The Bull & Bear | Winter 2017 – Democracy On Campus

ON CAMPUS

WINTER 2017

DEMOCRACY

A PUBLICATION OF THE

The BULL & BEAR

EDITOR’S NOTE

CONTENTS

Luke Devine Opinion Editor

FEATURE

4 SSMU : An Institutional

Failure 5 J’Accuse

NEWS

7 DMAA 9 Divest McGill 11 Syrian Kids Foundation 13 Why Davos Matters for McGill

BUSINESS & TECH

15 Will Robots Bleed 16 VR Blackface 17 These Suits are Made for Walking

ARTS & CULTURE

18 Adult Swim 20 Tales from the McTavish Reservoir 21 Protest Music Isn’t Making a Comeback

OPINION

23 Maintaining Autonomy in the Face of Automation 24 Paying the Price for Political Sanity 25 On the Place of Black People at McGill 27 On Jewish SelfDetermination 29 The Downfall of Spotted, and Why McGill Needs Satire 31 A Gender Dispersed

WINTER 2017 The Bull&Bear is published by the Managaement Undergraduate Society.

The content of this publication is the responsibility of the Management Undergraduate Sociaty and does not necessarily represent the view of McGill University.

I was told to make this preamble an easy and fun read, but to also tie it to the magazine’s ominous theme of ‘student democracy in peril.’ Not an easy task. I either say something insipid: “Campus is hurting, but also healing, and soon our hurting will heal”; or something harsh: “SSMU is a defective institution, and every executive is a ne’er do well.” In truth, I am acutely aware that the majority of McGill students have been, and will remain, indifferent.

Perusing Reddit McGill, I get to see what really worries the McGill student body in the wake of the Sadikov-Aird-Ger fiasco: “Anyone going on exchange to Australia??”, “Who knows of a good storage room in Montreal?”, “Where can I buy Tylenol/Advil on campus quickly??” I am not suggesting that McGill students are dull; believe me, I have never met a more ambitious or loud people. But I have always thought it impossible to convince McGill’s student body that what occurs within the walls of the William Shatner building actually matters.

But then, something happened with The Bull & Bear this semester which makes me wonder if I’m dead-wrong about this issue: A lot of you actually started to share and respond to our articles. A handful of stories stirred the student body, with topics on the future of poverty levels abroad to the fate of comedy at McGill. Many, many of the comments on these articles were critical, but they all contributed to a wider campus dialogue in a way I had not seen before.

The large number of comments, letters, and article submissions we received this semester tells me that student democracy isn’t really in peril, not if students are this eager and willing to share their ideas with the rest of the student body. Our hope is that this magazine has captured a few of those ideas, and that you, the reader, will take the time to properly engage them.

Jennifer Yoon Executive Editor

Evan Coulter Chief Business Officer Michela Karen Rakotondralambo Layout Editor Luke Devine Liam Prendergast Opinion Editors

Jordan Devon Rachel Zaurov Arts & Culture Editors

Shubha Murthy Haw Seng Chiat Web Editors

Ameer Albahouth Jacob Côté Media Editors

Kira Smith Jeremy Steele Fiona Higgins Copy Editors

Nick Kasting Julia Puckette News Editors

Alex Goldman Business & Technology Editor

Molly Harris William Horowitz Advertising & Publicity Officers

Logan Hall Dan Schechner Marketing & Social Media Officers

Samuel Cabrera Finance & Accounting Officer

WINTER FEATURE

THE

STATE OF THE

STUDENT

UNION

PHOTO COURTESY OF AMEER ALBAHOUTH

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EDITORIALFEATURE

SSMU: An Institutional Failure

BY THE BULL & BEAR EDITORIAL BOARD

The Students’ Society of McGill University has three mandates: service, representation, and leadership.

In representing and leading the student body, SSMU has suffered an institutional failure: a failure, in turn, which threatens the core foundations of SSMU. The events of the past month have done irreparable damage to the trust we place in our collective institution. The purpose of SSMU itself has been brought into question.

Then as if this weren’t enough, at the March 9th Legislative Council, the SSMU executives alleged that former President Ger himself had a history of gendered violence. That the former President, who ran on a campaign platform directly appealing to pro-survivor sensibilities, has displayed such neglect of survivors, and perpetration of sexual violence speaks to the seriousness of SSMU’s failings.

For one, Igor Sadikov’s controversial tweet and dubious history of gendered violence exposes the poor moral quality of many who sit on the council. SSMU was unable to diffuse the anger around the controversial tweet effectively, nor was it able to detect or discipline Sadikov for his history of gendered violence..

This paralysis is indicative of a deep failure in our student government.

Three of the people who previously sat on SSMU Legislative Council and the Board of Directors have had allegations of gendered violence against them. Two of them were also a part of the Executive Committee. This is an unacceptable reality: SSMU has failed not only in leadership, but also in representation.

It is beyond shameful that these men were the ones who were representing the student body for most of our school year, and had remained safe within the institutional framework.

The ineptitude displayed in handling the allegations against David Aird is another example of SSMU’s failed leadership. Aird, the former Amidst the anger and frustration, VP External, was publicly named one has to wonder: Would McGill and shamed for committing sexual students be better off without SSMU? violence against women on numerous The answer is a resolute no. SSMU is occasions. To be clear, this was a man not a monolithic organization, and forced to resign from three clubs for if it disappears, so too would the alleged sexual misconduct. Former various essential services it provides.

President Ben Ger, who was aware of This includes services like the Sexual Aird’s history of sexual harassment, Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ decided, without consulting legal Society – SACOMSS – a service advice or human resources, that that, especially given the current weekly ‘check-ins’ between him and climate, we cannot do without. Other Aird would be sufficient. Ger justified services will disappear as well, like this action by stating that he was only MiniCourses and SSMU Daycare. aware of the accusations of sexual SSMU Executives also play a role in harassment against Aird, and not of lobbying the provincial government sexual assault – as if gendered violence for funding for accessible education, was acceptable in any iteration. one of the more consequential

services that goes unnoticed. And of course, McGill’s various campus clubs would lose office space and funding. Ultimately, without SSMU, the Shatner Building, including Gerts, would slowly turn into just another office building.

One can argue that the administration should be responsible for providing these services, but the simple reality is that they aren’t, and we can’t bank on that fact changing anytime soon. It is precisely for this reason that we must hold our student leaders accountable when they fail so egregiously in fulfilling their function.

And yet, we must also have room for compassion for the student executives who are left to deal with this absurd situation – both because most who remain on the Executive Committee were kept relatively uninformed of the gendered violence committed by their colleagues until the public was made aware, and because the amount of work involved in keeping SSMU services running is astronomical. SSMU Executives are forced to meet unrealistic and unhealthy expectations. The beginning of each 2015-16 executive contract starts by stating that executives will be required to work 60 hours per week. After a laundry list of responsibilities and duties, however, the working conditions are conspicuously reformed: “a highpressure work environment” requiring “70 hours per week” on weekdays, weekends, and evenings. There is no respite for a McGill student leader. It is not surprising that insular student leaders, trained only in the theory of safe space, falter in upholding the

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WINTER 2017

basic human security.

Executives often quickly realize that the successful completion of their duties comes at the expense of mental health: Too many have suffered near or total mental health crises. This culture of unattainable expectations has become so normalized that students running for positions in student government are warned to prepare for perpetual depression and anxiety before they are even elected.

The tragedy of this situation is too within a context of opaqueness at easily obscured by the trope of the the top level of SSMU. Permanent faceless, out-of-touch “SSMUtocrat.” oversight is needed from this point SSMU Executives are ultimately just forward, as well as an institutionalized students, thrown into positions for assurance of better representation of which they are vastly and evidently women and minorities. Unless these underprepared.

At the heart of concerns are cogently addressed this institutional failure is a lack of soon, it is inevitable that SSMU will experience, training, and resources. continue to inadvertently harm its This, however, is no license to forget constituents. the enormity of the failures witnessed.

It is clear that these events occurred

OPINIONFEATURE

J’Accuse

BY LIAM PRENDERGAST

A

s the past months’ events have so clearly displayed, the shambolic structure of SSMU is only matched by the poor moral character of many who compose it.

very different degree of consideration from their elected student officials.

To be clear; I won’t bring up my personal position regarding Israel and the actions it takes against the people of Palestine and the occupied West Bank. I won’t bring up whether or not anger and protest has a legitimate place against Israel. I won’t even bring up or discuss the contentious definition of Zionism.

That the fundamental code of mutual respect underpinning SSMU is being used to attack other students is a hypocrisy that needs no elaboration.

This is about how, according to a handful of elected representatives, attacking fellow McGill students on However, it would be remiss the basis of their political and cultural to let recent events obscure the affiliation is fair game. Indeed, it is latest escapade in a long line of more than fair game; ‘Safe Space’ and anti-Semitic incidents at the top of the ‘anti-colonial’ agenda of SSMU is student representation. The time for abused to cruelly mandate repulsive self-moderating talk of SSMU’s ‘anti- rhetoric and venomous hatred Semitic tendencies’ has long gone. towards other students.

Because it is irrelevant.

The Sadikov incident and its fallout throughout February was not an issue of politics. Rather, it was a profound failing in the fundamental matter of showing respect towards fellow students. This is also an issue of how certain students experience a

The fact that members of our legislative body are no longer bothered to disguise their racism anymore sets a new low for this University. So does the fact that the general student body has become cynically accepting of ‘radical interests’ dominating student politics. Time and time again, this kind of behaviour has risen to the forefront of this institution’s collective focus.

Arts Representative to SSMU

Igor Sadikov’s tweet encouraging his followers to, “punch a [Z]ionist today,” is yet another in a long line of anti-Semitic incidents that have marked a stain on our international reputation. At all points throughout various legislative councils, Sadikov postured with the air of a bored teenager, drawn reluctantly before the Principal, who would accept his ceremonial statement that he “regretted the phrasing.”

When pushed further, it wasn’t long before he loudly questioned the established truth that Jews have a historic tie to land of Israel/Palestine, whilst simultaneously citing his ‘Jewish heritage’ as a license for such speech. One’s ancestry is no excuse for making so many students feel unwelcome and unsafe. Conversely, after insulting a fundamental aspect of Jewish heritage and culture in a stunning demonstration of his lack of self-awareness, he stated, “I cannot say that I feel safe … I would prefer to see further institutional support.”

Such talk has little to do with ‘defending human rights.’

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It is hard to lay all the blame at Igor’s feet. The fact that such speech can be so comfortably stated points to an entirely different problem within SSMU. I may ask here: What other student group is held responsible for the actions of a foreign state?

Are Russian students publically humiliated and threatened for events in Ukraine? Are Pakistani students blamed for events in Kashmir? The fact that students who do so much as profess their belief that a country has the right to exist face threats from elected representatives is evidence that there is much more at stake here - on campus - than Palestinian rights.

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SSMU nowadays. The student body and in the specific context of the AUS, acutely Arts Students – deserve more than an indifferent resume-builder as its Head Representative, and can only hope that his resignation will send a clear signal to his succesor.

I accuse the so-called moral crusaders of The McGill Daily, whose social-justice credentials are exposed as fraudulent by their neglect of such obvious racism. Blatant cases of campus anti-Semitism are (by editorial policy) missing from, or perpetrated by, their paper on the grounds that ‘opposing colonialism’ far outweighs their fetishization of other racial groups. At a time when This is about anti-Semitism their banner proudly proclaimed to deeply institutionalized within ‘resist Islamophobia,’ their neglect student government. To clarify as of the bigotry at their doorstep well, Jews are a historically oppressed exposed their cruel complacency. people who for the majority of history The unearthing of the allegations of have neither had access to, let alone gendered violence by Sadikov, which have dominated, positions of power. prompted an editorial ‘disowning’ the Nor have they at any time been a former editor, should serve as a stark majority group, and have been at the reminder that those who encourage mercy of those around them. Similarly, violence against one group will often while many Jews are white passing, have no qualms with practicing many are not. Even today, in societies violence against others. One can only where Jews have largely integrated hope that The McGill Daily and other into the dominant group, there are self-ascribed radical groups will be terrible acts of anti-Semitism being more mindful of this in future. perpetrated across the United States Finally, I accuse SSMU and the and Europe. Furthermore, as the likes AUS of being the embodiment of of Jared Kushner have demonstrated, modern anti-Semitism: The type that those who are self-identifying Jews lurks behind crude claims of ‘standing can also be complicit in creating a up for rights’ by disparaging an entire space for anti-Semitism. race. The kind that preaches antiI accuse former President Ben oppression and intersectionality, yet Ger of bowing to radical and anti- invalidates the lived experiences of an Semitic interests. That he failed to entire ethnic group and marginalizes take a firm stand against the anti- their voices in opposition – all in the Semitism and a call to violence against name of liberation and social justice. his colleagues and fellow students The kind that permits an editorial demonstrates his weakness as a leader. board with no Jewish members to Upon being confronted with howls define to Jews what is and is not from the audience that certain council anti-Semitism in a flagrant disavowal members shouldn’t even be allowed of intersectionality. The type that to participate based on their beliefs, remains silent in the face of obvious his scripted response that, “It isn’t vilifying revelations in the name of for the President to speak on such protecting the interests of its members. matters,” was yet another pathetic cop-out that so aptly characterizes

That the AUS and SSMU cannot cohesively stand firm

against such obvious discrimination without adopting a stance of moral equivalence: that his poor words were in the name of a good cause – exposes the presence of prejudiced instigators in this bloated body. The abject failure of SSMU and the AUS to fulfill their constitutional mandate “to strengthen the educational, cultural, environmental, political, and social conditions of our Members” confirms their progressive slide into ineptitude.

Their claim of representing all McGill students has been irreparably damaged.

This is not directed at those who truly believe that threatening fellow students on the basis of their beliefs is a legitimate way to advance human rights. This is directed towards you, the student. Are we to accept these half-hearted, insincere statements from SSMU that stress inclusivity whilst doing nothing meaningful?

The disingenuous, smug statements from student representatives that regrets the phrasing, yet justifies such disgusting behaviour as somehow supporting the rights of others?

Are we to yield our student body to an enclave of racial hatred that has no place in this country?

What has been witnessed is nothing short of a disgraceful exercise of discrimination based on race, perpetuated by those with the protection of authority. At a time when people are being murdered on the basis of perceived affiliation with ideology, it is truly disheartening to see similar behaviour replicated on a campus that prides itself on its social consciousness credentials, but fails to equitably apply its critical theory when politically convenient In these uncertain times, human compassion may be the only thing left that binds us together. I would hope that McGill is not yet ready to surrender to political erosion in a time of extremes.

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WINTER 2017

Katherine Fiallos News Writer

37th Desautels Management Achievement Awards

O

n Friday, February 10th, the Faculty of Management held the 37th Desautels Management Achievement Awards (DMMA) at the Ritz-Carlton, Montreal. This prestigious annual event recognizes distinguished business leaders from around Canada in honour of their career achievements and social impact.

The luncheon also gives students the opportunity to network and hear from the award recipients.

The winners this year were two McGill alumni, Mitch Garber and Norman Jaskolka. Desautels students chose them based on their outstanding leadership, success in the business world, entrepreneurship, mindfulness, philanthropy, and corporate social responsibility.

Mitch Garber The first recipient of the afternoon, Mitch Garber, is the current CEO of Caesars Acquisition Company, which owns Caesars Interactive Entertainment and the World Series of Poker, and the Chairman of Cirque Du Soleil. He is also well known for his role as a “dragon” in the Canadian television series Dans l’Oeil du Dragon.

In addition to his immense success in the business world, he invests much of his time and money in philanthropy and is an active participant in the McGill, Canadian, and international communities.

However, Mr. Garber’s journey to success was not an easy one. In his acceptance speech, Garber spoke about the significance that failure has on defining an individual’s character and success. Garber stated, “Speaking about failure is important because it’s very easy as a young person to become discouraged… but what’s important is how you deal with failure and rejection and what degree of resiliency you have and you can show.”

Garber experienced his fair share of failure early on in his career, having been rejected from every law school in Montreal. Garber maintained a spirit of resilience and was ultimately accepted to attend the University of Ottawa where he finally earned his law degree. He also touched on the importance of dealing with the unexpected in the business world. In fact, Garber learned this lesson at a young age. “At 14 years old I took over a small canteen,” he recounted, “and each week I would take the profits of the food and I would buy the next week’s food trying to keep a little bit of profit at the end of each week, so that by the end of the summer I had some. I remember distinctly a day in 1978 where there was a power failure in the canteen, and I had just gotten a new order of hot dogs. 300 hot dogs melted in that freezer, and I started to cry, because it made me realize something: That in business the unexpected is going to happen to

you, and that when you’re 14 you can cry, but when you’re 52 you can’t cry, and when you’re 24 you can’t cry. So the idea is that what are you going to do when your hot dogs melt? And you have no money to order new hot dogs, and that is the reality of the business world.”

He went on to praise those he has found to be the most successful in the business world: the hard workers, the people who are most different, those “without a copy-paste CV and life story,” the people who know their industry better than anyone, the ones who take initiative, and finally, the ones who can take the high road and maintain their integrity regardless of the circumstances. Lastly, he reminded the audience of their fortune and, consequently, of the philanthropic power that they hold. “All of you sitting in the Ritz-Carlton hotel, all of you who are studying at one of the world’s finest institutions, will get degrees, will get internships, will get jobs, will be ably employed, all will be in that global one-percent, and as a result of being in that global one-percent you are lucky,” he said, “and you have an obligation, within your means, to help all of those who have not had the same lucky path and fortune that you have.”

Norman Jaskolka The second DMAA recipient of the afternoon was Norman Jaskolka. He is currently president

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of corporate planning, after working in accounting at Ernst & Young for 20 years. His success in accounting has been such that he was awarded the title of Fellow of the Order of Chartered Accountants of Quebec. After joining ALDO Group International, he was able to bring the Montreal-born company to the international position it holds today. Jaskolka’s ongoing curiosity, risk taking, and innovation have led him to speak various times at the World Retail Congress and National Retail Federation. In 2012, the minister of economic development, innovation and export gave him the responsibility of revitalizing, sustaining, and developing the fashion industry in Montreal and Quebec. Jaskolka also invests much of his time in community organizations like the Federation CJA, the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre, the Old

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Brewery Mission, and Sheela Bal Bhavan, a home for girls in India.

Like Garber, Jaskolka emphasized that victory goes hand in hand with perseverance, especially when all odds are against you. He spoke of the long journey that his parents, two Holocaust survivors, went through to overcome adversity. After the war, they came to Canada with no money, in poor health, no education, and no language skills. Nevertheless, they did what they could to open their own business, and provide a bright future for their children. Jaskolka also stressed the importance of selfawareness; he preached, “As a starting point, it’s important to know who you are. It’s important that you know yourself and appreciate what you like to do. Accept who you are and revel in it. As the years go by, you will get to know yourself better and

you will learn what works for you.

If you know who you are and focus in that direction, you will succeed.”

Additionally, Jaskolka reminded the audience that success is not a matter a talent but rather a matter of effort, and that failure is inescapable and a primary stepping stone to achieving our dreams. His recommendation to the audience was to take failure as a learning opportunity because the only real failure is “the one from which you learn nothing.” With great hope for the future, Jaskolka concluded, “I say to you, that you never know what awaits you around the corner. It could be nothing, or it could be everything.

So keep putting one foot in front of the other and then, one day, look back and see how high and far you’ve come.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JENNIFER YOON

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Antoine Senkoff News Writer

Divest McGill A look back

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he recent achievement of the student campaign ULaval Sans Fossiles in successfully petitioning Université Laval to divest from fossil fuel companies stands in stark contrast to the campaign for divestment at McGill University. Following the success of divestment campaigns at the University of Glasgow and London School of Economics, just to name a few, Université Laval demonstrates the divestment movement’s growing momentum in universities and educational institutions across the world.

While the divestment movement at McGill has been widely popular among students and faculty alike, the petitions and demands for divesting from fossil fuel companies have fallen on deaf ears – the McGill Board of Governors having most recently rejected a petition proposed by Divest McGill in March 2016. While the divestment campaign has fallen short of its ultimate goals, Divest McGill continues to make its mark on campus, remaining the leading student activist group through its ongoing engagement with both students and the McGill administration on issues of climate justice and divestment.

Established in 2012 as one of the first fossil fuel divestment campaigns in Canada, Divest McGill has pressured the administration to divest from a wide range of fossil fuel companies and corporations included

in the university’s endowment fund – currently comprising around 35 corporations from 645 total corporations. Drawing inspiration from the South African apartheid and tobacco industry divestment movements – two prominent examples in the history of student activism at McGill – Divest McGill sees divestment as a means to delegitimize and remove the ‘social license to operate’ of corporations that benefit from fossil fuels.

‘‘The goal of divestment isn’t to financially harm these corporations, because the institutional endowment is too small for them even to notice, but institutions – and especially educational institutions – when they can make statements and say ‘we think that this industry is unjust and unethical and we don’t want to be a part of it,’ that can have significant ramifications throughout society,” Jed Lenesky stated, a McGill U2 student who has been heavily involved with Divest McGill since 2015.

Lenesky explained that Divest McGill has centred on this aim of

divestment from the very beginning, spending much of the past five years engaging and consulting with the administrative bodies and the McGill Board of Directors to realise this aim.

Organised in the aftermath of Quebec’s contentious student strikes, Divest McGill took a drastically different approach to achieving its goals. Whereas student protesters utilised strikes and marches as tactics to realise their aims, Divest McGill adopted a strikingly less contentious agenda in tackling the issue of divestment at McGill. “ D i v e s t McGill was founded after the student activism in 2012 and we really wanted to take a different approach [to the student strikes].

Not that there was anything wrong with the activism going on, but we wanted to try something else, and we thought if we are going through the [institutional] channels and speak to them with their language then we can find success” Lenesky continued.

Working with the McGill administration, Divest McGill began their campaign by submitting a petition to the McGill Board of Governors in the spring of 2013, demanding divestment from fossil fuel companies. Despite collecting over 1,500 signatures from staff, students, and faculty members and receiving the endorsements from numerous student associations and faculties across McGill, the

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petition was rejected by the Board of Governors in May of that same year – citing insufficient evidence presented by the petition to prove “social injury” caused by fossil fuels.

Undeterred by this rejection, Divest McGill began steps toward submitting a second petition to the Board of Governors, including a 150-page report that provided welldocumented arguments promoting divestment. The subsequent petition alongside the report was presented to the Board of Governors in February 2015. In March 2016, after waiting more than a year for a response, the Board of Governors yet again announced its rejection of the petition – releasing a report stating that fossil fuels did not ‘meet the test of social injury’ needed for divestment to occur.

The publication of the report was heavily scrutinised by members of Divest McGill, citing the lack of open community consultation during the development of the report.

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rejection of the second petition, Divest McGill organised sit-ins in Principal Fortier’s office, protests, teach-ins, and worked with McGill alumni to place increasing pressure on the McGill administration to accept demands of divestment. ‘‘They [the Board of Governors] really went against the McGill community’s support, so we held a sit-in in Principal Fortier’s office and we demanded that they release the expert testimony they used in making their decision, which was previously confidential, and that they hold a community consultation to keep conversation about Divestment going, but also to see the overwhelming support we have on campus,’’ Lenesky explained.

For 72 hours, members of Divest McGill occupied space around Principal Fortier’s office in the James Administration Building, making their demands clear to the McGill administrative body. For members “[The] Board of Governors of Divest McGill, Principal Fortier’s rejected divestment despite refusal to meet with the group since overwhelming community support, 2014 was emblematic of the wider we had over 2,500 signatures on our issue of a lack of communication and petition, we had an alumni campaign, consultation on behalf of the McGill all the student unions at McGill had administration. endorsed us, [as did] a number of The days of protests and sitfaculties including the Faculty of ins culminated in McGill alumni Arts, so we had a lot of momentum,’’ returning their diplomas to the Lenesky emphasized. university, with several alumni The second rejection by the Board of Governors ushered in a change of tactics for Divest McGill, disheartened by the lack of progress that had been made through almost four years of engaging with the McGill administration.

“After two rejections and a lot of years of countless boardroom presentations, it became clear that they were not going to be swayed by the arguments alone and that they really need to feel [it is] something that the community wants and the community demands of them as people in power at McGill,’’ Lenesky said.

Following the Board of Governors’

pledging to refuse to donate unless McGill accepted the demands for divestment. ‘‘We have also found that even engaging with certain groups of people gets under the administration’s skin such as our alumni campaign – asking our alumni to pledge not to donate to McGill until they divest from fossil fuels,’’ Lenesky stated. ‘‘We had over 20 alumni return their degrees last year and we are going to hold [a] degree returning ceremony this year because alumni want to do it again.’’

Despite Divest McGill’s efforts, the administration refused to accept the demands made, arguing that that the Board of Governors’ decision to

reject divestment could not change.

Nonetheless, Lenesky explained that despite these setbacks, Divest McGill has continued to push for divestment through reforming McGill governance structures and overcoming institutional barriers that had impeded progress thus far.

“The McGill Board of Governors is highly undemocratic, they can make their decisions in secret and with minimal evidence, and it does not allow for individual accountability for decision-making… We found that we are confronting these institutional barriers, so in pushing for divestment we are also pushing to have these barriers at McGill removed,” Lenesky expanded.

Although Divest McGill has yet to reach an agreement with the administration regarding divestment, Lenesky still has hope for the future and is proud of the progress Divest McGill has been made in the past five years. ‘‘On an administrative level, we had changed the conversation on sustainability. Before we started, sustainability was not even part of the Board of Governor’s mandate, and now it is,’’ Lenesky acknowledged. ‘‘We got administrators thinking about how McGill can become more sustainable and what they can do. … We are still not agreeing on the solutions yet, but it is something they are thinking about, and I think that it is in large part due to the work we have been doing, so it is something we are very proud of.”

With the Board of Governors holding their first community session in February 2017 and making strides to include McGill students in their decision-making process, there is no doubt that divestment will once again be put back on the agenda. With the growing momentum of the divestment movement across Canada, it would be farcical to suggest that divestment won’t happen at McGill. Simply, it is not a question of if, but when.

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Nick Kasting News Writer

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Syrian Kids Foundation Bridging Hope, from Montreal to Reyhanli

ood news has been sparse for who have put their education to work Syrians since the beginning on behalf of the organization. of their civil war. Last year, the United Recently, Ati was lucky enough Nations estimated that over 400,000 to say, “My favourite student will be individuals have died in the six-year here.” She enthusiastically described conflict. The conflict has become an her student’s efforts maintaining, “He international proxy war for regional was really motivated to learn English.” influence. Adding to this, on January Two of her pupils have even seen their 27th, President Trump turned his back journeys take them from Al Salam to on Syrians fleeing persecution. Yet Concordia University. According to amongst the turmoil, there is a small Ati, “One is going to be an engineer, glimmer of hope. In the absence of the other is going to be a doctor.” The effective state leadership, foundations future engineer, Mohammed, arrived and NGOs from around the world in Canada on December 20th and have chipped in to help remedy the has begun his studies at Concordia problem of intense suffering in Syria. University.

Today, The Bull & Bear highlights the efforts of one such organization: The Syrian Kids Foundation.

The Student The Syrian Kids Foundation is In March 2013, the extremist a Canadian charity that offers free group Da’esh, also known as ISIS, education, counseling, and social ISIL and the Islamic State, overtook relief to Syrian Refugees to address the Mohammed’s hometown of Raqqa, region’s ongoing humanitarian crisis. making it their headquarters. While The Foundation provides funding the city had previously been a hub for for the Al Salam, a school for Syrian revolutionaries, it now serves as an refugees in Turkey, and sponsors extremist stronghold and remains an exceptional graduates for resettlement elusive target for the US-led military in Canada. The organization also coalition. coordinates a tutoring campaign “First, when I fled from Syria to that allows students in Montreal and Turkey, I went to Mara. I was there across the world to tutor students in a couple of months, but there were Turkish refugee camps over Skype. no schools over there,” Mohammed Technology is shrinking the world, stated matter-of-factly. He continued and McGill students are actively part to describe his experience saying, “I of this positive change. To accomplish had some relatives in Reyhanli who these goals, the organization relies said that there are schools opening heavily on volunteers from the McGill for Syrians, so we moved to Reyhanli.” community and donors from the The Al Salam School enabled Montreal area.

Mohammed to continue his schooling with the same Syrian curriculum. In this environment, Mohammed was The Volunteer able to learn physics, math, chemistry, “My sister told me, ‘you have to biology, and English – even while his set limitations’… [but] even at 11 world was being turned upside down. pm I am texting my supervisor,” Ati Despite his tumultuous journey, Shohoudi Moidehi reminisced on Mohammed earned one of the seven her experience working at the Syrian scholarships given to Syrian refugees Kids Foundation. The PhD candidate by Concordia University. The Syrian in Human Development is one of the Kids Foundation provides room fifteen McGill student-volunteers

and board to allow the teenagers to focus on their education. These acts of generosity are made possible

by Canada’s world-leading refugee resettlement program that allows private groups, like the Foundation, to sponsor refugees.

“It was my last year in high school,” Mohammed recalled, and “it was very different than the school I went to in Syria ... it was much better.” He cited the teachers as the main reason for the better education because “they really wanted to help the students, and they worked very hard for that.” The school is one of the few that provides a good education to Syrian refugee children. Unfortunately, however, the situation continues to be critical, as the Al Salam School keeps over 1,000 students on its waitlist due to a lack of resources.

In terms of his own efforts, Mohammed is very humble. Ati, on the other hand, insisted that he works very hard. Hard-pressed about his work ethic, Mohammed admitted, “I spent eight to ten months preparing for the TOEFL.” A year ago, he hardly spoke any English. Now he speaks English well enough to study at an Anglophone university.

With limited funding and an unceasing war, very few Syrians have been provided with the same opportunities as Mohammed. In that respect, his experience has been fortunate. By allowing tutors to educate from across the world, the Foundation has empowered individuals like Ati, and is expanding the number of students who are given a chance to attend university.

The Project Ati is a supervisor at the Syrian Kids Foundation, and she specializes in helping teenagers like Mohammed learn English in preparation for the

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TOEFL exam. The exam enables their passports,” which were often lost students from around the world who or destroyed in the haste of leaving score high enough to be admitted into home. Students at the Al Salam School English universities. As a volunteer, face great difficulties, having seen the Ati’s responsibilities are broadly impacts of war firsthand. Pupils have ranging – from supervising tutors, to often lost their school, their family, designing the curriculum, to teaching and their home, yet they still commit students. She has even helped buy themselves to learning. Ati concedes, furniture for Mohammed ahead of “It takes a lot.” The students “at least his move to Montreal. The tutoring have to study five hours a day” to program requires a lot of help to achieve the results Mohammed did. achieve its brilliant results, and the Fortunately, the organization’s tutoring program has 23 volunteers success is breeding more success. helping a group of approximately ten The Foundation has been given an high school students. invaluable boost by creating role The program emphasizes a models that its current students can bottom-up approach that adjusts look up to. It also makes the jobs of its strategies and lesson plans to tutors and teachers easier when they best match the talents of individual can remind current students that students and tutors. According to the alumni were “at the same school, Ati, the organization prides itself on with the same tutors, working with “a culture of respect and friendliness.” the same materials,” as Ati remarked.

She knew as soon as she got involved Because trailblazers have shown the that she “was working with [her] way, the journey becomes a little bit friends.” After eight years of tutoring, more certain for every subsequent she insists that the same statement student. holds true.

Ati makes no effort to hide that many of these accomplishments were in fact incredible. She notes that “most of [The Syrian Kids Foundation’s] students are taking the TOEFL [exam]… because they do not have

You Can Help Too There is no question that the success of Al Salam and its students is impressive on several fronts. Its students have overcome great personal hardship and worked extraordinarily

hard to succeed at an exam, the TOEFL, in their third language. Their success is possible because of the hard work of administrative volunteers, like Ati, and of tutors, like the fifteen McGill undergraduates. The generosity of the Foundation’s donors also enables student success: Donations help fund the school and the relocation of Syrian refugees.

Despite having worked so passionately with the school, Ati has yet to visit it, but hopes to do so one day.

The Syrian Kids Foundation allows its volunteers to make a profound impact without needing to leave their living rooms. This is the brave new world we live in, where we can forge relationships, make friends, and provide life-changing opportunities from eight time zones away.

At the end of our discussion, this columnist asked Mohammed, “What’s been the biggest adjustment since moving to Canada?” Confidently, he responded, “I’m getting used to everything, but the main difference is the weather.” The co-founder of the Syrian Kids Foundation, Faisal Alazem, then chimed in asking, “Are you happy?” Mohammed replied with a million-dollar smile and said, “Yeah, it’s really nice to be here.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF SYRIAN KIDS FOUNDATION

NEWS

WINTER 2017

Julia Puckette News Writer

Why Davos Matters for McGill Principal Fortier discussed how she plans to make students “future-ready,” while three McGill professors presented their groundbreaking research on sustainability

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ast week, global leaders conference, Principal Fortier spoke traveled to the Swiss ski-resort about artificial intelligence (AI) in town of Davos for the annual meeting a panel discussion on “Jobs and the of the World Economic Forum. This Fourth Industrial Revolution” with yearly event brings together nearly Erik Brynjolfsson, Director of the MIT 3,000 leaders from governments, Initiative on the Digital Economy. businesses, NGOs, and academia Many that went to Davos believe that to discuss current global issues and AI is driving the fourth industrial help shape future agendas. Principal revolution and will disrupt industries and Vice-Chancellor Suzanne Fortier around the world, fundamentally represented McGill for the second changing the way we work and live. year in a row, and McGill was the only Principal Fortier and Brynjolfsson Canadian university invited to attend. were especially concerned with what Principal Fortier was accompanied this means for the future of education. by three McGill researchers: While robotics is already displacing Professors Andrew Gonzalez from workers in low-skill jobs like the the Department of Biology, Graham automobile industry, soon they fear MacDonald from the Department of it will increasingly replace high-skill Geography, and Elena Bennett from jobs that require analytical skills. the Department of Natural Resource “You can imagine [this happening] in Sciences and the McGill School of some of the jobs that people coming Environment. out of a BComm might be taking Just off the plane from Switzerland, initially,” Principal Fortier explained. the group was excited to speak with The challenge now is determining The Bull & Bear about their time in how to best prepare students for this Davos. “I don’t think I have ever had complex and changing job market in an experience as powerful as this one, both the long term and the short term. that really puts you in the middle of One question Principal Fortier said being able to see what’s coming in the she needed to think about is: world,” Principal Fortier said. “It is, at “What is the learning experience all levels, a reading of where we are [students] must have to be prepared today and what we need to prepare for the world ahead? A world that for in the future. As a participant, you we cannot even predict yet. It’s not have this unique opportunity to be a matter for us to have students who able to see that and to contribute to it.” are job-ready, they have to be futureThe overall theme at the Davos Forum this year was “Responsive and Responsible Leadership.” With over 400 sessions packed into the four-day event, speakers covered everything from the rise of populism to the global financial outlook and the impacts of income disparity. Other widely discussed topics included climate change and the rise of artificial intelligence, both of which were of particular focus for the McGill delegation.

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To better prepare students for their careers, Principal Fortier suggests integrating different modes of learning into the University’s academic curriculum. This means increased opportunities for McGill students in all programs to have learning experiences outside the classroom through internships, field studies, or community involvement in both the public and private sectors.

Her goal is to be able to provide one such work-learning experience for every student at McGill, and in order to achieve this, McGill has joined both national and international initiatives.

In Canada, Fortier is a member of the Business/ Higher Education Roundtable, an organization launched in 2015 to foster partnerships between Canadian universities and some of the country’s top companies.

Currently, Principal Fortier is working with other university presidents and private sector leaders to create worklearning programs across a variety of sectors throughout the country.

McGill is also the only Canadian member of the Global University Leaders Forum, the intellectual community within the World Economic Forum. It is made up of the presidents from the top 26 universities in the world including Harvard, Yale, Oxford, and Cambridge. ready.”

In addition to attending Davos every year, the group meets on a regular basis to discuss the future of higher A New McGill for a New World education and to foster collaborations Principal Fortier believes students with the business community. The must focus on developing the skills Forum has afforded Principal Fortier that set us humans apart from the opportunity to connect with computers – creativity, leadership, industry leaders from around the and compassion. She wants to world and create new partnerships encourage students to think deeply, be on a global scale. As a school that ready to take initiative, and dive into prides itself on international diversity, knowledge. These “social dimensions,” McGill recognizes the importance of as she calls them, are crucial to being being able to provide work-learning experiences for students not just in “future-ready.”

Canada but also abroad.

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In the short term, Fortier says the forum and the roundtable have been great for strengthening the university’s international reputation. In the long term, however, it remains to be seen whether both initiatives can mobilize enough business leaders to actually provide every McGill student with a work-learning experience. Principal Fortier emphasized that “we need to have these other [private and public] sectors create programs to welcome our students into their organization.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF JENNIFER YOON

Innovations in Sustainability on Campus Meanwhile, McGill Professors Gonzalez, MacDonald, and Bennett are already driving innovation and change in their classrooms, their labs, and the community. They were invited to Davos to lead an IdeasLab on “Shaping a Sustainable World.”

The professors presented their own research and a range of the sustainability initiatives happening at McGill to an intimate crowd on the last day of the conference.

Gonzalez studies biodiversity and ecosystems in relation to urban planning. He believes a main challenge of the 21st century will be building more environmentallyfriendly cities, while maintaining equitable human well-being. As urban spaces continue to sprawl around the world, he says, “They fragment and disconnect ecosystems. And this loss of ecological connectivity erodes

biological diversity, and degrades the very ecosystems services we need for sustainable cities.”

Through his research at McGill, Professor Gonzalez has found that by combining network science, biodiversity science, and land cover data, we can reconnect and restore ecosystems on a global scale. In 2009, the Quebec government asked him to build an ecosystem network for Montreal and the surrounding area using this research. He has since partnered with municipalities and NGOs to restore the city’s greenbelt and plant nearly 15,000 trees around the city.

Building on the theme of sustainable science, Professor MacDonald presented his research on food systems and the globalization of agriculture. “In many countries, the very ability to eat a food like avocado is a direct benefit of international trade.

We are eating on an interconnected planet,” he explained. “Food trade now shapes land use worldwide and is reshaping the food supplies of many nations.”

While Professor MacDonald agrees that being able to eat an avocado everywhere in the world has its benefits, this changing demand for products is also putting undue stress on our food systems. So his research at McGill focuses on how to feed cities using multiple scales of production – at the local, regional, and global levels. Using global trade data, food supply statistics, and information on agriculture and land use, Professor MacDonald hopes to find sustainable food system strategies to ensure global urban food security in the future.

Like her colleagues, Professor Bennett is concerned with the management of ecosystem services and the future of the environment.

Based at the Macdonald campus, her research focuses on identifying positive and realistic pathways to building a better anthropocene, our current geological era in which human activity shapes the planet.

At Davos, Professor Bennett presented her project called “Bright Spots: Seeds of a Good Anthropocene,” which collects examples of success stories of human-environment relationships from around the world.

She has built a database with nearly 500 ‘bright spots’ and is studying them in detail to better understand what makes these particular initiatives so successful. “We see our seeds of a better anthropocene, our bright spots,” she says, “as a sort of pocket of a better future that is already in existence today.”

All three professors emphasized how eager they are to bring back what they learned from Davos and share it with the McGill community. As Professor Gonzalez explained, “The [McGill] sustainability initiative is about creating projects that span multiple faculties and departments and many of us are already collaborating with colleagues across faculties.” Principal Fortier also added that as she works with the provost to create a strategic academic plan for the university, she hopes to make this collaborative environment a real, living experience for all students.

For now, Professor Bennett encourages all students to jump in – there is no reason that sustainability should be limited to just the sciences.

Professor Graham added that being involved with campus initiatives and student government is a great way to get started and help make a difference within the McGill and Montreal community.

Echoing what was said in Principal Fortier’s panel discussion, Professor Gonzalez reminded us that, “You can’t ask a robot to work on the social dimensions of change and sustainability.” So while Davos provides an incredible window into the future of technology and AI, it is perhaps more importantly, an opportunity for the university to make a real contribution to the global sustainability effort.

BUSINESS & TECH

WINTER 2017

Shahriar Alam Business & Tech Writer

Will Robots Bleed?

Peeking into the future of the human race, one system update at a time.

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heseus’ paradox goes something like this: If the components of a ship were replaced bit by bit, would it still remain the same ship? The full paradox reads as follows, “The ship wherein Theseus and the youth of Athens returned from Crete had thirty oars, and was preserved by the Athenians down even to the time of Demetrius Phalereus, for they took away the old planks as they decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their places, in so much that this ship became a standing example among the philosophers, for the logical question of things that grow; one side holding that the ship remained the same, and the other contending that it was not the same.”

The last phrase in particular is important to keep in mind. If a ship were to have its planks replaced one by one until 100-percent of its original planks had been replaced with new but otherwise identical planks, would it still be the same ship? For those who would argue that it’s not the same: At what threshold would you determine this ship becomes a different ship?

90-percent? 50-percent?

To take a detour, one of the questions that’s been bothering really smart people like Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk and Bill Gates concerns how quickly AI will become superintelligent and, when it inevitably does, how long we will remain relevant as a species. This bothers people so much there’s even a fleshed out Wikipedia article on the subject. To quote, “Just as the current-day survival of chimpanzees is dependent on human decisions, so too would human survival depend on the decisions and goals of the superhuman AI. The result could be human extinction, or some other unrecoverable permanent

global catastrophe.”

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artificial monstrosity pretending to be him. “This cyborg is certainly not human!” some would exclaim.

Fortunately, it doesn’t have to I stand quite firmly in the be this way. Though some may say “it’s the same” camp of Theseus’ humanity risks playing “genocide paradox.

I am of the opinion that the bingo,” some others argue AI should fundamental property in question is be something we embrace by actually that of continuity and not necessarily becoming part machine. Mostly falling similarity.

Borrowing from Tim Urban, under the transhumanist banner, if your grandfather were to point to this camp advocates for humans to a picture of himself as a child and essentially become cyborgs: biotech proclaim he was that child, how do upgraded humans. we best explain it? It’s definitely not Unlike humans, cyborgs will the cells they would have in common, have heightened sensory capabilities. for those are long dead. It wouldn’t They will see better, hear better, smell be some similarity in personality or better, and so on. We already have memories. It’s all rather a “story, or a hearing aids that can help focus and progression, or one particular theme enhance our hearing. In addition to of person.” having enhanced senses, if humans To qualify something as “human” became part machine, they would generally implies it is compatible be able to think and process at with what is “natural.” Imperfections rates unimaginable to our current, are natural.

Emotions are natural. relatively primitive brains. We would Machines are unnatural. Immortal become more impervious to disease. humans are unnatural.

But is this Our productivity would skyrocket and not evolution at work?

By virtue of civilization would be able to advance being created by our human brains, at a blinding pace. which itself is a result of millennia But would cyborgs still be of natural evolution, machines are human? We’re brought back to quintessentially “human.”

They Theseus’ paradox: If we replaced a represent the very tools that have human’s individual limbs and organs helped us advance as a species. and eventually the entire body with Why would we not work towards cybernetic equivalents, would that guaranteeing our survival using tools person be considered the same a well within our reach? We should be anymore? actively accelerating our evolution.

Stop reading and think about that The fact is, we have to reckon with for a moment. Most people would not what our raison d’être is as a species be okay with having the consciousness sooner or later. AI will inevitably of their dead grandpa uploaded into outperform us and it may well possess some robotic body. Would that truly godlike amounts of power in the be your grandpa? Would he not be future. The main question is whether talking and laughing the same way? or not we want to join the winning He would be able to run miles without team before it’s too late. Whether tiring and scan through volumes of robots bleed is the wrong question; knowledge without rest. I imagine it the right question is whether we would be difficult for your theoretical humans will have to bleed at all. grandpa to convince everybody else Or maybe it’s better to go extinct that it really is him and not some after all.

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BUSINESS & TECH

Katrina Brindle Business & Tech Writer

bullandbearmcgill.com

Virtual Reality: Existential Appropriation?

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uring a TED conference held in March of 2015, Chris Milk, a self-described “immersive storyteller,” admitted to his audience that “talking about virtual reality is like dancing about architecture.” In this article, I intend to “dance about architecture” by delving into the emerging world of VR in an attempt to survey some of the many ethical, moral, and philosophical challenges that this technology will surely inspire.

video places the viewer inside the Zaatri Refugee Camp in Jordan, and follows Sidra, a 12-year-old girl, as she shows them around the camp and tells her family’s story. This film was taken to the World Economic Forum in Davos, where influential members of the forum were immediately transported inside the gates of a Syrian refugee camp, which Milk argues gave the decisions they made a new personalized weight and meaning.

As VR proliferates into the arenas of justice, identity politics, and activism, many are hailing the new technological platform as the most effective 21st century way of making humans more humane. VR might be, as Chris Milk describes it, “the ultimate empathy machine.”

As projects in VR and 360 degree video achieve the feats of simulating racialized experiences, disability, aging, pregnancy, sexism and other individual realities, the adage of making someone ‘walk a mile in another person’s shoes’ has ceased to be exclusively metaphorical, and may actually become literal. This however raises the question, “Should empathy be mechanized?” More specifically, do we actually want individuals to live under the impression that they can effectively experience the strife of others, even if for a short, recreational time?

Thanks to the local Montreal virtual reality studio Martov Co., I was able to experience Clouds Over Sidra through a VR headset. In Clouds Over Sidra, I sat across from a young girl on the floor of her simple home and listened to her tearfully explain how she thinks being in Zaatri for a year and a half was long enough. My senses told me I was close enough to touch her, and on multiple occasions I instinctively tried to reach out and comfort her.

However, the question I pose is if individual experience should, even in the face of adversity, remain sovereign and sacrosanct? Similarly, by co-opting someone’s perspective in a literal sense, is one inherently engaging in a type of appropriative behavior, a sort of virtual reality blackface?

Clouds Over Sidra is a film that Milk produced in conjunction with the virtual reality company VRSE and the United Nations. The 360 degree

Based on my own experience with the technology, the potential for emotional impact and empathetic response that VR can have on the viewer is profound.

It is perhaps because of this experience that I now view VR with reverence as well as wariness. If individuals empathetically engage more effectively when being directly placed in a position or situation, should this always be considered the optimal solution? Stanford’s Interaction Lab offers demos that place individuals in challenging positions they may not experience in their own lived realities.

An example of a simulation they offer is the experience of being an AfricanAmerican woman undergoing verbal harassment from a white male. This and similar projects target viewers’ “implicit racial biases” and have boasted results implying that the act of experiencing life in a different,

racialized body substantively changes these biases upon multiple exposures.

While this may be seen as an innovative way of pluralizing the experience of racial and sexual oppression, is universalizing the access to this experience really the answer to racial intolerance? Not only does the limited duration and intensity of this experience pose some ethical problems, but the process that is undergone to vet the authenticity of this experience may be fundamentally impossible in the first place. Even with the best of intentions, this could quite easily be seen as a tech-savvy version of blackface, and many are criticizing it as such.

VR may be highly effective in simulating oppressive experiences, but these experiences are intrinsically different, since they lack the extended context of legitimate lived experiences.

Espousing a rhetoric that conflates VR experiences with understanding oppression is not only incorrect, but potentially dangerous. To empathize with another’s condition is not to simultaneously appropriate it as one’s own, and if VR progresses too far along this path of appropriation it may serve to further entrench biases as opposed to combatting them.

It will be vital going forward to keep these concerns and methodological precautions in mind. It is sometimes not the art or technology itself that deserves moral scrutiny, but the conversation it inspires. According to Chris Milk, “[VR is] a machine, but through this machine we become more compassionate, […] empathetic, […] more connected, and ultimately, [...] more human.” While it takes human ingenuity to build a machine, it takes something entirely different to know when and how to use it.

BUSINESS & TECH

WINTER 2017

Erik Johnson Business & Tech Writer

Waddle On As Club Penguin migrates to a more tropical climate, will its legacy melt away?

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n their most controversial decision in recent memory, Disney announced that the iconic children’s online game Club Penguin will be shut down on March 29th 2017. While no official reason for this closure has been put forth, Club Penguin aficionados point towards a dwindling player-base, and general quality decline since its “golden-years.”

Disney intends to move players to a new mobile-only game, Club Penguin Island, sometime this year. While the promotional videos for the new island promise “myths and legends right under your beak,” many users are concerned by the migration to warmer climates, the risks of which were shown in the harrowing 2006 documentary, Happy Feet Released in late 2005, Club Penguin established itself as a formative introduction to the Internet for children worldwide. Users could sign up with an email address, customize their own penguin, and instantly interact with thousands of children through virtual games and activities. Preaching the mantra of respecting others, chatting nicely, staying safe, and playing fair, Club Penguin acted as the training wheels for kids learning online conduct.

Its omnipresent chat filter helped millions of children learn that if a word was bad enough to get you banned, it was probably too rude to say in front of your parents. The multitude of interactive games taught the importance of teamwork, and the value of new friendship. Above all, it allowed children to experience devastating jealousy toward penguins with the best igloos, which translates directly to being “Insta-famous” is today.

Club Penguin’s rise to popularity occurred in a pre-iPad world. Back then, kids needed to walk uphill both ways before they could hop on their dial up internet (or broadband,

if they were lucky) and visit their virtual igloos. Being able to connect with friends and strangers online was a new and magical thing. The world seemed just a little bit smaller every time you’d meet somebody from far away, and all of this could be done as an animated penguin.

The combination of perfect timing and the implementation of aspects of popular websites at the time, such as Miniclip-style games and MSN Messenger-style chat, resulted in an enormous online community that would eventually exceed 200 million accounts. Club Penguin Times, the prestigious in-game newspaper, was once being read more frequently than the New York Times.

Club Penguin entirely on their own credit cards, but within a year their website jumped from 15,000 users to 1.4 million. “We found a need, and it turned out to be a bigger need than even we imagined,” stated Merrifield.

The need proved to be so great that Disney caught wind, buying Club Penguin in 2007 for the modest sum of 700 million dollars.

Though pure in principle, Club Penguin was not without a darkside. Peaking in 2013, young adults returned to their igloos to spread memes and malice. Screenshots of users being banned for outrageous comments juxtaposed with naughty language in what was essentially a digital schoolyard. Twitter and Reddit raced to produce the spiciest memes, and while the website continues to explicitly enforce bans for swearing, racism, or mentions of drugs, sex, or alcohol, the finely-refined humour of a penguin talking about smoking weed was too much for some to turn down. In a way, this behaviour taught children another fundamental rule of the internet: Anything you enjoy will have people simultaneously trying to ruin it. While Club Penguin “strive[s] to be the safest place on the internet,” it proved to be a challenging battle to fight.

This incredible growth sprouted from the work of Club Penguin’s founding fathers Lance Priebe, Lane Merrifield, and Dave Krysko. Based out of New Horizon Interactive, a development studio in Kelowna, BC, Ultimately, Club Penguin leaves the three sought to create a world behind a genuine legacy of having that their own kids would enjoy. “We shaped the early internet and social wanted something that had some networking. Though Lance Priebe social components but was safe, and may never get a Zuckerburg-esque not just marketed as safe. When we movie chronicling the rise of Club couldn’t find it, we said, ‘Well, let’s Penguin, his role in penguin-themed build it and see how it goes.’” Priebe, entertainment cannot be overstated. initially inspired by a Penguin As we approach March 29th and drawing in a Far Side comic, began prepare for the end of an era, it is working on a web-based game in his important to leave with the words free time. This project eventually given to us in the final Club Penguin manifested itself as “Experimental update, “Together we can build an Penguins,” which was shortly followed island, create a community, change by “Penguin Chat” one through three, the world… and even tip an iceberg. and ultimately, Club Penguin. The Waddle on.” three took a considerable risk, funding

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bullandbearmcgill.com

ILLUSTRATION BY HAYLEY AXELRAD Nathan Drezner Arts & Culture Writer

Adult Swim And The Value of Strange Content

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very year, hundreds of TV shows are announced. Most of them go under the radar, others are host to a flurry of media coverage and a few awards, and a lucky few go on to last in people’s memories for decades.

Despite this constant refresh of new television, however, it always feels as though most of the upcoming shows are relatively predictable: a new comedy about a suburban American family, a legal drama, or yet another spinoff of a show that ended over a decade ago.

While these shows are sometimes e xciting, there’s nothing particularly adventurous or different about them. They’re all just… normal.

That’s why it’s so surprising that Adult Swim ran a show about talking fast food for 11 seasons and 139 episodes. Adult Swim also just renewed a show called Black Jesus for a third season. Another show, whose

main character has a snake for an arm, six nipples, and backwards-bending knees, was also renewed. None of this makes much sense. It’s as though the minds at Cartoon Network just hand over the reins to crazy people every night at 8 pm. The content on Adult Swim is so far from regular adult television that it’s incredible the network even exists in the first place.

quality yet highly strange storytelling.

Adult Swim began as a quasiexperimental appeal to teens and young adults still watching Cartoon Network at night. Space Ghost Coast to Coast, an animated, explicit talk show that drew characters from a 1960s Hannah-Barbera cartoon was one of the first shows aired on the channel. The humour from the Space But somehow, nearly all of Adult Ghost – offbeat, deadpan, and often Swim’s content is great. You might not crude and surreal – helped set the tone be able to binge watch their shows – for many future Adult Swim shows, most notably The Eric Andre Show. Still, the airing of Space Ghost, which premiered in 1994, didn’t they’re just too strange – but in small quite represent the formal birth of bursts and individual episodes, nearly Adult Swim. every series is must-watch television.

In 2001, Adult Swim producer Not because the shows are peculiar and network programming firm or niche, but because they’re simply Williams Street released a series of good. Somehow, by going to the exact five ‘stealth premieres’—that is, series opposite end of the spectrum of nearly premieres that were released with every other channel on air, Adult little publicity, with the intention Swim has found a niche for high- of gauging audience interest in new

ARTS AND CULTURE

WINTER 2017

Adult Swim was officially created on September 2, 2001, after those five stealth premieres — whose comedic style would help set the tone for the network, just like Space Ghost — had aired. The network quickly became the place for TV programs without a stable home, as well as episodes of TV shows that couldn’t be shown anywhere else.

The channel’s experimental style is especially popular with younger audiences. A Vulture article from 2015 noted that Adult Swim had the lowest median age of viewership (25) when compared with other comedy late night shows like Conan and The Tonight Show. This huge age gap is representative of the fact that Adult Swim attracts a totally different audience, an audience that classic late-night TV barely reaches.

When late-night talk shows aren’t interesting enough, young audiences in the especially lucrative 18-35 demographic move to a channel with more unique content.

humour, to the point where it’s likely that you could see a clip from an Adult Swim show posted by a Facebook meme page, right next to videos by Cool 3D World and the latest Smash Mouth remix. Xander: Renegade Angel takes clips and snippets from the several Tim and Eric shows on Adult Swim that frequently make their rounds online, often to the point where they are disassociated with the Adult Swim network itself. Have you seen the viral video of “Candy Tails,” the candy you lick off your hair? That’s a clip from The Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! The new online audience doesn’t necessarily need to know that what they’re watching is from a TV show, simply because the amalgamated clips fit in with other viral videos so well.

Adult Swim fits seamlessly into the internet because its humour, just Perhaps the biggest part of this like internet humour, is distinctly uptick in younger viewers is the style offbeat, designed to disturb, distract, and duration of Adult Swim’s shows. and steal an unintended laugh from its Internet memes, viral videos, and audience. The reason why the internet comic remixes are designed for people is such a melting pot of cringe-humor with short attention spans; you would is thanks to its anonymity and lack be hard pressed to find any viral video of creative boundaries. No network longer than three minutes. Likewise, television would ever think to air a TV Adult Swim shows rarely run for more show that comes close to the crudeness than fifteen minute, half the length of of internet humour— except, perhaps, the average televised comedy. Even Adult Swim. Adult Swim established within those fifteen minutes, shows its dominance as a source of bizarre, are broken down into shorter parts. crude, and provocative humour far Robot Chicken episodes are composed before you were tagging your friends of two-minute sketches, perfectly in memes on Facebook. designed for the viral world. Similarly, But while the internet humourThe Eric Andre Show is made up of feel of many Adult Swim shows is brutally short interviews and street readily palpable, many are equal parts sketches that are reminiscent of heartfelt. Rick and Morty is one of the YouTube prank shows. best shows on television because it Like the style, the humour of somehow manages to blend together cringe-humor with Adult Swim is comparable to internet disturbing intense human relationships. It’s a

combination that shouldn’t work, and probably couldn’t work on any other network, yet Adult Swim is the perfect outlet for a show of this kind.

Additionally, Adult Swim allows its show creators more creative freedom over their content than other networks. Because episodes are short, they’re relatively inexpensive to make, meaning that when a show finds its audience, Adult Swim can easily continue producing it. Adult Swim also avoids expensive marketing campaigns, instead putting more money into producing more original content. This is because the network trusts its viewers to find the shows—a strategy that makes a lot of sense, considering how niche they are. The shows on Adult Swim are also just fun. They don’t take themselves too s e r i o u s l y, and the w r i t e r s behind them clearly enjoy creating them. Rick and Morty has two episodes that were completely improvised by Justin Roiland (one of the show’s co-creators) and Tom Kauffman. Yet they’re still amazing to watch, fitting in with the other episodes in the series and generating plenty of one-liners to spout to friends.

Adult swim shows are often sleeper hits, starting with a small following, then slowly growing into members of pop-culture ubiquity.

They’re strange but fun, disturbing but heartfelt, cooked from a recipe that no other television network can claim to come close to. Weird is good, and Adult Swim is the best at being weird. So sit down and try to endure a few minutes of Xavier: Renegade Angel or Space Ghost Coast to Coast. They might be different from everything else on TV, but that doesn’t mean you should avoid them.

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Nick D’Ascanio Arts & Culture Writer

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Tales from the McTavish Reservoir Houdini, Lincoln, and MK Ultra

How much do you really know about your school? Beyond the QS rankings and the never-ending campus controversies, how much McGill history do you know? You probably know that Jacques Cartier stumbled on the Iroquois village of Hochelaga on lower campus, or that James McGill donated his farm to become McGill’s downtown campus.

But there’s more to McGill than what the tour guides will tell you. A history of occult conspiracies, psychedelic mind control experiments, and the hidden treasures of an American president hide underneath the respectable veneer. Consider this article an introduction to the urban legends and offbeat history of McGill.

These stories can teach us a lot about McGill and its place in the world, and give us insight into the messy events and lives of people associated with McGill. Sometimes the greatest truths are found on the margins of the believable.

The McGillian Who Killed Houdini

Whitehead, approached Houdini and demanded he prove he really was as invulnerable as he claimed. Houdini apparently accepted the challenge and Whitehead swiftly punched him several times hard in the abdomen.

Price recounts that Houdini had been nursing a broken ankle and wasn’t able to stand and prepare himself in time. After a few blows, Houdini winced and motioned that he had had enough. A few weeks later in Detroit he was sick with abdomen pain and a high fever, but insisted he go on. He was barely able to finish his act when he was finally rushed to the Grace Hospital. There, he was diagnosed with peritonitis, caused by the rupture of his appendix. Despite initially seeming to recover, Houdini died Halloween afternoon.

Supposedly, the hits to the stomach directly caused Houdini’s death, but there is no clear medical link between abdominal trauma and appendicitis. As Snopes.com points out, it may have been simply that Houdini mistook his already swollen appendix for discomfort from Whitehead’s assault and so refused treatment. Whatever the exact circumstances of Houdini’s death, Whitehead played a central role. Among our alumni we count a man who killed the great magician who had spectacularly escaped death many times before.

On Halloween in 1926, the famous illusionist Harry Houdini died from a ruptured appendix in Detroit.

Anyone who’s seen the John Hughes hit Planes, Trains, and Automobiles knows how it happened. “You could have killed me slugging me in the gut like that … that’s how Houdini died ya know!” so says John Candy’s character.

But the circumstances surrounding Lincoln in the Library Houdini’s death are even wilder than Trudging your way up or down the 80s Thanksgiving buddy comedy the McLennan stairs, you may have makes out. They actually have a direct, noticed the small white statue of fatal link to McGill. Weeks before Abraham Lincoln on the fourth he died, Houdini gave a lecture at floor. This statue is just the tip of McGill on debunking spiritualism the iceberg. In fact, McGill’s Rare and the supernatural – one of Books and Special Collections boasts his favourite topics. The story, as the largest collection of Lincoln recounted by students Jacques Price memorabilia outside the United and Sam Smilovitz, is that a McGill States, including dozens more Divinity School student, J. Gordon sculptures and busts, thousands of

letters and essays, several paintings, and even chairs from Lincoln’s White House. One of the most remarkable items is the journal of Dr. Charles Taft, who was with Lincoln the night he died, providing one of the most detailed accounts of the assassination.

Dr. Joseph Nathanson, a McGill graduate and a professor of medicine at Cornell University, donated all of this. Nathanson started his Lincoln collection after helping his daughter complete a school project on the 16th President and upon his death, he bequeathed the entire hoard of Lincolniana he had amassed to his alma mater. The collection even contains a piece of the bandage used on Lincoln’s head after he was shot.

There are definitely 152-year-old presidential blood flecks somewhere in the McLennan Library. So if any enterprising biology students want to clone the 16th President of the United States (Lord knows now is as good a time as any), they know where to start.

Stranger Things McGill’s MK Ultra, the CIA’s secret psychological warfare research program, connections have been discussed before in student media, but they bear repeating to fully understand how crazy things were.

At various partner universities, one of these being McGill, mentally ill patients were forcibly subjected to a variety of dramatic experiments such as sleep deprivation and the ingestion of psychedelic drugs. The United States’ goal was drug-induced mind control that could give them the upper hand against the Soviets (who also thought this was a good thing to try).

MK Ultra was the sort of program dramatized in movies like The Men Who Stare at Goats or more recently, in Netflix’s Stranger Things.

Located just above the McTavish Reservoir, the Allan Memorial

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Institute was, and is, McGill Other Tidbits University Health Centre’s psychiatry Other McGill history tidbits department. In the 50s and 60s, the abound. An eagle-eyed student CIA contracted Dr. Ewen Cameron can spot a plaque on Dawson Hall of the AMI to perform MK Ultra commemorating that during the experiments.

Cameron turned Second World War the International Ravenscrag, formerly railway baron Labour Organization fled Geneva Sir Hugh Allan’s mansion, into his and set up shop on campus. Scottish personal playground of psychological students may be amused to read that horrors. These experiments included James McGill’s gravestone in front of intensive electroshock therapy, forced the Arts Building lists his birthplace comas for days at a time, and the as “Glasgow, North Britain.” This forcible ingestion of hallucinogens. puzzling inscription is a unique North Right here at McGill was an example American relic of the unionism that of the Cold War arms race at its most gripped the British Empire in the insane extreme: a frenzied attempt at 17th and 18th centuries. Scratch the real psychic warfare at the expense of surface and you’ll find many more innocent patients. examples of neat and bizarre McGill connections to peoples, places, and

Stefan Macleod Arts & Culture Writer

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things around the world.

So keep your eyes peeled as you shuffle through the Y-intersection on a snowy day or check in to McLennan for another study session. You might just spot a piece of weird McGill history that has been just under your nose the whole time. It could be an artifact donated by an obsessive alumnus or a suspiciously robust commitment to research ethics in the psychiatry department. Whatever the case, these stories can teach us a lot about our school and the hidden lives of the people who have walked its halls. The truth is almost always stranger than fiction.

Protest Music Isn’t Making a Comeback It never left.

hink of the different reasons Hemingway as a reason to be excited there are to get excited for his upcoming music? about new music. A beloved artist This kind of sentiment has been could be returning from an extended surprisingly common among music hiatus, two artists might announce commentators the past few months as an unprecedented and promising they anticipate the protest music that collaboration, or well-established acts will accompany Trump’s presidency. might start experimenting with new We are currently living in a time where sounds. It also seems reasonable to protest and civil unrest are colouring be looking forward to new releases political narratives in more than just because of the environment they are one particular country, so it’s not produced in. For example, many were shocking to expect people involved excited for the postincarceration comeback of rapper Gucci Mane.

After all, it makes sense to anticipate the music in the arts to vocally oppose fascism of a celebrated rapper emerging and bigotry in their music. Nor is from prison as a changed person it a secret that some of the greatest who has largely turned his life milestones in the history of pop music around. But should we have the same have been political in nature. From kind of excitement if the music is “This Land is Our Land,” to “God Save emerging from a place of negativity, the Queen,” to “Fuck tha Police,” there or a tragedy in someone’s life? If my is no shortage of examples. But I think favourite songwriter has become a the music writers that have voiced this depressive drunk, should I cite Ernest strange anticipation of new protest

music are not only distasteful, but have made an inaccurate prediction to begin with.

There’s some kind of odd voyeurism involved in these predictions. Shouldn’t our reaction to injustice in the world be to actually protest it, rather than giddily await the music about protesting? Surely the two are not mutually exclusive, but I still think there is a celebratory sentiment attached to the anticipation of new music, and it is in poor taste to link this sentiment to tragedy and injustice. That is, though there’s nothing wrong with enjoying the music once it’s been released, it feels inappropriate to measure realworld injustices against the kinds of entertaining reactions they produce in music. If a protest song resonates with you because of the interest you have in social justice, then all the better. But keep in mind that these kinds of songs exist to help overcome

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and raise awareness about the issues they discuss, not to celebrate them.

In addition to this concern about distastefulness, can we really say that our particular political era is going to jump-start a new age of music in the first place? Is punk rock really going to be revived as a response to the increased presence of the radical right? I doubt it for a few reasons.

For one, as far as many artists are concerned, the injustices at issue today were still matters of concern before people started to anticipate them in pop-culture blogs or before the US election. Some of the most iconic social commentaries in contemporary music were made over the past eight years, and it didn’t really matter who was president of the United States.

There’s no special ‘extra baggage’ brought on by the injustices of 2017 that will allow artists to suddenly write better protest music.

Secondly, the artists that put out albums of socio-political significance weren’t able to produce these masterpieces just because

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they happened to be in a particular social context; they also happened to be fantastically talented musicians.

Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly is the paradigmatic example of this point. The album isn’t lauded exclusively for its cultural relevance or because some of its singles have even been chanted at Black Lives Matter rallies. If the album didn’t push the musical boundaries of mainstream hip-hop, I doubt that it would have been the same pop music explosion that it was.

Consider the politically-tinged songs that have already come out in response to the Trump presidency.

Though there have been some gems, we can’t expect every new release to be another cultural milestone simply because it is critical of Trump. For example, Arcade Fire’s new song “I Give You Power” not only had lyrics quite obviously referencing Trump as a threat to democracy, but the proceeds from the song’s purchase and streaming were donated to the ACLU. This is undoubtedly a noble cause, but is this song particularly good because

of its political content or the context it’s released in? Not really. In fact, “I Give You Power” is pretty bland and repetitive, and hardly something to remember the Montreal indie-rockers by. As it turns out, part of making a memorable, politically-charged song actually involves writing a good song, not just uttering platitudes in protest of Trump. What’s ironic, moreover, is that two of the band’s most famous songs, “Wake Up” and “Rebellion (Lies),” were reminiscent of protest music, but they were released in 2004; far before anyone had even entertained the notion of a Trump presidency.

All in all, you can expect there to be great protest music in the future just as much as you can expect there to be great songwriters. Nothing is about to drastically change with protest music because there already is great protest music. Regardless of the wealth of subject matter Trump provides a for politically engaged artists - as far as protest music about the new president is concerned - no one is going to top YG’s “FDT.’’

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE UNITED STATES LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

OPINION

WINTER FALL 20162017

Jack Morris Opinion Writer

Maintaining Human Autonomy in the Face of Automation

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ny conversation pertaining to artificial intelligence has the potential to go in a myriad of different directions. As a topic, AI is arcane, intimidating, and extremely complicated both in its fundamental nature and all the implications that it has on our future.

question that cannot be solved by an equation or algorithm. Questions such as this will continue to arise, and as they do ‘marketable skills’ may come to encompass far more than the narrow conception it previously might have.

Furthermore, as AI advances, For many, the goal of education is the fields that will likely avoid the to equip themselves with marketable encroachment of automation the skills that will in turn position them to longest will be those involving the make a comfortable living. This view soft, human skills that cannot be of education has resulted in certain programmed. Already, fields like disciplines coming to be viewed as finance, law, and medicine are more practical, in turn leading to the undergoing a shift toward computers. stigmatization of many non-technical A human role is still necessary, but fields. However, it may be posited that at this point, it can now be leveraged the advent of artificial intelligence with computers to an incredible will cause a significant re-evaluation degree. Algorithms, rather than of how we view education. As AI people, are making investments. In becomes more capable of providing a lecture about his work on using AI answers to any questions we may have, as a diagnostician, Jeremy Howard, a our educational goals will shift toward fields that offer rewards in the search for answers, rather than simply in the discovery of them.

Not only will there no longer be a visionary in the field, explained that, pressing need for number crunching, “What we are doing here is replacing there will be a pressing need for something that used to take a team of answering the questions about how five or six [doctors] about seven years we use these tools now that we have and replacing it with something that them. takes 15 minutes for one person.”

The early indicators of this impending shift are already apparent.

Most people would likely have laughed if a few years ago a philosophy major said they wanted to work for Google, and yet we are now seeing Google and other traditionally tech-oriented companies looking for advice on some of the philosophical questions arising from the development of AI. Take self-driving cars for instance.

The question of whom an autonomous car should save in an unavoidable collision is a prime example of a

But these are only the shortsighted reasons for why the humanities will regain relevance as we continue along our technological trajectory. The real need for a re-examination of priorities will arise when, as a society, we are faced with the prospect of a work-free world. While it is difficult to imagine such a reality, it is more likely than not to happen relatively soon. Most experts estimate that human-level artificial intelligence will be achieved by 2042. Even accounting for excessive optimism by doubling the

estimate puts the arrival of humanlevel AI only 50 years away.

Once we reach this point, it will likely be too late to exert meaningful influence over how AI is incorporated into our society. This means we need to start planning for it now by adjusting our priorities accordingly.

The incentives for studying disciplines within the humanities are already there if one looks only slightly into the future, and they will only become more apparent in the coming years for the reasons I’ve pointed to. Now is the time to examine our past strategies and learn how we can improve them for the future.

So far in human history we have gravitated toward science and technology as a means of solving our problems, but has this worked? Sure, advances have done incredible t h i n g s for our standards of living, but there are clearly still many things wrong with the world.

This is because developing tools is only one side of solving a problem.

The other is knowing how to use them.

Once we reach the point where computers are capable of humanlevel intelligence, humans will have no place in the labor market. Human intelligence coupled with the power of computers (perfect memory, nearinstant calculative ability, etc.) will make us clear inferiors at almost any task. This represents both a threat and an opportunity. The only way to realize the opportunity and avoid the threat is by vastly increasing our ability to have an intelligent discourse about how we design society.

This can only be done if we reorder our priorities. A return to the

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humanities and liberal arts is the only way we can begin to develop a more holistic framework with which to solve these problems, and this will only become more apparent in the future.

Having reached a culmination of sorts with our technological advancement, we can now begin to address how best to use the unprecedented toolset we have.

As a society, we are only as strong as our weakest aspect, which, as

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evidenced by the easily observed global anxiety and unrest abound today, is clearly our economic and societal structures. Without developing our capability to discuss these topics in a meaningful way, we’ll be stuck with all the drawbacks of our technology, but with only a fraction of its benefits.

There should be room for the study of every subject in our education system. For far too long, we have allowed our decision-making to

be shaped by short term thinking. As we approach the steepest part of the exponential curve of technological development, this approach will no longer be sustainable. As computers advance, humans need to reassess our role in the world. It is only logical that the place for humans will be in the humanities.

Paying the Price for Political Sanity

ast week, I registered for a political party for the first time in my life: The Conservative Party of Canada. After growing up in East Vancouver, in the strongest NDP riding in the country, after attending the alma mater of both Justin Trudeau and Tom Mulcair, and after celebrating Stephen Harper’s ousting as the best thing to happen to Canada since Sidney Crosby’s golden goal, let me explain why I registered as a Tory.

becomes its leader. There are not enough sunny days in Canada for a government to sustain power on nothing but “sunny ways.” Justin Trudeau’s government has an integrity problem – his many broken promises undermine the optimism that holds the Liberal coalition of voters together.

Furthermore, the NDP is currently leaderless, and there are few signs of a serious New Democrat resurgence in the near future, other than the growing disapproval of the Liberals.

The Conservative leadership race As of today, neither the Liberals nor is vital to the future of this country. the NDP have demonstrated the Donald Trump has demonstrated competence needed to fend off the that the left cannot ignore the bigotry angry wave of dejected populism and populism on the right. There popping up in the Western world. is a battle being waged between prudent, pragmatic conservatism What would most young and divisive demagoguery. Pragmatic Americans pay to have anyone but conservatism contributes to a vibrant Donald Trump in the White House democracy; angry populism should be right now? Well, Canada’s going rate, feared and vigilantly fought against. for a one-year Conservative Party The same xenophobic zealotry that membership, costs $15 – not a steep is in power in the United States is price to pay to keep demagoguery out of rearing its ugly head in Canada. The our political system. There is an added CPC vote in May is the first and incentive in registering for the Tory probably best chance Canadians have race: if you live in a traditionally nonto stop its spread. As a Canadian, it is conservative neighbourhood, your my duty to cast my vote in this election. vote matters more to the Conservative I encourage all others with the same Party. Whereas in a general election conviction to do so by 5 pm on March my vote as a progressive urbanite 28th as well. is devalued, in the CPC election my vote carries significantly more weight.

The Conservative Party has a The Conservative Party of Canada’s very real chance of winning the next leadership race rules and procedures federal election, regardless of who

do not count all votes equally. Rather, every electoral district is counted equally. This means that my vote in progressive, urban Montreal counts more than a vote from, say, Central Ontario or Moose Jaw. There is an ethical dilemma in making the decision to register as a Tory: Why do I, as a non-committed Conservative, get to vote for their leader? The simple answer is because I can: There has never been any rule stipulating that a party member is required to vote for their party leader in the general election. Most Canadaloving Tories in my neighbourhood would have voted for the NDP’s Hélène Laverdière in order to keep Gilles Duceppe out of office. However, there is a stronger answer to this question. As a young Canadian, I have the right to demand that all potential prime ministers understand that climate change is real and that the federal government must play a role in combatting it. I have the right to demand that all potential prime ministers understand that Islamophobia must be condemned.

Michael Chong is the only candidate in the Tory race willing to stand up against Islamophobia and support a carbon tax.

Michael Chong can be our saviour from Canadian Trump knockoffs.

While most of the other candidates

OPINION

WINTER 2017

spend their time currying favour with Ezra Levant and company, Michael Chong is standing up for integrity, prudence and pragmatism. This is a candidate who quit the Harper cabinet on principle in late 2006. It was not for a principle I fully endorse, but it demonstrates that, to him, integrity matters more than power.

I have a suspicion that having a reasonable Conservative alternative will force the Liberals into progressive action in a way that a radical opposition will not. In the wake of Trump’s travel ban, the Trudeau government did not take on more responsibility in helping refugees. Trump-ism has bred a case of righteous complacency in the Liberals

Christelle Tessono Opinion Writer

who seem content to simply look good by comparison. If Kellie Leitch were in charge of the Conservative party, there is a strong chance the Liberals might rely too heavily on the fact that they are not a regressive party to curry favour among voters. This is not a formula that meaningfully addresses the problems facing this country, nor one that will lessen the anger driving the populist backlash. I want a viable alternative to the Liberals, so that keeping promises becomes an actual priority in Ottawa.

Registering as a Conservative may be the best way I can use my vote to affect positive change in this country.

This is a vital moment to stand up

for the democratic principles of compromise and consensus building.

It is a time to empower Red Tories, as well as to remember that there is a form of sensible, principled conservatism that is important to a healthy political discourse. To denounce all conservatives is ignorant; yes, there are people with whom we disagree, but we want them to be part of the discussion. We do not want to live in an echo chamber of yes-men and yeswomen. There is currently a fight for the soul of the Conservative Party of Canada; let’s make sure it is won by a candidate with a soul.

On The Place of Black People at McGill (or Lack Thereof )

“Christelle, don’t you think that historically Black colleges and universities in the United States are counter-productive?” a fellow high school classmate once asked me.

All I knew back then was that historically Black colleges and universities had been created in reaction to the American Civil War, which had ended with freed Black slaves. In a nutshell, these institutions helped Black people gain higher education, access to which had often been denied them by historically white institutions. I didn’t understand what the environment of a university was like for Black students in contemporary society, so I replied with a simple, “It’s complicated.”

After my initial experience at McGill, I can say in all fairness that despite the 150 years that have passed since the end of the American Civil War, institutions such as Howard University are a blessing for young Black minds. It’s not complicated at all: As it currently stands, higher education in historically white schools, such as McGill, is simply not equitable.

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We tend to view academia as that violent anti-colonial uprising is this liberal safe space where all can the leading cause of poverty in the share their thoughts free from either ‘developing world.’ It manifests into judgement or punishment – where being held as the representative of minorities, visible and non-visible, all ‘Black people and their nations.’ feel comfortable knowing that they It manifests into having students are accepted. However, reality shows casually ask if your “nice, silky, that universities such as McGill straight hair is real?” (trust me, it has cannot fulfill that sentiment, however happened more than once). And, it hard they may maintain otherwise. manifests into having Black students My experience as a Black student has failing or dropping out due to the demonstrated that these ideals cannot heavy alienation they experience and be realized unless they are being the greater pressures that can lead to acknowledged and remedied by the mental health issues. institution, faculty, professors, and I have more than once in the past students. two semesters discussed with fellow But first off, what is this so-called Black students the dilemma of being Black Experience that I am talking pressured to succeed in a callously about? Well, this experience manifests alienating environment. They sought into seemingly small things, such as help from multiple faculty advisors, a Eurocentric approach to classics yet their anxieties were simply and history. It manifests into having dismissed with the banal rhetoric to a Developing Areas Political Science “suck it up.” professor tell you that the positive The Black university experience consequences of colonialism are transcends the usual idea of “I am the industrialization and development. only Black student in my class.” Rather, It manifests into having curriculums Black students are marginalized by with articles and books produced poor curricula across fields and are solely by white men. It manifests into not represented enough in the faculty having classmates casually confirm

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and by student-run organizations (unless they are explicitly for Black students, such as McGill’s African Students Society and the Black Students’ Network). We cannot put so much weight onto these two specific student-run organizations because Black people alone cannot resolve this issue. It requires the proper integration of this community within higher education.

Paternalistic approaches to education see Black students as the ones who shall educate their fellow classmates about ‘Black problems’ and historical inaccuracies. For example, I vividly remember having to explain to fellow classmates that not all Black people are alike, and that assuming they are a homogeneous group is wrong. The underlying issue with this misconception is not stupidity, but rather an institutionally created ignorance.

These issues cannot solely be blamed on universities such as McGill.

The lower levels of education and Eurocentric curricula often fail to provide a well-rounded understanding of the world. Such failures perpetuate misconceptions that further marginalize minority students. When we are failing to acknowledge the place of peoples of colour in society through biased interpretation of history, we are building societies that perpetuate injustices. The marginalization of

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Black students and other minorities is something that must be addressed by all – as a societal and academic problem.

As a woman of Haitian descent who has had the opportunity to live in South America, I carry with me experiences and knowledge that assert my Blackness. I see in these false assumptions made by students, professors, and textbooks, my inability to break through racism. I am indeed Black, but I am also an aspiring scholar, a woman, a pianist, a cinephile, and so much more. I am tired of waking up every single morning hoping that I won’t be confronted by fallacies made by professors and classmates. Though seemingly unintentionally, this thought consumes me to the point where I have thought of switching schools.

experiences. For example, events such as the latest February Theology Thursday (where trans experience and scholarship is censured under the assumption that “intersex people do not exist”) must simply have no place at McGill. A line must be drawn between fallacy and freedom of speech. Perceiving such topics as merely ‘contentious’ alienates one from historical and scientific truths. It is important to look at things beyond the propaganda pushed by sociocultural, economic, and political biases.

Although McGill has started being more inclusive to Black students, notably by officially holding Black History Month for the first time in 2017, this is not enough.

Regardless of the month of the year, Black people face racism 24/7. Our history and peoples must be told and acknowledged every single day – from properly including us in academic discourse to letting us tell our stories.

I am a Black Woman and I cannot speak for every single marginalized student at McGill. It would not be fair to their struggles. However, it is within my mandate to address my concerns regarding the proper integration of minorities at McGill – and I hope that you help to do so too. Every segment of the McGill community, whether it is the administration, the faculty, the professors, the students or the associations, must actively stand united as one against racism, sexism, ableism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and xenophobia. The inclusion of diversity in academia is essential for the betterment of our society.

We must also understand that a safe space, in the liberal sense, implies freedom of speech to the extent that it does not degrade people and their

It wasn’t long ago that explicit racial theory was part of the curriculum. Let’s not make it too easy to forget.

OPINION

WINTER 2017

Rachel Zaurov Arts & Culture Editor

On Jewish Self-Determination

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n light of Arts Representative Igor Sadikov’s call via Twitter to punch Zionists, an action that prompted the AUS to call for his resignation, debate surrounding the contentious term has resurfaced at McGill. This is not the first time Zionism has been at the forefront of popular conversation on campus, as evidenced by The McGill Daily‘s recent decision to reject pieces that “promote a Zionist worldview.” Given that Sadikov is a former Daily News Editor, it is likely that his statement stems from their shared belief that Zionism is an oppressive movement, or as the Daily’s Editorial Board labels it: “a settler-colonial ideology that perpetuates the displacement and the oppression of the Palestinian people.”

Indeed, many critics of Zionism perceive it to be a mere extension of European colonialism, framing it solely as an imperialist, exploitative ideology geared towards robbing Palestinians of their land. In many academic circles, Zionism is routinely compared to the world’s worst evils, as Sadikov’s decision to equate it with Nazism in his tweet might reflect.

But such an interpretation is intellectually weak, for Zionism is no more a dirty word than feminism.

It is a movement with different interpretations and ideological bents, and as such, a homogenous “Zionist worldview” cannot be theoretically ascertained. Though its existence long predates the establishment of the State of Israel, it has become — on college campuses — an offensive term whose connotation is detached from its historical context and defined exclusively by the worst actions of the Israeli government. Given popular use of the word, people inevitably look at Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and assume it is the overarching motivation of the Zionist project, the

means to the end of total annexation.

In reality, Zionism is simply the belief that Jews should be able to live in and re-establish a national home in part of their ancestral homeland, where they can take refuge from persecution and achieve the selfdetermination and full national belonging that has historically been kept from them. It does not mean that Jews have a right to annex whatever territory they so choose, or that they are superior to Arabs, any more than socialism means endorsing gulags, American patriotism means supporting Trump, or feminism means hating men. Yes, terrible actions have been committed in the name of Zionism, just as atrocities have been committed in the name of countless ideologies, beliefs, and nationalisms— but there is nothing

uniquely intrinsic to Zionism about them.

Both popular and academic comparisons of Zionism to European colonialism prove weak when one examines the historical reality that Jews are a diasporic population originating from the Levant.

Zionism’s founders did not invent the concept of Israel as a Jewish homeland; it has remained an integral component of Jewish identity and thought for thousands of years.

Jews, like the Druze and Yazidis, are an ethno-religious group. They do not exclusively exist as a religious entity, as their identity is also tied to ethnic affiliations rooted in the Land of Israel. This is why Jews are referred to as Semites, and why the term antiSemitism has long been applied to bigotry and prejudice against Jews.

A simple overview of Jewish history is instructive in the contextualization of Zionism. When the Judeans were exiled from the land of Israel/Palestine through a series of expulsions at the hands of the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Romans (from 740 BCE to 70CE), they saw themselves scattered across the Middle East and Mediterranean — hence, the beginning of the Jewish diaspora. Some ended up in Central and Eastern Europe (Ashkenazi Jews), though many ended up in the Iberian Peninsula (Sephardic Jews, though many were subsequently expelled from Spain and Portugal in the 15th century and ended up in North Africa and throughout the Ottoman Empire). Many, however, had already been persistently living in the Middle East for over 2,000 years — ever since the Babylonian expulsion — and over half of the Israeli Jewish population is made up of the descendants of these Mizrahi Jews, as well as those who settled in Arab lands following the Spanish expulsion. “European colonialists” indeed.

Despite being scattered across the globe, the diaspora retained a poignant sense of attachment to its homeland, with the primacy of the Land of Israel long looming large in the collective Jewish consciousness. Perhaps the most potent manifestation of this was the persistent use of Hebrew, the native language of the Judeans, as a lingua franca among Jews throughout millennia in the diaspora. Ashkenazi Jews in Eastern Europe spoke Yiddish, a Germanic language written with Hebrew characters, and similarly, many Jews in North Africa spoke Judeo-Arabic, a dialect of Arabic written in Hebrew. In terms of religion, the Jewish longing for a return to Israel and Jerusalem was professed

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OPINION

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through daily prayers and holiday furthered their exclusive, expansionist towards Jews, but simply towards observances. One such example is vision of Zionism – often relying on Zionists, as if these two groups are the ritual of completing the Passover race-baiting to do so – by claiming mutually exclusive. They tokenize Seder with the phrase, “L’shanah their extreme views to be the only fringe Jewish groups such as the haba’ah b’Yerushalayim” (Next year in “true” interpretation. These groups Neturei Karta and Independent Jerusalem). often deride Jews that are critical Jewish Voices to represent what So while Zionism as an explicit of Israeli state policy as ‘self-hating’ “good Jews” believe in and how “good political movement saw its inception traitors, no better than kapos or Jews” should behave. While McGill in the 19th century, the Jewish Nazis; many far-right Zionists in fact certainly has its fair share of Jews yearning to return to the Land of do a distinct disservice to the Zionist espousing anti-Zionist views, as is Israel dates as far back as Jews project in purporting to be its only real their right, it is in fact expressly not have been living in the diaspora. adherents — much in the same way their right to speak for all Jews when To this end, decrying a diasporic that many jihadists do a disservice they announce that they themselves people’s return to their homeland to Islam by framing themselves as its reject the Jewish connection to Israel. The reality is that out of the as a white colonial imposition fails only true followers.

15 million Jews in the world, almost stunningly to recognize the legitimate Indeed, hardline Israeli 6.5 million of them live in Israel, and origination and attachment Jews government officials like Prime the majority of the other 8.5 million have towards the Levant — not even Minister Binyamin Netanyahu support Israel’s existence and have mentioning the palpable otherness and Education Minister Naftali family and friends who live there. It is with which Europe in particular has Bennett (leader of the religiousunfair to deny their connection to the historically treated its Jews. Nor does Zionist “Jewish Home” party) land that plays such an integral role in it acknowledge the second and third adhere to far-right Zionism, a their religion, culture, heritage, and class ‘citizenship’ Mizrahi Jews were stream that necessitates territorial national consciousness. ascribed under Arab rule, and the fact expansion and invalidates Palestinian that most of these same Arab Jews fled their lands under duress in the 1950s, leaving them stateless with nowhere but Israel to go. The vast majority of modern Israelis descend from refugees from Europe, the Arab world, or both.

peoplehood and autonomy. The same characterization cannot be made of Jewish Israeli opposition figures like Knesset members Zehava Gal-On or Stav Shaffir, leftist Zionists who oppose the occupation and support restorative justice for Palestinians. For Detractors of Zionism point to many individuals, it is their very selfoppressive policies of the Israeli state conception as Zionists that motivates as evidence that Zionism is innately them to boycott goods from West evil. But there is nothing innate Bank settlements. One such example to Zionism about them. Injustice is columnist Peter Beinart, who sees has been committed in the name of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank Zionism, but one can be a Zionist as eroding the goals of the Zionist without condoning Israeli state policy. movement — namely, a Jewish and The one is not inherent to the other, democratic state. The same goes for and there is a whole world of left- Professors Steven Levitsky and Glen wing Zionism in Israel and among Weyl, who argue that their support progressive Jews worldwide that for the Boycott, Divestment, and vehemently rejects the occupation and Sanctions Movement (BDS) is out condemns the state’s abuses against of concern for the long-term future Palestinians — while nevertheless of the state. When both groups selfretaining a connection to the land identify as Zionist, it is manifestly that constitutes a central aspect of the disingenuous to wholly accept the description by the former and not the Jewish cultural imagination. latter.

To be sure, far-right adherents Perhaps it is easy for individuals of Zionism deserve a share of the to smear Zionists because they believe blame for the corruption of the term. that Zionism as an ideology stands Embracing a Revisionist, messianic apart from, or even in opposition to, interpretation of Zionism, right-wing/ Jewish identity.

Many activists claim religious nationalist hardliners have that their actions are directed not

Yes, Zionism can be perceived as oppressive and dangerous even when divorced from Israeli state policy, but to others, it represents a movement of liberation and self-determination.

In reality, Zionism is inherently no better or worse than any other form of nationalism. And like any nationalism, movement, or philosophy, there should be a separation of an ideology from its theoretical and material works. By banning all Zionist viewpoints outright, and failing to distinguish between the various nuanced positions that reside under the ‘Zionist’ umbrella, actions like those of The McGill Daily and Sadikov end up isolating important allies in the fight for two states. Furthermore, when these actions are done in tandem with claiming that Jewish ancestral, religious and cultural links to the Land of Israel are in any way “contested,” they become not only alienating but demonstrable propagations of falsehoods. “Alternative facts” are not what is needed here, and excluding a group based on a reduced understanding of a diverse ideological movement — from a conversation it is strongly impacted by — is reckless, and reflects a delegitimizing agenda.

OPINION

WINTER 2017

Zain Virani Opinion Writer

The Downfall of Spotted, and Why McGill Needs Satire

Spotted: McGill University

The Iconic The McTavish Radish

recognition and appreciation. They are doing what they love - contributing both hilarious and thoughtful content to McGill, all without whining and complaining like myself.

I remember how McGill students 2015-2016. What an academic talked about Spotted: McGill year. The streets were salted, the University back in 2014. Getting samosas were hot, and The McTavish something posted was a feat, but if Radish was continuously pumping a few hundred people liked it, you out fantastic content. From Facebook became a god. It was something you posts to videos, these folks were at the The Harvard of Canada could brag about. It was a way for a forefront of McGill satire’s recent peak.

McGill: The Harvard of Canada. simple freshman to feel validated, be And then, amidst the anticipation Are we deserving of the title? If we are, it for wit, opinion, or shit-posting for the next part of their video series, we should have a McGill equivalent ability. There used to be satirical they graduated. In a quiet, private of The Harvard Lampoon, Harvard posts about happenings at McGill, ceremony among family and friends, University’s famous satirical magazine. confessions of love, and political rants, the geniuses departed for whatever Founded in 1876, the Lampoon is the covering both student politics and comes after convocation. The second-longest continually published real politics. Every once in a while McTavish Radish is what we should humour magazine in the world. It there was even a (failed) attempt at strive to be. “It’s our Rushmore, Max.” also inspired the widely renowned civil discussion. Now, the page has National Lampoon, which reached become a sponsored train-wreck of @spicy_martlet_memes its height of popularity and critical reposts, pictures of text on a white acclaim during the late 70s. background, 9gag, and Tumblr drivel.

Spicy Martlet Memes (found So what exactly happened? on Instagram) is the next Spotted.

Was Spotted passed down to an With more than 1700 followers and inferior admin? Was it sold? Well, counting, they are nowhere near as last semester Spotted conspicuously big, but damned if their content isn’t advertised an event: “The McGill back great. I do not know if the account to school party [sic].’’ After doing a produces any of the content, but they little digging, I found a direct link to take submissions from followers, and Eventbrite’s Montreal homepage from clearly, their filtering is not terrible. I the Spotted page (click the “Shop do not have much else to say, except Now” button on Spotted). Whether that they are doing God’s work and the Spotted admins got paid for an you should follow them. ad spot, sold the page entirely, or are using it to advertise their own event is TVM: Student Television at unknown; what is certain is that the McGill quality of posts has decreased.

Let’s talk about TVM, and why I Of course, it would be unfair to believe they deserve to be a contender place all of the blame for the generic for the status of McGill’s #1 Clown. ‘college meme’ posts crowding the They are trying, which honestly Spotted page on the admin. Students goes a long way in my book. Take a submitting mediocre content and look at the videos on their Comedy accepting sub-par comedy are the page. They are not all great, sure, driving forces behind the decline of a but they have got some hits (‘Jeff ’s once great hub of McGill content.

Shower Thoughts’ and, more recently, At this point, you may be asking ‘The University’ are my personal The list of writers for the Harvard yourself: Is this guy just going to favourites). Unfortunately, whenever Lampoon and the National Lampoon complain for the next 1,000 words? I mention TVM to people, they have include such comedy greats as John And while the answer is partially yes, I no idea what the hell I am talking Belushi, Conan O’Brien, Kristin Gore, am also here to provide you with some about. Like CKUT (yes, we do have a Al Jean, B.J. Novak, Greg Daniels, alternatives. radio station), TVM deserves both our Mike Reiss, and David X. Cohen.

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OPINION

Many of the people in this list, as well as many other Lampoon writers, went on to produce, write for, and create hits including The Simpsons, The Office, Futurama, The Critic, SNL, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Not to mention the fact that Conan O’Brien is one of the most revered talk show hosts of all time, hosting three talk shows over the past twentyfour years. The point is - Harvard produces comics faster than SSMU representatives produce scandals.

McGill could easily become a producer of strong Canadian comedic talent. Hell, Norm MacDonald started his comedy career in Montreal, and his work speaks for itself. We have TVM, McGill Improv, and a handful of amazing student stand-up performers all at our disposal. All we need now is a decently well-known, and wellregarded, campus-wide satirical magazine to throw our resources at and elevate to a level of greatness.

Enter: The Plumber’s Faucet The Plumber’s Faucet, originally The Plumber’s Pot, is a satirical magazine run under the Engineering Undergraduate Society (EUS) of McGill University. The publication has been providing comic relief to McGill students since 1959. Their digital archive can be accessed online, which includes some issues from as far back as 1995. In addition to McGill related satire, they print short stories, comics, poems, and satire on global and local issues.

I reached out to one of the current editors, Daniel Galef, about the publication. The Faucet aims its humor at McGill students as a whole.

“Anyone who can crack a good joke about the McTavish construction hole or draw a comic strip poking fun at austerity” can be published, Daniel says.

I was concerned about the fact that the paper is run by EUS executives and that the paper’s audience would perhaps be limited, but I was

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reassured. According to Daniel, “We are a campus-wide satirical paper […] it was born from the Faculty of Engineering, and that association still colors its tone and sense of humor.

But we have become slightly more general-interest in the past few years to fill the void left by the Red Herring, which folded in 2014. We’ve shifted from an engineering-centric humor magazine competing with a general interest magazine into the only (and best) humor magazine at McGill, publishing both engineering-related and general-interest material alike.”

I also asked Daniel about his hand in McGill Improv and what members of the club could contribute to McGill’s comedy scene. “Part of trying to get new voices into the Faucet has been reaching out to all the disconnected comedy communities around McGill and Montreal – we’ve published people who work with McGill Improv, TVMcGill, campus literary journals, the stand-up comedy community, and other related groups with a lot of creativity that for some reason don’t work together as often as they ought to.”

And Daniel is right. They really don’t work together often, which is what prompted me to write this piece in the first place. I want to see the comedy scenes of McGill come together and bloom into the singular powerhouse of hilarity they could be. In my opinion, The Plumber’s Faucet has the potential to make McGill University a prominent name in Canadian comedy. The Faucet has great artists and writers in its roster, a decent following, printing ability, online archives, and passionate editors.

The ingredients are all there. We just need the dedication and readership of students to stir the pot - maybe add some more alumni support, and baby, you got a stew going!

Please, for the love of all that is funny, pick up a copy of The Plumber’s Faucet soon. Show your appreciation for those who try to bring humour to this dark and cold city. The Faucet can be read online,

but can also be picked up in print in every engineering buildings, Leacock, McLennan Library, Schulich, SSMU, and occasionally other buildings around campus. And if you think you’re funny, contribute by emailing your submission to faucet@mcgilleus. ca. For all you know, this could be the start of a promising career filled with road shows, hotel rooms, and critics telling you you’re copying Louis C.K. Satire: The Next Generation McGill has funny students. I know this because comedy is the product of intellect and timing, and McGill students are definitely… punctual.

That being said, we need to step up our game on the comedy front. Now I know what you may be thinking: who cares about comedy, we have more pressing matters to deal with! Well I’m here to tell you that we can do it all.

The best way to improve as a person, or in this case as a university, is to shine a comedic light on your situation. Poke fun at whatever holds you down, and only then will you find a way to accept it, improve it, or remove it. If we took a critical look at ourselves through a comedic lens, I think we would see that we take ourselves too seriously.

We could use comedy to improve our school, make us laugh, and launch the comedy careers of hidden gems at McGill. I’ve let my rhetoric come dangerously close to something that could be used as a slogan, so I think I’m going to stop here. Basically, what I’m saying is, instead of looking around and seeing tragedy, maybe we can look around and laugh. And maybe that will make things a little better for all of us.

A previous version of the article erroneously stated that the Plumber’s Faucet began providing comic relief since 1984, when in fact, it began as ‘The Plumber’s Pot’ in 1959. The article has since been corrected, and The B&B apologizes for any confusion.

OPINION

WINTER 2017

Frankee Wallace Opinion Editor

A Gender Dispersed

“Women are dispersed... Consumed more inclusive and fair democracy. is merely to point out that they have by the male world, women have no The problem is that, currently, they an opportunity – a chance they are past, no history, no religion and no seem increasingly in short supply. wasting – to fight against the day-tosolidarity and thus no group identity.” Indeed, a lack of intersectionality day discrimination other women and among female politicians has resulted minority groups face.

– Simone de Beauvoir in the alienation of female minorities.

To this end, it is crucial to highlight When I was younger I witnessed Just as they did in the past, more and the efforts of women in power who do an event that instilled in me a love for more privileged women are choosing fight for progressive change. Rona democracy and girl power. My mother, to blatantly disregard issues of class, Ambrose, the interim leader of the after having quite a tough day, had race, and religion.

Shrouded in Conservative Party of Canada, has good reason to not go to the polls and negative rhetoric, with little insight vote in our federal election. I, a child into the lives of the underprivileged, fought for harsher punishment for who did not yet know the importance an unsteady flight has taken off – one perpetrators of sexual assault, and of one’s vote, expected her to put her with tenuous boundaries and one recently lambasted Kellie Leitch’s “Canadian values” test proposal. feet up, relax and not go. But that goal: to incite approval from anger. is not what I remember her doing. I We are faced with the reality, Marine Le Pen, President of the however, that many female politicians, remember her lacing up her boots and driving herself to the voting station, French National Front, has a political while powerful and respectable declaring, “Suffragettes died for their program that rarely mentions gender in that manner, suffocate issues right to vote, I’m not giving up mine.” equality. Kellie Leitch, Canadian minority women face, or even deny politician and Conservative Party A personal love affair soon ensued leader hopeful, has called to reject that women face issues in general. It with suffragettes and their fight for immigrants through harsh screening is entirely understandable why female the right to vote. As I learned more tests, opposing Canada’s tradition of politicians at times fail to push the and more about this topic, though, diversity. Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s discussion of women’s rights; If they the romance soon enveloped other campaign manager, refutes comments were to explicitly identify themselves groups who fought for their right to about Trump’s misogynistic nature as feminists, they would undoubtedly partake in their country’s political simply because he hires many women be less successful in politics. This system. Growing up in Canada, I was like herself. After Margaret Thatcher stigma, however, can end. If the moved by the plight of First Nations, was in power, Britain didn’t see another Women’s March said anything, it said including those living on reserves who female British Prime Minister for 30 that there are, in fact, strong feminist were denied the right to vote until the years, in part because women were voices in politics.

Canada Elections Act of 1960.

Feminism is tough, and you alienated by her platform. Thatcher can’t just jump on the boat by being In this light, it is disheartening elected only one other female to her a woman, or wearing a cute pin that to see women in politics today who cabinet, and in doing so eschewed the says you’re a feminist. You need to refuse to recognize two main things: need for female representation. The work to create change. It is easy the issues they have faced, and the women in Trump’s army of supporters for many white, female politicians different, but in no way separate promise a similar result, and Le Pen, to enjoy the praise of overcoming issues other minorities face in their if elected next year, will surely do the boundaries.

But they cannot, and day-to-day lives. By turning a blind same. must not, stop helping other lesseye, women stifle more inclusive, These women neglect the need to privileged women and groups from budding forms of feminism. Make no establish policy on matters pertaining mistake: Men are equally responsible to immigration, domestic abuse, rape, doing the same. To the women in to address these issues, but women the wage gap, and so on. These are politics that reject the necessity of possess the lived experience of issues that impact certain women feminism and minority rights, but go discrimination that not all (i.e. white) more than others: religious minorities, on to become leaders, you can turn a blind eye all you want, but you may men possess. women of colour, and LGBTQ+ still face injustice. Despite this, I’ll still For this reason, the individuals women. believe in the power of representative who inspire me the most are the This is not to minimize the democracy and feminism. Women, female politicians who use their status achievements of women like Leitch like De Beauvoir said, are dispersed, to effect positive change for those in and Conway, who have themselves not divided. less privileged positions, and push for overcome constraints of patriarchy. It

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