mainstream Political Figures Reciting Talking Points initiative prompted by Hillary Clinton speech Promises exactly what it sounds like Dame Jurus Lee The McGall Weekly

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n March 18, Hillary Clinton spoke to an enthusiastic, sold-out crowd in Montreal. The Palais des congrès was packed with members of Montreal elite eager to hear her speak, with Premier Pauline Marois, mayor Denis Coderre, and federal cabinet ministers in attendance. Clinton spoke about empowering young women and Russia’s foreign policy in what what was described as, “Oh, okay I have heard this before, but it’s cool to see Hillary Clinton!” When talking about Russia, Clinton warned that Russia was looking to redraw its post-war

borders through aggressive territorial expansion. “This is a clash of values and it’s an effort by Putin to rewrite the boundaries of post-World War II Europe,” said Clinton, who said something that has been said by a lot of policy analysts. People in the audience nodded politely and hmm-ed murmurs of moderate agreement. Although McGall did not plan this event, several McGall students were in attendance. Batt Moblin, U2 Poli Sigh major with a minor in Neoliberalism studies, commented, “It was pretty cool to see Hillary Clinton! I got free tickets through McGall, I haven’t been this happy since I saw Al Gore last semester! These speak-

ers who do not conflict or challenge my current moderate political views are great!” Clinton finished her speech and the audience went home convinced of things they had already believed prior to the talk. “It reminded me of a TED talk. I love TED talks!” added Batt Moblin excitedly. McGall University, responding to this positive response, has booked several speakers for next year. The Mainstream Political Figures Reciting Talking Points (MPFRTP) initiative promises speakers for the McGall community. “I think we really are filling a need on an institutional level. McGall wants to listen to politicians

who have high brand recognition and have recognizable messages. The students want to hear a politician who preaches environmentalism but won’t denounce capitalism’s role in climate change,” said Kristie Boss, director of Media Within McGall. Emphasizing the ‘middle-ofthe-road’ flavour of politicism that McGall students best empathize with, Boss added further suggestions. “Maybe a speaker who wishes for peace in Ukraine but was involved in an administration which used drones in an illegal secret war?” Media Within McGall, the organizers of the MPFRTP speaker series, has run into difficult book-

ing guests since McGall is no longer the Most Prestigious University in Canada©. “We are going to need to settle for the second-best mainstream political figures. I mean it’s still cool that Al Gore was almost president,” said Boss. “The second-best speaker is good enough for the secondbest school in Canada!” The speaker series begins fall next year with 2008 presidential hopeful and former U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich. Response to the initial line-up has been largely positive. “Wow Dennis Kucinich! I saw him on the news five years ago! I am gonna tell everyone in my Poli Sigh conference about this,” said Moblin.

Editorial

volume 103 number 24

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

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

Standing up to military research

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Alice Shen | The McGill Daily

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cover design Alice Shen contributors Zapaer Alip, Jill Bachelder, Jacqueline Brandon, Janna Bryson, Lily Chapnik, Tamaryn de Kock, Sarah Fortin, Kiyoko Gotanda, Ralph Haddad, Shivan Kaul, Emma Noradounkian, Lee Park, Nida Razack, Joseph Renshaw, Drew Wolfson Bell

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n March 14, Demilitarize McGill, a campus group that works to oppose military research at the university, led a blockade of the Aerospace Mechatronics Laboratory in the MacDonald Engineering building. Despite the blockade being peaceful, McGill called the police, invoking the controversial Operating Procedures Regarding Protests and Occupations on McGill University (the ‘protest protocol’), which states that any obstruction of work at the University is not allowed. The blockade was organized in response to access to information requests revealing that researchers at the Laboratory received over $500,000 in contracts from the Defence Research and Development Centre – an agency of the Department of National Defence – to develop research linked to drones. While researchers at the Laboratory argue that the research has potential applications outside of military use, the fact that some of these applications cause harm is enough to give cause for student opposition. The drone research at McGill is not a solitary case, as McGill has been home to many forms of research with harmful implications in the past. Recently, McGill was pressed to defend research by Professor J. Corbett Macdonald, who conducted industry-funded research into the health effects of asbestos in the 1970s. The University’s claims that this research was neutral were heavily contested. Further back in history is McGill’s involvement with project MK-ULTRA, a program partially funded by the CIA and the Canadian government, and another example of the University accepting money from sources with questionable motives. When researchers deny the connection

between the source of the funding and future uses, they ignore the influence on research exerted by financial investment. In the past the University dealt with the issue of questionable research funding poorly, for example, holding a forum on asbestos research but failing to address the implications of corporate funded research. But even though students form such an integral part of university life, they have little say in its affairs. This makes direct action one of the most effective options for students when opposing the wishes of the university. Demilitarize McGill’s blockade of the laboratory is just one example of students voicing opposition to university research. That McGill called the police to respond to the blockade illustrates that direct action is not considered an acceptable form of political opposition. The protocol rules against demonstrating if it obstructs work at McGill, which defeats the purpose of protest. Direct action should be able to take up space and obstruct work in order to draw attention to the issues at hand. Students, who hold such a large voice on a university campus, should be able to voice opposition to research at this University, especially when it is evident that the research has harmful applications. Students should support efforts by Demilitarize McGill to demand answers from the University. If a university campus does not allow students to occupy space in order to voice their concerns, the implicit message is that opposition to authority is not to be tolerated. Inaction legitimizes authority; this makes resistance necessary. —The McGill Daily Editorial Board

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.

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GENERAL ELECTION NEW FOR STUDENTS: ON MARCH 28TH, APRIL 1ST, 2ND AND 3RD, YOU MAY VOTE IN YOUR EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION. YOU WILL VOTE FOR A CANDIDATE FROM THE ELECTORAL RIDING IN WHICH YOU ARE DOMICILED.

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