The McGill Daily Vol105Iss2

Lady Wrestlers “stage the battle for justice”

Volume 105, Issue 2 Tuesday, September 8, 2015

page 17

Suzie’s smoothie since 1911 mcgilldaily.com

Published by The Daily Publications Society, a student society of McGill University.

Ten days in apartheid Israel Editorial: solidarity with Unist’ot’en

page 12 page 23

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News 03 NEWS The state of protest in Montreal New student federations in the making

September 8, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Activists point to escalating police repression Protesting in Montreal remains restricted

McGill makes world’s largest smoothie Schulich School of Music addresses mental health

Daniel Huang The McGill Daily

09 COMMENTARY

S

We need a diversity of feminist clubs The NDP’s drift to the right Letters

12

FEATURES

Vacationing in apartheid Israel

16

SCI+TECH

Bubbles and biodiesel

17

SPORTS

Meet the League of Lady Wrestlers

18

CULTURE

A guitar, a bike, and an Olive Bands to see at OAP When unfettered capitalism meets queer culture The Daily reviews KROY at Passovah Festival

21

ART ESSAY

22

COMPENDIUM!

Behemoth beverage restores glory to McGall SHMU Daycare takes over Frosh

23 EDITORIAL Solidarity with Unist’ot’en

3

ince a court ruling in February 2015 that found police actions in a 2013 demonstration in downtown Montreal unwarranted, activists claim that there has been little change in how the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) has been acting during protests, and say, if anything, its methods have become more violent.

At issue here are two key pieces of legislation. The first, which has generated the most controversy, is Montreal’s municipal bylaw P-6.

Amendments 2.1 and 3.2, added to the legislation in May 2012, during the Maple Spring student protests, require protesters to provide an itinerary and route to the police and forbids them from wearing clothing that obscures their faces.

The court ruling on February 9, 2015 saw three tickets issued under this bylaw dismissed, with Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre announcing that all similar pending cases against protestors would be dropped. At the time, Judge Randall Richmond, who made the ruling, called police use of P-6 “shocking,” adding that the SPVM “risked condemning innocent people,” due to the fact that the police distributed the tickets en masse.

Since then, however, the ruling seems to have made no difference to police actions. In an interview with The Daily, Katie Nelson, a student at Concordia and a veteran of the Maple Spring, pointed out that protesters have “still received P-6 tickets after the judgement” and that police “still threaten P-6 when [activists] go to protest.”

The second legislation protesters have cited is article 500.1 of Quebec’s Highway Safety Code, which gives police the right to stop any obstructions to vehicular traffic on public roads. According to Nelson, 500.1 is responsible for most of her tickets.

The article, while not new, has only been regularly applied to protest situations since March 2011, when it was used to disperse the 15th annual anti-police brutality protest. In 2013, some who were arrested at that protest legally challenged the city’s application of the article, which relies on the false assumption that protesters’ primary intent is to block traffic.

Alice Shen | The McGill Daily “It’s screwed up [...] because you have these rights and freedoms that I guess people really believe in, that protect you, or are supposed to protect you,” Nelson said. “And [the police] are starting to demonstrate that those aren’t really tangible, real things that they need to abide by.”

Opposition to these laws has come from a variety of groups, including the Collectif opposé à la brutalité policière (COBP), the Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ), the Quebec Human Rights League, and the Quebec Bar Association.

In particular, COBP has argued that the police have selectively targeted certain protests over others.

In a publication released in May 2014 on its website, COBP points out that over sixty protests have occurred since 2013 where police were not provided itineraries and routes, in violation of P-6, but did not interfere with protesters. In other cases, most notably during May Day and anti-police brutality protests in 2015, police issued P-6 warnings and immediately stopped protesters with mass arrests and ticketing.

Without any indication that those protests would be violent, such police actions, COBP claims, can only amount to political profiling, and a worrying sign that police have the power to arbitrarily decide which protests are good or bad.

To Abraham Weizfeld, a Montreal-based peace activist and author, “Police no longer treat pro-

“Within a month of the P-6 ruling [...] instead of seeing mass arrests [under P-6 or 500.1], we just saw super heavy violence from the police.”

Katie Nelson, student activist tests according to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”

Speaking to The Daily, Weizfeld argued that police are specifically targeting demonstrations that “are affecting the pro-austerity policies of the government.” Nelson also pointed out that all of her tickets, amounting to approximately $11,000, have been “in the context of something political [...] whether it be a strike or a picket line, a protest, a rally, or sit-in – even events that are apolitical in their nature.”

“So for example, [...] there was a movie screening in a park [...] regarding the 2012 [student strikes].

We received tickets there,” Nelson explained.

Increased police violence in face of protests Nelson suggests the police re-

sponse to the controversy has just been “way more violence.”

“Within a month of the P-6 ruling [...] instead of seeing mass arrests [under P-6 or 500.1], we just saw super heavy violence from the police,” Nelson said.

According to Nelson, this is a trend that runs contrary to what is supposed to be the SPVM’s public image, pursuant to which it tries to keep everyone safe.

Remembering the 2015 May Day protests, Nelson said, “[The police] had tear gas being shot into Centre Eaton, and there were kids, there were people, there was a family that ended up in the hospital. [...]

It’s [unbelievable] because they’ve completely disregarded everyone.”

Weizfeld, who also attended the May Day protests, stated that the police, realizing that tickets given under P-6 and article 500.1 of the Highway Safety Code “were likely to be thrown out of court,” instead “escalated it, [...] and charged us under the criminal code.”

“What the police want to accomplish with such charges is intimidation. They want to intimidate people so they don’t come back to a demonstration,” Weizfeld said.

“The justification has always been that we are the aggressors, or we are the people who attacked first or threw something,” Nelson said. “Now, we’re seeing the police just automatically crackdown before a protest even starts. [...] The police are no longer needing justifications for violence.”

SEPT. 10 & 11 Student Centre Shatner Ballroom 9-9 9-9

The McGill University Library and Archives is launching digitized editions of historic McGill University newspapers with a Trivia Night!

The launch will take place on Monday, Sept. 21, from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Faculty Club Ballroom (3450 McTavish St.).

Space is limited, so please RSVP at rsvp.libraries@mcgill.ca This exciting digitization project spans from the late 1870s to 2001 and includes past and current McGill newspapers such as The McGill Daily, Le DĂŠlit, The Outlook and The Martlet, as well as MacDonald Campus newspapers. To view the digitized publications, please visit https://archive.org/details/mcgilluniversitystudentpublications The McGill University Library and Archives wishes to thank the Harold Crabtree Family Foundation for their generous support of this initiative.

Please contact (514) 398-5710 for more information.

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News

September 8, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

5

Student federation talks see disagreement over vote systems Quebec student associations create two new federations

Cem Ertekin The McGill Daily

S

ince last April, student associations across Quebec have been deliberating on the creation of a new provincial student federation that would replace the dormant Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ).

According to Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) VP External Emily Boytinck, a functioning student federation is necessary to increase the reach of student associations that are mandated to lobby the provincial government.

In an interview with The Daily, Boytinck said, “In my job description as VP External, it says ‘lobby the government,’ but I can’t just call up the Minister of Education for a meeting. [...] I can’t just write my own research report, with all my spare time, and go give it to the government.”

“If SSMU doesn’t join a student federation, then our voice just honestly won’t be represented at the governmental level.”

Former and current members of FEUQ at the table included SSMU, McGill’s Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS), the Concordia Student Union (CSU), and the 40,000-student Fédération des associations étudiantes du campus de l’Université de Montréal (FAÉCUM), which left FEUQ in March. During the talks, an interim organization known as the Projet pour le mouvement étudiant (PPME) was created and tasked with setting the modalities for the creation of a new federation.

The PPME released a contract that could be signed by interested student associations, and, according to SSMU VP External Emily Boytinck, the interested associations also contributed money toward the realization of the goals of the PPME.

“If SSMU doesn’t join a student federation, then our voice just honestly won’t be represented at the governmental level.”

Emily Boytinck, SSMU VP External

Manuela Galindo Carvajal | The McGill Daily “SSMU, however, did not sign the contract or put in money,” Boytinck told The Daily. “It was quite abrupt and there [were] a lot of organizations that were not feeling how abrupt and fast-paced a lot of people wanted to move.”

Several student organizations were unsatisfied with the proceedings of the PPME, criticizing the movement for recreating the dynamics of FEUQ. These organizations began a new project known colloquially as Vision commune.

The organizations who left the table for the Vision commune were mainly “regional organizations, as well as [the Association des étudiantes et étudiants de la Faculté des sciences de l’Éducation de l’UQAM (ADEESE)],” Boytinck explained.

By the end of the summer, the PPME became what is now known as the Union étudiante du Québec (UEQ), and Vision commune became the Association for the Voice of Education in Quebec (AVEQ).

While some student associations have chosen to side with only one of the two options (UEQ or AVEQ), others (such as SSMU and PGSS) have decided to sit at both tables. Notably, FAÉCUM is more

in favour of UEQ and ADEESE is more in favour of AVEQ. “One association, one vote” vs. semi-proportional representation The main difference between the two new student federations has to do with their voting systems.

Similar to a certain extent to FEUQ, UEQ employs a double majority system, wherein each decision must first be approved through a “one association, one vote” system, and then through a semiproportional system, which gives more weight to the votes of more crowded associations.. In contrast, and like the more direct-democratic Association syndicale pour une solidarité étudiante (ASSÉ), AVEQ employs only the “one association, one vote” system.

In an interview with The Daily, CSU President Terry Wilkings said, “Having been a member association of the FEUQ, [we believe that UEQ’s] approach is one [that] leads to a high degree of factionalism, given that the votes are proportional to size and, therefore, voices around the table aren’t treated with the same value.”

“Whereas the AVEQ model, where each association shares equal weight in the conversation, leads to

more constructive dialogue and leads to decisions that are more representative of the entire province, of the entire region,” Wilkings continued.

Nicolas Lavallée, secretarygeneral of FAÉCUM, denies that UEQ’s voting system is similar to that of FEUQ.

“[We believe that UEQ’s] approach is one [that] leads to a high degree of factionalism, given that the votes are proportional to size.”

Terry Wilkings, CSU president “We were trying to reach consensus on [the issue of voting systems] and we had collectively planned to speak about it later in the summer. But at a certain point, some associations left and created

what seems to be called AVEQ,” Lavallée told The Daily.

FAÉCUM not included in deliberations on AVEQ Lavallée also argued that FAÉCUM was not allowed into the deliberations about AVEQ. “It was restricted for us and many associations to attend the first AVEQ meetings [...] at the beginning. We were invited once,” Lavallée explained.

“That’s partially the truth,” said ADEESE External Affairs Officer Marjorie Cyr-Beaudin in French in an email to The Daily.

“However, it’s important to understand the context that explains this temporary exclusion. Because of previous collaborations with each other, the associations participating in the creation of AVEQ chose to set up certain basics (voting method, values, et cetera) before inviting the entirety of Quebec’s university student associations,” Cyr-Beaudin said.

Wilkings characterized Lavallée’s statement as “misleading,” in concurrence with Cyr-Beaudin’s statement.

“I don’t think it was really about being exclusionary at all. It was more about presenting something that had adequate time to be produced.”

6

News

September 8, 2015 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com

McGill breaks world record for largest smoothie Executive chef says fruit cost approximately $10,000

Katerina Mosquera-Cardi | Photographer Arianee Wang The McGill Daily

O

n September 1, McGill once again set out to make it into the Guinness Book of World Records. Similar to McGill’s previous attempts over the past three years, which included the world’s largest fruit salad in 2012, McGill concocted the world’s largest smoothie using thousands of kilograms of cantaloupes and watermelons from the Macdonald Farm, berries grown in Quebec, and fairtrade bananas.

As per Oliver de Volpi, Food and Dining Services Executive Chef, the goal was originally to create a 3,800-litre smoothie. Although the end product only measured in at 3,121.7 litres, the university’s concotion beat the record set by its predecessor (in Sydney, Australia) by over 800 litres.

Starting at approximately noon, thousands of fruits, and

litres of yogurt and juice were blended together at Lower Field.

One hundred volunteers worked together to chop and blend all the fruits in order to meet the Guinness rule that requires the smoothie be free of chunks.

Not everyone was happy about the mammoth beverage, however.

Paniz Khosroshahy, a U2 student in Women’s Studies and Computer Science who passed by the event, commented on a pitcher of wasted smoothie left on the field. “We started drinking from the pitcher and a staff person came over and told us that we shouldn’t drink it because it has milk and it’s been sitting there all day in that container and [it has] gone bad,” she told The Daily in an email.

Senior Director of Student Housing and Hospitality Services Matthieu Laperle. “One of the white plastic containers [image on left] we used to hold the

Smoothie waste. Aidan Gilchrist-Blackwood | Photographer smoothie before it was poured into the big tank was inadvertently left on the field, and there were about 100 portions or so left in the vat at the end.”

Nevertheless, Laperle was content with the record-breaking event. “Every year, we try to do a special activity on campus to welcome all the students. At the same time, we try to promote what we do [which is] the food offering on campus,” he said.

Laperle added, “It’s a good way to welcome all the McGill community, but also to be in touch with Montreal. We try to invite the Montrealers to visit us, and also to see what we do at McGill.”

He also stated, “It’s a nice way to show we’re sustainable,” referring to the use of fairtrade and local products, as well as the event’s strict separation of recyclable and compostable waste.

According to an email from Laperle, 2,100 litres of the smoothie

were served to the crowd that flocked to the field, over 600 litres were donated to the Old Brewery Mission, and more than 150 litres were allocated to the Royal Victoria College (RVC) Dining Hall.

Khosroshahy said, “It’s frustrating to see that in the face of all these budget cuts, we have the budget to make [3,121.7] litres of smoothie. It’s irrelevant that these fruits came from Mac campus. What’s important is that the resources for this smoothie could have gone into supporting more crucial services on our campus.”

Jamie Snytte, a U2 Cognitive Science student told The Daily, “The smoothie is kind of just for show.”

“This incident was a clear waste of my tuition money as a student and I’m very frustrated,” Khosroshahy said.

Aside from the costs of the ingredients that went into the world’s largest smoothie, the venture incurred additional costs.

Laperle confirmed in an email to The Daily that “there were costs associated with having the Guinness representative here to monitor the preparation of the smoothie and declare it to be the world’s largest.” He added, “These costs were anticipated and factored into the cost of the event.”

The bounty of fruit came at a high cost to the university. According to de Volpi, the fruit alone cost approximately $10,000.

Laperle also commented that the venture did not represent a significant cost to the university, as both the yogurt and juice used were donated. In addition, Laperle and de Volpi noted that the tent, in which the record was broken, did not cost the university anything.

“There [are] some costs [that are not] paid by us. We have been able to work with alumni [on], for example, the tent. We did not pay for the tent, but we have to pay [for] security,” stated Laperle.

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DENITIA AND SENE. + BRANKO (BURAKA SOM SISTEMA)

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TIM HECKER Fog Works II

The Origin album launch

BARBARA LYNN + LIL’ BUCK SINEGAL + THE KEY-LITES

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Times Infinity Volume One album launch

NINA SKY October 10

Festival international de la littérature

WILLIAM BASINSKI Followed by a discussion October 21

CINEMA EVENTS

+ Jay Atwill

October 24

Live album recording

November 6

BOUTIQUE

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8

News

September 8, 2015 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com

Schulich School of Music introduces mandatory mental health course “Pilot project” to test curriculum-integrated mental health service Alexandra Villalobos News Writer

W

ith the start of the 2015-16 academic year, McGill’s Schulich School of Music will be implementing a mandatory course that aims to reduce and prevent acute stress and anxiety in students.

According to Mental Health Education Coordinator Emily Yung, the stress that music students face is unique, as they have to deal with competitive auditions and performance anxiety, amongst other things. Without education on selfcare methods, many crumble under the constant pressure to do well, some start to miss classes, and others suffer injuries.

“Music students have to deal with the pressure of performance, meaning they must be able to handle pressure well, have good self-esteem, [...] and navigate through obstacles with good mental health,” Jacqueline Leclair, Associate Dean, Academic and Student Affairs, told The Daily.

Interested in her students’ psychological well-being, Leclair approached Nancy Low, Clinical Director at the McGill Mental Health Service, to work out a program. Her goal was to find novel ways aside from therapy, that are economically reasonable, and would allow her students to work on their wellness.

There is an ardent focus on mental health in athletics programs where they have moved away from the “no pain, no gain” mentality, Leclair explained. Leclair spoke to sports psychologists in hopes of creating for music students what

“Music students have to deal with the pressure of performance, meaning they must be able to [...] navigate through obstacles with good mental health.”

Jacqueline Leclair, Associate Dean, Academic and Student Affairs

has already been made for athletes, a model that places personal wellbeing as a priority.

The focus of the new program will include talks on the Alexander technique, a method that teaches students to move mindfully through life and makes use of services offered to athletes, such as massage therapy.

“To me this is like a pilot project.

I don’t think it should be exclusively music. This year we’re testing it out, seeing what it would be like if other than just waiting in the Brown building, we connect with students and faculty, meet them where they are.”

Alexandra Villalobos | Photographer

Giuseppe Alfonsi, Associate Clinical Director at the McGill Mental Health Service Incoming students will now be required to take the course Music as a Profession, to be taught by Leclair, and partake in a peer mentorship program. Each new student will be assigned a senior student mentor trained by McGill Mental Health Service.

Leclair believes that simple questions like “How are you?” and “Are you sleeping and eating well?” are necessary in sustaining student well-being. Her initiative will also include creating a student hub, a physical space students can use in the New Music Building that is filled with resources on how to help students in distress, mental health, and injury prevention.

Music as a Profession will also teach students how to practice ef-

New Music Building. ficiently and will include lecturers that will speak on topics ranging from leadership to website design to music injury prevention. Guest lecturers will include alumni such as performing violinist John Austin, who will speak on the Alexander technique and professional opportunities.

According to Giuseppe Alfonsi, Associate Clinical Director at the McGill Mental Health Service, the program has been a project in progress all summer, and there has been talk on expanding the program to other faculties in the near future.

Alfonsi worked with psychology professor Richard Koestner, who

Alexandra Villalobos | Photographer lectures on well-being and its predictors, to formulate a presentation on self-determination theory, a theory of human motivation, for the course.

“To me this is like a pilot project.

I don’t think it should be exclusively music. This year we’re testing it out, seeing what it would be like if other than just waiting in the Brown building, we connect with students and faculty, meet them where they are,” Alfonsi told The Daily.

The plan for the future is to eventually have professional peer partnerships where groups of students learn wellness strategies from licensed professionals and trained peers. Alfonsi

described the program as taking “regular actions and strategies that can be used to boost wellness, and offering it in a relatively low-intensity environment – a class. It’s not a miracle cure but the notion is that these students will be getting a sense of how to do what they need to do.”

According to CBC, McGill is the first university in Canada to make mental health content required in the Music curriculum, and Leclair hopes that doing so will improve the mental health of students and “dispel incorrect ideas regarding mental health [to] ensure a smoother and more successful future.”

Commentary

September 8, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

9

A school at full feminist capacity Why there’s no such thing as too much feminism Paniz Khosroshahy Commentary Writer

I

n December 2014, I decided to start a feminist club at McGill called McGill Students for Feminisms. I was asked, again and again, “Isn’t there a feminist club here already?” The answer was no, but until then I had not fully considered the impact of the sentiment that this club must already exist. Part of my desire to start a new club was rooted in my disappointment with social justice movements at McGill. I found that many of them were attracting the same relatively small group of people and, in all my naivete, I had the grand goal of appealing people who wouldn’t be normally present at every activist event on campus, or who wouldn’t take a Women’s Studies course.

Unfortunately, when myself and my fellow club members applied to the SSMU Interest Group Committee (IGC), which oversees the acceptance of new clubs, for official club status within SSMU, I was told that our club’s application had been rejected on the basis of overlap with the Union for Gender Empowerment (UGE). The UGE, a collective whose members are very dear friends of mine, does an amazing job fighting the gender binary through support and educational resources, which is an important aspect of feminist action. But the existence of this resource in no way precludes the creation of a club focused on serving as a general hub for feminisms on campus. Although I discovered that there are many difficulties that come with trying to maintain a solid political stance while simultaneously appealing to broad groups of people, I maintain that making feminism accessible to more people is important.

Despite this, I was told by the IGC that there were “so many feminist clubs” on campus that our club would not be improving student life. We appealed this decision, this time with a letter of support from the UGE (as suggested by the IGC), with an extensive list of all clubs and groups on campus with an anti-oppressive mandate, their approach, audience, and how we would differ from them. We were rejected again – we were told that our list of clubs “made the overlap with other groups even clearer” and that we wouldn’t be able to reapply “without substantial changes” to our application.

Lia Elbaz | The McGill Daily Subsequent requests to meet with the IGC and VP Clubs & Services were denied, as it was apparently too late for anything to be done by the time we received responses to our requests.

The very fact that we do live in a patriarchal society is evidence that more feminism is needed. And it is needed here at McGill.

I have tried to forget how demoralizing this was to the wonderful and dedicated team of feminists I have been working with, who, in the span of just three months, organized seven events in the winter semester. This made me wonder: is there a limit to how much feminism is allowed in a patriarchy?

I chose McGill because of Montreal’s reputation for activism. In some ways, the city has lived up to this reputation – McGill and Montreal are both packed with social justice events and movements. At McGill, we have the feminist publication the F Word, the UGE, the Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society (SACOMSS), and a Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) branch.

These groups may have a feminist mandate, but having a feminist mandate as part of a broader mandate does not mean these groups

focus solely on feminist activism and events as such, and does not mean that there is no room for more feminist spaces. In a patriarchal society, there appears to be a quota on the number of feminist spaces allowed.

Not all feminisms are the same and not all feminists have the same approach to different issues. There is room for many more feminist groups to flourish at McGill, like a pro-choice group, an interfaith feminist group, a women of colouronly group, or even a feminist book club. Saying otherwise is like saying it would be okay to merge NDP, Liberal, and Conservative McGill into one club, and salsa, tango, ballroom dancing, and swing groups into another, because politics are politics and dance is dance, right?

As of now, there are eleven music clubs, seven dance clubs, and more charity clubs than I can count listed on the Activities Night website. But another feminist club?

Now that’s something McGill just doesn’t need.

The idea that there is too much feminism is incredibly flawed to begin with, and only serves to reinforce the normalcy of the patriarchy. There can’t be too much feminism, ever, in a patriarchy.

There can’t be too much anti-racism in a white supremacist society, and there can’t be too much queer activism in a heteronormative society. The very fact that we do live in a patriarchal society is evidence that more feminism is needed. And it is needed here at McGill, where a modest request for a few hours of women-only gym time faced hostile backlash, and had negotiations unilaterally shut down by Ollivier Dyens, the Deputy Provost (Stu-

dent Life and Learning); where three students were allowed to stay on the football team for over a year after being charged with sexually assaulting a Concordia student; where a Conservative McGill letter addressed its members as “fellow preservers of the patriarchy.” How feminist is our campus when all of the above events took place within the last few years?

Not all feminisms are the same and not all feminists have the same approach to different issues.

Having talked to fellow feminists at other universities, I’ve realized that the “too much feminism” narrative is common at other student unions. At the University of British Columbia (UBC), students had to fight to get the UBC Feminist Club chartered by the Alma Mater Society because there was already a women’s centre and a sexual assault centre operating on campus (along with 14 Christian clubs, but who’s counting?). It took two years of student activism and pressure to convince Concordia that it needed a sexual assault centre, which was finally established in 2013. The “too much activism” narrative is not limited to feminism; at McMaster University, the student union denied status for the United in Colour, a group aimed at empowering people of colour, stating that its service was unnecessary because there was already a

Black students’ union on campus.

The idea that there can ever be “too much feminism,” or too much resistance to any kind of oppression, contributes to a society in which under-represented voices are silenced when they demand the space they deserve.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing about this experience is that a lot of the IGC committee members probably identify as feminists. But feminism is more than a label, and identifying with it does not mean you can’t unwittingly behave in an anti-feminist manner. I have many self-identified feminist friends that believe in reverse racism, and that men’s rights activism may be necessary, and that no opinion can be harmful if it’s just an opinion, and that being a “loud-mouthed feminist” makes me part of the problem. To my dismay, half of the IGC consists of women, and one of the men on the committee was the founder of the Women for Women International chapter at McGill. I say to my dismay because I expect more from women and their so-called allies.

So let me tell you this, my beloved SSMU: your professed commitment to social justice leadership is misrepresentative if you refuse to see the value in having more feminist spaces on our campus.

To be a feminist, you don’t need to join us at every march, talk, and conference, but you do need to be aware of the value and the necessity of a diversity of feminisms on our campus.

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

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Commentary

September 8, 2015 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com

The orange drift

Why the NDP’s move to the right is part of a global pattern Gregoire Beaune Commentary Writer

A

s we enter the second month of the federal election campaign, political pundits and various defenders of the current order promise us chaos and instability if a progressive New Democratic Party (NDP) government is elected.

And yet, though the NDP is polling higher than ever in recent history and could well form the next government, they have no reason to worry. The NDP has gradually shifted to the right on the political spectrum, abandoning many of its past progressive stances. This is nothing new: the deradicalization of progressive parties is something of an unbreakable rule in the history of liberal democracies. Voluntarily or not, these parties always end up capitulating to the pressures of the ruling class in the capitalist order, shattering the hopes of millions of people and demonstrating the limits of electoral politics.

The is plenty of examples of the NDP’s shift to the right. One worrying sign was the party’s decision to abandon any and all reference to socialism in its constitution. In doing so, it surrendered a powerful symbol of opposition to capitalism – an economic structure that has as its sole guideline for success the rapid accumulation of profit, which sees natural resources and human life as disposable for the sake of larger bank accounts and has brought us time and time again to the brink of ecological and human catastrophe.

The NDP has also abandoned its hardline anti-austerity position, leaving us to wonder whether this will pave the road for future dismantling of public services. The NDP promises a “balanced budget” in its first year in office; in so doing, it condones the discourse of austerity, and shows that it would have no issue enacting policies that worsen the suffering of the most disadvantaged people in our society, as they disproportionately affect women and marginalized groups. Tom Mulcair himself, the leader of the NDP, has been quoted as praising the “winds of liberty” of former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s brutally neoliberal Conservative government.

Importantly, the provincial NDP in Alberta sees no problem in the extraction of tar sands and the construction of pipelines that accompanies it, and thus has no problem denying the most basic rights of Indigenous people in Northern Alberta, allowing the continuation of extreme environmental degrada-

tion, the pollution of water sources, and ultimately the undermining of Indigenous autonomy. The NDP’s increasingly staunch support for the State of Israel’s violent policies toward Palestinians is also problematic. One NDP candidate from Nova Scotia holding a critical stance toward Israel, Morgan Wheeldon, has already been forced to resign during this campaign, showing that there is no space in the NDP for critical analysis of Canada’s complicity in Israeli settler colonialism.

Is a party overall so willing to shift around its policies and concede to capitalist pressure at all qualified to help bring about a better, more equal, democratic, and flourishing Canada? I say no.

Worst of all, no progressive party is immune to such a disintegration of its ideals. Capitalists, as a class, own all the means of production and all the mainstream media, and have instrumental control of the state through lobbying. They also have access to class weapons such as the capacity to relocate entire industries at the cost of thousands of jobs, as well as the simple yet disastrous tool of capital flight, whereby capitalists move valuable assets and capital to another country because of political events. It is then not surprising that progressive parties are so eager to negotiate: those with economic power wield enormous influence on electoral politics, and so the consequences of not falling in line would be disastrous for them.

Those with economic power wield enormous influence on electoral politics, and so the consequences of not falling in line would be disastrous.

We can see this dynamic consistently throughout history and in recent years. For example, in Greece – a country that is suffering a humanitarian crisis and a drop in the quality of life akin to the effects of a war on its soil, caused by the austerity policies imposed by the European capitalists and technocrats – a progressive (and maybe even radical) party arose, known as Syriza. Its members came from

Hanna Donato | Photographer the countless pockets of grassroots resistance in Greek society, and they were determined to end austerity once they gained control of the state. A series of bitter and intense negotiations began with the European Union, which continued throughout the summer, culminating in a referendum on what national economic policies should be pursued. The result of this referendum was an astounding expression of support for a break from austerity politics, and possibly a departure from the fundamentally antidemocratic European Economic and Monetary Union. And yet the party surrendered, abandoned its progressive policies, and let austerity through the gates. It is now facing party implosion, and is fishing for support in the older centre-left and centre-right political spaces.

European labour parties are another example of this phenomenon of rightward drift. They all began quite like the NDP, as a group of socialists and social democrats hoping to achieve a break from capitalism through elections and the use of state power. Until 1995, the UK Labour Party even had a clause in its constitution listing “the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange” as a goal. Without exception, these parties became supporters of neo-liberalism.

Nowadays, they sometimes even play on racial lines and anti-immigration stances, as in Sweden or France, to help maintain a fragile status quo. Their surrender has left the field wide open for right-wing, anti-immigration, and xenophobic parties to turn the European conti-

nent into a fortress.

As for the NDP, it is not even waiting to be in power to capitulate – it is doing so now, in the hope of broadening its voter support, by appearing reasonable and legitimate to the economic elite of the country.

What can we do, then, if we believe in the potential to organize ourselves to bring about a more equal, non-oppressive society? If our collective understanding of politics is carefully limited to participating in electoral campaigns, voting, and then ceasing all political participation, it all seems quite bleak indeed.

With such an understanding of politics, one can only reach the conclusion that we are doomed to choose between Capitalist A and Socially Minded Capitalist B, and that there are no solutions to entrenched exploitation and environmental destruction.

And yet, there is hope. Change, progress, and human emancipation can be spearheaded into existence. Working and disenfranchised people have claimed major victories throughout history, but let me be clear: it was never due to a vote. Their successes were the fruit of occupations, mass protests, demanding immediate concessions from those in power, lest everything be blown up, to be reconstructed again by the people – in other words, direct action with the aim of scaring the shit out of the bourgeoisie. Women didn’t win their right to vote through the conscientious voting of others, they did so by carrying out militant actions throughout the first part of the 20th century. Black people didn’t end the Jim Crow laws enforcing racial

segregation by voting, but by rioting, by organizing, and by prefiguring a better society. Low-income workers didn’t gain minimum wage laws and state protection by voting, but by occupying their workplaces, striking en masse.

The solution is simple and yet so complicated. It lies in direct action, in direct-democratically managed spaces, in international solidarity. It lies in breaking away from the state and from capitalism, and taking care of ourselves and each other instead. It lies in refusing to let representative politics co-opt our movements. There are people waging this kind of struggle in Canada: Indigenous peoples and environmental activists blocking the construction of pipelines; student unions here in Quebec organizing themselves on a radical and democratic basis; community members holding neighbourhood assemblies and support groups; unionized workers getting ready for a fall strike.

I am not telling you not to vote – do vote if you wish to, pressure the NDP and other parties, and resist their inevitable rightward shift. Engage in reformist struggles – which, after all, can coexist and interplay with revolutionary organizing in a mutually beneficial relationship.

But as you cast your ballot, remember that there is much more to do, and that if you aim for real change, it must be forcefully taken and not politely requested.

Gregoire Beaune is a U3 Philosophy and Political Science student.

To contact him, email gregoire. beaune@mail.mcgill.ca.

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September 8, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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Letters Submit your own: letters@mcgilldaily.com

Resources available to deal with sexual harassment and abuse of power Re: “Let’s talk about teacher” (September 1, Features, page 11).

Dear Former Student, My priority is student safety and well-being. I know that it isn’t easy to share a personal story. I want to extend my office’s support to you, and offer to help you figure

out what your options and rights are in this situation.

There are additional relevant policies that were not identified in your article, but that we can help you explore such as the Regulation on Conflict of Interest.

To the other students who may be reading this, if you find

yourself in an unwelcome or difficult situation, please know that you do not have to go through this alone. My office is always available to you. We will preserve your anonymity as completely as possible, and we will help you explore your options.

As mentioned in the article,

acts of sexual harassment are covered by McGill’s Policy on Harassment, Sexual Harassment and Discrimination Prohibited

by Law. Allegations of breaches of this policy are handled by Harassment Assessors.

If you have any questions or concerns about the reporting pro-

cess, the Office of the Dean of Students or the Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society (SACOMSS) both offer support, information and accompaniment through the process.

to codify. As such, our professor might well find his way out of the mess he created, another notch on his belt.

All of which points out the profound inadequacies of ‘consent’ as a moral and social category for a decent society. Consent is better than coercion: that is the best thing we can say about it. Otherwise it only asks what one person can persuade another

person to do, without any concern for where they came from, what they need, and who they are. It takes the humanity out of human interactions. Worse, it pretends that the two parties are equal, and then insists that they deal with the consequences. It is a burlesque on equality that tends to suffocate the real thing and to favour those who care the least about anyone but themselves.

I have no wish to pry into the sex lives of my less admirable colleagues. But I do think that McGill should consider a clearer policy that identifies such relationships as inherently unequal, if not predatory. Even if everyone consented.

—Andre Costopoulos, Dean of Students

The trouble with legal consent I am writing in response to the anonymous article, “Let’s talk about teacher” (September 1, Features, page 11), in which a recent McGill graduate tells of an extended affair with a McGill professor. With admirable candor, she explains how it went from bad to worse and left her feeling cornered, alone, and even threatened. I also want to draw attention to the response by the Dean of Students, Andre Costopoulos,

who notes that there are indeed resources on campus to help with such predicaments.

If the professor were to tell his side of the story, he would no doubt focus on the apparent fact that no one ever said no. No physical coercion was ever involved.

Two adults had sex, period. As for non-physical forms of intimidation or manipulation, those are devilishly hard to define, and thus

—Jason M. Opal, Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director, History and Classical Studies

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Birthright:

Ten days in apartheid Israel I

laughed out loud when my mother, a Reform Jew of Russian and Ukrainian descent, told me I should go on Birthright. She, as a third-generation Jewish-American with little to no knowledge of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, couldn’t understand why the thought of going on Birthright was such a joke to me.

I told her I’d go if she wrote my application, including the essays, which she did.

I dreaded the phone interview after receiving the confirmation email that I was a candidate for the trip. I had picked the most secular trip offered, something called “Israel Outdoors,” which promised hiking, kayaking, and camel rides. Even then, I was sure that the fact that my father is Algerian and his family members are practicing Muslims would disqualify me from the trip.

Written by Sonia Larbi-Aissa Illustration by Yasmine Mosimann Photos by Sonia Larbi-Aissa

Features The call finally came. I was walking across campus from my Arabic summer course when a woman called from Washington D.C. to ask me how I felt about Judaism.

She started out slow, inquiring if I was taking any Jewish Studies courses at my university and if I celebrated any Jewish holidays. She then asked about the origins of both my parents, starting with my mother. That was easy.

My mother’s family originated from Odessa, a port town in either Russia or Ukraine, depending on the year. They were all Jewish, although not particularly religious. My ancestors immigrated to Michigan through Ellis Island in the late 19th century.

The woman on the phone then asked about my father. I told her he was an atheist. She asked about the religion of his family.

I told her my father’s family is Muslim. She replied with a deadpan “Oh,” that I still can’t quite decipher. Her response should have been a huge red flag for what was to come.

Somehow, despite my Arab father, I was offered a spot on the trip. I was to leave for Israel mid-August, during the hottest part of the summer, to visit the country for ten days.

My reality growing up was entirely a Jewish one. After moving to the U.S. from France, where I was born, I was enrolled in a Jewish day school. There, I learned the Hebrew alphabet alongside the English one, and spent hours of my day praying in Hebrew and studying the Torah, as well as learning math and science.

At Jewish day school, we were taught to love Israel like it was our mother, or the most precious thing in existence that needed to be defended at all cost. Israeli Independence Day was celebrated with more zeal than the

September 8, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily Fourth of July. I only stayed for four years before leaving due to anti-Arab sentiment, but during those four years, I never saw a map that delineated Gaza or the West Bank – the Israel I loved didn’t include Palestine.

Around this time, I stopped believing in ‘god.’ I still considered, and consider myself to this day, ethnically Jewish. My time at the Jewish day school educated me about our traditions and the lore surrounding them. I carry that mythology with me wherever I go, just like someone who grew up with another religion carries theirs.

My father never talked to me about Islam.

I awaited my trip with trepidation. Days before leaving, I had asked a few members of McGill Students in Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights to point me in the direction of some readings to do about the conflict. But after a week of reading, I still felt drastically uninformed about the region I was about to visit for ten days.

After landing in Tel-Aviv, my group was given paper passes instead of stamps on our passports to enter the country. We swiftly passed through customs and were shuttled two hours north to a hotel in Tiberias, a small town on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.

The first hike we took was to Mount Bental, a mountain in the occupied Golan Heights and “a key strategic point for Israel” during the Yom Kippur War of 1973 due to its proximity to Syria. Upon arrival, we immediately descended into the long halls of a military bunker, and crowded into a dark and smelly room as our tour guide regaled us with the tale of a group of Israeli soldiers holed up in a bunker “half the size of this one” during the Yom Kippur War.

We were told that 1 per cent of the Israeli population died in the Yom Kippur war, which we were told would be the equivalent of three million Americans if 1 per cent of the U.S. population died in the same war.

Because that’s how equivalents work.

While in the Golan, there was no mention that of the territory being occupied.

All of the violence discussed was couched in the tone of “aggression against the State of Israel.” This would be a common theme throughout my trip.

On my way back to the bus, I stopped at a fruit stand selling apples and jams. A Druze man let me sample his fig jelly and told me that he was a former Arabic teacher. I told him, in my awkward Modern Standard Arabic, that I studied Arabic at university.

He then quizzed me on my vocabulary and taught me some new words. At one point, he pointed to his heart and said a few sentences I couldn’t understand. I wish I had. I nodded, he smiled, and I got on my bus. Immediately, people from my group asked me what language I was speaking. I told them I was speaking Arabic. They thought it was pretty cool.

Back in Tiberias, my group was told that a famous Israeli musician was coming to sing to us after dinner. He sang us a few songs and told us his life story – his military service, his subsequent debauchery in Thailand (full moon parties, anyone?), and his road trip across the U.S.. He then tangentially launched into a shockingly racist diatribe on how dealing with Israel’s Arab neighbours was impossible because “it was like dealing with different tribes, not nations.” He took five minutes to explain to us his conception of the difference between Sunni and Shiite Muslims – which was concerningly the only ‘analysis’ my group received on the subject

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during the entirety of the trip – and at one point, mockingly ululated and spoke jibberish Arabic to qualify his point.

The next morning, we were bussed to the mountain village of Tzfat, the centre of Kabbalah or Jewish mysticism. There we were led to a building called “Ascent,” a Chabad, or Orthodox Jewish hostel and learning centre. After listening to the incredibly charismatic, yet analytically shallow, spokesperson tell us about his experience with Orthodox Judaism, the floor was opened to questions.

I asked him about the role of women in Orthodox Judaism and what I heard in returnwas the scariest justification for sexism I had ever been faced with.

According to him, Orthodox women are inherently spiritual and holy. It’s the men who need to constantly work on attaining religious perfection while the women have the ‘privilege’ of exercising their divine right to bring life into the world. The women also need to be protected – because they are treasures – and cover themselves to help men overcome their “predatory instincts” toward physical beauty and allow men to get to know the “soul” of the women. When we left Ascent, a few of my group members commented on how “nice” the answer to my question was.

After the illuminating experience at Ascent, we were allowed to roam freely down a street toward our bus. I was later told that a guy on my trip named Daniel*, who was of Chinese and Jewish descent, was asked by an Orthodox Jewish man at an outdoor table, if he was interested in putting on tefillin, an item traditionally used by men in prayer. While Daniel was being wrapped, the man asked if his mother was Jewish. Daniel’s mother isn’t Jewish, and when he told him so, the man told Daniel he wasn’t Jewish

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September 8, 2015 The McGill Daily | www.mcgilldaily.com

either and started taking the wrappings off.

Our tour guide told us this story a few days later, stating that the Orthodox Jewish man in Tzfat was not ‘acting Jewish,’ as Judaism is a state of mind, not solely the result of your matrilineal heritage. Apparently, the Orthodox man would beg to differ.

After Tzfat, we were bussed to Jerusalem, where we headed to a park for icebreakers. Along the way, four police officers on horseback galloped through a red light toward an intersection a few streets away.

Police vehicles were blocking the intersection. No one acknowledged what had happened. It wasn’t until later that someone told me that a huge demonstration had occurred that night by Orthodox Jews of the neighbourhood in protest of a movie theatre staying open on Shabbat. That was the first time I truly realized that the everyday Israeli experience was being purposefully hidden away from us.

The next day we visited the Western Wall. Immediately after being dropped off in the Old City, I was on edge. There was an indescribable tension in the air that prevented me from standing still. In the Jewish Quarter, I struck up a conversation with Sam* one of the Israelis who joined our trip, about something I noticed on a sign. I had talked to him the night before and discovered he was fluent in Arabic because he had worked in intelligence during his military service, where he spent his time listening in on Yemeni phone conversations.

I asked him why the sign for the Sephardic Quarter in Jerusalem was written as “the neighbourhood for Spanish Jews” if Sephardic encompasses the Jews of North Africa and the Middle East as well. He explained to me that because the Sephardic Jews originated from Spain, that’s how they were labelled in Arabic. He asked me if I was Sephardic. I said no. I told him my mother

was Jewish and my father was Algerian. He asked me if my father was Jewish. I said no.

I told him my last name was Larbi-Aissa. He didn’t understand so he asked to see my ID. I showed it to him. He told me I should change my name – many Sephardic families do once arriving in Israel – because I was Jewish.

Before I could ask him why I couldn’t be Jewish and have an Arab last name, we had to move. My head was reeling as we reached the Western Wall and I couldn’t share in the group’s excitement at a lively Bar Mitzvah parade that approached us as we prepared to separate into the gender-segregated sections. I stood in the shade and watched as the rest of my group danced and clapped along to Bar Mitzvah songs, and couldn’t stop thinking about that alienating conversation.

According to Sam, my two ethnicities were somehow mutually exclusive.

The funny thing is, the most Arab part about me is my last name. I’ve only visited Algeria once and the only Algerian food I’ve been exposed to at home is my family’s couscous recipe. If it were up to him, my father would identify exclusively as French. He never spoke Arabic to me when I was a child, on purpose, and to this day, he encourages me to perfect my French and forget about my Arabic language studies.

That night, we gathered in the dining area of our hotel in Jerusalem for a seminar on the geopolitics of Israel. I had noticed that the majority of the hotel workers, including the waiters who cleared our dishes after meals and the concierge who worked the front desk, spoke to each other in Arabic. During the seminar we’d find out that some of them were Palestinian.

The man who gave the seminar was an Israeli PhD student who attempted to present us with a ‘balanced account’ of Israel’s history. Overall, the speaker accurately reported (as far as I know) what the ‘non-Israeli nar-

rative’ was for each event he discussed, but was highly defensive to questions. Almost immediately, when discussing “where the Palestinians of today came from,” someone raised their hand and asked if it was true that some Palestinians came from Lebanon.

The speaker retorted sharply with a jarring “Is that a question or a statement?” and sidestepped the subject. I raised my hand to ask why the Golan Heights was highlighted as non-Israeli territory in the Oslo Accords map the speaker was projecting. It was bothering me that no discussion of the occupation of the Golan Heights, somewhere we had been taken to had occurred yet, and I wanted my group to hear about it, even if only briefly. The speaker went on to say that while the Golan is considered occupied land, the European Union does not label the origin of the food produced in the Golan for export as originating from occupied land, which according to him, “is very telling.”

What interested me more than an Israeli PhD student’s summary of 100 years of history, was watching the very politics in question play out in front of us. Throughout the seminar, the hotel workers that had been taking down the buffet from our dinner were causing a bit of a commotion, quite purposely from my interpretation. They talked loudly and irreverently during the seminar.

I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but tensions were high. From time to time, a worker would have to cross between the screen and the speaker to pick up something on the other side. On a trip back to the kitchen, one worker loudly sucked his teeth, a gesture meant to signal disrespect. At one point, our trip leader entered the kitchen to ask the workers to be less disruptive, and emerged a little flustered, uttering a firm “todah,” which is thank you in Hebrew. The speaker then sarcastically commented that “any conversation ending in Todah is good.”

Immediately after, what sounded like a tray of dishes crashed to the floor.

After another day in Jerusalem, we returned to the hotel for yet another seminar.

This time, we were herded into a side room of the hotel – which I later learned was one of the hotel’s bomb shelters – to talk about anti-Semitism. No recognition was ever made of the different privileges – including but not limited to class privilege, white privilege, heterosexual privilege, male cisgender privilege, and educational privilege – which those in my group, including me, enjoy to varying extents.

At one point, the statement “Any comment against Israel is anti-Semitic” was discussed in small groups. One of the more militant attendees asserted that this statement was true because Israel is a Jewish state that does amazing things for Jews around the world – including saving all the Ethiopian Jews when they were facing prosecution. He backed up his claim by saying that the state of Israel involves itself in the affairs of all Jews, not just Israelis, to make sure that they aren’t discriminated against. Bringing up the Jewish bakery shooting in France following the attack on the Charlie Hebdo office, he said that Israel encourages French Jews to move to Israel, because living in France is “like living in a Muslim country now anyways.”

After the seminar, I was interested in hearing what Sarah*, an American-born Israeli who had moved to Israel to do her military service, had to say on the topic. She had joined our trip with the other Israelis and quickly asserted herself as the most nationalist of the bunch. To be blunt, talking to her felt like talking to a mouthpiece of the State of Israel. I sat down with her and another Israeli and asked them if they considered criticisms of the state of Israel to be anti-Semitic statements. They weren’t sure what I meant,

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“He told me I should change my name – many Sephardic families do once arriving in Israel – because I was Jewish.”

so I related to them the following: I had read a first-person narrative of a Jewish Iraqi family’s immigration to Israel in the early 1940s. The author detailed how her grandmother had arrived in Israel pregnant. The Israeli hospital told her that her child had not survived the delivery. Later, the family discovered that the child had indeed survived, but was given to an Ashkenazi family to be raised. The author discussed the two-tiered society she grew up in, where official government policies like the kidnapping of Sephardic babies goes unrecognized to this day. Naturally, no acknowledgement of the difference between the Ashkenazi and Sephardic experiences in Israel occurred on my trip.

After listening to the story, Sarah immediately launched into an account about how the Israel Defense Forces was currently in the process of ‘rescuing’ injured Syrian fighters and rehabilitating them, in a weak attempt to portray Israel as a humanitarian state. I had to wrangle her back to our original discussion and pin her down on the Sephardic kidnapping story. I asked her point blank if I was being anti-Semitic by saying that the Israeli policy in question was abhorrent. I got the sense that this was the first time she had ever contemplated the thought, or heard criticism of an Israeli governmental policy at all. In the end, the other Israeli involved in the conversation said, “I don’t know;” and we moved on.

The next day, we went to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust remembrance centre in Jerusalem, and the national cemetery immediately after. The visit to the museum was extremely powerful. The centre had a massive amount of information about the North African Jewish reality, which I had never seen in a North American Holocaust museum. The tour lingered on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and we learned about the civilian insurrec-

tion that the Jewish community organized against the Nazis. The irony was staggering in light of the way ‘civilian insurrections’ occurring daily in occupied Palestine were framed as ‘aggression and terrorism against the state of Israel’ throughout the trip.

I especially enjoyed when our tour guide, an aging British man, stopped at the last installation of the tour and asked us, “Why is this here?” He was referring to an information plaque about the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. The question was phrased rhetorically, with heavy overtones of disdain.

I got the sense that our tour guide didn’t like the emotional linkage of the Holocaust to the State of Israel any more than I did.

After the emotional experience at Yad Vashem, we were bussed to the national cemetery. There, we listened to first-person experiences of the Israelis in our group whose family members or friends had died fighting in Gaza or policing the streets of Israel. People cried. As we walked through the graves, which were predominantly of young adults between 18 and 25, someone on my trip expressed interest in finding the grave of a friend of a friend – someone who died fighting in Gaza when “Hezbollah came out of those tunnels like rats.” I corrected him and said that if it was in Gaza, it was more likely to be Hamas, but didn’t address the rat comment. How could I humanize a group of people so othered by the American and Israeli narrative that they merited being compared to rats?

After staying at the graves for quite some time, we started up the hill to the grave of Theodor Herzl, a major figure in modern Zionism. While desperately trying to recall what a friend and I had discussed about Herzl before my trip, James*, an Israeli who had spoken earlier that day about a deceased friend, approached me. This is when I learned that having that discussion

with Sarah about anti-Semitism was a mistake. James asked me if I still felt the way I felt about Israel “after today.” I was thrown.

I never had a conversation with him about Israel. He must’ve been referring to the conversation I’d had with Sarah, a conversation he was nowhere near and must have heard about through her. I feigned misunderstanding and hurried up a set of steps. James was a heavy smoker and struggled to keep up with me, so once we reached the top, he was too out of breath to rephrase his question. By the time he had caught his breath, we were already standing in a circle around Theodor Herzl’s grave. Our tour guide spoke of Herzl’s ‘dream for Israel’ and then we sang the national anthem. I thought I didn’t know it, so I stayed silent, but the song coming from my group was something I was intimately familiar with – in a prayer setting. Every morning from kindergarten to third grade, I sang this song in the middle of my prayers. Not once was I told it was the Israeli national anthem.

At best, I knew it as Hatikvah, or ‘a prayer for Israel.’ If I had never gone on Birthright, I would have never known that I unknowingly sang the Israeli national anthem for four years of my life. My skin was crawling.

The overarching assumption of Birthright is in its name – that you, as a Jew, have a right by birth to the land of Israel. Within that assumption is another, more subtle, one. It assumes that the State of Israel is a legitimate nation that ‘deserves’ the land it’s on. Israel is an exclusive state, by Jews and for Jews. No matter how many times I heard that ‘Israeli Arabs enjoyed the same rights as Israeli Jews,’ the lived experience of the average Palestinian seemed scarily similar to my understanding of the lived experience of a Black South African during the Apartheid. The colonized mi-

norities of Israel living within its borders are treated as second-class citizens and forced to endure humiliation after humiliation as Zionist settlers weave narrative after narrative justifying their presence. Birthright goes an extra step – it showcases the shiny side of Israel to tourists so they return home with only positive memories of their time there. Anything can be legitimized if you try hard enough, and Birthright tries really, really hard.

Hearing racist comments on my trip about Arabs, while unsurprising, hurt me deeply.

It hurt me not only because I felt personally affronted, but also because I was watching history repeat itself before my eyes. The Israeli state has hijacked a rhetoric of Jewish oppression in order to perpetuate the very crimes it claims to guard against. Birthright is an exclusivist program designed to glorify the construct of the Land of Israel, while simultaneously erasing and disinheriting Palestinians from their land.

This ‘free’ trip is a privilege enjoyed by those who can sufficiently ‘prove’ they are Jewish and can afford to take ten days out of their lives to play tourist. In exchange, they have to sit through seminar after seminar aimed at making them fall in love with the Israeli state. Take it from me, the tradeoff is not worth it.

I went on Birthright because I wanted to be able to critique the Israeli state from within. Would I recommend it to Jews who share my political beliefs? Absolutely not. I regret letting my mother sign me up for this trip. I regret occupying space on contested land. I regret putting myself in a position where I had to endure microaggression after microaggression against half of my identity. And to answer your question, James: no, I haven’t changed my mind. *Certain names have been changed in this article.

Sci+Tech

September 8, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

16

Making waves in the biodiesel industry

Animal fat waste could be a feasible source of renewable energy Zapaer Alip The McGill Daily

T

he use of bubbles might be a key step forward in biodiesel production. Peter Adewale, a PhD student in the Bioresource Engineering Department at McGill, has devised a method to shorten the production time of biodiesel to twenty minutes, a significant drop from previously reported production times ranging from 24 to 96 hours. The biodiesel was made from inedible tallow – a type of animal fat – using enzymes as a catalyst, and the bursting of bubbles formed by ultrasonic waves, a process known as ultrasonic mixing, to speed up the process.

While biodiesel generates significantly less environmental pollution than fossil fuels do, it has been widely disregarded as a viable alternative fuel because it is most often produced from edible crops; common sources for biodiesel include canola oil and soybean oil.

Adewale tells The Daily, “When you are using edible canola oil, you are competing with human [consumption]. Down the road, it will lead to either high cost or scarcity.”

To become a more viable alternative fuel, biodiesel would need to be made from non-edible sources such as animal fat waste, generated by the meat processing industry and tanneries.

Biodiesel can be made from either vegetable oil or animal fat. The conversion process takes time, ranging between one hour and a few days, depending on a variety of factors, such as the type of catalyst and mixing apparatus used. To get the shortest production times, companies use alkaline catalysts, because they speed up the reaction more than acid- or enzyme-based catalysts.

Originally, Adewale was interested in creating models of the interactions of methanol and animal fat to see how those two reagents mix with each other to produce biodiesel. According to Adewale, after spending two years trying to learn how to use the modelling software COMSOL, he was told by the software’s producers that what he was trying to do was simply not possible.

The level of modelling needed to simulate the particles mixing was too complicated, given the software that was available at the time.

“Eventually, I had to drop the idea,” Adewale explains.

And so, two years into what he had hoped would be a three-year PhD, Adewale decided to try an experimental approach, since dropping his theoretical modelling approach. He started by studying the characteristics – like the free fatty

acid content and melting points – of different animal fats, such as tallow, lard, choice white grease, and yellow grease, all of which could be used to make biodiesel.

Adewale noticed tallow had a high saturated fat content which made it semisolid at room temperature, unlike the others, which were mostly liquid. Curious as to how this would affect the ultrasound mixing, he chose to use waste tallow as the biodiesel source for his experiment.

The importance of time in biodiesel production The main challenge in using animal fat waste to produce biodiesel lies in the time it takes to make it.

Animal fat waste, such as tallow, contains high amounts of free fatty acids. This poses a problem, because, as Adewale explains, “Free fatty acid is one of the major disadvantages of alkaline transesterification [a process involved in biodiesel production], because free fatty acid can easily bond with alkaline to form soap, [...] which will hinder the production of biodiesel.” As a result, acid- or enzyme-based catalysts must be used, though both are slower than alkaline based catalysts.

Although acid-based catalysts do not form soap when animal fat waste is used, they leave behind a toxic mix of chemicals as a byprod-

Methanol

uct, which needs to be treated before being disposed. On the other hand, when enzyme-based catalysts are used, they only leave behind enzyme residue that is not toxic and can be disposed safely, as it is biodegradable. The glycerin that is produced in the process is used in soaps and other cosmetic products.

There is also the possibility of reusing the enzyme catalyst, in contrast with alkaline and acidic catalysts – which are typically discarded as they mix with the waste products – something which Adewale plans on looking into next.

Time is of the essence when it comes to biodiesel production. The more time it takes to make biodiesel, the more costly it becomes at the pumps. To make tallow-based biodiesel competitive, Adewale decided to try a new mixing method: instead of using the conventional mechanical stirring, he used ultrasonic cavitation mixing. In a lab setting, this meant sticking an ultrasound probe into a beaker. The ultrasound waves create bubbles and as their size increases with time, the bubbles burst and cause a large amount of dispersion. Adewale explains that “the bursting of that bubble is what is actually called the mixing effect.”

Possible industry applications It’s been known for years that using ultrasonic mixing decreases

the production time of biodiesel, and there have been plenty of research papers published that document this phenomenon. What makes Adewale’s research unique is the combination of ultrasonic mixing and the use of an enzyme catalyst. One study conducted at the Beijing University of Chemical Technology, published in 2007, found it took thirty hours to produce biodiesel from lard using conventional mixing methods.

Another study from 2008 conducted by the University of Agriculture in Pakistan in conjunction with Pakistan’s Ayub Agricultural Research Institute (AARI) produced biodiesel from waste tallow using an acid catalyst and mechanical mixing and found it took 24 hours.

“Alkaline [catalyzed biodiesel production] at the moment is the fastest – within an hour you have biodiesel, but for conventional enzyme[s], it’s like a day. But now, since we’ve been able to reduce it to twenty minutes, we’re going to compete with alkaline in terms of reaction time,” said Adewale.

However, the procedure must be improved for it to be used in industry, as the biodiesel yield in Adewale’s study was 85.6 per cent, which is slightly lower than that of conventional methods used to make biodiesel.

11% Global energy consumption

Eleven per cent of global energy consumption comes from renewable energy, including solar, wind, and biofuel, the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates.

Whether or not companies will start using tallow to make biodiesel will ultimately be determined by production costs.

Enzyme catalysts are expensive, and it is not yet clear whether or not they can be reused, and if they can, for how long.

Nonetheless, Adewale remains optimistic. He notes that some major Canadian biodiesel companies have already reached out to him to discuss his research findings. The next step for Adewale is comparing the different non-edible animal fat sources in terms of their yield and production time, and perhaps one day seeing his research used in industry to produce more sustainable biodiesel.

Ultrasonic waves create bubbles in the mixture.

Enzymes

Waste tallow

Product is spun in a centrifuge to separate out the waste.

Bubbles burst, facilitating mixing, speeding up production.

Biodiesel

POP!

Enzyme residues Waste Peter Adewale’s method produces biodiesel from waste tallow in twenty minutes.

Alice Shen | The McGill Daily

Sports

September 8, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

17

Resistance & reimagination in the ring The League of Lady Wrestlers subverts gender norms, one fight at a time Subhanya Sivajothy The McGill Daily

“

I’m from another dimension far beyond human comprehension. […] I’m a channel of countless beings,” proclaimed Princess Ula, the performance artist also known as Tanya Stasilowitch, and the founder of the League of Lady Wrestlers Montreal (LOLWM), in an interview with The Daily.

“I crowned myself [after] Princess Khutulun, a [Mongol] warrior from the 1300s. She was an athlete, a fighter, she led an army, and whoever would ask her hand in marriage, she would challenge them [to] a wrestling match.

If they lost, they would grant her their horses. If they won, they would marry her. She ended up with 10,000 horses,” Princess Ula told The Daily. “And when she passed, she entered my vessel.”

“I chose [LOLWM] as [a way] to deal with the oppression and conflict in my life. As an artist, I was always trying to find a medium to cater to my activist side. [...] The answer for me is wrestling.”

Tanya Stasilowitch, founder of the League of Lady Wrestlers Montreal The League of Lady Wrestlers, a non-hierarchical and anti-oppressive wrestling league, was originally started in Dawson City, Yukon, by wrestler Big Jody Mufferaw. It was created as an alternative to traditional professional wrestling and seeks to subvert the gender stereotypes that mainstream wrestling exploits. Today, sister leagues exist in both Toronto and, most recently, Montreal.

LOLWM had their first performance last May at the Société des arts technologiques after a year of preparation. The league’s

performers consist of femaleidentifying wrestlers who celebrate feminine identities; however, everyone regardless of gender is invited to participate within the group by working with music, sound effects, props, training, and scripting. Members create their own characters, and use the ring as a space for positivity, creativity, and conflict resolution.

Lilac Poussez, who is performed by Hannah Morrow, a LOLWM wrestler, told her genesis story to The Daily. “I myself was born on the planet Venus as it’s been named by earthly human scientists,” she said. “I named myself Lilac when I made my way to Earth and for the first time encountered this thing called struggle. [...] The lilacs embraced me and I heard this beautiful word in the language of français – the imperative of push, ‘poussez,’ which also sounds like pussy. I made that my last name, because I want to push.”

Unlike Princess Ula, who says that the “ancient art” of wrestling is “in [her] blood,” Poussez was not so sure about the whole thing at first.

“Physical combat wasn’t something that really appealed to me,” she explained. “I slowly [became] open to it once Princess Ula and I met in the forest and developed this friendship.”

This past Saturday, Poussez, Ula, and the LOLWM women took part in Ladyfest Montreal, a festival dedicated to celebrating female comedians. Working in collaboration with Women in Comedy Montreal, they held a workshop titled “Put Doubt In a Chokehold,” which worked on confidence and character building through different creative exercises.

Confidence-building workshops might seem unusual for a wrestling league, but Poussez and Ula both see the sport as therapeutic.

“I’m a very physical being. I think that by tackling someone you really get to know [them],” said Ula. “Especially if you wrestle them with care because wrestling is all about the safety of you and your partner. That’s what we believe in – not so much combat fighting in order to hurt someone, but [rather] to figure things out physically.”

“Sometimes it’s incredibly personal, as well,” Poussez added.

“Sometimes challenging someone to a match is a very intimate thing.”

Lia Elbaz | The McGill Daily John Jacob Courtney, one of the musicians who composes soundtracks for the wrestling matches, agrees.

“Wrestling isn’t really a performance,” he told The Daily. “It’s more of an intimate relation, an amazing struggle and dance. It’s an incredible thing to watch and to create these universes for, these microcosms of sound.”

Stasilowitch, Ula’s alter ego, initially studied at a pro-wrestling school, only to find out that it wasn’t a good match for her. She decided that instead she would start her own league.

“It’s been a struggle,” said Stasilowitch, now out of character.

“Wrestling is a very male-dominated sport. I just felt very pushed away […] but it only made me stronger, it fueled my fire to get me where I am.”

“I never would’ve imagined that I would get involved with a wrestling ring,” added Morrow, also out of character “But the very strong element of artistic flare, the fantasy adventure story aspect [...] that’s what drew me as a performance artist.”

The members have all gone

through training to explore their dramatic sides and develop these characters.

“Everyone involved with this project has an incredible imagination. The group is constantly surprising and astounding to me,” Morrow said.

“We provide a space that’s safe for expression, we don’t stop anyone from exploring and we’re very open to processing together.

We’re just a big family,” Stasilowitch added.

The radical reimagining of pro wrestling not only applies to the star wrestlers but also to the villains they face. One of the main evil characters is the misogynist Massimo Pop, described by Ula and Poussez as “odious, and angry,” always “mansplaining,” and putting down the women wrestlers.

Dressed in sportswear and shades, he is quickly taken down by the lady wrestlers during matches.

This on-stage critique of sexism and misogyny is informed by Stasilowitch’s lived experience. “I chose [LOLWM] as [a way] to deal with the oppression and conflict in my life,” she explained. “As an artist, I was always trying to find

a medium to cater to my activist side, and make a difference with a positive message, especially with [regard to] female strength and equality in combat sports. The answer for me is wrestling.”

Active resistance is in fact a core part of the LOLWM manifesto, which Morrow read out in part to The Daily: “We are agents, yet we are a heterogeneous group with identities and lived experiences that are all different, visibly or invisibly.

These differences inform our own personal experience of subordination. We will not imagine a resistance that is not rooted in such differences.”

Morrow went on, “It is a mutual learning and empowerment.

Resistance and reimagination are simultaneous: Resistance as active engagement with current liberation movements, and as the work to free our minds and spirits from the weight of our own experiences of oppression.”

LOLWM encourages everyone who vibes with them to reach out, either by psychic messages or email at lolwmtl@gmail.com.

Culture

September 8, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

18

Cycling for change ,Académie

L

Ballet Flamenco ina Moros

Discover Flamenco Dance: Beginner Levels and More 10 % discount for Students

Ballet Divertimento: 3505 Durocher www.flamencolinamoros.com • 514-489-4154

Songwriter Derek Olive talks folk-pop and environmentalism “What I really [like] with [the] Blue Dot [Movement] is that it’s really simple. [...]

It’s a grassroots movement that gives people like you and [me] the power to put together a plan to go and see your local mayor.”

Sarah Shahid Culture Writer

M

cGill alumnus, songwriter, and ER nurse Derek Olive released his second album Mystery and Dust earlier this year to positive reception from Canadian media. The 11-track compilation is full of hearty finger-style guitar and soft folk-pop melodies.

The project came together when Olive was searching for bandmates to play with to create a comfortable space for creativity.

“We actually went up to a cottage in the Laurentians and spent six days up there without any phone or internet, just working on the album,” Olive told The Daily.

Olive’s musical style is influenced by the works of Bruce Cockburn, Ani DiFranco, Joni Mitchell, and John Mayer. His excellent string arrangements are the results of his formal training in classical music at McGill’s Schulich School of Music.

After finishing the project, Olive chose an unconventional mode of transportation to tour his album: biking. “I’ve always loved cycling and have done numerous cycling trips before where I’ve travelled across Eastern Europe, from Pan-

Derek Olive, artist ama to Mexico City [...] and even across Canada.” The decision to bike was not merely a preference for Olive, the artist wanted to increase awareness of sustainability issues by choosing an emissionsfree mode of transportation.

In light of the upcoming federal elections, Olive wanted to

align himself with the David Suzuki Foundation’s Blue Dot Movement. The Blue Dot Movement urges different levels of Canadian government to recognize clean water, clean air, and healthy food as basic rights for all Canadians.

“I am not much of a guy who likes movements normally,” explains Olive. “I have a hard time finding a movement to fit into that I can agree with... but what I really liked with Blue Dot is that it’s really simple. [...] It’s a grassroots movement that gives people like you and [me] the power to put together a plan to go and see your local mayor and say, ‘hey this is what we want to do.’ [...] I can’t see anything to argue about, [having this] in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”

Efforts to legislate the Blue Dot Movement’s goals have been met with resistance. When a municipal declaration came before the Kawartha Lakes City council last March, councillors seemed to be more preoccupied with potential liability issues post-implementation than the spirit of the motion.

Olive ended his cycling tour with a show at Le Café at Monument-National in Montreal on September 4.

WHO TO SEE AT OAP In case you missed it, Open Air Pub (or OAP for short) is back for another week of beer, burgers, and music in Three Bares Park, also known as that ditch next to the Arts Building with a fountain in it. Here’s a list of acts you’ll regret not seeing.

—Sonia Larbi-Aissa

The McGill Daily and Le Délit are giving away 5 double passes to see

MERU

at Cinéma du Parc from Sept 4th!

No purchase necessary.

First come, first served!

See mcgilldaily.com/giveaways/ for details.

Tuesday

Wednesday

Catch Tonal Ecstasy, McGill’s oldest a cappella group as they take the OAP stage to serenade you with perfectly harmonized covers of pop, R&B, jazz, and hip-hop numbers.

Shyre is a local alt-pop project that combines orchestral violin, viola, cello, and piano with a pop-driven drumbeat. Make sure to catch their ethereal set and accompanying prose readings.

Thursday

Friday

Self-described as ‘funkadelic swing,’ Static Gold is an amalgam of twenties jazz, eighties funk, and soul.

OAP-ers are lucky to have Static Gold gracing the stage, so be sure to catch their contagious set.

In the mood for psychedelic grunge rock and jazz? Fleece has you covered. Catch their set for music that sits somewhere between BadBadNotGood and Tame Impala.

Culture

September 8, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

19

Not my pride

The commercialization of queer culture Virginia Shram Culture Writer

T

his year’s LGBTA Parade stretched down RenéLévesque on August 16 under the scorching heat, glittering brightly with every step. Diverse individuals marched in the procession – an amalgam of sports teams, religious organizations, and community groups. The event’s official brochure and scheduling, however, told a different story.

Over half of the 120-some pages in the official Montreal Pride booklet were taken up by corporate advertisements, making cursory allusions to Pride with rainbows plastered somewhere across their logos. On the sponsors page – Montreal Pride, brought to you

by Viagra! – corporations were labelled as “ambassadors” and even “friends,” depending on their funding level – furthering the idea that corporations, like people, care! For example, the Société de Transport de Montréal’s minimum donation bought it the label of ‘friend,’ which is concerning because allowing LGBTQA individuals to board public transportation is not a gracious extension of the hand of “friendship;” it’s providing a basic public service, one that shouldn’t be based on sex/ gender or sexual orientation in the first place. It’s rankling to see ads for hotels, fast food, banks, condoms, cars, and beer (among others) congratulating everyone on the fight for equal rights, because these companies had no interest in publicly standing in solidarity with Pride until recently, when the market for doing so became so lucrative.

What does the commercialization of queer culture mean for the queer community – putting aside corporations who profit off of this calculated flag-waving? At its heart,

Pride has always grown from the ground up, cultivating safe havens for those targeted by heteronormative patriarchy. Queer culture is everything that capitalism is not. Under the premise of ‘catering to the majority,’ advertising agencies that create these ads tailor messages to their target audience, and if their target is ‘queer,’ no doubt it embodies itself as a gay, able-bodied, white, cis male. Trans and race issues are seen as too radical, and thus remain untouched by mainstream entities because the imagery isn’t considered as pretty and safe as the white gay couple next door with a garden and a minivan.

This June, as the White House celebrated the legalization of samesex marraige, President Obama was interrupted by Jennicet Gutiérrez, a trans undocumented worker of colour. Her cry of “President Obama, stop the torture and abuse of trans women in detention centres,” was met with a patronizing “Shame on you,” and finger-wagging by the president himself before she was forcibly removed from the premises. Lauding the egality of same-sex marriage as the end-all be-all solution to heterosexism perpetuates the systematic silencing of trans women, who are the most likely subgroup of the LGBTQA community to be murdered.

Take the 2015 movie Stonewall – a fictionalized retelling of the Stonewall riots of 1969 in Greenwich Village in Manhattan. In the trailer (the movie has not yet been released), the protagonist is a white farm boy who manages to find himself in gay nightclubs while witnessing the institutionalized violence toward the few queer people of colour around him – cementing their role as mere objects to further the plot toward the protagonist’s self-centered mo-

ment of revelation. The true instigators of the Stonewall riots and other LGBTQ protests throughout Greenwich Village at that time were Black trans women, so why were they written out of the narrative? Because a white male hero is relatable, and therefore, marketable. By whitewashing and neatly packaging the ‘most acceptable’ (and least complicated) parts of the early New York City Pride movement, Hollywood perpetuates the very racism and bigotry it claims to eradicate. Unfortunately, these incorrect portrayals of history are the loudest, and end up misrepresenting LGBTQA communities.

Further commercialization of Pride has manifested in the disappearance of the physical bastions of queer culture. Formerly, queer individuals could find solace in major cities’ Gay Villages, from Toronto to Vancouver to New York, and even smaller cities often had a few bars clustered in a certain part of town.

Villages still exist, but their importance is mostly historical, as queer bars and clubs have popped up in other neighbourhoods. The expansion of the market for queer bars, sex shops, bookstores, cafes et cetera in recent years, now that being queer no longer means instant physical marginalization, has led to less grassroots support for unconventional safe spaces. Montreal lesbian bars Royal Phoenix and Le Drugstore have closed due to this gentrification of sorts, and queer girls bemoan the ‘queer’ bars left catering primarily to gay, white, cis men.

The commercialization of queer life has forced a consumerist approach on the queer community.

Classism is ever encroaching: those who need the most support from their communities and governments are lower-income, housing insecure, have limited access to contraceptives and other protec-

Kevin De Silva Castanheira | Illustrator tions, and suffer continual harassment and prejudice. Despite the claims of the Love Wins campaign, while same-sex marriage was ruled constitutional in the U.S., discrimination against LGBTQA individuals in the workplace remains unlegislated. Love has not yet won.

Daily grassroots volunteering and activism efforts are perhaps the greatest hope for many Villages’ longevity. Activists passionate about trans-positive queer movements’ DIY ethos need to stay true to their roots, instead of taking an ‘at-least-it’s-some-progress’ approach by accepting the little privileges the state begrudgingly grants the LGBTQ community. They are the only force standing in the way of

the commercialization of free goods and services necessary to overcome class barriers that would otherwise hinder access to gender empowerment items, makeup, food, binders, and safer sex products.

Unfettered free-market capitalism is a detriment to queer culture, and does nothing to help those who need tight-knit queer communities the most. “Love wins” is a misleading battle cry, because it assumes the fight is already over; a more appropriate slogan could be: “Love will win so keep fighting,” but it’s up to LGBTQ activists to shout it loud, because it’s not short and sweet enough to fit on full-page advertisements in pamphlets.

KROY plays Passovah

Poliquin’s solo project entrances festival audience Rosie Long Decter The McGill Daily

O

pening for the rowdy and rambunctious Nancy Pants, Montreal’s KROY took the stage at Casa del Popolo for a calming set of warm synth textures, giving the crowd some room to breathe amid the packed lineup of bands. Though KROY is a solo project of vocalist/synth player Camille Poliquin, she was accompanied by a second synth player and a drummer for her

Passovah performance, allowing for a full sound that swept over the whole room.

Beginning with the third track of her Birthday EP, “River,” Poliquin’s wistful, almost haunting vocals drifted over the song’s swelling synths – until she suddenly switched into an impressive high belt with palpable force. Poliquin’s voice has the unusual quality of being both immediately recognizable and malleable. The way she alternated between breathy and hard-hitting vocals called to mind

Lowell, another talented Canadian vocalist and songwriter.

Her stage presence, however, could not be more different from the quirky and excitable Lowell.

Poliquin barely engaged with the audience throughout her 45-minute set, instead letting the emotion in her vocals do the talking.

The songs themselves didn’t always quite come together – the live mix of synth sounds sometimes seemed off, with certain samples sticking out awkwardly from the otherwise enveloping ambience.

Some songs were almost too engulfing for a live performance, the small nuances in the layers hard to appreciate amidst a talkative audience. But KROY were not thrown by the loud crowd, and a performance of the EP’s title track, “Birthday” demonstrated particular concentration and passion.

KROY, while not yet seasoned performers like some of the acts they shared the stage with, certainly have the potential to evolve into a captivating electronic act.

And that, perhaps, is the true value

of Passovah, a small festival that provides a platform for new, independent artists to explore their potential – as opposed to a festival like POP, which features many of the same artists, but in an oversaturated lineup.

The trio closed with the opening song on Birthday, “Monstrosity.” It was an uplifting change – despite its title – from the rest of their sweetly sad tracks. As Poliquin sang “tell me that the night is over,” she allowed herself a sole smile – and it lit up the stage.

On

Thursday, September 17 will elect the rest of

the staff of

The McGill Daily

the 2015-2016 editorial board.

We hope you’ll consider running for one of our open positions. If you are interested in joining our nonhierarchical team, here’s a quick guide on the election process for becoming a Daily editor.

the basics: Unlike many student newspapers, our editors are elected by Daily staffers rather than hired by a committee. To run for an editorial position or to vote in the election, you must be Daily staff.

becoming staff: To be staff, you must have six staff points – contributing articles, photos, graphics, and illustrations count as one point each. Writing a feature or coming in for a production night both count as two points. If you’re not staff yet, there’s time before the election, so email an editor to get involved!

the editorial board: the positions:

Twenty editors share equal voting rights on issues, and work together to produce the newspaper every week. Each editor receives a monthly stipend.

News Sports Culture Photos Multimedia (video) Web and Social Media

For more information on individual positions, contact specific section editors (emails can be found on page 23 of this issue). You can also stop by The Daily’s office in Shatner B-24.

Candidate statement

Candidate rundown

Elections

September

September

September

11:59 p.m.

6:00 p.m.

7:00 p.m.

Submit a one-page letter of intent to coordinating@mcgilldaily.com.

All staffers who want to vote in the election must attend rundowns in Shatner B-24.

Candidates will interview in front of all voters at the election in Shatner B-24.

15

17

17

deadlines: The Daily requires all candidates to submit a one-page application, including your qualifications and interest in running, as well as two samples of writing, photos, illustrations, or design.

Email your letter of intent to coordinating@mcgilldaily.com

by September 15 at midnight.

Art Essay

Colour and lines

Pencil and watercolour on paper and canvas.

September 8, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

21

Alice Shen | The McGill Daily

Compendium!

September 8, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

22

Lies, half-truths, and the world’s most record-breaking university.

Behemoth beverage beyond belief McGall’s glory assured for all eternity

Danir Nakh The McGall Weekly

M

cGall students and staff opened their new and improved email inboxes this week to discover a stirring message from Principal Suzie Fruité.

“Friends,” she began with gleeful desperation, “dark times are upon us. Our finances are in shambles, our buildings are on the verge of collapse, and our reputation is crumbling. But worry not – McGall’s proud history of smashing Guinness World Records with the production of exorbitantly large quantities of food will save us once again.”

“The glorious days of Fruit Salad ‘12 and Brownie ‘14 have set our community on a bright path that I am ever so pleased to continue: the record for the largest smoothie ever made,” wrote Fruité.

Indeed, a new day dawned on September 1 as McGall did in fact break the record for the largest smoothie ever made.

“It is beautiful,” gushed McGall Supreme Head Chef Olive de Veloute, beaming as he gazed wistfully from the top of Lower Field at the 3,100-litre behemoth beverage below.

“I didn’t think it would have to come to this, though,” he added under his breath. “But I’ll do anything to keep Suzie happy.”

Asked whether McGall’s attention could be better directed to lowering food prices on campus, de Veloute was positively seized with indignation. “Look, are we here to break records or are we here to

eat?” he snapped. “Besides, I think our prices are very fair,” de Veloute assured The Weekly, as an emaciated and almost certainly starving student despondently glanced back and forth between the spare change in her hand and the $27 sandwich on sale at the Sadpath Cafeteria.

The event was a real comingtogether of the university community, with over 100 volunteers on hand to commemorate McGall’s monumental mélange. The Weekly asked one volunteer to comment on the relationship between such a highly public self-indulgent demonstration of excess and pressing food security issues in Canada.

“Yeah, I totally agree that food security is, like, super important,” ventured Madgy K. Bulett, an earnest McGallian acting on his pledge this semester to “get more involved with good causes.” “I’m mostly here to guard the slip-and-slide section – see, we put this rope here so that people are sliding safely as they re-enact flood girl and stuff – but at the same time, I make sure that people who aren’t from McGall don’t steal our food, so in that sense securing your food is crucial,” Bulett nodded assuredly.

An unwelcome interruption to the feast occurred when it was discovered that the bottom part of the

“I didn’t think it would have to come to this.”

Olive de Veloute, Supreme Head Chef

Hard at work breaking records. smoothie bucket – about 1,000 litres worth – had spoiled, becoming unsuitable for consumption. Luckily, de Veloute saved the day by repurposing the unfortunate mixture as a medium for a celebratory bath, and thousands of attendees plunged into the smoothie bucket to engage

Katniss Mascara | The McGill Daily in a rejuvenating communal soak.

Young and old alike had the time of their lives as they marinated in the vat for over three hours.

As the event came to a close, a jubilant Fruité announced that the leftover smoothie goo would be graciously donated to a shelter.

Amazed by their own collective magnanimity, McGall community members attending the event broke out in song, offering an impromptu and admittedly disjointed rendition of a “reduce, re-use, recycle” chant as they vacated the premises, their bellies brimming with fruit juices.

SHMU Daycare given the reins of Frosh Incoming students found to be literal babies

Jezmekzel Bree The McGall Weekly

F

ollowing years of rowdy drunk froshies causing scandal and trouble in the Milton-Parc community, Frosh coordinators decided to tackle the problem headon by giving the reins of Frosh supervision to the Student Headquarters of McGall University (SHMU) Daycare Centre.

“Our field experiments have shown that froshies have very similar needs and exhibit nearly identical behaviour to the four-year-old

children we work with every day,” said experienced SHMU Daycare Centre caregiver Daisy Dove.

“Like small children, froshies need regular naps. They need to be held when they walk down stairs. They can’t keep their hands to themselves, and have trouble performing simple tasks like eating three times a day or peeing in appropriate locations. And just like children sometimes eat dirt or chalk because they don’t know any better, froshies sometimes ingest dangerous substances that threaten their well-being.”

The implications of the research were obvious: Frosh coordinators simply had to implement practices used in early childhood education.

“It’s very important to talk to your froshies and small children in a soft tone of voice and never yell at them. But you must be firm when they break the rules and nip bad behaviour in the bud,” said child development psychologist Dr. Rachel Johnson-Richardson. “Despite the twenty-year age gap, we found these practices to be widely effective.”

Heeding the expert advice, Frosh coordinators enacted some basic dis-

ciplinary rules. For example, straying from the collective leash would lead to the confiscation of one drink ticket. A second demerit would lead to their bracelet being cut.

“In addition to these disciplinary procedures, we also took precautionary measures to ensure a safe environment,” said Dove. “We hired contractors to build sevenfoot baby fences around Lower Field, and put up ‘froshie crossing’ signs on Sherbrooke.”

The new program was a resounding success, eliciting supportive reactions from froshies. “I

actually have no concept of selfcare and responsibility,” said U0 Farts student Lil’ Jimmy. “Thankfully, the entire student society is now like a mother to me – it’s like I never left my parents’ home.”

The change also resulted in a drastic reduction in the number of 911 calls, and very positive feedback from the Milton-Parc community. McGall Emergency Response Team for Students (M-GERTS) volunteers, however, felt a little neglected, and were spotted twiddling their thumbs in their tent on Lower Field.

Editorial

volume 105 number 2

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

September 8, 2015 www.mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Respect Unist’ot’en land and sovereignty

phone 514.398.6784 fax 514.398.8318 mcgilldaily.com coordinating editor

Niyousha Bastani

coordinating@mcgilldaily.com coordinating news editor

Cem Ertekin news editors

Arianee Wang commentary & compendium! editors

Janna Bryson Igor Sadikov culture editor

Sonia Larbi-Aissa features editor

Yasmine Mosimann

Lia Elbaz | The McGill Daily

science+technology editor

Jill Bachelder sports editor

Vacant

multimedia editor

Subhanya Sivajothy photo editor

Vacant

illustrations editor

Lia Elbaz

copy editor

Chantelle Schultz design & production editor

Jasreet Kaur web editor

Marc Cataford community editor

Rosie Long Decter le délit

Julia Denis

rec@delitfrancais.com

cover design Lia Elbaz contributors Zapaer Alip, Gregoire Beaune, Manuela Galindo Carvajal, Aidan Gilchrist-Blackwood, Jason Da Silva Castanheira, Kevin De Silva Castanheira, Hanna Donato, Daniel Huang, Nadir Khan, Paniz Khosroshahy, Isabel Lee, Katerina MosqueraCardi, Rachel Nam, Sarah Shahid, Alice Shen, Virginia Shram, Alexandra Villalobos

I

n 1990, the Kanien’kéha:ka Mohawk community of Kanehsatà:ke, an unceded territory, resisted the Canadian military to defend its sovereignty. The reason for the dispute was the nearby town of Oka’s decision to expand a golf course through a portion of Kanehsatà:ke, which included sacred burial grounds. Now, 25 years later, in the unceded Wet’suwet’en territory located in British Columbia, the Unist’ot’en clan is resisting numerous pipeline projects that threaten its land and sovereignty, and expects heavyhanded Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) intervention. These attempts to develop Indigenous land are a product of ongoing colonialism. The Canadian government and corporations need to respect Indigenous sovereignty and stop exploiting Indigenous land.

In contrast to the mainstream media’s portrayal, the Unist’ot’en camp is not a protest or demonstration.

As the camp’s website declares, the Unist’ot’en “occupying and using [their] traditional territory as [they] have for centuries.” The Unist’ot’en territory, and the Wet’suwet’en territory of which it is a part, are “unceded, unsurrendered, and untreatied.” The Unist’ot’en clan governs itself according to its own legal systems and recognizes the authority of only those systems.

In recent years, it has set up checkpoints that control who can enter its territory, based on a system of “free prior and informed consent,” a standard among many Indigenous communities. Those who wish to enter the Unist’ot’en camp must inform the hereditary chiefs and

receive their consent in advance.

Eleven energy companies, including Kinder Morgan, Enbridge, and Chevron, currently have plans to build pipelines through Unist’ot’en territory. The destructive environmental impact of these proposals makes the blatant disregard for the community’s right to decide what happens on its territory all the more outrageous. Chevron is currently clearcutting the forest only two kilometres away from the camp for the construction of the Pacific Trail Pipeline, violating the sovereignty of the Unist’ot’en clan. Meanwhile, the RCMP has maintained a heavy presence in the camp, meeting with representatives of the Unist’ot’en clan and reportedly threatening to arrest camp occupants.

Although the RCMP claims “neutrality” in the dispute, the Unist’ot’en clan is on high alert, fearing an impending mass arrest on its own territory.

Settlers in Canada have a responsibility to educate themselves about this ongoing process of colonialism in which they are complicit, and about the history of the land on which they live. Anyone wishing to support the camp can do so through financial donations, as well as by participating in solidarity actions. Colonialism is not a thing of the past, and it is as pressing now as ever to do what the Canadian government won’t: stand against the violent occupation of Indigenous land.

—The McGill Daily Editorial Board

Errata

3480 McTavish St., Rm. B-26 Montreal, QC H3A 1X9 phone 514.398.6790 fax 514.398.8318

The article “Workers on campus troubled by alleged Bill 100 violation” (September 1, News, page 3) incorrectly suggested that former principal Heather Munroe-Blum was paid a salary by Stanford University. In fact, she was a member of McGill’s faculty on leave while doing a research fellowship at Stanford.

The article “Let them learn French” (September 1, Commentary, page 9) incorrectly stated that one could apply for permanent residency through the Quebec Experience Program (PEQ). In fact, the PEQ is a selection program for obtaining a Quebec selection certificate (CSQ).

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, Julia Denis, Igor Sadikov, 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.

Printed by Imprimerie Transcontinental Transmag. Anjou, Quebec.

ISSN 1192-4608.

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