Vol104iss3

Volume 104, Issue 3 Monday, September 15, 2014

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September 15, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

3

Electoral bylaw proposals revisited at Council

NEWS

SSMU Council plans electoral reform No more Timmies? Food services at McGill Computer science association takes up diversity

Councillors create ‘yes’ committee for building fee question

Dissaffiliation from CFS no simple feat Bystander intervention program tackles rape culture Taking initiative during emergencies

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COMMENTARY

Western medicine needs to be decolonized Why do Canadians fight for ISIS?

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FEATURES

Personal photo essay of leather tanneries in Fez

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SCI+TECH

Why you should consider learning to code online Soup and Science starts up for a new year of research

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SPORTS

Cultural appropriation in team names has to stop McGill scoreboard

17

CULTURE

Ukrainian festival a source of strength among conflict Performance artists get political about alienation Montreal Band starts change.org petition against MTL Blog Our alternative POP Montreal schedule

19

EDITORIAL

Food options on campus are no longer accessible

20 COMPENDIUM! Game of Thrones characters, from a critical perspective

William Doan | The McGill Daily Lauria Galbraith The McGill Daily

T

he 36 members of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Legislative Council held their first meeting of the year on September 11. Council discussed the impending review of SSMU’s electoral bylaws, the upcoming Shatner building fee Fall referendum question, and the recent changes to food provision services at McGill.

Review of electoral bylaws SSMU’s returning Chief Electoral Officer Ben Fung spoke before Council to present recommended changes to SSMU’s electoral bylaws, which he has been researching throughout the summer since last year’s electoral outcome. Among Fung’s suggestions were the introduction of a new demerit system, a shortening of the polling period, a switch to a preferential ballot voting system, and the creation of an elections review board.

The demerit system would create more transparency in judging campaigns for infractions – such

as the exceeding of candidates’ campaign budgets and the hanging posters in prohibited locations – and imposing sanctions.

A change in the polling period from five to three days, Fung said, would “decrease the amount of overlap between campaigning and polling, as voters at the beginning of the voting period [wouldn’t] have less information about the candidates compared to voters who are voting at the end of the voting period.”

Fung also hopes to implement a preferential ballot voting system for future SSMU elections, which would allow for the transfer of a vote for a losing candidate to the voter’s second choice. Fung claimed this would be a better system than the current first-past-the-post system, which he called “not the most democratic or representative way of voting.” The change would have to be approved at a SSMU General Assembly, the first of which will be on October 22.

Motivated by feedback from students, Fung also stated that he wished to implement an elections review committee, to be convened “in very difficult judgement deci-

sions in elections.”

Fung indicated that he is unsure if the committee should be made up of councillors or of a pool of “unbiased members-at-large” of SSMU’s constituency.

In consideration of Fung’s investigation into the proposed bylaw changes, Council approved a motion for the creation of an ad hoc bylaw review committee to formalize the proposed changes.

“A number of changes need to be made,” said SSMU President Courtney Ayukawa.

Following last year’s loss of the Sustainability Coordinator position, Council also created an ad hoc Sustainability Committee, with the permanent institutionalization of the committee to be explored by the end of Winter 2015.

Building fee and changes to food provision Council passed a motion for the creation of a ‘yes’ campaign committee for the Shatner building fee question on the first Fall referendum, to be held starting September 24. The referendum question will propose the creation of a fee levy of $5.78 per semester for full-time

students to pay for the increased rent and utilities cost in the recently signed lease agreement between SSMU and the administration. The fee was previously rejected by students in the Winter 2014 referendum, and last year’s executive has been criticized for not having campaigned for the fee.

In her report to Council, VP University Affairs Claire Stewart-Kanigan shared her plans to act regarding the diminishing amount of accessible food options on campus. “I’m aware that people are mad about the Tim Hortons,” Stewart-Kanigan said, referring to the replacement of the Tim Hortons in the Redpath library basement with the more expensive Première Moisson.

Stewart-Kanigan indicated that she will continue to meet with the Libraries in order to express student discontent with the changes.

She cited the lack of student consultation as unacceptable, since the library is a space that is “virtually exclusively used by students.”

While the Tim Hortons outlet is not likely to return to the basement of the Redpath Library, “cheaper options are a future possibility,” she said.

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5

Students weigh in on food vendor changes “Healthy and local” too pricey for some Emma Nouradounkian The McGill Daily

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cGill has recently undergone drastic changes in its provision of food services on campus – most notably, the replacement of Sinfully Asian in the Bronfman building with Quesada Burritos & Tacos and Bento Sushi, as well as the opening of a Première Moisson express outlet in the basement of the Redpath Library on September 2.

“It’s impossible to find a decent, cheap place to eat on campus,” Vita, a U2 Arts student, told The Daily. “I feel like they’re trying to go for fancy looks and a nice atmosphere rather than trying to [address] students’ needs. I really feel like it’s meant to be more for McGill’s image, rather than what students need.”

In an email to The Daily, Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) president Ava Liu echoed Vita’s concerns over the accessibility of food on campus, and also raised questions about students’ participation in the decision to replace the small food court in Redpath Library, particularly the Tim Hortons, with a Première Moisson.

“Taking into account the Redpath [cafeteria’s] importance of location and the emphasis that students place on financial accessibility, I am curious about the consultation that went into bringing in this considerably more expensive option. I think this is a valid concern that many Arts students currently have,” said Liu. Senior Director of McGill’s Student Housing and Hospitality Services (SHHS) Mathieu Laperle told The Daily in an interview that the change in food outlets in Redpath Library did take student voices into account.

“It was consultation with the Dean [of Libraries] and some students and the annual survey that we do. We were able to get information and it was needed to do some renovation [in the cafeteria] because it was outdated.”

John, a U3 Science student, was pleased with the variety of food offered in the Bronfman building.

“I really, really enjoyed Sinfully Asian. [...] But considering that there is a Japanese option, and I really do like Mexican food, and there’s literally no options for Mexican food around Montreal in general, I really

think it’s all in all a gain.”

“I personally quite like Quesada, especially taking into consideration the buzz on campus last year around bringing in Mexican cuisine to the Bronfman building. I think this choice tapped into general student input,” added Liu. Student survey considered in replacement of Sinfully Asian In fact, students’ opinions of Sinfully Asian were gathered in a widespread survey conducted by the Management Undergraduate Society (MUS) last fall. It received 1,401 responses, most of which indicated a preference for healthier food, and preferably a Mexican food option as well.

“We knew the lease was ending back in May and basically we worked with SHHS to get feedback on Sinfully Asian and inform the bidding process for the summer,” MUS President Sean Finnell told The Daily.

As Aramark Canada approached the end of its contract as the food services provider of the university, SHHS sought a new food provider through a competitive tender process, wherein the company that has the most attractive offer is allotted

Première Moisson.

Tamim Sujat | The McGill Daily

the contract.

On March 27, the Board of Governors’ executive committee approved SHHS’s request to proceed with the competitive tender process and authorized Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Ollivier Dyens to sign the contract with the successful bidder of the competitive tender process.

The winning bidder in the provision of food services was Compass Group and one of its sectors, the Bon Appétit management company.

Executive chef of SHHS Oliver De Volpi told The Daily that Compass and Bon Appétit will put a high priority on making foods, such as soup stwock, from scratch.

SHHS Marketing and Nutrition Counselor Monique Lauzon did not respond to The Daily’s requests for comment.

Other food locations to be opening soon include E-Café in the McConnell Engineering Building and Vinh’s Too in the Strathcona Music Building.

Computer science students create VP Diversity position Changes to CSUS constitution, general assembly date approved at SUS Council Jill Bachelder The McGill Daily

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he Science Undergraduate Society (SUS) Council held its first meeting of the year last Wednesday, where it approved an updated version of the Computer Science Undergraduate Society (CSUS) constitution, creating a VP Diversity position. Council also elected former SUS President Danielle Toccalino as Chief Returning Officer and set the date for the SUS Fall general assembly.

VP Diversity to investigate discomfort in the community The newly updated CSUS constitution is meant to encourage member participation in CSUS by eliminating the requirement to be a computer science major to run for Council. The ratio of members to executives required for quorum has been reduced, and a VP Diversity position has

Stephanie Zazzera | Photographer been added. Additionally, a general assembly is no longer needed to change the constitution; it can now be changed by Council.

At the meeting, CSUS President Calem Bendell said that the position of VP Diversity was added primarily due to requests

from students. At the end of last spring, when the constitution was being rewritten, six different people – four of whom were women – requested the creation of the position.

“Having a VP Diversity seemed wise when the people I

discussed these issues with said they sometimes felt uncomfortable with the general computer science student body,” Bendell told The Daily in an email.

Bendell explained that the position will be more investigative, at least in the beginning.

“The goal isn’t to make the student body more diverse – I don’t think there’s much we can do to directly affect that – but instead to make everyone who is already in the student body more comfortable. CSUS’ power to change this situation is unclear, but it should be thoroughly explored,” he wrote.

Other changes included a decrease in the required turnout at to pass a CSUS referendum from 30 per cent to 15 per cent of the constituency, and the elimination of “bureaucratic” rules and procedures, such as Robert’s Rules (a formal set of rules that govern parliamentary procedures), from

CSUS proceedings.

General assembly and elections Council set the date for the Fall 2014 SUS general assembly, which will take place on November 5.

In addition, the SUS extended the applicability of its electoral bylaws to the Freshman Undergraduate Science Society (FUSS) elections, which will begin on September 15; this was done in order to clarify the rules for FUSS elections. Toccalino will now oversee both SUS and FUSS elections procedures to make sure that campaigns follow the bylaws.

SUS Executive Revenue Officer Sibat Anam also informed Council that SUS has signed a contract dictating that Kaplan Test Prep will be the sole sponsor of SUS. Anam noted that this does not affect individual departments, who may sign contracts with other sponsors, dependent upon SUS approval.

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September 15, 2014 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com

Student federation struggles to keep members throughout Canada Ongoing litigation keeps student associations in limbo Cem Ertekin The McGill Daily

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ounded in 1981, the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) is an association of various student unions from all around Canada. CFS has been involved with multiple disaffiliation lawsuits in the past few years, with allegations of corrupt, overly bureaucratic tactics from various student associations. Here is a select overview of the cases, from across the country.

McGill University The problems between the PostGraduate Students’ Society of McGill University (PGSS) and CFS started back in 2010, when PGSS held a disaffiliation referendum to leave CFS with 86 per cent of students voting to leave the organization. However, the results of the referendum were not recognized by CFS. This disagreement was eventually brought to the Superior Court of Quebec; after four years, the case is still ongoing.

“This judgement sets a precedent for all Canadian students who believe in freedom of association.”

Ge Sa, PGSS Internal Affairs Officer Earlier in 2014, McGill PhD student and PGSS Internal Affairs Officer Ge Sa submitted a petition to CFS that requested another referendum.

According to Sa, CFS failed to recognize the petition in a timely manner, and as such Sa had a hearing at the Superior Court of Quebec on March 18 to request a trial for a court-mandated referendum.

During the trial, which took place on August 28 and 29, François Viau, the lawyer for CFS, argued that PGSS should not claim in one case that it was no longer a member of CFS, while, in Sa’s case, presupposing that it was still a member of CFS. However, the court’s decision, which was released on September 9, ruled in Sa’s favour and mandated that PGSS hold a disaffiliation referendum. In the decision, Justice Gé-

rard Dugré said, “The plaintiff has demonstrated a clear legal and quasiconstitutional right that a referendum take place.”

In a press release following the judgement, Sa said, “This judgement sets a precedent for all Canadian students who believe in freedom of association.”

University of Toronto On March 9, CFS rejected a petition by the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union (UTGSU) to hold a disassociation referendum, on the grounds that the threshold for the number of legitimate signatures, which is 20 per cent of all members, was not met.

Speaking to The Daily on behalf of CFS, CFS staffer Brent Farrington said that the process by which CFS decides whether or not the the threshold is met requires the university to release a list of students.

However, Walter Callaghan, chair of the UTGSU Litigation Committee, told The Daily in an email that it is contrary to the privacy policies of the University of Toronto (U of T) to release such a list.

CFS had also asked McGill to provide a list of students for Sa’s petition. In McGill’s case, the university initially refused to do so, but eventually did release the list. According to Farrington, this is customary practice with disaffiliation petitions.

U of T, however, refused to release this list. As a compromise, CFS contacted Deloitte Touche, a third-party audit firm who, according to Farrington, determined that the petition did not meet the threshold, and thus the vote was not held; however, the validity of the petition is still disputed.

In an open letter to its members on July 14, UTGSU said that CFS “did in fact act and plan to act in ways that bring question to their use of discretion in the petition verification process and ensuring of procedural fairness in dealing with [their] members’ petitions.”

UTGSU is ultimately leaving the issue of the petition’s validity to the legal system. “It will be the determination of a judge of the Superior Court of Ontario upon which these matters will ultimately be decided,” read the letter.

University of Victoria In January 2011, the Univer-

Nadia Boachie | The McGill Daily sity of Victoria Students’ Society (UVSS) and University of Victoria student José Barrios petitioned to hold a referendum of disassociation to leave CFS. However, CFS did not approve the validity of the petition, as a counter-petition had been signed by students who claimed to have been tricked into signing the original petition.

Following this incident, Barrios and UVSS petitioned the Supreme Court of British Columbia for a referendum. The court ruled that, by declaring the first petition invalid, CFS had breached its own bylaws.

Soon after, a referendum was held and students voted in favour of disassociation from the national component of CFS – this disassociation did not apply to the provincial branch, CFS-British Columbia (CFS-BC).

UVSS did not get the chance to vote to leave the provincial branch.

“After the students at [University of Victoria] delivered a petition seeking a referendum in the spring of 2013 on the question of whether to leave the CFS-BC, the CFS-BC decided to expel the UVSS before the referendum was to take place,” said UVSS chairperson Kayleigh Erickson in an email to The Daily.

David Borins, who was the lawyer for UVSS in its litigation with CFS, told The Daily in an email that several disputes have arisen since

2008 in connection with referenda to vote on leaving CFS and CFC-BC. These conflicts can stem from a wide variety of technicalities, ranging from uncertainty over when campaigning is allowed, to whether or not petitions really do have enough support, to even “the validity of the referendum itself.”

“It will be the determination of a judge of the Superior Court of Ontario upon which these matters will ultimately be decided.”

Open letter from University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union Concordia University The Concordia Student Union (CSU) and the Concordia Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) have also been involved in litigation against CFS. CSU held its disassociation referendum in February 2010, and GSA

in March 2010. While the results of both referenda were in favour of leaving the federation, CFS refused to acknowledge the results.

In March 2011, CSU filed a lawsuit against CFS, asking the federation to recognize the results of its referendum and demanding $100,000 in damages. GSA also filed a similar lawsuit around that time.

In response, CFS filed a countersuit in December 2011, arguing that CSU owed roughly $1.8 million in unpaid membership fees to CFS. The two individual cases filed by CSU and GSA were then combined into a single case in January 2013.

However, because of a case between CFS and the Rassemblement des associations étudiantes (RAE, formerly CFS-Quebec), there was an issue in determining to whom exactly CSU and GSA owed the membership fees. On September 5, the Quebec Superior Court ruled that CFS-Quebec had indeed been the provincial component of CFS between 2007 and 2010, and therefore any membership fees owed from that period were to be paid to RAE and not CFS. The trial for this joint lawsuit is expected to be held later in 2015.

According to CSU President Benjamin Prunty, CSU plans to uphold the results of the referendum as valid, and no longer recognizes itself as a part of CFS.

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September 15, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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Workshop kicks off plan to tackle rape culture on campus Bystander intervention training to start with Athletics Igor Sadikov The McGill Daily

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n one of her first public appearances on campus, Liaison Officer (Harm Reduction) Bianca Tétrault led a workshop on the prevention of sexual violence through bystander intervention last Monday, as part of McGill’s annual Safety Week.

Tétrault has occupied the position since its creation last March, following widespread condemnation of the University’s inaction in a highly publicized sexual assault case involving three Redmen football players.

Sparsely attended, the workshop drew a crowd of about twenty people – only a few of whom were students – and lasted a bit over an hour. Tétrault began by compelling the audience to engage with some common myths about sexual assault, before moving on to an introduction to the bystander intervention program. The program aims to

help participants develop skills for preventing sexual assault and assisting survivors.

“I found [the workshop] incredibly informative because it addressed a lot of issues,” said U1 Linguistics student Munyaradzi Guramatunhu.

“We started with the myths. So first of all, [the workshop] addresses how people are thinking, and then [...] guides them to [what] they should be thinking. [...] A lot of the time people know that things like this are happening, but they don’t know how to respond, so it wasn’t just telling you sexual assault is happening – it was actually giving you the tools of how you’re supposed to deal with that.”

Tétrault highlighted the importance of noticing situations where people perpetuate harmful beliefs about sexual violence, and encoraging them to think of the harm they are causing.

“It’s a self-reflection that we have to start asking ourselves internally,

because the more and more we’re able to identify when that tends to happen around us day to day, the more we’re going to start realizing [the] uses [of bystander intervention],” she said.

Tétrault then showed the audience a video clip that recounted an instance of sexual assault, and illustrated how it could have been prevented by bystanders as the situation was developing. For Guramatunhu, however, the video did not depict the perpetrator’s reactions in a realistic manner.

“I think it was just in the video that the guy didn’t have a tendency to be violent,” said Guramatunhu. “I think that the presentation should have included the case – so, what do you do if the person you’re intervening with does get violent?”

As one of the few students in attendance, Guramatunhu expressed concern about the low turnout and suggested repeating the workshop at

regular intervals. “[The turnout] was quite sad because it’s something that can happen to anyone, not just the ten people who actually bothered to pitch up,” Guramatunhu said. “So people should be more interested.”

Longer bystander program, consent campaign to come In an interview with The Daily, Tétrault explained that she saw the workshop as a testing ground for a full two-day iteration of the bystander intervention program that will be run in the Winter semester.

“The original program is meant to be a lot longer: there’s case scenarios that people can engage in and practice what it means to be a bystander and how to identify certain situations. There’s a lot more talk around [...] how a lot of harmful behaviours are normalized in our society,” said Tétrault. “I am going to be starting it hopefully just before Christmas with Athletics – their

coaches and staff have agreed to undertake the program as well [as the athletes], because it’s for anybody in the community.”

In addition, a consent campaign, involving an art collage, a social media component, and various events on campus, is in the works; it will be held in October.

“The campaign is really to engage the community around consent and [...] how to apply it in your life in regards to sexual activity and day-to-day interactions,” Tétrault told The Daily. “It’s not going to be an approach where we tell everybody what it is. We really want students to engage with us, to let us know how they practice it, how it feels, and what it means to them emotionally, consent.”

Guramatunhu was enthusiastic about Tétrault’s upcoming work. “If there was a way we could get everybody to come and sit and watch this, I think we should,” she said.

M-SERT shares emergency response tips Taking initiative important, says group director at Safety Week event Jill Bachelder The McGill Daily

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ast Wednesday, Yassmin Behzadian, director of the McGill Student Emergency Response Team (M-SERT), hosted a talk as part of McGill’s Safety Week in the Redpath Library. In keeping with the week’s theme of “internal responsibility,” Behzadian focused her talk on the barriers that bystanders face when responding to emergencies, and how these barriers can be overcome.

M-SERT is a student-run organization that provides on-call emergency responders to McGill events, such as intramural hockey games, 4Floors, Frosh, and Gerts. They also provide emergency care to McGill residences every day from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., and have office hours from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in room B-23 in the Shatner building where students can drop in for emergency care.

Members serve, on average, 230 hours per year, or around 13,000 hours total last year, Behzadian told the crowd.

Behzadian, who has been involved with M-SERT for the past three years, said that she hoped to

educate her audience on how to be helpful in an emergency situation.

“In addition to providing first aid coverage, it’s also our goal to move toward a community where knowing or having first aid knowledge and acting on first aid knowledge is the norm and not the exception,” said Behzadian.

When asked by an audience member, Behzadian said that intoxication is the most common cause behind calls to M-SERT. “It starts out being intoxication, but then you find out that there are secondary injuries, so a person could be intoxicated and then they fall down the stairs.”

She added that a lot of emergencies at McGill happen during orientation. “If you’ve seen us at Frosh, you know that the majority of our calls come from that one week of insanity,” she said.

There are four major barriers that a bystander may face that could prevent them from acting in an emergency situation, Behzadian explained: fear of catching the disease, discomfort at the sight of gruesome injuries, fear of making the situation worse (and/or potentially getting sued), and the assumption that

in a large group of people someone else will provide aid.

“These should not be barriers to calling 911,” said Behzadian, noting that calling does not require consent from the patient or require any direct contact with the patient.

She explained that it is quite difficult to contract an illness from helping someone if the necessary precautions are taken, such as wearing gloves and using a resuscitation mask (these items are easy to keep and transport on a regular basis). If the person’s wounds are too unsightly one should take a deep breath to calm down, and then try their best to help if they are able.

In addition, every province in Canada aside from Saskatchewan and New Brunswick has what is termed a “good samaritan law” to provide legal protection to citizens who offer help and unintentionally cause injuries, as long as they are not under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Finally, Behzadian addressed the bystander effect, and called on individuals to feel personally responsible for the well-being of the person, even if there are other peo-

William Doan | The McGill Daily ple around at the time.

“Never assume that someone is receiving care just because you see a crowd of people around them.

You should always take initiative, approach the person, and see if they want or need your assistance,” she said.

“If you find out the person is already receiving care, there’s still a lot that you can do – you can be on crowd control, you can make sure that the patient is receiving their fair amount of privacy, you can call 911 if it hasn’t

been been [called], there’s basically no shortage of things you can do in this scenario.”

Sacha Fyson, a McGill neuroscience student who attended the talk, said he found discomfort in the face of injury a surprising barrier to action. “I didn’t think that people would be necessarily afraid of injuries or blood or sickness and things like that,” Fyson told The Daily.

“I knew about the bystander effect already, but I didn’t know that that was actually a factor inhibiting some people.”

Commentary

September 15, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

8

Decolonizing healthcare

Attitudes toward alternative medical practices must change Joelle Dahm The McGill Daily

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apitalist norms in our society reach much deeper than just the economy. They dictate the lifestyles of many: prescribing their working hours, food, and consumption habits. These norms also contribute to a squeeze on the amount of time available to people; there aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything and still spend quality time with family, friends, or even yourself. This phenomenon of time limitation and a search for the highest efficiency in every walk of life also affects healthcare.

Due to globalization, Western medicine and capitalist norms spread overseas, where it was often forced on people, without addressing their culturally specific needs. Because of a history of systematic oppression toward these people (not only in the fields of religion, language, and culture), healthcare is colonized, with a clear hierarchy that promotes Western medicine as the ideal.

This focus on Western medicine and the prejudice against potential alternatives are a result of a capitalist, neo-colonial society in which Western supremacy legitimizes the dismissal and stigmatization of alien practices. Our medical practices are typically accepted, irrespective of their failures. For example, many harmful drugs are registered on the market by government agencies because they guarantee a profit for pharmaceutical companies, not because they benefit consumers. The pain medication Propoxyphene is a good illustration of this phenomenon. It was on the market for 55 years, only to be banned in 2010 when renewed examination of the drug revealed that its harmful side effects far outweighed the benefits.

The way our medical practices are usually legitimized is the scientific method: a hypothesis is put to the test, and then the experiment is replicated to determine the validity of the result. While this method is reliable, and has led to enormous progress in conventional Western medicine, there are other systems of knowledge creation. Unfortunately, medicine in the West only accepts knowledge if it conforms to the scientific method. Any other knowledge is fetishized, seen as mystical and different.

This view is not only racist, ethnocentric, and neo-colonial, it also ignores the needs of a wide array of people, mainly from outside the West, by limiting their healthcare options. Focusing on the needs of a specific demographic in healthcare can lead to inaccessibility for people

Tamim Sujat | The McGill Daily with different religious and cultural practices. ‘Traditional’ knowledge (if we want to use an umbrella term and generalize the knowledge obtained by a huge variety of peoples) often cannot be defined in the context of the scientific method.

Decolonizing attitudes in general, but especially in medical terms, would thus be favourable, as both medical systems could benefit from each other if they were more integrated.

In societies that do not employ this method as the main legitimizer of thought, traditional knowledge has been accumulated over many generations. This kind of knowledge can come from experience, be passed down verbally or by script. According to the paper Traditional Healing and Western Medicine: Segregation or

Integration? by Caroline Kangwa, traditional healers do not measure their medicine using the same measures of standardized doses that Western medicine uses. The healers base the dosage on their experience and vary it based on intuition. The fact that the working processes of these kinds of healing systems cannot be understood

by Western standards does not make them any less legitimate.

There are also concrete downsides to Western medical practice.

In the case of illness or disease, we often focus on quick fixes. Rather than using holistic methods, many are interested in reductionist approaches, which in many cases only suppress symptoms. “Implicit within this practice is the deeply rooted belief that each disease has a potential singular target for medical treatment. For infection, the target is the pathogen; for cancer, it is the tumo[u] r; and for gastrointestinal bleeding, it is the bleeding vessel or ulcer,” according to a group of scholars at the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a U.S. government agency. While this might be very effective in some cases, it does not allow for the disease to be seen in its wider context. The scholars continue to explain, “A young immunocompromised man with pneumococcal pneumonia usually gets the same antibiotic treatment as an elderly woman with the same infection. The disease, and not the person affected

by it, becomes the central focus.”

In contrast, alternative medical practitioners will not just focus on the reduction of symptoms, but on longterm changes within the lifestyle of the patient, such as changes in environment and attention to the community to which an individual belongs.

Including this perspective in Western medicine could be hugely beneficial.

The dichotomy that exists between Western medicine and alternative or traditional medicine leads to mistrust on both sides. The West does not trust ‘traditional’ medicine, because it often cannot be understood using current scientific thinking. People using ‘traditional medicine’ often do not trust Western medicine, because it is ethnocentric and does not respect different cultural practices and beliefs. During colonial and missionary times, doctors and missionaries would label people’s beliefs that differed from their own as “belonging to the devil.” The oppression experienced by colonized peoples only expanded feelings of mistrust toward practices coming from the West.

Decolonizing attitudes in general, but especially in medical terms, would thus be favourable, as both medical systems could benefit from each other if they were more integrated. This involves dismantling prejudiced and oppressive attitudes that took root during the colonial era.

However, perceptions of alternative medicine still exist, and they

are not helped by a largely negative press in the West. The media usually focuses only on select areas of alternative medicine, such as homeopathy, a practice whose efficacy has repeatedly been called into question by doctors and researchers. Because of this kind of negative attention, people ignore, or at least do not realize, the wide array of disciplines that are included in alternative medicine. These include Indigenous healing practices, chiropractic therapies, massage, or herbalism (the use of plants for medical purposes), all of which, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada, can be complementary to Western medicine. If they accompany Western medical practices, these practices could offer people a wider array of options pertinent to their individual needs.

Due to the structures of inequality within our society, however, people, especially from minority groups who do not identify with Western cultural standards, find healthcare systems inaccessible. They cannot access certain treatments because of mistrust of the system and lack of accommodation to their culture. Healthcare should be a universal right – it needs to be decolonized and made accessible to all.

Joelle Dahm is a U3 Environmental Studies student, and can be reached at joelle.dahm@mail.mcgill.ca.

Commentary

September 15, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

9

The occidental jihadist On the radicalization of Canadians

Jasmine Wang | The McGill Daily Mohamed Laila Commentary Writer

F

rankly, I do not share most people’s surprise with the rise of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq. The current sectarian violence in Iraq has been slowly brewing since the American invasion that resulted in the formation of a Shia government over a predominantly Sunni population.

This is a reflection of the situation in Syria where the minority Alawites, a Shia sect, rule over a majority Sunni population.

After the marginalization of ethnic and religious minorities by a Shia-dominated government in Iraq and the eruption of civil war in neighbouring Syria, the region has become fertile soil for radical jihadist movements.

As the most successful terrorist organization since al-Qaeda’s heyday, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) dropped the last two letters of its acronym, becoming the ‘Islamic State’ (IS), liberating itself from the geographical constraints that used to bind it. Now, it seeks the classical dream of every Islamic insurgent group: the restoration of the elusive caliphate, uniting all Muslims under religious rule. The group’s evolution does not, however, explain why the

organization has been successful in recruiting thousands of fighters from Western nations.

According to some estimates, 1,000 to 3,000 fighters have joined IS from Western countries, including around 130 Canadians. An example of one of these Canadian fighters is Calgary businessman Salman Ashrafi, who prior to his departure to the Persian Gulf, worked for Talisman Energy, an oil and gas company. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) revealed that Ashrafi had carried out a suicide bombing responsible for killing 19 Iraqis in northern Baghdad in November 2013.

Why would a Canadian citizen abandon a relatively comfortable lifestyle, a job, and a family to join the ranks of an insurgent group halfway around the globe – one that has killed thousands and displaced millions at that? The answer could be rooted in the notion of radicalization, the process by which, for a host of reasons, people adopt tactics of extreme violence. We could therefore rephrase the question to: what influences are responsible for the radicalization of Canadians such as Ashrafi?

In the absence of cultural integration, immigrants remain captives of whichever cultural cluster they belong to. What’s more, a

fear of mixing with other cultural groups is a completely understandable reaction in a society that still treats people of Middle Eastern origin with suspicion. Xenophobia and racism aimed at immigrant populations (especially those of Middle Eastern origin) are precursors to social isolation. The proposed Quebec Charter of Values, which sought to ban conspicuous religious dress among public sector workers, is clear evidence of this underlying xenophobia.

The result of this sort of prejudice is that many feel like outsiders in their own country; immigrant groups with similar ideologies, religious views, and cultural backgrounds then form their own social circles in isolation from the rest of society. In the absence of ideological diversity, and in the presence of feelings of social rejection, these clusters could easily foster radical notions and yield radicalized individuals.

Xenophobia and racism are not the only factors that push Canadians toward radicalization – foreign policy plays an important part. All over the West, citizens (not necessarily immigrants) have expressed their outrage at the recent stances of their various countries regarding Gaza, Syria, and Iraq. Canadian foreign policy toward the Middle East,

which is almost as hawkish as the U.S., is unquestionably a source of frustration and even personal attack to many citizens. For this reason, hundreds of Montrealers took to the streets in July, calling on the Canadian government to condemn the Israeli operation in Gaza.

Such healthy forms of selfexpression provide means for citizens with opposing views to channel their condemnation of government policies. Political activism, at its most effective, can change society – at its least effective, it can at least eliminate an accumulation of resentment and bring people together.

Unlike those who marched the streets of Montreal to express their political views, some immigrants, especially those of Arab and Middle Eastern descent, do not share the same culture of dissent. Despite what the Arab Spring might suggest, the state of political awareness and activism in the region is still nascent.

For those who have been raised under more authoritarian governments, various forms of protesting the government are severely stigmatized. The Daily article “Do you speak politics” (Commentary, June 26, 2014) illustrates how political activism was considered taboo among many Turks, including the youth.

It was not until the Taksim Gezi

Park incident in 2013 that waves of demonstrations started to appear in Turkey. Even after the Arab Spring movements, political activists in the Middle East (including journalists) still face systematic oppression.

With all the cultural stigma attached to peaceful forms of protest, along with a valid fear of prosecution, some immigrants could become more inclined to channel their political frustrations via radically violent routes.

Radical movements such as IS take advantage of this frustration and turn it into violence.

Though Western governments point to the use of social media to lure foreign fighters, we must realize that it is not the distinguished marketing skills of the jihadists that are responsible for their great recruitment success. Rather, disasters could be evaded if Western governments adopted less exploitative foreign policies that target not just institutions but people.

Society as a whole should also recognize that xenophobia and racism aimed at immigrants will only lead to further cultural clustering and isolation of these communities.

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

Features

September 15, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

VISIONS OF

MY ANCESTORS

M

PHOTOS BY JEHANE YAZAMI

y father and his ancestors originate from Morocco. Despite having visited the country many times, it is a place that I feel connected to, but that remains unknown to me. My family lives in Casablanca, and most of my visits involve walking through the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s saturated streets, or sitting around a circular table with family members, sharing a majestic meal from the same earth platter. Three years ago, my father brought me to Fez for the first time, the city my family comes from. We made our way through a souq and were guided to a leather tannery. Circular shapes of different shades, longing odours, tangerine skies. There is something haunting about a job in which the body plunges into coloured circles all day; from the cow to the skin, from the skin to the dye. I observed the tannery workers as they dipped the leather, with the lower half of their bodies hidden below the dye. A man stood a level above them and positioned the tinted skin against the wall, waiting for it to dry. A whole world of colour and craft that I had never imagined existed was taking place before me. Imagining my family three generations ago still working within this souq and community, working with their hands, made me feel an overwhelming sense of both distance and inspiration. I took my camera out of my green leather bag and let myself drift.

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Features

September 15, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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September 15, 2014 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com

Features

Sci+Tech

September 15, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

13

Learning to code bit by bit Should you take your first step in class or online?

Arielle VanIderstine Sci+Tech Writer

W

hen it comes to learning new skills, it’s all about getting the right start.

Computer programming, also commonly referred to as coding, is emerging as an essential skill to have for both academia and university life. From creating apps to run on your phone to harnessing the world’s computational power for science, the uses of coding are broad and varied. Software is embedded in many facets of the modern world, and as society becomes increasingly technical, literacy in coding and other technical subjects grows more and more necessary.

Students are often drawn to learn to code because of the immediate practical applications it can offer, and not because of the theoretical approach usually seen in university classes. Michael Golfi, a software engineering student, agrees: “Once I found how useful programming is, I was hooked.”

For Luke Anderson-Trocmé, a graduate biology student, it was the academic potential that inspired him to start learning coding. “I’m planning on doing a lot of bioinformatics in my graduate degree,” he said. “Nowadays, a little bit of coding knowledge can go a long way.”

However, it can be hard for students without prior experience to break into the field and take their first step in programming. McGill offers introductory programming classes that are available to all students through the School of Computer Science, but many students are also tempted by the plethora of free online resources available for coding acquisition. Is one of these two contrasting learning styles superior for students who want to get started?

Ultimately, whether or not a classroom-based or web-based coding education is right for you depends on your learning style. University classes provide constant, tangible pressure to keep up and succeed at the pace of the class.

They can provide direction, context, and ongoing personalized support through a planned syllabus and a network of teaching assistants and tutorials. If you learn best by watching others and going step-by-step, the classroom might be the best first step to take.

“If you’ve never touched a text editor and have no clue what programming is, it can be daunting to get into,” notes Charles Clermont, a mechanical engineering undergraduate. The vast field of comput-

er science is surrounded by walls of technical jargon and obscure technological concepts, posing accessibility barriers to interested students. Introductory classes are a great stepping stone into the world of coding and disassembling the accessibility barrier: according to Clermont, “A course is a first step; it’s like what learning arithmetic is to learning mathematics.”

There are currently 800 students, spread across three sections, taking their ‘first step’ into coding at McGill this fall through COMP 202.

The lecture-style class has a professor who guides students through the basics of computer logic and Java programming, from binary numbers to the beginnings of object-oriented programming. In the coding community, the course has mixed reviews. Anderson-Trocmé, who had no prior computer science knowledge, spoke highly of his experience: “The course was very approachable, and I felt like I learned a lot.”

In contrast, Clermont finds that “courses can be very slow and boring. You can learn most of it much faster with any ‘introduction to programming’ book.” Mohamed Adam Chaieb, an undergraduate software engineer, acknowledges the benefit of university computer science classes, but notes that they can be intangible at times: “Courses are definitely helpful, but they are more theoretical [and] although they try to show you applications, it’s up to you to find a way to use it.”

“I personally recommend that people learn programming through these online courses rather than take a minor in Software Engineering or Computer Science.”

Usman Ehtesham, a recent McGill electrical engineering graduate Online interactive platforms offer alternative ways to learn to

Eleanor Milman | The McGill Daily code outside of the traditional university context. Codecademy is one of those platforms, offering stepby-step, interactive, tutorial-style courses that teach students to code, compile, and see results instantly within your web browser. The platform is appealing to beginners because no installation is required to get started, there is a structured approach to learning code like in classrooms, and there is an online community of experts and fellow students that actively answer questions. There is a catch: while the courses offered on Codecademy are free, they offer no university credits or certificate of completion.

Universities continue to retain their authority when it comes to issuing computer science- and software engineering-related course credits, minors, and degrees that remain particularly important for job interviews in the technology industry. However, this is changing with the burgeoning presence of massive open online courses (MOOCs). Interested students are now able to enrol in online computer courses on Coursera to earn a certificate of completion or distinguishment to present to potential employers. Coursera is also starting to offer “specializations,” such as a Fundamentals of Computing track accredited by Rice University.

These specializations often involve taking a series of related courses and then participating in a twoweek cumulative review session and exam at the end of the series,

all online. Although still reliant on the accreditation of a host university, these specializations are often much cheaper, with each course costing about $60, while retaining the same sense of authenticity.

Usman Ehtesham, a recent McGill electrical engineering graduate, learned to code through both a software engineering minor and through various online courses. He advocates for the latter: “I personally recommend that people learn programming through these online courses rather than take a minor in Software Engineering or Computer Science.” In addition to saving money, he says, “there are many more options to choose from, whereas in a minor you can do only six to eight courses.” Ehtesham’s comment reflects on the abundance of online courses and content; from tutorials to eBooks to challenges, both free and paid materials are available in every programming language at every skill level.

In contrast to classroom learning, learning online is decidedly more self-directed and independent. As a result, motivation and dedication are essential to success.

Ehtesham notes, “One issue with online courses could be losing motivation within the first few weeks, as students may feel no pressure.” Students enrolled in university classes are pushed to keep up to pass the course with a decent grade. However, for the independent learner, online material can help you advance faster and further than the traditional

classroom-structured approach of learning. Clermont affirmed that “[reading books] had a greater impact on my coding than courses ever did,” while noting the extra effort required for this type of learning.

Ehtesham continues, “if one has the motivation to learn coding, and does not want to spend extra money on a minor, then online courses is definitely the way to go. [...] The next step from that is and should be working on your own project or contributing to an open source project.”

Open source projects in computer science are projects in which the code itself is available to the public and editable. These are, in his opinion, “the best way to become a proficient programmer.” In addition to the experience gained from participating and creating these projects, employers are often more interested in past experience than credentials due to the practical nature of coding.

If you’re generally more selfmotivated, self-paced, and independent, online resources may offer you more freedom than classrooms in terms of course pace and the breadth and depth of coverage.

The already vast collection of online materials will only continue to grow as the internet evolves with the advancement of technology.

Whether you learn through sets of exams and assignments in class or through tutorials and challenges online, learning to code is beneficial.

Golfi notes, “I believe that anybody can learn programming with enough willpower and elbow grease.”

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Sci+Tech

September 15, 2014 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com

Soup and Science turns 18 Students and professors discuss research opportunities Zapaer Alip The McGill Daily

L

ast Friday marked the end of the 18th edition of Soup and Science, a bi-annual weeklong event aimed at exposing undergraduate students to research at McGill. The event took place every day at lunchtime, and hosted presentations from leading researchers at McGill. Throughout the week, select professors gave three-minute presentations of their research to hundreds of undergraduate science students crammed into the Redpath Museum. The presentations were followed by a quick questionand-answer session, in which students responded to questions to win t-shirts, and concluded with an opportunity to mingle with the presenters over soup and sandwiches.

Soup and Science is popular among students and professors alike. For Clare Lyle, a U0 physical sciences student, Soup and Science was “a really cool way to get to know what’s going on at McGill and what people are doing for research.” This sentiment was echoed by Tami Pereg-Barnea, an assistant professor in physics, who said Soup and Science provided an “informal way for students to approach professors,” something which is more difficult to do in a lecture-room setting where professors can seem inaccessible to students.

Pereg-Barnea admitted to the intimidating aura professors can project to their students. “Natu-

Professor David Dankor answering questions. rally, there is a feeling of distance [in a course setting] because I give them marks and assignments,” she said.

However, inaccessibility can also present itself in a physical form; many first year courses have more than 600 students, which means long queues, back-to-back lectures, and preoccupied professors. These can quickly become a physical barrier between student

and professor. “I talked to my general chemistry professor after his presentation [at Soup and Science],” said Lyle. “It was the first time I got to talk to him.”

Soup and Science provides a rare opportunity on campus to directly network with professors in a casual setting. However, even this space can be inaccessible, with students being refused entry due to the limited seating capac-

Tamim Sujat | The McGill Daily ity of the Redpath Museum.

“I think there are too many people [at Soup and Science], but that’s the way things are. Some-

“Naturally, there is a feeling of distance [in a course setting] because I give them marks and assignments,” Tami Pereg-Barnea, an assistant professor of physics

Professor David Dankor presents his research.

Tamim Sujat | The McGill Daily

times its hard to approach the prof because there are ten students around them,” Alexandra Djait-Paulien, a U3 physiology student, told The Daily. DjaitPaulien found her research job by emailing professors, like the majority of undergraduate students, and said she thinks “[professors] are accessible, but you have to take the initiative.”

Many students were attracted by the brevity of the presenta-

tions. Pereg-Barnea, who presented again in this edition of Soup and Science, told The Daily that after presenting for the first time she “made many changes in the presentation” because of the three-minute time constraint.

This time she took a different approach by explaining a single topic, superconductivity, in depth, rather than broadly discussing her research on theoretical condensed matter.

For Pereg-Barnea, the three minutes are just enough to get students curious about their research. “I think it’s a good compromise because I accept any invitation to speak to people who are interested in science, to show people what science is about and what research is.”

Many of the students at the event were first year students curious about research at McGill and how to get involved.

Although imperfect in terms of accessibility, Soup and Science continues to play a crucial role in introducing students to the research sphere at McGill, and will probably continue to overcrowd the Redpath Museum with science undergraduates for the foreseeable future. In the words of one student, “Science and free food is always good.”

Sports

September 15, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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Appropriation is not a game We should not tolerate racial slurs as team names anymore

Jehane Yazami | The McGill Daily Madison Smith Sports Writer

B

etween concussions, the Ray Rice assault video, and the sexual assault accusations against Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, the National Football League (NFL) began its season last week engulfed in a swirl of controversy. This has become the norm for an organization increasingly beset by scandal.

Amidst all of these scandals, there has also been an ongoing discussion and debate in the last year or so on the name of the team from Washington, D.C.. The Redskins have been battling ever-mounting pressure to change their name from groups such as the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) and the Oneida Indian Nation, both of whom released commercials during the last football season protesting the name. A representative from the NCAI stated last year, “Cheering for a football team should never include the casual use of a racial slur.

It is important for all teams and all of their fans that the name of the D.C. team is changed.”

Recently, several prominent news organizations like ESPN and the Washington Post have decided not to refer to the team as the Redskins anymore in their reporting.

While this may reduce the use of

the slur, it does not solve the root of the problem. From fans dressing up in redface to the giant headdress-wearing Redskins logo on the field, the offensive name is inescapable. This season, Washington fans will have to ask themselves if they are comfortable supporting a team called the Redskins knowing that organizations representing Indigenous communities across the U.S have denounced the name.

And here in Montreal with McGill’s football season underway, perhaps we should be asking ourselves similar questions about the Redmen, a name that all varsity male sports at McGill use.

The parallels between the two cases are numerous. For example, both organizations argue that their team name has benign origins. McGill states that the term “Redmen” does not refer to Indigenous people at all, but instead to the colour of the jerseys worn by the players and/ or to the school’s Scottish heritage.

However, Redmen has been used as a slur against Indigenous people in the past.

Similarly, Dan Snyder, the owner of the Redskins, stated that his team’s name “is a symbol of everything we stand for: strength, courage, pride, and respect — the same values we know guide Native Americans and which are embedded throughout their rich history as the

original Americans.” That may be what Dan Snyder, a rich white man, thinks the team’s name and logo stands for, but he does not have the authority to speak on this issue or decide how to honour Indigenous peoples. Deejay NDN of A Tribe Called Red, an all-Indigenous musical group, has lampooned this tendency for offensively named sports teams to defend themselves by saying they ‘honour’ Indigenous peoples. NDN flips the script, sporting a “Caucasians” shirt clearly modelled on the insignia of the Cleveland Indians baseball team. After being told the shirt was offensive, he took to Instagram and, in words intentionally echoing owners like Dan Snyder, said, “I’m truly sorry if I offended anyone while wearing my ‘Caucasians’ shirt. I thought I was honouring you.”

Despite all of this criticism, Washington clings to their official story about the origins of its name – that it honours an early coach, William “Lone Star” Dietz, who claimed to be of Oglala Lakota heritage. However, there is a large amount of evidence suggesting Dietz was actually born to German parents, and was investigated by the FBI for dodging the draft by pretending to be an Indigenous person. Although this is still a controversial issue, if the evidence about Dietz is true then team name

honours a white man who traded on the image of Indigenous peoples for personal profit.

McGill also argues that the name Redmen is harmless, though it uses a different explanation than Washington, calling on the university’s Scottish heritage. This may be partially true, but regardless of the true origin of the name, there is no doubt that McGill’s varsity teams have associated themselves with Indigenous symbolism in the past.

Before the junior varsity and intermediate teams were cut because of funding problems in the 1970s, they were known as the McGill Indians, with only the varsity teams being known as the Redmen. Furthermore, from 1982 to 1992, McGill’s football and hockey teams used an image of an Indigenous person in a headdress as the insignia on their helmets and uniforms, just like the Washington Redskins do currently.

Despite McGill’s claims to the contrary, the Redmen name clearly referred to Indigenous people, and was associated with an offensive logo. No one going to a McGill football game in the 1980s would think that the name Redmen referred to something other than the person depicted on the team’s helmet.

Yet despite mounting pressure, Washington refuses to even entertain the idea of a name change. In a press conference in May 2013, Dan

Snyder stated, “We’ll never change the name. It’s that simple. NEVER — you can use caps.” Snyder’s flippant, disrespectful language at that press event focused even more attention on his team’s name than there had been before. The negative reaction to Snyder’s public statements has shown that this kind of disregard for the basic rights of Indigenous people no longer has any place in the world of sports. The only acceptable outcome of this controversy is a name change.

McGill, like Snyder and his organization, has been stubborn when confronted about the name of its men’s teams. When, reacting to pressure from student groups, the Athletics Board decided to remove the Indigenous insignia from team garb in 1992, Richard Pound, chairman of the Athletics Board, stated that the name Redmen would be preserved because they “believe the Redmen name and logo are quite separate issues.” That is spurious reasoning. Getting rid of the logo does not change the fact that the Redmen name has been associated with images of Indigenous people.

McGill lost an opportunity to completely break away from its culturally appropriative team name in 1992.

It should take the current outrage about the Redskins as a hint that these kinds of names are not acceptable anymore.

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Sports

September 15, 2014 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com

SCOREBOARD REDMEN

MARTLETS

Men’s Soccer

Women’s Soccer

L 1 - 2 vs UQAM W 2 - 1 at Concordia

vs UQAM at Concordia

Men’s Rugby at Concordia

Women’s Rugby

W 20 - 17 at Concordia

Men’s Baseball vs Montreal at Carleton at Carleton at Ottawa at Ottawa

Men’s Lacrosse at Carleton at Ottawa

Men’s Football at Sherbrooke

T 2-2 W 2-0

UPCOMING GAMES

L 20 - 34

W 4-2 W 9-1 Redmen W 12 - 2 W 14 - 2 9/15 – Baseball, at Montreal 7:30 p.m., Ahuntsic Park W 5-4 9/17 – Baseball, at Montreal 7:30 p.m., Ahuntsic Park W 14 - 4 9/17 – Men’s Lacrosse, vs Bishop’s* 8:30 p.m., Molson Stadium W 15 - 4 9/19 – Baseball, vs Montreal 7:30 p.m., Gary Carter Field (Côte Saint-Luc) L 21 - 43

* home games

sports@mcgilldaily.com

Culture

September 15, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

17

Home away from home

Ukrainian Festival brings together community amidst troubled times Kateryna Gordiychuk Culture Writer

T

hough it may not be known within the McGill bubble, Montreal has a large and vibrant Ukrainian community – large enough to sustain the Montreal Ukrainian Festival for the past 15 years. This year’s took place last weekend in Le Parc de l’Ukraine, a pillar of the Montreal Ukrainian community.

Coming from Ukraine myself, I’ve heard Ukrainian citizens express their uncertainty and dissatisfaction with the whole concept of celebrating, whether in the country or outside of it, at this turbulent time. There is, to put it gently, a certain tension floating in the air of our communities due to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

Many Ukrainians are not quite sure if it is appropriate to call anything a festival right now, amidst the military action in the Eastern part of the country. There is no official prohibition of festivals or celebratory events in the Ukraine, but a lot of Ukrainians, especially those whose families are directly involved in the conflict, prefer not to participate in big parades and not to ‘celebrate life’ while many are at risk of losing it.

Organized by the Montreal Ukrainian Festival Executive, the festival incorporated many traditional Ukrai-

nian activities. During the three-daylong event, attendees enjoyed folk dances, music, and delicious food. Although the festival itself was not very spacious, the organizers did a great job of installing plenty of food stalls, little arts and crafts shops, and most importantly, a large stage with ample seating area so that no one missed out on the non-stop lineup of folk dancers and singers. In Ukraine, everything begins with a song, and at Ukrainian events or parties, it often feels like the singing never ends – at least not in people’s hearts. The festival organizers did a perfect job of representing the importance of music in Ukrainian life, as there was never any silence throughout the festival. The intense dances, colourful embroidered clothing so enthusiastically worn by the guests, and folk songs performed by both Ukrainians and artists from the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada, all combined to evoke the spirit of home.

The purpose of this beautifully organized gathering wasn’t solely to make people like myself feel at home.

The festival also acts as a means of introducing Montrealers to Ukrainian culture in an accessible and fun manner. Many of the attendees were not Ukrainian, but could still be seen enjoying their servings of borsch (a traditional Ukrainian soup made with beets), eagerly listening

Folk dancing at Montreal’s Ukrainian Festival. to the folk songs from the stage, and inquiring about the Ukrainian symbols sold in souvenir shops. The festival had a welcoming atmosphere, a comfortable home for a community of many backgrounds, where each performance was announced in three different languages – Ukrainian, French, and English. Those with a connection to Ukraine were happy to share stories about their home with anyone who was willing to listen – myself included.

Despite the success of this cultural

Tamim Sujat | The McGill Daily

coming-together, at the festival’s longawaited concert from popular Ukrainian rock band Okean Elzy, the issue of ‘should’ and ‘shouldn’t’ was brought up again. On the day of the performance, a reporter from the Ukrainian news service TNS inquired whether the band thought it was appropriate to have that kind of a celebration at the moment. With confidence and respect, band member Svyatoslav Varachuk replied that he didn’t consider the concert a celebration – it was a gathering of people who had one goal,

one hope, and lots of love for their country. He thought the concert was a way of being together and holding hands in support of Ukraine.

Personally, I’m inclined to agree.

While there were visitors who disagreed, their mere presence at the festival was encouraging. The festival isn’t performed year after year out of some necessity to organize an event related to Ukraine. It is a sign of cultural acknowledgment, the sunlight amidst the dark clouds reigning over Ukraine.

Isolated on the street, connected online Bloggers in Captivity explores social and political meaning of alienation Grace Bill Culture Writer

T

hose entering the St. Laurent metro station last weekend would have seen a peculiar sight outside: two artists sitting in plexiglass cubes, their eyes focused on computer screens. The people in question were Quebec performance artists karen elaine spencer and Adam Bergeron, in the middle of performing their new work, Bloggers in Captivity. The piece saw the two artists bubbled on St. Laurent for three consecutive days, while writing online blog posts about their experience. karen elaine spencer, who graduated from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and now lives and works in Montreal, has been a performance artist for decades, creating work that, according to a press release, questions “the hierarchy inherent in our values.” Adam Bergeron, who is currently a Mas-

ters student at Université Laval, often incorporates paintings into his performance art, examining norms of taste and style. Bloggers in Captivity includes both the artists’ focuses, and directs them toward the social and political implications of isolation in a digital world, claiming the Marx-esque motto “alienated from all countries, unite!”

The “in captivity” conceit of the piece is, in a way, a red herring.

Physically, the two artists were not completely isolated. The clear glass allowed the audience to see the artists typing on their laptops, sitting, and eating lunch. On a wall of each cube, a screen showed in real time what the artists were blogging, giving the audience insight into the artists’ thoughts and feelings as they occurred. Some passers-by asked the artists if they could take photos; but for the most part, Montrealers were unphased by the spectacle, and more concerned with getting to the train on time.

The performance itself was rather anticlimactic, even upon multiple visits. The plexiglass barrier made it difficult to engage the artists directly, and the artists mostly avoided eye contact with the audience. Perhaps their goal was, in fact, to not attract attention.

While the artists did not generate much attention on the streets, the online portion of their performance has attracted numerous comments. Rather than focusing on the physical alienation their “captivity” seemed designed to emulate, Bergeron and spencer centred their attention on other more political definitions of “alienation.”

In their blog posts, the two artists argued that it is not the internet that causes modern alienation, but neoliberal capitalism. Bergeron expanded on the artists’ slogan, itself a reference to The Communist Manifesto, in a post criticizing Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. “For one to believe in a sacred uniqueness of individuals is at risk for a political paralysis, even if

it is sold as a ‘higher’ form of empowerment,” he states, “it remains that we have to unite our individual strength if we want to knit some kind of social scarf for us to protect each other.” spencer, on the other hand, concentrated her posts on immigration, examining the meaning and etymology of the word “alienated” and connecting it to the terms “immigrant” and “foreigner.”

In addition to the political core of Bloggers in Captivity, Bergeron’s posts about his own feelings of alienation, usually accompanied by his own paintings, are poetically candid and add an engaging element to the piece that could not be experienced outside the metro. spencer’s posts, on the other hand, showed an enjoyable dry wit: as rain began to pour on the installation, she posted Buddy Guy’s “Feels Like Rain,” and earlier remarked on the difficulty of finding a picture of a space alien with hair.

Ultimately, there is a limit to the public or political impact that can

be made by a project like Bloggers in Captivity. Most of the people heading into or passing by the St. Laurent metro passed by the exhibition entirely.

However, the artists’ location helped to further spencer’s goal of breaking down the barrier between artistic practice and daily life, and despite the lack of attention, the audience was likely larger than it would have been at an art gallery or museum.

Moreover, performing outside the metro, a location so often associated with transport to and from work, offered the possibility of spencer and Bergeron’s message reaching the workers who are arguably most affected by alienation.

Due to the fact that audience members have to find online posts to understand the project, Bloggers in Captivity is ironically too inaccessible to be a connecting artistic experience. It remains, however, a useful piece, demonstrating that both art and politics are simultaneously individual and universal experiences.

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Culture

September 15, 2014 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com

Starving artists fight back Montreal band launches petition against MTL Blog for coverage charge Pauline Lee Culture Writer

M

TL Blog is currently one of the most popular websites on the internet for all Montreal-related news and events. It is possibly also one of the most controversial news and culture websites in the city, having received allegations of photo theft and failing to compensate contributors. In response to this criticism, the site this summer published a “love letter” to Montreal, claiming “hate us, and we rebuttal [sic].” Now, a Montreal band has decided to “rebuttal” right back at the site.

Montreal-based band Archery Guild has made accusations against the site that may damage its reputation as a go-to source for culture in Montreal. The band, founded in 2010, states that MTL Blog contacted them in January 2014 about

covering one of their shows – with the requirement that they pay for this coverage before the show took place. Archery Guild alleges that, while they agreed to the coverage, they did not pay beforehand, and MTL Blog has since been charging them for publicity and coverage, with interest.

To make their claims public, Archery Guild started an online petition this month on change.org. where they relay what happened behind the closed doors of this exchange, asking the public to help change the blog’s practice of charging for coverage. Both MTL Blog and Archery Guild agree that there was a request for payment before the event. However, Archery Guild states that no contracts were agreed upon, and although no payment was made to MTL Blog, the site still took and uploaded photos of the event.

an Alternative pop guide

Archery Guild claims that an invoice, with interest, has been sent to them on a monthly basis since the show, requesting payment for the coverage. However, Michael Cota, the lead vocalist of the band, argues that no contract regarding such a payment was signed. “If there [was] a contract, it would be a different story. There was no contract, this was [MTL Blog’s] responsibility,” writes Cota on their petition’s page on change.org.

After the petition went up, Charles Lapointe, co-founder and CEO of MTL Blog, said that Archery Guild’s allegations are false and that proper documentation had been signed prior to the show, although he did not respond when pressed to provide evidence of the documents.

He writes, “[W]e do not charge for all events. We will work on making this more obvious for events where we do.”

Megan Lindy and Rosie Long Decter The McGill Daily

Despite the disparity as to whether or not an agreement had been made and a contract signed prior to the event, Archery Guild told The Daily that MTL Blog has agreed to absorb the costs of the photographer.

Asked to comment on the current situation, Cota said, “I feel like they are really trying to shut me up so they can move on and continue doing everything as it was before this petition and the other articles that have surfaced about them.”

According to Archery Guild, the coverage that MTL Blog did of their show was mostly photographs of the fans and not of the band itself.

The band was also told to share the MTL Blog article with their followers on social media, which they claim they did. Archery Guild has publicly agreed to pay the photographer who did the coverage but not MTL Blog itself.

The incident with Archery Guild is not the only criticism aimed at MTL Blog’s practices in the past year. There have been numerous reports that the website, which considers itself to be a news site, acts more like an advertising company, since many of its articles are sponsored and have been paid for.

While the absorption of the photography cost means that Archery Guild’s financial conflict with the site has been resolved, their petition also addresses the broader struggle that many Montreal artists face in trying to earn a living from their art. “Our band is a group of literally starving artists,” the band’s petition states, concluding with the assertion that “the people who deserved to be paid (and who were) at the show were the artists themselves.”

MTL Blog could not be reached for a comment.

With over 400 artists, POP Montreal can be overwhelming, to say the least. While everyone else is at Ty Segall or Bonobo, check out what POP Montreal does best: local artists at local venues. Or maybe head on over to one of POP’s lesser known features, ART POP or Film POP. Here’s our picks for an alternative POP.

Wednesday, Day

Thursday, Day

Friday, Day

Saturday, Day

Sunday, Day

ART POP - Richmond Lam

Symposium: Can Anyone be a Rockstar: The Gendered Landscape of Music Scenes and Rock Camp for Girls

CTZNSHP + POP BBQ with Moon King, Doomsquad, Seoul, Diamond Bones

PUCES POP – Record Fair

The Montreal Formula: Thinking outside the box for survival in Montreal Arts

11:00 a.m.

Quartiers POP Free!

The Series: ART POP is a visual arts series, featuring free installations and performances by local and international artists. It occurs all day, every day.

The Show: Taken in his Mile End studio, Richard Lam’s intimate portraits are a throwback to the world of stark black and white photography.

4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.

Quartiers POP Free!

The Series: POP Symposium brings an analytical lens to questions of culture. The panels also give headliners a chance to connect with the audience outside of a concert hall.

The Panel: Rock Camp for Girls, a community organization focused on empowering girls through music, invites Montrealers to discuss the complexities of breaking into the music world as a female-identified or gender non-conforming musician.

3:00 p.m.

Parc de la Petite-Italie Free!

The Venue: Outdoor greenery, complete with a gazebo; what better way is there to spend a Friday afternoon?

(Definitely not in class.)

The Sound: Post-punk with dark melodies and back to basics instruments.

The Show: CTZNSHP shows usually consist of angsty headbobbing in a corner of the room, so it’ll be interesting to see that transition to an outdoor setting.

11:00 a.m.

Ukrainian Federation (5213 Hutchinson) Free!

The Series: PUCES POP wheels and deals crafts, music, and eclectic art pieces to add to your ever-growing collection.

The Show: Once POP has whetted your appetite for new music, head over to the Ukrainian Federation to browse the record collections on sale. Providers include local and beloved shops, as well as international dealers.

1:45 p.m. - 3:15 p.m.

Quartiers POP Free!

The Series: POP Symposium.

The Artist: Founder of the World Stupidity Awards, Albert Nerenberg is a Canadian filmmaker, author, journalist and “laughologist,” not to mention a former editor of The Daily.

The Event: Albert and his friends will offer advice on how to avoid ending up as the stereotypical starving artist in Montreal.

Wednesday, Evening

Thursday, Evening

Friday, Evening

Saturday, Evening

Sunday, Evening

Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry | U.S., 2014 | 108 min.) – QueBEc premiere!

Holobody at Cagibi + Slight, Nancy Pants, Silver Keys, Superbloom

TOPS + Moon King, Lydia Ainsworth, Homeshake, Doldrums

Kalmunity Jazz Project

8:30 p.m.

Théâtre Hall Concordia Tickets $10 The Series: Film POP is one of POP’s lesser known siblings. screening some of cinema’s hidden gems.

The Show: Ease into POP Montreal madness with this dark comedy about a writer awaiting the publication of his second novel. Starring Jason Schwartzman, Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men), and Krysten Ritter (Breaking Bad).

11 :00 p.m.

Cagibi Tickets $10 The Venue: Cagibi is a venue in the Mile End that feels like your friend’s country house: it’s old and worn but full of charm. It’s also the back room to a cafe: it’s so on point it’s almost a parody of an indie venue.

The Sound: Indie-folk melodies overladen with the gentle harmonies of the vocalists (who also happen to be siblings).

The Show: The combination of the intimate venue and the peaceful music will treat the audience to a serene vibe.

12:15 a.m.

La Sala Rossa Tickets $5 The Venue: The hallmark of the Montreal indie scene, La Sala Rossa’s wooden floors and age-old red curtains accommodate both intimate shows and large crowds.

The Sound: Lighthearted indie electronic music with a faded pop quality.

The Show: Having just released a full-length album, TOPS’ fan base is already significant within the city, promising a show full of happy people and dreamy dance tunes.

Saxsyndrum + The Lovely Feathers, How Sad, Dishwasher, Pigeon Phat, Holy Data 1:00 a.m.

Divan Orange Tickets $10 The Venue: A small bar with old wooden floors, a hidden gem at the heart of St. Laurent, a place that welcomes all sorts.

The Sound: Wild jazz and funk tunes.

The Show: The Saxsyndrum duo always look like they’re having the time of their lives onstage and their music makes that feeling absolutely contagious.

9:45 p.m.

Café Résonance Tickets $8 The Venue: A well-respected Mile End cafe, the smell of coffee beans will no doubt linger throughout the performance.

The Sound: Explosive jazz improvisation, with elements of R&B, hiphop, Afrobeat, funk, reggae, and soul, from a well-seasoned group of musicians.

The Show: These experienced musicians will no doubt put on a lively and musically playful show to get your groove on to.

Illustrations by Jehane Yazami

Editorial

volume 104 number 3

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

September 15, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Hungry for food accessibility

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! editors

Emmet Livingstone Vacant sports editor

Drew Wolfson Bell features editor

Hannah Besseau

Alice Shen | The McGill Daily

science+technology editor

Zapaer Alip

culture editor

Rosie Long Decter Vacant multimedia editor

Vacant Vacant

photo editor

Tamim Sujat illustrations editor

Alice Shen copy editor

Molly Korab design & production editor

Rachel Nam web editor

Vacant

community editor

Vacant

le délit

Joseph Boju

rec@delitfrancais.com cover design Alice Shen, Tamim Sujat contributors Grace Bill, Nadia Boachie, Joelle Dahm, William Doan, Cem Ertekin, Lauria Galbraith, Kateryna Gordiychuk, Mohamed Laila, Pauline Lee, Megan Lindy, Eleanor Milman, Chantelle Schultz, Madison Smith, Arielle VanIderstine, Jasmine Wang, Jehane Yazami, Stephanie Zazzera

W

hen students returned to school this term, outrage erupted over a sudden change in their food choices: the Tim Horton’s in Redpath had disappeared, replaced by the far pricier Première Moisson. This removal of one of the last cheap food options on campus has opened McGill up to wider criticisms of the growing inaccessibility of food at this university. Widely shared recent coverage in the Montreal Gazette missed the mark entirely, praising the greater range of organic and locally-sourced food, but ignoring students’ need for cheap and accessible food. While the increasing number of healthy options is a good step, the prices of food available on campus are inflated and unaffordable for students already juggling expensive textbooks and tuition fees.

Students have been advocating for cheaper food options for years now; most recently after the administration shut down the student-run Arch Café in 2010, citing financial mismanagement. After four years of stop-and-start planning, SSMU finally opened up a student-run cafe, The Nest, but its prices still leave something to be desired, and its future has been thrown into jeopardy due to budget constraints.

Midnight Kitchen provides by-donation vegan lunches to students, but as their funding is limited and they are volunteer-run, they are unable to feed thousands of hungry students.

These few student-run initiatives provide most of the cheaper and more accessible food on campus.

Indeed, food accessibility isn’t necessarily limited to

price – the inaccessibility of food on campus spans many different dimensions. Aside from high prices, many food outlets at McGill are located in obscure or faraway areas, operate at hours that are not suited to student schedules, and often fail to provide sufficient options for halal, kosher, vegetarian, and vegan diets, as well as for those with food allergies.

Such inaccessibility is closely tied to the outsourcing of food services to private contractors, both in the retail food services and within Food and Dining Services itself, which operates via a private contractor.

This comes as no great surprise. McGill has steadily been growing more corporate over the past years, from the huge spike in industry-funded academic research, to constant rhetoric around “branding” the university, to the outsized influence of industry and banking executives in our university governance.

Corporatization means less accountability to students, we are able to hold the university and our student societies accountable to some degree, but do not have the same ability to do so with the corporate and retail influences on our campus.

The increasingly high food prices indicate a university administration that gives little attention to accessibility. Students, who make up the bulk of the McGill community, should be given a meaningful say in the food choices on campus. At this point, we are left with the choice between an empty wallet or an empty stomach.

—The McGill Daily Editorial Board

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dps board of directors Joseph Boju, Juan Camilo Velásquez Buriticá, Dana Wray

All contents © 2013 Daily Publications Society. All rights reserved. The content of this newspaper is the responsibility of The McGill Daily and does not necessarily represent the views of McGill University. Products or companies advertised in this newspaper are not necessarily endorsed by Daily staff.

Printed by Imprimerie Transcontinental Transmag. Anjou, Quebec.

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Compendium!

September 15, 2014 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Lies, half-truths, and winter is actually coming!

Westeros Gazette Daenerys Targaryen

Jon Snow

The great white saviour of the series, Daenerys’ mission is to free all people of colour from their own incivility – with a maternal edge. She goes about spreading the good word of freedom and democracy with a single flip of that long silvery-blonde hair. From riches to rags, thin privilege has never looked so good as when this princess exercises the full breadth of her entitlement. Daenerys is so progressive, she even has some slaves as friends – hell, she even married one of those barbaric Dothrakis.

Ygritte had it right, Jon Snow knows nothing. His blinding male privilege entitles him to all the whining a storyline can handle. Like his other male counterparts, he spends a significant amount of time feeling sorry for himself and the moral duties he must uphold to maintain a gentlemanly reputation. Jon shows us, its not easy being the good guy. Keep on victimizing yourself Lord Snow, you’re not annoying anyone.

Arya Stark

Tyrion Lannister

It’s hard not to like one of the only badass female protagonists on the show, but this second wave feminist is not without her limitations. Sure, she sports an increasing ‘don’t mess with me’ attitude, but at the end of the day she’s tough just because she takes on masculine characteristics that society deems more powerful than any feminine expression could be. Fuck you patriarchy.

Tyrion has to deal with a lot. Life, for him, is a constant struggle against an ableist society. He positions himself as an ally to the oppressed – but is he? He plays up to many of the stereotypes about dwarves we’ve come to hate: promiscuous, funny, and in essence, a clown. Not to mention his lording his wealth over lowly peasants and a talent for mass murder. Arrgh but fuck it we love him anyway don’t we? Good ol’ Tyrion, constantly giving two fingers to the man! Plus, his slaveunderling (not really a slave, a ‘squire’) is called Pod. What’s not to like?

Joffrey Baratheon

Cersei Lannister

This fucking kid. This spoiled fucking kid.

Joffrey thinks that his wealth and power are a legitimate excuse for his misogyny. He embodies white privilege. He is misogynistic, racist, ableist and comes from the most capitalist family in all of the Seven Kingdoms. Every fucking thing Joffrey says is just lukewarm jingoistic Lannister bullshit. Yeah, you’re really proud of being a Baratheon and a Lannister right? Have a talk with your ‘uncle’ Jamie and tell me about it. I hate you and hope you get poisoned at your wedding, oh wait a minute. Spoilers, get at me.

There’s something alluring about one of the most powerful and ambitious women in Westeros, but wits and wiles aside, Cersei is a character to feel sorry for. More capable than most men, and more ruthless, she’s shunted to background of the politicking because of her gender. In that respect, right-on Cersei: keep fightin’ the good fight. Then you remember all the murders she has planned, and her glee in cruelty. Well, hey, at least she doesn’t discriminate in murder.

Tywin Lannister Ooooh my god this guy is so fucking uptight.

Tywin needs to chill the fuck out and smoke a jay with his boys or something. He should stop taking up so much space with his whitecis-male privilege and thinking it’s justified by keeping his family name intact. Tywin fully believes in the problematic Westerosi political structure – he’s a status quo kinda dude. He also takes this all a step further by being taken on the role of the ‘master,’ fuck your house Tywin. If he lived in the real world he would probably be a fucked-up mix of George W. Bush, Satan, and a grumpy Santa Claus.

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