October 23, 2018

theconcordian

CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY’S WEEKLY, INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER

 /theconcordian  @theconcordian  @theconcordian  theconcordian.com

VOLUME 36, ISSUE 9 | TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2018

Women's hockey team isn't taking anything for granted Sports p. 13

also in this issue...

news

life

Khashoggi leaves Safety on the a legacy behind p. 4 dancefloor

arts

p. 6

music

opinions

CJLO collective The uncertain Our thoughts on launches zine p. 9 future of trap p. 10 the trans ban p. 14

news

CITY IN BRIEF

NEWS EDITORS /// news@theconcordian.com IAN DOWN & MIA ANHOURY ( @IanDown1996 @mia_anhoury)

APPLICATION

Couponing made easy

ASFA Deals app provides students with coupons for food around campus MIA ANHOURY NEWS EDITOR Whether you are craving pork dumplings with a side of rice noodles, or a 12-inch Subway sandwich to refuel after class, buying food can be expensive on a student budget.

The Arts and Science Federation of Associations (ASFA) created an application called ASFA Deals to provide Concordians and fellow Montrealers with daily coupons from a variety of restaurants near both campuses.

ASFA’s External Affairs and Communications Coordinator, Fatima El Gahami, started looking into a potential phone application for students when she was running for her position in the association’s last elections. Once elected, she worked alongside ASFA’s Communications and External Affairs Committee to develop the app during the summer.

HEALTH

It was important to El Gahami for deals to be available everywhere, especially at the Loyola campus because the majority of students there are arts and science students, and there is already a lack of food options.

T h e commit te e team e d up with Restoply, a company that develops custom apps

for restaurants. The app was completed in July as a pilot test and was officially released during this year’s Frosh week.

The creation of the app did not cost ASFA anything. Restaurant owners make a profit in the form of clientele, and Restoply earns revenue whenever a coupon from the application is used.

“There was an app with CASA [Commerce and Administration Students’ Association] Deals and I really liked the idea,” said El Gahami, when asked what inspired the app.

“I wanted to bring this sense of unity between students, and [have] them recognize they are a part of ASFA,” said El Gahami.

“We’re all students. We pay tuition, we work. So it’s always a good idea to save money on food, especially the food around downtown,” said El Gahami. “It can be expensive buying everyday, so you get a deal. It’s flattering to save up money, and at the same time, it’s your association that is offering you these deals.”

The coupons vary day to day, and change based on your location, explained El Gahami.

She hop e s t he app w ill encourage students to become more involved with ASFA and student politics.

Not in our blood

Graphic by Ana Bilokin.

Héma-Québec singles out homosexual and bisexual men EITHNE LYNCH ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR Héma-Québec held a blooddrive in Concordia’s LB building this past week, but not everyone was allowed to donate.

Héma-Québec’s website provides a list of criteria for who can and cannot donate. The section “men who have sex with men,” states that if a man's “last sexual contact with a man was less than 12 months ago,” he cannot donate blood.

In 2016-17, close to 360,000 people volunteered in HémaQuébec blood drives. Over 316,000 blood products, such as whole blood, plasmas, platelets, and red blood cells were delivered to hospitals. Once blood is donated, it undergoes testing for various viruses, bacterias and diseases.

If anything is detected, the blood sample is destroyed to ensure only healthy blood products are given to hospitals.

In the late 1970s, more than 1,000 people contracted HIV and Hepatitis C from contaminated blood, in Canada. It became clear that the blood screening process at the time was not effective. In

order to combat this, the Royal Commission of Inquiry on the Blood System was formed in 1993, and recommended the quality of blood products and the safety of the recipients be of top priority.

Héma-Québec states that the 12-month waiting period was created with the Commission in mind. It considers the fact that gay men are statistically more likely to contract HIV. According to Statistics Canada, “there were approximately 1,396 new infections in 2014 attributed to the men who have sex with men (MSM) exposure category, representing 54.3 per cent of all new infections.” However, the same source also found females infected with HIV in 2014 made up an estimated 23.2 per cent of all new infections, and the majority of these women contracted the virus through heterosexual contact.

“I think the rule is outdated,” said Akira De Carlos, a health and resource coordinator for Queer Concordia. De Carlos said homosexual and bisexual men find it unfair that they are unable to give blood. “Just statistics-wise, if you’re homosexual, it does not mean that you will necessarily get

HIV,” said De Carlos.

AIDS Community Care Montreal (ACCM) “feels that the current blood donation guidelines are discriminatory and unscientific,” said Ren Haskett, education for prevention coordinator for ACCM. “Men who have sex with men are unfairly targeted by the current criteria, regardless of their actual sexual practices and risk level,” added Haskett.

ACCM is the only “Englishlanguage community organization that provides services for people living with HIV or Hepatitis C,” said Haskett.

He added that the 12-month deferral period does not reflect the current science behind HIV testing.

“The nucleic acid amplification testing used to test blood donations for HIV is only nine days.” These tests look at genetic material to detect bacteria and viruses in the blood, which allows for earlier identification of diseases.

“It’s 2018, health services have changed. Safe-sex education is more available and accessible,” said De Carlos. “Treatments and medical methods have evolved as well.”

There are some changes in

MIA ANHOURY NEWS EDITOR A National Career Event is being held at the Palais des congrès this Wednesday and Thursday with 220 Montreal-based employers to help Montrealers find job opportunities in various fields.

The event will offer close to 6,000 jobs.

Westmount High School teachers protested the CAQ’s pledge to ban religious symbols in Quebec for police, judges, and teachers, on Thursday according to The Montreal Gazette . The protest occurred the same day the new government was sworn in.

A car caught fire on Highway 40 eastbound, close to 7 p.m. on Saturday, according to TVA. No one was hurt. The fire was likely caused by a mechanical problem.

According to L’actualité, a police operation to stop cocaine and methamphetamines circulation in Laval and the northern region of Montreal concluded with nine arrests, between last Wednesday and Thursday. They are being charged with trafficking and arms possession, among other things.

This puts an end to a year-long operation that involved 170 police officers.

The City of Montreal’s financial reports predict a $65 million surplus by the end of 2018, according to Radio-Canada.

Mayor Valérie Plante had estimated a surplus of $140 million in April.

the works, according to Haskett: “Héma-Québec and Canadian Blood Services are exploring behaviour-based screenings for all donors.”

Graphic by @spooky_soda The Canadian Blood Services website defines behaviour-based screening as a long-term solution. These their safe sex practices. This way, screenings would determine patients’s safety would still come potentially high-risk behaviour first, while also limiting the societal in a donor based on how many impact on specific groups like the sexual partners they’ve had and LGBTQ+ community.

Graphic by @spooky_soda

OCTOBER 23, 2018

CAMPUS LIFE

Goodbye G-Lounge Loyola’s long-running café closes its doors

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NATION IN BRIEF MIA ANHOURY NEWS EDITOR Only an hour after the legalization of Cannabis, Winnipeg police officers issued their first ticket for cannabis consumption in a motor vehicle on a highway, according to CBC. It is still unclear whether the person under the inf luence was the driver or a passenger.

François Legault was sworn in as Quebec’s 32nd premier last Thursday and has followed through with his commitment to have a gender-balanced cabinet, according to Radio-Canada. He has chosen 13 men and 13 women.

A bill that aims to stop auto insurance companies from charging a higher premium based on the postal code of the driver was introduced by two Ontario legislators last Monday, according to The Toronto Sun. The legislators were from t wo par ties: the Progressive Conservatives and the New Democratic Party.

An Indigenous family in Alberta was compelled to move after receiving a letter addressed to “the very unwanted and hated neighbours,” according to Global News. The family no longer felt safe after receiving the racist, threatening letter. It read, “This isn’t a reserve.”

When it’s not reserved for an event, the G-Lounge sits locked and empty. Photo by Ian Down.

IAN DOWN NEWS EDITOR L a s t w i n t e r, t h e G - L o u n g e o n Concordia’s Loyola campus was home to a bustling student-run café. Today, the bright, spacious hall on the CC building’s fourth floor sits locked and empty. The fraternity flags that adorn the walls are still visible through a crack in the doorway.

There was no formal announcement of the G-Lounge’s closing; the café’s last Facebook post in March was an ad for a Greek salad and grilled cheese trio.

After it closed for its annual summer break, the G-Lounge never reopened.

It’s an abrupt and unfitting end for a café that was one of Loyola’s main hangouts for over 40 years. Concordia’s Inter Fraternity Council (IFC), a union of four fraternities and three sororities, opened the café in 1973. Early on in its history, in addition to snacks and coffee, the G-Lounge sold cigarettes.

It also had a license to sell alcohol, which it lost in 1985 after “some fraternity shenanigans,” according to a video interview with former manager Blake Snow.

“I didn't have any classes at Loyola, but I always seemed to find myself there,” one person commented on the

G-Lounge’s Facebook page. “[I] have a lot of fond memories hanging out and studying [there].”

The G-Lounge “was our way of making profit and showcasing ourselves on school grounds,” said Athena Sita, president of the IFC since 2017. “There’s no other space anywhere at Concordia that shows that there’s Greek life here.”

Even in its final days, the G-Lounge was a popular study spot. “If you were to walk into the G-Lounge at noon [or] 1 p.m., you would see every table was full,” said Sita.

In its last year, the G-Lounge was plagued by issues with construction, management, and staffing. Sita said she arrived after summer break in 2017 to find structural damage in the ceiling, as well as water damage in the food preparation area, which took nearly the entire semester to fix.

Then, after a brief two-week stint in the winter of 2018, the café was forced to close again when one of its two managers resigned for personal reasons.

However, Sita said the café’s biggest problems began well before she arrived at the IFC. In the years leading up to its closing, the G-Lounge was facing new competition on campus, including a Tim Hortons in the Science Complex

and a Hive Café in the Student Centre building.

“It was nearly impossible to keep us afloat in a pretty robust cafe and food market,” said Snow, who managed the G-Lounge from 2016 to early 2018. “We had the space, which most students loved using, but [they] would bring their own lunches [and] coffee.”

Despite the café’s popularity, Sita said the G-Lounge would typically only make about $100 a day. “There’s only so much money you can make off of $1 coffee,” she said. “We were making a bit of cash, but not enough to pay back our suppliers.”

Sita said that having rules against outside food would have only chased more customers away.

The café also suffered from a lack of volunteers. “Because we were in a bit of debt, we asked for people to volunteer their time instead of being able to employ [them],” said Sita. She said the IFC is still paying off its debt from the G-Lounge.

Despite its struggles, the G-Lounge reopened last March, and stayed open until the end of the academic year.

However, with the café in financial jeopardy, the IFC entered into talks with the Dean of Students office (DoS)—which administers the G-Lounge—about giving

Graphic by @spooky_soda

up the space. At the time, the Concordia Student Union (CSU) was interested in co-managing the café.

Finally, after much deliberation, the IFC decided to stop renting the space from the DoS. “A vote was passed, and we decided that we were no longer going to be running [the G-Lounge],” said Sita.

Alexis Searcy, the C SU’s Loyola coordinator, said that, while the union is still in talks with the DoS about using the space, “our interest in administering the space has been greatly reduced.”

She said the CSU would eventually like to have food services in the G-Lounge and make it more open to the public; currently, the space must be booked in advance through Hospitality Concordia.

“I really hope that the G-Lounge space is opened up and used to its full advantage," said Sita. "It’s one of the only spaces at Loyola that has so much light, and it’s such a huge space.”

Regardless of what replaces the G-Lounge, generations of Concordia students will feel its loss. Snow said that one of his favourite experiences when he was manager “Was parents walking up to me and going, ‘Gee, this place is still here, huh? That's amazing. So many great memories in this place.’"

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theconcordian

OCTOBER 23, 2018

JOURNALISM

What does Khashoggi mean for press freedom?

Human rights panel discusses the implications of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder

From left: Kyle Matthews, Omar Abdulaziz, Agnes Gruda, Marie Lamensch, and Lisa Goldman. Photo by Kenneth Gibson.

KENNETH GIBSON STAFF WRITER Two journalists and a Saudi Arabian activist gathered at Concordia on Oct. 17 to discuss the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent critic of Saudi leadership. It is widely believed that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman orchestrated the plot leading to Khashoggi’s death.

The panel was organized by Concordia’s Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS) to address what the incident means for the “freedom of the press, human rights, in Saudi Arabia and the world,” said MIGS Executive Director, Kyle Matthews.

Khashoggi had exiled himself to the United States in June 2017 and began writing a regular column for the Washington Post. His columns criticized the Saudi government for allowing women to drive, while the women who campaigned for that reform remained in prison. The columns also criticized the county’s brutal human rights violations in Yemen, and the use of the death penalty against political dissidents.

Khashoggi was last seen entering Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. In the weeks following his disappearance, a series of leaks from Turkish officials claimed they had evidence, including CCTV footage, proving Khashoggi was murdered and dismembered by a 15-person team of Saudi intelligence officers inside the consulate.

After weeks of describing Turkey’s accusations as “baseless lies,” and insisting Khashoggi had left the consulate unharmed, Saudi officials conceded on Oct. 19 that Khashoggi had died inside. The official story is that agents sent to pressure the journalist into returning to Saudi Arabia put him in a chokehold to prevent him calling for help, leading to his death.

For Matthews, the potential consequences

are clear: “When you go after journalists, that is the first step […]. Then political opposition leaders, civil, human rights leaders, and then the general population.”

One of the panelists, Saudi Arabian political activist and Quebec resident, Omar Abdulaziz, was a close associate of Khashoggi’s. “Three weeks ago, I was on a phone call with Mr. Khashoggi,” said Abdulaziz. “We were working on some projects to counter Saudi propaganda.”

Abdulaziz spoke authoritatively about the general political situation for dissidents in Saudi Arabia. “The mentality of the Saudi administration is not allowing us […] to even try to say, ‘I do agree with you but you have to change that small thing.’ No, that is not going to happen,” he said.

Mohammed bin Salman’s rise to de facto leader of Saudi Arabia in 2017 was accompanied by a slew of positive media coverage in the West, where he was widely referred to as “MBS.” It was the result of a coordinated public relations campaign to promote a progressive image of Saudi Arabia.

MBS took a glad-handing tour of New York, Hollywood, and Silicon Valley, taking photos with Rupert Murdoch and Sergey Brin of Google. As recently as March of this year, 60 Minutes was telling its audience that MBS was “emancipating women, introducing music and cinema and cracking down on corruption.” His reforms were “revolutionary.”

Khashoggi’s Washington Post columns were one of the few critical voices in American media. “Jamal Khashoggi was a headache to the Saudi government,” said Abdulaziz. “They were spending billions promoting a new image of the country and he was saying, ‘no, this is not true.’”

Abdulaziz first came to Canada in 2009 to study at McGill. During his studies, he began to use social media to publish videos that criticized the MBS regime. By 2014, friends

and family back in Saudi Arabia were warning Abdulaziz that it would be dangerous for him to come back, so he successfully applied for political asylum in Canada.

Abdulaziz is familiar with the tactics the Saudi government uses to target its dissident citizens abroad. Just one day prior to Khashoggi’s disappearance, the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab published a report outlining how Abdulaziz’s cellphone had been infected with spyware by a Saudi-based operator using a sophisticated phishing scam.

In fact, according to Abdulaziz, within the last year, the Saudi government had reached out to him to say MBS admired his videos and wanted him to come back and live in Saudi Arabia. When he declined, the government officials made him an ominous offer: “They said ‘OK, just come for an hour with us to the embassy […] we’re going to get you a new passport, your passport is already expired,’” said Abdulaziz. “I was scared.”

It is important to note Khashoggi’s complicated relationship with the Saudi regime.

“He explicitly said he did not consider himself a dissident,” said one of the journalists on the panel, Lisa Goldman. “He said he does not believe Saudi Arabia should become a democracy, he thinks it should reform. But, he is a supporter of the royal family. He used to be an advisor.”

For Abdulaziz, the fact that such criticism would spark such a lethal response speaks volumes about MBS. “He is too sensitive to read an article telling him to change his behaviour, and that is why he did what he did,” said Abdulaziz. “And that is why he arrested two of my brothers, and a group of my friends at the beginning of August.”

The White House had, until recently, resisted joining international condemnation of Saudi Arabia. At first, Donald Trump even criticized the rush to denounce Saudi Arabia as unfair,

citing Mohammed bin Salman’s denial during a personal telephone call with him.

Trump finally conceded on Oct. 18 that Khashoggi was likely murdered in a plot involving high levels of the Saudi government.

However, he stopped short of inculpating MBS directly. Trump has also been frank about the sale of American manufactured weapons to Saudi Arabia, saying “I don't wanna lose an order like that.”

Canada is also unfortunately complicit in Saudi Arabia’s human rights abuses by selling them arms to the tune of $15 billion.

The Trudeau government's response has been similar to Trump’s, with Prime Minister Trudeau saying they planned to respect the contract “signed by the previous government.”

It is a dire precedent for political dissidents, when some of the most powerful democracies in the world would rather do business with oppressive regimes than stand up for democratic ideals. This point was driven home by Goldman: “Rogue states have become emboldened by the Trump administration’s policies toward violations of human rights.”

Khashoggi’s final column, written before his disappearance, was published by the Washington Post on the same day as the panel. Appropriately, the column called for more free expression in the Arab world, lamenting that violations of the press in Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries “no longer carry the consequence of a backlash from the international community.”

For Matthews, he is troubled by what he has seen from the United States’s administration on this issue. “The U.S. has always stood up for the freedom of the press… it is not the greatest moment in U.S. diplomacy, at the same time, most pressure has to be on Saudi Arabia. They are the ones doing this.”

OCTOBER 23, 2018

RESOURCES

No SARC at Loyola

CSU’s Loyola coordinator questions lack of adequate services MINA MAZUMDER ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR Resources for sexual assault victims “are non-existent at Concordia University’s Loyola campus,” said the Concordia Student Union’s Loyola coordinator.

In an interview with The Concordian, Alexis G. Searcy highlighted the inadequacies of the existing services. “There is Health Services that you can go to for an appointment [with a nurse], but you still have to go downtown to the Sexual Assault Resource Centre,” said Searcy. “There is always security you can go to if you are in an immediate danger. As far as support services and accomodations, there [are] literally none [at Loyola].”

The Sexual Assault Resource Centre (SARC) is Concordia’s primary resource centre for confidential support and services for victims of sexual assault or harassment. Searcy said one of the reasons SARC hasn’t been able to open more doors for students is because it’s underfunded. She wishes there was more funding available to help students at Loyola.

The Task Force on Sexual Misconduct and Sexual Violence released its report on June 26. Section 3.5 recommended a “review be conducted of the services offered on the Loyola campus in regards to sexual misconduct and sexual violence.”

The report also recommended that “investments be made where needed to ensure that the services are available and adequate.”

Searcy was told by Jennifer Drummond, SARC’s coordinator and social worker, that the centre hasn’t started this process yet. “They haven’t been able to expand services at all [to Loyola], but they will get back to me once

these kinds of things have been done,” said Searcy.

Drummond told The Concordian that having SARC services at Loyola will only be possible once another staff member has been hired. “SARC will be hiring a social worker in the coming months and I look forward to the possibilities this will present regarding expanded services,” she said.

Fiona Downey, Concordia’s senior advisor, of public affairs and deputy spokesperson, said there are presently numerous resources on both campuses to help students affected by sexual misconduct. These include staff at the Campus Wellness and Support Services, Health Services, and Counselling and Psychological Services.

“The ideal is to have some SARC presence at Loyola, whether it is office hours or an actual physical space similar to SARC,” Searcy agreed.

Downey said that “once [an additional SARC staff person is] in place, one of our priorities is to have a regular presence on the Loyola campus.” She added that SARC holds regular meetings and training sessions on how to properly respond to disclosures of sexual misconduct, violence or assault.

Searcy recently received multiple questions from students such as, “Why isn’t there SARC at Loyola?” and, “Where are sexual assault resources at the Loyola campus?” She was

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WORLD IN BRIEF MIA ANHOURY NEWS EDITOR Close to 500,000 Colombians— including students and teachers—took to the streets last Wednesday in a nationwide protest to increase investment in higher education, according to Telesur. This is the second protest this month, with more to come in the next few weeks.

unable to respond due to the lack of updates from SARC. “Right now, it is very present in people’s minds,” she said.

As for the future, Downey said that Lisa Ostiguy, special advisor to the provost on campus life at Concordia, will be reviewing the needs of, and support for, students on the Loyola campus.

Searcy is currently looking into how other sexual assault resources, such as consent and sexual violence support workshops, can branch out to the Loyola campus. She is keeping in touch with SARC and the Task Force to make sure this happens.

If you or someone you know is a victim of sexual assault, you can contact the Sexual Assault Resource Centre in room H-645 on the downtown campus or call Jennifer Drummond at 514-848-2424 Ext. 3353. If you are in immediate danger, call security at 514-848-3717.

Graphic by @spooky_soda

PROFILE

Repping Concordia in slam poetry JMSB student competed in the Individual World Poetry Slam MIA ANHOURY NEWS EDITOR Nathan Leblanc always keeps a notepad and a pen on him and jots down his ideas when inspiration strikes. He just recently competed in the Individual World Poetry Slam from Oct. 10 to 13, representing Eastern Canada.

The competition was in San Diego, CA, and gathered 86 poets from around the world, mostly from the United States and Canada.

The 22-year-old accountancy and finance major at the John Molson School of Business (JMSB) got into the competition through the storm applicants, meaning he applied as one of 12 independent poets at the event.

There is no venue in Quebec that officially recognizes the international competition, so Leblanc couldn’t apply through a venue as most applicants do.

Leblanc started writing poetry in high school. “I would write poetry to my girlfriend at the time just cause, and she said it was pretty good so I kept writing,” said Leblanc.

It wasn’t until he attended a performance in Vancouver two years ago that he discovered slam poetry.

His first slam, entitled “Is it okay?” was an assignment on homosexuality for a CEGEP english class on gender issues.

theconcordian

A new carpooling service, Kakao Carpool, created by South Korea's top chat app, led to a protest by tens of thousands of taxi drivers in Seoul on Thursday, according to Reuters.

Taxi drivers are scared the app could put their jobs at risk.

An explosion at a plant that specializes in pyrotechnical devices and lawn furniture near St. Petersburg on Saturday left four people dead and seven injured, according to TASS. Three of the victims were foreigners. A criminal case is now open and the plant’s chief engineer has been detained.

Hundreds of thousands of people of all ages marched towards Parliament Square in London to demand a new Brexit vote—a new referendum, according to The Guardian.

Protestors traveled to the city from all over England.

A train on the south-east coast of Taiwan derailed and killed 18 people and injured 175 on Sunday, according to ABC News. The train was reportedly t r avelling f aster than usual, according to one passenger’s account to Reuters.

Graphic by @spooky_soda

Leblanc said he can only write when inspiration strikes. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.

The slam that got him into the competition, however, is called “The sea of love.”

“It’s a romantic love poem. Love poetry isn't common in slam,” said Leblanc. “It’s about a boyfriend who loses his girlfriend—she passes away. He’s enlightened at the end and he's able to remember her memory and continue through [life], involving the ocean and water metaphors,” Leblanc added.

The poems Leblanc writes are based off of his personal experience; rarely does he ever write intentionally. For “The sea of love,” Leblanc wrote about a breakup he

experienced, but also the death of his cousin.

“I had to write a piece about both of them.

They both happened around the same time,” said the poet.

“I’m a number-based guy. At the same time, I’ve always loved writing and I always thought about doing poetry full time if I could make it happen financially. I grew up with the ambition of being a businessman, but I try to do both,” said Leblanc.

Leblanc doesn’t openly talk about his poetry at JMSB. According to him, the friends he has told about his poetry are generally

neutral about his endeavours.

“Passionate, impactful, and heartfelt,” are the words Leblanc used to describe his poetry.

“All my pieces that I use for competition are all about the themes of heartbreak and love,” said Leblanc. “A lot of it is very dark, very deep.”

Leblanc explained that the hardest part is starting and ending the slam. The beginning makes the audience want to listen. “I always try to keep it at least uplifting at the end; I always like to end with the idea life will get better,” said Leblanc. It’s his way of letting the audience leave with some hope.

As a musician as well, Leblanc can see himself incorporating music into his slam.

He can eventually see himself going down a more comedic and uplifting route, the more he writes and explores his work.

Leblanc is planning a poetry tour for next summer, on the West Coast of Canada and in the United States, and will be meeting up with poets he met at the competition along the way.

life

LIFE EDITOR /// life@theconcordian.com ALEX HUTCHINS ( @alexhutchinns96)

PUBLIC SPACES

Dancing our way to safety with PLURI

Nightclubs are beginning to address the sexual harassment marginalized groups experience

Blvd. Saint-Laurent (pictured) is a popular strip in Montreal for everything from bars to nightclubs to tasty restaurants. Photo by Alex Hutchins.

ALEX HUTCHINS LIFE EDITOR Suppose you want to have a fun night out with a group of friends, but you’re not a cisgender, heterosexual male.

Of course, bartenders are usually apt to thwarting suspicious behaviour, and venues often have bouncers or security for when dodgy situations escalate.

Nonetheless, for marginalized groups— namely the LGBTQ+ community, women of colour (WoC) and cisgender women—a night out typically entails a mixture of catcalling, verbal harassment, non-consensual physical interactions, and, in too many cases, sexual assault.

In 2017, just under 30,000 sexual assault cases in Canada were reported to the police, according to a StatsCan report released in July. Of those cases, almost 4,000 were deemed unfounded, meaning “police determined that no crime had taken place,” reads the same report. The Conseil des Montréalaises released an opinion paper titled “Montreal, a Festive City for all Women: Security of Trans Women and Girls at Outdoor Events in Montreal.” It cites studies indicating that, in 2011, 47 per cent of women felt twice as nervous as men walking through their neighbourhoods at night, and 45 per cent of women avoid certain areas at night. These, and many other reports, cannot even begin to quantify the degree of sexualized violence marginalized communities experience and the number of unreported sexual assault cases.

Christopher Roberts, a Concordia student who enjoys Montreal’s nightlife, said they spent a lot of time at Bar Datcha, a popular

cocktail nightclub on Avenue Laurier W., one block west of St-Laurent Blvd., one of Montreal’s popular nightlife strips. Datcha is a nightclub that recently partnered with PLURI, a non-profit organization aiming to reduce harassment on dance floors. Through integrated safety monitors visible by the yellow ‘Party Support’ label on their backs, or staff shirts from respective venues, PLURI volunteers are trying to make dance floors more enjoyable for everyone by intervening in harassment situations before they escalate.

PLURI, which stands for Peace Love Unity Respect Initiative, was co-founded by Éliane Thivierge and Celeste Pimm, alongside a small team of other volunteers, in August 2016. The non-profit offers a range of workshops for event organizers, bar staff, and aspiring volunteers that provide “training on how to recognize harassment, how certain systemic oppressions interact with party spaces and bystander intervention,” according to an interview with PLURI. Party Support volunteers have been present at music festivals such as MUTEK, POP Montreal, Red Bull Music Festival, and Slut Island. PLURI explained that Party Support volunteers are the “middle [ground] between the event patron and security… They are points of contact that are more accessible and less intimidating than security.”

Patrick Gregoire has been the manager of Datcha for the past four years. He said the venue has been working with PLURI’s dance floor safety monitors for over six months, despite only announcing their partnership just over a month ago.

Gregoire explained that, at first, the Party

Support volunteers were inconspicuous, and didn’t wear any labels that indicated their position. “But we felt that their work is best when people see someone on the dance floor with authority that isn’t security,” said Gregoire.

Roberts explained two instances, both occurring the same night at Datcha, which involved their friends experiencing sexual harassment to the point where bar staff and security intervened. “The wrong people found [their] way to [some] queer people [...] and one was grabbing people, including my friend,” said Roberts. “I found a bartender to let them know the situation and, immediately, a bouncer kicked the guy out.” Roberts said the second incident involved a cis male harassing two of their queer friends and, when the situation escalated, Roberts “made eye contact with a bouncer who immediately dissolved the situation.”

Carla, a bartender at Datcha, said she’s very happy about the bar’s collaboration with PLURI. “It’s a plus having that extra team around,” she said. “And the fact that they’re all women—I love.” Chris, another bartender at Datcha, said he’s been fortunate enough to “work [at] places where [they’ve] always had someone to deal with those issues.” Carla added that the Party Support volunteers try to educate people and deconstruct instances of harassment. “At the end of the night, the girls all sit down with security and the bouncers and go over what happened that night,” said Carla. “It’s really cool.”

Gregoire, as well as PLURI, emphasized the benefit of having initiatives like Party Support. “Before, these things wouldn’t

get flagged until it was a problem,” said Gregoire. “[Volunteers] often end up checking in with people who are being harassed before they decide to reach out for help,” explained PLURI. The non-profit organization added that most patrons facing harassment will accept the support offered instead of tolerating these behaviours or removing themselves from the space.

Concordia journalism student and techno music enthusiast Erika Morris said that an initiative like PLURI “makes [her] feel better about these places recognizing an issue and trying to do something about it.” Security has been helpful at times by keeping their eyes on men who harass her, explained Morris. “Sure, it made me feel a bit safer that night, but the next time I went out, I had just as many chances of being harassed again,” she said.

Marginalized communities—particularly queer folk—who experience harassment in public spaces, thus creating the need for these programs, “just reflects a higher societal problem,” added Morris.

“I think it’s cool that these people who are volunteers stay sober to try and help people,” said Morris. Roberts agreed that they feel PLURI and the Party Support initiative is an important step towards helping marginalized communities feel safe when they go out at night. “But in the end,” said Roberts, “there’s an overwash of sorrow that reminds our communities that we are being pushed into corners of spaces [...]. [We] need more help than ever just to feel comfortable being with each other and ourselves for a night.”

OCTOBER 23, 2018

theconcordian

CAMPUS LIFE

Books for a cause

Concordia’s annual used book fair is set to be EPIC

Late night chats Try anonymously calling Concordia’s Student Nightline next time you need some support JACOB CAREY CONTRIBUTOR

Encore Books and Records is a hole-in-the-wall store on Sherbrooke St. W. that sells books, both used and new, records and other collectibles. Photo by Alex Hutchins.

ABBY YAEGER CONTRIBUTOR For those who prefer books with yellowed pages and broken spines, mark your calendars for Concordia’s annual Epic Used Book Fair, which takes place in the EV building atrium on Oct. 29 and 30. The sale is perfect for uncovering rare literary finds at accessible prices, and it supports Concordia’s student body and the wider community.

Event Coordinator Luke Quin believes that selling secondhand book s has the abilit y to enrich the lives of students by not only raising money towards scholarships, but also by repurposing ideas. “It’s entrepreneurial, but socially driven,” Quin said. “We’re raising money and providing a new home for books that would probably end up in the garbage.”

The event, hosted by Concordia Alumni, raised $25,000 last year, and Quin has even higher hopes for this year. “With support from Concordia and the community, the event has only gotten bigger.” The

money raised is funneled into two or three direct scholarships, as well as an endowment that ensures there will always be a Used Book Fair scholarship available. Another portion of the money goes towards the Multi-faith and Spiritualit y Centre’s Student Emergency and Food fund, which gives grocery cards to students in need.

“We’re also giving experiential opportunities for the volunteers, a lot of which are international students looking to engage and network,” Quin said. “We’ve really built an event that is students helping students.” He said the great location in the EV building atrium gives the sale a lot of traffic potential from shoppers passing by on Saint-Catherine St., as well as students. The books are priced at $3 and up, and will be sorted by subject, so there is sure to be something for everyone.

Many of the donated book s come from professors and students, past and present, but Quin said that more and more donations are coming from outside the university. “Many smaller charity

organizations don’t accept books because they’re cumbersome and difficult to sort through,” he said.

Donations for the Epic Used B o ok Fair are accepte d yearround. For those who have large donations, boxes of books labeled “Concordia Used Book Fair” can be dropped off at the receiving dock of the Hall building downtown, or at the receiving dock of the Richard J. Renaud Science Complex on the Loyola campus.

If you have a few old textbooks or a smaller amount to donate, there is a pink book bin on the Hall building mezzanine at the bottom of the escalator.

For more information on the book fair, follow the Concordia Epic Used Book Fair on Facebook.

The event already has over 7,000 RSVPs, so go early to get the best pick. The sale runs from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. both Monday, O c t . 29 a n d Tu e s d ay, O c t .

30. There is also a pre-sale on Sunday Oct. 28 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. with a $5 entrance fee. Stop by and see what you can find!

Concordia’s newest service offers confidential, anonymous and non-judgemental advice to any students in need of a listening ear.

The Concordia Students’ Nightline was founded

by Jade Se in October 2017. Since Sept. 13, it has been run by student volunteers who hope to help and advise any student that may need it.

“Although Concordia has counselling services that offer up to ten free sessions,” said VP External and Security Margaréta Pintér. “Our founder believed that there was not yet a service like ours at Concordia, and thought it was a good initiative to bring it here and adapt it to the students’s needs," said Pintér. The idea was based off a similar service offered by McGill, which Se became aware of as a former student.

As of now, the non-profit organization's team of volunteers remains relatively small. The organization plans to recruit new members throughout this month and hopes to expand their operating hours along with this. Pintér stressed that while all calls are treated seriously, not all of them need to be of a serious nature—students are free to phone in regarding anything, even if it’s just to talk. “It’s free for anyone, and if you have something to talk about, our volunteers pick up every single call. Whether you’re bored, lost, or scared for any reason, you can give us a call,” she said.

With midterms in full swing and finals almost around the corner, it’s nice to know Concordia Students’ Nightline is there to lift some stress off your shoulders—one call at a time.

The Nightline currently operates from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and can be contacted at 514-437-9797.

Graphic by @spooky_soda

Last year's Used Book Fair raised $25, 000, part of which goes back into support programs for the Concordia community. Photos by Alex Hutchins.

7

arts

ARTS EDITOR /// arts@theconcordian.com CHLOË LALONDE

PROFILE

Finding his place in the (art) world Why one f ine arts student chose to pursue his passion

Happening in and around the White Cube this week…

CHLOË LALONDE | ARTS EDITOR DRAMA HIVE: COSTUME EDITION The Drama Hive asks, “What is a costume?

Is it something we wear on stage, or something we wear everyday?” In collaboration with Concordia’s Art Hive, the Drama Hive will continue to tackle this question with a costume construction event. Get ready for Halloween by putting together your very own costume!

When: Oct. 23, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Where: Concordia Art Hive, EV 5.777 Admission is free; donations accepted for costume pieces.

Spencer Magnan is a first-year painting and drawing student at Concordia. Photo courtesy of the artist.

ASHLEY FISH ROBERTSON CONTRIBUTOR If anyone knows that the creative process takes patience and time, it’s Spencer Magnan. As a first-year fine arts student at Concordia, Magnan is studying drawing and painting with a minor in French. He was captivated by art from a young age, but it wasn’t until three years ago that he decided to pursue it as a career.

“I wanted to make it more of a career choice than just a hobby,” Magnan said.

After deciding to study art, he relocated from southern Ontario to Montreal, where he began his studies at Concordia. His classes have allowed him to improve his skills as an artist as well as learn new techniques, he explained.

“I feel like my drawing class is helping me a lot by making me step outside of my comfort zone,” Magnan said. Although he was creating art long before he started at Concordia, Magnan’s classes have encouraged him to take on bigger challenges.

As busy as school gets, Magnan still makes time to create pieces for himself when he's not in class. His inspiration seems to strike when least expected. In fact, Magnan’s latest bouts of inspiration are drawn from a unique source.

“Most of my recent paintings are based upon dreams I have had,” the artist revealed. “It's kind of weird; I will have a dream that I feel is symbolic or important, and I paint it into a visual representation.”

Magnan’s love for abstraction and hyperrealism have greatly influenced his boldly minimalist approach to creating art.

“I definitely draw inspiration from Salvador

Dali or Frida Kahlo,” he said. “I love that do with the mindset of people and their their art has to do with themselves, and beliefs that, with science or math, you I make most of my art with the idea of will come out knowing more and being who I am.” more prepared in life.”

In relation to his series of dreaminMagnan notes that the importance spired art, Magnan admitted that he loves of art is often devalued, especially in a Sigmund Freud’s work, especially his competitive world where a high salary and theories about dream analysis. practical job are deemed 3necessities. He Thinking back to his childhood in believes that art is universal in nature and southern Ontario, Magnan recalled is something to be experimented with. that teaching and learning art was not Although still young in his pursuit, emphasized nearly as much as it is in Magnan’s unwavering drive to experiment Montreal. “We had subjects like AP English and create is a reminder that the world and science, but art was not a big thing,” of art has many opportunities for those he said. “Not many people wanted to do who wish to pursue their passion. He it or even recognize it.” urges fellow artists to experiment with After becoming more familiar with different mediums and themes until they Montreal, Magnan finally felt he could focus become more confident and comfortable. on expanding his skills and take on new “Art, to me, is more than just a challenges. He has been experimenting career choice,” Magnan said. “It’s a with new themes and mediums in an way for me to channel my creativity. effort to branch out of his comfort zone. Creating allows me to explore myself, Magnan said he recognizes the not just as an artist but as a person.” importance of art and believes it is just as important as any other academic subject. He noted that popular career paths and degrees are typically math and science related. Magnan said he believes there is still progress to be made in terms of highlighting the benefits of studying and practicing art.

“I feel that artists are becoming more valued, but not to where they should be,” Magnan Magnan’s latest bouts of inspiration are drawn said. “I think it has to from his dreams. Photo courtesy of the artist.

EXPANDED PRACTICES IN PRINT MEDIA SYMPOSIUM Francois Morelli, Chloe Lum and Jacinthe Loranger are some of the many artists brought together in this year’s Print Media Symposium. For one day only, students and working artists are brought together in a series of lectures and activities surrounding print media.

When: Oct. 24, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Where: VA-323, 1395 René-Lévesque Blvd. W. Admission is free.

CORRUPTED PORTAL VERNISSAGE The VAV promises that Corrupted Portal will shift your reality by bringing you two- and three-dimensional artworks ranging from painting and photography to a fibres installation, performance art and sculpture. At the vernissage, the 10 featured artists will speak about their work and tour the exhibition space. Performance times vary throughout the week.

When: Oct. 25, 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Where: VAV Gallery, 1395 René-Lévesque Blvd. W. Admission is free.

CONVERSATIONS IN CONTEMPORARY ART: BRIDGET MOSER Supported by the art history and theatre departments, Conversations in Contemporary Art presents performance and video artist Bridget Moser. Meant to be entertaining and thought-provoking, Moser’s work searches for meaning in life through explorations of dance, literature and anxiety.

When: Oct. 26, at 6 p.m.

Where: Sir George Williams University Alumni Auditorium, H-110 Admission is free.

Graphic by Ana Bilokin.

OCTOBER 23, 2018

theconcordian

9

EXHIBITION

Exploring the avant-garde and untraditional

DAISY DUNCAN ASSISTANT ARTS EDITOR Considering unconventional practices of art, invoking mystery and disconnection for the viewer, and having meaningful conversations through artistic form—Phenomena Festival once again traverses the avant-garde.

The festival is an annual multidisciplinary arts event that showcases diverse art practices, and is presented at various performances and locations throughout the city. Phenomena began in 2012 as an annual event presented by the creative company Les Filles électriques, which was founded by artist D. Kimm in 2001.

The festival focuses on interdisciplinary works that challenge traditional styles and forms of art. This year’s theme, “Théâtre d’image,” highlights art that uses poetic images and transcends traditional theatre by leaving mystery and interpretation to the viewer to navigate and consider, according to D. Kimm’s curatorial statement on this year’s festival.

Artist Jesse Orr’s performance, Learning How To Steal, was presented at La Sala Rossa on Oct. 17, followed by Nadia Myre and Johanna Nutter’s collaborative performance of A Casual (Strikethrough) Reconstruction . Both pieces focused on themes of Indigenous and colonial relationships and identities, and the navigation through these specific topics. The respective works by Orr, Myre and Nutter also connected to the theme of “Théâtre d’image,” using a mixture of media in

LAUNCH

the performances. Different narratives intertwined throughout the projects, creating complexity and allowing the audience to explore and consider more deeply what the artists were presenting.

D. Kimm introduced the artists’ works and shared that, through Phenomena, she hopes to give space and provide a platform to discuss the relationships and complexities between indigeneity and colonialism.

In an interview with The Concordian, artist Jesse Orr shared that since first becoming involved in the festival several years ago, she has seen how Phenomena and D. Kimm have worked to further include the greater Montreal arts community in the festival. Some of these community connections include collaborations with Patsy Van Roost, also known as the Mile End Fairy, who works around the city, creating urban projects and art activities that involve the community.

Another project at Phenomena this year is the photography series, Portraits of Lao Women On Imaginary Landscapes, in connection to Quebec’s Laotian community and the Santisouk co-op, which works to help Laotian immigrants integrate into Quebec.

Learning How To Steal was inspired

by Orr’s position as a white settler in Montreal. It approaches the conversation of identity and belonging within Canada.

Using puppetry, movement, theatre and image projection, Orr navigated through her family’s history and her personal interactions with events focused on Indigenous communities and rights. This

Graphic by Ana Bilokin.

Phenomena Festival transcends convention within art through Théâtre d’image

included the recent vigil and march for missing and murdered Indigenous women, which Orr included in her performance.

Through the intermittent use of contrasting media,—paired with switching narratives of the work, from family history to present day interactions—the complexities, grey areas and intertwined nature of the relationships and conversations about colonialism are further explored.

With a similar focus , Myre and Nutter’s A Casual (Strikethrough) Reconstruction discussed the complexities of identity in connection to indigeneity. During their performance, the artists invited six members of the audience to read the transcript of a conversation Myre had with five others discussing their

Indigenous identities a s cult ur ally mixed individuals. Through the work, the audience was invited to hear explicit and honest descriptions of the individuals’s feelings, understandings and experiences. Furthermore, through the participation of the audience members with differing cultural identities, a greater narrative on the identity and relationships between settlers and First Nations was explored.

Por traits of L ao Women On Imaginary Landscapes will be showing at the Maison de la culture du Plateau-Mont-Royal until Oct. 28.

A platform for representation

The Women's+ Collective's f irst zine presents what it means to be SCORNED LORENZA MEZZAPELLE STAFF WRITER CJLO’s Women’s+ Collective works to provide a place for women and other gender minorities in radio by diversifying the voices on air and shedding light on issues that concern them.

Their first zine, SCORNED, is a compilation of works submitted by more than 30 artists and writers aiming to provide a space for representation and expression.

Inspired by third-wave feminism and the Riot Grrrl era, the collective turned to the “DIY approach of getting your voice heard,” according to Allison O’Reilly, CJLO’s program director and co-facilitator of the Women’s+ Collective. She said their inspiration for the zine stemmed from the “cut and paste” approach. “‘What does it mean to be scorned?’” prompted Mackenzie Smedmor, another co-facilitator of the collective who spent the summer assembling the zine. Inspired by late 80s and early 90s feminism, O’Reilly said the collective reflected on popular catchphrases.

“If hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, then what does it mean to be scorned?”

O’Reilly asked.

“People interacted very differently with [the prompt],” Smedmor said. “We received two essays, both different takes on the topic. One about men and another from a woman’s perspective.” She added that some of the submissions were “loosely tied to feminism.”

“It isn’t curated; it’s a compilation,” Smedmor said, emphasizing the collective’s handmade approach. O’Reilly described the zine as being “cut and paste, photocopied and crooked.”

“It has blemishes, but we wanted it like that,” she said, describing the quality of the zine itself. “It’s cheap. There’s no skill needed. We tried to echo that this kind of ethos still applies.” She emphasized the handmade approach that is sometimes necessary in order to be heard.

Smedmor said the collective’s main goal was to create a space for people to express themselves in a way they wouldn’t be able to on other platforms. She added that they prioritized accepting people identifying as part of the LGBTQ+ community and visible minorities. The collective received more than 30 submissions for their first edition of the zine, and the majority of them were accepted. “Everyone should have their voice

heard,” O’Reilly said.

“Women and gender minorities have a lot to be angry about,” she added. “[The outcome of SCORNED] exemplifies how people have a lot to say and are looking for an outlet to do so.”

“It shows that a lot of people really put everything out there,” Smedmor said.

To purchase a copy of SCORNED, contact the CJLO Women’s+ Collective at womenscollective@cjlo.com.

SCORNED is a compilation of works submitted by more than 30 artists and writers aiming to provide a space for representation and expression. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.

music

Quickspins 1

KOOL A.D.

MUSIC EDITOR /// music@theconcordian.com SIMON NEW

NADA MANE (Independent)

OPINION

Trap music is over

Former third of irreverent alt-rap trio Das Racist, Kool A.D. is a funhouse mirror pointed at hip-hop’s different forms on NADA MANE. A.D.’s flow is a stream of consciousness that is as incoherent as it is well-read. He rides the line of satire, veering into mocking territory, as he attacks tropes of the traditional hip-hop MC. A.D. spits vaguely conscious, blatantly incongruous epigrams with intentionally laptop-mic-sounding vocal quality. He’s a struggle rapper that doesn’t take himself seriously. The result is a cult flick that fans of the genre will get a kick out of, and that casual listeners will likely want to turn off immediately.

One writer’s opinion on the future of trap. Is it the next disco?

11 Trial Track: “SPIT IS A FACT OF THE MOUTH”

8.5/10 — SIMON NEW, MUSIC EDITOR

2

KHALID Suncity (EP) (RCA Records) Yearning, reminiscent and comforting, Khalid’s sudden release, Suncity, acts both as an ode to his hometown of El Paso, TX, and as a staple of his unprecedented talent. The seven-track EP includes two instrumental numbers and five songs. It is consistent in sound, rarely veering away from the urbanlike, soft-toned R&B Khalid has become widely known for, to the exception of “Saturday Nights” and the eponymous track “Suncity.”

The former includes a guitar hook that gives it a slight indie pop touch, while the latter follows an addicting Latin beat, featuring Spanish lyrics and vocals from Empress Of. As a whole, Suncity works incredibly well, acting as an hommage and a story of growth for the 20-year-old singer. Overall, it makes for the perfect bridge between Khalid’s solid 2017 debut, American Teen, and whatever he has in store next.

11 Trial Track: “Suncity” feat. Empress Of

GIULIO EVANGELISTA CONTRIBUTOR Given how the Trap sub-genre has exploded over the past f ive or so years—and continues to thrive—there isn’t really a way for me to substantiate this hunch. Hell, as I’m writing this, half the top 10 albums on Apple Music are trap projects.

Artists like Quavo, Future, and Lil Yachty crowd the top of the charts. Still, I’m weirdly confident in saying this: Trap music is over. Forget whether you love it or hate it. Sooner rather than later, it will taper off and become just another once-fad in the history of pop music.

Let me explain. I’m not arguing that all the sounds and elements of trap will go completely awol. That rarely—if ever— happens with musical sub-categories.

We’ll be listening to hip hop music that has been trap-influenced, to some degree, for generations to come. However, this would by definition indicate that the genre has ceased to exist as we currently know it, and would only be traceable through the music of a new—and discernibly separate—genre.

Every style has its shelf-life. Despite there being no precise way to gauge

their long-term viability, there are certain questions that can help us make better-informed judgements of this.

First, is it compatible with other styles of music? Trap binded with EDM rather seamlessly, so there’s no reason to believe the genre can’t mingle agreeably with others. XXXTentacion was known to be heavily influenced by heavy metal and punk music, so perhaps there is open terrain in that direction. Also, did anyone seriously think it was possible for a flutedriven melody to become a non-ironic, legitimate trap banger before “Mask Off”?

Second, how musically groundbreaking is the genre? From this perspective, the future of trap music doesn’t look as promising. With all due respect, its rise to prominence wasn’t exactly due to its musical ingenuity or complexity. I write this as someone who believes trap has been unfairly scrutinized at times—even from within the hip hop community. Namely, in claiming that trap artists are poor lyricists.

Sure, the genre isn’t necessarily setting the world on fire with its lyrical substance or flow, but there are some awesome MCs who have dabbled in the genre (I’m looking at you, Pusha T). Nevertheless, trap’s most distinguishable breakthrough would have to be its appropriation of

autotune. Once used mainly for covering up shoddy vocal performances, trap music intentionally uses autotune as a musical effect. Aside from that, I don’t see anything indigenous to trap music that will open the floodgates for decades of new, ever-evolving trap.

Ultimately, we have to make an honest assessment of the rise of trap. It’s been so successful for obvious reasons: Its seismic bass; its constant use of the Roland TR-808 drum machine; its catchy hooks that make it ideal for clubs and parties.

There’s nothing wrong with that. But these genres don’t typically stand the test of time very well. Just look at how short-lived the disco fad was.

This should be no reason for pessimism, even for trap fans. I’m sure there are still some solid trap records waiting to drop.

That being said, given how lucrative the genre has become, this can incentivise trap artists to take less risks musically, not more. Redundancy is every trend’s terminal illness, and it would appear trap is heading that way. If you, like me, choose to look at this more positively, you’ll see this as an opportunity. Hip hop is bound to move on to newer, uncharted sonic territories.

Archive graphic by Zeze Le Lin.

8/10 — SARAH BOUMEDDA, STAFF WRITER

3

PHONY PPL mō'zā-ik.

(300 Entertainment) Phony Ppl’s new album is the perfect music for those times when you’re wrapped in a golden blanket, magically floating over an idyllic beach at sunset. Sometimes luxuriously crooning over mellow synths, others spitting lay-you-down bars over bouncy percussion, the Brooklyn quintet melds bitter nostalgia with exuberant comfort. The writing is clever, the musicality is fantastically adept. The visuals that dropped with mō'zā-ik. match the bouncy, pastel sounds that permeate the tape. As is all too common in the Spotify age, the songs do begin to blur together by the end of this joyride of a listen.

11 Trial Track: “Think You’re Mine.”

8/10 — SIMON NEW, MUSIC EDITOR

OCTOBER 23, 2018

PROFILE

theconcordian

11

Lose Your Ties

Bennet Cerven cut his ties on Wall Street to form The Trouble Notes LYES MAHOUCHE STAFF WRITER What would you say to your friend if he told you he was going to drop his career in finance to play violin in Europe?

Sounds like either insanity or bravery.

Maybe a bit of both. Most great stories begin with a leap of faith. For Bennet Cerven, it was a simple matter of following his inner drive to spread his love of music. A few years later, and he is touring across Europe with his bandmates Florian Eisenschmidt and Oliver Maguire. Together, they form The Trouble Notes. Their music is recognizable: A lively violin at the forefront while percussions and guitar build the backbone of sound and rhythm. It is simple, authentic and utterly captivating.

The American Dream Cerven was born in Chicago in 1988.

Both his parents are lawyers and wanted to give him the best education possible; learning an instrument was just one of the pieces of the puzzle. “My mother’s dream was to make us well rounded scholars, so when I was four, she came and told me to choose an instrument,” Cerven said.

“I couldn’t tell you why, but I chose the violin.” He continued to play for most of his youth. At 15, he was part of an orchestra and was taking part in competitions across the country. The problem was, the classical method and training didn’t appeal to him.

By the time he was 18, music had taken a backseat to his studies.

Cerven then started university at Seton Hall in international relations and economics, which he completed in three and half years at the top of his class. With a degree in hand, he quickly found a job in a Wall Street hedge fund in investor relations.

He swiftly moved up the ranks and got a few promotions. “I was working 100 plus hours a week. For my age, things were really moving,” he said.

At 23 years old, Cerven had technically achieved “the dream.” But not his dream. “It never really felt right,” he said. “Even from the start, it was never really something that I wanted to do, but I did maybe a little bit to prove to my family and maybe some of my classmates that I could ‘survive in that world,’ that I could have what I guess the Americans would call a great career.”

The Trouble Notes formed on the road, picking up influences as they traveled.

From Wall Street to your street New York had not only provided Cerven with a career, it also allowed him to reconnect with his music. He happened to meet other musicians who were creating a band and looking for a violinist. This was his point of entry into the New York music scene.

Despite his hectic work schedule, music kept calling. “At first, it was a bit of an escape, something that I would do to get me away from the stress,” Cerven said. Music gradually took up more and more space in his life. He began to play in the streets, write his own music and steadily hone his skills. “If you can work on the streets of New York, you can work anywhere. There, you’re lucky to get five seconds of anyone’s time,” he said.

After about two years at the Wall Street firm, the musician decided to quit his job to travel through Europe.

“I wanted to travel, write music and connect to cultures,” he said. “I wanted to experience music in a different way.”

This change of air turned out to be a permanent one.

Cerven met Maguire while busking in London during his travels. “We started to jam, and it kind of went from there,” Cerven said. “When it was time for me to leave, I told him ‘I’m going to Ireland. If you want, you can get on a plane and come with me, if not, then have a good life,’” he said. “We have been traveling together ever since.”

A few years later, while they were traveling in Berlin, they met Eisenschmidt.

Together, they form The Trouble Notes.

The Trouble Notes The band is made of three instruments: Cerven on the violin, Maguire on percussion and Eisenschmidt on the guitar.

Describing The Trouble Notes’s sound can be quite tricky. One thing you can hear, though, is the influence from a variety of cultures and genres ranging from folk to middle-eastern rhythms.

“I like to think about our music as a bridge between traditions and cultures,” Cerven said. By drawing inspiration from

cultures and countries from all over the world, they help expose people to things they would not see on their own.

Cerven continued with an example about islamophobia. “We have one or two songs that are strongly influenced by Arabic music, and they are songs that people tend to like without realising that they come from an area of the world that they may be afraid of,” he said. “Our hope is to say ‘Look, you like that about their culture because your prejudice wasn’t there, maybe there are other things about that culture which you might like, you just need to approach it with an open mind.’”

The music The Trouble Notes make is centred on the rhythm. Its organic feel comes from the fact that a lot of their music is written in the streets and is inspired by their own experiences. The grand idea starts in their minds, is fueled by their daily experiences and shaped as they play in the streets. Every track tells a story, and every story has a message.

Their latest album, Lose Your Ties—a nod to Cerven dropping the Wall Street tie—is available on Spotify.

sports

SPORTS EDITOR /// sports@theconcordian.com NICHOLAS DI GIOVANNI ( @n_digiovanni)

PROFILE

An ideal number nine striker Sarah Humes is always looking to score on every opportunity

Sarah Humes started her career with the Stingers as a midfielder, but has since transitioned to a striker. Photo by Gabe Chevalier.

ALEC BRIDEAU STAFF WRITER Forwards in soccer, also called strikers, are recognized for their offensive role and scoring abilities. Sarah Humes is the striker with a great goal-scoring ability on the Concordia Stingers women’s soccer team.

“She's strong, she's fast and she's got great abilities,” said head coach Greg Sutton about Humes. “She's been someone we have relied on in the season.”

Midfielder-turned-forward, Humes is in her third year with the team. The Pointe-Claire native played 11 games in her first year with the Stingers as a midfielder, recording one goal. She explained how her coaches saw her in a more offensive role.

“I definitely started my career more as a winger,” Humes said. “Then, I’ve kind of moved to the striker position.

I think it’s something that my coaches noticed. I have height and the strength, so I'm able to foil up the defenders. It’s

just been a better fit for me.”

For the Stingers's head coach, Humes’s game style corresponded perfectly to a striker. “Her skillset is around the goal,” Sutton said. “It's not so much setting players up and keeping position, it’s finishing plays off. I think she's a typical nine as far as being a big, strong forward.

[She] gets around the goal and finishes with her head and with her feet.”

In soccer, the term “typical nine” refers to the traditional striker of the team and is usually given to players in that position. That’s why, this year, Humes is wearing the number-nine shirt rather than the number 12 from the last two seasons.

For Sutton, Humes is more than an ordinary striker. “She's probably one of the most dangerous strikers in our league,” Sutton said. “She's an ideal striker.”

In 14 games last season, Humes scored five goals and finished in the top-10 scoring in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ). This season, the forward had five goals in 14 games, tied for most goals scored on the team.

Humes scored five goals in each of the last two seasons. Photo by Hannah Ewen.

Head coach Greg Sutton said Humes is strong and fast. Photo by Gabe Chevalier.

“I think it’s been a lot harder to find opportunities on net this year,” Humes said. “It’s really important to capitalize when I do get [scoring opportunities].

I think being consistent is important for this team because we don’t necessarily get a lot of chances in every game, so it’s really important to score when you do.”

Sutton said Humes always puts herself in good positions on the field. “She’s a good finisher,” the head coach said. “She will really test the goalkeepers with the chances she will have.”

According to the s t r i ke r, b e i n g a s t udent-athlete takes a lot of time and organization, but is something that ends up being beneficial.

“There’s a lot of demands, especially during the fall season,” Humes said. “However, I think it’s actually helpful to have soccer, school and work because it keeps me busy.

It doesn’t give me time to waste. I know that I can do my homework as soon as I have free time, and, as soon as I finish practice, I head back to school.”

While going to practice is one of the many tasks she juggles, the forward said it’s the activity she enjoys the most.

“We just had our last practice, and it’s a bit of a sad feeling to know that we won’t see each other every single day, but we know the year is not over,” Humes said on Oct. 18. The Stingers’s season finished Oct. 21.

“It was a year with a lot of changes,” Humes said. “It’s been interesting, but a really fun year.”

Sutton added that the Stingers are pleased with Humes’s dedication. The program hopes to gain more talented players that can help Humes improve her game.

“Her attitude is great and her work is awesome,” Sutton said. “Now we just have to do a good job at surrounding her with some more talent in the next years. Hopefully we can get even more production out of her in that way.”

The Stingers concluded the 2018-19 RSEQ campaign with a 4-9-1 record, in sixth position in the league.

OCTOBER 23, 2018

COVER STORY

Communication is the key to winning Despite #1 ranking, head coach says they haven't earned anything

NICHOLAS DI GIOVANNI SPORTS EDITOR Heading into the new season, Julie Chu, head coach of the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team, wants her players to communicate with each other.

“In general, that’s an area we’re emphasizing for our team, to get the confidence from our players to be able to communicate in an outgoing and deliberate way,” Chu said.

Coming off a Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) championship win last season, the Stingers have a new leadership group ready to carry Chu’s efforts. The players chose fifth-year forward Devon Thompson as captain, replacing Marie-Joëlle Allard, and forwards Sophie Gagnon, Claudia Dubois and Audrey Belzile as assistant captains.

Fifth-year goalie Katherine Purchase was also voted as captain for a second year in a row; although she can’t wear the ‘C’ like Thompson will, Chu said she will be a leader in the dressing room.

“She’s a really well-respected player on our team; she has a great voice and a great presence, and upholds everything we believe in,” the head coach said about Purchase. “Even though, as a goalie, she can’t talk to the referees the same way

The Stingers women’s hockey team are set to defend their RSEQ championship this year. Archive photo by Mackenzie Lad.

quickly to the university game,” Chu added.

“She’s a really well-rounded player, smart and can score goals, but has an incredible vision to find and create opportunities for others as well.”

Also coming over from Limoilou is defenceman Amélie Lemay, who scored nine goals and 11 assists in 24 games last season, good enough for 11th place in the entire league. Chu said it will take some time for her to adjust to university-level hockey, but that’s normal for a defenceman.

Chu hopes Bégin-Cyr and the other

Forward Devon Thompson is the team’s new captain. Archive photo by Kirubel Mehari.

a player [captain] could, she has a huge impact on our team.”

Dubois, Gagnon, Belzile and Thompson— who was an assistant captain last year—were part of last season’s top-six forward group that are all returning. Dubois led the team in points with seven goals and 13 assists in 20 games, while Belzile led the team in goals with 11. Lidia Fillion and Stéphanie Lalancette finished with 17 and 16 points respectively, and will be back for another season.

“It’s huge to have all six players from our top-two lines last year returning,” Chu said. “Now, we’re adding depth from our new incoming players, and our returners, who are just playing some really good hockey.”

There are 12 first-year players on the Stingers’s roster, with four coming from powerhouse Cégep Limoilou, near Québec City. One of those players is forward Rosalie Bégin-Cyr, top scorer at Limoilou last season with 52 points, and winner of the league MVP. “She’s done an amazing job coming in and transitioning

new recruits will contribute on offence.

The Stingers led the league with 65 goals last season, an average of over three per game, and the head coach believes it’s the

team’s strongest asset.

“We’ve been able to create a lot of [scoring] opportunities,” Chu said. “We’ll continue to try to figure that out and bear down as we meet opponents who are structured defensively and have great goaltending.”

Heading into the season, U Sports ranked the Stingers as the number-one team in the country for the first time since 1999.

The league ranked the Stingers number two in their original rankings on Oct. 9, but after the University of Manitoba lost two games, Concordia grabbed the top spot.

The Stingers won the bronze medal at the national championships last March. Chu said she wants to make sure her players know the only expectations they should worry about is their own, and not that of the rankings.

“It’s a nice compliment [to be ranked high] but it doesn’t mean a whole lot for us because we haven’t earned anything yet,” Chu said. “That’s something our team is established upon.”

Three teams from the RSEQ were in the latest top-10 rankings from Oct. 16, with the Université de Montréal Carabins ranked third, and the McGill Martlets at the 10th spot. The Stingers will play each of those teams five times this season.

The Stingers opened the season Oct. 21 with a 4-1 win against the Ottawa Gee-Gees. They play the Carabins on Oct. 26 before their home-opener on Oct. 28 against the Martlets.

The Stingers led the league with 65 goals in 20 games last season. Archive photo by Alex Hutchins.

theconcordian

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COLOUR COMMENTARY WITH NICHOLAS DI GIOVANNI Cannabis became legal in Canada on Oct. 17, but is still a banned product on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) prohibited substances list.

Any cannabis, with the exception of cannabidiol (CBD), is not allowed.

According to WADA’s rules, an athlete can have a maximum of 150 nanograms per millilitre of urine in their system when tested, raised from 15 ng/mL in 2013. However, this is much higher than the legal driving limit in Canada, which is 0.5 ng/mL of blood.

Even though WADA’s threshold for cannabis is so high, there is still debate on whether it should even be there in the first place. Olympic champion Ross Rebagliati believes it should be taken off WADA’s list.

“If athletes are allowed to consume alcohol and tobacco let them have weed," he told Reuters. "It is the only thing that is good for you of those three things.”

Rebagliati has an interesting past with cannabis. After winning the giant slalom in snowboarding at the 1998 Winter Olympics, Rebagliati was stripped of his gold medal for having THC in his blood. He was later given back the medal because cannabis was not banned by WADA at the time.

However, WADA states that, for a substance to be performance-enhancing, it must have the “potential to enhance performance, create a health risk for the athlete, and/or violate the spirit of the sport.” Studies have shown cannabis can ease pain and reduce anxiety.

Another study in the British Journal of Medicine stated that cannabis can impair motor skills, which can slow down reaction time, and be dangerous for faster sports. “Cannabis is effective only in allowing an athlete to relax and to escape from social pressures,” the authors concluded. They suggested that sports leagues should ensure their athletes are consuming cannabis responsibly, if at all.

Another use for cannabis in sports is to reduce pain, particularly in a physically-demanding sport like hockey. Many NHL enforcers have been known to use painkillers. Former New York Rangers and Minnesota Wild forward Derek Boogaard died in 2011 of an oxycodone and alcohol overdose.

Another former fighter, Riley Cote, told Global News that cannabis should be a legal substance, as it eases pain.

“What do you self-medicate with?

Opioids, muscle relaxants, mix ’em all together,” he said. “No wonder there’s so many depression issues and mental health and anxiety.”

Cannabis in sports is a subject that will be debated for a long time.

But on a personal note, I’ve played hockey with players who have smoked before a game, and let me say, their performance was definitely not any better.

opinions OPINIONS EDITOR /// opinions@theconcordian.com SANIA MALIK

EDITORIAL

Trans rights will not be erased People in past years probably envisioned 2018 as a time where people fly spaceships, could teleport or, at the very least, print food—all of which could be considered as quite progressive. But we at The Concordian are sad to remind our readers that our current society is seemingly becoming more regressive than progressive. Just last week, our editorial challenged the CAQ’s religious symbol ban—a ban that prohibits freedom of religion, a basic human right under the Canadian and the Quebec Charters of Rights and Freedoms.

T his we e k , we were s t unn e d to learn that the Trump administration is restricting and stripping away the rights of transgender and nonbinary people.

According to a report by The New York Times , Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is considering major changes to Title IX, “the federal civil rights law that bans gender discrimination in education programs that receive government financial assistance.” These major changes include defining gender as determined “on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable,” according to the same article.

T he O b ama adminis t r at ion to ok concrete steps in extending the rights and protections granted to transgender

and nonbinary people in terms of education and health care, by allowing them to serve in the military, and recognizing that gender is an individual’s choice rather than something strictly assigned at birth. The HHS's policy wants to completely destroy this. It aims to define gender as binary, something that is unchangeable and assigned by the genitals one is born with. We at The Concordian believe these policies are transphobic and aim to erase the existence of transgender and nonbinary people in the U.S. This could have a catastrophic impact not only on those living in the U.S., but also others around the world.

The HHS's policy also stated that anyone with disputes about their gender must use

genetic testing to c l a r i f y a ny misconceptions.

Using science, a field that has always been progressive and innovative, as a way to reinforce a backwards policy is ironic in its entirety. The memo detailing the policy also states that a person’s sex as listed on their original birth certificate is the one they must identify with, “unless rebutted by reliable genetic evidence.”

Almost 1.4 million Americans identify as transgender—these new policies would undo the rights they have been granted through the Obama administration, and would be another step towards erasing trans and nonbinary voices. The Human Rights Campaign—which is the U.S.’s largest civil rights organization advocating

for LGBTQ+ equality—has demanded that the Trump administration not go forward with the proposal as it will harm transgender people and put them in serious danger. It is integral to recognize trans and nonbinary people as those who deserve basic civil rights, equality and protection.

As we’ve seen throughout history, when an entire group of people are not given equal rights or are stripped of what little rights they do have, unrest ensues. We at The Concordian hope that everyone is as outraged at the Trump administration’s attempt to suppress transgender and nonbinary people as we are. We must remain vigilant in calling out the administration’s blatant disrespect for human rights.

In the past, the U.S. might’ve been seen as a progressive nation that boasted innovative leaders and creative thinkers.

But the country’s recent actions prove this is not true; in fact, they go vehemently against the concept of progressiveness by creating policies that aim to disregard and oppress an entire group of people. While we may marvel at how far technology has come over the years and how innovative the Western world may seem, we cannot celebrate progression until our social policies also mirror this way of thinking.

Archive graphic by Alexa Hawksworth.

MEDIA

The vicious cycle of publishing viral videos Are we the generation that uses social media to both humiliate and help vulnerable people?

VICTORIA BAKOS CONTRIBUTOR It is no secret that we are all consumed by social media. It can be a very positive outlet as much as a very negative one—again, most of us know that. As a society, we either celebrate one another or take each other down using these platforms. It has become very common for people to be ridiculed over situations that could have gone unnoticed.

However, as a generation, we have a conditioned reflex to record ever y little thing so it can be viewed by the entire world. Okay, maybe not the entire world, but when we choose to upload something, we are accepting the fact that there’s a possibility it might go viral— whether or not that was our intention.

Not too long ago, a video on social media depicting a Dunkin’ Donuts employee dumping a bucket of water on a homeless man went viral. The man was resting his head while charging his phone in the restaurant. The incident was recorded and posted online for the world to see. That man wasn’t bothering anyone and, homeless or not, didn’t deserve such hostile treatment. On top of it, this awful moment

was captured on video, to be watched countless times by innumerable strangers.

As a member of our generation, I can’t help but ask: Are we hypocritical? Here we are using social media to ridicule the less fortunate because it amuses us, yet we also promote GoFundMe accounts and share videos that show these same vulnerable people being cared for and shown compassion. Do you see the hypocrisy?

Fortunately, the Dunkin’ Donuts employee and a few other workers involved in the accident have since been fired, according to The New York Times, and a crowdfunding campaign has raised over $13,000 for the homeless man. Here lies my next question: Why do we do it? Are we so self-absorbed that we record our acts of kindness solely to reap the compliments later? If not, why do we ridicule homeless people for our own amusement?

Just a few months ago, another viral video showed a homeless man shaving on a New York City metro. People posted horrible comments about him, calling him a “slob” and an “animal,” according to Global News. The man did not realize he was being filmed and was shocked to learn that the video received more than 2.4 million views online. Would it have been too much for someone to tap him

on the shoulder and kindly inform him about the norm of not shaving on public transpor tation, instead of recording him and ridiculing him on social media?

There is no doubt that many people reading this article will blame the issue on millennials. It is important to note that this generation is not the only generation at fault. The people who comment

on videos are people of all ages and are in the wrong just as much as the people who film these humiliating moments. We start these bullying campaigns and stress the importance of spreading awareness around it, yet we are the first to perpetuate this vicious cycle with our smartphones.

Let us prove society wrong by using our morals instead of our camera phones.

Graphic by Ana Bilokin.

OCTOBER 23, 2018

theconcordian

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SOCIAL MEDIA

The two-dimensional representations of real life How social media is a necessity today, and why that might not be beneficial

HENRY LOVGREN CONTRIBUTOR In sixth grade, I made a deal with the devil. In the middle of the night, I created a Facebook account against my parents's wishes and, like most of my friends, lied about my age. Within a few years, I amassed more than 2,000 "friends." Bizarrely enough, many of my friends in the social media world were acquaintances at best. In my opinion, social media transports its users into an alternate world in which friends are not friends, and a false sense of connectedness often leads to emotional distress.

A few years later, I made another deal and created an Instagram account—this time, I did not have to lie about my age.

Slowly, I learned the platform’s complex code of conduct: when to post, how to write a creative caption and, of course, the importance of maintaining a ratio of more followers than following.

Later came Snapchat. Travel became a chore for me. If I didn’t post about my location, how could I prove to my friends where I had been? As if by some invisible deity, the pressure to post began to feel forced and, in hindsight, took away from my ability to truly engage with the places I traveled to.

Of course, social media is not entirely evil. It allows family and friends separated by distance to stay connected. However, the connection these platforms promise is

not true interaction. Posts on social media are two-dimensional representations of real life. Social media gives the user a fleeting sensation of connectedness, but these moments are illusions that leave the user feeling more disconnected than before.

Beyond its influence on our emotions, social media wields a disturbing amount of power. According to Newsweek , Facebook is the parent company of Whatsapp and Instagram. Its increasing monopoly on how we connect ought to concern us all. I am part of one of the last

generations to experience a world that connected without technology. Younger generations are going to grow up with technology companies documenting them from the cradle to the grave. Consider the facts—as of 2018, according to Forbes, Facebook has over 2.2 billion active users.

That's larger than the population of any country. According to Pew Research, Facebook is the primary news source for 67 per cent of Americans. Additionally, these social platforms offer their services for free, often misleading the user into forgetting that their information is now

being exploited by corporations, without any sort of compensation.

Companies collect information about our posts, likes, and friends to create complex algorithms that categorize user information, demographic, dates, political beliefs, and even who we are attracted to. This is the hidden cost of social media; we are literally selling pieces of our personality in exchange for fleeting moments of connectedness.

I regret using social media. In my last year of high school, I deleted all of my social media, but like an addict, I am back again. Ironically, I had to resurrect my Facebook to participate in a Concordia club. The world is changing into one where living without social media comes with consequences that impact our friendships, employment opportunities, knowledge of popular culture, and invitations to social events.

Mark Zuckerberg—ranked among the annual Forbes most powerful list eight times—has changed the way we learn, shortened our attention spans, and radically transformed political discourse. Elections around the world have been impacted by social media platforms; Twitter played a role during a series of revolutions known as the Arab Spring, where people were able to communicate en mass throughout the revolutions. Today, social media platforms are changing history, and users are giving their personal information away for free.

If they can do that today, shouldn’t we be afraid of what they may do tomorrow?

Graphic by Ana Bilokin.

EXPERIENCE

The feminism we are exposed to One student’s experience with being told “no,” and how that led to an epiphany

KAYLA-MARIE TURRICIANO COPY EDITOR A few weeks ago, I was at my aunt’s house with my parents, my cousins, my great-aunts and uncles for Saturday supper. It’s a tradition that after our family’s Sunday supper together, the

men go to a local Italian bar to have coffee. Every time, not one of the women is asked to go, simply because it’s not customary.

Recently, I’ve been super busy and, although I had brought my laptop to supper to work on assignments, I decided I wanted to take a break and get a coffee. I was looking

forward to a freshly brewed espresso and some down time with my cousins away from my laptop. That is, until I was met with a sentence I’ve never been told in my life: “No, because women aren’t allowed to come.”

I immediately got defensive. I told my great-uncle I just really wanted to get a coffee; it’s not like I was intruding on anything. To no one’s surprise, I guess, arguing with an old Italian man and getting around being told “no” was futile. I got upset and emotional, struggling to hold back tears.

You may think I was being dramatic and that my reaction, while not unwarranted, was not necessary. But this experience made me realize a plethora of things I hadn’t really put too much thought into before.

My entire life, my parents—my mother, in particular—have raised me to be able to do anything and everything. As a small child, I knew how to use a hammer and a screwdriver; I could paint a wall, install pavé-uni (yes, even that), do basic plumbing, change a lightbulb, and maintain the pool. In our house, being a girl was never a factor for discrimination. I knew how to do all of these chores because they were the tasks that needed to get done.

My mom passed that mentality on from her childhood when she and her three sisters were taught how to do everything

and pull their weight too. That was passed down from my grandparents. My nonna knew how to paint and fix things around the house, and my nonno would cook, do groceries and even the laundry, which was super uncommon at that time. Likewise, my 70-year-old aunt is and has always been the one who does the gardening, mows the lawn, all while being the one who cooks and cleans up after 15 people at family gatherings.

She and my great-uncle are of the same baby-boomer generation. Since the incident, I struggled to understand how two people of about the same age, especially from that generation, could have such different values. Then I realized that even within my own generation, which is supposedly “woke” and informed about social constructs, there is disparity. I have come to the conclusion that it all comes down to what you were and continue to be exposed to.

Luckily for me, I come from a few generations of feminists (I use the term lightly here, although it’s applicable nonetheless) even if they didn’t know it. My nonno raised four strong daughters; my mom went on to teach me the same values and, along with my dad, instilled in me that I don’t need a man and I should never take “no” for an answer.

Graphic by Ana Bilokin.

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theconcordian

OCTOBER 23, 2018

You're invited to our AGM Come join the discussion on November 6th at 6:30 p.m.

Location TBD.

Graphic by @spooky_soda

Updates will be posted on theconcordian.com and on our Facebook page @theconcordian.

theconcordian's team EDITOR-IN-CHIEF MAGGIE HOPE editor@theconcordian.com MANAGING EDITOR CANDICE PYE managing@theconcordian.com PRODUCTION MANAGER LOREANNA LASTORIA production@theconcordian.com PRODUCTION ASSISTANT ELENI PROBONAS SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR MATTHEW COYTE online@theconcordian.com

NEWS EDITORS IAN DOWN MIA ANHOURY news@theconcordian.com ASSISTANT NEWS EDITORS MINA MAZUMDER EITHNE LYNCH

LIFE EDITOR ALEX HUTCHINS life@theconcordian.com

OPINIONS EDITOR SANIA MALIK opinions@theconcordian.com

ASSISTANT LIFE EDITOR FATIMA DIA

ASSISTANT OPINIONS EDITOR TYSON BURGER

ARTS EDITOR CHLOË LALONDE arts@theconcordian.com

PHOTO EDITOR MACKENZIE LAD photo@theconcordian.com

ASSISTANT ARTS EDITOR DAISY DUNCAN

PHOTO ASSISTANTS GABE CHEVALIER HANNAH EWEN

MUSIC EDITOR SIMON NEW music@theconcordian.com ASSISTANT MUSIC EDITOR IMMANUEL MATTHEWS

GRAPHICS EDITOR WEDNESDAY LAPLANTE graphics@theconcordian.com GRAPHIC ASSISTANT ANA BILOKIN

SPORTS EDITOR NICHOLAS DI GIOVANNI sports@theconcordian.com

VIDEO EDITOR SANDRA HERCEGOVA video@theconcordian.com

ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR ERIC BEAUDOIN

VIDEO ASSISTANT ARIANNA RANDJBAR

Concordia University’s weekly, independent student newspaper HEAD COPY EDITOR VICTORIA LEWIN COPY EDITORS KATYA TEAGUE KAYLA-MARIE TURRICIANO KATELYN THOMAS copy@theconcordian.com BUSINESS MANAGER FRANCIS LADOUCEUR business@theconcordian.com ADVERTISING MANAGER BILAL QADRI advertising@theconcordian.com BOARD OF DIRECTORS NATHALIE LAFLAMME DAVID EASEY directors@theconcordian.com

CONTRIBUTORS: Abby Yaeger, Alec Brideau, Ashley Fish-Robertson, Giulio Evangelista, Henry Lovgren, Jacob Carey, Kenneth Gibson, Lorenza Mezzapelle, Lyes Mahouche, Sarah Boumedda, Victoria Bakos

VOL. 36, ISSUE 9 OCT. 23, 2018.

OUR COVER THIS WEEK “Women's hockey team” Photo by Alex Hutchins.

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