The McGill Daily - Vol104iss10

Volume 104, Issue 10 Monday, November 3, 2014

EDITORIAL: AUSTERITY BITES PAGE 23

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Students and Workers Organize against austerity Page 3 & 5

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Thousands in the streets against austerity

NEWS

Demonstrators march against austerity More budget cuts for universities Photos from anti-austerity march J-Board case: Elections SSMU staff step down Groups continue to push for Indigenous recognition Culture Shock to explore myths related to social justice issues

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COMMENTARY

Even after #ConsentMcGill, we need to keep talking about consent The events at the SSMU GA were an affront to free speech Letters to The Daily

12

FEATURES

A look into polyamorous relationships

15

SCI+TECH

Scientists talk mental health stigma, research A comparison between the old and new MCAT

18

SPORTS

How much is a college coach worth?

Scoreboard updates

20 CULTURE A new look at the art of waste reduction The response of Montreal artists to Dunham and her Girls Weekly culture picks

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Students, workers condemn cuts to education and social services William Mazurek The McGill Daily

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ens of thousands of people assembled on McGill College last Friday to protest the Liberal government’s austerity measures, which include severe cuts to education and healthcare. Undeterred by the fact that the demonstration was swiftly declared illegal by the police, demonstrators marched for over two and a half hours, making their way down Ste. Catherine and to Montreal’s Old Port, where the demonstration eventually dispersed.

“It’s important to be here because austerity cuts are affecting everyone in Quebec, students included,” Kelly, a Women’s Studies student at McGill, told The Daily.

“Over $200 million has been cut from university funding from the province, and that translates to over $14 million being cut at McGill.”

Organized by a large coalition that includes the Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ), the event drew thousands of students. Buses from CEGEPs and universities were observed picking up protesters at the demonstration’s termination point.

“It was great seeing [...] 50,000 people out on the streets,” ASSÉ cospokesperson Camille Godbout told The Daily. “It was great to see all the groups mobilizing against the austerity cuts. We have today 82,000 students on strike across the province so [it was good] seeing other groups, unions, and community groups coming down to Montreal.”

“The province, as far as I know, didn’t consult people before putting this budget forward,” said Kelly.

“They didn’t give people in Quebec a choice about it, that’s why everyone’s angry about it and coming to resist and show the province that this is not the way to do things.”

Tens of thousands protest austerity on Friday.

Kelly was part of a small McGill contingent of around twenty students. A larger contingent from Concordia, numbering around 100 students, was also present.

“We [at the Concordia Graduate Students’ Association (GSA)] do have a mandate, actually, to support free education,” GSA VP External Mohammad Jawad Khan told The Daily. “So I believe right now is not the right time to [make] budget cuts [for] the university and the government. Unfortunately, Concordia has wholeheartedly accepted them.”

Christian, a demonstrator, called the austerity measures anti-democratic. “Austerity measures are a cut at the level of social democracy,” he said. “It is not only a divestment in the [form] of money in the strictest sense, but a divestment [from] the [social] capital.” “[Instead of the democratic process] right now, it is the IMF [International Monetary Fund] and international banks who are [driving] national economies,”

Ralph Haddad | The McGill Daily

Christian noted.

Although the protest had been declared illegal, police intervention was minimal. Contingents of officers in riot gear walked with the crowd, and a number of officers on bicycles escorted the demonstration. Demonstrators were observed conversing and interacting with the officers at the scene.

Godbout suggested that the lighter-than-usual police presence was a product of the demonstration’s opposition to the controversial Bill 3, which would require higher contributions to the pension fund for many police officers and other public service employees in Quebec.

“We stand in solidarity with all the workers who are touched right now by the [changes in the] pensions. Clearly we still stand against police brutality, but maybe [the pensions have] something to do with the fact that [the police] acted more lightly than usual,” she said.

Indeed, a group of several hundred firefighters represent-

ing the Association des pompiers de Montréal (ADPM) participated in the protest. The ADPM made headlines in August when a group of its members disturbed a City of Montreal council meeting in protest of Bill 3. Six firefighters were fired and dozens more suspended following the incident.

In order to emphasize their dissatisfaction with the government’s policies, hundreds of protesters took to the streets again on Friday night following the main demonstration.

This time, several arrests were made.

A collective organization committee called the “Comité large printemps 2015” has also been formed, through which students and workers will continue to organize and escalate pressure tactics, potentially leading up to a strike.

“History in Quebec has shown that past strikes have been really effective in getting the government to change what they’re doing,” said Kelly.

(See page 5 for more photos.)

The shift from print to e-books in the McGill community

23 EDITORIAL McGill needs to take a stance against austerity

24 COMPENDIUM! The reanimated corpse of Roland Barthes returns So does the crossword

Mert Kimyaci | The McGill Daily

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No end in sight for provincial budget cuts Students disappointed with administration’s reaction Igor Sadikov The McGill Daily

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cGill can expect an additional $4 to $12 million in cuts to the provincial government’s 2014-15 operating grant, Provost Anthony Masi announced at an open forum on McGill’s financial situation on October 27.

The grant was already $15 million lower than projected in the budget approved by the Board of Governors in April, which also included a $7 million deficit. In the worst-case scenario, McGill’s deficit for the 2014-15 financial year will be $34 million, which amounts to about one third of its current total accumulated deficit, Masi said.

In order to deal with the cuts, McGill has imposed a hiring freeze for administrative and support staff, postponed all non-essential equipment purchases, and stopped all non-emergency unplanned funding allocations. These measures add to those undertaken last year after a $38 million cut to the government’s operating grant, such as a voluntary retirement program, a salary freeze affecting a portion of the administrative and support staff, the non-renewal of contracts, and a reorganization of the workforce.

Although the measures have reduced the workforce and increased the workload for many employees, Masi said that the administration has instituted a secondary review

process for all requests for job reclassifications as another cost-cutting measure.

“We have to [...] try to understand how we can do without all of those people. They all were doing important jobs at McGill, no one doubts that, but we have a cut we have to live with,” he said.

The government’s operating grant also comes with a mandated 2 per cent reduction in the money allowcated to salaries of administrative and support staff. However, it is unclear where exactly this reduction will come from.

In response to a question about how teaching assistantships will be affected, Masi said that changes “have to be on the table.” Most teaching assistants are unionized under AGSEM: McGill’s Teaching Union.

“It’s difficult to say how the cuts will affect our members, but we are certainly wary that McGill might make cuts to our members’ hours,” AGSEM President Justin Irwin told The Daily in an email. “Provost Masi [...] really did not give any indication what the impact on our members might be.”

Masi also spoke to the effect of the cuts on students. “It’s likely that these [cuts] will have an effect on students. We can’t increase tuition or fees without a referendum or permission from the government, but that means that some services will have to be cut,” said Masi. “We don’t want it to affect our class-

rooms, and we don’t want it to affect graduate funding.”

In an email to The Daily, Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) VP University Affairs Claire Stewart-Kanigan noted that cost-cutting measures have a disproportionate effect on students in certain faculties.

“The administration is charged with representing the interests of everyone in the McGill community, and in being complicit with these cuts has failed in doing so.”

Amina Moustaqim-Barrette, SSMU VP External “[C]uts to contract academic staff have been a tactic of absorbing budget cuts in the past; however, a cut in this area will translate to the loss of many more courses in faculties that employ contract academic staff widely versus those that do not,” said Stewart-Kanigan. “[The University’s plan] to deal with the differential impact on stu-

dents across faculties is also unclear. For example, Arts students have less privately funded internship opportunities than Management students, and would hence be more affected by the loss of government funding.”

No stance against austerity Despite the magnitude of the cuts and the fact that more cuts are expected in 2015-16, Masi refused to characterize the situation as a “crisis,” distinguishing McGill’s budgetary choices from those of other Quebec universities.

“Since 2009, McGill seems to have chosen to implement budgets that were much more austere than those of other Quebec universities, and [...] I think that’s right – we have been much more cautious, and we’re trying not to run up huge deficits. We’re trying to be responsible because we don’t know when things could turn around.”

Other universities such as Université de Montréal and Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) have publicly condemned the cuts; McGill did the same after the 2013 cuts from the Parti Québécois government.

This time, however, McGill has not denounced the cuts to Quebec universities, and has focused its lobbying efforts on demands for “flexibility” in sources of funding, Masi explained. For example, increased tuition for certain international students is one avenue that is

being considered.

“We know that the government of Quebec is broke – we’ve actually not complained about that,” said Masi. “We don’t think the system can get much more from the Quebec government, so we’re asking only for flexibility to [...] allow us to help ourselves out of this situation.”

“Quebec is burdened by debt, and the government is trying to be responsible in reducing it, so we recognize that,” added Masi. “We’re just being realistic about it.”

In an email to The Daily, SSMU VP External Amina MoustaqimBarrette expressed concern that the University’s position does not represent the interests of the McGill community.

“I would have liked to see the administration take a firm stance in opposition to the cuts,” she said.

“The administration is charged with representing the interests of everyone in the McGill community, and in being complicit with these cuts has failed in doing so.”

Echoing Moustaqim-Barrette’s sentiment, Irwin was not surprised by the administration’s reaction to the cuts.

“It is disappointing, but not surprising, that McGill’s response to cuts is one of happy acquiescence,” said Irwin. “The administration wants to lobby for more options as to how to squeeze money out of students, and international students in particular, rather than to oppose these austerity measures.”

Photos from the anti-austerity demonstration

Ralph Haddad | The McGill Daily

Mert Kimyaci | The McGill Daily

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November 3, 2014 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com

Elections SSMU staff to step down after review of hiring bylaws Judicial Board case dropped following mediation Janna Bryson and Igor Sadikov The McGill Daily

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ollowing a mediation session between U3 Arts student Alexei Simakov and Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) President Courtney Ayukawa held on October 28, SSMU will conduct a review of bylaws related to hiring Elections SSMU staff and reopen the hiring process for Elections SSMU positions after the review.

As a result of the settlement, Simakov agreed to drop his SSMU Judicial Board (J-Board) petition challenging the legitimacy of Ben Fung’s reappointment as this year’s Elections SSMU Chief Electoral Officer (CEO). Simakov and Ayukawa announced the decision in a joint statement sent to The Daily on October 30.

“Through its Legislative Council, the SSMU is committed to working, with the input of students, to address any existing uncertainties [in the bylaws]. The parties will cooperate to engage undergraduates in the reform process and to clarify the organization’s governing documents going forward,” the statement read.

Fung and Elections SSMU Deputy Electoral Officer David Koots have agreed to step down, but will continue to occupy their positions in the interim until the bylaw review is complete. “[W]e didn’t mind stepping down and reapplying,” Fung told The Daily in an email. “We volunteered to step down as we do not have personal stakes in Elections SSMU or the positions, and so that SSMU can move forward to clarify and improve the process.”

Fung added that he and Koots will not be involved in the review.

According to Ayukawa, the review will be conducted by Council and its By-law Review Committee.

Simakov told The Daily that he was pleased with the outcome, and felt that he and those who had helped him draft the petition had achieved their goal.

“I think, given the legal structure of SSMU [...] we did the best we could,” he said. “The point of this was, effectively, to raise awareness and to keep SSMU reminded that they are accountable to students – and, I think, in that respect, we did do that.”

“We still stand by our position that the appointment was unconstitutional,” added Simakov.

Ayukawa told The Daily in an email that, in choosing to settle the case through mediation, the SSMU executive sought to reach a solution that would satisfy Simakov, but maintains that Fung’s hiring was done “in a fair manner that is in accordance with the bylaws and constitution.”

“Instead of pursuing [...] quasilegal proceedings, we wanted to be responsive to students and their concerns, and find a solution that everyone was happy with,” she said.

Points of disagreement In his petition, filed to the JBoard on September 22, Simakov argued that the decision to rehire Fung for the 2014-15 term was made without the participation of the Nominating Committee, as required by section 2.4 of SSMU’s By-Law Book I. Simakov requested that the First Year Council elections and the Fall 2014 referendum, carried out under Fung’s supervision, be declared invalid. The SSMU executive, represented by Ayukawa, was the respondent in the case.

However, in a declaration submitted to the J-Board prior to the

mediation session, the SSMU executive and its advocate Ben Rogers argued that the simple renewal of a contract does not require a recommendation from the Nominating Committee, and that Fung’s rehiring was carried out with the approval of the executive, as required by regulations. As per SSMU’s constitution, the executive has all the powers of the Board of Directors (BoD) between the BoD’s meetings; according to the declaration, these powers take precedence over the hiring process described in the bylaws.

The declaration further stated that the hiring process described in the bylaws was outdated, not having been followed for at least five years.

It said that the original purpose of the Nominating Committee was to “prevent conflicts of interest and to ensure that only qualified staff were hired” – a purpose now fulfilled by SSMU’s Conflict of Interest Policy and Human Resources Advisor.

The declaration also noted that, because the appointments of members of the J-Board had not been reviewed by the Nominating Committee, ruling the Elections SSMU appointments invalid would simultaneously invalidate a portion of the current Faculty of Law appointments to the J-Board, which is the body that received Simakov’s peti-

tion in the first place.

Dissatisfaction with SSMU In an interview with The Daily, former SSMU Services Representative Élie Lubendo expressed surprise at the SSMU executive’s agreeing to settle the case.

“I did not think that they would settle, just because in the past they usually don’t settle on cases like these – especially because this one had a lot of feedback from students as being a joke, it didn’t seem very serious,” said Lubendo. “To me, it seemed like this case would have been won by SSMU and it would have been better to just go to the trial.”

In light of the signing of the widely-criticized Shatner building lease, the invalidation of the presidential elections, and the re-running of the building fee referendum question, a portion of students have become increasingly dissatisfied with SSMU. Lubendo hypothesized that the decision to settle the case might have been made to mitigate potential backlash from students.

“I think a lot of decisions are starting to be made to play on the safe side. I don’t think that they’re necessarily being made to please students, but they’re being made not to displease students,” he said.

Speaking to The Daily, Sima-

kov was critical of SSMU, and said that the services it provides students do not make up for its mistakes. “It’s become an octopuslike situation [...] this is consistent, and [SSMU has had] such diverse failures that students don’t even know what to complain about anymore because everything seems to be breaking. [...] Pretending that [the fact that] they offer services in any way defends their gross failures is nonsensical.”

Lubendo noted that the recent General Assembly “had a great outcome” in terms of student engagement, but called on SSMU to be more proactive in strengthening its relationship with the student body in order to regain the confidence of its constituents.

“These types of discussions should not be started by students – these types of discussions should be started by the student union, and the fact that that is not happening is a problem,” he said. “With SSMU and its relationship with students being so fragile, you can’t really play it safe – you just have to be humble and take the backlash and learn from it, and I think that, at this point, that’s really not happening.”

An earlier version of this article appeared online on October 31.

Making sense of SSMU’s structure General Assembly The General Assembly has authority over all of SSMU’s policies, except financial matters as well as the constitution and bylaws. It receives the annual report of the Board of Directors and SSMU’s financial statements.

Board of Directors The Board of Directors is the supreme administrative body of SSMU, and has near-total authority over its constitution and bylaws under the Quebec Companies Act. In practice, the Board of Directors usually only ratifies decisions made by the Legislative Council. The Board of Directors is nominated by, and reports to, the General Assembly.

Judicial Board The Judicial Board has the authority to adjudicate on matters relating to SSMU’s constitution and bylaws, but its decisions must be ratified by the Board of Directors. It is appointed by the Nominating Committee of the Legislative Council.

Executive Committee The Executive Committee is an elected body composed of the officers of SSMU, which are the President and the VPs. It has the authority to govern SSMU’s operations in between meetings of the Board of Directors, but may not amend SSMU’s constitution and bylaws. It reports to the Legislative Council and the General Assembly.

Legislative Council The Legislative Council is composed of the executive and of elected members representing faculties, schools, or certain special interest groups. It is empowered to make recommendations to the Board of Directors with respect to all of its actions.

Nominating Committee The Nominating Committee is made up of the President and VPs, as well as three councillors. It is currently responsible for appointing the Judicial Board Justices and the Chief Electoral Officer.

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Progress slow on University recognition of Indigenous heritage New initiative seeks public acknowledgement of Indigenous territory Jasreet Kaur The McGill Daily

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m c gi l l d a i l y. co m

fforts to have the Hiawatha Belt Flag raised at McGill on certain significant days of the year remain stifled by bureaucracy, with the University failing to address a proposal to that effect submitted by both the Subcommittee on First Peoples of the Joint Board-Senate Committee on Equity and the Aboriginal Affairs Working Group. The relocation of the commemorative Hochelaga Rock, originally proposed in 2012, has also not happened yet.

The Subcommittee has begun work on a third initiative, which calls on McGill to publicly acknowledge that the university is built on Indigenous land. “The way we see it now is pulling our resources together to have a sound package to present to Senate, probably in the late spring, of the traditional territorial acknowledgement,” said Kakwiranó:ron Cook, the chair of the Subcommittee and McGill’s Aboriginal Outreach Administrator, in an interview with The Daily.

“It would be great to see it acknowledged on our website. Other universities embrace their host Indigenous communities. Here, we’re not there yet. It’s proving to be a longer process than any of us expected,” Cook said.

Cook told The Daily that he wrote to the Secretariat in February asking that the Hiawatha Belt Flag be raised on National Aboriginal Day in June and on the day of the annual Pow-Wow in August, but his request was unsuccessful. The Hiawatha Belt, Cook explained, is “a symbol of unification and peace.”

André Costopoulos, the Dean of Students and the chair of the Aboriginal Affairs Working Group, explained that, given that flying the flag is a “bureaucratic process,” other avenues might be preferable.

“I think there are equivalent symbolic gestures that we can make that would be more visible and that would be more meaningful,” said Costopoulos. “For example, we could put a banner on the front of the Arts building, and that would be much more visible. We could have

Karen Chiang | Illustrator an exhibit in the Arts building lobby or the library. [...] So we’re exploring more alternatives right now.”

Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) VP University Affairs Claire Stewart-Kanigan also noted that there are legal complications with raising the flag.

“Most institutions in Quebec are only allowed to fly the Quebec and Canadian flag. However, McGill has been flying their flag for so long that they have an acquired right to fly that additional flag,” Stewart-Kanigan told The Daily. “[McGill is] concerned that, if they fly the Hiawatha Belt Flag, they will lose their acquired right to fly the McGill flag.”

Hochelaga Rock The relocation of the Hochelaga Rock to a more prominent location was also proposed by the two groups. The rock, which is currently situated on Lower Field, commemorates the Haudenosaunee village of Hochelaga that once stood at McGill’s current location.

According to Cook, the proposal was presented to the Senate Committee on Physical Development in 2012, but there was no funding available to go through with the project.

“One of the biggest problems at McGill right now is the challenge of resources,” Allan Vicaire, In-

digenous Education Advisor at the Social Equity and Diversity Education office (SEDE), told The Daily. “[McGill] is faced with a lot of cuts, so all of those projects we’d like to see come to fruition, they don’t happen because of the [lack of ] financial resources.”

Legal issues surrounding the ownership of the rock further slowed progress on its relocation.

Costopoulos said that the rock does not technically belong to McGill, but instead to Parks Canada, and so moving it would involve a lengthy process of navigating through different levels of bureaucracy.

“From my understanding, it’s been communicated by [...] Campus and Space Planning [that] the rock will never move,” said Stewart-Kanigan. “Back in 2012, they drew a sketch of where the rock could potentially go, right in front of the James McGill statue by the Y-intersection. [...] More recently, it’s come down that a location in front of [the] James McGill [statue] would be too prominent.”

While the actual status of the Hochelaga Rock’s relocation remains undetermined, minor changes have been made to improve the situation, such as redoing the rock’s plaque, cleaning the area, and planned additions of benches and some traditional Haudenosaunee plants around the rock.

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November 3, 2014 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com

Culture Shock to explore race and immigration Annual event series aims to dispel myths and foster dialogue Ellen Cools News Writer

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rom November 5 to 9, the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) McGill will be holding its annual Culture Shock event series. The events – including workshops, panels, film screenings, and discussions – are meant to “explore the myths surrounding immigrants, refugees, Indigenous people, and communities of colour,” according to the Culture Shock website.

Initially run solely by the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), Culture Shock has been co-organized by QPIRG McGill and SSMU since 2006. This year, McGill’s Social Equity and Diversity Education office (SEDE) also is participating in organizing the series.

QPIRG Outreach and Promo-

tions Coordinator Kira Page spoke with The Daily about the foundations of Culture Shock. “SSMU used to run an event series of a multicultural affair, and it was poorly attended and wasn’t working out well. So in 2006, we jumped in and offered to co-organize it with them, but with a mandate [...to] focus on social justice issues specifically.”

Page emphasized that Culture Shock now looks at issues not through the lens of multiculturalism, but in terms of lived experiences. The event series is framed “with an understanding of issues of racism and the very messed-up ways in which the migration system works, understanding colonization and what that means for Indigenous people living here,” said Page.

In an email to The Daily, SSMU VP Clubs and Services Stefan Fong spoke to the impact of the event series on students. “A lot of the

topics that will be discussed stem from personal experiences. [...] A lot of different people will typically come to these events with different expectations in mind, and end up with a more holistic understanding [of the topics discussed at Culture Shock].”

According to Page, it is particularly important to have events like Culture Shock to provide an alternative to the academic treatment of the issues discussed. “People [at McGill], especially people who are already interested in these issues, will seek out courses and teachers who deal with these questions, but it happens in such an incredibly restrictive space.”

Accessibility and community outreach “There’s also a goal of broadly doing educational work on campus but with a focus on forms of learn-

ing that are different than what people would get at McGill,” said Page. According to Page, this includes having workshops taught by people directly affected by issues, instead of academics, and the inclusion of communities involved in grassroots organizing.

Organizers are also hoping that Culture Shock will help bridge the gap between McGill and Montreal.

“On Saturday, November 8, we’re organizing a one-day convergence called ‘Healing Rage’ which is for Indigenous people and people of colour in Montreal and McGill to come together and talk about their lived experiences,” Kama Maureemootoo, Finance and Administrative Coordinator at QPIRG McGill, told The Daily. The event will also provide a platform for attendees to share expertise and skills pertaining to broader anti-racist organizing in Montreal.

Culture Shock will feature its keynote event, “#ItGetsBitter: An Evening of Poetry, Polemic and Healing,” presented by Dark Matter, a trans South Asian art and activist collaboration, on November 7.

“Their work is so interesting because they really work at the intersection of race, migration, and gender [...] which opens up a lot of discussion because those issues aren’t single issues,” said Maureemootoo on why Dark Matter was chosen to give the keynote event. “[Dark Matter] kind of bridges that space between creating spaces of love for people who need it in those experiences, and really pushing people to be better,” added Page.

According to QPIRG McGill’s wesbite, all events will be free, wheelchair-accessible, and scentfree, and will have childcare and whisper translation in both French and English provided.

A look at some of the Culture Shock events IMMIGRANTS WITH DISABILITIES IN CANADA: DISCRIMINATION, SEGREGATION, SUICIDAL DEPORTATION

CREATING A CULTURE OF RESISTANCE: DECOLONIZATION AS A WEAPON, REBUILDING NATIONHOOD, LAND AND FREEDOM, INDIGENOUS LIBERATION

COLONIALISM AND ITS ACCOMPLICES: A CRITICAL HISTORY OF THE COLONIZATION OF TURTLE ISLAND

THURSDAY 11 A.M. SHATNER BUILDING MADELEINE PARENT ROOM

FRIDAY 11 A.M. SHATNER BUILDING MADELEINE PARENT ROOM

FRIDAY 2 P.M. SHATNER BUILDING ROOM B-29

RACE @ MCGILL: FILM SCREENING AND DISCUSSION

WHITE SPACE: A LOOK INTO THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GRAPHIC DESIGN AND SYSTEMS OF OPPRESSION

THURSDAY 2:30 P.M. TO 5:30 P.M. SHATNER BUILDING SSMU BALLROOM

FRIDAY 11 A.M. SHATNER BUILDING ROOM B-29

MMPA

Master of Management & Professional Accounting

.POEBZ /PWFNFCS UI BN o BN 3PPN #SPXO #VJMEJOH .D(JMM 6OJWFSTJUZ 5IVSTEBZ +BOVBSZ UI QN o QN 3PPN #SPXO #VJMEJOH .D(JMM 6OJWFSTJUZ

mmpa.utoronto.ca

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Ask, listen, respect Even after #ConsentMcGill, we need to keep talking about consent Kharoll-Ann Souffrant Commentary Writer

B

etween October 20 and 24, McGill, in partnership with students, faculty, and staff, launched its first sexual consent campaign, titled #ConsentMcGill.

The goal of the event was to raise awareness of the concept of consent both in sexual activity and in everyday life through workshops, information booths, film screenings, and panel discussions. The campaign pushed three basic components of consent: ask, listen, respect. You ask someone before doing something and make sure they are okay with it; you listen to the person’s answers and to how they’re feeling; and most importantly, you respect their decision.

Crucially, consent is dynamic – you can remove it at any time and at any place, even within a romantic relationship. That this is still not widely understood means that it’s vital to keep talking about consent.

People need to know that they have a right to remove themselves from uncomfortable situations, and that they don’t owe anything to anyone.

The damage done by sexual assault and a culture that harms survivors is a matter that affects everyone.

This is why initiatives like #ConsentMcGill – which aim to reach out to everyone – are needed.

According to the Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services, “Sexual assault is an act that is sexual in nature, with or without physical contact, committed by an individual without the consent of the survivor in some cases through emotional manipulation or black-

mail, especially when children are involved. It is an act that subjects another person to the perpetrator’s desires through an abuse of power and/or the use of force or coercion, accompanied by implicit or explicit threats.” Though the type of attack that this definition captures might seem rare, it’s actually extremely common. People are sexually assaulted all the time. However, Regroupement québécois des Centres d’aide et de lutte contre les agressions à caractère sexuel (CALACS), a feminist organization that aims to “produce tools against sexual violence,” states that fewer than one in ten women report sexual assault, making the crime one of the most underreported in Canada.

There are many reasons for this. For a start, our society constructs a host of damaging myths and false conceptions about sexual assault. These myths include a general belief that survivors ‘asked for it’ by dressing a certain way, or that perpetrators of sexual assault all suffer from mental health issues and cannot control themselves. In fact, according to the West Island CALACS, most sexual assaults are premeditated and require a certain amount of preparation. On top of that, the aggressors are very often people who conform to social standards in every other circumstance, people that you would never guess would commit sexual assault. With the prominence of such assumptions, it comes as no surprise that many survivors don’t report sexual assault: they’re unlikely to open up about their experience for fear of being judged and ignored.

Another damaging thing you hear sometimes is that survivors should fully understand what happened to them, and should have simply gone to the police straight away instead of waiting for years until talking about an assault. These conversations always turn to what the survivor should or shouldn’t have done, implying that the survivor is to blame. Meanwhile, perpetrators are rarely burdened with the same responsibility, and they are rarely held accountable for their actions. We live in a culture of misplaced blame: it is the responsibility of people to respect the wishes of someone if they do not give consent, either verbally or non-verbally. Unless everyone understands consent, not much will change.

Sexual assault is always the fault of the perpetrator; it’s important to

Jonathan Reid | Illustrator make this clear. If, as a society, we don’t understand this from the getgo, survivors will obviously never start reporting the crime for which they are collectively blamed. To overcome this, we need to begin educating people about consent. This is both a proactive and preventive measure – it aims to solve one of the root causes of sexual assault, as well as focus on after-the-fact cures.

What’s more, there are countless, extremely damaging consequences to being the survivor of sexual assault. Sexual assault can lead to depression, anxiety, eating disorders, a lack of self-confidence, feelings of shame, hypersexualization, and a fear of sex and relationships. #ConsentMcGill is an important first step in challenging a culture that allows sexual assault to occur. Much more needs to be done to change this culture, but it’s a good thing that, at least, the very minimum is being done at McGill.

If people do not know whether they have experienced sexual assault, or how to act if they do expe-

rience it, it’s important to note that there are many resources that exist outside of #ConsentMcGill that can provide support and information for all people who have experienced sexual assault. Examples of non-campus organizations are CALACS; Centre de Ressources et d’Intervention pour Hommes Abusés Sexuellement dans leur Enfance (CRIPHASE), an organization that works with men who were assaulted during their childhood; and the Montreal Sexual Assault Centre, which offers support services to all survivors of sexual assault. The Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society (SACOMSS) provides similar services on campus. In view of the problem, #ConsentMcGill is an important initiative, but the the problematic victim-blaming and rape culture it tries to tackle should not be limited to the school setting. The problem is social, and ultimately #ConsentMcGill was an opportunity to discuss how to begin solving it, not just with people we know on campus, but with society

as a whole.

The damage done by sexual assault and a culture that harms survivors is a matter that affects everyone. This is why initiatives like #ConsentMcGill – which aim to reach out to everyone – are needed.

Campaign volunteers opened up the conversation to everyone on campus, without seeking to impose set ways of thinking on anyone. Rather, the conversation was anchored around the important fact that sexual relations are a two-way street, something to be shared consensually. For them to be truly devoid of harm, certain conditions have to be met: proper communication, listening, and most of all, respect. For this to succeed, we need to keep talking about consent. * Part of this article has been translated from French.

Kharoll-Ann Souffrant is a U1 Social Work student, and former #ConsentMcGill volunteer. To contact her, please email kharoll-ann. souffrant@mail.mcgill.ca.

Commentary

November 3, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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Organizing against free speech “No” campaign silenced student voices at the SSMU GA

Students listening to the debate at the GA in the SSMU ballroom.

Nadir Khan Commentary Writer

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s students consoled each other, exchanged looks of utter disbelief, and even wiped away tears, I left the SSMU General Assembly (GA) last week asking myself if what had occurred was fair. Was it fair that an organized movement successfully suppressed the right to free speech so fundamental to a university campus? Was it fair that the voices of students could be silenced because they were deemed undesirable? It was not fair. What transpired at the SSMU GA on October 22 represents a flagrant violation of freedom of speech and is an assault to democracy on campus.

It is telling that the “no” campaign never even remotely intended to debate the motion calling on SSMU to stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine. Under the guise of “Don’t Divide McGill,” students were encouraged – even told – to keep their mouths firmly shut. The “no” campaign assumed that university-educated students could not be expected to vigorously debate a sensitive and pressing subject in a civilized way. Fearing the sensibilities that would be of-

fended by mere discussion of the topic, appeals to suppress freedom of expression rang out merrily across campus.

It is hard to imagine a campaign that is more degrading to McGill students. But the beauty of freedom of expression is that it protects the spread of all ideas, save for those that promote violence or hatred. Despite the absurdity and deceitfulness of their claims, the “no” campaign and all students opposed to the motion fully deserved the freedom to express themselves as they saw fit. At the GA, however, those finding themselves on the ‘wrong’ side of the motion were denied that same right.

The very purpose of the GA is to give all students a voice. The decision to indefinitely postpone the motion denied them exactly that. Students who sought to put forward arguments for and against the motion were denied. Curious students who came to hear different viewpoints were denied. This denial occurred simply because the question at hand was deemed by some to be too ‘touchy’ or ‘divisive.’

It is clear that based on the support for the “no” side, the motion would not have been adopted regardless. Defeating the motion

on its merits was not the purpose of those who sought to impose their will to silence the minority.

The purpose was to send a message: there is a line that is not to be crossed. Students should not even attempt to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. You just shouldn’t. We will strip you of your rights to speak and express yourself, if that’s what it takes. We will stop at nothing to silence all dissenting voices. That message was sent loud and clear.

Regardless, in a time where political leaders fail us, it is the duty of youth to stand up and unleash their diverse voices for all to hear – particularly when it concerns the state of an oppressed people. Yet as some brave students stood humbly with their motion in hand and voices at the ready, the crushing weight of censorship struck a blow to their right to expression. They were muzzled simply because they had views that didn’t align with the prevailing tide of public opinion on campus. They were denied the opportunity to speak because they dared to make their views public and attempted to debate them in an official way. The small faction of students who orches-

Tamim Sujat | The McGill Daily trated this deliberate violation of freedom of expression, as well as every single individual who voted in favour of postponement, have degraded this freedom’s value on campus. They have demonstrated their contempt for opposing ideas and their cowardice toward debate. Their actions are an embarrassment to the values a university should espouse.

Indeed, the act of silencing a dissenting minority also runs afoul of the principles that the Supreme Court of Canada has enshrined in our constitutional law.

In R v. Keegstra, a seminal freedom of speech case in Canada, the court explained, “Attempts to confine the guarantee of free expression only to content which is judged to possess redeeming value or to accord with the accepted values strike at the very essence of the value of the freedom. [...] If the guarantee of free expression is to be meaningful, it must protect expression which challenges even the very basic conceptions about our society.”

There will no doubt be people who scoff at this and suggest that the rules of order for the GA formed a sound basis for indefinite postponement. They are

wrong. We as a student body have no obligation to blindly follow rules that undermine our freedom of expression. Indeed, as the great Martin Luther King once said from the dark shadows of a Birmingham jail, “An unjust law is no law at all.”

The act of indefinitely postponing the motion in question was a grave and most reprehensible violation of the freedom of expression of students at the GA. It insulted the very premise of democracy on campus. I, along with many other students on campus, refuse to accept this. I refuse to be silenced for views that I am legitimately entitled to hold and express. I refuse to be told to sit down, shut up, and go home, because someone disagrees with my ideas. However, in the wake of the GA, many students are left with nothing but the deafening sound of silence. In the meantime, I ask students to have faith. For the celebrated King also told us that “no lie can live forever” because “truth crushed to earth, will rise again.”

Nadir Khan is a U3 Political Science with a minor in History.

To contact him, please email nadir. khan2@mail.mcgill.ca.

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Commentary

November 3, 2014 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com

Letters

Submit your own: letters@mcgilldaily.com

Free speech is dead, long live free speech McGill Students in Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) recently published a meandering and verbose letter calling the decision to postpone a blatantly anti-Israel motion indefinitely at the SSMU General Assembly (GA) ‘disgraceful.’ Such a characterization rests on platitudes and false premises, and is insulting to

Space law and protest Yesterday, a dozen members of Demilitarize McGill burst into the lecture hall of the Strategic Space Law Program, hosted by the McGill Institute of Air and Space Law (IASL). Their unruly behaviour, profanities, and rude slogans were militant and did nothing more than to undermine their cause and message.

the majority of voting students.

SPHR claims that its voice was silenced. How four hours of agonizing debate, during which time anyone who wished to speak could do so, followed by a vote in which all present participated, constitutes an unfair silencing, remains to be explained.

A spectacle like the GA, particularly one as poorly organized as last week’s, is a not the appropriate forum for engaging in a productive discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There are other and better fora, which SPHR and its allies exploit;

witness the letters to, and the editorials of, The Daily, a publication the banality and lousiness of which makes The Onion look like a paragon of journalistic rectitude and excellence.

The argument that SPHR sought only to promote a reasoned debate is absurd. The failure of the resolution to condemn – or even mention – the genocidal Hamas terrorist group for its campaign of terror and war crimes against Israeli civilians, and its crimes against the people of Gaza, and its focus only on Israel’s alleged sins, reveals the motion’s one-sidedness. This was

an attempt to demonize the world’s only Jewish state for defending itself.

We all support freedom of speech, but what SPHR fails to appreciate is that freedom of speech includes the freedom to avoid having one’s voice hijacked by a bunch of radical agitators. SPHR writes that it believes it is its “duty [to] not dictate opinions to others on this issue,” which is exactly why it should support the wise and democratic decision of the GA, instead of continuing to attack it.

Members of Demilitarize McGill were invited to attend the sessions and see for themselves what the Institute actually does. That goodwill was met with heckling and swearing by people who hid their faces behind the large black banner. If they had such conviction in their beliefs, why must they hide their faces like those extremists bent on death and destruction who appear on TV with masked faces? And the greatest irony of

all? They interrupted one of many invited speakers who underlined how space law and international treaties must always be interpreted in light of references to using space for peaceful purposes.

This is not the first time Demilitarize McGill has tried to discredit the Institute and misinform the public about the Institute’s mission.

They have repeatedly fabricated baseless and absurd accusations that the “military-industrial complex” is

funding and dictating activities and research conducted by the IASL. If anything, the Institute’s objective is to educate the public, officials, military personnel, and students about the importance of law in constraining military power and preventing the dominance of any one state in outer space. Outer space is a common heritage of humankind, and its use and exploration must be for the benefit of humanity.

Calls for dialogue were met with

I don’t believe that the motion to postpone indefinitely had anything to do with wanting to avoid dividing McGill or keeping SSMU apolitical. One only has to look at the mass exodus that occurred after one motion passed to see that the “no” campaign only cared about keeping SSMU out of one issue they felt shouldn’t be discussed.

It was a cynical move and I would have expected better from McGill.

– Ian Rodgers, U1 Cultural Studies

– Michael A. Schwartz, U1 Law swearing. Requests to sit down, listen, and discuss were met with rhetoric about space colonialism and imperialism. Higher education is supposed to open minds and let academic discussions flourish in a respectful way. Instead, they embarrassed themselves and the university, and then quickly fled as police approached.

– David Kuan-Wei Chen, Institute of Air and Space Law

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Features

November 3, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Getting acquainted with

POLYAMORY WRITTEN BY JASMINE LEE ILLUSTRATIONS BY ALICE SHEN

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Features

November 3, 2014 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com

didn’t quite know how to feel when I unintentionally found myself at one end of a polyamorous relationship. I was startled, to say the least, although I did not quite understand why. Don’t get me wrong, I have, for a long time, firmly believed that loving, consensual relationships of any shape or form should be accepted and welcomed in society. But at the same time, it was an unexpected surprise to be told by someone I had just started seeing that he had a girlfriend. Amidst my confusion, I felt the need to tell a few friends about how I was now involved in a polyamorous relationship. For the most part, the responses were neutral, if not supportive. But one of my friend’s responses in particular stood out from the rest.

“That’s messed up,” my friend said abruptly, after sharing my experience with him.

“Not when there is consent on all ends of the relationship,” I argued.

“Nah, it’s still messed up.”

My friend’s strong reaction to polyamory – or more crucially, his reaction to a so-called deviant relationship form – spoke to a broader issue of how some forms of love and relationship structures are valued more and seen as more legitimate in society at-large. It left me wondering where does this stigma come from, and why are so many people in our society averse to the idea of polyamory?

Monogamy dominates the representation of relationships in media. People who partake in more than one committed relationship at once are largely nonexistent in mainstream media. This has not only resulted in the absence of the term “polyamory” amongst common knowledge, but it has also worked to spread misinformation among those who have heard of it, of what it truly means in practice.

In order to clear up these misconceptions, and to learn more about polyamory, I interviewed three people who identify as polyamorous: Jocelyn Beaudet, a student at Concordia University, and Jane*, a student in U1 at McGill, studying linguistics and Sexual Diversity Studies. Each person I spoke

with helped me clear up misconceptions of polyamory that run rampant in our society. They shared their experiences of polyamorous relationships, and the difficulties they’ve encountered in a society where monogamy is understood as the only natural way that intimate relationships should form.

Why polyamory?

Much of the misunderstanding surrounding polyamory seems to stem from not knowing the actual definition. According to the best-selling novel The Ethical Slut, by Dossie Easton and Janet W. Hardy, polyamory is “being openly loving, intimate, and sexual with many people.” Jocelyn’s working definition of polyamory also resonated with me, where he described it as “the foundation of ethical non-monogamy where you have defined relationships with more than one person at the same time. By relationship I mean full-time, accessible, functional relationships that are both emotional and physical.”

People engage in polyamorous relationships for different reasons. In Jocelyn’s case, monogamy just doesn’t feel right. “It’s not necessarily because of neediness, or as the comments go to say, you’re just not happy with this person.

It’s just this void of emotions that one person cannot realistically fulfill.”

By this “void”, he is referring to the emptiness felt when there are hobbies he wants to share with his partner, that are not of interest to them. “The gap that exists [...] is so wide [that] even if you love someone in their entirety and they love you back, there’s still that feeling [that occurs] when you’re single and you wish you were with someone.”

When I asked Jane why she chose to be polyamorous, she answered simply, “Freedom.”

“It’s not about [dating multiple people], it’s about being allowed to. I don’t want anyone to tell me what to do with my body, and [vice versa]. I don’t want to tell anyone who to love or who to be with. I think they’re allowed to be whatever they want.”

The idea of polyamory, and forming intimate relationships with multiple people, goes directly against the normalized monogamous narrative we’re so often bombarded with in mainstream media and day-to-day interactions. Women are particularly subject to the policing of their behaviour, bodies, and relationships. If a woman engages in multiple relationships – as a polyamorous woman would – she’s subject to being pitted as a ‘easy’ or a ‘slut.’ The motive behind this type of policing is incredibly insidious and deeply embedded in our society. The omnipresent promotion of monogamy as the be-all-end-all of relationships is in directly relationed to promoting the livelihood of the patriarchal capitalist state. As such, polyamorous people often face accusations that aim to villainize their relationship practice in opposition to ‘healthy’ and ‘normal’ monogamous relationships. These accusations of polyamorous people being cheaters, and unfaithful to their primary partners, of being ‘greedy’ in terms of sex and desire for intimacy, or to being in multiple relationships purely for intercourse, need to be put out of their misery.

Polyamory is not cheating Upon asking Jane what one of the most common misunderstandings of polyamory is, she said that many people think that it is cheating. In Jane’s words, polyamory is “making sure that every partner in the relationship is aware of what’s happening.” Therefore, cheating has nothing to do with it.

Unfortunately, many people who are introduced to polyamory have trouble wrapping their minds around this concept. Whenever Jane shares her relationship issues with friends, “the one thing that comes back [even] if it has nothing to do with the issue [is that I] ‘slept with other people’ [...] and that’s what made things go bad in the relationship.”

When discussing this topic with Rachel Costin, a university student in Toronto, she excellently explained it by saying that “cheating is going outside the boundaries set by you and your partners, [and] because seeing other people is outside

Features

the boundaries of a standard relationship, people automatically assume that it is cheating.” Those who think polyamory is cheating don’t understand that with a different type of relationship comes different rules and standards, and that the rules of monogamy do not apply to all relationships.

Polyamory is not about greed Another common misconception about polyamory is that it is a greedy and selfish practice, as it is supposedly “taking more people out of the dating pool” as Jocelyn told me.

Jocelyn finds this idea to be ironic. “Monogamy is claiming someone as my girlfriend, my boyfriend, my partner.” Monogamy’s usage of possessive adjectives, along with utter refusal to create loving relationships with more than one person, has if anything, a closer resemblance to greed than polyamory.

Jane also made a couple of interesting comparisons herself. “If I work in one cafe, and I work in another one, that doesn’t mean I don’t do my job well in the other one, and it doesn’t mean that I don’t like working in the second one or the first one. It just means that I work at two cafes. If I have two best friends, it doesn’t mean that I love one more than the other, it just means that I love them differently.”

People who take up more than one job are never accused of wanting more money, nor are people who have more than one really close friend accused of being greedy for more love and friendships. If this is so, why are polyamorous people still accused of being selfish for desiring love from more than one relationship?

Advice for polycurious monogamists As someone who unexpectedly found herself in a polyamorous relationship, I constantly thought about whether or not I would be able to continue in a long-term polyamorous relationship. Growing up with the expectation that I would only be in monogamous relationships, I was unpre-

November 3, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

pared for something so strange and new. I didn’t know if I could ever feel comfortable knowing that I was not the only significant person in a partner’s life. I also questioned whether it was worth facing the disapproval of my friends were they to ever find out the kind of relationship I was in.

Upon asking Jocelyn how people like me could give polyamory a shot, he recommended being honest to the people you intend to be with. Both Jocelyn and Jane agreed that as bad as it sounds, it is difficult to discuss openly about polyamory with friends, and in some cases, it might be better to withhold some information until you’re more comfortable with it yourself. Jocelyn said “[telling friends] what it’s about, why you’re doing it, and why you feel that way” can greatly help when sharing the details of your love life.

One other strategy that he said worked particularly well was taking both his partners and his friends for a night out.

It was effective because his friends got the chance to see that there was no jealousy amongst Jocelyn and his significant others, and that perhaps polyamory is not so bad after all.

Polyamory at McGill Talking to Jane, I asked her what it was like to be a polyamorous a student at McGill. Although there are many university initiatives that strive for safer space, Jane is still both directly and indirectly subject to judgement by both teachers and students. How accepted she feels in the McGill community depends on the person, program, or class being dealt with.

Some people are “totally understanding of [polyamory, while] there are others who just did not understand the concept. They only saw it as cheating.”

In regards to her experiences in class, she has sometimes felt marginalized as a polyamorous woman. “In Sexual Diversity Studies, [polyamory] is acceptable, but when you go outside of these things, the professors and TAs don’t acknowledge this kind of relationship.”

Jane told me an example of this tension, where her his-

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tory professor told a joke about a roommate who maybe had a new sexual partner. In the end of the story, Jane felt it reasserted the norm that everyone should only have one partner. The prof had meant no harm, but the joke still left Jane feeling like the butt end of a bad laugh, and uncomfortable with her sexual identity.

If this situation were to happen in a group of friends at McGill or in a Sexual Diversity Studies class, she would not have been afraid to call someone out on their joke. But in a history class, she did not feel that calling it out would be either relevant or well received. Jane told me she wouldn’t have the support of other classmates that she would have in a class related to gender, or sexual diversity.

To make McGill a safer space for polyamorous people and people who practice other forms of non-normative relationships in more than just a select number of classes, Jane agrees that the students and staff should be educated on the topic.

She thinks that most people “would just dismiss it, but it’s very important to make people aware of polyamory’s existence.” By teaching others about polyamory, more people would identify with this sexuality, since the term is rather unknown among the public. Besides the occasional judgement she has experienced at McGill, overall Jane finds that it is definitely better here than some other places in Quebec, where she has met people who are very strongly opposed to polyamory. Even so, McGill still has a way to go before becoming the welcoming space to alternative forms of relationships.

Polyamory is not about leading a promiscuous lifestyle, nor is it some innate greed for more love and attention. As in most monogamous relationships, polyamory is not just about receiving love. As Jocelyn put it, “It’s more about giving. We have so much love to give that only one person could not possibly be the target of all of it.” This idea of purity in our romantic and sexual lives that has been ingrained into our culture makes it harder for non-monogamous relationships to openly thrive.

Sci+Tech

November 3, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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On the brain and mental health The quest to understand mental illness Fernanda Pérez Gay Juárez Sci+Tech Writer

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t is astounding how, despite the millions of dollars and the many years dedicated to brain research, studies of psychiatric and neurological diseases are still far behind the advances of other medical fields.

On October 23, at the Jeanne Timmins Amphitheatre of the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI), a group of leading scientists got together as part of a discussion panel on the brain and mental health.

The three featured speakers were brought together by the Ludmer Centre for Neuroinformatics and Mental Health in a multidisciplinary effort to approach the complex issue of mental illness research. Alan Evans is a researcher at the MNI, while Michael Meaney is the associate director of the Douglas Mental Health University Institute. Celia Greenwood is a senior scientist at the Lady Davis Institute of the Jewish General Hospital and is also an associate professor at McGill of Oncology, Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Occupational Health, and Human Genetics.

At the Ludmer Centre these three researchers combine their efforts, seeking to put all the data from their different disciplines together, and from these efforts, draw

This event inspired hope that, as the panelists claim, we are one step closer to building effective interventions in mental health that stem from quality research and interinstitutional collaboration. sensible conclusions on mental health research. Through this platform and collaboration, they intend to build a bridge between biological science and intervention programs.

Nadia Boachie | The McGill Daily During the event, Rémi Quirion, Quebec’s Chief Scientist, posed three core questions on the brain and mental health to the panelists.

The first question was why, despite all the efforts, advances in neuroscience and mental illness research seem so far behind those in cancer and cardiovascular disease. Evans responded by saying that the most fundamental reason is that mental illnesses arise from brain function disorganization. Unlike tangible, focal neurological diseases, such as a brain tumour or a stroke, the irregular and disturbed brain activity that generates abnormal behavior is not easy to grasp or classify in identifiable patterns.

“Up until recently, we didn’t have tools to catch up to the connectivity and organization of the entire brain as it changes through life. We didn’t have the technology to observe that activity nor to analyze the data. In the last twenty years everything has changed,” Evans said.

Greenwood believes there has been little progress because brain activity has been very challenging to measure. However, she agrees with the fact that this is begin-

ning to change due to the development of more advanced technology.

Nowadays, through a plethora of computational tools, scientists are beginning to figure out what’s going on in the brain.

The next question touched the issue of stigma; to respond, Meaney spoke of how, because of the fact that there was no measurable alteration in the electrical brain activity of psychiatric patients, mental illness was considered spiritual weakness or even demonic possession in the past.

Psychiatric problems have always gone together with fear. “I think the problem is that we fear the behaviour of psychiatric patients. We don’t fear cancer patients, we don’t fear diabetes, but we fear mental illness nonetheless,” said Meaney.

The hope is that, with the new advances that identify mental disease as “a tangible consequence of brain function,” this stigma can be slowly eliminated and thus introduce a paradigm shift.

Greenwood also spoke about another situation that adds difficulty to the diagnosis of this type of problem: mental illness as a continuum, or the idea that that

mental illness doesn’t work in terms of the presence or absence of a disease, but is rather a range of different brain activity that may become non-functional after a certain point. The boundary between mental health and mental illness is a blurry one. We deal with multifactorial situations in which genes, behaviour and experience shape each individual’s profile. The panelists insist through better clinics and more technological advances, a personalized medicine with customized information may help us to overcome these challenges.

Finally, the discussion panel spoke about the contribution of McGill to mental health research.

Meaney pointed out, there is a sense of tradition at McGill around the study of the brain. In 1949, professor Donald Hebb came to understand the brain as the seat of behaviour, cognition, and emotion, and as a function of genetic and and environmental influences, becoming the father of modern neuroscience.

Ever since, there has been a strong drive in Montreal and throughout all of Quebec to pursue research in psychology, neuroscience, and psychiatry. Renowned Montreal-based

neuroscientists like Brenda Milner – who was actually present at the conference – and Wilder Penfield also come to mind as leaders in their field.

This event inspired hope that, as these panelists claim, we are one step closer to building effective interventions in mental health that stem from quality research and inter-institutional collaboration.

Although mental health is one of the biggest challenges currently facing medical research, if scientists succeeded in assembling the data that new technologies give us and the clinical assessments – linking genes, brain imaging and behaviour patterns – we can find direct treatments to develop personalized medicine and customized interventions for individuals who suffer from life-changing conditions such as Alzheimer’s.

The reason why the Ludmer Foundation began the whole project of the Centre of Neuroinformatics was to try to speed up this process. We can only hope that scientists continue their research on mental health and advance the field; as Meaney said, “there’s no health without mental health.”

Sci+Tech

November 3, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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The new seven-hour-long MCAT An uphill battle for aspiring med students Rackeb Tesfaye Sci+Tech Writer

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etting into medical school has never been an easy process, but it’s about to get a little harder. As of April 2015, the standardized test used for medical school admission – the MCAT– will be over two hours longer and will include more critical thinking questions, and new material such as psychology, sociology, biochemistry, statistics, and research design.

This will be the first major change to the MCAT approved by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) in more than twenty years. But why now?

The AAMC believes that aspiring doctors not only need a solid understanding of the natural sciences, but also a social understanding of medicine, in order to keep up with the rapidly changing healthcare system.

The new MCAT is a test of endurance, lasting seven and a half hours (with optional ten minute breaks between sections and a possible lunch break), and requiring students to extend their knowledge of core courses. The great unknowns that come with such major restructuring have many potential applicants feeling nervous. This has some students rushing to take the current MCAT (available until January 2015), which is a transitional exam and does not have a writing section, making it shorter and more familiar.

“[The MCAT] is a very expensive endeavour and I worry that it deters or prevents some very good MD candidates from pursuing medical school.”

Heather Nichol, Masters student A student’s perspective Heather Nichol is a second-year Masters student at McGill. Nichol recently wrote the current transition test; she believes the topics on the new MCAT are “relevant to the study and practice of medicine, but

Elena Lin | Illustrator I also feel that a six-hour test is too long. […] Probably not something that I could have handled while also working towards a Masters full time. So I’m definitely glad I wrote the transition test.”

Owen Farcy, Kaplan Test Prep’s director of pre-health programs and the MCAT 2015, told The Daily that “students have the option to take the current version of the exam but the window is closing quickly. [...] Most of the dates in January have already been sold out.” Understanding that many students, with an already busy course load, are worried about the new concepts and the daunting length, Farcy suggests that “if [students] can, the current version is a simpler test, [and it’s] in their best interest to take [it].”

However, “many people agree that these changes are in a positive direction and will better prepare students for medical school,” Farcy says optimistically. Farcy points out that instead of just regurgitating information, the 2015 MCAT will force students to rely on their ability to connect concepts by emphasizing that medicine is as much about knowing your patients as it is about knowing the human body.

Additionally, Farcy adds that the length of the test, although not ideal, will allow the AAMC to collect more data, allowing the test to carry more validity.

What universities think Kaplan recently surveyed 78

medical schools – it found that 44 per cent of schools had no preference for which MCAT version students take, while 28 per cent recommended the current exam and 27 per cent of medical schools advised participants to hold out for the new version. So at this moment, there really is no consensus.

Another unknown is how medical schools will actually use the new data to interpret and compare applicants, or if certain elements will be assigned more value than others.

Although McGill accepts MCAT scores, it does not require the test for admission into their medical program, a decision that was made to eliminate the barrier for francophone candidates in 2010, as the MCAT is not offered in French.

“We want anyone who is able to, to feel free and apply to the program and show us their stuff,” says Saleem Razack, Assistant Dean of Admissions, Equity and Diversity at McGill’s Faculty of Medicine.

Razack believes eliminating the MCAT hasn’t hindered admission but has positively contributed to finding strong students for the program from a wider pool of applicants – “the proof is in the pudding,” he says confidently. Razack explained that the department has worked internally to design a process that looks at a candidate as a whole person, as part of a holistic assessment. They are not only looking for candidates with good academic performance (which they have seen increase since 2010), but

also “looking at how someone negotiates the social world.”

Razack emphasizes the changes to the MCAT are “very much in line with where medical education is going in Canada and what we have done internally at McGill,” especially emphasizing the need for applicants’ knowledge about the sociocultural determinants of health.

Ultimately, Razack says cautiously, “I can only speak on behalf of my own context, it definitely is possible to select excellent doctors in other ways […] not everybody needs to have the MCAT.” The socioeconomic barriers It has been argued for years that the MCAT contributes to a flawed system that mainly benefits the privileged, and does not necessarily act as an accurate indicator of who is a ‘good doctor.’ Many have called for the removal of the MCAT, so admissions can put less of an emphasis on academics, and take a more holistic look at their candidates, which would even the playing field — an approach the McGill Faculty of Medicine has already taken.

Nichol, commenting on her experience with the MCAT, adds, “I feel the biggest flaw is the expense associated with writing the MCAT. The test alone is $275 [USD] and then you add prep books, practice tests, maybe a course, and likely also travel or hotel costs to get to a testing centre. It is a very expensive endeavour and I worry that it

deters or prevents some very good MD candidates from pursuing medical school.”

The socioeconomic barriers of getting into medical school are a harsh reality for many applicants.

Even after MCAT prep courses, which range from $1,899 to $11,999 at Kaplan, students still have to pay for the MCAT itself, which costs $275, in addition to program application fees. It’s a continuous uphill battle that doesn’t stop, even after getting into medical school. Even though the new MCAT aims to be more holistic, it still excludes candidates who cannot afford the costs of preparing for and taking the exam.

A little incentive With these new changes to the exam, the debate between whether or not we need the MCAT, especially here in Canada, will still continue and so will the barriers that come with the exam. Alas, future med students have little choice: the MCAT isn’t going anywhere, and so the rush for hundreds of eager applicants to get ahead of these new changes are in full swing.

Although many believe that the changes to the 2015 MCAT are positive, we won’t know anything for certain before the first round of students take the test this spring.

As an incentive to take the new MCAT the first batch of students are being offered a $150 Amazon gift card. Afterall, they will be the guinea pigs, a frightening prospect for many.

Sports

November 3, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

18

University coaches are overpaid Six figures for six yards

Jasmine Wang | The McGill Daily Madison Smith Sports Writer

C

ollege sports in the U.S are big business. In 2013, the University of Texas, which has the top-earning American athletics department, earned an astounding $165,691,486 in revenue.

It is not alone in its prosperity.

In fact, 13 university sports programs made over $100 million in 2013. The salaries of the coaches of big-ticket college football teams reflect the money flooding these programs, with former Texas Longhorns coach Mack Brown’s 2013 compensation of $5,453,750 only good enough to get him the number two spot on the list of highest paid coaches, falling just short of Alabama coach Nick Saban’s $5,545,852. According to Deadspin, a football coach is the highest-paid public employee in 27 U.S. states. In an additional 13 states, the highest-paid is a college basketball coach.

While some may argue that these very high salaries are commensurate with the amount of money college sports bring in, data from ESPN reveals that even at schools like Texas and Alabama, which generate millions of dollars of revenue, most, if not all of the money generated, ends up being cycled back into the football program, giving the universities themselves little to no financial benefit. In fact, especially when one accounts for the student fees and university subsidies paid to the teams at many schools, even high-revenue teams end up losing money for their universities.

For example, the second-highestearning athletics department, Wisconsin, would have operated at a loss of well over $1 million dollars had the school not given them a subsidy of approximately $7 million, despite earning close to $150 million in revenue. Wisconsin pays its coaching staff over $15 million.

With the amount of cash that big American athletics programs bring in from media deals, ticket sales, and merchandising, it is inexcusable for any of them to rely on funds from universities to break even. Given that states all across America are cutting funding to public education, leading to tuition increases and budget cuts at state universities, the big-name athletics departments should start sharing their wealth with the schools they represent. One easy way for them to generate a surplus to give back to their universities would be to cut coaches’ pay to be more proportional with that of other public sector workers.

Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, earns an annual salary of $133,000, which is less than 5 per cent of the University of Texas football coach’s earnings, Alabama’s governor has pledged to not take a salary until his state’s unemployment rate goes down to 5.2 per cent.

Some might argue that the

fierce competition to bring in the best coaching talent necessitates the high salaries, but that argument doesn’t really hold water upon closer examination. After all, many talented people wish to be governors of states, despite the relatively low compensation, because of the power and prestige of the office. If university athletics departments agreed on a salary cap for coaches, they would not suddenly have a hard time finding high-quality applicants. Division 1 football and basketball coaches are some of the most revered and powerful figures in sports, and droves of people would be happy to do the job for free. After looking at the listings of public employee salaries in Ontario and British Columbia, the football coaches at Canadian universities with big athletics programs are paid in the $100,000 to $200,000 range, and Canadian universities seem to have no trouble filling their coaching positions with

high quality talent. Does $5 million get you 25 times the coach that $200,000 does?

Much like hosting an Olympics or a World Cup, having a nationally-ranked athletics department seems to provide little benefit other than prestige and publicity. Ultimately, the amount of money paid to coaches, and the amount in American college sports in general, is troubling because it seems to go against the purpose of universities. Universities are supposed to be “institutes of higher learning,” and the focus in many big public universities on athletics over academics robs students of a higher quality education. While being a football bowl contender or a basketball powerhouse may be exciting in the moment, one wonders if the students of big sports universities will look back at their time in school and wish they had a cheaper, better education instead of a trophy sitting in some case.

Sports

November 3, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

19

SCOREBOARD REDMEN Men’s Lacrosse

30 11 4 Č› 01 ) 6,Ć›Čœ

Men’s Ice Hockey at Laurentian

Men’s Basketball

W 13 - 4 at Ryerson at York W 3-2

Men’s Baseball

30 ,+1/" ) Č› 1&,+ ) % *-&,+0%&-Čœ 30 ,+1/" ) Č› "*&Ćœ+ )Čœ

Men’s Rugby

vs Sherbrooke

Men’s Soccer at UQAM

L 64 - 69 W 83 - 60

MARTLETS

Women’s Soccer at UQAM

T0-0

L 2-9 W 2 - 0 Women’s Hockey at Ottawa

W 4-3

W 29 - 12 Women’s Volleyball at Saint Mary’s at Acadia L 0 - 2 at Dalhousie

W 3-0 W 3-0 W 3-0

UPCOMING GAMES Martlets 11/06 – Soccer, TBA 11/07 – Soccer, TBA 11/07 – Volleyball, vs Laval* 11/07 – Ice Hockey, vs Concordia* 11/14 – Ice Hockey, vs Carleton

Çž Č› % /),11"1,4+Çž Čœ Çž Č› % /),11"1,4+Çž Čœ 7 p.m., Love Competition Hall 10:30 a.m., McConnell Arena 7 p.m., McConnell Arena

Redmen Ç–Ç–ČĄÇ•Ç› Č” , "/Çž Č› "*&Ćœ+ )Čœ Ç–Ç–ČĄÇ•Çœ Č” , "/Çž Č› "*&Ćœ+ )Čœ 11/07 – Rugby, at Bishop’s 11/07 – Ice Hockey, at Guelph 11/14 – Ice Hockey, at Windsor Ç–Ç–ČĄÇ–Çš Č” ,,1 ))Çž Č› 2+0*,/" 2- &+ )Čœ Co-ed Ç–Ç–ČĄÇ•Çœ Č” ,4&+$ Č› % *-&,+0%&-0Čœ * home games

write for sports!

Çž Č› % /),11"1,4+Çž Čœ Çž Č› % /),11"1,4+Çž Čœ Çœ -Ç˝*ǽǞ ,2)1"/ &")! Č› "++,53&))"Çž Čœ ÇœÇżÇ˜Ç• -Ç˝*ǽǞ /6-%,+ "+1/" Č› 2")-%Çž Čœ Ç– -Ç˝*ǽǞ ,21% &+!0,/ /"+ Č› &+!0,/Çž Čœ 1 p.m., TBA Ç–Ç— -Ç˝*Ç˝ Č› & 1,/& Çž Čœ

Come to the Sports meeting on Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. in Shatner B-24, or email sports@mcgilldaily.com

Culture

November 3, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

20

From peels to pesto Le Milieu promotes waste reduction with “Dumpster Dining” workshop Audrey Carleton Culture Writer

M

ost culinary artists know how to whip up a great pasta with pesto sauce – but what about pesto made from thrown-out carrot tops? The cafe and skills-sharing co-op Le Milieu featured this recipe and more last week as part of its “Dumpster Dining” workshop. In honour of Quebec’s Waste Reduction Week, the workshop taught its attendees how to cook with seeds, peels, and other fruit and vegetable byproducts that normally go to waste.

Similar workshops promoting food waste reduction were held across the province throughout the week, pulling a less-discussed aspect of food sustainability out of the dump and into the spotlight.

North America’s destructive food system is increasingly attracting attention, from the 2008 documentary film Food, Inc. to the release of the documentary Cowspiracy this year. As more and more people adopt vegan diets, and as eco-friendly cafes pop up across the city, talk of food sustainability has been focusing more on what we eat than how we eat it.

But with the average Canadian household chucking up to half their fridge’s contents in the trash each week, events like this point to the importance of questioning a broader culture of consumption that makes some uncomfortable with the idea of wilting food scraps on their dinner plates.

But these scraps are exactly what I found at the workshop.

The evening’s unusual ingredients were carrot and sweet potato peels, freshly-gutted pumpkin seeds, leafy carrot tops, and apple

remnants – seeds, browning peels, and all. With the ingredients at hand, attendees broke into small teams to cook our dumpster dishes, chopping and chatting in the small cafe.

Rachel Chainey, one of the five founders of Le Milieu, facilitated the workshop. Chainey told me that the co-op “wanted to draw attention to the fact that we can actually make delicious food from food that is otherwise thrown in the trash or the compost.” She explained that often “veggies at the market are not chosen because [...] they don’t look as beautiful as they could, so they just get thrown away. So some of us do dumpster diving to save them.”

Dumpster diving is sorting through dumpsters – often those of restaurants, cafes, and grocery stores – in search of still-usable food items. “There’s an ethic of dumpster diving,” Chainey explained. “You leave the place as clean or cleaner than you find it, because then there will be no reason for stores to lock their dumpster.” Chainey also confirmed that sanitary concerns are valid. “I think if people eat meat and dairy from a dumpster, they have to be really cautious.” For those with a vegan diet, however, there’s less to worry about. “With veggies and bread, there’s not much risk.

Often times [a food item] has been thrown out right away, so it’s not even rotting. […] But even if some parts of it have started to rot, there are some parts that you can save.”

Chainey admitted that with all the guidelines involved, dumpster diving can be very time consuming, and is not an activity to be taken lightly.

For many, dumpster diving is not a lifestyle choice or a questionable fad but a necessity, which makes the unwritten code of diving even more imperative. Le Milieu’s event presented a potential alternative – the ingredients used were recycled scraps from the cafe itself, demonstrating how food conservation can begin by digging through our own kitchen trash.

Between the chopping and the stirring, I also chatted with Kay Noele, a highly involved co-op member, about other food sustainability initiatives at the cafe. “We do a lot of food recovery,” said Noele. “Every Wednesday we get [day-old] bread from the bakery around the corner, and that’s what we serve alongside the soup. […]

We try and make sure that we’re really being conscious in everything that we do.” The co-op, which also acts as an open, affordable art studio for the Montreal community, provides other creative and eco-friendly workshops regularly. You can learn anything from quilting with scrap fabric to fermenting vegetables. “So really what [the co-op] is,” explained Noele, “is just a resilient community space that can be so much more than four walls and a door.

And we often explode right out of the space.”

Several hours and a few dirtied pots later, we all sat munching on our waste-free creations: pesto made from carrot tops, apple sauce made with entire apples, fried sweet potato peel chips, and sweet jelly from pumpkin seeds.

The dishes were big hits. I found myself quickly addicted to the carrot top pesto, and I was not alone.

“I honestly didn’t expect it to be this good,” Stephanie O’Hanley,

Kristian Picon | The McGill Daily a longtime Le Milieu supporter, told me as we ate. “I don’t think of [carrot tops] as something that you eat.” Those of us new to radical food conservation echoed O’Hanley’s pleasant surprise. The sweet pumpkin jelly tasted just right on top of the week-old bread saved for the event. “There are a lot of ideas on how to use peels for food or whatever, but you kind of put it on the shelf [and tell yourself ] ‘I’ll try that someday,’” said participant Tara Lachapelle. “Now that I’ve actually done it, it’s so much easier to take it home.”

To Chainey, Le Milieu’s participation in Waste Reduction Week seemed like a no-brainer. “[This event was just one of ] a lot of things [we do] that encourage people to be more independent from the mainstream economy and more in solidarity with each

other, [to] use their hands, and [to] be gentle to the planet.” It’s places like Le Milieu that stand out amongst food initiatives, challenging preconceived boundaries between trash and dinner through simple means. Instead of turning dumpster diving into a frivolous pastime, “Dumpster Dining” encourages each of us to be more aware of how we consume. For university students with potentially limited budgets and limited cooking experience, it can be particularly useful to know how to make the most of our ingredients.

So the next time you go to throw out that old bread, take moment to stop and think – you may be missing out on a great meal.

Visit facebook.com/cooplemilieu to find out more about Le Milieu and its events.

Coming soon at the Phi Centre CINEMA

CONCERTS

Polaris Prize 2014

Th e Space Between Us

SOLD OUT November 5 at 7:30 PM ABCs OF DEATH 2 Horror shorts

November 6 at 7:30 PM THE TRIBE

By Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy with Yana Novikova and Grigoriy Fesenko

November 7 at 7:30 PM WHITE BIRD IN A BLIZZARD

By Gregg Araki with Shailene Woodley and Eva Green

Watch the trailers at phi-centre.com All films are $11.25 (taxes and fees included) unless otherwise indicated.

Programming subject to change without notice. Visit our website for the latest updates.

November 10 at 7:30 PM HARD TO BE A GOD

By Aleksey German with Leonid Yarmolnik

November 4 at 9 PM BROTHER ALI With Bambu and MaLLy $35 advance tickets $40 at the door (taxes and fees included)

Phi Centre—407 Saint-Pierre Street, Old-Montreal—phi-centre.com

November 8 at 8:30 PM TANYA TAGAQ With Doomsquad $21.25 (taxes and fees included)

November 21 at 6 PM DEE The Space Between Us Launch and concert as part of M for Montreal Free

Culture

November 3, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

21

How the media misrepresents a voice of a generation Free Press Libre’s take on Girls and Lena Dunham Graham MacVannel The McGill Daily

“

I think that I may be the voice of my generation –or at least a voice of a generation.”

Lena Dunham will probably be overshadowed by this sentence for the rest of her career. The fact that Hannah Horvath, the main character in Dunham’s Girls, was high on drugs when she made this pronouncement, seems to get lost in the popular discourse that Girls has sparked in the media, online, and around the dinner table. Dunham is hailed as an icon, a maker of media, culture, and style, and a role model for young women. The popular rhetoric around her show ranges from discussion on the everyday abuse that modern women face, to the perpetuation of the negative perceptions of women that Dunham’s work strives to overturn.

Responding to these sexist themes in media representation of Dunham and women in general, Concordia Masters students Chelsea Barnett and Dane Stewart created Free Press Libre, a monthly anti-oppressive art event that addresses “the lack of formal opportunities to respond to the media” concerning different cultural issues. In Free Press Libre’s first event “Girls: The Voice of a Generation(?),” Barnett and Stewart took aim at the media’s portrayal of Dunham’s work, inviting a variety of artists to contribute to the conversation. Through performances, essays, video compilations, and personal narratives, the evening brought a raw outlook on the discourse of Girls that some might say

has been exhausted since it first aired three years ago.

The artists engaged with Dunham’s work and the subject of women in the media in a multitude of ways, their presentations balancing between a focus on individual stories and collective experiences. Gillian Sonin, a Concordia artist, presented a personal perspective, exploring Dunham’s importance to her by recounting a trip to see Dunham speak in Boston. Sonin’s highly engaging narrative mapped out her relationship with Dunham’s depiction of the lives of women that, as she put it, gives her “shivers of recognition” and an incredible “[sense] of consciousness.” As a Masters student focusing on naked performativity, Sonin described how Dunham’s casual use of nudity in Girls allowed her to reflect on the way the world sees women’s bodies and the pain inflicted upon them.

Stewart’s presentation was less about Dunham’s importance as a cultural figure and more about how her cultural figure is the subject of abuse. Through article exerpts, he depicted the jarring framing of Dunham by well-renowned authors in the media and questioned the foundations of their criticisms, pointing out how they are often premised in demoralizing and insulting characterizations of the female body. Laura Bates, on behalf of the Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society (SACOMSS), also addressed sexism in the media’s rhetoric around Dunham, illustrated through a selection of clips.

Building off of Sonin’s use of the autobiographical narrative, but

Free Press Libre’s “Girls: The Voice of a Generation(?).” less directly about Dunham and Girls, the most organic presentations of the evening were a series of “Subway Essays.” Essay readings by Barnett and Dylan Boyko allowed for a moment of reflection on the complex circumstances in which sexual assault often occurs, and the strength of these survivors who carry on – particularly in light of Dunham’s work exposing these abuses for what they are: abuses.

An essay by Boyko on the “silent heroes” surrounding him on public transit demonstrated the beauty and strength in the everyday, explaining that the seemingly innocuous city dwellers are “interesting because they’re unaware of their

Graham MacVannel | The McGill Daily

own importance.”

Although remarked upon but never tackled head-on, numerous artists identified the race and class privilege of women portrayed in Girls as problematic, but ultimately defined this issue as distinct from the value of Dunham’s narrative. This critique of privilege seemed to be bubbling underneath many of the artists’ comments and behind questions from the audience. Solomon McKenzie and Ruby Sniderman featured perhaps the most explicit acknowledgement of the show’s privilege in their satirical skit We should be asking why POCs [people of colour] aren’t getting shows.

However, the evening would have seriously benefited from a more critical approach to the show. A more nuanced lens would have allowed for a far more engaging and open discussion of oppressive discourses not only in media but also in Dunham’s own show.

That said, the nature of the works presented and the depth of narratives told added a refreshing perspective on the misrepresentation of women in Western society that so many cultural critics demonstrate when addressing Girls.

Encouraged by Dunham’s lead, the evening was a show of strength and, most importantly, of women’s voices being clearly heard.

F-Word’s Yarn Bomb and Flying Sreet: launch and performance Rosie’s Pick: F-Word’s Yarn Bomb Student groups in Montreal are putting their knitting needles together for more than just a warm scarf to get through the winter. Students at Université de Montréal, Université de Québec à Montréal, and Concordia have been hosting yarn bomb workshops on their campuses in the hopes of knitting enough yarn to cover the statue of

Québecois strongman Louis Cyr in St. Henri. Next week, McGill’s very own feminist collective, F Word, is hosting its first knitting circle. From experts to beginners, everyone is welcome to spend the day crocheting and knitting with the collective.

The knitting will be an act of bonding, while the yarn bomb itself will serve to tear down a symbol of patriarchy – Cyr was once considered

to be one of the strongest men in the world. For those who don’t want to knit, you can also participate by bringing supplies for others. So get out your yarn and join F Word in redefining the word “spinster.”

Niyousha’s Pick: Flying Sreet: launch and performance Oud player Sam Shalabi and pianist Stefan Christoff invite Mon-

trealers to La Sala Rossa for the launch of their “ongoing musical conversation” that they recorded there last winter. In the duet album Flying Street, the artists put their individual stories of art and activism in two distant cities – Cairo and Montreal – in dialogue with one another. The two political stories interweave in art and in life as their music draws them to-

gether. As far as musical conversations go, this album sounds promising. Stop by the show and take a listen for yourself.

The F Word Yarn Bomb knitting session is Friday November 7 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m on McGill campus.

The Flying Street launch is Thursday November 6 at 10:30 p.m. at La Sala Rossa (4848 St Laurent).

22

Culture

November 3, 2014 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com

In defence of our books McGill and Montreal literary experts speak against the shift to online Sarah Fortin and Margaret Gilligan Culture Writers

W

hen Hermione Granger first smelled ‘Amortentia,’ the love potion which makes people smell the things they find most attractive, she smelled the scent of new parchment. Even in the Muggle world of contemporary Montreal, booklovers will line up to defend the nostalgic scent of print books, old and new. Hermione dwelled in Hogwarts libraries where books were made exclusively of parchment, but for those of us who frequent McGill libraries, the scent of print books is evaporating to make room for the digital medium. The switch from print to digital begs the important question amongst literary enthusiasts – are print books dead?

For McGill students, discussions about the survival of print books are particularly timely in light of recent and ongoing changes in the library system. As library budget cuts put the shift from print to electronic on the fast track, not everyone in the community is convinced that we’re heading in the right direction by digitizing.

When The Daily spoke with

“A lot of this rhetoric of innovation and ‘visionariness’ is just a smokescreen for the times – for austerity measures [at the provincial level] – to make sure that certain people can reap the rewards of a bad economic situation over others.”

Pasha M. Khan, professor at the McGill Institute of Islamic Studies

Tamim Sujat | The McGill Daily Professor Pasha M. Khan of the Institute of the Islamic Studies about this shift, he cautioned strongly against jumping the gun when it comes to relying entirely on digital sources in libraries. “It may even be short-sighted at this point,” he said, adding that “digital is important, of course [...but] one needs to be flexible when thinking about the future.” According to Khan, we should “think about digital as one of many media for the distribution of this kind of information.” At this point in time, we cannot possibly know all the consequences of a full switch to digital texts.

Khan also highlighted the importance of critical thinking with regard to the popular discourse surrounding this switch. While we are quick to present and perceive this shift as cultural innovation, Khan argues that this is not quite the whole picture. “A lot of this rhetoric of innovation and ‘visionariness’ is just a smokescreen for the times – for austerity measures [at the provincial level] – to make sure that certain people can reap the rewards of a bad economic situation over others,” Khan explained. “And I think that’s really something we need to think about – the socio economic underpinnings of this kind of development.” While discursive framing of the switch to e-books as innovative sounds quite positive,

the actors behind it may not be so well-intended.

The Birks Reading Room coordinator Allan Youster also held some suspicions with regards to the real motives behind digitization. “Publishing books is big business and university books are a large part of that big business,” Youster said, further explaining that “control of publishing has been centralized by large corporations under market pressure to be more profitable.” Digitization further centralizes publishing, eliminating local markets for smaller publishing companies. In a university context, Youster said that “library budgets are under extreme financial pressure everywhere.”

Because of this, “the lure of [...] buying digital and thus saving on housing costs, has excited some budget-conscious librarians.”

Budget-driven or not, when The Daily asked Youster why anyone should even bother with old– school books anymore, he responded, “Why bother with a camera, when you have a cellphone? Why even go out for a walk, when it’s so much easier sitting in front of your computer game? Some people will bother because it’s important to them.” Comparing this sudden shift to the move from vinyl to digital music, Youster noted that while “the doomed fate of vinyl” seemed

certain then, vinyl is still around today, having “found a small place to grow.” Youster maintained that “the printed word will survive” – but the question remains of how it will do so.

But if innovation is not the only motive behind a switch to e-books, then nostalgia cannot be the only defence. While e-books may give us access to more texts quantitatively, print books give us more access qualitatively. E-book systems may provide a greater number of books, but the variety of these books is ironically more limited than print.

Much of the Islamic Studies Library’s (ISL) collection, for example, is in print, because when it comes to books written outside of North America in languages like Arabic, Urdu, Persian, or Turkish, digital versions remain largely nonexistent.

Khan explained to The Daily that here at McGill, “the ISL’s acquisition budget for print books has been slashed, and yet [in such languages] print is often all we have.”

In an interview with The Daily, Adrian King-Edwards, owner of The Word Bookstore on Milton, agreed with Youster that print sources are far from being goners.

King-Edwards is not even convinced that students themselves are turning more toward e-books.

“You continuously read this thing that books are finished, but I watch

in the store. [...] Students are still keen on buying books, and a lot of students are building [their own] libraries,” Youster said. “They come into the store every week and they collect books in their field. And it happens often with graduate students, foreign graduate students, because they realize that the books that are available here are not going to be available at home, and it’s certainly a good opportunity.” KingEdwards described bookstores and libraries as the “custodians of cultural heritage [that is] represented by books.”

Regardless of the proliferation of e-books, many people do prefer paper books. British marketing research agency Voxburner published a survey in 2013 showing that 62 per cent of 16 to 24 year olds preferred print to electronic. If it is the younger generation who is supposedly addicted to technology, the fact that this same population prefers print emphasizes how print books could be here to stay. For some reason we keep going back to The Word to pick up another piece for our growing libraries, and we keep flipping through the physical pages at the library. But while a passion for convenience may drive the shift to e-books, many in the McGill community will still stand in defence of books and claim that print is not dead.

Editorial

volume 104 number 10

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

November 3, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

You say cut back, we say fight back

phone 514.398.6784 fax 514.398.8318 mcgilldaily.com coordinating editor

Dana Wray

coordinating@mcgilldaily.com coordinating news editor

Janna Bryson news editors

Jill Bachelder Emma Noradounkian Igor Sadikov commentary & compendium! editor

Emmet Livingstone features editor

Hannah Besseau science+technology editor

Zapaer Alip

sports editor

Drew Wolfson Bell culture editors

Niyousha Bastani Rosie Long Decter multimedia editor

Alice Dutrut photo editor

Tamim Sujat illustrations editor

Alice Shen copy editor

Molly Korab design & production editor

Rachel Nam web editor

Arielle VanIderstine community editor

Diana Kwon le délit

Joseph Boju

rec@delitfrancais.com cover design Mert Kimyaci contributors Nadia Boachie, Audrey Carleton, Karen Chiang, Ellen Cools, Sarah Fortin, Margaret Gilligan, Ralph Haddad, Fernanda Pérez Gay Juárez, Jasreet Kaur, Nadir Khan, Mert Kimyaci, Jasmine Lee, Elena Lin, Graham MacVannel, William Mazurek, Kristian Picon, Jonathan Reid, Madison Smith, Kharoll-Ann Souffrant, Rackeb Tesfaye, Jasmine Wang

Alice Shen | The McGill Daily

T

housands of people across the province took to the streets last week in opposition to the Quebec government’s austerity measures, particularly in healthcare and education. The provincial cuts were also a hot topic at the McGill administration’s open forum on the University’s financial situation – but its rhetoric was miles away from one of resistance. Although its 2014-15 operating grant was $15 million lower than expected, with more cuts of similar magnitude expected in the coming months and years, McGill has failed to denounce funding cuts to universities, exhibiting stunning complacency and short-sightedness.

Many other Quebec universities, including Université de Montréal and Université du Québec à Montréal, have taken a public stance against the cuts. Instead of following suit, McGill has distanced itself from other Quebec universities, arguing that its financial situation is not a “crisis” because it has taken more cautious budgeting measures than other universities. Yet the profound effect of these cuts on McGill is indisputable: the hiring freeze, the reorganization of the workforce, and the cuts to student services have affected, and will inevitably continue to affect, both workers and students. In particular, the administration’s lobbying for “flexibility” from the government, if successful, will likely translate into additional tuition increases for international students.

Notably, the administration’s current discourse is very different from the one it adopted in 2013, when the Parti Québecois (PQ) reduced university budgets by partially rolling back a planned tuition increase. At the time, McGill eagerly opposed the cuts in a strongly worded statement, calling them “dangerous” and “a real threat to the health of our university system.”

Although the Liberal cuts to the system have already largely exceeded the PQ’s $123 million, this time, McGill’s words of condemnation are nowhere to be seen, Provost Anthony Masi instead called the government’s austerity measures “responsible.” In contrast, SSMU and PGSS, who co-signed McGill’s statement against the PQ cuts, have recently taken positions on austerity diametrically opposed to McGill’s.

Not only is McGill’s failure to take a stance against cuts to its own budget surprising, it is also highly irresponsible and harmful to the university’s future. At a time when our public services are being slashed, it is in the students’, employees’, and ultimately, the university’s best interest to join the Quebec-wide resistance to austerity. In 2013, McGill made an “appeal to Quebec society as a whole to join together to protect and sustain the universities as a key resource.” The University now needs to follow through on this statement and stop pandering to neoliberal government policies.

—The McGill Daily Editorial Board

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dps board of directors Joseph Boju, Juan Camilo Velásquez Buriticá, Joelle Dahm, Alyssa Favreau, Ralph Haddad, Rachel Nam, Hillary Pasternak, Thomas Simmoneau, Dana Wray All contents © 2014 Daily Publications Society. All rights reserved. The content of this newspaper is the responsibility of The McGill Daily and does not necessarily represent the views of McGill University. Products or companies advertised in this newspaper are not necessarily endorsed by Daily staff.

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Compendium!

November 3, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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Lies, half-truths, and Halloween is an appropriated holiday.

Dear Abby (or Roland Barthes) Love struggles meets structuralism Heaven Sent The McGall Daily

D

ear Reanimated Corpse of Roland Barthes, I’m graduating soon, and my girlfriend and I won’t be in the same place for quite some time.

Is a long distance relationship a good idea?

—Duly Depart(ing) Long dis-tance (n). desire pushed to its absolute limits The lover experiences true desire, not the sham by which the lover lives usually of false desire cycles, and finds it detestable.

• Ah, yes, I have returned from this summer newly refreshed, revived, as if after some sort of sommeil profond. Having crossed from death to life, summer to fall is a trifle. The tan fades.

• I’ve written much about separation and love (have you not read my Lover’s Discourse, Duly?), though perhaps the new technology of this age requires an update, of a sort. It was not the same in “my” times (oh, the pernicious possessive!).

• Let us first tell the story of two very intelligent people, dear friends, who at one time were in a long-distance relationship. It is a common enough thing. They are dead now – oh, how I miss them, on the other side (and how we say other, as if life and death were different things!)

– so I can say, it was Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.

Jean Paul and Simone – that fox, Simone – were more of what we today call “an open relationship” – friends with benefits (and now

we imagine that film, with Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, but instead with Sartre and Simone!) – yet they privately confided to me, in letters, their intense desires to be reunited – quite graphically! When he made such a show of not accepting the Nobel Prize; and fled to Helene de Beauvoir’s? That sly dog.

• Anyway, I digress. The lover, the true lover, is always separated, or always wishes to be.

Attraction is rooted in the desire for what is not there; the desire for the desire itself. Tautology, of course, you know. When we are together in the same place, the same here-ness, the desire can be fulfilled regularly, can be completed, reset for the next cycle. Desire; communion; separation; desire. Repeat.

• Long distance creates a desire for that which we truly cannot have. “But we have biweekly Skype calls!” says the desperate lover. Ah, yes, when one can worship the image of the other, can connect their voice and image and deepen desire. That person might as well be in the room!

Might as well; and now the realization: not there.

• No, long distance only takes the same desire and takes it to its end point. The separation will be longer, and yes, there will be reunions, planned for, yearned for, and they will be shorter.

More desire, less completion.

The longdistance lover as the glutton from the film Matilda: too much chocolate cake (too much desire).

• A long distance relationship

could work, providing that there is a set end date; there must be an end to the lover’s impossible desire. Though, of course, you may find things changed once again when you return; it is as Goethe’s Werther says: “But alas! when we have attained our object, when the distant ‘there’ becomes the present ‘here,’ all is changed; we are as poor and circumscribed as ever, and our souls still languish for unattainable happiness.”

• So, I venture, it depends, ça dépend. It could work; it most likely will be terrible. It may just be the elongation – till some untenable point – of your break-up (yes, it is inevitable). Ça dépend.

If you came to this text expecting a clear answer – there is nothing to be done with you, Duly.

It’s a kind of magic: a crossword Across 4.

6.

9.

11.

13.

A kindly old genius Spacy and cool. Her father edits The Quibbler A pub, also a fan site Mischief managed This guy loves goats and tunnels, related to the kindly old genius 16. Minister, looks like a lion 17. Riddle me this 18. Radical pureblood supremacists, marked with the Dark Mark

Down 1. Wizarding Alcatraz 2. Confectionary delight. If you’re a boss in the wizarding world, you’ll end up on card that accompanies said delight 3. Malfoy got cut by this spell 5. How Tonks greets Harry 7. This object is literally a trip down memory lane 8. This object steals light 10. Truth potion 12. The language of serpents 14. Owner of Fang, fond of oversized pumpkins 15. Harry’s upgrade on his Nimbus 2000 19. A village, wizarding metropolis

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