The McGill Daily Vol105Iss10

Volume 105, Issue 10 Monday, November 2, 2015

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Boycott, divestment and sanctions week page 06

Table of Contents 03

November 2, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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NEWS

Mock refugee camp receives backlash Bitcoin at McGill Students help fight food insecurity Peer Support Network to relocate to Shatner building Concordia holds BDS week SPHR holds Palestine 101 workshop

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COMMENTARY

Resistance on slave ships Students deserve mental health support

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Europe’s racism a lesson for Canada

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CULTURE

Problematic band names must stop Kalmunity jazz group is a collective of colour to watch Play inside Royal Victoria Hospital falls short of expectations

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Solidarity with public sector workers

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November 2, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Mock refugee camp event faces backlash

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Student refugee program in need of sustainable funding Ellen Cools News Writer

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n October 23, World University Service of Canada (WUSC) McGill created a Facebook event called “Mock Refugee Camp on Campus at the Y Intersection.” The next day, two McGill students, Sumaya Ugas and Y. Abdulqadir, spearheaded a massive backlash against the concept of a “mock refugee camp,” leading WUSC McGill to change the event’s title to “WUSC McGill Info Station,” and eventually to change the format of the event.

Both Abdulqadir and Ugas are members of the McGill African Students Society (MASS), but acted independently of the organization.

The two students along with Rachel Zellars, a PhD candidate in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education, created a campaign via a Facebook event entitled “No ‘Mock Refugee Camp’ at McGill,” and Ali and Ugas wrote an open letter speaking against the idea of a mock refugee camp, which was signed by 277 people, as of press time.

“We do not condone any event that exoticizes or reduces the complicated, nuanced lived experiences of people who are refugees around the world.”

Statement released by MASS According to WUSC McGill’s Facebook event page, their event was “designed to give an idea of what life is like in a refugee camp as a contrast to our life here in Canada,” with a focus on the Student Refugee Program (SRP), an initative that provides education opportunities for student refugees.

Ugas and Abdulqadir’s open

Information desk set up by WUSC McGill on October 28. letter elaborated on their concerns about the event and ultimately called on WUSC McGill to use different awareness-raising tactics.

“Despite the seemingly noble intentions of WUSC McGill, we find the inaccurate reproduction of often incredibly violent and gendered spaces founded upon colonial and imperial histories to be a cheap falsification of a complex lived experience,” the letter stated.

The letter further explained the writers’ anger and concern regarding WUSC McGill’s decision to later change the name of the event, which they saw as an offensive attempt to placate them.

Many people commenting on the Facebook event brought up the fact that the executive team of WUSC McGill consists of several students supported by the SRP. Nevertheless, Abdulqadir and Ugas wrote they “hold that the opinions and lived experiences of these individuals should not serve as the basis and/or justification for a campuswide awareness event that relies on a mock refugee camp.”

Zellars told The Daily that she supports the analysis presented in the letter. Zellars said, “A refugee camp cannot be reproduced in any realistic or meaningful way, except

to benefit privileged spectators at the voyeuristic expense of those who have been harmed by these spaces.”

“A refugee camp cannot be reproduced in any realistic or meaningful way, except to benefit privileged spectators at the voyeuristic expense of those who have been harmed by these spaces.”

Rachel Zellars, PhD candidate On October 24, MASS released a statement of solidarity, supporting Ugas and Abdulqadir activism and condemning the idea of a mock refugee camp. In the statement, MASS noted that “while we are also

Sonia Ionescu | The McGill Daily committed to increasing the visibility of refugee issues at McGill, we do not condone any event that exoticizes or reduces the complicated, nuanced lived experiences of people who are refugees around the world.”

In a response also released on October 24, WUSC McGill called on MASS “to kindly join hands with us to organize this event by helping us to avoid offensive components, if any.”

On October 26, after meeting with Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) VP University Affairs Chloe Rourke and SSMU Equity Commissioner Marilyn Verghis, WUSC McGill agreed to changing the event to a table with printed information about the SRP. In their final statement on October 27, WUSC McGill stated that “the event’s original description and title were poorly worded, and many well-meaning community members misinterpreted them as implying that we were attempting to romanticize or simulate what it means to be a refugee.” The organization stressed this was never their intent, reiterating that their goal was always to raise awareness for the SRP and its need for funds to continue helping refugee youth

globally, in face of financial strains.

The event was held as scheduled on October 28.

Two similar events organized by local WUSC committees at the University of Saskatchewan and University of Prince Edward Island have taken place in the past month, entitled “Mock Refugee Camp” and “Mock Refugee Camp(us),” respectively, where refugee tents were set up.

The Student Refugee Program At McGill, fundraising for the SRP is done through a non-opt-outable fee of 50 cents established in 1986 and collected from all undergraduate and graduate downtown campus students.

WUSC McGill told The Daily that the SRP “gives two students the chance to study at McGill and get an education that they otherwise wouldn’t have access to each year.”

“This fee, set up in 1986, was supposed to be indexed for inflation. It wasn’t. The cost of living has roughly doubled in the last 30 years, but our fee hasn’t, and we’re about to run out of reserve funds,” WUSC McGill stated. “Barely anyone at McGill had even heard of WUSC until this weekend. We wanted to change that.”

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November 2, 2015 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com

Club attempts to expand use of bitcoins on campus Bitcoins airdropped at OAP Lite

Saima Desai The McGill Daily

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his September during Frosh week, the McGill Cryptocurrency Club (MCC) initiated a “bitcoin airdrop,” handing out paper envelopes with vouchers for bitcoin, a form of digital currency, to be redeemed within three months. According to Michael Gord, a U4 Management student and cofounder of MCC, over $1,000 in bitcoin has been given away to McGill students to date, with around a 50 per cent claim rate.

“Bitcoin is basically two things. [...] It’s a payment technology that allows for quick, cheap, international money transfers that are incorruptible and unhackable. The second thing is bitcoin the currency itself, and that’s the currency that runs on this payment network,” explained MCC co-founder Eric Maurin, a U3 Psychology and Marketing student who works as a broker and consultant at the Montreal Bitcoin Embassy, in an interview with The Daily.

“The airdrops are basically meant as a way to seed some bitcoin into the McGill community, so that when we do have [some] stores accepting bitcoin, people already have something to spend,” Maurin noted.

The MCC began in October 2014, after Gord and Maurin, along with three other students, discovered a mutual interest in Bitcoin. According to Gord, the club has grown from its five founders to over eighty active members in the span of a year.

Invented in 2008, bitcoin reached peak buzz in 2013, and has sincce lost some of its cutting-edge appeal as currency.

Bitcoin was long associated with the online drug marketplace Silk Road, one of the first sites to accept it, and the Guardian reported that the currency briefly plummeted in value after the site was shut down in 2013.

Other recent criticisms were brought up in an article in the Economist, which describes bitcoin as “the latest techy attempt to spread a ‘Californian ideology’ which promises salvation through

A Bitcoin wallet for the iPhone. technology-induced decentralization while ignoring and obfuscating the realities of power – and happily concentrating vast wealth in the hands of an elite.” But members of the MCC insist on its continuing relevance as both data-transfer technology and practical currency.

“The potential price of bitcoin [...] could be up in the couple hundred thousand dollars, if not millions.”

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In a video produced by the MCC, Peg Brunelle, a career advisor at the Desautels Faculty of Management, talks about the benefits of bitcoin’s global usability.

“I think it certainly can take us to the next level, in terms of being a global community,” Brunelle said.

In February, the club also arranged for Gerts to accept bitcoin for the night of their launch party. In April, at Open Air Pub (OAP) Lite, Maurin and Gord distributed free bitcoin to attendees, and Alex Fonseca, one of the cofounders of MCC, accepted bitcoin in exchange for tickets for burgers and drinks.

“So what happens is we would

Sonia Larbi-Aissa | The McGill Daily be sitting there accepting all the bitcoin, then the system actually measures what the price was at the time of the purchase and then we go and pay [OAP] cash at the end of the day [...] valued at the time of the purchase,” explained Maurin.

“It allows the merchant to accept bitcoin without actually holding any bitcoin or being afraid that the value might go up or down.”

Currently, the MCC is pushing for McGill to accept payments in bitcoin for everything from meal plans to student fees.

MCC members highlighted the convenience of bitcoin for international students in particular. “My parents pay hundreds of dollars worth of fees just to send me money for school,” Maurin said. “Parents can send their kid bitcoin, or can send the school bitcoin, and it would totally limit the fees,” added Gord.

In an interview with The Daily, U2 Anatomy and Cell Biology student Madison Luck expressed reservations about the currency. “I don’t really think that I would ever buy bitcoin myself, I don’t really see a benefit to it [over] other, governmentally-backed, currencies,” Luck told The Daily. “However, if someone gave me bitcoin, I would use it.”

Gord has been working on soliciting alumni donations in bitcoin, which are used to finance the airdrops. “The first bitcoin airdrop was at OAP, the second was around McGill [...] and the third airdrop is 99 per cent going to be in Montreal and Toronto – it’ll be a tour. I say in five years, it’s going to be across Canada,” he added.

According to Maurin, in terms of future projects, the MCC aims to get all of the student-run businesses on campus to use the cryptocurrency.

“I don’t really see a benefit to it [over] other, governmentallybacked currencies.”

Madison Luck, U2 student “It tends to be easier to convince them to accept bitcoin because they don’t have to go through a whole process with a company. We’d love to have Subway accept bitcoin but you’re dealing with a much bigger company, a lot of bureaucracy.”

When asked about McGill’s financial incentive to adopt bitcoin, Gord commented, “I’m going to graduate in three months and I’m going to donate to McGill as an alumnus in bitcoin.”

“If they accept donations in bitcoin and they hold it in bitcoin [...] the potential price of bitcoin could be up — we say this, and people don’t take it seriously — but it could be up in the couple hundred thousand dollars, if not millions, per bitcoin.” Currently, approximately 14 million bitcoins exist in the world, but the quantity is permanenly capped at 21 million.

News

November 2, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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Trick or Eat raises awareness about food insecurity on campus McGill Food Systems Project to conduct research by end of year

Vincent Simboli The McGill Daily

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etween October 28 and 30, McGill Food Systems Project (MFSP) collected non-perishable food items on the McGill downtown campus, in partnership with The Yellow Door as part of a nationwide Trick or Eat food donation campaign.

According to the event’s description on Facebook, the food collected was donated to The Yellow Door, a non-profit organization located in the Milton-Parc neighbourhood, which offers a food bank for low-income students to receive free groceries anonymously.

In an email to The Daily, Adam Pietrobon, a U3 Biochemistry student and an events coordinator at MFSP, highlighted the severity of food insecurity in Montreal.

“According to Moisson Montreal (a food distribution organization), there is $61 million worth of food distributed annually across 250 different community organizations in Montreal,” said Pietrobon. “Monthly, 140,000 people in Montreal receive food assistance,

with 40,000 of those individuals being children. Food insecurity is still most definitely an issue in our local community.”

According to Monica Allaby, a U1 Geography student and marketing coordinator at MFSP, the initiative has collected non-perishable foods through multiple yearly events since MFSP’s inception in 2008. This year, Allaby says the initiative is shifting its policy to focus on supporting applied student research projects with community engagement initiatives.

In an email to The Daily, Allaby explained that MFSP is “hoping to collaborate with a number of other student organizations and groups on the McGill campus and in the larger Montreal community, as we are all working toward common goals and can benefit greatly from sharing our knowledge and experiences.”

The Daily also spoke with Laurence Bertrand, a U4 Economics student and internal manager at MFSP, at the beginning of the campus food drive on October 28.

Bertrand explained that a key challenge MFSP faces is “reaching out

to parts of the student population that don’t know much about food sustainability or food insecurity.”

“Usually, we have events that will attract all environment students, or people who are already part of the ‘sustainability bubble,’” Bertrand added.

Allaby and Bertrand explained that The Yellow Door often receives donations that “nobody eats, such as artichokes, jam, and jell-o, which is not helpful at all.” They said that the ideal non-perishable donation to a food pantry is something that is nutritious and versatile, such as canned beans, sauces, and pastas.

Allaby stressed to the Daily that “these items should also be easy to prepare, as a person’s ability to access food may coincide with their ability to prepare those foods.

Canned vegetables, soup, and chili are all great options.”

“There have been several studies conducted across Canadian campuses called ‘Hunger Reports,’ which assess food insecurity within the university population,” wrote Pietrobon. He cited the Ryerson 2015 Hunger Report, which found that 422 people in Ryerson univer-

Sonia Ionescu | The McGill Daily sity experienced food insecurity. A total of 2,528 visits to the Ryerson Good Food Centre for emergencyrelated food relief took place within the year.

“For McGill, the MFSP is currently in the progress of conducting a Hunger Report, which we hope to release by the end of the year,” noted Pietrobon.

According to Pietrobon, a similar Hunger Report released at the University of Saskatchewan found

that 28.6 per cent of students experienced food insecurity, while a study at Acadia University in Nova Scotia found the rate to be 38.1 per cent.

Allaby told the Daily that later in this semester, MFSP will be collaborating with the Groupe de recherche et d’intérêt en développement durable et en agriculture urbaine (GRIDDAU) at the Université de Montréal to host a film screening and panel discussion on issues relating to student food security.

Peer Support Centre to relocate to permanent space

Space for mental health support to operate out of Shatner fourth floor Marina Cupido The McGill Daily

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fter months of consultation with the Peer Support Centre (PSC) and other mental health organizations on campus, Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) executives have developed a proposal to create a permanent space in the Shatner building dedicated to mental health.

The PSC, formerly known as the Peer Support Network (PSN), was until recently a student group on campus without any affiliation to McGill or to SSMU. This September the PSC applied to become a SSMU club and was granted interim status. The PSC will be eligible for full club status in January.

SSMU VP Clubs & Services Kimber Bialik outlined the plan in an email to The Daily: “As of right now, we are proposing Rooms 429 and 430 on the fourth floor of the SSMU Building as the ‘Mental Health Space.’ […] We intend for Room 429 to be a

space where student groups can offer group support sessions, [while] Room 430 would focus on direct resource provision, including informational resources and peer support.”

“The proposal for this room includes renovations that would create two smaller segments of the room that could be used for private one-onone support sessions that could be operated by the Peer Support Centre or a similar group,” Bialik added.

The renovations should cost roughly $30,000, Bialik explained, with the necessary funds to be provided through grants. Bialik and VP University Affairs Chloe Rourke, who has also been heavily involved in the project, hope to see the proposal brought to SSMU Legislative Council by the end of November.

The proposal is in accordance with a motion passed at SSMU Council on April 9 that strengthened SSMU’s ties with the PSC, and mandated the VP Clubs & Services and VP University Affairs to “prioritize the creation of a permanent, physical

space in the SSMU building dedicated to mental health,” consulting with relevant student organizations in the process. It also fulfills part of SSMU’s Mental Health Five-Year Plan.

At the moment, the PSC operates out of four different locations on campus: the McGill Office of Religious and Spiritual Life (MORSL), the Strathcona Music Building, University Hall, and McGill Mental Health Service (MMHS), using each space for three or four hours per week.

“We’re really trying to become more available for students,” said Quinn Ashkenazy, U3 Psychology student and the chair of PSC, in an interview with The Daily. “Not having a more permanent, central location [is a problem], because it gets really confusing with multiple hours and multiple locations. Sometimes you just want to talk to someone [right away] but wait, where are they? They’re over here, they’re over there.”

The bottom line, said Ashkenazy, is that “there shouldn’t be barriers to accessing peer support.”

Ashkenazy pointed to other Canadian campuses where such arrangements already exist. “For example, [at] the University of Alberta, on an average day, their peer support program could see between seven and eight people,” she said.

Bialik emphasized, however, that the proposed space would not belong exclusively to the PSC, but would be shared by other mental health groups on campus. “The proposal as it currently stands tries to make this space as multi-purpose as possible,” wrote Bialik.

The creation of a student-run mental health space comes amid criticism from SSMU clubs regarding Bialik’s decision to convert club office spaces on the fourth floor of the Shatner building into bookable spaces.

“The old club office structure provided benefit to very few groups, and the elimination of that outdated system provided an opportunity to create more multi-purpose space on the fourth floor that can benefit a far greater number of people,” Bi-

alik said. “A ‘Mental Health Space’ is an excellent example of the kind of space that has a wider benefit and has significant student support.”

Indeed, many students have voiced concern in recent years over long wait times required in order to see a specialist at MMHS, which can last up to five months, as reported by The Daily. Earlier this month, Nancy Low and Giuseppe Alfonsi, clinical directors at MMHS, had told The Daily about their intention to encourage peer-to-peer mental health initiatives, in order to relieve pressure on clinical staff.

Asked about the long-term efficiency of this plan, Ashkenazy responded with enthusiasm.

“I think it’s the most sustainable way to proceed,” she said. “To start building communities of support on campus with peer-to-peer [support], I think that’s really empowering. And often, I think if you can start to talk about things early, it gets to the stage where maybe you don’t need a professional.”

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November 2, 2015 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com

First BDS Week held at Concordia A look at the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement at Concordia and McGill

Cem Ertekin The McGill Daily

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etween October 26 and 30, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) Concordia organized a week-long campaign dedicated to raising awareness about the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

BDS Week was the first of its kind at Concordia, and featured speakers such as Kanien’kehá:ka activist Clifton Nicholas, human rights attorney and activist Noura Erakat, and Palestine-based independent journalist Dan Cohen. The week also featured musical performances by Saeed Kamjoo, Julien Ottavi, and JKPickett as part of the Howl! fall event series.

Last year, between November 25 and 27, Concordia students passed a referendum that asked students, “Do you approve of the [Concordia Students’ Union (CSU)] endorsing the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel?”

The initial draft of the question included “until Israel complies with International Law and Universal Principle[s] of Human Rights,” but this section was removed by the CSU Judicial Board prior to the referendum.

According to Rami Yahia, a member of SPHR Concordia, the availability of funding from the CSU for Concordia’s BDS Week is a direct result of last year’s ‘yes’ vote.

The week also coincided with the one year anniversary of

the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Fall General Assembly (GA), where students voted to indefinitely postpone a motion calling on SSMU to stand in solidarity with the people of the occupied Palestinian territories. The motion was brought up in response to Operation Protective Edge, launched by the Israeli military in Summer 2014.

Later in March, another motion proposed by SPHR concerning divestment from companies profiting from the illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories was defeated.

Some students opposed the motion on the grounds that it was allegedly affiliated with the BDS movement.

Abdulla Daoud, another member of SPHR Concordia, explained that the SSMU motion was not concerned with standing in solidarity with the BDS movement, but rather with specifically divesting from companies.

“We know [SPHR McGill], we work closely with them. They’re very strong and passionate people.

We believe that there is really no difference as far as what happened at McGill and what happened at Concordia – only as far as how the structure is,” Daoud told The Daily.

“We had a referendum vote where all the students could participate, whereas at McGill, [the GA included just] whatever students decided to show up to that [GA], on that particular time on that particular day, [when there] was a snowstorm.”

Michael McCauley, a member of SPHR McGill, said, “We had, I

think, more difficulty with motivating people to come out and walk through the snow to get there. Whereas, there was more motivation from the people who were mobilizing against us, despite the fact that I really do think that there is a lot more sympathy toward [the] Palestinian cause than was reflected at that particular GA.” Criticism of BDS In an email to The Daily, Hillel McGill President Rayna Lew argued that the BDS movement is reductive.

“BDS simply does not create an academic space for discussion on the conflict, peace, or resolution. [...] The movement polarizes the issue and does not invite nuanced discussion from either side,” Lew said.

Jordan Devon, a U2 Political Science student, agreed with Lew, stating that BDS supporters fail to understand the complexities of Israeli society. Although Devon is co-president of Israel on Campus (IOC), his statement was not made on behalf of the organization. “For this fundamental reason, the BDS movement is failing to achieve its goal, particularly to inflict enough pressure on Israeli society so that its government will abolish certain policies pertaining to the Palestinians,” said Devon.

Devon also expressed that it is possible to be critical of the BDS movement and the Israeli state at the same time. “Being pro-Israel or Zionist is not a monolithic identity; it is not confined to supporting the current Israeli government or the settlement program; it is not manifested

Concordia BDS Week. through blindly defending every action undertaken by Israel,” he said.

But according to Daoud, “[BDS is] the most non-violent and peaceful way a person in North America can aid in resisting the occupation that occurs right now in the West Bank and Gaza. It’s very diplomatic, very concise, very strong, and very easy to do.”

McCauley explained that the BDS movement adopts a human rights – based approach. “There is

Sophie Jean | Photographer generally a pretty broad consensus [that] BDS in Palestine [...] doesn’t exist for support for political parties or support for a one- versus two-state solution.”

“So, as I see it, despite any sort of criticism that you may have of the ultimate goals of BDS, [...] it’s something that you nevertheless have a responsibility to support because it’s a direct call that was made by the Palestinians themselves,” McCauley stated.

Palestine 101 workshop talks BDS

McGill student solidarity group focuses conversation on human rights Saima Desai The McGill Daily

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n October 28, Students in Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) McGill presented a workshop entitled “Palestine 101: Intro to Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.” The event was organized as part of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Week at Concordia, and was the only event held by SPHR McGill.

The speakers were Melis Çagan, Ralph Haddad (former Daily editor and a current director on the Board of the Daily Publications Society), and Michael McCauley, three members of SPHR McGill.

The workshop began with a brief overview of the occupation and the plight of Palestinians living in Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, and the diaspora, respectively. The overview, presented by McCauley and Haddad, described the blockade and

military assaults on the Gaza Strip, instances of police brutality against Palestinians, and the Israeli West Bank Barrier, also known as the Wall.

“This blockade of the Strip has prevented the reconstruction of homes that have been demolished in previous military assaults against the region, and have also virtually destroyed the Gaza economy,” McCauley said. “There is [...] a 43 per cent unemployment rate in the Strip – that is the result of both the blockade and these repeated military assaults.”

The presentation included footage showing Palestinian refugee camps being demolished by the Israeli state, as well as analysis of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, with a focus on the 1993 and 1995 Oslo Accords, and the 2000 Camp David negotiations.

“The problem with these peace talks [is] that they’re very asymmetrical. They lean more toward Israel’s

side than the Palestinian side,” said Haddad. “They also assume that both parties are equal and they have the same to bring to the negotiation table, which is inherently wrong. You can’t sit down at a table with your oppressor and talk about an equal exchange that will happen between you.”

The visual presentation displayed the three demands of the BDS call: “Ending [the Israeli state’s] occupation and colonization of all Arab lands [occupied in June 1967] and dismantling the Wall; recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and respecting, protecting, and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties, as stipulated in [United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194].”

“Because there is no constant stance in Palestine about a one-state or two-state solution, by focusing BDS on having [human] rights, [since]

there’s a general consensus on what rights people should have [...] it’s easier for people from different political views to take part in it,” noted Çagan. Çagan concluded the presentation by discussing the relative success of international calls for BDS, which began in 2004 with a Palestinian campaign for academic boycott. Recent successes of the BDS movement worldwide include the French multinational infrastructure company Veolia selling its shares in the consortium that runs Jerusalem Light Rail as well as the global mobilization to divest from G4S, a British multinational security company that provides security equipment and supplies to Israeli prisons in the West Bank.

Following the presentation, participants brought up questions comparing boycott and divestment tactics used to end South African apartheid in the 1980s and 1990s and BDS against Israeli apartheid today.

Discussion also centered on McGill’s role in the BDS movement. McGill has investments in G4S as well as Re/ Max, a real estate company that sells properties in Israeli settlements.

Liza Riitters, a U1 Political Science student who attended the workshop, noted that while many students she knew were in support of the Palestinian cause, many others at McGill did not support divestment. “I was here last year when they were trying to [divest from the occupation of Palestinian territory], and so many people were saying ‘Oh, the university shouldn’t have an opinion,’” said Riitters.

Ayesha Talreja, a U3 International Development student and member of SPHR McGill said, “Neutrality in this case means complicity with the oppressor, and I think this attitude needs to change if we are ever to make any strides in standing in solidarity with the liberation struggles of [the Palestinian] people.”

Commentary

November 2, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Defiance on deck

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Slave ships and the politics of resistance Nadir Khan Shadows of Slavery Warning: This article contains potentially triggering descriptions of violence.

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t was eight months after being kidnapped by slave catchers, in what is now Nigeria, before the young Olaudah Equiano caught sight of the towering slave ship that would transport him across the Atlantic Ocean.

According to his 1789 autobiography, he was “greatly astonished,” and was quickly convinced that he “was in a world of bad spirits.” He was somewhat right in his assessment. An Atlantic slave ship was certainly a site of human suffering and depravity, but it was equally a place of defiant resistance – the type that forces us to pause when reflecting on resistance in the world today.

The scene below the decks of a slave ship was a grisly one.

Captured people lay shackled and packed tightly side by side in small compartments. Equiano, whose autobiography was the first published account of the Middle Passage from Africa to the Americas and was widely read across Europe, described the conditions on the ship that carried him.

“The stench of the hold while we were on the coast was so intolerably loathsome [...] now that the whole ship’s cargo were confined together, it became absolutely pestilential. The closeness of the place and the heat of the climate [...] almost suffocated us.

This produced copious perspiration, so that the air soon became unfit for respiration from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness amongst the slaves, of which many died.”

“This wretched situation was again aggravated by the galling of the chains [...] and the filth of the necessary tubs, into which the children often fell, and were almost suffocated. The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole scene of horror almost inconceivable.”

All this was the backdrop to the disorientation and grief amongst the captured. Siblings, parents, children, and friends had been left

Rahma Wiryomartono | Illustrator behind. The familiarity of community quickly became a faded memory as strange white men yelled and gestured unintelligibly while brandishing all manner of weaponry.

What world had they entered?

It was from this nightmare that the ethic of slave resistance precariously emerged. As American historian Marcus Rediker desribes in his book The Slave Ship: A Human History, finding a means of communication was key. Enslaved people quickly created pidgins – temporary, makeshift languages – to bridge the linguistic divides amongst the diverse array of West African languages on board. These pidgins gave birth to new ties of kinship, and laid the foundations for coordinated resistance.

The hunger strike was one tactic employed consistently throughout the transatlantic slave trade. Already intensely malnourished, enslaved people spat out food, at times refusing to eat for days at a time. The hunger strike was an act that directly challenged a captain’s authority by re-asserting enslaved people’s own agency and snatching back their hu-

manity. The slave ship captain was suddenly faced with a stark choice: to change the treatment of those onboard, or suffer a loss of ‘capital.’

Others, however, engaged in the most dangerous and risky act of all – violent insurrection, which involved numerous hazardous steps: surreptitious late-night planning, escaping from shackles, somehow using knives (or nothing at all) to battle sailors armed with muskets, all in the hopes of reaching the weapons locker (deliberately located on the far end of the vessel) and taking control of the ship.

These modes of struggle are even more astounding given that the slave trade was designed in every way to prevent resistance of any kind. A physical barrier divided the centre of the ship and a cannon constantly faced slave quarters. Fetters, clasps, neck rings, chains, spikes, and other purposely built technological objects were routinely used to constrain and torture enslaved people. Yet, they consistently resisted in the face of this hell, and often in violent ways.

Today, the prevailing para-

digm sees violent resistance as unseemly – too confrontational and direct for even the most liberal sensitivities. While few would condemn enslaved people for their resistance, modern liberal rhetoric demands that oppressed people protest in ‘the right way,’ engage in ‘constructive dialogue,’ and generally follow the tricky doctrine of nonviolence, even in the face of violent oppression.

This optic encourages, for example, one to admonish Ferguson protesters for destroying property and Black Lives Matter activists for disruptive tactics, while in the same breath remaining silent on the social misery brought about by the militarized police and the carceral state, or the legacy of segregation in the Jim Crow South and a hundred years of Klan lynchings. It is language that both binds and forgets, that dictates and condescends.

Although the paradigm of respectability and non-violence may seem reasonable at first glance, in reality, it simply draws a line around permissible forms of re-

sistance in order to fit the needs of those who oppress, and ease the insecurities of those who sit idly by as blatant injustice unfolds.

They tell oppressed people to wait for their oppressors to benevolently recognize their humanity. In this way, to demand that resistance be acceptable to the liberal framework is to demand that people set aside their intrinsic agency and inherent right to self-determination.

The history of slavery reveals that resistance is an organic and bottum-up process that does not wait for recognition. It is spurred on by those who are most acutely aware of the particular web of injustice that they are entangled in, and who thus know the best way out. To try and dictate how people resist, then, is to misunderstand the nature of the act itself.

Shadows of Slavery is a column that seeks to remember the history of slavery in the Atlantic World and to examine how this history manifests itself today. Nadir Khan can be reached at shadowsofslavery@ mcgilldaily.com.

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Chasing mental health at McGill

The University should be accountable for student well-being Paniz Khosroshahy Commentary Writer Warning: this article contains potentially triggering descriptions of suicidal ideation.

“

I think I’m suicidal,” I told the front desk staff after I finally brought myself to the McGill Mental Health Service (MMHS) during reading week last March.

Except for long naps and taking too much Advil and Tylenol, this is one of my only memories from last spring. I was instructed to fill out a form by one staff member while another was laughing at a joke someone had told.

I was asked a variety of questions in triage to determine the severity of my suicidal ideation. At the end of the assessment, the doctor said I could go home. I asked what would happen if I tried to killed myself before my next appointment rolled around.

“Go to the nearest hospital,” she said.

Then she left because another student was waiting for her.

That day, I contemplated throwing myself in the middle of Rene Levesque or jumping off of a bridge onto the Ville-Marie Expressway.

But I didn’t, somehow. Somehow I made it home that day. Somehow I made it to that next appointment and survived last spring. But I was lucky; not everyone does.

The Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) position, currently occupied by Ollivier Dyens, has the goal of “advancing the quality of student life and learning at all levels.”

In response to concerns raised at a PGSS Council meeting in May about the inability of the MMHS to meet demand, Dyens said, among other explanations and deflections, “We are not a hospital.”

I’m not sure what would have happened to me had I not been in Montreal over the break and able to access the MMHS with a wait time of days instead of months, as there were more vacancies than usual. That is why I literally stopped what I was doing and sobbed when I saw the quote from Dyens in a recent news article published by The Daily. I would like to give the administration the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps the administrators of our school are just unaware of the prevalence of mental health issues on campus that make these services so very essential. So, I would like to give a few examples.

A friend of mine lost her counselling privileges because her counsellor graduated. (Because counselling is about the psychology students in training, not those in need of care, right?) She had to fill out the forms again to get on the

McGill Mental Health Services. waitlist for a new counsellor.

Another friend eventually dropped out of university after six months of seeing a different counsellor at each visit.

Another friend, although in care, is unsatisfied with their emotionally abusive, misgendering, homophobic psychiatrist, but would rather hang on to this psychiatrist than risk not receiving care at all.

Another friend was never able to get an appointment with MMHS despite repeated promises of receiving a call, and eventually opted to take on the financial burden of seeing a private therapist instead.

Another friend was directed by a psychiatrist to the Counselling Service, which she didn’t find helpful at all.

The stories I tend to hear, like the ones above, are from people who are comfortable openly discussing their mental health, those who have overcome the stigma of accessing mental health support and do reach out.

Many do not. Many suffer silently.

This can be the case for a variety of reasons. For example, mental health is an incredibly gendered issue: men are less likely to seek help for mental health issues due to constructions of masculinity that demand for them to be ‘tough’ and stifle their emotions.

Furthermore, there is a lack of continuity between MMHS and other university authority figures and services that makes handling the fallout of mental health problems difficult and intimidating. It doesn’t

Arianee Wang | The McGill Daily matter how sick we are, we still have to perform the emotional labour of pleading and begging with professors to give us just two more days, one more week, so maybe we can get ourselves together to hand in our papers and write our midterms. And when we can’t do this and seek withdrawal, we have to discuss it and justify it all over again at Service Point.

When I went to Service Point to withdraw from two courses last year, I was condescendingly told that I should “keep in mind late withdrawal is a serious matter and my requests for further withdrawals will likely be denied.” As if I wanted to withdraw, as if being disappointed with myself for having wasted tuition money wasn’t enough, as if the struggle to finally bring myself to put my mental health over academics was a choice I had made lightly.

But why is there so much demand for mental health support that Dyens feels the need to differentiate our school from a hospital in the first place?

McGill is hard! As much as we tend to dismiss this after we are accepted into university, save for venting during finals, it’s true – McGill is a high-pressure, very competitive academic environment that can be particularly harsh on students. Even harder than McGill is the struggle that comes after: navigating a ruthless job market filled with nepotism.

If we dare dream of a job somewhat relevant to our degrees after graduation, we need to be superstars: chase

those 4.0 GPAs, be a club president, do research for our professors, complete unpaid internships. Add to this the fact that many of us are facing a new and challenging academic environment while far from our families and support systems in a new city, or, for many, in a new country. We may be going through culture shock, trying to learn a new language, or adjusting to living in university residences; trying to ‘adult’ for the first time is challenging. While the McGill experience demands excellence from those who pursue it, it doesn’t reciprocate with the same calibre of support for those who struggle.

Instead, we are kindly reminded that our university is not a hospital.

Going to a hospital, as seems to be a popular suggestion, is no easy task. For roughly two-thirds of us, attending university in Quebec means having to navigate a new healthcare system. That can be challenging, especially for international students new to the Canadian medical establishment, but also for other international students or out-of-province students, since most healthcare facilities do not accept out-of-province healthcare cards – Quebec has no reciprocal healthcare agreement with other provinces, meaning outof-province insurance holders often have to pay upfront and file a claim afterward. Additionally, the French language barrier can make it more difficult for some students to communicate their needs to off-campus mental health service providers.

Seeking mental health care and accepting one’s mental illness can be a scary thought in itself, and not being able to reach this care in a more familiar, student-friendly setting – which is largely funded by our own student fees – only impedes access for students who are already struggling. I, for one, can tell you that it would have probably taken me a much longer time to access the care I needed if I had to navigate a less familiar and more expensive healthcare system.

So I’d like to tell Dyens that McGill shouldn’t have to be a hospital to provide sufficient mental health resources to students. There are simply too many of us on antidepressants, there are too many of us struggling day to day to survive. If this isn’t a crisis worthy of additional funding and resources, I don’t know what it is. The underlying message in saying “We are not a hospital” – that McGill’s students shouldn’t expect more – is excruciatingly offensive to those of us who cannot even remember what a good day looks like. So long as McGill refuses to acknowledge its responsibility for the well-being of its students, short of accessing private care or dropping out, we have no choice but to struggle to somehow survive in a broken system.

Paniz Khosroshahy is a U2 Women’s Studies and Computer Science student. To reach her, email paniz.ksy@gmail.com.

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Learning from history

Canada must take heed to avoid a surge in anti-immigrant violence James Sharma Commentary Writer

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n October 17, mayoral candidate Henriette Reker was stabbed in the neck during a campaign stop in Cologne, Germany. The perpetrator, a 44-yearold unemployed man, was furious about Reker’s support for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s migration policy, which involves admitting 800,000 asylum seekers into Germany this year. Germany has already seen nearly 500 attacks on migrants this year, eclipsing the 198 attacks recorded in 2014.

Meanwhile, the U.S. presidential campaign has also been the site of xenophobia and racism.

As Canada prepares to process an increased number of Syrian refugees following the election of a Liberal government, political leaders and citizens would do well to remember that Canada is not immune to racist ideology and must take steps to prevent similar surges in violence.

The attacks on migrants in Europe reflect a wider sentiment of xenophobic tension and insecurity that has bolstered neo-nationalist parties across the continent. In October, national conservative parties received the most votes in parliamentary elections in Poland and Switzerland. Austria’s far-right Freedom Party received 30 per cent of the vote in the Vienna city council election, while in Greece, the neo-nazi Golden Dawn was the only party to achieve a higher per-

centage of votes in the September national election than in the previous one.

Additionally, 10,000 people gathered in Dresden, Germany, at the end of October to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Islamophobic Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident (PEGIDA) movement, and a group of right-wing extremists were detained in Bavaria for attempting to smuggle weapons for a potential attack on Halloween. Still, perhaps the most prominent name in neonationalist politics remains Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s nationalist and conservative National Front, whom many view her as a potential dark horse in France’s upcoming 2017 elections.

While many of these parties have existed for decades, the economic crisis and the migrant crisis combined to fuel support for anti-immigrant platforms. Europe has yet to recover from the debt crisis of 2009 with unemployment remaining high, reaching over 20 per cent in Greece and Spain, higher still for youth. Although most refugees are civilians attempting to escape war zones, such as Syria and Iraq, opponents of immigration have framed the crisis as an attempt by economic migrants to compete for scarce jobs. The rightwing UK Independence Party (UKIP), for instance, couples its economically liberal proposals with right-wing nationalism and calls for reduced immigration.

The potential threat of such

xenophobic scapegoating is, in essence, that the reactionary behaviour we see from these political leaders today is no different from that of the European fascist parties during the interwar years.

This misguided rhetoric is a major contributing factor to the increased violence against migrants across Europe.

At the same time as Europe’s neo-nationalist surge, our American neighbours are experiencing a pivotal xenophobic moment of their own. The leading Republican nominee Ben Carson has publicly denounced Muslims running for the presidency. Likewise, his closetrailing opponent Donald Trump has made headlines with his racist comments, labelling Mexicans “criminals” and “rapists.” These direct attacks are galvanizing an anti-immigrant constituency most prominent in the American Midwest and South, and have directly led to acts of violence, such as the beating of a Hispanic homeless man by two men in Boston last August, one of whom said he was “inspired” by Trump.

In some ways, the situation in Canada is similar to that in Europe.

Canada is currently in an economic recession, and the youth employment rate is at its lowest level since 2009. And parallel to the Republican presidential candidates in the U.S., the Conservative Party and the Bloc Québécois used racist rhetoric surrounding the niqab during the last election, which has also led to acts of Islamophobic vio-

Sarah Meghan Mah | Illustrator lence. Though the Conservatives’ electoral gamble was ultimately unsuccessful, the racist elements of Canadian society to which they appealed remain in place.

Justin Trudeau’s commitment to accept 25,000 Syrian refugees is certainly an improvement over the Conservative policy of fearmongering, but Canada should accept an even greater number of refugees. In doing so, we must be careful not to repeat Europe’s mistakes; political leaders and citizens alike need to be consciously active in combatting racist rhetoric and ideology. Opportunistic politicians can exploit disenfranchised youth that feel disconnected from the political system and angry about their economic prospects, and scapegoat immigrants as the reason for their precarious

economic position. This can be avoided only if we call out racist rhetoric every time we hear it.

By reflecting on the circumstances and political tactics that have led to the rise of the nationalist far-right in Europe, the effectiveness of racist rhetoric in the U.S., and the ensuing violence toward migrants, Canadians should be able recognize the warning signs in their own country. The underlying conditions required for a surge in xenophobic violence are present – we must reject lazy scapegoating and resist attempts by opportunistic leaders to capitalize on racist sentiments.

James Sharma is a Continuing Studies student. To reach him, email james.sharma@mail.mcgill.ca.

Dump your skewed priorities

The St. Lawrence waste water dump is a mark of incompetent governance Marc Cataford The McGill Daily

I

n late September, the City of Montreal announced that 8 billion litres of waste water would be dumped in the St. Lawrence river to empty one of the city’s sewer collectors, clearing the way for highway restructuring work. The dump, which was meant to start on October 18 and last for a week, gathered so much opposition and criticism after it was announced that mayor Denis Coderre stopped it to re-examine the project. However, he put it back on track two days later.

Not only did news of the dump read like satire, but David Heurtel, Quebec’s Minister of Sustainable Development, the Environment, and the Fight Against Climate

Change, supported the project, saying that though “far from ideal,” it was acceptable. A few days before the projected start of the dump, Leona Aglukkaq, the federal Minister of Environment, finally halted the project, mandating three independent experts to analyze its environmental impact.

The St. Lawrence river isn’t just used for marine sports, but is also used for fishing and is a source of raw water for treatment facilities providing drinking water to municipalities. It is absurd that the idea of dumping untreated waste into the river would seem reasonable given the river’s many critical uses. However, according to Coderre, similar dumps have occurred in the past decade – a practice that seems not only irresponsible coming from people supposed to look out for our

well-being, but also short-sighted.

The impact of polluting a body of water that directly surrounds us, where we catch fish to be eaten and get our drinking water, is not an acceptable price to pay for road work.

The fact that Coderre and Heurtel had originally deemed the dump to be “acceptable,” saying that, according to their research, it wouldn’t have a significant impact, only adds insult to injury. What’s more, the federal government deflected its own responsibility to make the call about the acceptability of the dump, as Environment Canada has its own environmental scientists on staff who are able to advise it. Mandating a panel of experts to pick up the slack of the municipal and provincial governments was an easy way to score political points during an election, delaying

the process without actually committing to halting the project.

At this point, it goes without saying that none of these officials, as pompous as their titles may seem (Minister of Sustainable Development, the Environment, and the Fight Against Climate Change is quite a mouthful), have shown themselves trustworthy enough to make decisions that affect the health of everyone in the area around Montreal and the wellbeing of those in municipalities further down the St. Lawrence’s stream. To this day, Coderre is fighting against the federal government’s interruption of the project and has expressed his desire to go forward with it, despite knowing that tens of thousands of people are opposed to it.

The handling of the situation

at the provincial level dispels any semblance of competence our current Liberal government might have had: Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard gave Heurtel his “total” trust in the matter and stands by his decision. Such careless decisionmaking shows that the well-being of the people of Quebec is nowhere near the top of this government’s priorities. We need to make our voices heard and cut through the bullshit – we can’t accept a government that chooses to prioritize roadwork over our health and the integrity of our living space.

Marc Cataford is a Web editor at The Daily, but his opinions here are his own. To contact him, email web@mcgilldaily.com.

This article was previously pubished online.

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Beyond the Binaries Revisiting the third gender in Hinduism Article By: Anya Sivajothy Visual by: Vaishnavi Kapil

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he first time – and one of the only few times – I ever saw a Tamil Hindu trans character was in an Indian TV show that my parents had always watched when I was younger.

Her name was Ganga, a villain that was caught up in the high stakes melodrama of the show Arase. Ganga was merciless. She swung her long thick hair whenever she laughed sinisterly and only had a soft spot for her neglected wife, whom she had married before her transition.

Even now, I feel very conflicted about her character – why does the only trans person depicted on the show have to be the villain? At the same time, there were never any malicious comments made about her gender on the show. Ganga was respected by her family (although her family was just as malicious toward others as she was), and everyone referred to her by the name she had chosen for herself and the pronoun she preferred.

Since no transmisogynist comments were made about her, the show never implied a connection between her wickedness and her identity. Perhaps it was okay that she was a powerful villain.

In the end, the only type of discrimination that became evident to me as I reflected more on the depictions of trans people in South Asian media was one of the most insidious types that manifests over and over again against marginalized groups: the erasure of a cultural history, in this case after the start of British rule in India. Ganga sparked my initial curiosity and search for the missing narratives of South Asian trans people within the context of Hinduism, and why their stories are erased from

mainstream South Asian media and in the Western world.

Before distortions: third gender in Ancient Vedic Hinduism Hinduism, considered one of the oldest religions in the world, has a wide range of philosophies and concepts. It also has a multitude of modern interpretations and practices – especially with respect to LGBTQ communities. Many of the ideas about gender and sexuality in Hinduism don’t necessarily translate to Western modes of thought, making it particularly difficult for certain narratives to be shared. My particular experience with Hinduism is both coloured and limited by the fact that I grew up in a traditional and religious Tamil-Sri Lankan home, and many values and realities were taught to me through Hindu mythologies. One of these is a Tamil myth about Iravan, a minor character from the highly revered Hindu epic the Mahabharata, which dates back to eighth century BCE. The Mahabharatha is set during the Kurukshetra War in the Kuru kingdom of ancient India. The war is a dynastic struggle between two families, the Pandava princes and their cousins, the Kaurava princes, for the throne of Hastinapur. Meanwhile, Iravan embarks on a journey in search of his father, wholly unaware that he is the son of Arjuna, a Pandava prince.

When reunited with his son, Arjuna asks for his assistance in the war.

Iravan proves himself to be a strong warrior and helps the Pandavas win many battles. But suddenly, one of the Kauravas, anticipating defeat, summons the help of a demon – there are

many different variations about the summoning – to help them win, and kill Iravan.

Iravan is left with two choices: he can either attempt to kill the demon with his fellow warriors, or sacrifice himself to Kali, the Goddess of Power to ensure a victory for his father and uncles. Iravan chooses self-sacrifice but with one final request: to marry a woman before his death. No woman agrees to marry him, knowing he will be dead the next day, but finally, Krishna, one of the most popular Hindu deities, takes a human form and descends as a woman called Mohini and marries Iravan. The following day Iravan sacrifices himself to the Goddess Kali and Mohini mourns for him in the traditional Hindu manner. Iravan becomes immortalized as a village deity, and for having married Mohini, he becomes known as one of the several patron gods for trans people.

The day of Iravan’s marriage to Mohini is celebrated during the Koovagam festival, a highly ritualized 18-day festival that has been happening for centuries in an Indian village named Koovagam. Every year, thousands of trans individuals re-enact this ancient myth. First, the person marries the statue of Iravan by having a priest bless them and tie the ritual wedding threads around their necks.

Following the marriage, they mourn the death of Iravan by crying loudly, breaking their bangles and changing into a white sari – it is a Hindu custom for a widow to wear white following the death of their spouse. The festival attendees also dance and play music as part of the celebrations.

This story is just one of the many

ancient Hindu mythologies that are intertwined with the cultural narratives and history of trans individuals in South Asia. The Vedic religion that predates foreign influence and from which modern-day Hinduism evolved showed a deep understanding and respect for the LGBTQ community, especially trans people. It understood the concept of gender and sexuality in a culturally distinct way. This history is not apparent by looking at the treatment of trans individuals in contemporary Indian society, or at popular Western depictions which misconstrue Eastern religions as inherently oppressive.

I would like to humbly make the argument that it started alongside the onset of British rule in ancient India in the mid-19th century. During the colonization of India, the British initiated the erasure of third gender people and experiences.

In Hinduism, the term “pumsprakriti” refers to males, “stri-prakriti” refers to females, and the third

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November 2, 2015 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com

third sex/gender category is “tritiyaprakriti.” There are other terms for sex and gender, but these three group the two together. The third gender is inclusive of people of a broad spec-

society and nature. In fact, one ritual – which continues to a lesser extent today – included inviting trans people to all kinds of birth, marriage, and religious ceremonies because their

In the end, as I reflected more on the depictions of trans people in South Asian media, the only type of discrimination that became evident to me was one of the most insidious types that manifests over and over again against marginalized groups: the erasure of a cultural history, in this case after the start of British rule in India. trum of genders and sexualities including trans, genderqueer, gender non-conforming, and/or queer people. While third gender is a term that is used within Hindu LGBTQ communities, not all LGBTQ people in these or other communities identify as third gender. The term hijra, which has historically been used in South Asia to refer to eunuchs and intersex folks, is used almost exclusively to address trans people and cross-dressers today; not all hijras identify as third gender.

In the Vedic age, from 1500 to 500 BCE, rather than being persecuted or punished, third gender people were allowed to live in their own exclusive third gender societies and communities, or could continue to engage with the societies they grew up in if they wished. Even the famous Kama Sutra, an Indian Hindu text that gives guidance on sex and sexual desire, has a section that talks about pleasure specifically for third gender people.

The only thing that was frowned upon by society at-large was people engaging in rituals that didn’t align with their sexual orientation – for example, a gay man marrying a woman.

The acceptance of varying genders and sexualities was understood as part of the basic Hindu philosophy which teaches that the material world is a mere reflection of the infinitely beautiful and eternal spiritual world – which has more variety that one can fathom. This is one of the reasons why in Hinduism – although there is only one ultimate reality, and one eternal, perfect being – the deities manifest in so many different forms.

In the Vedic age, trans people were symbols of good luck. They were protected by the community, and it was believed that their blessings would help society. This luck was attributed to the belief that third gender people, because they occupy a distinct identity beyond the gender binary, played an important balancing role in human

presence was considered to be auspicious. Although one could interpret this inclusion as mere tokenism, it is also important to consider that many important rituals such as weddings and births are not centred around the few individuals who are directly participating, but rather the entire community, where every member has symbolic religious roles. Trans people were also well represented in Vedic religious scriptures and within religious artwork, and were considered almost semi-divine. This, however, in no way reflects the unfortunate reality faced by trans folks in contemporary South Asian societies.

Modern day realities Ancient Hindu texts describe a final stage called Kali Yuga in the life cycle of the universe. Kali Yuga is the apocalyptic stage that the world goes through before the rejuvenation of the universe, and is described as a time when human civilization begins to degenerate spiritually. While some religious scholars interpret LGBTQ communities as a symptom of Kali Yuga, others, such as Amara Das Wilhelm, argue that this was never stated in Vedic texts. In fact, Wilhelm argues that the intolerance and mistreatment of third gender people is the true sign of Kali Yuga.

Many also debate when Kali Yuga started and when it will peak. I would like to humbly make the argument that it started alongside the onset of British rule in ancient India in the mid-19th century.

During the colonization of India, the British initiated the erasure of third gender people and experiences.

Firstly, there was the problem of translation and understanding. Many of the ideas that Hindus were immersed in were not well understood by the British colonialists. One example of this was the understanding of gender.

Popular thought in the West had largely forced a binary understanding of gender and a heteronormative conception of sexuality. Because of this, the third gender was mistranslated in various ways, such as conflating gay men with eunuchs and lesbian women with impotent women. The British settlers deemed third gender individuals to be ‘unnatural’ and believed that they upset the order of nature, while Hindus accepted the third gender to be part of the natural, material world.

Aside from mistranslations, references to third gender were at other times simply omitted in the English translations of important Vedic Hindu texts such as the Mahabharata and Bhagavad Gita. Eurocentric morals and Christian thought were taken as ultimate truths and used against the colonized, while the settlers portrayed Hinduism as a barbaric and backwards religion.

This resulted in the eventual criminalization of trans people under the Indian Penal Code and the Criminal Tribes Act, which were established in 1860 and 1871, respectively. The law also attacked many other groups that British rulers considered threats – homosexuality, for example, was declared a crime in 1860. In the following years, trans people’s rights continued to be stripped away and they were forcibly removed from social and cultural practices.

Unfortunately, this discrimination has spread and found its way into the mainstream understanding of modern-day Hinduism. In India right now, many trans people are highly discriminated against and are forced to live on the streets as beggars or sex workers.

They can also be prohibited from receiving a driver’s licence, identification cards, and other important documentation.

Although many of the laws regarding ‘deviant behaviour’ that were used to describe and criminalize LGBTQ people have been abolished in the West, notions of unnatural deviancy that were imposed through colonial rule are still deeply rooted in modernday India. Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which was enacted by the British colonial regime, still exists today – almost two centuries later – and ambiguously criminalizes all “unnatural offences.”

Despite this, the hijra community in India, and more broadly in South Asia, has shown a tremendous amount of resilience. In South Asia one can find exclusively hijra communities that support themselves but also provide support for third gender children and teens who have had to flee their homes because of rejection and discrimination. Because of successful trans rights activism and such communities, condi-

tions are slowly starting to improve for trans people in India and the whole of South Asia.

For example, the Tamil Nadu state in India established a welfare board and policies for trans people, wherein the state provides free sex reassignment surgery, food, housing, and full scholarships for pursuing university studies. Because of the investment in providing access to higher education for trans people, new literature is increasingly being published about trans experiences. Trans people are slowly getting increased visibility in the media and their basic rights are being enforced by the state. Although there are concerns about delays in how changes are being implemented, these policies represent change on a political level that is starting to occur in India as a whole.

Here is one more short myth to illustrate the importance of the third gender community within Hinduism.

At my parents’ house, in our prayer room, there is a small picture of the androgynous forms of the Hindu God Shiva and Goddess Parvati called Ardhanarishvara, who appears as half man, and half woman. This is a very popular form and depiction of Lord Shiva, and I’ve seen it many times in temples and in religious books. When Shiva and Parvati married, both deities wanted to share their experiences. So when she sat on his lap, Shiva shed half of himself and Parvati became half of him. Because they had a perfect balance between masculinity and femininity, they experienced a totality that was beyond a gender binary, a perpetual state of ecstasy.

Part of the symbolism is centred around the belief that masculine and feminine principles are complementary, but also around the implication that something greater and more fluid lies beyond the sex and gender binary.

Because of this, those who are third gender are considered to be spiritually privileged beings in Hinduism, as the ultimate goal of Hinduism is to achieve liberation through moksha – to break free from the life cycle and transcend beyond sensual experiences. This is the ultimate goal regardless of the individual’s gender or sexuality.

If not privileged, the narratives of third gender people at least deserve more space than they have today. Despite violent erasure in recent history, it is undeniable that they once occupied a respected space, and they deserve to regain that. There is no single understanding of gender and sexuality; this is why we must make an effort to uncover culturally distinct narratives and allow more voices to be heard – not just within the context of Hinduism and South Asia, but within the whole world.

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Work versus wellness

Against the idea of “study now, play later” Fernanda Pérez Gay Juàrez Mind the Complexities

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et’s say that it’s a weekday and you’ve spent the whole morning and afternoon trying to stay productive in the middle of a stressful period of your life, overloaded with work. The circumstances may vary; maybe midterm season is approaching, or it is the end of the semester, or you have a report to finish at work. Perhaps your boss has been putting too much pressure on you to complete a project you have been working on for a couple of months. However, the main issue remains the same: you need to get things done and, in order to do this, you must deny yourself any activity that does not directly contribute to your productivity. Do not leave the office until the work is done, do not leave the library until you finish studying, do not move from where you are until you accomplish your goal, you think.

Logically, this should make sense; you focus all your attention on your goal until, suddenly, there you are: you have succeeded, and thus you will feel happy and free.

But the truth is that things do not necessarily happen in this order.

After a 12-hour rush in which you force yourself to sit down and do some work, you realize that your strategy was flawed. Stressed and overwhelmed, you find yourself absolutely deprived of ideas, despite your best efforts to dedicate yourself to the given task. Instead of helping you to become more concentrated and mentally sharp, denying yourself pleasure may actually be detrimental for your productivity and motivation.

Several studies have reported on the importance of well-being and happiness to remain motivated, and thus achieve everyday duties. One study published recently in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine reported that it would be possible for an organization to increase workplace productivity by almost 50 per cent if it addressed certain mentalhealth related issues, such as unnoticed depression among coworkers. Many books have been written on the strategies, habits, and tools that enable people to work harder and better. However, many of them cannot answer a fundamental question that can be assessed through neuroscience: what exactly is motivation in biological terms? What generates this disposition to do

McGill students studying fervently during midterms season. things in terms of the brain, and what mechanisms does it imply?

Several studies have reported on the importance of well-being and happiness to remain motivated, and thus achieve everyday duties.

Our brains have developed a system that adjusts our actions according to biological needs, and this is what orchestrates our behaviour. This system, which consists of an ensemble of neural centers that respond mainly to two neurotransmitters – dopamine and serotonin – is known as the “brain-reward system.” Connected to areas that control memory and behaviour, this complex neural circuitry assesses the potential benefit of every future behaviour, obtaining those that anticipate rewards.

The main goal of the system is to detect rewarding stimuli, which have also been called “reinforce-

ments.” From an evolutionary perspective, this system helps organisms to evaluate different plans of action to guide the body toward those that will give them “primary reinforcements” – for example, food, water, or sex – that will help them survive. By releasing dopamine – which is associated with feelings of pleasure – the system will strengthen the neural connections needed first to activate the behaviours that procure such rewards, and, second, to establish memories of which activities gave us such reinforcements.

Under this view, the reward systems is responsible for goal selection by weighing anticipated risks, costs, and benefits. In other words, motivational states will arise from an anticipation of pleasure.

How does this apply to our everyday productivity? In an ideal situation, the work we have to do would be rewarding enough to keep us motivated and productive.

However, this may not always be the case. External pressure, such as a heavy workload or difficult tasks may generate stress, another physiological reaction that our brains identify with aversive stimuli, that threaten our integrity, and thus, should be avoided.

Taking this into account, feeling

Sonia Ionescu | The McGill Daily motivated to do something that does not reward us and makes us feel stressed might almost constitute a biological contradiction.

Through reinforcements, the brain associates certain behaviours with positive outcomes, and in their absence, our brain won’t do anything to ensure that we will repeat those behaviours in the future. It is illogical that we expect to accomplish our tasks in an efficient way if we force ourselves to avoid pleasure for the sake of the completion of a job and render our only motivation the reward that remains out of reach until the work is done.

Instead of doing this, we could try to take advantage of this neural system that guides our brains toward evolution. Intercalating moments of pleasure into our work schedules could boost our dopamine release levels and activate our reward system, taking us out of the automated state in which we enter as a result of exhaustion, and benefiting our productivity. Some techniques suggest that we take breaks after sprints of productivity – for example, the Pomodoro technique suggests five minutes of rest after every 25 minutes of uninterrupted hard work. When it comes to organization, building a schedule that implies both work periods and leisure time may help

to keep our minds sharp during the time we dedicate to our duties, instead of forcing ourselves on them until we have no energy left.

These days, especially in a university setting, the prevalent mentality tells us that success and proactivity must take priority over one’s own pleasure and happiness.

At the same time, we pertain to a generation that is used to immediate reward, a phenomenon that has been potentiated by technological devices that give us tangible results right away. While the idea of success over self-care can lead us to believe that we need success and results in order to be happy, our expectation of immediate rewards will lead to inevitable frustration and lack of motivation after long periods of working without positive reinforcements. Maybe we should change our minds and stop seeing pleasure as mere distraction, and instead start seeing it as fuel that will boost our way into success.

Mind the Complexities is a column exploring how scientific knowledge can be applied to the various problems with mental health experienced in our society.

Fernanda Pérez Gay Juàrez can be reached at mindthecomplexities@ mcgilldaily.com.

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Sci+Tech

November 2, 2015 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com

Including youth in mental health Hits and misses of the youth mental health conference in Montreal Alice Shen The McGill Daily

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s young people mature physically, mentally, and socially, the transition time is a critical period in life during which mental health issues can more easily develop. Specifically, the pressure to succeed academically and socially, in addition to the lack of life experience when facing mistakes, failures, and rejections can inevitably result in mental health disturbances among young people.

In recent years, a new movement has emerged in the mental health field, as research evidence recognizes the importance of intervening early to maximize recovery and providing targeted services for youth in the critical age group of 12 to 25. This new model aims to change the way society thinks about the mental health of young people and to strengthen the mental health system. However, this poses a challenge to the traditional Western mental health system, which splits the population into two groups: children, anyone up to the age of 18, and adults, anyone who is between 18 to 65 years old.

Stories like that of Graham Boeckh, a young person who died of complications from medication in 1986, show the traditional model to be insufficient. Boeckh did not receive appropriate care for schizophrenia after he turned 18, as he no longer fit the range for the mental health program in which he had been participating.

This case indicated the need for reform in order to better meet the mental health care needs of youth.

To discuss these issues, the International Association of Youth Mental Health (IAYMH) hosted its third International Youth Mental Health Conference in Montreal on October 8. This year’s theme was “Transformations: Next Generation Youth Mental Health,” and the conference aimed to initiate a global conversation on youth involvement in mental health care, to introduce research models emerging from the youth mental health field, and to focus on transitioning from traditional mental health services to the next generation of programs and services that will better serve young people.”

Craig Hodges, one of the organizers of the 2015 IAYMH conference said, “The goal [of the conference] is to promote the work that is occurring internationally around changing mental health services and systems to be more responsive to the mental health [...] needs of young people, with

Justine Touchon | Illustrator young people at the forefront of this change.” Hodges noted that while the conference saw more countries on board this year, it is still in its “infancy” and must continue to solicit participation from a wider span of countries.

“So many diverse populations could not attend because of the hefty conference cost.”

Jimmy Tan McGill student For the three days of the conference, delegates representing various disciplines from countries such as the UK, Australia, the U.S., and Canada gathered to discuss youth reform and mental health. The conference offered a variety of workshops, speeches, and presentations covering a plethora of topics from mental health stigma, the idea social

media in suicide prevention, and research, to meaningful engagement of young people.

Each workshop took the full day, and during each of the workshops, delegates formed small groups to share ideas and brainstorm solutions to their specific challenges.

For example, Amanda Costa, a research project director at the Transitions Research and Training Center (RTC) of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, said at the Youth Engagement workshop, “[At RTC, we have] the College Annual Internship Program, [which involves] young adults from local universities to come work with us through the entire school semester for academic credit. [This helps them] learn about what it means to work in the mental health field as a partner, and then they can share their experience with other college students.”

Some of the students who attended the conference had a very positive experience.

“Thursday’s Youth Engagement workshop was beautiful. I especially liked the speaker Ashley

Tritt, who highlighted the importance of not tokenizing youth and keeping feedback anonymous,” Jimmy Tan, a McGill student who attended the conference told The Daily.

However, Karen Young, a University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) student, expressed that the content of the conference did not do enough to address intersectionality, and that there was not a fair representation of minority profiles. “For instance [...] this year’s International Youth Mental Health Conference [had] only English-speaking countries represented at the plenary and keynote aspects,” Young told The Daily.

Indeed, as Young pointed out, the conversation about mental health needs to be inclusive to everyone, and the International Youth Mental Health conference was largely attended by Englishspeaking Commonwealth countries, with only a relatively small percentage of attendees being youth themselves.

The small turnout of youth was largely due to the high cost to attend, with the student concession price being just under $500 without the workshop, and over

$500 including workshop participation. Youth who do not have student status and do not fulfill other criteria to receive the concession discount needed to pay the full price of around $900.

“So many diverse populations could not attend because of the hefty conference cost,” Tan told The Daily. Tan also mentioned that the conference had a lack of representation from high school policy makers – there was a disproportionate number of post-secondary personnel in comparison.

In the end, this conference was just one aspect of the broader global movement to include youth perspectives in mental health research and increase youth access to mental health services. This is crucial to the field of mental health care, where services to youth are gravely insufficient to meet the needs of young people. However, the conversation will have to include a variety of people, countries, cultures, and backgrounds to be representative of the diverse mental health needs of youth and successfully create solutions to this problem.

Sports

Art Essay: Percival-Molson Memorial Stadium Adobe Photoshop

November 2, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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Alice Shen | The McGill Daily

Visual based on images from McGill University for the Advancement of Learning Volume II by Stanley Price, Memories and profiles of McGill University by MacKay L. Smith and the McGill Archives.

Culture

November 2, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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Not your name to take Calling out appropriation in band names

Tristen Sutherland Culture Writer

visual forms of racism (like wearing blackface or an Indigenous headdress to a concert), many don’t even recognize that it’s happening. This has to change. By using a name such as “Black Pussy,” for example, white men are taking an actual person and objectifying them, spreading this idea that the person is just a ‘mascot,’ effectively fetishizing them.

T

he music industry is a constantly changing landscape that can be a challenging place to find yourself. Everybody wants to be the next big thing; everybody wants to have an edge. However, when bands start using names that exploit marginalized groups of people to gain said “edge,” it becomes unacceptable.

Viet Cong, a Canadian postpunk band, has been criticized for using the Vietnam War-era communist guerrilla movement as their band name (the rock group is made up of only white guys). This criticism increased in its intensity after the group was shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize.

Viet Cong, a Canadian post-punk band, has been criticized for using the Vietnam War-era communist guerrilla movement as their band name.

In an interview with the Guardian, members explained that their band name came from drummer Mike Wallace’s off-the-cuff description of their bassist and vocal-

Manuela Galindo Carvajal | The McGill Daily ist Mike Flegel holding their guitar like a gun and saying, “All you need is a rice paddy hat and this would be so Viet Cong.”

Hearing this is absolutely appalling. How could this name be thought to be a good idea? It blatantly exploits and trivializes a painful moment in history so that some rock group could become popular. The use of the name fully erases the trauma experienced by Vietnamese people in the sixties and seventies and reinserts a moniker imposed upon the movement

by Western military sources back into popular culture. The fact that the band has been allowed to play

for over three years points to the privilege that this white, Western band has in claiming a historically and politically charged name for themselves without self-reflection.

It was only when Jon McCurley, co-owner of Toronto DIY event space Double Double Land, refused to let the band play in the space that band members addressed the issue. This was after numerous open letters penned by individuals directly implicated in the Vietnam War called out the band for its abhorrent name, as well as numerous cancelled shows on college campuses.

In September, it seemed that

the band had a change of heart, stating on their Facebook page: “We are a band who want to make music and play our music for our fans. We are not here to cause pain or remind people of atrocities of the past.” Reading this made some fans slightly less cynical.

But this feeling of relief was rather brief. Suddenly, discussion of appropriation became hyper aware of all of the popular bands that also have problematic names and that never felt the need to change it, including but not limited to: Joy Division, The Slaves, Black Pussy, and Gang Signs.

Since this act isn’t as overt as

It was only when Jon McCurley, coowner of Toronto DIY event space Double Double Land, refused to let the band play in the space that band members addressed the issue.

People’s cultures, bodies, and history are not studded leather jackets that can be worn to give an ‘edge’ and then promptly removed when it feels too hot or uncomfortable.

It is possible to have an ‘edgy’ band name without using others’ marginalized status as a stepping stone. Although it is easy to get caught up in the fast-paced music industry, being in a band is about making music to be proud of rather than causing pain to groups of people.

POC artists to watch: Kalmunity Jazz Project Crafting welcoming spaces, one improvisation at a time

Jedidah Nabwangu Talk Black

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f you live in Montreal and don’t know Kalmunity, you’re welcome, because I’m about to tell you about them. The first time I saw Kalmunity play live was shortly after I moved to Montreal, and I couldn’t have asked for a better way to be introduced to this city’s music scene. The show literally pumped life into me – I’m not kidding. If you’re feeling stressed out for whatever reason, I highly recommend their invigorating jazz improvisations as a solution.

Kalmunity is a Montreal col-

lective, formed in 2003 and jamming weekly ever since. The collective isn’t strictly jazz either. Funk, soul, afrobeat, and hip hop artists frequently mix different genres of Black music live onstage for inimitable show-stopping performances.

As many of you probably know, moving away from home to go to university can be an emotional roller coaster. On one hand, you’re super excited to leave behind all of your parents’ nagging and finally live the life of independence you always knew you were destined to live, but on the other hand, you’re completely terrified that you will fail miserably, end up alone, and live your worst nightmare instead.

That second possibility definitely

was the one that dominated my thought process. If you’re like me, and you regard music as the sole saviour of life (apart from your mom), then you will understand how important it is to find that special musical connection in such desperate times of need. I’m nostalgic for the feeling of inclusion and safety in such a music setting as I saw that night, but I haven’t really felt it since. I don’t know what exactly it is about Kalmunity that brings people so closely together, but what I do know is that other artists should take note, figure it out, and do the same.

Kalmunity came to me in my time of need and damn, did they ever do so in style. First of all, they

were nothing like I had thought they would be. I had only ever listened to jazz a handful of times before, and frankly didn’t care too much for it because I found it, well – boring. I immediately regretted my previous judgements when they started playing: this was anything but boring. Suddenly I found myself dancing in my seat, and eventually on the dance floor, to their jazz-meets-funk-meets-rap musicality. I forgot all my worries and insecurities, and just focused on the soul of the music at that moment. It was truly beautiful, but perhaps what was more beautiful was the diversity that oozed out of every corner of the room. People from different backgrounds,

different interests, and different styles were all gathered around and listening to the same melody and experiencing the same euphoria. I was so happy, yet so amazed, because in comparison to my alienating experiences in the punk rock scene that I usually frequent, Kalmunity creates a welcoming space for people of colour.

To experience this space, hit up Les Bobards on Tuesday nights or Café Resonance on Sunday nights.

Talk Black is a column that seeks to engage in anti-racist culture writing, addressing art, music, events, and more. Jedidah Nabwangu can be reached at talkblack@mcgilldaily.com.

Culture

November 2, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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Progress! haunts Royal Vic Play animates halls of hospital one last time

Maya Keshav Culture Writer

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nfinitheatre’s recent producation, Progress!, is an ingenuitive play set inside the iconic Royal Victoria Hospital perched on Mount Royal, now closing after 122 years of service. For a play titled Progress!, the show, which ran from October 20 to November 1, fell rather short of true artistic progress. And that’s a shame, because the premise of the play really is original. The audience is invited right into the treatment room of Sarah Lawson, the hospital’s fictional last patient. As she’s treated for attempted suicide, she’s greeted by the ghosts of the first two patients to die in the hospital.

They convince Sarah that life is worth living through a vaudevillian re-enactment of her childhood, career, and marriage.

K.C. Coombs alternates between snarky and sympathetic in the role of Sarah. Ghosts #1 (Peter Farbridge) and #2 (Daniel Brochu) try their best, as do supporting actors Jennifer Morehouse and Howard Rosenstein. But they’re all held back by the disappointing script.

Montreal playwright Alyson Grant’s idea of tragicomedy is to flicker between comedy and tragedy as fast as she can, hoping the audience will squint and the whole thing will blur together. Unfunny jokes follow ponderous philosophy in an attempt at irony. Death, God, heritage, suicide, progress, love, family — it’s all there: but Grant touches on each theme too quickly, without exploring any in depth. Progress! could be an emotionally powerful story, but the emotions are lost in the confusion.

There are as many metaphors thrown into the play as there are big ideas. First, there’s the suffering elephant that Sarah sees at a circus in Pointe-Claire, which motivates her to commit suicide.

But what to make of the glowing book, in which God has written down the names of everyone who has died and who will die in the hospital? Or of the waltz danced

by Sarah’s suicidal mother, holding a noose around her neck? If that’s not enough, what of the presence of a literal smoking gun, which Ghost #2 confuses as simply a metaphor, before a real smoking gun appears on stage?

Although seemingly created in an attempt to add depth to the play, the plethora of symbols only succeed in baffling the audience into imagining depth that isn’t there.

As for the comedy, it borders on boring, sometimes cringeworthy. For example, Ghost #1, an older gentleman, has to keep leaving scenes to pee. This is abused as a plot device to leave Ghost #2 alone with Sarah, but first the

Tamim Sujat | The McGill Daily

Royal Victoria Hospital. audience has to watch Ghost #1 stagger around the stage while clutching his crotch.

Then there’s the relationship between the ghosts, the classic alpha-beta relationship seen in almost any plot-driven narrative needing some trusty sidekick-style comic relief. The script sinks to its lowest point here, relying on cliches and groan-worthy jokes.

For example, Ghost #2 exclaims, “I thought I’d dotted my t’s and crossed my i’s!” and there’s a pause, and you just know that Ghost #1 is going to say sternly, “Didn’t you mean crossed your t’s and dotted your i’s?” Then he says exactly that. Cue yawn.

The production isn’t all bad, though. The sound effects by sound designer Nikita U are crisply realistic. The actors occasionally break the fourth wall to interact with the audience, which is fun, especially in the small, intimate room.

But ultimately the play is about the Royal Victoria Hospital. The references to the hospital’s legacy highlight the play’s purpose and strengthens a semi-historical representation that says “an homage and gentle goodbye” to the building. Many of the cast and crew members have personal connections to the Royal Vic, and seeing this play is a last chance for Montrealers to say goodbye to this icon of local history.

If Progress! could just focus itself to depict the hospital poignantly over the years, it would be enjoyable. Nonetheless, it is a labour of love: imperfect, but ever so earnest.

Coming soon at the Phi Centre Nov.

Nov.

Nov.

Screening

Cinema cabaret

Show

Wondrous Boccaccio

The Reflektor Tapes

Voices From the Lake

Nov.

Nov.

Nov.

Screening

Screening

Screening

Princess

Pixadores

Loin des hommes

3 to 7

6

Nov.

5

9 to 11

6

16 to 18

20

28

Nov.

Dec.

Show

Show

Show

Foxtrott

Cakes Da Killa

The Wainwright Sisters

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

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Square-Victoria—OACI

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Culture

November 2, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Mohawk Girls: Sex and the City, but better Season three explores racism, identity

Victoria Lessard The McGill Daily

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racey Deer and Cynthia Knight’s new television show Mohawk Girls is frequently portrayed in the media as Sex and the City with one twist: it’s set in Kahnawake. While it’s easy to see how this sound bite friendly comparison arises – the main characters are four strong women, each with a slick sense of style, experiencing dating triumphs and disasters – Mohawk Girls knocks Sex and the City out of the park (and Girls too, for that matter, if we’re going to summarily compare it to every single show about four white women), in both style and substance. Mohawk Girls tackles racism, identity, and issues of social justice head-on, is sex-positive, and also happens to be hilarious.

The McGill Daily talked with Cynthia Knight, co-creator, executive producer, and head writer of Mohawk Girls, to discuss the show’s third season, which recently kicked off on October 27 on Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN).

The McGill Daily (MD): The season two finale ended on a big cliffhanger for Bailey, Zoe, Caitlin, and Anna. Can you give any hints about what viewers can expect in season three?

Cynthia Knight (CK): Let me see how I can put this without giving anything away. In season three, we’ve definitely put them all in new situations. Obviously, in the first episode we’ll reveal what happens after the cliffhangers. It propels the girls into new directions, but they still have the same storylines. Caitlin’s still looking for love, when really she should be giving it to herself; Anna [is still] the fish out of water.

We tried to push it a lot more this season. We put them in more traditional situations that they don’t really know about. This season, Anna’s going to go to the longhouse, and she’ll discover what that’s all about. The girls in one episode go to a survivalist camp, because Anna’s trying to get them all back in touch with their roots, but of course they’re modern-day Mohawk women, like, imagine you and me at a survivalist camp. So we tried to keep them on the same journey, or path, but have a lot of fun with them this season. We have bigger cliffhangers at the end of the third season.

MD: Mohawk Girls has covered some pretty controversial topics already, like blood quantum [the calculation of Indian Status as determined by the Indian Act], and the community’s “marry out, get out” policy [the law in which Mohawk residents that marry non-Indigenous partners are no longer allowed to live in Kahnawake], especially in Anna and Bailey’s storylines. The show hopes to convey or discuss those policies through showing each of the character’s experiences.

CK: For both Tracey [Deer] and

The four stars of Mohawk Girls myself, what we’ve always wanted to do is create a show that was fun and entertaining, but beyond that, dispelled stereotypes. I feel like we see Native people and certainly Mohawks depicted in a historical context, or in difficult contexts today.

We see violence or corruption on the rez, or alcoholism. In every community there are difficulties and incredible parts, and we really wanted to show these people as a three-dimensional group. We wanted to celebrate the very distinct nature of [Mohawk] culture but also show how universal it is, and how universal these girls’ issues are.

Every young woman can relate to this show, hopefully, and certainly every young woman from a minority background. I mean, I’m Jewish, and my whole life was about, ‘do I continue and stay in the faith because my family wants me to? Do I marry a Jewish guy because of all the sacrifices my ancestors made?

If I don’t keep it up my people will disappear.’ These are exactly the questions that these ladies have to ask themselves in the show, so we really wanted to show the kind of universality of this group of people, and make a show that would appeal to Native people, to entertain them, [to see] their own culture on screen, and [to break] down some barriers for non-Native people to get a glimpse of this world and [recognize] they’re not so different.

It’s important for us to address racism – we never want anything to be preachy; we do a lot [of discussion] about racism, we continue that in season three, and we’re going to push it even more in season four.

MD: One of the most visually

Courtesy of Eric Myre compelling moments I found in the show is when Anna is working on a group project at McGill, and after revealing that she’s Mohawk, she’s subject to a racist response from a group member, and it cuts to a shot of her having a bunch of different stereotypical labels slapped on her.

CK: I think there’s a scene where a white guy says, “Oh, your people should get over it, Black people have.” Sometimes, we’ve had people ask us if we’re exaggerating for television’s sake, but so many of these

of people.

MD: Zoe’s storyline is pretty rad.

I don’t think I’ve seen anything on television like it, [how the previous season showed] the BDSM community in a non-judgmental way. How did that storyline become a part of the show? Did you always want to incorporate it, or is it something that came from the character?

CK: We’re very lucky to have a network that lets us push boundaries and put stuff on network television that we might not be able to see

There’s a scene where a white guy says, “Oh, your people should get over it, Black people have.”

Sometimes, we’ve had people ask us if we’re exaggerating for televsion’s sake, but so many of these comments are based on real life.

Cynthia Knight, co-creator and executive producer comments are based on real life, and that line was taken straight out of a date that my co-creator [Deer] experienced. I mean, it’s just so [ridiculous], people thinking that racism doesn’t exist anymore.

There’s so many levels of racism and it’s still very prevalent. A lot of it comes from ignorance. We have these stereotypes based on what we’ve seen in the media and what we [have] learned, and hopefully [Mohawk Girls] dispels some of that and really humanizes this group

on certain other channels. [Zoe’s character] is a certain personality type that exists in the world and certainly a personality that exists in a community where there’s so much pressure to be the right kind of person and to represent your people properly. We looked at what happens when a real type-A person is leading a life not for herself, but a life of “should’s”: what should she do? What should she be? She decided to be a lawyer and work in the band council because that’s what

she should do for her community.

The thing is, when your whole life is about duty, obligation, and responsibility, you need an outlet. You need some realm of your life where you can just let loose and have fun. She’s so constantly in control all the time that she ended up finding this way to let loose and be dominated instead of being the dominant person she constantly is in her life. We wanted to show this world in a non-judgmental way – some of it is positive and some of it is negative, like anything. So Zoe, in season three, is actually going to become kind of addicted to it and that’s going to put her ‘normal’ life in jeopardy. Not because the thing in and of itself is bad, but because she’s using it as an escape and as a need to fuel the rest of her life.

MD: Heather White, as Caitlin, gives beautiful, vulnerable performances. Her character is so hopeful, and so fierce when it comes to sticking up for her friends, but she just gets her heart broken when it comes to her dad or Butterhead. It’s heartwrenching, but it makes you feel for her character so much.

CK: You try to write stuff that resonates but you never know if it really translates. That’s exactly what we’re trying to do with [Mohawk Girls], to show context. Let’s look at second class citizenry and residential schools and everything and give a little bit of context. You know, you asked me what our goals are with the show, and that would certainly be one of them, in a non-preachy way, to give context so that people can understand. We try to do that as much [as possible] with each character, as with the community, and the world as a whole.

Editorial

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Sonia Ionescu | The McGill Daily

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mid their failing contract negotiations, 500,000 public sector employees took to the streets last week as part of a series of rotating strike days that began on October 26. These strikes are an escalation of the province-wide anti-austerity mobilization that began earlier this year. The Printemps 2015 movement saw over 30,000 students, including some from McGill, go on strike for two weeks to protest the major cuts to healthcare, education, and other public services implemented by Quebec’s Liberal government over the past year and a half. Now, as public sector employees are increasing the pressure on the government, it’s time for all McGill students to show their solidarity and stand against harmful austerity policies.

Public sector employees are coming together to protest provincial cuts that affect everyone in Quebec. For instance, public health spending was cut by 30 per cent in the most recent budget; this means that doctors will be forced to take on higher patient loads, and less time and resources can be allocated to preventative care. Education has also suffered: the Liberal government has cut funding to universities by $204 million since its election.

In response to these cuts to its operating grant, McGill has implemented a hiring freeze and renewed its push for further international tuition deregulation.

In order to protect public services – including our own education here at McGill – we must take to the streets.

Showing solidarity with public sector workers is essential in order to attain the mass public support that makes strikes and social movements most effective. The 2012 Maple Spring protests were originally made up solely of students until they garnered wider public support. The mass movement that followed led to early elections, the fall of the Liberal government, and the partial rollback of proposed tuition hikes.

Around 30,000 students from universities such as Concordia and Université de Montréal have already voted to go on a one-day strike on November 5. McGill students must join that list – and in much greater numbers than during the spring. SSMU is already mobilizing students, but it can’t do so alone. Depending on what is accessible to you, there are many ways to show solidarity, from attending the mass anti-austerity demonstration on November 5 to organizing a strike general assembly in your departmental association. The Quebec government is waging a war on essential public services and the people it employs; it’s time to fight back. ­—The McGill Daily editorial board

Errata The article “McGill University Health Centre employees poised to strike” (October 26, News, page 5) incorrectly located the Glen site of the MUHC in the West Island; in fact, it is located between Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and Westmount. The article also incorrectly implied that the consortium responsible for the maintenance of the MUHC consisted of the provincial government and SNC-Lavalin. In fact, the consortium consists of multiple private companies. It also implied that SNC-Lavalin demanded a sum of $172 million for incorrectly laid out pipes. In fact, SNC-Lavalin demanded the sum for other expenses incurred prior to April 2015. In addition, the article stated that the McGill University Health Centre Employee Union (MUHCEU) negotiates with the consortium and the hospital administration; in fact, it negotiates with the provincial government.

The article “Infiltrating politics from behind a screen” (October 26, Sci+Tech, page 13) incorrectly stated that Anonymous hacked the website of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) in March in response to an attack on an anti-austerity protester in Montreal. In fact, the attack occurred in Quebec City and was in response to police brutality in general, as opposed to the specific attack cited.

The Daily regrets the errors.

advertising & general manager Boris Shedov sales representative Letty Matteo ad layout & design Geneviève Robert

Mathieu Ménard

dps board of directors Zapaer Alip, Niyousha Bastani, Joseph Boju, Hannah Besseau, Deeva Bowry, Julia Denis, Ralph Haddad, Igor Sadikov, Alice Shen, Tamim Sujat, Dana Wray All contents © 2015 Daily Publications Society. All rights reserved. The content of this newspaper is the responsibility of The McGill Daily and does not necessarily represent the views of McGill University. Products or companies advertised in this newspaper are not necessarily endorsed by Daily staff.

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19

Compendium!

November 2, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

20

Lies, half-truths, and the spectre haunting Europe.

A harrowing encounter

Rockstar philosophers debate the meaning of Halloween

Slavoj Žižek

I

attended again this year, I have to say it, a Halloween party, this hedonist perversion of our degenerate society – the paradox is that we continue to host parties when none of us really want to attend them. What is going on here, though, is that this is a costume party. One is expected, as it were, to dress up, to present one’s self in disguise. One might say the costume party is of the order of the Imaginary, it is mere fraud; the costume is a narcissistic construction of the ego, the subject sublimates her uncomfortable identity.

I am disgusted with this approach to this phenomenon, we must look at it differently. The Halloween party reduces the subject to the costume, the subject materializes as a thing, the costume completes the commodification of her identity. This is what makes the costume party a locus of truth under modern capitalism, it epitomizes the impasse of consumerism, the capitalist ideology, and so on. Let me be clear: I am prepared to go to the end. We have to flip this naive view entirely on its head: the costume is what is real, I claim.

It is the subject herself who is imaginary.

I am reminded here of a classic joke that has circulated for decades among Lacanians, about the man who believes himself to be a kernel of grain. He is cured, convinced, so to speak, by a psychologist that he is not a kernel of grain but a man.

But he then returns to the psychologist, he is trembling and very scared – there is a chicken outside the door, and he is afraid it will eat him. “You know very well that you are not a kernel of grain, but a man,” says

Ayn Rand the doctor. “Of course I know,” replies the patient, “but does the chicken?”

This illustrates the subjective experience of the Halloween costume: I know, pragmatically, that I am not a unicorn, or a Minion, or some (per)version of an inert object, but does the Other know? The party-goer has a strange suspicion that she might be found out, yes, she fears that the object she perversely adorned herself with is constitutive of her Being through the perception of the Other. The sublime irony of the costume is, how shall I put this, that what we seek to hide is what we put on display.

When Heidegger speaks of the selfconcealing truth of being, he has in mind precisely this: we have put on our costume, exposing, as it were, our body to the gaze of the Other – the disguise makes us shameless, invisible, and yet we find ourselves naked again, puking on the bathroom floor.

This is why it is imperative to re-actualize Lenin, to repeat him in the Kierkegaardian sense: to retrieve the revolutionary impulse for the present constellation of costume parties. Only the “concrete analysis of the concrete situation,” of course, allows the subject to rediscover a radical openness in the Halloween party – as my good friend Alain Badiou would put it, to make the costume party an Event.

The signifier “Lenin” is what formalizes the notion so intuitive but inexpressible to most of us: that we have not, as the liberal paradigm would have it, reached the “end of parties.” This impossible task is, I claim, the most practical thing to do.

H

alloween is a glorification of the individual. It is a celebration of man’s mind to think and to create and to make. It is an opportunity for the individual to participate in the free market in the form of buying costumes. Those of an inferior state shall tell you that Halloween is a hedonistic practice that serves no purpose but to push men into an inescapable spiral of consumerism, drunkenness, and cultural appropriation. These are the same men who have dragged men of justice, of independence, of reason, of wealth, and of self-esteem to their sacrificial altars.

But let it be known that man is an end in himself, and never a means. Never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for yours. One must be able to support one’s own, by one’s own means – those who cannot afford that must try harder, obviously. Wealth is the product of man’s capacity to think.

Let us go back to Halloween. What is Halloween? A day in the year where individuals are asked to imitate there heroes, so as to become them. Arguably, one could say: “But if the individual becomes someone else, does that not mean that these individuals have used another as a means for their own ends?” To that I say, you are clearly lack the required level of intelligence to understand this really basic precept of Objectivism, which I have definitely not stolen from Immanuel Kant.

The costume, in the end, is merely a tool – one that I have purchased with my own money.

Thousands of the same costume were made at a factory elsewhere – and it is only reasonable that I support the factory owner. Who am I to fight the invisible hand of the market?

Objectively speaking, there is an inherent value in everything. I have bought this typewriter with which I write. I have bought this jacket I wear. In this sense, we must all be like architects – not like those who stick to classical styles, but more like that one I created for my glorious book, The Fountainhead. Howard Roark fought against the conformism of boring traditions, by ignoring them. And did he win in the end? Roark was a mountain. Mountains don’t lose.

Halloween celebrates non-conformity and the individual. By using his wealth, man buys costumes and expresses himself. The costume is the individual – the individual is also the individual. The costume exists, and so does the individual. To exist is to be something, as distinguished from the nothing of non-existence. Centuries ago, the man who was (no matter what his errors) the greatest of your philosophers, has stated the formula defining the concept of existence and the rule of all knowledge: A is A. A thing is itself.

Existence is identity, consciousness is identification. To imitate is to humble. To humble is to empower yourself. And an individual empowered is the most powerful thing in existence.

So when you go dress up for Halloween, remember to bask in the glory of your individualism. Consider the greatest heroes of man’s past: Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford. When you dress up like them, you are humbling them. How powerful is the individual that humbles the mountain? These men converted pure thought into wealth – and here you are becoming them. Well, maybe after all, you can have your cake and eat it too.