mcgill tribune vol. 34 issue 15
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www.mcgilltribune.com@mcgilltribune
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Volume No. 34 Issue No. 15Anonymous’ attacks ill-suited to
address homelessness in Montrealpg. 6
Last Thursday and Friday, members of the Post-Grad-uate Students’ Society of
McGill University (PGSS) voted against continued membership with the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), a national union for post-secondary student societies. Prelimi-nary results, which were announced at 2:55 AM on Saturday morning, showed that 2014 students voted “No”, 56 “Yes”.
The PGSS’ motivation to leave the CFS included complaints over difficult-to-manoeuvre procedures, lack of proper representation, lack of democratic process, and complaints over the tedious and difficult-to-manage rules surrounding the refer-endum.
National Chairperson of the CFS Jessica McCormick explained, however, that PGSS would not be completely disaffiliated with the CFS until June.
“[The] vote will be ratified at the next national general meet-
ing and will take effect on June 30th,” McCormick said.
Superior Court rules against referendum regulations
imposed by CFSAccording to Jonathan
Mooney, first-year law student and chair of the “No” campaign, the Quebec Superior Court struck down certain rules of procedure last week that CFS had initially implemented for the referendum.
“The first [rule] said there is no campaigning in a business
owned or operated by the student union,” Mooney said. “The sec-ond [rule] said that there is no campaigning at events or activi-ties where alcohol is served. The third one said that campaign ma-terial will not be approved that includes legal or quasi-legal ac-tions.”
He continued to explain that the Superior court struck down the referendum rules due to their inconsistencies.
EDITORIAL
Continued on pg. 13
In a world where Hollywood churns out high-budget Clas-sics-themed blockbusters like
Troy (2004) and 300 (2006) every few years, it’s pretty common to find these types of ancient stories being retold in a dramatic form that’s accessible to modern audiences. What’s far more rare though, is to come across a live production that actually stages ancient drama more or less as it was written; but three weeks from now, that’s exactly what will be happening when Thyestes, the fifth instalment of the McGill Classics Play, begins its four-show run at the Plateau’s La Sala Rossa.
Formed in the 2010-2011 school year by Classics professor Lynn Kozak, the McGill Classics Play is an organization which aims to provide a space for the exchange of arts and ideas around classical texts in the Montreal community. Its main annual project is staging a production of one of those dramatic texts—but only after it has undergone an original translation. This year, the responsibility for that daunting task fell on the shoulders of director Duncan McDonald (U3 Music and Greek Language), who had never tackled such an assignment before signing on for Thyestes.
“To translate it yourself, not in a class setting, and to have that goal of a performance-ready version, it’s a whole different experience,” said McDonald. “Because you’re thinking about way more things than you normally would [….] You’ll try and match what’s in the Latin word for word, but that doesn’t sound good in English, so it’s really turning it into a good English version that’s the most difficult.”
See inside for...SSMU CoUnCil p. 4
(Emma Hameau / McGill Tribune)
SSMU Council reviews budget, hears address from principal Fortier
Continued on pg. 2
Web Developer, Contributors
Will BURGESS, JUliA DiCK, JENNA STANWOOD
Arts & Entertainment EditorMAX BERGER
Post-graduate students vote to leave Canadian Federation of Students
Peer review: McGill Classics Play
2 Tuesday, January 20, 2015 NewsPost-graduate students vote to leave Canadian Federation of Students PGSS remains in litigation regarding $400,000 in back membership fees
Web Developer, Contributors
WILL BURGESS, JULIA DICK, JENNA STANWOOD,
(Hayley Lim / McGill Tribune)
2010 MARCH 2014SEPTEMBER 2014Ge Sa, phD student appears
before the Quebec Superior Court to request that it grant an order for CFS to allow PGSS to host another referendum
Quebec Superior Court rules to allow PGSS to host referendum
Referedum on CFS membership passes with 2014 votes in favour of PGSS disaffiliating
JANUARY 15-16, 2015Initial attempt by PGSS to host a referendum to leave CFS. Litigation ongoing amid disputes about voting period dates
(Continued from page 1)
“First, these rules are not per-mitted under CFS’s own bylaws, because the chief returning officer (CRO) can only make rules about voting and not campaigning,” Mooney said. “Second, they are a violation of guarantee to freedom of expression under Article III of the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedom.”
PGSS Council officially en-dorsed the “No” committee during an emergency Council meeting on Jan. 7. PGSS Internal Affairs Offi-cer Ge Sa stated that approximate-ly 10 other post-graduate student associations had also endorsed the “No” campaign.
Referendum debate and special general meeting
Last Wednesday, PGSS host-ed a debate on the CFS referen-dum question. The debate was at-tended by PGSS members and the official “No” committee, which was chaired by Mooney. Members of the “Yes” committee did not at-tend, although Mooney confirmed that McCormick, who also acted as the chair of the “Yes” commit-tee, had been invited to participate in the debate.
On the following Thursday, PGSS held a special general meet-ing. According to Mooney, the meeting was an important step in the referendum process and served to assert a larger body of gradu-ate students’ support for the “No” vote passing in the referendum. The general meeting endorsed the “No” vote, with 79 votes in favour of separating from CFS and two abstentions.
Referendum voteLast week’s referendum
comes after a long struggle be-tween the PGSS and the CFS, including a lawsuit over a simi-lar referendum in 2010 that was declared invalid by the CFS be-cause of a disagreement over vot-ing period dates. In 2013, prior to his involvement as PGSS internal affairs officer, PhD student Ge Sa collected over 2,000 graduate student signatures on a petition calling to hold a new referendum on disaffiliation from the CFS. Initially, the CFS refused to grant PGSS the new referendum due to a disagreement with how the signatures on the petition were collected. In September 2014, the Quebec Superior Court ruled in favour of Sa, and required the CFS to allow another referendum, which was held last week, to take
place. Many graduate students in-
volved in campaigning leading up to the referendum expressed their satisfaction over the voter turnout. About 2,100 votes were counted, surpassing the quorum of 800 votes by a large margin.
“I was blown away by the voter turnout, and I hope the McGill community and other universities can look to the hard work that was done by PGSS, ‘No’ campaigners, and students as inspiration in the future,” said Laura Cohen, a Library and In-formation Studies master’s stu-dent and PGSS Council represen-tative.
According to McCormick, The PGSS owed over $400,000 in back membership fees to the CFS, all of which was remitted to CFS before the referendum in compli-ance with CFS bylaws.
However, these fees are cur-rently being contested by the PGSS in a separate litigation.
“The fees the CFS claim that PGSS owes them already had to be paid back in November for the referendum to proceed, [as] CFS bylaws require all outstand-ing fees to be remitted six weeks prior to the first day of voting,” said PGSS Financial Officer Nikki Meadows, who also acts as the official liaison between the PGSS and the CFS. “Those fees were paid under protest, and we are [seeking to claim] them in the case regarding the unrecognized 2010 vote.”
According to Meadows, money that was being spent on legal fees throughout the referen-dum process can now be put into other projects to benefit the stu-dent body.
“The monies spent in legal
costs absolutely can, and will, be redirected elsewhere as soon as possible.” Meadows said. “We’ve discussed many ideas for how to spend that money—a daycare for student parents and projects to make Thomson House more sustainable and environmentally friendly being two of our most appealing [options], but any major project will be undertaken with consultation and approval of our members.”
Students are hopeful that the PGSS’ case will assist many of the other university organizations involved in similar disputes with the CFS.
“I hope it will set a prece-dent at other universities,” Cohen said. “Our success can only help other universities who are trying to leave.”
PGSS remains a member of two other student organizations,
the GU15, an annual summit of graduate students from 15 uni-versities across Canada, and the Fédération Étudiante Universi-taire du Quebec (FÉUQ). PGSS External Affairs Officer Julien Ouellet stated that he believes that leaving the CFS will im-prove their relations with these organizations.
“The FÉUQ is transparent, accountable, and efficient in representing us at the provincial and federal level,” Ouellet said. “Even though we sometimes have important disagreements, they have always shown great defer-ence to democratic principles and respect our right to dissent. We are very satisfied with this mem-bership [....] I think it really is the [dawn] of a new era for PGSS.”
The PGSS does not current-ly have plans to pursue member-ship in another organization.
JUNE 30, 2015CFS will hold vote to ratify referendum
Polling stations were present in various locations around campus last week. (Jack Neal / McGill Tribune)
3NewsTuesday, January 20, 2015
SSMU general manager position in transition after Pauline Gervais’ retirement
At the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Council meet-
ing on Jan. 15, SSMU President Courtney Ayukawa announced that SSMU General Manager Pauline Gervais, who has worked at SSMU since 2004, has retired. The new general manager will take over the position in early February. More details about the new general manager will be re-leased during the next Council meeting on Jan. 29.
Although Gervais’ last day as general manager was Jan. 4, Gervais will work part-time to finish any final work.
“She is coming two days in a week and she stopped work-ing on any new projects,” Ayu-kawa explained. “[Gervais signs] the cheques that are needed and [handles] the general work that
[is] needed for the day-to-day functioning of SSMU.”
According to Ayukawa, the hiring process of the new general manager is almost completed, which Gervais stated was a col-laborative one.
“The first interviews were done by the president and the human resources advisor.” Ger-vais said. “I did the final inter-views with the president [....] We together made the decision.”
Ayukawa stated that she believes that it is going to be a challenging time for SSMU with-out the lengthy experience of Gervais, who had worked for 11 years in the position,
“[Gervais] knows SSMU, SSMU’s relationship with Mc-Gill, and SSMU’s relationship with the City of Montreal like the back of her hand,” Ayukawa said. “It’s been very easy working with her in the last few months. For example, if I [wanted] to in-stall a new elevator in SSMU,
she would know exactly the road-blocks for that [...] exactly whom to talk to with the university [...] how much money it would even cost [....] So when the new gen-eral manager comes in without having any knowledge or previ-ous experience, it’s going to be tough.”
Gervais’ retirement also led to the creation of the new posi-tion of SSMU building direc-tor, which will separate building management issues from general management. The position was created after Gervais announced her retirement at the end of last semester.
“Dealing with the build-ing issues and all the gover-nance, corporate stuff, human resources, finances, and staff management —when you have the building [added onto] that, it was very heavy load [of work] to the point that I didn’t have enough time to put on governance and to the things that you’d expect the
general manager to do,” Gervais explained. “By creating a build-ing director position, removing the building from the general manager [position], my succes-sor will not have to deal, on a daily basis, with the building is-sues.”
Gervais said the transient nature of her working relation-ships with SSMU executives was a draining.
“Every year, I have to re-build the trust between the exec-utives and the general manager,” she said. “Once they get used to [knowing] me, and we have es-tablished some sort of a trustwor-thy relationship, they are gone. I have to start that over, over, and over again. That’s what I’m most tired of.”
Gervais said that she has worked hard to bring financial stability to SSMU and restructur-ing human resources. The most remarkable of all, according to Gervais, is the SSMU Daycare.
“The SSMU Daycare used to be a department under SSMU, but [it was also] its own corpo-ration,” she recalled. “A com-pany can’t be run under another company. So I told them to set up their own account, their own cheque book, and [to] become independent from SSMU. I’ve also represented the Daycare and applied for government subsidy [....] It took a long time and we got the subsidy at last. It’s $7 per day now. I’m so happy.”
Upon her retirement, Ger-vais expects SSMU to further evolve in a positive way.
“I’ve brought SSMU to this level, and now, you need some-one different that’s going to bring SSMU from this current level to a higher level,” she said. “With the desire, with the passion, with everything that I’ve had so many years, you need some new blood. [There will be] new ideas, new ways of doing things [.…] It’s good evolution.”
Following the Jan. 7 bull-dozing of a homeless encampment in Viger
Square, the Service de Police de la ville de Montreal (SPVM) has responded to subsequent back-lash.
In November 2014, Anony-mous, a hacker collective, began an initiative called Operation Safe Winter (OpSafeWinter). The initiative’s goal was to protect the homeless community through provision of blankets, clothing, and other cold-weather necessi-ties.
Following the camp’s re-moval, Anonymous responded to the SPVM by occupying the square, threatening the SPVM with cyber attacks, and encour-aging members of the community to help the homeless in any way they could.
A statement released by Anonymous on Jan. 9 demand-ed that the SPVM and the City of Montreal create a permanent moratorium on the raids of home-less encampments from Dec. 1 to March 1. The statement claimed that Anonymous would continue to occupy Viger Square, protest in the streets of Montreal, and attack the cyber infrastructure of the City of Montreal until its demands were met.
“OpSafeWinter is not about politics,” the OpSafeWinter rep-resentative said. “It’s about win-
ter and homelessness. Just get out there and do some-thing, anything, to help.”
According to SPVM Inspector Vincent Richer, the decision to clear the square was due to health and safety concerns.
“When they talk about ‘dismantling’ the encamp-ment, that’s not what we did,” Richer said. “We took away some rubbish that was there. There were piles of stuff that were aban-doned there by different people, and in these piles you have some syringes, old food that had rotted, and some rats, so we [had] to clean it up. I informed [the city workers] that for health reasons, we had to take these things away.”
A representative from Anon-ymous’ OpSafeWinter disagreed with the SPVM’s description of the removed materials as rub-bish.
“Much of the material that was destroyed at Viger Square was cold weather gear we had given those people previously as part of Op Safe Winter Mon-treal,” the representative stated.
According to Richer, how-ever, this cleaning up is nothing new.
“Every Wednesday morning, city workers go and they pick up the syringes and the things that are abandoned.” Richer said. On
Jan. 7, however, the cold weather caused a change of circumstanc-es. “When the workers arrived with their shovels, it was all cov-ered in ice and they couldn’t take it away, so they brought in that payloader.”
Richer also expressed that the SVPM hoped the police inter-vention would encourage mem-bers of the homeless community to seek out shelters for the night, as the temperature was expected to drop severely.
“My hope is that no one would sleep outside at -38 [de-grees Celsius],” he said. “There were spaces in shelters, and Old
Brewery Mission was working with us so that someone who wanted to sleep inside could sleep inside that night.”
Anonymous declined to comment on its future plans for protests and cyber attacks, stat-ing that “You’ll just have to fol-low the Twitter, sit back, and watch.”
Richer described Anony-mous’ attacks as unfortunate.
“Maybe they felt they have some reasons to attack us, but in that situation, our actions were for the well-being of the people that were there,” he said.
Students’ responses to the
situation has been divided.“I can see both sides to this
problem.” said U3 Education stu-dent Alex Lavkulik, . “Members of the homeless community have the right to be in a public space [....] On the other hand, the po-lice are attempting to protect the wellbeing of the homeless com-munity. They may not have gone about it the right way, but the in-tention was clearly there [....] I think, overall, there needs to be better communication between the SPVM and the Montreal com-munity.”
ContributorLAURA HANRAHAN
Removal of Viger Square homeless encampment by SPVM spurs reaction from AnonymousPolice cite health and safety concerns for camp’s removal
ContributorASHLEY KONG
New manager to be announced at next Council meeting, additional building director position created
Square Viger in Old Montreal is a frequent refuge for the homeless community. (Jack Neal / McGill Tribune)
4 Tuesday, January 20, 2015 NewsSSMU Council reviews budget, hears address from Principal FortierNewly passed interim election regulations to increase objectivity of nominating committee
The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Council met on Thursday to review ex-
ecutive reports from the past semester, including the SSMU budget, and to discuss the implementation of interim election regulations for this semester.
Address by Principal Suzanne Fortier
Principal Suzanne Fortier made an appearance at the meeting, giving a year-in-review speech in which she highlighted McGill’s Arts Research Internship Awards and other accom-plishments. Principal Fortier then stood for questions from Council, fielding concerns expressed by stu-dents on issues of tuition and financial accessibility.
In response to a question from Vice-President External Affairs Amina Moustaqim-Barrette regarding McGill’s risk of becoming an elitist university in terms of financial acces-sibility, Fortier cited bursary fund.
“McGill is an elitist university in terms of academic achievement,” Fortier said. “[It] is able to attract very good students because it has the top bursary program in Canada in terms of money per student. If I were to talk about what makes a good university […] it’s the ability to attract students not on the basis of what they can pay,
but on the basis of their academic achievements.”
Motion to pass interim election regulationsThe Council passed a motion to
implement interim provisions regard-ing the SSMU Nominating Commit-tee and online ratification of General Assembly resolutions. The new Nom-inating Committee will consist of four councillors and four members at large, and the committee Chair will be ap-pointed by the SSMU general man-ager rather than the president.
These interim provisions aim
to adhere to a less executive-centred model, increasing the committee’s ob-jectivity.
“In the previous Nominating Committee, all of the executives were members, along with three council-lors,” Vice-President University Af-fairs Claire Stewart-Kanigan said. “These positions are supposed to be very distanced from SSMU, given that they’re elections and judicial board justices, so we spent a lot of time talking about how we can make this more distanced from the execu-tives to avoid potential conflicts of interest and increase the objectivity of
these bodies.” Stewart-Kanigan said the chang-
es may be a larger part of a reform in Elections SSMU.
“This could potentially be part of a shift toward moving Elections SSMU from the presidential portfolio into the general manager portfolio to increase the objectivity of this pro-cess,” Stewart-Kanigan said.
Report on last semester’s budget
In a review of SSMU’s budget, expenses, and investment portfolio from last semester, Vice-President
Finance and Operations Kathleen Bradley noted that Gerts ran a deficit of $25,724. Bradley said she was un-concerned, explaining that these num-bers were nothing out of the ordinary compared to previous years. The Nest ran a deficit of $27,210. She attribut-ing the low sales at both venues to the construction on McTavish.
“Food sales are down pretty sub-stantially at The Nest, but I’m happy to report that costs of sales are well controlled, and salaries and benefits have been addressed,” Bradley said. “That was the primary failing of last year’s budget.”
Overall, sales at both Gerts and The Nest were better than projected in the budget, and SSMU operations differed from its projected budget by $10,000.
Announcement of new SSMU General Manager
President Courtney Ayukawa an-nounced the hiring of the new SSMU General Manager, who will begin transitioning into their new role in early February.
“The General Manager was se-lected based on a number of factors,” Ayukawa said. “She needed to have a great diversity of previous experience. It’s really hard to find someone who can do marketing, daycare, student development, budgeting, and human resources—it’s a pretty diverse port-folio.”
Staff WriterLAUREN WILDGOOSE
The Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) hosted Principal Su-zanne Fortier as a guest speaker
at its council meeting on Jan. 14. For-tier expressed her satisfaction with Mc-Gill’s prestige as a university and spoke to the role of teamwork and collabora-tion in continuing to improve McGill.
“A great university is something we build together,” Fortier said. “Our responsibility is to continue in adding to a very strong foundation [….] We do that by looking critically at our-selves [and] looking at where we can improve.”
AUS councillors and gallery members asked Fortier several ques-tions, many of which were about the regulation of SNAX, a student-run snack shop regulated by the AUS that sells out of Leacock. As it stands, the AUS Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with McGill University does not permit SNAX to sell sandwiches and “prepared foods” to students. Arts Senator Jacob Greenspon compared SNAX with other on-campus food dis-tributors such as Premiere Moisson.
“You mentioned the positive fair trade characteristics of Premiere Mois-son […] but AUS SNAX also sells fair
trade products,” Greenspon argued. “Why does it seem that McGill would [...] support some fair trade initiatives but not others, particularly when the latter, SNAX, offers financially acces-sible items to students?”
In response to this question, Dep-uty Provost (Student Life & Engage-ment) Ollivier Dyens suggested that SNAX enter into a business contract with McGill, just as Premiere Mois-son has. As Dyens explained, McGill’s hesitation with SNAX lies in issues of liability and student safety.
“There’s an issue of liability [and] responsibility,” Dyens said. “As you know we’re very, very conscious about food safety. If somebody gets sick while going to SNAX, people aren’t going to go after SNAX or AUS, they’re going to go after McGill [...] and it’s going to have ramifications for the university.”
Several representatives from SNAX were present at the council meeting, prepared to address the uni-versity’s concerns about liability.
“[SNAX is] taking quite a few steps at this time to ensure that we aren’t a liability,” explained Emma Meldrum, assistant manager at SNAX. “We’re getting our employees health certified, we have forms from the gov-ernment that say that we are safe, we
had a safe health inspection last semes-ter, and all of our suppliers are certified as well with the government of Que-bec. And furthermore, we are insured under the AUS.”
AUS Council reaches decision regarding VP
Internal responsibilitiesSince the announcement of leave
of absence of former AUS VP Internal Roma Nadeem due to physical illness at the beginning of the year, the AUS council has been forced to reach a deci-sion regarding how to cover the admin-istrative duties of this role. At Wednes-day’s meeting, AUS President Ava Liu announced her decision to leave the position open while hiring someone outside the AUS executive to fill the new role of Internal Administrator.
The council floor was then opened up to discussion for whether or not to appoint a member of council to the position of VP Internal, and if so, whom.
“We’ll be hiring someone who is a student at McGill, probably in the Faculty of Arts, to work directly under my supervision,” Liu explained. “This person would just come in for a few hours a week to do room bookings and liquor permits.”
Liu continued to explain that this
administrative position would be work-ing few enough hours that the AUS would have room in its budget to pay him or her a stipend.
The AUS council ultimately de-cided that no motion was needed to finalize this decision, as a replacement will not be selected for the VP Internal position, through other means were needed to fulfil the administrative du-ties.
“The other tasks in Roma’s port-folio that pertain to representation will be filled by the other members of the Executive,” Liu detailed.
AUS Council drafts new Memorandum of Agree-
mentAUS VP Academic, Erin Sobat,
presented to Council a draft of a new Memorandum of Agreement (MoA)—a legal document that outlines AUS’s relationship and obligations to McGill University as an accredited student as-sociation. Last renewed in 2010, the document is renewed every five years.
In describing the new MoA, Sobat also outlined the association fees that McGill owes the AUS, which students pay the university along with their tuition. These fees help cover the operating expenses of the AUS and fund services and activities provided to
students, such as Bar des Arts and the AUS Essay Centre.
The updated MoA proposes a significant increase in the annual ad-ministrative fee schedule, which Mc-Gill charges to collect AUS association fees. The current proposed association fee schedule incurs increases in the amount of money McGill receives from the AUS.
“We don’t have any rent fees [from] McGill for our space, but we do have administrative fees,” Sobat explained. “So it’s not that those aren’t numbers that we can’t afford, but [Mc-Gill is] definitely looking to us as a source of revenue.”
The updated MoA does not make any major changes regarding SNAX, although the snack shop will incur rent increases for its real estate.
“[Rent] was going up a dollar per year, so really what we expected was for it to keep going up a dollar per year,” Sobat noted. “It’s a pretty high rate of inflation, but [...] if you want to think about McGill as a real estate mar-ket, it is at a premium, and SNAX can afford it.”
The current terms for SNAX in the MoA, which restrict the store from selling “any kind of processed or pre-pared food, such as sandwiches,” have not changed in the updated MoA.
AUS council hosts Fortier during first meeting of the yearDiscusses VP Internal position, MoA with McGill
ContributorAUDREY CARLETON
Principal Fortier addressed councillors during the Jan.15 meeting. (Emma Hameau / McGill Tribune)
Tuesday, January 20, 2015 5NewsTuesday, January 20, 2015
Nurse shares experience in combating stigma against Ebola at McGill lectureKaci Hickox pushes for evidence-based Canadian quarantine policies
ContributorMIINA SASAKI
1976 1995
2001
2014
224 deaths, 425 cases, in Uganda
187 deaths, 264 cases, in Democratic Republic of
Congo; Uganda
2,667 deaths, 5,413 cases, in Democratic Republic of Congo,
Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone
431 deaths, 602 cases, in Sudan, Zaire*
2007
Infographic by Domitille Biehlmann
Kaci Hickox, a Maine nurse who has worked with non-profit medi-
cal humanitarian organization Médecins sans frontières (MSF) to treat Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, spoke to members of the McGill community on Thursday about the circumstances of the current Ebola outbreak and the challenges that need to be over-come in order to beat the disease.
According to Hickox, doc-tors have been familiar with the Ebola virus for decades. The first human cases of the disease date back to 1967, and over 20 out-breaks have followed since, pri-marily in Central Africa. How-ever, the 2014 outbreak was the first to occur in West Africa, with Sierra Leone having the highest number of cases, followed by Li-beria and Guinea.
“The current outbreak has seen more cases than any of the previous outbreaks, with over 20,000 affected in all of West Af-rica,” Hickox said. “[There are] public health laboratories and hospitals in the U.S. that have been designed to accept Ebola patients or Ebola samples [.…] We’ve been in this outbreak for over nine months and we still have as many being constructed as there are any opened.”
Hickox also drew on her ex-perience to address the fear and stigma associated with Ebola. Upon returning to Maine last Oc-tober, Hickox was faced with a 21-day quarantine, despite hav-ing no fever and testing negative for Ebola. She spoke against the quarantine order, condemning it as “unethical” and “unneces-sary.” A Maine judge later ruled in her favour, reducing the length of the quarantine to four days.
“There are so many voices of public health experts who have said these policies don’t make sense,” Hickox said. “All [the policies are] doing is increasing fear and stigma and discrimina-tion, and when those things hap-pen, Ebola wins.”
The Government of Canada put new public health measures into effect on Nov. 10, 2014 to prevent the spread of Ebola to Canada. The new policy, which can be found on its website, states that the necessity of self-isolation will be decided by quarantine officers on a case-by-case basis.
“All travellers coming into Canada with a travel history from the outbreak regions will
need to be monitored for up to 21 days,” reads the policy. “Health care and humanitarian workers
returning from outbreak coun-tries who are not presenting symptoms will also be required
to report to a local public health authority, monitor their tem-perature twice a day, report any
planned travel, and immediately report any symptoms. Quaran-tine Officers will decide on a case-by-case basis if self-isola-tion is required.”
Hickox disagrees with Can-ada’s policy. What is needed, according to her, is a policy that is “simple, clear, and evidence-based.”
“Such a broad, sweeping statement means there doesn’t have to be consistency, and [that the decision] can be based on public fear and not science, which I think is a very dangerous place to have a policy,” Hickox warned.
Hickox also highlighted the negative impact that quarantine laws have had on international response to the disease.
“USAID [United States Agency for International De-velopment, a U.S. Government agency that has been seeking medical professionals to volun-teer in West Africa] saw a 17 per cent drop in volunteer applica-tions the two weeks after gov-ernors […] announced [an] in-home quarantine policy,” Hickox said. “[The policy] has made healthcare workers feel afraid and confused and less likely to be willing to respond.”
Professor Madeleine Buck of the Ingram School of Nursing at McGill, who was one of the organizers of the event, praised the lecture.
“We’ve had some microbi-ologists [come to McGill to] talk about Ebola, but no one to speak from the clinical side as well as the political advocacy side, so this was very interesting,” Buck said. “We hope to make this an annual event.”
Second-year medical stu-dent Kelly Lau, who attended the lecture, agreed with Buck.
“It was a really fantastic talk,” Lau said. “[Hickox’s ar-gument that] political action against Ebola should not be motivated by fear, but rather by medical evidence [...] was a re-ally great point.”
Hickox said she believes that it is important to continue speaking out to make people re-alize that irrational fear of the unknown only manipulates poli-tics, and that it is always better to listen to science.
“I know that we can continue to beat this disease, but we also have to beat the fear, the stigma, and the delayed response,” she concluded.
250 deaths, 315 cases, in Zaire*
*Currently known as the Democratic Republic of Congo
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In the debate over health care re-form in Canada, defenders of the status quo often resort to the tired claim that a greater role for competition, private financing, or private provision of health care services in Canada would mean the ‘Americanization’ of health care. Indeed, the claim is often made that proponents of private financing and delivery with the universal Medicare system are recommending the United States’ approach to health care policy in which only the rich can have access to top quality care, a highly deceptive and misleading argument.
Most people arguing for a greater role for private financing and deliv-ery of health care in Canada are not recommending the adoption of a U.S. style health care system. All Canadians should agree that it is in the national in-terest to have a high- quality universal access health care system regardless of ability to pay.
The U.S. is a straw man compari-son and is not a model for any country
to reform its own nation’s health care system on. In addition to its high costs, the U.S. also fails to deliver coverage to millions of its citizens. However, while Canadian health care is better than the system (or lack thereof) that exists in the U.S., it actually performs relatively poorly compared to other developed na-tions that provide universal health care.
The question Canadians must ask is how to best organize health care policy in Canada to better deliver on the promise of high quality care provided in a timely fashion regardless of ability to pay at reasonable cost to the taxpayer. The facts show clearly that Canada’s government breaks that promise on a daily basis despite asking Canadians to pay for the developed world’s second most expensive universal access health care system.
Notably, in spite of those compar-atively high expenditures, Canadians receive relatively poor access to physi-cians and medical technologies, and are cared for using far too many old and outdated pieces of medical equipment. Canadians also have to live through the agony of some of the longest waiting times in the developed world.
Austria, Belgium, France, Ger-many, Japan, Luxembourg, and Swit-zerland all deliver health care services without waiting lists that are excessively long, while still providing treatment re-gardless of ability to pay.
Australia, Japan, Sweden, Swit-zerland, and France all manage to out-
perform Canada in outcomes closely related to the performance of the health care system. According to the Fra-ser Institute, a Vancouver-based market-oriented think tank, Canada performs
worse than these other nations on indi-cators that range from infant mortality to breast cancer survival rates.
Critically, every one of these nine nations employs competition in the de-livery and financing of health care and requires patients to share in the cost of the care consumed to the benefit of both patients and the public treasury.
More specifically, each of these nations employs private providers in the delivery of publicly funded health care services, employs a private paral-lel health care sector that individuals can access easily, and requires cost sharing or user fees for universally accessible health care services.
According to organizations like the World Health Organization and the respected health policy think tank the Commonwealth Foundation, all the above-mentioned nations achieve bet-ter health care outcomes at a lower cost than Canada.
The claim that employing private financing and provision of health care in Canada would lead to the ‘Ameri-canization’ of health care is not based on facts. The truth is that employing these policies would improve the state of health care in this country and make Canada’s universal health care system much more like those in Swe-den, Switzerland, or Japan. Universal health care is rightly a Canadian value. Yet this does not mean the system is perfect. The failure of the Canadian model to deliver a quality of service on par to other developed nations means that we must move away from our obsession with comparing ourselves to the U.S. and learn from our global peers who seem better able to balance the twin goals of equity and efficiency in health care.
The American health care distraction
In the midst of plummeting tem-peratures, the Montreal police used bull-dozers on Jan. 7 to clear out belongings from a homeless encampment at Viger Square. The police justified this action by asserting that the encampment posed a public health risk, and that it was too cold for the homeless to sleep outside. They hoped that removing the home-less peoples’ belongings and bringing them to a shelter would encourage the homeless to retrieve their possessions at the shelter and remain indoors for the winter.
While this is not the first time the Service de Police de la Ville de Montre-al (SPVM) has cleared out this area, the incident two weeks ago gained particu-lar attention because the hacker group Anonymous recently spoke out against the Montreal police. Anonymous com-mitted to occupying the square until the City of Montreal agreed to enforce a moratorium on raids of homeless en-campments from Dec. 1 to March 1. In addition, as a response to the police’s action, which it deemed as “heartless”, Anonymous has threatened to “attack the cyber infrastructure of the City of Montreal and other entities as [they] see fit,” an action Anonymous is known to
take in opposition to groups or organiza-tions. So far, the group has executed one distributed denial of service (DDoS) against the SPVM, and has occupied the square for a short period of time.
Anonymous had stated in an in-terview with one of its members that it would set up a sanctuary for homeless people in Montreal, where it would pro-
vide basic comforts such as hot meals. So far, however, there is no evidence that Anonymous has provided any sub-stantial services.
Anonymous’ campaign in Mon-treal is part of its larger movement, known as Operation Safe Winter, which seeks to “highlight the homeless situ-ation in areas throughout the world.” Highlight it they have, but their actions are not a proactive step towards solving the homeless situation, nor is its par-ticular brand of activism anything more
than glorified trolling.The police have used bulldoz-
ers to clear Viger Square on multiple occasions before, but the most recent incident was not publicized until Anon-ymous targeted the SPVM. On one hand, Anonymous did achieve its goal of highlighting the homeless situation–there was little public outcry regarding
the situation at Viger Square until Anon-ymous brought it to light. On the other hand, Anonymous used the police as a scapegoat, framing the SPVM as heart-less and insensitive in order to sensation-alize the incident. If Anonymous was going to reprimand anybody, it should have been the city, who is to blame for the lack of adequate resources to keep Montreal’s homeless population out of the cold. The fact that the area has been cleared many times before this incident highlights that there is a broader under-
lying problem facing the homeless in Montreal. Many homeless continue to return to their camp outdoors instead of seeking refuge in shelters, suggesting that the shelters available in Montreal are either too few, too understaffed, or too unsafe for many to find refuge in. It is the responsibility of the city, not the police, to ensure that there are open and safe shelters for the homeless to go to. Therefore, attacking the police was emblematic of Anonymous’ brand of ‘yellow-journalism’ activism that seeks to point fingers and to antagonistically attack institutions or individuals, rather than promoting conversations about the systemic problem truly at hand.
Anonymous’ disruptive online attacks delegitimize its actions and re-inforce its image as a group of ornery internet trolls. Nevertheless, it is ad-mittedly effective at raising awareness and galvanizing the public through its inflammatory discourse. However, Anonymous’ aggressive finger-pointing and attacks do not encourage solutions. There are much more complex financial and structural problems at hand, which will not be addressed if they keep play-ing the blame game.
Anonymous’ attacks ill-suited to address homelessness in Montreal
Anonymous used the police as a scapegoat, framing the SPVM as
heartless and insensitive in order to sensationalize the incident.
“ “
editorial
“
“
CoMMeNtarY
6 Opinion Tuesday, January 20, 2015
The question
Canadians must
ask is how to best
organize health care
policy in Canada to
better deliver on
the promise of high
quality care provided
in a timely fashion.
ContributorJUSTIN HATHERLY
7 Tuesday, January 20, 2015 Opinion
Charlie is the hero of the freedom of the press. Charlie has, rightfully, taken freedom of speech to its very limits, pushing past the boundaries of political correctness. Charlie is a martyr. This has been the prevailing nar-rative since the shooting at Char-lie Hebdo.
But Charlie is not a sup-porter of freedom from discrimi-nation or freedom of religion. Charlie wrongly equates freedom of expression with freedom from consequence.
On Jan. 7, two gunmen took 12 lives at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical maga-zine. The suspects have been identified as Islamic extremists who sought revenge for the mag-azine’s many infamous portray-als of Muhammad and the Islam-ic tradition, such as the cartoon depicting the Prophet Muham-mad naked, and a cover cartoon
featuring Muhammad kissing a Charlie Hebdo staff member.
Since the shootings, people across the Western world, includ-ing many high-profile politicians and celebrities, have condemned the actions of the terrorists and proclaimed “#jesuisCharlie.”
Sending out a quick tweet proclaiming “#jesuisCharlie” is easy. It is harder to give some thought into why we are mourn-ing. The inexcusable murders of the Charlie Hebdo staff members have been taken and shaped into the symbol of free speech and freedom of the press. #Jesuis-Charlie mourns not the individu-als who were killed, but rather the idea they seemingly symbol-ize. Charlie Hebdo is the repre-sentation of a modern era Mari-anne–the embodiment of liberty and reason.
But is this an accurate por-trayal of Charlie?
My argument is not that the editorial choices of Charlie Hebdo should have been sub-dued, but that there is a greater complexity that should not be filtered in black-and-white: Making a martyr out of Charlie Hebdo actually hurts liberty.
Charlie Hebdo is not a high-minded, highbrow publication with the purpose of fighting for
freedom. Its staff members have claimed that the magazine’s in-tent is to satirize the follies of politicians, institutions, and re-ligions, just about anybody or anything. As George Packer of the New Yorker so vehemently declared, “Charlie Hebdo had been nondenominational in its satire, sticking its finger into the sensitivities of Jews and Chris-tians, too—but only Muslims re-sponded with threats and acts of terrorism.”
But to use the fact that many religions were ridiculed as a de-fense of Charlie Hebdo’s content is to misunderstand the underly-ing situation in which the inci-dent took place and to hide be-hind a thin veil of humour. The purpose behind satire is to raise unheard voices and to question the loudest voices through co-medic means. But whose voice does Charlie Hebdo champion? Is it noble to scream, “Mock everything!” with no intention of addressing the fact that some groups are more privileged than others?
The French republican tradi-tion is secular: A large part of the French Revolution was to sepa-rate the state from the church, which had ties to every aspect of public life. Secularism in France
differs from secularism here in North America, as it insists on having no religion rather than accepting all religions. This is il-lustrated, for example, in the ban on burqas in France.
The end of French colonial-ism in the mid-20th century has also brought in many Muslim immigrants into France, and for the most part, they still face sys-tematic discrimination. The real-ity is that Muslims in France are vulnerable to prejudice in a way that the majority isn’t.
To make a crude compari-son, Charlie is the schoolyard bully making fun of the vulner-able, and then justifying it by saying, “I make fun of everyone–can’t you take a joke?”
Civil liberties like freedom from discrimination and freedom of religion are taken for granted by the in-group, and taken away from the minority–Muslims in France. Nothing can justify what the gunmen did, but mak-ing Charlie Hebdo a spokesper-son for the cause of liberty is not completely accurate. Freedom of expression does not mean free-dom from consequence. Charlie Hebdo’s publications served to exacerbate anti-Muslim and anti-Arab sentiments in an already hostile environment. Its words
and drawings perpetuate a so-ciety and culture that enforces the status quo. You can condemn the actions of the terrorists and disagree with the content Char-lie Hebdo puts out at the same time. To make Charlie a martyr is to ignore the wider context in which the events played out.
ContributorSHARON xIE
Earlier this month, The White House released a short video on its Facebook and Twitter pages in which President Barack Obama made a proposal to make commu-nity college free for two years of each students’ education. As long as students attend half of the required classes and maintain a 2.5 GPA, they would not have to pay for tu-ition. His proposal raises important questions regarding the role of the state versus the role of individuals in bearing the cost of education. But, more generally, the proposal would promote greater equality of opportunity in a society stratified along income lines.
The proposal states that the costs of two years in a community college should be shared between the state (25 per cent of the ex-penses) and the federal government (75 per cent of the expenses). More precisely, it would mean that each
student would save up to $3,347, the average cost of two years at community college. Although this amount of money may seem rath-er small compared to the price of other universities, it would make a significant difference for middle-income and low-income students. Many students in the U.S. graduate with large amounts of debt. More-over, some students cannot even afford a federal loan. These young people usually register for part-time education in order to be able to also have a job and pay for their educa-tion expenses. The proposal would eliminate the need for student loans for community colleges, and would also allow students to attend college full-time. But, more importantly, free education means equality of opportunity. A degree can lead to a better job, better life prospects and possible upward social mobility. Obama himself qualified commu-nity colleges as “essential pathways to middle-class,” notably thanks to their flexibility for people who want to improve their education and skills, but have neither the money nor the time to spend on a four-year program at university. Ultimately, making community college free would start to bridge the gap in the education provision and provide a remedy to the growing economic and racial stratification in higher
education. Al-though some journalists, such as Michelle Weis of The Wall Street Journal, argue that this plan is a “dead-end” for improv-ing the overall future prospects of students, this proposal will at least make a dif-ference for mid-dle-class students who will largely benefit from state funding.
E d u c a t i o n reform seems to be on the agenda of many govern-ments recently; Obama’s proposal is only one of several policies that we have heard of in the news. On one side of the spectrum, Germany made the huge decision in October 2014 to make education free for all, including international students. Although this shift may seem enor-mous by North American standards, it is important to remember that Germany was already on that path with a culture of affordable educa-tion, and is now part of larger group of European countries with free
education. On the other hand, Que-bec recently decided to raise tuition fees for French students who previ-ously paid the same amount as Que-bec students, displacing the burden of education to students instead of the government. More generally, all these policies fit into the debate about whether taxpayers as a whole, or the individuals themselves, should pay for education. Obama’s proposal is situated on the end of the spectrum, shyly following Germa-ny’s giant steps, and trying to reach
to taxpayers’ altruism civic respon-sibility. As one advocate for public university said, the private univer-sity system is “an incomprehensible repudiation of the whole philosophy of a successful democracy premised upon an educated citizenry.” When people do not have the same oppor-tunities, they do not have the same potential to achieve the “American Dream.”
“
On the path towards equal access to education
Who is Charlie?
“Contributor
CECILE RICHETTA
Charlie is the schoolyard bully
making fun of the vulnerable,
and then justifying it by saying, “I make fun of every-
one—can’t you take a joke?”
(May Lim / McGill Tribune)
8 Tuesday, January 20, 2015
After graduating from HEC Mon-tréal in 2012 and working shortly at Bell Canada, Marielle Chartier Hénault decided to follow her passion for the underwater world by creating Aqua-Mermaid, a mermaid school based out of Montreal.
“I’ve always been known for lov-ing the water,” Hénault said. “When I was younger, friends and family used to call me the little Mermaid. With my name being Marielle, [and] Ariel [as] the mermaid in The Little Mermaid, I guess it was just meant to be.”
Hénault embarked on a mission to find a way to combine her creativity and business education.
“When I was in business school, everyone around me would always tell me, ‘You are so creative, you have to do something with it,’” she said.
Hénault finally found her niche through the mermaid community.
“I have always been an active per-son and had previously done quite a bit of modelling,” Hénault continued. “So when a friend sent me an article about a mermaid school in Germany, I thought it would be the perfect way to combine my passion with my business educa-tion.”
As a school, AquaMermaid offers a new experience to anyone who has ever considered of learning how to be a mermaid or merman.
“[Mermaiding] is a mix of syn-
chronized swimming, freediving, and regular swimming that involves per-forming dolphin kicks and undulating movements that you do when you prac-tice the butterfly stroke,” said Hénault. “However, here, your legs are bound ogether by a neoprene mermaid tail.”
Unlike similar schools in Germany, the U.S., and the Philippines,Hénault’s school was developed to be slightly more formal. She wants to establish the concept beyond a gimmick that simply fulfils children’s dreams of becoming merpeople, which is frequently used by parents for their children’s birthday parties.
Hénault explained that her classes are a fun alternative to traditional work-outs for adults to enjoy. She hopes that a new approach to this highly special-ized sport will be more attainable for families.
“Fin-swimming is actually a niche sport that divers usually practice and compete in that involves all the muscles in your body,” Hénault said. “Not only does it reinforce your breathing and car-dio, but you also strengthen your core and arm muscles However, as soon as you add a mermaid tail to the mono-fin, you forget about the challenging [task] you are doing.”
Hénault sought out many sup-porters for AquaMermaid to help her with the challenges young entrepre-neurs face. For example, she had to find pools that would welcome her services, and she needed consulting for the legal regulations required for dealing with
children. “I was delighted at the number of
people and professionals who supported my project and went out of their way to help me without expecting to make money,” Hénault said.
AquaMermaid also offers photo-shoots for individuals who wish to create a mermaid themed photo. The inspiration for these photoshoots origi-nated from Hénault’s time as a model. She has been able to use her experiences and contacts to create successful photo-shoots with professional photographers.
Hénault is also breaking into the retailing business and is starting to sell mermaid fish tails, which are made lo-cally in Canada.
“I’ve realized that some clients
love mermaiding so much they want to own their own mermaid fishtails,” Hénault said. “So I’ve decided to start selling my mermaid tails, [which are]purchased in Ottawa.”
In the future, Hénault wants to see the growth of a “mermaid commu-nity” in Montreal and Quebec with the organization of mermaid synchronized swimming competitions and races. She also has hopes of creating partnerships with holiday resorts in Cuba and other tropical destinations.
“I would like to offer my services to hotel guests who would enjoy a pho-toshoot on the beach or a mermaid ses-sion,” Hénault said.
Moreover, Hénault hopes that AquaMermaid will inspire other cre-
ative entrepreneurs.“For the future, I hope that my
academy become a reference for mer-maid schools in Canada, and hope many people will be willing to jump in with me,” she said.
However, despite mermaiding’s appeal to some people, others are more skeptical.
“I like the idea, but for me, I think practicing this activity in a pool amongst many people might kill the magic of mermaids for me,” said Estelle Chap-pert, a U3 Management student.
Although mermaids may be a leg-end to some, Hénult’s launch of Aqua-Mermaid may have turned the myth into somewhat a reality.
Student Living
Montreal’s first mermaid school offers a creative exercise alternative
January is an exciting time of the year with new classes and a plethora of winter activities to distract you on the weekends. However, as the mer-cury keeps dipping, sometimes it’s best to forgo wintery gusts and ven-ture into a cozy restaurant to catch up with friends over a comforting meal. Try out these three local joints that serve hot and delicious meals to keep you fuelled and toasty all winter long.
Rockaberry’sRockaberry’s first opened in
1989, and has become an iconic Montreal institution. The decor is casual and vaguely Italian. Meal op-tions include regular North American fare such as salads, wraps and pasta dishes. Extensive coffee options are also provided. However, the main at-traction however is the pies, which are baked fresh daily. There are over 25 varieties of these pies, with one sure to delight every customer. Options range from the conventional to the unique, and include millefeuille, lemon me-ringue, strawberry shortcake, apple crumb cheese, and blueberry. A slice
of the apple crumb is huge, with many layers of soft apples entrenched in a thick golden crust. For $2, a large scoop of vanilla ice cream is added, pooling into a rich liquid as it melts against the warm slice. The pie was a meal in itself, and a steal for only $6.50. There are seven Rockaberry locations around Montreal. Those nearest to McGill include the St Denis and Atwater locations.
Le Vieux St LaurentLe Vieux St Laurent fits the de-
scription of a “greasy spoon” diner on St Laurent. Its exterior is unas-suming, while the interior atmosphere has a typical diner vibe with wooden furnishings and a ’70s-style breakfast bar. Ducking into the restaurant after the hustle and bustle of the streets feels like a time-travel back to simpler days, when restaurant patrons knew your name and chatted while refilling your coffee mug. It is an excellent op-tion for brunch, with breakfast served until 4 p.m. everyday. Most meals ring in at under $10, creating an af-fordable option for students. Coffee is included with most meals, and in-cludes the perks of free refills. Food
options include typical diner meals with eggs, sausages, hash-browns, and lib-eral offerings of toast and fruit to accompany most meals. The menu provides many healthy options, such as the vegetar-ian omelette was large and satis-factory, stuffed to the brim with minced vegeta-bles. Consider-ing the steady flow of customers, ser-vice was also quick and friendly.
Cacao 70Cacao 70 is the new kid on the
Parc Avenue, and is the third loca-tion of the franchise in Montreal. The restaurant fills up on weekends, so be sure to make reservations. The decor is relaxing, with warm track lighting and wooden panelling. The more up-scale atmosphere and meals equate
to a slightly pricier menu, with most meals ranging from $12 to $16. Sa-voury options include salted crepes, pressed crepe sandwiches, and inven-tive frittatas. The indulgent chocolate offerings of Cacao 70 are in keeping with the other rich staples of Montreal such as poutine and bagels. Several highlights of the menu include crepes and waffles, which are drenched in chocolate and topped with berries,
marshmallows, and whipped cream. The classic chocolate fondue in-cludes a cup full of succulent melted chocolate—with choices between dark, semi-sweet, milk or white—and bite-sized pieces of chewy brownie, golden waffle, and fresh strawberries and bananas for dipping. Cacao 70 is a great choice for a celebratory meal, or the occasional treat of a chocolate dinner.
Chill Thrills: Cozy spots to relieve your freezeThree of Montreal’s best comfort food locations
Staff WriterLaura PLamondon
Staff WriterKeah hanSen
A ‘fin’tastic workout
The art of fin-swimming. (Photo courtesy of AquasireneCanada)
Rockaberry’s on St. Denis. (Emma Hameau / McGill Tribune)
Student Living 9Tuesday, January 20, 2015
What is your favourite place to study? Redpath, because [the Law library] is too far.
If you could have din-ner with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be? Maya Angelou or Be-yoncé.
What are your top three pizza toppings? Arugula, mushrooms, and goat cheese.
What is your biggest pet peeve? When people drag their feet.
If you had to listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be? ‘Circles’ by Passenger.
nominate a student of the
week!Email us at
Women’s rights have come a long way, but there are still improvements to be made in issues related to gender equality, particularly in the workplace. According to Jana Sauma, a U3 Man-agement student who is about to com-plete her degree in marketing, she expe-riences this reality everyday.
Sauma is inspired by the delicate balance between creativity and statistics that marketing requires, and hopes to enter the professional world of adver-tising and branding. Jana is the VP Fi-nance for McGill Women in Leadership (MWIL) and is dedicated to empower-ing young women to enter into the pro-fessional world confident and prepared. As VP Finance, Sauma is responsible for working closely with the fundraising and sponsorship teams to ensure that all of MWIL’s events go smoothly.
Originally from Lebanon, Sauma has lived in many places, including Ku-wait, Saudi Arabia, and most recently, Ottawa. Her experiences abroad have shown her that women in Canada are extremely lucky to live in a part of the world where women in the workplace are often welcomed and professionally valued. However, she recognizes that there are still many stigmas faced by women in Canadian business everyday.
Sauma became involved with MWIL when she met some executive members at the 2014 TedX Women in
Montreal, and she joined MWIL be-cause it aims to inspire, enlighten, and liberate women of the McGill commu-nity to reach their goals.
“We sometimes lack the exposure to women like us who are succeeding in the areas that we would like to pur-sue,” Sauma said. “MWIL is determined to make young women aware of their skills and aware of the women before them who have been successful.”
Sauma believes that personal worth is an especially important realization women need to have before entering the workforce.
The work place can be competi-tive, stigmatized against women, and even sexist. Sauma believes that analyz-ing successul females can help females today recognize the potential skill sets they can bring to the table
“To become empowered, we need to be aware of the skills we share with the women who have come before us,” she said.
Sauma addressed the intimidation that women can sometimes experience in male-dominated environments.
“Be true to yourself, and don’t worry about standing out just because you’re a woman,” Sauma said. “Con-tinue to push yourself and believe in yourself. Don’t be scared of being ag-gressive or loud in class. If that’s what you need to do to be heard, do it.”
student of the week
u3 managemenT(Photo courtesy of Jana Sauma)
Jana sauma
By meghan Collie
Ingredients:2 tbsps ghee (clarified butter)1 large onion, diced1 bulb of garlic, minced1 tbsps fresh ginger, grated2 tbsps curry powder2-3 tbsps red thai curry paste1 tbsps cayenne pepper1 medium butternut squash, cubed4 heads of broccoli cut into florets4 cups low sodium chicken broth1 14-oz can of coconut milk Freshly cracked black pepperRed wine vinegar powder or salt2 cups grated extra sharp cheddar cheese
Instructions:1. Heat up a large pot on the stove over medium heat.2. Add the ghee, onion, and garlic into the pot. Season with black pep-per, red wine vinegar powder, and salt.3. Cook for about 10 minutes or until onions are soft and beginning to brown.4. Add ginger, curry powder, thai curry paste, and cayenne pepper. Stir into the onion mixture and cook for about 5 minutes. 5. Add squash, broccoli, and chicken broth to the pot. Cover and let sim-mer for 40-45 minutes or until all vegetables are soft.6. Using an immersion blender, blend soup until you have a consistency similar to a purée. 7. Add coconut milk to hot soup. 8. Stir in grated cheddar cheese until melted. If the soup is too thick, add water in increments of ¼ cup.9. Garnish with shredded cheddar cheese. Enjoy either warm or chilled.
Curried butternut squash and broccoli soup
By Alycia Noe Illustration by Eleanor Milman By Cory Goldstein
Crossword CornerFind the answer key at: www.mcgilltribune.com
H o w l o n g H a v e y o u b e e n w o r k i n g a t S e c o n d c u p ?
“I’ve been working here for almost two years. I started last March [...] I’m 21. I’m saving money to go to school. It’s a long process.”
w H a t i S y o u r m o S t c H e r i S H e d m e m o r y ?
“Walking the stage at my high school graduation because I thought I’d never make it up there. I was having major struggles in my work.”
w H a t k i n d o f S t r u g g l e S d i d y o u H a v e ?
“[Focusing] and having to do my homework. I had no one at home to actually help me with it, so it took me a little longer to grasp [subjects] like math and French, even English sometimes.
It was so hard to focus. Sometimes I thought, ‘I can’t do this.’ Also, I had to deal with the bully-ing, you know what you get in high school and what not. It was a struggle. They called me a whole bunch of names, because I would always look down on my paper in order to focus.
H o w d i d y o u m a n a g e t o c o p e w i t H t H a t ?
“I joined a whole bunch of sports, like track, which kind of helped me. If you push through, hopefully they’ll leave you alone.”
w H a t f r i g H t e n S y o u t H e m o S t ?“I think that [it is] moving forward. There’s al-ways a scare: Am I going to make it in the real world? Am I going to be able to wake up the next day and tell myself ‘Okay, I can do this’?”
“We’re all very happy to be working here actually. It’s a unique place, and we enjoy being here to serve the students. We all have kids—my kids are [in their 20s.]I see a lot of students grow up; they graduate and we talk, so [it’s a] very rewarding job for me.”
H o w H a v e y o u e n j o y e d w o r k i n g a t b a m b o u b o l ?
w H y d i d y o u d e c i d e t o m o v e t o c a n a d a ?
“I moved to Canada in 1991. When I came here, [it was through an] exchange [program] from China [that had] just opened [its] doors. Basically, every-thing we wanted to learn and to see outside of Chi-na was out there, and [...] I came to Canada as an exchange fellow to study Medicine. I then [...] grad-
uated from McGill. I was a doctor before [in China. Then] I did a PhD at the MNI here, and I worked for the federal government. When I finished [my] PhD, I did several fellow exchange programs in different places. I think that the main reason I had to switch [careers] was because of my health. I wasn’t able to work at the labs; it had affected me a lot.”
“I wanted to be a doctor—a pediatrician. It didn’t [happen] because only my mom [worked], so we couldn’t afford for me to go to university. I had to go to work.”
“The most gratifying job I had [lasted] for 10 years. I ran an OASIS care centre. It was for
pregnancy resources, helping young girls that got themselves in trouble, helping them make the right decision [….] I was the executive di-rector.”
“We ran out of funding, and we had a really hard time getting [new] funding […] and I was having a hard time [recruiting] volunteers. I’ll start it up again if I can get the volunteers—it’s getting the volunteers that’s hard.”
“The biggest obstacle [I’ve faced] was deciding whether [to continue] my studies or whether to get involved in the busi-ness. It was a very hard time for me to choose between them—whether [to continue] school until I became an engineer, or whether I should quit school and work and become [involved in business. That’s why it was my biggest obstacle; [it was] the obstacle that made the decision of my life.”
a r e y o u H a p p y w i t H y o u r d e c i S i o n ?
“I could say yes, I could say no. I see that I wasn’t made to work in an office, sitting down to work. This is why I told myself that, even if I ended up as an accountant or as an engineer, [an office job] wasn’t my type. I said [to myself that] it wouldn’t be a bad idea to be involved in a restaurant business. It was something that I wanted for a long time.”
w H a t i S t H e b i g g e S t o b S t a c l e y o u H a v e f a c e d ?
H o w H a v e y o u e n j o y e d w o r k i n g a t b a m b o u b o l ?
By L-A Benoit
w H a t w a S t H e H a p p i e S t m o m e n t o f y o u r l i f e ?
“My happiest moment I think would be the day [that] my granddaughters were born! I have two granddaughters—one is seven and one is 10. I have two sons as well and that was gratifying, but I think [the happiest moment was] the day [that] my granddaughters were born. I adore them.”
w H e n y o u w e r e a c H i l d , w H a t d i d y o u w a n t t o b e
w H e n y o u g r e w u p ?
12 Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Parks and Recreation
It’s the beginning of the end; Amy Poehler’s hit sitcom Parks and Recreation premiered its seventh and final season last week with two back-to-back episodes, “2017” and “Ron and Jammy.” So, does the vehicle for television’s perkiest comedian successfully rekindle its infectious energy? Short answer: Abso-frikin-lutely.
Starting the audience smack-dab back where season six ended with a brief glimpse of 2017 Pawnee, the show doesn’t miss a beat as it comfortably slides back into its familiar setting, acting as
though it had never left. For this reason, new fans are probably better left starting elsewhere in the series as, despite the sitcom aesthetic, continuity jokes hold the brunt of the humour.
However, it is for this very reason that returning fans will find a lot to love and then some with the new season, as familiar characters and dynamics are played off hysterically with clever twists, while futurist jokes are few and unobtrusive. While the premiere isn’t exactly perfect—Tom’s subplot feels a little underdeveloped compared to the others’—if these episodes are a sign of things to come, then season 7 is gearing up to be the series’ best.
— Martin Molpeceres
O ne of the lesser known shows that debuted this month is Framework, Spike’s latest reality TV offering that pits “elite furniture craftsmen”
against each other in a competition hosted by—wait for it—acclaimed hip-hop artist, Common. This might seem like an unlikely marriage on the surface, but at the end of the day, how different are rap and furniture? They both require artistic vision to create, they both—okay, maybe they’re completely different. On that note, here’s some other unlikely celebrity-reality TV pairings that we think could really work.
Marilyn Manson hosts most extreme children’s birthday
parties
Marilyn Manson is best known as the satanic songbird behind Antichrist Superstar (1996) and Mechanical Animals (1996). His antics over the year have gotten him portrayed as a negative influence to children and his multiple misdemeanors suggest that he is a societal nuisance, but his bold personality and elaborate onstage get-ups would fit right in with the flashy decorations and characters involved in over-the-top birthday parties. In fact, his gaudy makeup and overall rock-star persona would likely help serve to highlight the intricacies that went in to the creation of a multi-million-dollar party for a six-year-old.
Morgan Freeman officiating a spelling
bee show
This one requires very little explanation. Morgan Freeman possesses the greatest speaking voice in the history of humankind, and having the privilege of listening to him use exceedingly difficult words in a sentence makes watching a spelling bee week after week very much worthwhile. Plus, there’s a very real chance that his mere calming presence alone would be able to lift competitors to otherwise unrealistic levels of performance. It also wouldn’t hurt if he threw in inspiring quotes from his movies from time to time, like this Shawshank gem that he reads from Andy Dufresne’s letter: “Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”
Sofia Vergara in a court show
Vergara rose to fame on Modern Family as the hot-headed, snappy Gloria Pritchett, and even though she doesn’t really act that way in real life, wouldn’t it be fun to put her in a situation where she has to? Either in the role of a stern, challenging judge or a driven, opportunistic lawyer, Vergara could follow in the footsteps of all the actors and actresses before her who have staged sensationalist representations of our legal system. With her fiery passion and authoritative speaking ability, she’d have the chops to make Judge Judy wish
she hadn’t shown up for work.
Larry David hosting a competitive fishing
show
Picture this scene in your head: A pristine lake on a calm summer day, focused fisherman casting away on the water—and Larry David testing their patience with an endless reel (get it?) of sarcastic, concentration-breaking comments. While these ‘reality’ situations might not live up to the cringe-inducing scripted moments of the somewhat realistic Curb Your Enthusiasm in terms of pure social discordance, any opportunity to watch Larry David converse with people who may have an extremely short fuse is well worth taking. That being said, you could throw most celebrities onto a fishing reality show and make it infinitely more watchable. Arts & Entertainment Editors
Max Berger & MOrgaN aLexaNDer
Downton AbbeyDownton Abbey has gained a solid and loyal following
throughout its four seasons, mainly consisting of—from my experience—an older female demographic. However, I myself have kept up with the show, and have discovered some male friends who shyly profess their love for the British soap opera. This bashfulness is unnecessary and outdated, but unfortunately, there’s still a perception that dramatic and romantic shows are still exclusively targeting women. While the historical time period entails a certain gender hierarchy, the presence of powerful and influential women adds complexity to the show, and makes it all the more engaging for a feminist viewer.
With only two episodes of season five released in North America thus far, Downton has already introduced some major developments. However, each episode seems to be grasping at some dramatic event to spice up the drawling day-to-day life of an aristocratic household. Edith throws a book across her room, and as it lands in the fireplace—which apparently burns all night—it then ricochets onto the floor while she lies in her bed, oblivious to the sudden burst of flames.
While this plot development, among others, is disappointingly superficial, the characters remain
complex. The development of the under-butler Thomas Barrow over past seasons seems to be coming to a head in the fifth, as we see his soft and vulnerable side conflicting with the vindictive
manipulation of his co-workers. Rob James Collier performs the character with stunning persuasion, perhaps outshining any other performance
on the show. Sparks like these keep the BBC series burning season after
season, despite some of the contradictory moments and bland performances. The
new season holds the promise of more intrigue, scandal, and the possibility
of some shifts in the paradigms of British society, changing the very framework of the show and making it both exciting
and interesting to watch.
— Elizabeth McLellan
Four seasons into its run, Girls is becoming increasingly like televisual comfort food. Though it may not offer much in the way of surprises—as other long-running shows, such as Mad Men, are still able to do from time to time—it consistently provides its viewers with half-hours that are funny, diverting, and sometimes even moving.
This season’s premiere was no exception. Adam was his bizarre but lovable self (his depression ad provided the episode’s comic highlight), Hannah was as neurotic as ever (the episode’s teaser was pleasantly reminiscent of that of the pilot), and the supporting cast continued to play their respective roles quite nicely.
Most notable among them was Marnie. Her already-infamous sex scene from the episode’s opening minutes guaranteed on its own that she’d be among the show’s most-discussed characters, but her dramatic meltdown following her disastrous jazz brunch performance made for a satisfying emotional climax.
The New York setting worked as well as it has in the past, but it’ll be interesting to see how the show handles Hannah’s move to Iowa. The challenges of her long-distance relationship should provide a healthy dose of dramatic intrigue, and the new setting provides opportunities to keep the now-familiar character from becoming stale.
— Max Joseph
Girls
REVIEWSTV
13 Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Peer Review: McGill Classics Play
Staff WritereveLyN KaczMareK
Season 2 bachelor Jason Mesnick gets chatty with the female contestants. (singlemomseeking.com)
(Continued from page 1)
On top of the translation, which was mainly done over the summer, McDonald needed to completely add directorial vision to a text that may not have actually been performed.
“[Thyestes] is written by Seneca, who was basically prime minister for the Emperor Nero in the first century AD, and he wrote a series of tragedies in Latin on Greek mythological themes. What’s interesting about those is that we’re not actually sure if they were ever performed or if they were
plays written for recitation in a room without being staged, the scholarly consensus isn’t there,” he explained. “So these plays have no stage directions, all you have is the text [….] You had to basically think of what you wanted before you started translating.”
In arranging Thyestes, there was another more genre-specific challenge McDonald needed to work through.
“One of the big things in classical drama is that there’s always a chorus, which at certain points in the play comments and kind of sums up the action, and it varies: Sometimes they can be part of the action or they’re separated from the action, so you have to decide what to do with
them,” described McDonald. “And the way they speak, it’s these kind of ornate speeches [….] so deciding what to do with those is also a challenge. How do we make these big speeches interesting and engaging?”
Challenges aside, McDonald is excited about presenting Thyestes since there’s a lot that appeals to him in terms of its background and themes.
“The Classics Play had done four straight years of Greek plays, so I thought it would be cool to do a play in Latin because there’s a different sort of feel to the language, different structure,” McDonald said. “Also, the story itself is really attractive because you have this supernatural stuff—ghosts, demons. The
language is completely over the top extravagant, and [there’s] cannibalism, murder, betrayal [….] I could really see a dark, baroque, spooky production.”
While the play is fairly sinister and dark, McDonald expressed that it’s been a pleasure working with its 12-person cast and the crew members.
“It’s a good, manageable group; it’s a good energy, and I think we’re looking forward to an exciting production.”
Thyestes will be performed
from Monday, Feb. 9 to Thursday, Feb. 12 at 8 p.m. at La Sala Rossa (4848). Student tickets are $8.
Arts & Entertainment EditorMax Berger
In light of both the show’s season premiere just two weeks ago and former Bachelorette Andi Dorfman’s recent split from her reality TV lover, Josh Murray, I think it’s time that the Tribune take a deep, fleshy bite out of one of the most peculiar, borderline tragic, and simultaneously popular pieces of our mainstream culture: ABC’s The Bachelor.
It would be a daunting task to point out all of the oddities and problematic aspects of the show, but let’s just start with some of the hard-hitters. The show, for those who don’t know, is meant to be a game show in which 25 contestants vie for the love of a single bachelor or bachelorette. Sure, it isn’t news that reality TV has to be provocative to be successful;.Most of the time it’s pretty exploitive, and it sometimes blurs the lines with things that shouldn’t be conflated—for example, games and love. But when does provocative become unethical? And is there any kind of check on the amount of exploitation that goes on? The answer is—for better or worse—not really.
The show rests upon the fact that these people really do fall for each other. Sure, it’s manufactured to a degree—the producers jet the contestants around from island to island, leave unlimited booze in their hotel rooms, and talk the bachelor to the point where contestants believe he is more of a god than a single guy in his early thirties—but it’s clear that these people get genuinely invested. The tears come out almost immediately and without fail, the green-eyed monster of jealousy starts dealing out the most complex cards from a precariously shuffled deck by the very first group date (six girls, one guy).
The women on the show, who without a doubt believe in and practice traditional, hetero-normative relationships, are thrust into a giant, polyamorous, non-traditional spectacle and expected to fall in love. Copious amounts of cognitive dissonance ripen quickly: You watch the girls’ faces fall as the Bachelor cozies up with another contestant and they force themselves to bite their tongue. They acknowledge that it upsets them, but they still have this intense desire to uphold and respect the—entirely arbitrary—rules of the show. It’s okay if he kisses seven girls in one night; it’s okay that you become super close friends with the other girls dating the same guy as you; it’s not okay if a girl that has already received a rose takes time to talk to the bachelor. And it’s most definitely not okay for
anyone to engage in any type of after-hours coitus with the bachelor (in the ocean or otherwise).
Cognitive dissonance is just one example of mental distress that contestants on a reality show might experience, and it seems the lines are blurry when it comes to informed consent. The girls obviously sign their lives away and are told that anything they say can and will be used in an effort to make the show as dramatic as possible.
I wonder to what degree participants on The Bachelor are prepared for the emotional turmoil that inevitably ensues. If anything, the producers probably want it to be as much of a shock as possible—why else would we hear the girls repeat over and over how they didn’t realize
how difficult “this journey” would be? There gets to be a point where you go from laughing at the utter naiveté of the girls to truly wishing that the producers hadn’t chosen so many from under a medium IQ level—it just isn’t fair.
The psychological distress isn’t just encouraged; as the producers prod, poke, and leak bits of information to the contestants, the turmoil is practically cultivated—much like the crops of this season’s “Prince Farming” bachelor, Iowa farmer Chris Soules. In the 19th season of the franchise, it is refreshing to see a down-to-earth all-American guy as the bachelor rather than an underwear model searching for an acting career. Shouldn’t that mean that the franchise is looking to diversify the set of contestants too? Well, even following the infamous 2012 class action lawsuit accusing
ABC of intentionally excluding people of colour from lead roles in both The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, it’s almost laughable how homogenous the group of contestants still are.
The show, point blank, is bonkers. Why do we watch it? Is it because we like to see these hyper-idealized romances fail in front of our eyes? Does it serve as some kind of outlet for our repressed human desire for polygamy? Or is it because we feel that regulated psychology experiments in research institutions are too limited by codes of conduct and academic integrity? Either way, there are no moral police shutting it down yet, so tune in to Season 19 of The Bachelor to enjoy the sick, but hilarious puppet show.
The peculiar ethics of The Bachelor
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14 Tuesday, January 20, 2015
How Do You Sleep?Artist: John Lennon Target: Paul McCartney Album: ImagineReleased: September 9, 1971Although Lennon denied the song’s malicious intent several years later, there is little doubt that in the context of 1971, “How Do You Sleep?” was a cold-blooded verbal attack on the former Beatle’s ex-partner-in-crime, Sir Paul McCartney. The feud was allegedly sparked by—along with a lifetime of diverg-ing personalities—the release of “Too Many People,” a track off of McCartney’s second solo album where the pretty-boy Beatle admittedly dedicated a couple lines to disparaging Len-non’s growing activity as a public preacher. Not only does Len-non call out McCartney for being a has-been, but he references two of McCartney’s tracks, “Yesterday,” one of the Beatles’ most beloved songs, and “Another Day,” a hit song McCartney had just scored that hasn’t quite stood the test of time.
Sweet Home AlabamaArtist: Lynyrd SkynyrdTarget: Neil YoungAlbum: Second Helping Released: June 24, 1974For a rock band from the American South in the early ’70s grown numb to demonization from the Northern part of the country, the last thing Lynyrd Skynyrd would’ve wanted to hear was condemnation from foreigners, too. It must have re-ally gotten under the band’s skin when rock music’s favourite Canadian, Neil Young, named a melancholy protest song off his seminal album Harvest after Lynyrd Skynyrd’s home state, Alabama. The band struck back with a joyful, patriotic Heart of Dixie celebration. However, needled into this sanctimonious joy-ride of Southern pride are these lines: “Well I heard Mister Young sing about us/ Well I heard Old Neil put her down/ Well I hope Neil Young will remember/ A Southern Man don’t need him around anyhow!”
ObsessedArtist: Mariah Carey Target: Eminem Album: Memoirs of an Imperfect AngelReleased: June 16, 2009If there’s anything we’ve learned from seeing 8 Mile, it’s that you don’t want to get into any sort of rap beef with Eminem. Perhaps Mariah Carey hasn’t seen the iconic film, because in 2009, she released this song. “Obsessed”, co-written by Tricky Stewart and The-Dream, is a disdainful call-to-arms against rapper Eminem, and it’s pretty powerful. After an on-track and off-track back-and-forth about whether Carey and Mathers ever had sex (he says they did, she says they didn’t), Mariah decided to set the record straight: “Why you so obsessed with me?/ Boy I wanna know/ Lying that you’re sexin’ me/ when everybody knows/ it’s clear that you’re upset with me.”
F*ck YouArtist: Lily Allen Target: George W. BushAlbum: It’s Not Me, It’s YouReleased: July 10, 2009Not to be confused with the apolitical Cee-Lo Green song of the same name, this is the only entry on our list that calls out a world leader rather than a fellow artist. Although Lily Allen is a born-and-raised Brit, it’s clear that American poli-tics (and American influence) is an area of interest and frus-tration for the songwriter. From gay rights to race issues to the War in Iraq—in Allen’s opinion, George Bush dropped the ball. Released six months after Obama’s inauguration, this farewell note to the controversial former President is scathing and personal.
ALBUM REVIEWSmatador
Diss Tracks Outside of RapContributor
OreN LeFKOWITz
Belle and Sebastian - Girls in peacetime want to dance
Until the ribbon breaks - a lesson unlearnt
Ever since Belle and Sebastian shocked the indie pop world with 2003’s Dear Catastrophe Waitress by releasing a louder, dancier, more mainstream album than anyone thought possible, fans have
had to reconcile with the fact that they’re basically a different band now. Gone are the days of lead singer and songwriter Stuart Murdoch sing-whispering into your ear; gone are the intricate melodies and crescendoing horns.
Instead, we get their new album, Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance, continuing the trend by trading in the twee that de-fined their first few albums for disco bass-lines and synth strings. Those elements aren’t inherently problematic, and past bands have fundamentally changed their sound to great benefit; the problem with this album is that parts of what they used to be shine through and muddle whatever their new sound is attempting to be. The result is less an album, more a slapdash collection of songs, where standouts like “The Cat with the Cream” and “Ever had
a Little Faith?” succeed primarily because they sound like they could be B-sides from Tigermilk (1996) or The Boy with the Arab Strap (1998). As a whole, the album is around 80 per cent filler, with most songs going over five minutes.
On a songwriting level, Murdoch’s lyrics live and die by their specificity, and this album fails to deliver the laser-guided precision of his earlier work, exchang-ing focused vignettes about lower-middle class Scottish existence for broad plati-tudes about modern life. The immediacy and vitality of Belle and Sebastian is gone but not completely forgotten in this ag-gressively mediocre new album.
-Chris Lutes
For all those desiring alternative, experimental—and somewhat uneven—electronic music, look no further than British trio Until the Ribbon Breaks’ (UTRB) debut album, A Lesson Unlearnt.
Reminiscent of the musical stylings of Massive Attack, UTRB paints a stark, minimalist soundscape in its introductory
track “The Other Ones,” with its tasteful combination of muted percussion, som-bre piano chords, and the hushed tones of frontman Pete Lawrie-Winfield. His beautifully husky voice continues on into the second track, “Orca,” as the vocals are nicely paired with a restless underly-ing synth beat, and rises to the spotlight in the sensual track “Persia” with wind instruments found in the exotic mix.
UTRB only starts to betray its youth as a band, however, through the seeming-ly haphazard and unsatisfying dabblings in musical styles in many of the follow-ing tracks. “A Taste of Silver” hits a good note, the drumming and filtered vocals stirring up a blues rock vibe à la The Black Keys. “Romeo” then tries to in-corporate glitch-based audio which only makes its appearance halfway through, and “Spark,” while upbeat, is repetitive and entirely forgettable. Moreover, “Per-
spective” veers straight into hip-hop, but only succeeds in sticking out like a sore thumb compared to the other synth-based tracks.
Nevertheless, all is forgiven when “Revolution Indifference (ft. Run the Jewels)” unfolds. It would be no surprise if this tops the charts or finds itself in soundtracks for the silver screen, as its positively addicting beat and brief but fiery rap interlude allow for many enjoy-able replays. They may have yet to de-cide on a definitive sound, but regardless, UTRB proves through its debut album that it’s a trio to watch out for in the near future—Montrealers can see for them-selves this Friday when the band opens for London Grammar at Olympia.
-Melanie Chan
Sleater Kinney has had incredible staying power, as their new release, No Cities to Love, is the band’s first in 10 years. The band which has its roots in the ’90s DIY and riot grrrl scene in Ameri-ca’s Pacific Northwest has made consis-tently great music and achieved a hybrid
level of commercial and independent success without becoming a nostalgic arena rock staple like some other ’90s bands from Washington (here’s looking at you, Pearl Jam and Foo Fighters). The band’s 10-year hiatus gave its members a chance to pursue other creative avenues, but the three come back together seam-lessly in No Cities to Love, a pseudo-reunion album with impressive force.
Sleater Kinney continues with its unique combination of personal and political content. Album-opener “Price Tag” grabs the listener from the get-go with an assertive distorted riff reminis-cent of its 2005 album, The Woods, and tells a tale of day-to-day living in the age of the Great Recession and austerity. On the other side of the political-personal spectrum, “Gimme Love” turns a per-sonal need and insecurity into a message
of strength. However, despite its lyrical strength, it is the least satisfying track on the album, featuring a stuttery chorus that kills the song’s momentum.
Corin Tucker’s voice combines with imposing riffs, thus grounding the album and pummelling the listener in the gut. Vocal unisons between Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein create some of the al-bum’s soaring moments like in the intro and chorus of “No Cities to Love” and the anthemic end of ironically titled “No Anthems.” If you like distorted guitars and drums or have listened to rock in any of its forms.
-Dan MoczulA
kobalt
sleater kinney - no cities to love Third Worlds
15Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Professor Karine Auclair from the Chemistry Department kicked off the 19th edition of Soup and Science with a presentation about her lab’s work in understanding P450 enzymes, which are found in the liver and play an essential role in drug metabolism. Auclair’s goal is to understand the role P450s play in antibiotic resistance.
“We can’t do the chemistry that these enzymes can do,” she explained.
By understanding P450s’ roles as biocatalysts in antibiotic re-actions, resistance mechanisms can then be inhibited.
The next speaker, professor Shirin Abbasi Nejad Enger from McGill’s Department of Medical Physics, focused on a unique cancer treatment called brachytherapy. Enger’s lab delivers injections of ra-dioactive iodine seeds near cancerous tumors; this technique offers the advantage of targeted treatment and facilitates removal of ra-dioactive substances. Drawing from many disciplines, Enger and her lab decide on the specific dose and placement of these radioactive seeds, taking into account nearby radiosensitive tissues.
Chemistry professor Janine Mauzeroll opened up her dynamic presentation by identifying chemistry’s newest trend: Magnesium alloys. Mauzeroll and her team can measure the surface topography of materials like batteries using a method known as scanning elec-trochemical microscopy (SECM). Her lab works on producing stable magnesium which could be used to avoid the degradation of car batteries. Though magnesium offers a tempting solution for increas-ing car battery life, the catch is its rapid corrosion rate.
Professor Boswell Wing from the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences came prepared with a roll of toilet paper to conclude Monday’s session. As he unrolled the toilet paper across the room, Wing explained that it represented the scale of time. Ac-cording to Wing, only the last sheet represented the existence of humans—microbes had begun to populate the earth much earlier. Wing explained that through isotopic ratios found in the rock re-cord, he and his team are able to approximate the microbial com-position of ancient Earth.
Soup and Science, presented by the Office of Undergraduate Research in Science, has provided a platform for undergraduate students to hear professors discuss their research and potentially secure a position as an undergraduate researcher in their labs. As Dean of Science Martin Grant explained, Soup and Science offers students a chance to participate in “multidisciplinary speed dating.” Participating professors briefly present their fields of research, and students are encour-
aged to mingle and network with the participating professors over a bowl of hot soup.
Wednesday’s Soup and Science began with an appropriate analogy made by medical physics professor Isaam El Naqua.
“[In our research] we collect information; biological, physi-cal, and imaging data [information] create a big soup, where people like me stir this soup,” El Naqua said.
Through his multidisciplinary study, El Naqua tries to allevi-ate the negative effects of cancer radiation treatment by collect-ing and analyzing clinical data using various advanced methods such as imaging technology and complex systems analysis.
Continuing with the theme of data and information, math-ematics professor Abbas Khalili’s research focuses on new statis-tical technologies to solve the challenges posed by the enormous amounts of data now available to us from modern technologies, ranging from genomics to Google.
Chemistry professor Jean-Philip Lumb—who calls himself a “firefighter of chemistry”—followed Khalili by explaining his research on fire. His team is looking for methods favouring par-tial combustion over complete combustion in organic reactions. His motivation revolves around the fact that partial combustion generates large amounts of waste and is highly inefficient. As a possible solution, Lumb pointed out the enzyme tyrosinase, which controls combustion in living organisms and could poten-tially be used in chemical industry as a catalyst.
Next, immunology professor Martin Richer introduced his immunological research, which focuses on the antigen sensitivity of CD8+ T-cells. These cells are involved in autoimmune diseas-es such as diabetes or immunity deficiency conditions, including cancer.
The day ended with professor Shane Sweet, from the De-partment of Microbiology and Immunology, who spoke about his research on the psychological factors that motivate people to engage in physical exercise. His two focus groups of study include people in cardiovascular and spinal injury rehabilitation.
“The idea behind my work is: Let’s get moving,” Sweet said.
Chemistry professor Amy Blum presented her work in nanoma-terial design to open Tuesday’s Soup and Science. Given the fact that a virus’ structure is determined by its genetic code, Blum and her team are able to design nanostructures with specific optical proper-ties through genetic manipulation. According to Blum, the application of this can lead to the creation of metamaterials—materials with properties that do not exist in nature—with a negative index of re-fraction. In other words, a cloaking device.
Physiology professor Maurice Chacron followed Blum, explain-ing how behavioural output changes with a person’s state of mind. According to Chacron, the sight of sushi can lead to salivating or nau-sea. As such, Chacron’s lab studies the neuromodulators responsible for these changes, and tries to understand the brain’s translations of sensory signals to behavioural outputs.
Computer science professor Bettina Kemme’s presentation de-scribed server architecture in massive multiplayer computer games. Kemme’s team attempts to resolve data overload issues by separating the world into rooms or operating with parallel servers, a computa-tional method where large problems are subdivided into smaller ones and then all solved simultaneously.
Kemme has done this by creating a virtual McGill world. “If you don’t spend enough time on the real world campus, you can now spend your virtual life there too,” she promised.
Physics professor Alex Maloney’s presentation on theoretical physics concluded Tuesday’s speeches. He began by outlining an ir-reconcilable compatibility issue with two theories of modern physics: Quantum physics and its characteristic quantum “fuzziness”—or the existence of particles as a particle and a wave—and general relativity with its smooth curve geometry. The inconsistency between the two is often not a problem because they operate on different scales. The problem only arises, he clarified, when we consider black holes. This is because their radius is a kilometre long, and their mass can be as large as the sun’s. Maloney’s lab works on math theory that revolves around quantum gravity to rectify this discrepancy.
Contributoralex pozdnyakov
Contributorlydia kaprelian
Contributorlydia kaprelian
Soup & Science
(chaiandhome.com)
19th edition
(sidewalkshoes365.com) (oilandenergydaily.com)(newscientist.com)
Monday
Tuesday
wednesday
Science & Technology
MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY
Science & Technology16 Tuesday, January 20, 2015
The final day of Soup and Science lec-tures began with biology professor Thomas Bureau talking about his research on trans-posons, also known as the “jumping genes.” Bureau compared the genome to “an ocean with genes as islands in open waters,” which are filled with “strange entities” of transpo-sons. By discussing the artificial selection of corn from maize, Bureau demonstrated how transposons destroy existing genes or con-tribute to the emergence of new ones.
Next, computer science professor Yang Cai introduced his research on algorithmic game theory, which finds its applications in “markets, social networks, evolution, internet advertisement, and elections.”
According to Cai, the problem of these models lies in the fact that they lack central design, components, and informa-tion richness history theory—a framework to describe a communications medium by its ability to reproduce the information sent over it—and therefore cannot be solved with standard approaches. In these cases, the al-gorithmic game theory comes into play.
Geography professor Benjamin For-est opened his lecture by letting the audi-
ence know that he is well-versed in parties. Indeed, his research is focused on analyzing geographical data of elections. By using a spatial technique called LISA (Local Indicator of Spatial Autocorrelation), Forest was able to identify certain patterns of electoral prefer-ences across Quebec.
Microbiology and immunology profes-sor Corinne Maurice followed by discussing her work on gut microbiota. With the human body containing trillions of microbial cells, Maurice characterized humans as “walking microbial systems.” Even though metage-nomics techniques have been able to identify most of those microbes, Maurice emphasized
that there is still a lot that is unknown about gut microbiota.
To wrap up the week, physics profes-sor Robert Rutledge posed a question: What does a cell phone become when it shrinks until it becomes almost as dense as a black hole? Rutledge’s interests are focused on studying the bulk dense nuclear matter and strong nuclear force. Even though current theoretical predictions are still off by a signifi-cant margin, Rutledge’s research attempts to tackle this issue by observing neutron stars, black holes and gamma-ray bursts, and opti-cal and radio observatories.
Thursday kicked off with a peek into the wild world of quantum physics. Professor Guillaume Gervais, a physicist, spoke about his work with “quantum faucets”—open-ings just a few atoms across—that allow physicists to see the effects of quantum mechanics on passing electrons. “Everything you know about Ohm’s law, about circuits […] doesn’t apply here,” Gervais said.
His research also explores dimensional-ity. Gervais’ work in this field attempts to ob-serve particle interactions in one dimension. The solutions to equations describing the po-sitions of particles are expressed very differ-ently in three dimensions and one dimension.
After Gervais, biochemistry professor Sidong Huang explained his research, which explores biology on the molecular scale in genetic determinants of chemotherapy re-sistance. Many tumours, he explained, show promising initial responses to chemotherapy treatments, going into remission before de-veloping resistance to the drugs. His work attempts to determine why this occurs, using functional genomic techniques to find the mutations that cause this resistance.
Physiology professors Ana Nijnik and Jason Tanny’s work explored the effects of DNA packaging on the human body. When a cell divides, DNA is wrapped around proteins called histones. These proteins can affect which genes are expressed later on in the cell’s life. Nijnik examines the effects of these proteins on blood cell production, a process known as hematopoiesis, whereas Tanny is especially interested in the role that gene translation—in particular, the gene PTEFb—plays in cardiac hypertrophy.
Rounding off the day, pediatrics pro-fessor Pia Wintermark discussed the topic of neonatal brain research. Her lab attempts to determine both treatments for and the causes of brain injury in infants. For example, in infants who have been asphyxiated, hy-poxia—a type of brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen—is often worsened after re-suscitation due to a sudden influx of oxygen, otherwise known as hyperoxia. Wintermark explores methods of reducing this damage, while also attempting to determine why these methods work better for some indi-viduals than others.
Staff WriterClare lyle Contributor
alex pozdnyakov(Photo courtesy of BBC) (Jack Neal / McGill Tribune)
THURSDAY FRIDAY
17Tuesday, January 20, 2015 Sports
“Going into the game you always think you’re going to win—you have to be confident,” sophomore wing Mi-chael Peterkin said. “We beat [Laval] two days ago, and we had a tough game when we won that so we thought if we stick to our game plan we’d have a chance to win again.”
With tight defence and strong of-fensive play, the McGill Redmen (6-2) were able to do just that, defeating the Laval Rouge et Or 73-42. Despite the wide margin, the win did not come easily for the Redmen. The first quar-ter finished with McGill leading by just one point, but strong play in the second and third quarters widened the lead.
Sophomore forward François Bourque, who registered 17 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double, credits his achievement to good team-work.
“I am proud [of myself] but I have to give credit to the rest of the team they gave me good looks and it was pretty easy for me to finish on the basket,” Bourque said.
Guard Christian McCue also noted the team effort that led to the win.
“I [absolutely] think this was one of our best games this season,” McCue said. “It was one of the first nights we really came together. All five guys on the court were really playing well to-gether on offence. It seemed like ev-eryone was kind of clicking. Everyone was in the right spot at the right time and we really were just cohesive as a team on the offence and [in general] tonight.”
Though the Redmen have been hot as of late, the same cannot be said of the team’s shooting.
“The last couple games we have been struggling with field goal per-centages I guess were going to have to get better by making more reps,” Bourque commented on the team’s shooting woes. Although McGill won, its field goal percentage was 35.4 per-cent on two-pointers and 27.8 per-cent on three-pointers, both of which need to improve for the Redmen to find success in the playoffs. Laval’s offen-sive play, however, was considerably worse: 26.2 per-cent on field goals and
15 per-cent on three-pointers.
M c G i l l ’s low field goal p e r c e n t a g e speaks less to its impotence on offence and more to La-val’s strength on defence. The Rouge et Or’s defensive strat-egy limited high quality shots, but not enough to choke the Red-men out on the court. The two teams run similar offences, a point that is not lost on McCue.
“[We] both have quick guards, so in that respect we are pretty similar,” McCue explained. “When it comes down to it, it’s just who […] can keep the other guy in front of them. It’s just who’s going to take that extra step and play defence a little harder on that night.”
The Redmen showed that they could be quick on its toes and strike back hard. Even with their amazing work on the court, the Redmen still see areas that need to be improved. Se-nior forward Rodrigo Imperador, who scored seven points in his 11 minutes of playing time, didn’t think that this was one of McGill’s best games.
“I think that it was a good game, but I think this is just a little taste of what we can actually do,” Imperador said. “I don’t think it’s our full poten-tial, but it’s in the right direction.”
McGill will try to keep things rolling at home as they take on UQÀM (2-4) next, on Jan. 29.
ContributorTiffany okoTako
Bourque leads Redmen past Rouge et Or Redmen 73, Rouge et oR 42
Forward Bradley Laguerre attacks the rim. (Lauren Benson-Armer / McGill Tribune)
Peter Smith - MarTlet Hockey
There are very few teams in university sports that can claim to be as dominant as the Martlet ice hockey team has been in recent years. A large part of that success can be traced back to the steady hand of Peter Smith, who has served as the team’s coach for 15 seasons and holds a career .721 winning percent-age behind the bench. Like many McGill coaches, Smith holds a degree from the school as well. Smith, however, spent his time at McGill in the pool, rather than on the ice. He swam for the Redmen and was team captain from 1977-1979, qualifying for CIS nationals in all three years. Smith has also had suc-cess with the Canadian national women’s team, winning a silver medal at the 2008 IIHF World Championship as head coach, and a gold medal at the 2010 Olympics as an assistant coach.
When Kelly Nobes was hired in 2010 as the Redmen hockey team’s head coach, he had big shoes to fill. The team’s previous head coach, Martin Raymond, held the position for over a decade before leaving for a job with the AHL’s Hamilton Bull-dogs—a minor league affiliate of the Montreal Ca-nadiens. In the four years since being hired, Nobes has managed to achieve success surpassing that of any previous Redmen head coaches. The 2010-2011 Redmen squad set a school record for wins in a sin-gle season, and the following year McGill won its first ever University Cup title. Nobes is no stranger to success in a McGill jersey, spending four years as a centre on the team before graduating in 1997 with a bachelor’s degree in physical education. During his time on the team he tallied 181 points in just 131 games, and graduated as the ninth-leading scorer in team history.
It has been almost 40 years since the Redmen basketball team last won a national championship, but that is a drought that David DeAveiro is work-ing hard to end. In his four years at the helm of McGill’s program, DeAveiro has led the team to two RSEQ Championships, but the team has yet to have success on the national stage. DeAveiro’s coaching career began with the University of Ot-tawa, where he also spent five seasons as a player. Since he began coaching, DeAveiro has worked with Canadian national teams at all levels, includ-ing in 2011 when he served as an assistant coach for the national squad competing in the PanAm Games.
Coach Ryan Thorne was awarded his fourth RSEQ Coach-of-the-Year award in 2014, and it came as no surprise after Thorne coached the Martlets to their third consecutive RSEQ Cham-pionship. Thorne has served as the team’s coach for 12 seasons, but it is only recently that McGill has truly hit its stride. Despite struggling early in his tenure, the Martlets are now poised to com-pete for a national championship, in part thanks to Thorne’s strong recruiting record—a Martlet has been named RSEQ Rookie-of-the-Year for each of the past three seasons. Thorne spent his play-ing days with Bishop’s University, captaining the Gaiters to a National Championship in 1997-1998 while being named an all-Canadian in the process. With the Martlets holding a perfect record, it may not be long before Thorne adds a second title to his mantle.
Kelly Nobes- Redmen Hockey Ryan Thorne - MarTlet Basketball
David DeAveiro - Redmen BasketbalLPeter Smith - MarTlet Hockey
K N ow Y o u R C o A C H e S By Wyatt Fine-Gagné
18 Sports Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Invigorated by the bumping capacity crowd, the McGill Red-men [16-5] secured a well-fought 2-0 victory over the Carleton Ra-vens [16-5] in this year’s Carnival game. McGill stretched their unde-feated streak at Carnival games to 13, while improving their overall record against Carleton to 27-20-1.
The 950-seat McConnell arena appeared way over capac-ity, with McGill fans crammed into the bleachers. Countless support-ers stood to watch the play unfold so that they could be a part of the unique atmosphere.
Revelers turned up in all sorts of fancy dress: stars-and-stripes onesies, blue cows, and black ‘pukesuits.’ Students came pre-pared with signs such as “This is a Carleton Diploma.” The section behind the Carleton goaltender Patrick Killeen was heckling him relentlessly for the entire game.
This created an intimidating, almost unsavoury atmosphere for the visiting Ravens. And while Mc-Gill outplayed them start to finish, Carleton did rise to the challenge. In particular, Killeen had an im-
pressive game. He made 20 saves on 22 shots, keeping his focus sharp while being screamed at by McGill fans for a full 60 minutes.
McGill’s puck movement was better than Carleton’s for the entire game, and junior right wings Max Le Sieur and David Rose led the at-tack with crisp passing and shoot-ing. The two disrupted Carleton’s rhythm with a strong fore-check, and helped to break up many po-tential counter-attacks. McGill always seemed to have more bod-ies on defence than Carleton did because they were so effective at shutting down the counter-attack.
Despite McGill’s strong pres-sure, their shooters were denied on the power play on each of the team’s five chances. Carleton was excellent at clogging up scoring lanes in their third of the rink. The Redmen, as usual, returned the favour—shutting out the Ravens 0-5 on powerplays. McGill goalie Jacob Gervais-Chouinard, made 27 saves on his way to his first shutout of the year.
In such a defensive battle, McGill’s superiority on offence proved the difference. Senior for-ward Jonathan Bonneau tapped in a rebound off of freshman defence-
man Dominic Poulin’s slapshot with four minutes to play in the first period to take the lead. The second goal came from 6’4” wing-er Neal Prokop, just minutes into the third period.
McGill’s sharpness extended to face-offs. McGill won 37 of them against 28 for Carleton. This was impressive given the spirited atmosphere and the number of penalties both teams accrued. Car-leton’s Van Stralen was ejected in the second period for a game mis-
conduct penalty. McGill racked up penalty minutes for roughing and high sticks. However, their play was more disciplined over the night, and it showed in the final re-sult.
On Saturday, McGill beat the winess Royal Military College (0-17) 4-3 in a thriller. Junior centre Jonathan Brunelle, scored the win-ner with seven minutes left in the third period after McGill had given up a 3-0 lead against the scrappy RMC squad. In a rather stunning
performance, RMC goalie Evan Deviller made 53 saves to keep his team in the game. With the win, they clinched a playoff spot, and are quickly closing in on the top spot in the conference.
On Sunday the Redmen went to the Bell Centre to take part in the Montreal Canadiens’ annual skills challenge. After a whirlwind weekend, the Redmen get a few days to rest before taking on the Queen’s Gaels at home Friday at 7 p.m.
Dominic Poulin skates past a Carleton defender. (Lauren Benson-Armer / McGill Tribune)
Redmen turn up for Carnival Game, send Ravens packingStaff Writer
Zikomo SmiTh
espn.go.com
Most valuable player :
AAron rodgers
Rodgers is the best quarterback in the league, and by the time he retires, he just might be the best quarterback ever. After starting the season 1-2, Rodgers put on a quarterback clinic to finish the season on an 11-2 run. With the division championship and a first-round bye on the line, Rodgers hobbled and wobbled past the Lions, passing for 133 yards and three scores on a strained calf. Without Rodgers, the Packers gave up 14-points unanswered—once their all-pro quarterback returned, the Packers outscored the Lions 16-6. If that’s not MVP material, I don’t know what is.Runners-up: J.J. Watt, Tony Romo, and Antonio Brown
Offensive Player of the Year :
deMArco MurrAy
Since this award can’t go to the entire Dallas Cowboys offensive line, the 2014 offensive Player of the Year award has to go to the man who runs behind the league’s top O-line. DeMarco Murray ran for 100+ yards in 12 of 16 games this season, leading the league with 1,845 yards on the ground. While the fourth-year back fin-ished just shy of the double-century mark, he smashed Emmitt Smith’s 1995 Cowboys rushing record, and will no doubt take home the Cowboys’ first ever Offensive Player of the year award.Runners-up:Le’Veon Bell, Antonio Brown, and Rob Gronkowski
Defensive-Rookie-of-theYear :
c.J. Mosley
C.J. Mosley flies around the Ravens defence in a way reminiscent of his predecessor, Ray Lewis. While Aaron Donald’s rookie year was more than impressive, Mosley helped spring his team into the playoffs as the leader of the vaunted Ravens defence. He was one of only two de-fensive rookies to make the Pro Bowl, and the Alabama product finished the season first among rookies in all meaningful linebacker statistics.Runners Up: Aaron Donald, Khalil Mack, and Antho-ny Barr
Coach-of-the-Year :
Bill Belichick
Belichick is the best coach in the league and easily one of the best coaches ever. While Bruce Arians and Jason Garrett turned their mediocre squads into serious playoff threats, Bill Belichick continually turns no-names into stars. Ever heard of Jonas Gray? Probably not before his Week 11, 200-yard game. Just as quickly as Gray appeared, he was gone—giving way to LeGarrette Blount and his two-touchdown game, just one week after Belichick picked him up from the Steelers. The only reason he won’t win Coach-of-the-Year is because it’s almost become too blasé to say he’s the best coach in the league.Runners Up: Bruce Arians, Jason Garrett, and Pete Carroll
nFlawards
Defensive Player of the Year :
J.J. WAtt
J.J. Watt’s 2014 campaign was one for the ages. Watt’s 20.5 sacks was second best in the league, tying the mark set by Lawrence Tay-lor in his 1986 MVP season. He was a menace for all opposing offensive lines, deflecting 10 passes at the line of scrimmage and leading the league in both quarterback hits and quarterback hur-ries. He caused a safety, blocked a field goal, forced five fumbles, intercepted a pass, and scored three offensive touchdowns and two more on defence. There wasn’t much Watt didn’t do, and if the Texans made the playoffs he’d be square in the middle of the MVP discussion, too. Runners-up: Justin Houston, Mario Williams, and Vontae Davis
Offensive-Rookie-of-the-Year :
odell BeckhAM Jr.
2014 was the year of the rookie wide receiver, and while Mike Evans and Kelvin Benjamin were busy putting up impressive numbers, nobody wowed fans like Odell Beckham Jr. After missing the first four games of the season with a hamstring injury, Beckham Jr. busted onto the scene, averaging a league-leading 108.8 yards per game. His highlight reel catches became a weekly sta-ple, but his Week 12, over the shoulder touchdown snag against the Cowboys will go down in history as one of the greatest catches of all time.Runners Up: Jeremy Hill, Mike Evans, and Kelvin Ben-jamin
POINT COUNTERPOINTTuesday, January 20, 2015 19Tuesday, January 20, 2015 Sports
MARTLET BAskETBALL
The Martlets’ (8-0) undefeated season continued this week, with two victories over the Laval Rouge-et-Or. McGill triumphed 74-62 on the road Thursday, be-fore returning home Saturday to win 61-52. The games marked the 15th and 16th consecutive wins against Laval for McGill. All-Canadian forward Mariam Sylla led the way in both match-ups, notching 11 points and 8 rebounds in Thursday’s game before pouring in 18 points and collecting 18 rebounds Sat-urday. The latter effort was Sylla’s league-leading fourth double-double this season. Senior point guard Dianna Ros also made significant contributions, reaching double-digit scoring in both games while dishing out six assists per game. McGill’s victories, coupled with a Windsor Lancers’ loss Saturday, mean that the Martlets will likely climb to number one in the nationwide rankings for the first time in the program’s history.
MARTLET HOCkEY
With a weekend split–a 5-3 win against Concordia and a 6-4 loss to num-ber one ranked Montreal–the Martlets will likely stay ranked second in the nationwide rankings. Senior forward Katia Clement-Heydra put forth strong performances in each game, tallying four points in total. This included scoring the opening goal 14 seconds into the loss to Montreal, which set a school record for quickest goal to begin a game. The team’s leading scorers Gabrielle Davidson and Leslie Oles racked up three and four points respectively over the weekend. McGill’s goaltending was uncharacteristically weak, as both Brittany Smrke and Taylor Hough struggled to make saves at times when the Martlets needed them. Smrke stopped just 23 of 28 shots he faced, and Hough didn’t fare much better, turning away 19 of 22 shots. The Martlets now have a week of rest before taking on Concordia on Jan. 25 at 3 p.m.
MARTLET VOLLEYBALL
The Martlets raced out to an early one set lead but were unable to finish the job, ceding three straight sets to the Sherbrooke Vert et Or. With the exception of the second set which ended 25-17, only 11 total points separated the two squads in the other three sets. Additionally, rapidly improving middle blocker, Charlotte Clarke, tore her ACL while star libero Daphnee-Maude Andre-Morin will be spending the rest of the season on the bench after failing to receive clearance from the medical staff following a concussion earlier in the season. Clarke had registered seven points prior to exiting the game while junior power hitter Ashley Norfleet led the squad with 14.5 points earned primarily through 13 kills. The Martlets currently sit in last place in the RSEQ but still have five games to turn their season around.
vs .
American professional sports have an unhealthy obsession with evaluating players on the basis of their championship rings and playoff appearances. How many online pundits try to diminish Peyton Manning’s achievements because he ‘isn’t clutch’ or only has one Super
Bowl ring to his name? It’s silly. A player’s value extends beyond their team’s record, and this year, sports writers should recognize this and give J.J. Watt the MVP over Aaron Rodgers.
It is often the case that excellent players will tend to get their teams into the playoffs. Their ability to do so is part of their ‘value.’ You can reasonably expect that the majority of MVPs will be on playoff-bound teams. However, there is more than one way to judge ‘value.’ Are they doing something historically significant? How do they measure up according to advanced met-rics? How much better are they than the next best player in their position? How many aspects of the game do they impact? What kind of reputation have they built for themselves? How well have they played against tougher opponents? In the case of J.J. Watt, he scores higher on all of the above questions than any other player in the league. The Texans may not have made the playoffs, but J.J. Watt has been freakishly valuable in almost every other imaginable category.
It’s not as though the Texans laid an egg this season. They were rated fourth smartest team in Football with one of the best defensive scores, in no small part due to Watt. The Texans also had a winning record, 9-7. We cannot forget how arbitrary team records are: the Arizona Cardinals missed the playoffs last year with a 10-6 record, while the Green Bay Packers won a Super Bowl in 2011 after a 10-6 regular season. The Texans also had a better season than Carolina, who made the playoffs with a 7-8-1 record. No one in his or her right mind would argue that any player on the Panthers was more valuable than J.J. Watt this season. However, if we were following the logic of giving the MVP to playoff-bound players, we would look to Carolina before Watt.
The example of team records shows that there is an ele-ment of luck in team sporting success. The Panthers would have b e e n w a t c h i n g the playoffs at home if they were in the AFC, or any other NFC division. The Texans were in the playoff hunt until the very last week of the season. A player’s value is something you can quantify, while luck is not. Insofar as a team’s success is down to luck, you do not want that to reflect on the asserted value of the player in question. The Texans were 2-14 last season and improved to 9-7 this year and still did not make the playoffs. J.J. Watt has been the best football player this year, and the fact that his team did not make the playoffs should in no way diminish his achievements.
To conclude, broadening the MVP debate beyond playoff teams will not only lead to a more accurate evaluation of what ‘value’ is, but will also lead to a more varied and interesting debate about how good a player is, and how impactful their seasons have been.
- ZikoMo sMith
The Most Valuable Player trophy is awarded based on vague criteria that are open to interpretation, but the definition of MVP is quite simple. The award should go to player who contributed the most to their team’s success in that particular season. Success is the key word; an MVP elevates
the game of his teammates and creates wins for the team. If a player cannot, through his own individual play, raise the play of others enough to even qualify for the playoffs, he is certainly not the MVP.
J.J. Watt had without a doubt one of the most dominant defensive seasons in recent memory, but he was sitting at home while Aaron Rodgers went to work in the playoffs. Unlike Watt, Rodgers led his team to the playoffs, and would be a worthy choice for MVP.
Rodgers has the decided benefit of being a quarterback, but regardless, who contributed more to their team’s success, Rodgers or Watt? For all the ridiculous plays Watt made, only a handful had a meaningful effect on the final outcome of the game. The nature of football makes the MVP debate some-thing of a lost cause, because t h e quarterback position is always going to be the most important determinant of team success, especially in today’s NFL.
The question of whether the Most Valuable Player should be from a playoff team is just as pertinent in the NBA this season. Antho-
ny Davis plays like a machine programmed to destroy anything that comes into the lane, and his
31.0 player efficiency rating (PER) leads the league, but as it stands now, he would not be the MVP. Instead,
it is Stephen Curry, whose electrifying skill, unbelievable shooting, and general basketball aptitude have the Warriors sitting atop of one of the most competitive and loaded con-
ferences in NBA history. Given his younger age, it could be argued that Davis is more impressive. The key difference between them is this: Curry has his
team heading towards the Finals, while Davis’ Peli-cans will be hard-pressed to even make the playoffs.
The Pelicans occupy the ninth seed at the moment, five games behind Phoenix for the final seed and just one
game above the surging Thunder.Basketball and football are very different. A player
can influence the game from any position on the court in basketball; there is no quarterback who disproportionately affects a game’s outcome. Anthony Davis
looks great on the court and is as exciting as any player in the league to watch, but the Pelicans as a whole are a mediocre team who play slow, take bad shots, and allow too many
points for a team with Davis under the rim. The Warriors, on the other hand, are an absolute pleasure to watch, with expert ball movement, smart defensive rotations, and players hitting shots from all over the floor. This all begins with Curry, who influences the play of the opposing team in a way that Davis does not, creating opportunities for his teammates and ensuring success.
It is safe to say that the Warriors would not be in first place without Curry, while the Pelicans would likely only fare slightly worse without Davis. The success of the team is crucial to a player’s candidacy as MVP. No one cares about the best player on a losing team. To the victor go the spoils.
- Johnny MAter
It’s no secret that, at least in North American sports, the regular season is just the small-time opening act for the post-season. Regular season stats are nice and all, but it’s the clutch performances and the rings that truly immortalize the best players, and the MVP award is usually reserved for an offensive player on a playoff-bound team. But, with J.J. Watt’s ridiculous season challenging the status quo, it’s time to revisit the age old debate: How much do the playoffs matter in choosing the MVP?
editor’s pick: Playoffs don’t matter. Even in team sports, a few lucky bounces and some below-average teammates shouldn’t take recognition away from a player’s incredible season.
Bourque, a towering 6’6” forward from Terrebonne, Quebec, car-ried the Redmen to two victories over the weekend against Laval. He notched a double double in both games and averaged 13.5 points, 13 rebounds, and 2.5 assists, proving to be too much to handle in the paint and on the glass. Bourque has come back from the winter break with a renewed sense of aggression and has hit double digits in points and rebounds in all but one game. The Red-men, who often operate with Bourque as their sole big man, will need more performances like this to keep the wins coming.
The reigning CIS Player-of-the-Year was at her finest once again for the Martlets this weekend, tallying two goals and two assists over a pair of games. She did most of her damage in a 5-3 victory against Concordia, scoring a goal merely 14 seconds into the game, the new team record for fastest goal. She has been instrumental to the Martlets’ success, is leading the CIS in assists, and is tied for sixth in total scoring. Look for this seasoned veteran to peak in the second half of the season and cap out an already noteworthy career.
Katia Clement - Heydra François BorqueBasketball—Forward
Sophomore, ArtsHockey—Centre
Senior, Arts
Photos courtesy of McGill Athletics
20 Sports Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Athletes of the Week
Number of fans who didn’t find a seat at this year’s Carnival game.
Number of games David D’Aveiro has won as head coach of the Redmen basketball team after Saturday’s victory over Laval.
Height, in metres, of Hao Xu’s gold medal-winning high jump for McGill at the Rouge et Or Invitational. Also, on an unrelated note, Michael Jor-dan’s height.