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The Phi Centre’s offsite programming Sept.

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Special Event

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Films

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The Phi Centre teams up with the Centre d’histoire de Montréal

Phi@MMFA

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The Phi Centre’s film lineup at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

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Exhibition

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NEWS 3 NEWS Solidarity with Homa Hoodfar Mohamed Fahmy on his imprisonment McGill hosts 6th annual Indigenous Awareness Week Outremont to hold referendum McGill Senate discusses equity DueNORTH McGill launches

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COMMENTARY

Dispelling the myths of bisexuality The side of Mother Teresa we ignore North America pays attention only to its own crises

11 FEATURES McGill women talk sexism in STEM

14 SCI+TECH CRISPR: a gene-finding technique

September 26, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Protesters march for Hoodfar Demonstrators call on governments to secure her release

Matthew He News Writer

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n Wednesday, September 21, demonstrators gathered in Norman Bethune Square to raise awareness for Concordia anthropology and sociology professor Homa Hoodfar’s illegal imprisonment in Iran. Around 300 participants came to the demonstration, which lasted two hours and ended with the collection of signatures for a petition demanding Hoodfar’s immediate and unconditional release.

Hoodfar was arrested and detained during a familial and research visit to Iran in March, and has been held in solitary confinement at Evin prison since June. According to the Tehran Public Prosecutor, Hoodfar is being investigated for “dabbling in feminism and security matters.” She has been denied access to legal support.

The demonstration was held on the 107th day of her imprisonment.

Each passing day raises more concerns for her health, as Hoodfar has Myasthenia gravis, a serious neurological condition that requires frequent care and medication.

Hayley Lewis, Hoodfar’s former student, organized the rally through social media and word of mouth.

“I hope that more people become aware of what the situation is,” said

16 CULTURE

Opera de Montreal’s Aida perpetuates Orientalist tropes Fight the feminist cause through humour Recreating nature’s sublime through technology

19 EDITORIAL Cabot Square remodeling detrimental to Indigenous and homeless communities

20 COMPENDIUM! White tears flood McGall campus Crossword

Lewis in an interview with The Daily.

“I think that visibility is a huge factor – the more people who know about it, hopefully the more pressure there is to bring her home.”

Canada currently has no formal diplomatic relations with Iran.

However, as Hoodfar is also an Irish citizen, activists hope to reach Irish embassies internationally through petitions and call for more action.

“We’ve gotten a lot of signatures today to add to our petition, which is one of the only tools that we have in such a delicate situation,” Lewis said.

During the demonstration, attendees chanted “Free Homa,” and “Liberez Homa,” calling for action.

Students, colleagues, and friends of Hoodfar carried homemade signs of support and wore t-shirts featuring the Free Homa logo.

Speaking to the crowd, Alex Tyrrell, an environmental science student at Concordia and the leader of the Green Party of Quebec, said, “Members of the Concordia community and the public should not underestimate the gravity of what’s taking place here.

Her life is on the line. We as a community have a collective responsibility to ensure her prompt release.”

Professor Martin French, Hoodfar’s colleague in the sociology and anthropology department at Concordia, spoke to The Daily about the importance of raising awareness.

Protesters support Hoodfar.

Matthew He | The McGill Daily

“Everyone’s here to raise awareness and bring some pressure to bear on our governments [and] the Iranian government, of course, and the Irish government,” he said.

In an interview with The Daily, Tyrrell expressed how he felt “very encouraged” by the turnout at the demonstration. “But it’s also only the beginning of what could be a very long battle to get her back,” he noted.

Hoodfar’s imprisonment is “a huge blow to academic freedom,” he continued. “When it touches home, you feel it particularly strongly.”

When asked to describe Hoodfar, Louise, Hoodfar’s long time family friend, told The Daily, “She just loves

people, she was a great professor, and loves her students. She just wants to do the best research possible.”

“I’m hoping that the government will see that they can’t just say, ‘Well, yeah, we’re doing everything that we can.’ That they will do everything that they can and [...] other organizations [like] Amnesty should get her out on humanitarian reasons,” she added.

For Lewis, Homa’s imprisonment is “devastating and shocking and wildly unjust. It’s the kind of injustice that you know exists in the world, but I’m learning what it actually feels like to have someone you know be subjected to political prisonership.”

The “War on Journalism”

Tarantula venom as painkiller

Ladyfest showcases Montreal’s diverse comedic talent

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Mohamed Fahmy discusses his experience imprisoned in Egypt Praise Feng & Yan Ong News Writers

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n Thursday, September 22, Mohamed Fahmy gave a talk at Concordia University about his imprisonment in Egypt. The talk, entitled “Media in the Age of Terror: How the war on terror became a war on journalism,” was Concordia’s 2016 Homecoming Keynote lecture.

Fahmy is an Egyptian-Canadian journalist who has worked extensively in conflict zones throughout the Middle East. He has reported for several media networks such as CNN and the BBC. Prior to his arrest and incarceration, Fahmy served as Al Jazeera’s English bureau chief in Cairo. The last story he remembers covering was the branding of the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, he said.

In December 2013, a police officer told Fahmy “‘you are a member of a terrorist organization, you have fabricated news, you were operating without licenses.’” He and two of his Al Jazeera colleagues were also falsely accused of having links to the Muslim

Brotherhood. Ultimately incarcerated in a maximum security prison in Egypt for over 400 days, including a month in solitary confinement alongside members of Al-Qaeda and Daesh (also known as ISIS).

At the event, Fahmy described his days in the prison. “Like many people who go to prison [...] you think this is just a mistake, it will be over in the morning, it’s not a big deal. But it turned out to be a huge deal,” said Fahmy, recalling his earliest memories of the trial where he was sentenced to imprisonment. “This is the nastiest prison I have ever seen. You’re underground in a room, in a cell, basically solitary confinement. No access to light, no toilet flushing, [and] lots of insects.”

“All you [had] in that cell was a hatch where you could look through in the corridor to see the other cells,” continued Fahmy.

According to Fahmy, there are about 200 journalists missing or unjustly arrested in various parts of the world. “I believe that this is an unprecedented attack on journalism that we’re witnessing now,” he said.

While in prison, Fahmy realized the power of the internet in mobilizing people to help free himself and his colleagues. People tweeted with hashtags such as #FreeAJStaff and #HarperCallEgypt, shared information on Facebook, and pressured politicians to raise awareness about the journalists’ plight.

Following his release, Fahmy and his wife Marwa Omara created the Fahmy Foundation which, according to its website, aims to “provide advocacy and financial assistance to journalists and prisoners of conscience who are unjustly imprisoned around the world.” The foundation raises funds and awareness for these people, and persistently calls attention to their situation, challenging governments and individuals to help free them.

The Fahmy Foundation supports families of the wrongfully imprisoned, and, along with Amnesty International Canada, is trying to persuade the Canadian government to adopt a Protection Charter. The charter proposes a system of protection for journalists from vague anti-terrorism laws.

“My biggest motivation to do my job as a journalist is to pursue the truth and give people a voice,” said Fahmy.

Nahka Bertrand, a graduate student in Concordia’s department of journalism, shared her thoughts with The Daily after the lecture. “As an Indigenous student, I resonate with his story,” said Bertrand. “Getting the voices of Indigenous people is very important. We have a history of persecution […] but we are trying to get representation in this democracy.”

Bram Freedman, Vice-President of Advancement and External Relations at Concordia, spoke to The Daily about Fahmy’s impact on the university’s solidarity campaign with Homa Hoodfar, a professor imprisoned in Iran.

“It’s a pleasure to have Mr. Fahmy here today,” said Freedman. “I think he particularly resonates with Concordia because [of Hoodfar’s imprisonment]. We think it’s a particularly compelling story for Concordia now and if he can encourage people here to advocate for her release through social media, and so on, then I think that will have a big impact.”

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September 19, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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BALLET DIVERTIMENTO É C O L E

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C E N T R E

C H O R É G R A P H I Q U E

A D U LT D A N C E C L A S S E S BALLET CO N T E M P O R A RY DA N C E INTRO TO BALLET S t a y f i t , p u r s u e y o u r p a s s i o n o r p e r f e c t yo u r a r t i n a f u n a n d p ro f e s s i o n a l a t m o s p h e re !

A 5-minute walk from McGill balletdivertimento.com • 514 285 2157 danse@balletdivertimento.com © Barry Goyette (with modifications) / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

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Wednesday October 26th @ 5:30 pm SSMU Building, Madeleine Parent Room (202) The presence of candidates to the Board of Directors is strongly advised.

The DPS is currently accepting candidatures for its Board of Directors.

Positions must be filled by five McGill students, duly registered for the Fall 2016 and Winter 2017 semesters and able to sit until October 31st, 2017, as well as one Community Representative and one Professional Representative.

Board members gather at least once a month to discuss the management of the newspapers and make important administrative decisions.

To apply, please visit dailypublications.org/how-to-apply/

News wants you! news@mcgilldaily.com

Why IAW?

cGill’s sixth annual Indigenous Awareness Week, organized by the Social Equity and Diversity Education Office (SEDE), launched on September 19. It was immediately preceded by the 15th annual McGill Pow Wow, organized by the First Peoples’ House, on September 16. The week typically consists of a series of events featuring prominent members of Indigenous communities, and aims to raise awareness about the challenges that these communities have faced and continue to face, and to facilitate communication on and off campus. It also serves as a valuable platform for educating McGill students and staff about Indigenous cultures, practices, and ceremonies.

This year’s Indigenous Awareness Week featured 15 events, including the opening ceremony, a presentation by Dr. Taiaiake Alfred on the effects of environmental pollution on Indigenous peoples’ culture, a screening and discussion about the pass system, a discussion on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in relation to religious communities, a reconciliation ceremony, and the launch of the Provost’s Task Force on Indigenous Studies and Indigenous Education.

Indigenous Awareness Week is particularly important for the McGill community, given that the University is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka (or “Mohawk”) land. McGill’s administration still refuses to officially acknowledge this, and has faced criticism from a variety of groups over its continued failure to adequately recognize and honour Indigeneity. Significantly, Indigenous groups and individuals from McGill and elsewhere have been at the forefront of organizing Indigenous Awareness Week since its inception.

O AGM & Call for Candidates Ca All members of the Daily Publications Society (DPS), publisher of The McGill Daily and Le Délit, are cordially invited to its Annual General Assembly:

News

September 26, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Opening ceremony

n Monday, September 19, McGill’s sixth annual Indigenous Awareness Week officially began. Allan Vicaire, the Indigenous Education Advisor at SEDE and First Peoples’ House, welcomed attendees to the Opening Ceremony by acknowledging that the land on which McGill stands is unceded territory belonging to Indigenous peoples. “We are meeting together on land which has long served as a site of meaning, meaning and exchange amongst Indigenous peoples [...] and we recognize them as the traditional custodians of the lands and waters on which we meet today,” Vicaire said.

Several notable figures participated in the ceremony, including Elder Delbert Sampson of the Shuswap First Nation in British Columbia, Elder Jean Stevenson from Cree of Peguis First Nation in Manitoba, and two members of the Indigenous band Odaya, who performed three songs for attendees. The Elders extended a blessing to the attendees and the land on which Montreal rests. They also emphasized the significance of learning about Indigenous culture and the necessity of incorporating it into society.

“When we talk about reconciliation, the important thing is that Indigenous peoples’ voices are being heard,” said Stevenson, “and it’s important to listen to those voices, to have some understanding about the history and what has happened, and what is going on today, and what the plans for the future are.”

The ceremony celebrated the efforts of various organizations at McGill, such as the First Peoples’ House and SEDE, for raising awareness and building a stronger Indigenous community on campus. Kakwiranó:ron Cook, Aboriginal Outreach Administrator of First People’s House, concluded the ceremony, noting that the number of incoming Indigenous students at McGill has increased from twenty in 2010 to one hundred this year, which fulfills SEDE’s target for Fall 2018. “It’s exciting to see more awareness of McGill programs, making McGill more attractive and inclusive for Indigenous learners.”

The keynote speaker of the event, Dr. Taiaiake Alfred, was unable to make it to the ceremony. He delivered a powerful lecture on reconciliation and justice later that day, however, at the Moot Court in New Chancellor Day Hall.

—By Praise Feng

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Examining the pass system

he first day of Indigenous Awareness Week concluded with the screening of the film “The Pass System,” in partnership with the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada.

The room was filled to capacity, with a strong turnout from McGill staff and students alike.

“The Pass System” centered on Canada’s systemic segregation of its Indigenous population through the historical pass system on reserves. Implemented in 1885, this system prohibited Indigenous people from leaving their reserves without a pass signed by a so-called “Indian agent,” a state-appointed official who wielded immense power over the Indigenous communities within his jurisdiction. Although it was never formally written into Canadian legislation, this was the grim reality for many Indigenous people.

Director Alex Williams interviewed Cree, Soto, Dene, Ojibwe, and Blackfoot Elders of the regions where the film took place in order to share their experiences living under a system that limited their basic right to mobility.

The documentary also used historical documents to show the injustices inflicted under the pass system.

A panel discussion on “silenced Indigenous histories” followed the screening, with Allan Downey, an assistant professor in the McGill department of History and Classical Studies, whose specialization is Indigenous History, moderating the discussion.

The panelists, including director Alex Williams, Ellen Gabriel, Sandra-Lynn Kahsennano:ron Leclaire, and Orenda Boucher-Curotte, discussed their take on the pass system and the modern struggles Indigenous people face today.

Gabriel, an Indigenous human rights activist, emphasized the need to share these stories with Indigenous youth as the voices in the film have so far remained largely unheard.

“Not much has changed. We still feel like we only belong in reserves,” Gabriel told the crowd.

Boucher-Curotte, who is part of the McGill Institute of the Study of Canada, echoed that sentiment. “The Canadian government is still restricting us, just in different ways,” she said.

—By Yan Ong

News

September 26, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Indigenous Awareness Week

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Week-long event series addresses oppression and reconciliation

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Reconciliation and dialogue

n Wednesday September 21, a group of around 50 McGill students and staff gathered on the front lawn outside of New Chancellor Day Hall for a reconciliation ceremony. The ceremony focused on Indigenous law, justice, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

The ceremony was led by Algonquin Elder Dominique Rankin and his partner Marie-Josée Tardif. John Borrows, Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Law at the University of Victoria Law School, along with fellow University of Victoria law professor Rebecca Johnson, also participated in the ceremony.

Generally speaking, ceremony forms an important part of Indigenous law, and the event was set up to reflect that. Elder Rankin began the ceremony by explaining the significance of the fire, the “sacred fire,” he said in French, that was in the center of the circle formed by attendees and speakers.

Borrows then performed a song which he said Justice Murray Sinclair used as guidance when asked to be the chair of the TRC. “Law can actually be expressed not only through story and other fashions, but it can also be expressed through song. So this song is one way that law can be communicated in the Anishinaabe legal tradition,” Borrows said.

Elder Rankin shared his experience in a residential school: “The first day in the residence school, they took my clothes, my hair, my moccasins, and my feathers. They burned everything,” he said in English. He described how he was taken away from his parents, how he was not allowed to speak the Anishinaabe language, and the effect this had on him physically and psychologically.

“I judged a lot. I judged everyone,” he said in French.

“You can’t forget that,” he added in English.

But for Rankin, “today is a difference. For my vision is a difference. Everything comes back to see me. The creator [….] I listen to him,” he said. He shared how his mother saved him, how she found him and told him to come back home.

“I am Anishinaabe today. Pas une victime. No more victim. Je ne suis plus une victime […] I am a winner. Je suis gagné et la vie est belle,” he concluded in both English and French.

Tardif expressed how the event gave her hope, saying, “We heard about [...] what you’re trying to implement here slowly and surely, and that really is touching.”

Speaking to The Daily, Borrows concluded that “the ceremony is a representation of how people can gather in a way that’s patient and takes the time needed today to engage in conversation and understanding.”

Nadia Boachie | The McGill Daily

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—By Ellen Cools

Provost’s Task Force launches

n the afternoon of Thursday, September 22, a ceremony was held to mark the relocation of the Hochelaga Rock, a cultural landmark established by Parks Canada to commemorate the Iroquois settlement that once existed on the land currently occupied by McGill’s downtown campus. Voices on campus had been advocating for the relocation since 2012, on the grounds that such a crucial piece of the region’s history should be displayed in a more prominent location.

During the ceremony, the administration also officially launched the Provost’s Task Force on Indigenous Studies and Indigenous Issues, which Provost Christopher Manfredi described as “being animated by two core themes: recognition of Indigenous history, contemporary presence, and ways of knowing and learning; and reconciliation, by heeding the calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, specifically through educational and institutional efforts, aimed at redressing historical legacies of injustice, and restoring relationships with Indigenous peoples.”

Manfredi explained that he had instructed the Task Force to address a number of things, including, but not limited to, increased physical and symbolic representation of Indigenous history, facilitation of Indigenous student access to McGill, more effective recruitment of Indigenous staff, and incorporation of Indigenous perspectives and issues “within McGill’s curricular and research mission.”

Indigenous rights activist Ellen Gabriel of the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation and Turtle Clan, and a former employee of McGill’s First Peoples’ House, was one of many Indigenous leaders invited to speak at the ceremony.

“This [Task Force] isn’t something McGill did willingly,” said Gabriel to the crowd. “There was a lot of resistance at the beginning, so I’m glad to see the door open a bit, because there’s a lot of work [left] to do.”

“Education in Canada’s dark history, in its colonial past, was used as a weapon of assimilation and genocide against Indigenous peoples and their nations,” she continued. “If there is to be true reconciliation, and if McGill is to be part of that, there needs to be restitution, and there needs to be some help, understanding, and compassion, because as the former Auditor General of Canada [Sheila Fraser] said ‘It’s going to take 28 years for [Indigenous] community schools to catch up to the quality of education that you see in the rest of Canada.’ And that’s a lot of work.”

“We are looking forward to the [Task Force’s] recommendations, so that we can take concrete actions to accomplish those goals,” said Principal Suzanne Fortier in her address to the crowd. “I am convinced that with such highly committed people [...] who will be participating in the work of this Task Force, and our very engaged campus and community, we will be able to make great steps in acknowledging the presence of indigeneity on our campus.”

—By Xavier Richer Vis

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September 26, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Outremont referendum creates tension

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By-law disproportionately affects Hasidic Jewish community Sebastian Pazdan & Luke Robitaille News Writer

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controversial by-law passed by the Outremont borough council last December, which banned the building of new places of worship on Avenue Bernard, an often congested road in the neighbourhood, will now undergo a referendum after the Avenue Bernard public registry garnered the necessary 367 signatures to force a referendum. The by-law also applied to Avenue Laurier, but the street’s public registry only received four of the necessary 176 signatures to force a referendum.

If the by-law were to be implemented, the construction of new places of worship would be banned throughout the entire borough, as a ban on new development already applies to residential streets and Avenue Van Horne, another hightraffic commercial avenue.

Officially, the by-law does not discriminate based on religion, but it would theoretically restrict the construction of any religious edifice in the neighborhood, regardless of religious affiliation. However, in practice the law would disproportionately affect Outremont’s sizeable Hasidic Jewish population, which comprises about a quarter of Outremont’s 25,000 residents: there are only four synagogues in the bor-

ough, servicing a combined capacity of approximately 400 Hasidic Jews.

On December 7, 2015, at an Outremont borough meeting, councillor Jacqueline Gremaud defended the council’s vote. “Only small sections of the street are being regulated,” she said in French. “On [Avenue] Bernard, we are talking about 200 or 300 meters.”

She explained that their intentions are to keep commercial streets free for everyone to use. “What we hope to accomplish,” Gremaud said, “is to assure that undeveloped parcels of land on commercial avenues [in Outremont] be reserved for businesses, coffee shops, restaurants and cultural spaces – open to everyone and anyone regardless of their religion.”

Objections to the by-law Mindy Pollak, the only borough councillor out of the five to vote against the proposed by-law and a Hasidic Jewish woman, objected to Gremaud’s intentions in a phone interview with The Daily. She pointed out how the drafting of the by-law failed to take into account the public’s reservations.

“The bylaw project has been badly mismanaged,” she stated.

“The borough refused to sit down with people that should have been consulted, people that would have been affected by the bylaw [...] during the first public consultation,

over 70 per cent of the people who came out were against the by-law project, and [the Outremont council] ignored that.”

Pollak believes that synagogues would actually enhance the economic vitality of surrounding areas. “The best proof that I can give you [is this]: on Avenue Parc, between Avenue Bernard and Avenue Van Horne, the Plateau approved a few new synagogues, [and] there’s businesses that are booming now, new stores have opened up,” Pollak said.

“The borough refused to sit down with people that should have been consulted, people that would have been affected by the by-law.”

—Mindy Pollak Outremont councilor

Pollak also pointed out that unlike a number of other boroughs in Montreal, Outremont

doesn’t have “Projets particuliers de construction, de modification ou d’occupation d’un immeuble” (PPCMOI) procedures in place, a derogation tool that would allow requests for building permits to be examined on a case-by-case basis, even if zoning laws would normally prohibit the development of certain buildings. This means that if the by-law passes, there would be no way for a new synagogue to be built quickly to service the growing Hasidic community’s needs, except for repealing the law itself.

Legality of the by-law Montreal lawyer Julius Grey, who sent a letter to the borough last December threatening legal action if the by-law was adopted, believes that the by-law is not only inconvenient, but also unconstitutional.

“The [Hasidic] community is one of the fastest growing communities [in Outremont]. They often have ten or 15 children per family, and demographic studies show that they might become the majority in Outremont by 2025, 2030,” said Grey in an interview with The Daily. “[The Hasidim] have an absolute prohibition on taking a vehicle or any other mechanical form of transport on a Saturday, or Shabbat [Jewish high holiday], he continued. “In those circumstances, [...] because there are [few places]

where you can still build a synagogue [in Outremont], it means [...] a 30 to 45 minute walk away from their synagogue, and given the fact that they’re families with small children, given the fact that [...] Montreal winters are not made for traipsing around with ten children, given the need to expand, the result is that Outremont is attacking a real and pressing need.”

“Municipalities have the power to legislate, including to restrict where places of worship are to be found,” continued Grey. But, he said they “must provide a reasonably easy, convenient place [of worship, and] cannot legislate in such a way to virtually ban communities.”

If the forthcoming referendum rules in favour of upholding the law, Grey is still prepared to take legal action against the borough.

Upcoming developments The date of the upcoming Avenue Bernard referendum is expected to be announced before or during the next council meeting on October 3. Members of the Hasidic community say they will not be the only ones voting to reject the by-law, as many nonHasidic neighbours have also taken issue with the ruling.

The Daily reached out to three other Outremont councilors who supported the by-law, but they did not respond in time for publication.

First Senate meeting focuses on equity Senators also discuss policy on harassment and McGill’s enrolment numbers

Becca Zhuang News Writer

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n Wednesday, September 21, the McGill Senate convened for its first meeting of the 2016-2017 academic year in the Redpath Museum auditorium.

Principal Suzanne Fortier’s opening remarks included a brief outline of McGill’s enrolment numbers for this year. The total number of students currently enrolled will not be disclosed until the second week of October, but Fortier explained that the figure has increased by roughly 2.6 per cent compared to last year. Fortier added that “this is the biggest increase” in enrollment that she has seen.

The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) VP University Affairs Erin Sobat and Science Senator Sean Taylor submitted a question concerning course assessment technologies.

More specifically, the question focused on whether students must

purchase programs required in certain courses for practice or extra credit, such as the McGrawHill Connect homework program.

It was generally agreed that these programs are not mandatory but provide students access to extra resources when needed. The proposed solution was to encourage professors to communicate with students, and work together to provide the necessary support and to resolve any problems arising from extra-curricular homework.

Policy on harassment Associate Provost Angela Campbell brought a memorandum to appoint geology professor Natalie Oswin as an assessor under the Policy on Harassment, Sexual Harassment, and Discrimination Prohibited by Law (not to be confused with the recently released Draft Policy on Sexual Violence).

The Senate approved Oswin’s term as assessor beginning October 1 of this year and ending September 30, 2019. Oswin will replace Professor

Robert Leckey, who was recently appointed Dean of Law. The annual report on the Policy on Harassment, Sexual Harassment, and Discrimination Prohibited by Law, which Campbell presented, showed an increase in the number of assessors in the last year, from the minimum of eight assessors to ten, along with increased assessor training. She noted that there had been an average of 36 cases per year over the last ten years; the majority concerned harassment. There were four possible outcomes to each case, with 72 per cent of the cases stopping at inquiry only, while the others were either informally resolved, formally resolved (which may or may not have included disciplinary action), or withdrawn.

Sobat questioned why a majority of the complaints had stopped at the inquiry stage, to which Campbell responded that most people prefer not to proceed with a full investigation, and

that many of the inquiries were simply questions.

Joint Committee on Equity A major focus of the meeting was the annual report of the Joint Board-Senate Committee on Equity (JBSCE). The report revealed that the JBSCE has been advocating for the implementation of McGill’s own Employment Equity Policy for the coming academic year, as well as an increase in the number of gender neutral washrooms on campus.

A brief debate followed about how those who identify as female at McGill account for 58 per cent of the population, but the female gender is still considered under represented. Campbell noted that she would like to focus on the specifics of each faculty, such as engineering, in which women make up 27 per cent of students, an increase of six per cent over the past five years.

Campbell stated that, personally, she does not believe that men

are underrepresented on campus, in terms of the cases and inquiries that the JBSCE receive. In response to a question about whether there is an absolute number that defines under representation, Campbell said, she does not believe there is. “I don’t think it is a fairness question in respect to men’s representation on campus. That’s my own personal take on this,” she said.

“We look at what’s happened historically and which groups continue to face barriers due to historical exclusion or ongoing difficulty accessing a full experience as a student or staff at the university,” Campbell further elaborated. The human rights principle and the Quebec charter on the grounds of discrimination are also taken into account.

Principal Fortier also brought up the “scissor effect,” which describes how there is a higher percentage of women in undergraduate studies, but there is a higher proportion of men in the higher graduate degrees.

News

September 26, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

McGill DueNORTH launches

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Club aims to address the issue of food insecurity in Northern Canada Anna O’Driscoll News Writer

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cGill students Eva Von Jagow, who is a second year environmental studies student, and Liam Allman, a U2 mechanical engineering student, are starting a DueNORTH university chapter here on campus, DueNORTH Canada being an Ottawa-based, non-profit organization, dedicated to addressing the issue of food insecurity in Canada’s Far North.

Von Jagow founded DueNORTH in 2015, which funds a breakfast program in the Sakku School in Coral Harbour, Nunavut to help provide children with a nutritional start to their day.

The breakfast program now feeds 250 students daily. The organization has expressed in the past that it is particularly concerned with addressing food insecurity in Nunavut, because of the “exorbitant food costs and logistical challenges of transporting food to that region of Canada.”

The elevated food costs in the region have been attributed to an increasing dependence on imported goods and the rising costs of food harvesting.

The organization began raising funds through a jewelry sale in Ottawa in the months before the Christmas season last year.

People donated gently used jewelry to the fund, which was then sold. The proceeds went towards funding the breakfast project at the Sakku School.

“I honestly thought I would just have a small contribution. I thought I would raise like $1,000, but within three years we’ve already raised almost $85,000,” said Von Jagow, a second year environmental studies student at McGill, in an interview with The Daily.

Von Jagow first learned about food insecurity in northern Canada working on a research paper in Grade 11.

“Within three years we’ve already raised almost $85,000.”

—Eva Von Jagow Co-founder “I’m from Canada, I’m from the capital of Canada, and [the food crisis] is something I really

Justine Touchon | The McGill Daily had no idea about,” she said. “I think it’s honestly pretty messed up that it took me 18 years to learn about this issue. I don’t really want other people to go as long as I did without knowing.”

Indigenous Education Advisor Allan Vicaire, from McGill’s Social Equity and Diversity Office, agreed that recognition of an issue is crucial in addressing it.

“I think one of the ways to create change is more awareness, and when you become more aware, then you become more active citizens, [put pressure on] the governments to say ‘look, there is a problem,’” Vicaire told The Daily.

The McGill chapter of DueNORTH is the organization’s first chapter on a college campus.

“McGill is kind of the test run and if it goes well this year, then we are hoping to expand it to other schools,” Von Jagow explained.

By bringing the organization to university campuses, Allman and Von Jagow hope to reach a new demographic of activists.

“We kind of saw it as an opportunity to reach out more outside of Ottawa, which is where we are from, and grow awareness of the brand and use McGill and the student life and the culture here as a

means for that,” said Allman in an interview with the Daily.

“I think one of the ways to create change is more awareness, and when you become aware, then you become more active citizens, [put pressure on] the governments.”

–Allan Vicaire Inigenous Education Advisor While raising funds is an important objective of DueNORTH, Von Jagow stressed the importance of informing people of what is occurring. “As much as it is

about raising money to implement these programs, it’s also about raising awareness, just making more people aware on the issue and the cause,” Von Jagow elaborated. “In a country as wealthy as Canada, it’s [ridiculous] that food isn’t a right anymore, even water isn’t a right.”

Vicaire said he thinks programs like DueNORTH are a good start, but more needs to be done to fully address the systemic problems facing Indigenous communities in Canada.

“I think these are great initiatives, but at the same time I think we need to start thinking [...] in the long term because this is just helping the community [...] for a certain amount of time,” stated Vicaire. “But then how can we start to look at the system, critique the system, and figure out how we’re able to improve lives of Indigenous peoples?” Vicaire asked.

The club has already gone through the process of choosing the executive positions for the year, but is looking for members to join. “I think it’s really a club that everyone can bring their strengths into,” Von Jagow said.

“I feel like everyone, no matter what your skills or your knowl-

edge are, there’s definitely a way you can contribute.”

“But then how can we start to look at the system, critique the system, and figure out how we’re able to improve lives of Inidgenous peoples?”

—Allan Vicaire Indigenous Education Advisor “The fact that it’s happening so close to us is something that really hits home because it’s where we are from, and it’s just [ridiculous] to think that everybody is aware of what’s happening in other countries, but no one is aware of what’s happening in Canada,” Allman concluded, highlighting the importance of this issue.

Commentary

September 26, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

“What even IS bisexuality?”

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Answering the questions you may be too afraid to ask

Amy Currie Commentary Writer

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here was never a specific moment of revelation in my life where I realised that I wasn’t straight. Instead, it took me a long time to recognise that I was interested in girls. At that point in my life, I knew what a lesbian was.

Ellen Degeneres had just gotten her own talk show. A woman that loved other women was a lesbian – but I didn’t feel like a lesbian.

I had crushes on boys, too – though not as often or to the same degree as my crushes on other girls. How could I be a lesbian if I had a crush on the boy who rode the same bus home as I did? Did lesbians get butterflies in their stomach when they saw a cute boy?

After a few more years of deciphering my attraction to various people, cautious experimentation, and falling head over heels for at least one woman and one man, I stopped keeping it a secret.

By the end of my senior year of high school everybody knew I was bisexual, and I was damn proud of it.

After breaking up with my first boyfriend, however, I suddenly felt myself losing interest in men. And maybe that’s part of the reason I left him; I’m still not sure. About a year and a half later, I had just broken up with my first real girlfriend, and all I knew is that I was wildly conflicted. I was attracted to women but I wasn’t really attracted to men. Surely that made me a lesbian, right?

So I came out, again, as a lesbian. While it felt nice to let the world know I wasn’t interested in men anymore, the label itself still didn’t quite sit right with me.

“Bisexual” continued to feel like a better fit – but I felt like a ‘bad bi’ for not liking men. I knew that you could be bisexual and have different levels of attraction for different genders, but my attraction to men seemed to be at 0 per cent and my attraction to women 75 per cent. What about the other 25 per cent?

So now, at the end of Bisexuality Visibility Week, here I am coming out for a third time. I am a bisexual woman who is not attracted to men.

I know what you might be thinking: “how can she be bi if she doesn’t like men?”

The Bisexual Resource Centre (BRC) defines bisexuality as “an umbrella term for people who recognize and honor their capacity for sexual, romantic and/or emotional attraction to more than one gender.” Wikipedia still uses a more outdated definition, calling bisexuality the “romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and

females.” This latter definition assumes that the gender binary (the belief that there are only two genders) is true - which it is not.

Some bisexual people may indeed only be attracted to men and women. Others may be attracted to men and other genders, but not women. My bisexuality means that I am attracted to women and other genders, but not men. I can only speak from my own experiences, and I certainly don’t intend to speak for all bisexual people – every person experiences their attraction differently.

“But doesn’t bi mean two?”

Technically, yes. This is why, oftentimes, bisexual people describe their sexuality as an attraction to two or more genders. Being bisexual doesn’t mean that your attraction is limited to two specific genders, or that the only two genders you can be attracted to are men and women.

Some bisexuals are attracted to only two genders, some are attracted to more. Some bisexual people describe their attraction to two groups, the first group being people of the same gender, the second group being people of other genders. Each bisexual person can have a unique definition of their bisexuality.

“Wait a second, how can there be more than two genders? I thought there were just men and women.”

To put it simply, gender exists on a spectrum in a similar way to sexuality. Some people don’t identify as a man or a woman. Some peoples’ gender fluctuates. Some people don’t have a gender at all.

You can be a man with a vagina, or an agender person with a penis.

Your gender is yours, you know it best, so only you know how to define it.

“How can you know that you’re bi if you haven’t had sex with different people with different genders?”

You don’t need to have sex with somebody to discern whether or not you’re attracted to them. Plus, you can be bi and asexual, which means that you experience reduced or no desire to have sex.

“Okay, so then what’s the difference between bisexuality and pansexuality?”

In short, bisexuality is the attraction to two or more genders, while pansexuality is attraction regardless of gender. A bisexual person may be attracted to any/all genders but feel more comfortable identifying as bisexual than pansexual. Some bisexual people use bisexual and pansexual interchangeably.

“So if pansexual people are attracted to all genders, but bisexual people perhaps aren’t, does that mean pansexual people are attracted to trans people but bisexual people aren’t?”

Rahma Wiryomartono | The McGill Daily No. This is another common misconception which assumes that trans men and trans women are not ‘real’ men or ‘real’ women.

Take a bisexual person who is attracted to men and women.

Because trans men are men, and trans women are women, this particular person would be attracted to trans men and trans women the same way they would be attracted to cis men and cis women.

“Well, it doesn’t matter anyway, because bisexual people always end up picking a side.”

Not true! While some bisexual people will one day be married or decide to spend their life with one specific person, this does not mean that they have ‘picked a side’. A bisexual woman who ends up with a woman is not a lesbian, she is still bisexual. A bisexual man who ends up with a woman is not straight, he is still bisexual.

“But I know several lesbians and/or gay men who used to be bisexual! Bisexuality is just a phase, a stepping stone to coming out as really gay.”

Yes, this happens! I also know several bisexual women who used to call themselves lesbians, and several bisexual men who used to identify as gay. Sexuality is fluid.

Changing how you identify just means that you’re getting to know yourself better, not that bisexuality is a phase.

“Well, I know some bisexual girls who are actually straight, they just make out with other girls or have threesomes sometimes, it’s probably so guys think they’re hot.”

I’m guessing the girls you’re talking about know their sexuality better than you do. Who’s to say that making out with girls and having threesomes isn’t bisexual?

Who says you must have relationships with all the genders you’re attracted to in order to become a Licensed Bisexual™? No individual has the right to scrutinise or call into question how someone else chooses to identify their gender or sexuality. In fact, hiding under the “straight girl just making out with other girls to get attention from guys” stereotype can be a safe way for questioning girls to experiment with other girls without ‘officially’ coming out. Instead, question why guys think girls make out at parties just to grab their attention.

Sexuality is fluid.

Changing how you identify just means that you’re getting to know yourself better, not that bisexuality is a phase.

“Okay, okay. I get it. Bisexuality is the attraction to two or more genders, and each bisexual has their own definition of and experiences as bisexual. So why do bisexuals need a visibility week, or even a visibility day? Isn’t Pride enough?”

We need visibility because, while we are not straight, we’re oftentimes excluded from the LGBTQA+ community because we’re “not really queer,” because we can be in relationships that appear to be straight. Bisexual Visibility Week helps to combat stereotypes and misconceptions that can be harmful to the bi community. It also helps draw attention to the struggles that bisexual people face, like how around 50 per cent of bisexual women will face sexual violence in their lifetimes, or how bisexual people are more likely to consider suicide than their gay and lesbian counterparts. Bisexual women are also often accused of being more “sexually available” because of their attraction to multiple genders, which leads to victim blaming and slut shaming. Bisexuality visibility events allow us to meet and connect with other bisexuals near us and all over the world, and help foster a sense of community that we might not otherwise have access to.

Bisexuality is broad and beautiful and badass. We exist across space and time – that is, throughout the world and throughout history – and our presence is valid.

There is no one way to be bisexual, and your bisexuality is perfect just the way it is. There is no one in the world who has the right to question your bisexuality, however hard they might try. Happy Bisexual Visibility Week!

Amy Currie is a U2 student studying Sociology. To contact the author, email amy.currie@mail. mcgill.ca.

COMMENTARY

September 26, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

A questionable sainthood

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Mother Teresa’s canonization disregards the wrongs she committed

Angelo Manaloto Commentary Writer

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his year on Sunday, September 4, Mother Teresa, praised by many as the “saint of the gutters”, was officially canonized by the Catholic Church. In her stead, she has left a network of charities, with work spanning more than half a century and 130 countries, united in opposing disease and suffering in the world’s most poverty-stricken areas.

Her name and her life story are often understood to represent a narrative of altruism.

However, upon critically examining her life’s work from a different perspective, this common impression can in fact, be contested. Examining the dualities between Mother Teresa’s life and her public image can reveal her to be a figure who was just as much a friend of poverty as she was believed to be a friend of the poor.

Born in 1910 as Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, Mother Teresa spent her first eighteen years in the city of Skopje, the capital of the Republic of Macedonia – then part of the Kosovo Vilayet, an administrative division controlled by the Ottoman Empire.

At eighteen she left for Ireland to train with missionary nuns, after which she arrived in India and began teaching at the St. Teresa School in Kolkata. At age 21, Anjezë had taken her first vows as a nun.

One fateful day in September 1946, a train ride to the Loreto Convent from Kolkata would prompt the charity work that she would continue to do in the next half-century.

In what she would later describe as a “call within a call,” Mother Teresa decided to leave the convent in order to help and live with those inhabiting the poorest parts of Kolkata. This charity work would subsequently garner her the praise of members of the Indian government, and, in 1950, the permission of the Vatican to solidify the Catholic Church’s influence in the country by establishing a diocesan congregation that would later be known as the Missionaries of Charity.

Despite its name, it was through this congregation that Mother Teresa would become an agent for the poverty that she claimed to be against.

While most people would see a charitable woman on a mission, one could alternatively see a person who received her funding from politically immoral and dubious sources, perpetuated the suffering she was believed to have addressed, and frequently did more harm than good.

In 1981, Mother Teresa flew to Haiti to receive the Legion d’Honneur, the highest French order for military and civil merits, from

Jean-Claude Duvalier, the country’s right wing dictator. It would have otherwise been a one-off encounter – only it wasn’t just the honour she intended to receive. According to a report pubilished by the University of Montreal, Mother Teresa was given funds in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, courtesy of the Duvalier family. This money, was wrung from the Haitian poor and from the country’s illicit drug trade. And all this, according to Christopher Hitchens’ book “The Missionary Position”, was in exchange for an endorsement from the late mother to further the facade of good relations between the family and the impoverished population, which was gladly given.

Mother Teresa would also have a similar exchange with Charles Keating, who was convicted in the United States in the early 1990s on multiples account of fraud and racketeering, and who was personally responsible for – among other things – the loss of more than 21,000 elderly Americans of their life savings. Mother Teresa described Keating as having “always been kind and generous to God’s poor” in a letter she wrote to the judge during his trial. In exchange for her kind words, Keating gave more than $1 million to her charity. When called upon by Californian courts to return Keating’s donation, she refused.

Examining the dualities between Mother Teresa’s life and her public image can reveal her to be a figure who was just as much a friend of poverty as she was believed to be a friend of the poor.

Unfortunately, the danger of giving off a charitable impression is that it appeals to credulity. It instills an almost automatic mechanism for justifying even the most suspicious acts. Supporters of Mother Teresa may defend her against this charge by arguing that taking money from bad people, to use for good, is an honourable thing. After all, who better to take it from? However, according to Hitchens’ research, this money was not spent on the poor, nor the building of shelters or hospices, but

Manuela Galindo | The McGill Daily on nunneries and brothers’ homes.

Surely, it was not to that end that people, even criminals, were making their donations.

Moreover, Mother Teresa’s actions came under criticism for their inefficacy as well. Her shelters and hospices in Kolkata were not purely havens for the poor, as they were often touted, but were instead known as “dying shelters” where suffering was venerated as a kind of blessing.

Speaking on the suffering in Kolkata, Mother Teresa once said, “there is something beautiful in seeing the poor accept their lot, to suffer it like Christ’s Passion. The world gains much from their suffering.” There have also been several claims that in the dying shelters, Mother Teresa and her fellow nuns would baptise non-Catholics on their deathbeds, without their knowledge or consent.

In 1991, Robin Fox, editor of the British medical journal The Lancet, visited Mother Teresa’s Home for the Dying Destitutes (the name has since changed to the friendlier “Home of the Pure Heart”). His investigation condemned the home’s lack of medical expertise and the blatant disregard for pain by the attending sisters. There have been multiple reports by former staff of the hospices that negligent medical care was frequent, including the reuse of unsterilised needles, administration of expired medicine, and confinement of ill people to small spaces where the risk of cross-contamination increases. In 2013, a similar investigation by faculty members of the University of Montreal concluded that Mother Teresa’s institutions “[cared] for the sick by glorifying their suffering instead of relieving it.”

The greatest detriment to Kolkata, where Mother Teresa spent most of her ‘charitable’ time, was perhaps that she spent her entire career campaigning against family planning and birth control under the notion that AIDS may be bad – but not as bad as condoms. She also advocated relentlessly against abortion rights, stating when she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, “the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion.” Throughout her lifetime, she stood in staunch opposition to reproductive rights for women, thereby denying them the means by which they could assert bodily autonomy. The right to family planning, along with access to education, is a fundamental necessity for generations of women to move forward from the patriarchal conditions of the past – to deny women these rights is to perpetuate one of the causal factors of millennial poverty around the world.

We judge people by the fruits of their labor, as we ought to, and Mother Teresa should be no exception. An important question is why it is so difficult to open Mother Teresa’s life to criticism. The answer is two-fold. The first reason is because Mother Teresa provides, as author Vijay Prashad puts it, “the quintessential image of a white woman in the colonies, working to save the dark bodies from their own temptations and failures.” It is this white saviour complex that titillates media coverage – all the while ignoring the often more important work done by an ex-colony’s own people – and cushions the blow of any criticism levelled against the white saviours themselves.

The second reason is because one’s instinct is often to trust figures

who, even if they may be acting out of their own personal agendas, are able to do so under the guise of altruism and charity. Mother Teresa’s presence in the colonies occurred at a time when many struggled with disease, poverty, and oppression in the aftermath of colonial settlement – she was, for many, a reinstatement of the ideals of faith and kindness. We tend not to scrutinize those who thus capture our imaginations, but nonetheless it is crucial that we hold them accountable for their actions, whether it be for the sake of reminding them of their moral duties, or for the good of the people they are to serve.

This can be said not only of religious figures, but of all who fall under the public eye: politicians, celebrities, creators, and the like.

Preconceptions are a dangerous business. Words like ‘charity’ and ‘faith’ appeal to softer sides and elicit praise, but it is necessary for us not to let the goodwill associated with these words impair our ability to think critically about those who we hold up as pillars of our communities. For better or worse, they should still be held accountable and judged by the fruits they bear.

The life of Mother Teresa is a controversial one, and her canonization begs a re-evaluation of our perceptions of charity. The question arises of whether we shall exercise our skepticism, as we should, or allow the notion of ‘charity’ to fray unnoticed, as it will, until it is too late.

Angelo Manaloto is a first-year Economics and Philosophy student. To reach the author, email angelo.manaloto@mail.mcgill.ca.

Commentary

September 26, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Selective remembrance

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The hypocrisy of social media in addressing tragedy around the world

Shanell Fan Commentary Writer

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very year on September 11, we are prompted to “never forget.” As numerous news specials, online articles, and social media posts make it impossible not to recall the events of that day, the sentiment of “never forget” is still just as strong as it was more than a decade ago.

To call September 11 a day that changed the U.S. would be no understatement. Having grown up only thirty minutes away from Washington D.C., I remember how, even as a child, I noticed the sudden increase in airport security, and the new sensational headlines, all centered around the fear of a people I had never thought of as the ‘other’. It has been fifteen years since 3000 people were killed in the attacks on the twin towers and the Pentagon, sparking an ongoing fear of terrorism that has lasted more than a decade. However, it has been less than two years since Boko Haram carried out a massacre that ended the lives of more than 150 Nigerian civilians in Baga.

It has been merely three months since a coordinated bomb attack in Baghdad killed approximately 300 Iraqi civilians. Why is only the first one ever acknowledged?

On the anniversary of 9/11, some Facebook-users chose to use profile overlays or trending hashtags to pay their respects, resembling previous profile overlays made to support the victims of the Paris attack in 2015 and those of the Pulse nightclub shooting earlier this year. The horrors of the aforementioned tragedies should not be ignored. However, there is something to be said about which tragedies are chosen to be spotlighted and which are not. As a result of 9/11, and recent events that have unfolded in other parts of the world, Western media has created a climate of fear by perpetuating a one-dimensional narrative where white civilians are victims and people of colour are perpetrators.

By doing so, the general public is only aware of Western tragedies and are made ignorant of horrors of a similar magnitude occuring frequently to people of colour around the world. As an American, I have found that the only way to find full coverage of events outside the U.S. is to search for them myself on the internet. It shouldn’t be so hard to receive a truly global view of the world’s news. When the local news channels broadcast only what affects white Western viewers, it is frustrating to see the lives of people of colour around the world (and within the United States) continuously ignored and put on the backburner. Obvious racism and acts of terror toward people of colour, including the LGBTQA+ community of colour,

Sonia Ionescu| The McGill Daily are always marginalized in favor of allowing the dominant white population to remain comfortable.

There is something to be said about which tragedies are chosen to be spotlighted and which are not.

Corporate social media, dominated by large-scale mainstream media organisations and companies like Facebook and Twitter, caters almost entirely toward a Western audience. The ongoing violence that occurs on a regular basis throughout the Middle East at the hands of Western militaries and local Western-sponsored regimes remains unbroadcasted, unrepresented, and unacknowledged by Facebook, Snapchat, and other social media platforms, ultimately misinforming the West. It is not, of course, the fault of social media that thousands of lives are lost every month with little to no recognition; nor is it responsible for what, according to Al Jazeera, is the loss of “at least 1.3 million people [who] have been killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan from direct and indirect consequences of the U.S. ‘war on terrorism.’” By choosing not to focus on stories that

occur outside of North America and Europe, social media allows its Western audience to skim a clickbait article, feel mildly disturbed, and then promptly forget, especially when the tragedy does not directly relate to them. A death should be mourned regardless of race, sexuality, or religion.

This willful ignorance perpetuates Islamophobia in a devastatingly effective way. When news relating to the Middle East and Islam focuses more on the radical factions of Daesh (also known as ISIS) and Boko Haram than it does on the victims who were killed, our view of Islam is immediately restricted to the terrorists, rather than the terrorized. More importantly, when militaries from the West are deployed on foreign soil, we turn our heads on the innocents who are killed as a result of this violence, and claim it to be in the name of the “war on terror.” We remember the suicide bombers and the ‘radical’ jihadist leaders who we percieve as threats, ignoring the fact that our own government regularly commits atrocities against ordinary citizens in the Middle East, turning their home into a battleground.

Islamophobia perpetuated by ignorance has been asserted through hate crimes, anti-refugee rhetoric, and direct accusations of terrorism hurled towards an entire religion, whose adherents are the most affected and harmed by terrorism. Such ignorance spreads far and wide. Even in elementary school, I witnessed children too afraid to sit

next to their Muslim classmates, some using ‘terrorist’ as a racial slur.

Western media has created a climate of fear by perpetuating a one-dimensional narrative where white civilians are victims and people of colour are perpetrators.

The belief that Muslims are inherently dangerous has justified the killing of hundreds of people across the Middle East and northern Africa, as well as Pakistan and Afghanistan, with drone attacks by the U.S. government claiming to target ‘terrorist cells’ and recieving little to no opposition. According to a report published by The Intercept, “nearly 90 percent of the people killed in airstrikes were not the intended targets.” In Yemen, the hunt for seventeen men led to the deaths of 273 people, including seven children. In Pakistan, the death of a single Taliban deputy commander cost the lives of 128 others. When social media glosses over such topics, it is easy to think of these lives as just another

statistic, or simple casualties that were the necessary consequence of eliminating ‘Islamic’ terrorism. It leads us to forget that these lives are just as valuable as the lives lost in the attacks on 9/11. The lack of social media coverage on casualties occurring anywhere outside of the West dehumanizes the victims involved and proves how willing we are to ignore human suffering, when the affected group does not relate directly to white society.

It has been fifteen years since the attacks on the twin towers and the Pentagon. Fifteen years since the United States was shaken by a disaster so powerful that it now serves as a marker of time, as we now refer to things pre- and post-9/11. As an American, I recognize just as much as everyone else how horrible that day was for our country. When I see pictures of bodies dropping from the towers and hear personal stories of those who lost family members in the carnage, it pains me to think that there are people who could even think of executing such an awful act.

However, others are still living this nightmare; while the United States can look back on 9/11 and commemorate it with hashtags and profile pictures, the terror of 9/11 continues elsewhere in another form, unrecognized and ignored, without much hope of it ever becoming only a memory.

Shanell Fan is a U1 English Literature student from the United States. To contact the author, email shanell.fan@mail.mcgill.ca.

FEATURES

September 26, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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Written by Mia-Kate Salinger-Messer

Visual by Marina Djurdjevic

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FEATURES

September 26, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

n certain ways, feminism has turned into a cliche – and I say this as a feminist. That is absolutely not to say that feminism is not vital to the progression of society towards equity and equality, because it is, no questions asked.

But since we’ve tackled the glaring inequities like women’s suffrage, feminists who continue to draw attention to subtler instances of sexism today are accused of simply complaining, or ‘playing the victim.’

Addressing women’s representation – or the lack thereof – in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields is one such issue. One of the biggest issues that the STEM fields face is the “leaky pipe problem,” the term that describes the chronological decline in number of women that enroll, advance and remain in the sciences. The source of the problem stems from a lack of a female community and role models, pressure to start a family during the course of their education and research, and internalized sexism. While the under-representation and misogyny in STEM are daunting, I find that focussing on the successes of my female peers and superiors, as opposed to dwelling on instances of sexism, gives me a better sense of motivation and empowerment. I spoke with four women (three professors and one undergraduate student) from different departments at McGill in order to present the variety of possibilities that exist for women in STEM. I want to add a disclaimer to my article: even considering the challenges I face as a woman in STEM, I fully acknowledge my other forms of privilege. I am lucky to say that I have never felt disadvantaged because of my gender; I was raised with an enormous amount of support from female and male figures in my life. I’m white, my family is upper-middle class, and I grew up in a liberal community.

I believe that by recognizing privilege and its effects, we can strive to diminish the arrogance and ignorance that often stems from a closed mind.

The notion of privilege arose in my interviews when each woman told me that they had not felt targeted by explicit sexism – keep in mind these are highly educated women, three-fourths of whom are white, working and studying in Canada. There was a sense of selfdefinition and self-reliance, the acknowledgement of sexism within the system, but the decision and ability to look past it.

One cannot discuss the general topic of women in STEM without laying down some very real, disheartening numbers, so bear with me: in 2011, Statistics Canada reported that only 39 per cent of all STEM graduates were women.

Women made up only 23 per cent of engineers and 30 per cent of

those who earned mathematics and computer science degrees; the total Canadian STEM workforce consisted of a mere 22 per cent female professionals. All of the women I spoke with made it clear that by the time they were taking high school science classes, the gender gap was apparent to them.

Sometimes sexism in STEM looks like a classroom full of mechanical engineers, where only three are women. But more often today, sexism becomes so subtly ingrained in a culture that it is barely noticeable – or at least, women feel it doesn’t deserve comment.

For the women I spoke with, their choice to study sciences appeared natural, effortless – there was no feeling of having to swim upstream in order to progress in STEM. Perhaps there is a correlation with a lack of obvious barriers, and an obliviousness to the existence of the ‘leaky pipeline.’ But when I pressed them, many of the women recalled incidents of microaggressions or double standards that, perhaps, they deemed too trivial to name ‘sexism.’

Perhaps there is a correlation with a lack of obvious barriers, and an obliviousness to the existence of the ‘leaky pipeline.’

Subtle sexism is arguably even more pernicious than overt sexism, since there’s no obvious obstacle to rail against, just the friction of daily invalidation. Jokes among peers that may seem harmless – even to the point where we, as women, laugh along – have a lasting, subconscious effect. The question I was left wondering after the interviews was “what can be done to ensure the initial enthusiasm of young girls in STEM is not trampled by a fear of comparison to one’s male counterparts?”

I met with Yajing Liu first. Liu grew up and completed her undergraduate education in China at Peking University, followed by a PhD from Harvard University and postdoctoral research at Princeton University. She told me that she knew she wanted to study physics in high school, by the time she was to take her university entrance exams, and later built upon her initial love for geography by pursuing a geophysics career. Before teaching at McGill, she did research at the Wood Hole Oceanography Institution, which

Yajing Liu had a teaching affiliation with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The gender gap was something Liu claims not to have noticed. She mentioned that her geophysics department at Peking University was unique in its relatively good gender ratio of 7:13 women to men, as opposed to the 1:11 ratio in the neighbouring astrophysics department. Liu said that her undergraduate advisor encouraged her, and other women in the department, to include themselves in research.

Even so, because geophysics field work involves long hours of driving to remote areas, and the heavy labour of setting up geophysics instruments, Liu told me “some geophysics profs – even though they don’t say it – prefer to not have women, or not many women, in the group for logistical reasons.”

Despite the encouragement from her advisor, Liu noticed the lack of female role models during her studies at Peking University.

“Looking back we only had one female prof – who wasn’t even a full prof, and she didn’t do much research,” said Liu, noting that she “wished that my fellow students would have a stronger woman role model on faculty to look up to.”

I asked Liu about when she thought women in STEM were the most prone to “leak out” of the pipeline, so to speak, and she explained that the postdoctorate period is probably one of the most turbulent periods for women. “In grad school you are protected by your advisor, so you’re in a big group, a very supportive environment. By the time of postdoc you’re on your own with an advisor who has their own group, their own students to take care of, and you’re deemed to be independent, self sufficient, because you already have a PhD, so you should be able to support yourself,” she said.

“I think that’s a very critical period for a woman – for everyone, but especially for a woman – because by the time you’re a postdoc you’re

Kevin Tam and Marina Djurdjevic | The McGill Daily probably in your late 20s where most women, at least by current standards, are expected to start a serious relationship or a marriage or a family,” she continued. “There are choices facing you in those two short years: should I do another postdoc if I don’t find a permanent job in academia, because it’s very hard to find faculty positions [...] or should I start [looking] for industry jobs, or should I put more time into starting a family? It could be very critical.”

Valérie Orsat is a Montreal local; McGill is both her undergraduate and doctoral alma mater. She decided to pursue engineering as a CEGEP student, and stumbled upon bioresource engineering at a symposium at the Macdonald Campus. Bioresource engineering intertwines engineering and international development; currently, her research is based in southern India. She works with agriculture technology and in the food production industry, as well as micro-companies that focus on empowering women in the agriculture industry. Today, she teaches undergraduate engineering courses at Macdonald Campus.

Orsat recalled and remarked on a lack of self-confidence for women in STEM. “When I started university I had lots of doubt about whether I could perform. I would compare myself to my male counterparts, and they [would] always seem to know things much greater than me, they [knew] how to do everything,” she admitted.

She described her engineering undergraduate class as “still a bit of a male-dominated field,” remembering that she “was definitely laughed at a little bit by colleagues: ‘Oh yeah you’ll look funny when you drive a tractor,’ type of attitude.”

Twenty years later, a similar trend persists in the courses she

teaches at McGill: “I see it in the kids that I teach now. [...] Girls will be like a deer in headlights, [and admit] ‘I just don’t know,’ while the boys prefer to pretend they know.”

“I know they’re equally scared, but some boys will pretend: ‘ha, it’s easy, I can do this,’ when they’ve never done it, and the girls will all just be scared, period,” she explained. “And then [the girls] get scared that ‘I don’t have what it takes,’ that ‘I don’t have the basics,’ ‘the boys seem to know it but I don’t,’ and that’s not the case, it’s just your attitude and how you approach a problem.”

“Some geophysics profs – even though they don’t say it – prefer not to have women [...] in the group for logistical reasons.”

—Yajing Liu Assistant Professor, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences “We still have work to do in keeping women in the work force, in the professional field,” she noted.

“We have no problem right now getting females to register in the program, and they graduate, but many of them [then] move on to something slightly different; they’ll go get an MBA and get more of a management position or go into HR. They’ll kind of deviate, and they won’t really work in the nittygritty of an engineering profession.”

Alanna Watt is a researcher and assistant professor of molecular biology at McGill. Her

FEATURES research focuses on neurological signals, and she is active in supporting women in STEM through her role as faculty mentor for Scientista, an upcoming club at McGill that hopes to empower female students in STEM. She received her PhD from Brandeis University in the U.S. and completed her postdoctorate research in London before starting her own lab at McGill.

“Girls will be like a deer in headlights [and admit] ‘I just don’t know,’ while the boys prefer to pretend they know.”

—Valérie Orsat Associate Professor, Department of Bioresource Engineering As a professor in molecular biology, as well as a mother, Dr. Watt describes the state of math and physics departments as intimidating to young girls, saying that “It’s hard for women, and maybe it’s hardest at those ages when you’re just being evaluated on how well you can memorize things or how brilliant you can be with just math.”

She described working in her first lab, starting out intimidated but gaining confidence. “I remember being really intimidated and going to a lab meeting and saying nothing, and being like ‘oh my god, I hope they don’t expect me to say anything.’” But she found that working in the lab

September 26, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily was “a very empowering feeling,” adding that “it gave me something that actually I seemed to be good at, or you know, at least could hold my own.”

In terms of role models, Watt spoke of her female PhD advisor.

“It was really, really important to me to be able to see that there were women doing what I did,” Watt explained. “She had kids, she was married, she was a very fantastic scientist. [...] So getting to see someone be so successful both professionally as a scientist, but also as a whole human being is really instrumental.”

Watt said that she found McGill and her department a “very supportive place,” referencing the number of women and mothers in the department. “I remember going to one of the meetings where one of the faculty members, she said so matter-of-factly ‘I’m home with my son who’s sick, so I’m just gonna Skype in for the meeting’ and that was just perfectly fine and I was so happy to be in this environment where you don’t have to hide something like that,” she mentioned.

Christina Santella is a U2 neuroscience student from Montreal.

Pushed to pursue medicine directly from CEGEP, she chose to follow her passion for research, and currently works in the Mogul Laboratory, researching individual pain. A member of Scientista as well as the Neuro Council, she found a community within McGill through her program, clubs, and community, after a difficult transition from CEGEP. Santella first noticed the gender gap in high school, when she realized that “in physics, it was

13

mostly the guys who were more interested, and in chemistry it was mostly the girls,” a trend which discouraged her from pursuing physics. However, she also said that she never discussed the gender gap before university, noting that “even if there was a gender gap, I just accepted it.”

It wasn’t until Santella was exposed to lab research that she made the decision to pursue graduate school. We discussed how younger academics often have more liberal views than their older counterparts: “That’s where a lot of the issues happen, between PIs [principal investigators] or maybe between postdocs or research assistants and our generation,” she noted. “I feel like our generation itself, inside the programs, are very open.”

“[Research] gave me something that actually I seemed to be good at, or you know, at least could hold my own.

—Alanna Watt Assistant Professor, Department of Biology Christina Santella When I asked her about sexism in the lab, she brought up more subtle examples: “people are like, ‘Oh, did you flirt with the PI to get into that lab?’” In reaction to those comments, she told me “I guess I laugh along with it because they’re my friends and I know that they’re joking, but I can see how if I were to think about that a little more and let it marinate, it is offensive”

Kevin Tam and Marina Djurdjevic The McGill Daily

In my interviews with them, all of the women mentioned the importance of female representation and role models in STEM. Seeing women hold professional research and academic positions makes it

easier to imagine yourself in a similar position. For Christina, as an undergraduate student, seeking out people who could be of help was a learning process in itself – one that opened doors to further opportunities at McGill. I wanted to give space and weight to the voices of women in different areas of STEM at McGill, in the hopes that they will serve as role models and positive representation for female students in STEM who don’t know where to turn.

“People are like, ‘Oh, did you flirt with the PI [principal investigator] to get into that lab?’”

—Christina Santella U2 Neuroscience

Alanna Watt

Kevin Tam and Marina Djurdjevic | The McGill Daily

We need to offer the women who want and strive to be in STEM equal opportunities to contribute, and patch up the leaks in the pipeline. Science benefits, from differing perspectives and creative processes that people of all genders can bring to the table. If science aims to address the questions of universal truths, the entire population must be equally involved in the inquiry.

SCI+TECH

September 26, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Gene editing our future

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Controversial new technology may turn science fiction into reality Priscilla Wang The McGill Daily

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t won’t be long before the term ‘clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats’ (CRISPR) will become a household term. This revolutionary yet incredibly controversial technology may significantly change the way our genes are expressed. However, strenuous debates over safety and ethical matters have to be settled to allow the advent of therapeutic or ‘cosmetic’ gene editing. But first, let us discuss what CRISPR is and why researchers are making such a big deal out of it.

CRISPR are segments of genetic material that are used as a guide to search for repeats of that identical piece of genes in cells.

Once located, CRISPR associated proteins (Cas) will then act like a pair of scissors to cut out that piece of the gene; Cas are also known as endonuclease enzymes. Put simply, the CRISPR/Cas9 system can locate a piece of genetic material inside a cell – or, hypothetically, a body – with a high level of precision and cut that piece out, thus altering the DNA and the fate of new proteins.

For example, cutting out a gene could cure a genetically inherited illnesses, such as the HTT gene associated with Huntington’s. A baby whose entire family is brown eyed could be “edited” to have blue eyes, by inserting the gene that produces the proteins needed to affect eye colour.

The idea of changing the expression of genes has been thrown around for a long time, but with the fairly recent advent of CRISPR/Cas9 technology it is now closer to reality. Very recently, scientists primarily at the Genome Institute of Singapore and other affiliations have researched a new method for gene editing utilizing the Cas9 protein, whose activity can be chemically modified. This Cas variant, called iCas (a newly described protein), has nuclease activity that is tightly controlled by a drug called 4-hydroxytamoxifen (4-HT). Tamoxifen has also been used in the fight against breast cancer. Fusing the original Cas9 enzyme with a section of the estrogen receptor where hormones typically bind makes iCas sensitive to 4-HT. When 4-HT is added, along with the guide CRISPR segment of genetic material and the iCas protein, the gene-editing method now has an on-off switch that is reversible, easy to implement and time efficient (when compared to other methods of controlling genomeediting). “We benchmarked iCas against other chemical-inducible methods and found that it had the fastest on rate and that its activity could be toggled on and off repeatedly,” published in a September

issue of Nature Chemical Biology this year. The authors of this article go on to say, “Collectively, these results highlight the utility of iCas for rapid and reversible control of genome-editing function.”

Now that the CRISPR/iCas system can be tightly controlled by 4-HT, this technology is one step closer to being used for “fast, reversible, chemical-inducible genome engineering in mammalian cells”. This technology may seem like a miracle cure, but many issues such as safethy and ethical concers have yet to be resolvedbefore this system can even be tested in humans, let alone enter the market as a viable therapeutic. There is already significant controversy surrounding this technology, most stemming from fears of dangerous side effects, and unethical motives.

In March 2015, these fears came true when news broke of scientists administering CRISPR/ Cas9 in non-viable human embryos in an attempt to cure a fatal blood disorder caused by the gene -thalassaemia. They hypothesized that if successful, this procedure could eradicate this genetic disease before the child was even born. Interestingly, the authors originally submitted their findings to the very prestigious scientific journals Science and Nature, but were rejected partly due to ethical concerns.

The idea of changing the expression of genes has been thrown around for a long time, but with the fairly recent advent of CRISPR/ Cas9 technology it is now closer to reality.

Following the experiment, only a small fraction of the embryos tested had the gene successfully deleted and the side effects were virtually impossible to predict due to the complicated nature of embryo development. It is uncertain whether the embryos could have carried out normal development, or whether they would have suffered fatal mutations due to the imprecise editing. This may also unethical because any genetic changes administered in embryos, known

Nadia Boachie | The McGill Daily as germline modifications, are heritable. These changes could have unpredictable and potentially dangerous effects on future generations, and some argue it is unfair to decide the designer genetic changes we want for our unborn children.

Many have expressed concerns that any gene-editing research on human embryos, even if they are not viable, could lead to increasing accounts of unsafe or unethical uses of the technique. It is generally assumed by some that germline editing carries a certain level of unsafety, as it affects every cell within the body, including the sperm or egg cells, and the actual side effects would not be known, and would in essence be irreversible. In the previously mentioned example of the paper published in March 2015, some scientists critiquing the paper have argued

that even though the procedure worked there were many off-target mutations, which could of course lead to unforeseen circumstances, such as the silencing of typically important genes.

Since gene editing can give rise to undesirable side effects, these changes may then become embedded in the germline, and the procedure may do more harm than good. The romanticized ideas of curing diseases from blood disorders to cancer to HIV/ AIDs with a procedure as simple as hitting copy and paste on a keyboard is too premature and frankly, a little naïve. Extensive amounts of research and ethical debate must be done to ensure the safety of patients. Currently, geneediting procedures in humans is more science fiction than reality. However, the future is bright. The science commu-

nity has accepted CRISPR/Cas9 as a “miracle” technology and has applied it to a vast variety of experiments to better understand fields such as cell biology and molecular genetics. Even though we can’t cure cancer just yet, CRISPR is still a powerful tool that can be used to understand the way our genes work. Perhaps we will unlock new knowledge that will provide us with the keys to utilize this technology to its full potential. In the meantime, it is important to understand and participate in what could be the most high-profile scientific debate of our generation. The applications of CRISPR/Cas9 are coming, and soon we may be faced with the decision of whether to allow doctors to use this to treat a disease, or change a child’s eyes to blue and a high IQ. Science fiction could soon become reality.

SCI+TECH

September 26, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Tarantula venom: a painkiller?

Clara Kyung Sci+Tech Writer

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Take a bite out of pain

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f you were looking for a new painkiller, where would you begin your search? Tarantula venom? Probably not. However, contrary to intuition, some compounds found in the venom can have extremely useful effects.

Earlier this year, researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia discovered that a peptide toxin found in the venom of the Peruvian green velvet tarantula may have important potential as a painkiller. Venom is a complex mixture of enzymes and proteins - peptide toxins are proteins that have a toxic effect on the animal’s victim. Types of peptide toxins can vary greatly from species to species. The specific peptide these researchers examined is called ProTx-II. Researchers were already aware of the fact that this peptide inhibits the voltage-gated sodium channel NaV1.7, an important pain receptor. NaV1.7 sodium channels are located in the cell membrane of nociceptors, a type of nerve cell that transmits pain signals. However, by studying the structure of ProTx-II using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, the Queensland researchers made groundbreaking discoveries about the mechanism by which the inhibition occurs. NMR spectroscopy allowed them to create 3D representations of the peptide, and thus closely examine its structure to see how it might interact with the cell membrane of neurons.

Sonia Troeria Henriques, the lead researcher of the team, explains that, “The neuronal cell membranes attract the peptide [toxin] to the neurons, increase its concentration close to the pain receptors, and lock the peptide in the right orientation to maximize its interaction with the target.” The discovery of the cell membranes‘ role in blocking pain receptors has important implications for the future development of painkilling drugs.

This is far from being the first time venom has been researched as a potential painkiller. Researchers in France found that the venom of the black mamba, one of the most dangerous snakes in Southern and Eastern Africa, contains proteins called mambalgins, which are as effective as morphine in stopping pain. Another venom that is being studied for its painkilling potential is that of the cone snail. Scientists have found that the extremely powerful venom of the cone snail contains certain proteins that “can be

Sarah Meghan Mah| The McGill Daily up to 10,000 times more potent than morphine,” as described by the National Geographic. In 2004, the U.S Federal Drug Administration actually approved a drug called Prialt which contains a synthetic form of a peptide found in cone snail venom.

Painkillers derived from venom open up a whole new world of drugs.

How did these animals develop these powerful venoms?

According to scientists, venoms started out as genes for other functions. Normal proteins undergo mutations. A common mutation is one that causes DNA to get duplicated; this means that the extra gene can mutate again without affecting the original gene. These mutated genes might help animals capture prey, and if they do, these animals are more likely to survive longer and pass on their DNA, while animals lacking the mutated gene would die off. The new venom gene may further evolve or it may even duplicate. Scientists have actually found that the rate at which cone snails duplicate venom genes is the fastest in the animal kingdom.

Painkillers derived from venom open up a whole new world of drugs.

The peptide toxins found in venom work differently from opioids (such as morphine) that are commonly used as painkillers, so they can block pain without causing many of the harmful side effects of opioids, such as addiction. However, these venom-derived painkillers are still under development, as they pose certain challenges. For instance, the pain-blocking peptides in the venom of cone snails and black mambas cannot cross the blood-brain barrier to bind to the pain receptors in the brain, so they need to be administered via spinal injections. This is highly inconvenient, because of complications such as infection, hematoma, and direct nerve trauma, as well as their high cost.

You could look at nature as being like a catalogue of products, and all of those have benefited from a 3.8 billion year search and development period.

Nonetheless, the compounds found in venom provide enormous

potential in the development of new painkilling drugs. Using nature as a source of inspiration and innovation has long been an important driver of scientific advancement.

For instance, in 1941 Swiss engineer George de Mestral observed burrs sticking to his dog’s fur, which led him to invent velcro. Another fascinating example is Zimbabwe’s largest office and shopping complex, the Eastgate Centre, which was inspired by the structure of termite dens. Architect Mick Pearce designed the Centre, taking inspiration from the ventilation system of termite dens, to create a building that uses “less than 10% of the energy of a conventional building its size.”

These are all examples of biomimicry, which is defined as “imitation of life or nature.” The term ‘biomimicry’ was popularized by biologist Janine Benyus in her 1997 book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. Biomimicry plays a crucial role in the field of medicine – not only in the development of painkillers, but in other areas as well. For example, researchers inspired by the head of Pomphorhynchus laevis, a parasitic intestinal worm, designed surgical microneedles with tips that swell when they come into contact with water. These microneedles provide “three times stronger adhesion than conventional surgical staples.”

The potential of biomimicry is huge. Michael Pawlyn, an architect

and strong advocate of biomimicry, explains that, “You could look at nature as being like a catalogue of products, and all of those have benefited from a 3.8 billion year research and development period.

And given that level of investment, it makes sense to use it.” According to the Biomimicry Institute, biomimicry may be the key to solving the world’s sustainability issues because it means drawing on nature’s “time-tested patterns and strategies” which have proven to be sustainable. For example, the awardwinning Living Filtration System uses an earthworm-inspired technology to create a sustainable alternative to conventional agricultural drainage systems, thereby reducing the need for fertilizer and leading to healthier soil.

Nature is an excellent source of innovation, whether it’s for developing new painkillers, designing energy-efficient buildings, or creating better surgical tools. In an environment currently being devastated by global warming, it’s important to find viable solutions for the issues that we face through more natural means. As technology continues to move forward, we can use biomimicry in more sophisticated ways to solve the problems of the 21st century. The concept of a tarantula venom-inspired painkiller is still under development, but in the meanwhile, you can look around and let nature do what it does best - which is inspire us to create and innovate.

CULTURE

September 26, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Break a confident pose

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Stories of dates gone wrong, blowjobs on pizza, and more at Ladyfest

Sonia Ionescu | The McGill Daily Caroline Macari Culture Writer

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ontreal’s second annual music and arts festival Ladyfest took place from September 12 to September 18 at various locations across the city. Self-described as a festival “celebrating funny ladies (whatever your interpretation of that is) & funny people who celebrate ladies,” Ladyfest was organized by the team behind Women in Comedy in Montreal – a community that supports “female performers as well as woman-centered comedy” in the city. Throughout Ladyfest, performers showcased a variety of talents ranging from improv to storytelling to burlesque.

On September 13, comedy production company The Brunch Club presented The Liar Liar Show at Theatre Sainte-Catherine. Three women were seated on stage and recounted personal stories of mischief, “glamorous New York nights,” and dates gone wrong. The interactive game show had three rounds: the contestants took turns telling a madeup story, and the audience guessed the liar from each round, with the most deceptive performer winning.

Comedian Tranna Wintour, a trans woman of colour, shared a particularly memorable story of prank-calling her married grade school teacher, who was “hot in a generic, Sears catalog way,” and pretending to be the other woman. This resulted in said teacher’s wife phoning the police and Wintour receiving an awkward call to the prin-

cipal’s office. Comedian and McGill student D.J. Mausner shared an account of a horrendous date: within the first few minutes, the man ever so smoothly said, while descending the steps to Cafe Resonance, “wow, I didn’t think I’d be going down this soon into the night.” Mausner won as the biggest liar for the night, and was awarded the coveted prize — a slinky.

Throughout Ladyfest, performers showcased a variety of talents ranging from improv to storytelling to burlesque.

After the show, The Daily spoke with The Brunch Club’s producer, Sasha Manoli, about their mission as a collective and their presence in Montreal. According to Manoli, The Brunch Club aims to produce and support a type of comedy that she herself would like to consume – comedy created by women. In participating in shows such as The Liar Liar Show, comics have to spawn new material, which is valuable in a comedic community where most comics reuse the same content.

Discussing The Brunch Club’s preference for smaller venues, Manoli stated that low-capacity spaces such as Theatre SainteCatherine create a positive atmosphere with “small, interactive elements that allow comics to thrive in a creative space and gauge their success.” Most importantly, by encouraging its audience to create comedy themselves, The Brunch Club’s community forms from its audience, providing platforms that foster diversity as well as “the competitive energy” – exemplified by The Liar Liar Show’s game show format – that comedy thrives on.

Tranna Wintour appeared again as host of the burlesque show “C’est WHAT?” on September 15. She began by asking the small crowd of fifteen who their favourite ladies were; responses included Whitney Houston, Angela Bassett, Celine Dion, and others. Tranna glowed at these responses and said that with favourite ladies such as these, the crowd would be in for a treat.

The burlesque performance had some stripteases that were far more humorous than others. “Ottawa’s Hourglass and a Half” Black burlesque performer Saffron St. James appeared in a silk dress with three enormous plume-feather fans, and ended her performance by removing the silk dress in a dramatic fashion, fanning herself while fifties doo-wop played in the background. Her act earned tremendous applause, as did Montreal’s Penny Romanoff, when she held a dish

of food in each hand and asked the audience which sounded better – “pizza so cheesy it goes down easy” or “a piece of pie – only thing sweeter is between my thighs.”

The audience chose the pizza, and Penny stripped while aggressively taking bites of and simulating a blowjob on the pizza.

Local performer El Diablo emerged with green gloves and a costume that looked like a joint.

She eventually stripped into a thong and bra made of marijuana leaves, and consumed lots of sour cream and onion chips throughout.

She exited the stage with a lit joint in her mouth. Many found this act to be less substantial and creative than some of the other acts, which were more varied in style, shown by the light applause and rating of 3 out of 5. Regardless, it was rewarding to see women and femmes of colour seize control of their bodies and ooze confidence.

Sunday nights are for improv at Theatre Sainte-Catherine, and Ladyfest continued this tradition for its final show, drawing the largest crowd yet. Twelve women performed together in varying groups for four rounds, each with different mixes of performances and prompts led by host Sandi Armstrong. In one performance, a high school’s resident 24-year-old “cool girl” taught a new student how to be cool. When prompted by her mentor to “say something someone cool would say,” the apprentice retorted, “I want a ciga-

rette.” Another performance was a two-person bachelorette party that culminated in the bride-tobe revealing her feelings for her best friend, and the two planning to elope for a beautiful lesbian romance — until the bride-to-be revealed that she was pregnant.

[It] was rewarding to see women and femmes of colour seize control of their bodies and ooze confidence.

Overall, the festival showcased Montreal’s diverse talent and intimate comedy community. Both on stage and in the audience, many familiar faces appeared each night.

The crowds were enthusiastic and warm, offering constant applause and encouraging responses. The women of Ladyfest graced the stage with confidence and sharp wit, and highlighted an often forgotten principle of comedy: you can be funny, hilarious even, without being offensive. To encapsulate both Ladyfest, and comedy as an art, in the words of Coucou Belliveau, a performer at Sunday’s improv show, “break a confident pose and they’ll love you.”

CULTURE

September 26, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

17

Get in loser, we’re going to Aida

Raise your hand if you’ve ever felt personally victimized by racism in opera Carly Gordon The McGill Daily

T

he drama of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Aida is all a bit high school: Princess Amneris, a domineering Regina George type, has eyes only for Radamès, hero of the Pharaoh’s army and about as interesting and intelligent as jock Aaron Samuels. Radamès, meanwhile, is in love with Aida, a former princess of Ethiopia who was captured during war and forced to serve as Amneris’ lady-in-waiting and friend-for-hire. Sweet Aida, much like high school newcomer Cady Heron, is head-over-heels for Amneris’ man — which, as Gretchen Wieners warns, is “just off-limits to friends. I mean, that’s just, like, the rules of feminism.”

Radamès and Aida sneak off for a midnight rendezvous. Amneris gets jealous (her cry of “Tremble, vile slave!” is definite Burn Book material). Trouble ensues — standard love triangle fare. That is, until Radamès’ love for Aida leads him to spill military secrets and stand trial for treason.

Opéra de Montréal’s production of Aida, which opened at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier on September 17, captured all the romantic melodrama, musical grandeur, and exoticized spectacle for which this operatic staple is known. Though lacking in live elephants (the opera’s 1871 premiere boasted twelve), the Montreal performance featured towering statues of Egyptian gods, blazing fire-lit torches and an elaborately costumed yet alarmingly homogeneous cast of over a hundred. As wide-eyed Karen would ask: “Wait — if you’re from Africa, why are you white?”

“Oh my God, Karen, you can’t just ask someone why they’re white.”

Except, you can, when the white person in question is costumed in a braided wig that is definitely appropriative, singing prolonged arias about her besieged, and supposedly Ethiopian “homeland.”

Troublesome tropes abound in opera: anguished women die in the arms of their lovers (think Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata), mental illness is depicted in a comedic light (as the Comtesse from Opéra de Montréal ’s recent Les Feluettes), and characters of colour are either bumbling (Ping, Pang, and Pong in Puccini’s Turandot), villainous (Monostatos of Mozart’s Magic Flute), or sexualized (Bizet’s titular Carmen). It’s to be expected — not acceptable, but expected — in an art form that peaked at the height of the African slave trade, a time during which Charles Darwin proclaimed women to be of inferior “mental disposition.”

In fact, when Aida premiered in 1871 at Cairo’s Khedivial Opera House, it was not a symbol of racism, but of Egyptian nationalism. True,

Courtesy of Yves Renaud

Opéra de Montréal’s Aida perpetuates Orientalist tropes. the entire debut cast was Italian, the music and lyrics were composed by white men, and costumes were designed (or possibly plundered) by a French Egyptologist — but in the face of rampant European colonialism, Egypt sure knew how to put on a show, elephants and all. The plot depicts Egypt in a patriotic light: while the Egypt of 1871 was under the shadow of British imperialism, the ancient Egypt of Aida was itself an imperialist power, conquering Ethiopia and showing off its pillaged riches to the tune of Verdi’s iconic “Triumphal March.”

The 1871 Aida was by no means progressive: after all, the opera depicts an oversimplified ancient Egypt using Orientalist tropes, deliberately designed to feed the European colonial appetite for a primitive and exotic Other. But the circumstances of Aida’s premiere offer some context — not an excuse, but certainly an explanation.

Egypt’s viceroy, Ismail Pasha, who oversaw his country’s increasing entanglement in encroaching European colonial powers, had ordered construction of the Khedivial Opera House to celebrate the 1869 opening of the Suez Canal, and to fulfill his grand vision of a (Westernized) globalized Cairo that could compete with the burgeoning ‘cultural hubs’ of Europe. To further this goal, he commissioned Aida from one of Europe’s foremost operatic composers, Giuseppe Verdi. On opening night,

the audience was filled with dignitaries, journalists, and politicians, but a decided absence of the general public — signaling that, despite the subversion of portraying ancient Egypt as the colonizer rather than the colonized, Aida was, from its inception, intended to diminish and legitimize modern Egypt to Europeans.

“Oh my god, Karen, you can’t just ask someone why they’re white.”

Except, you can, when the white person in question is costumed in a braided wig that is definitely appropriative.

Opéra de Montréal ’s rendition comes nearly a century and a half after the Cairo premiere, and while the traumatic legacy of colonialism is still potent, no context remains to encourage such an exotic representation of Aida. Nonetheless, several of Opéra de

Montréal ’s production choices were baffling: a phalanx of predominantly white warriors wearing “natural-hair“ wigs was cringe-worthy, as were the servant girls’ braids — but then, at least they weren’t in blackface, which is an occasional practice among opera companies even today. New York’s famous Metropolitan Opera only decided to ban blackface in 2015.

Following the Met’s decision, Washington Post classical music critic Anne Midgette curated a conversation between prominent opera singers of colour regarding the practice of blackface and racism in opera. The singers all agreed that blackface, though problematic, is not opera’s biggest problem.

“The conversation about blackface is a distraction,” said tenor Russell Thomas. “It’s not about whether or not [Met Opera tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko, in the role of Othello] was painted dark […] It’s about this: why aren’t the stages representative of the communities in which they are located?”

Soprano Alyson Cambridge added, “There are black singers who are qualified to sing these roles. Why don’t they get cast?”

Opéra de Montréal ’s mostly white cast delivered a musically successful performance. Although Radamès, portrayed by tenor Kamen Chanev, was stiff, soprano Anna Markarova as Aida hit some impressive high notes, and mezzo-soprano Olesya Petrova offered a regal and

robust Amneris. Soprano Myriam Leblanc stood out as the High Priestess — a small role, with brief appearances in only two scenes, but demanding a virtuosity of tone colour that Leblanc captured with impressive ease.

While the traumatic legacy of colonialism is still potent, no context remains to encourage such an exoticized representation of Aida.

And yet, the question remains: what awaits the singers of colour who weren’t on stage? It’s time for opera companies to interrogate the twisted and often subtle channels of privilege and systemic oppression that influence production decisions from programming to costuming to casting.

Because an opera world in which singers of colour can feel safe and celebrated? Well, that would be totally fetch.

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Culture

September 26, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry

Feminist comedy show combines humour with social justice Siobhan Milner Culture Writer

T

he words “stand up comedy” and “open mic” often denote cringing at poorly timed jokes. This apprehension, however, was absolutely uncalled for at The Centre for Gender Advocacy’s 2nd annual Feminist Stand-up Comedy Night which took place on September 16. Those who had attended last year’s event would have known that they were in for a great night, and Reggie’s Bar was packed well before the evening had even kicked off.

The open mic comedians started the evening off, and it quickly became clear that no topic was off-limits. Dating, sex, family life, sexism, racism, and ableism were all explored. As several comedians expressed, comedy can be cathartic for both audience and performer.

Or, as another commented, pouring your heart out on stage is “cheaper than therapy.” The night showcased a diverse range of eight women and femmes, all incredible comedians with great delivery. While some were fairly new to the comedy scene, others were seasoned performers.

Toronto-based Ify Chiwetelu was the night’s headliner. Nigerian born and Calgary raised, Chiwetelu was winner of the 2015 Bad Dog Theatre Breakout Performer award.

She brought the house down with a combination of laughter and empowerment. Ify drew attention to our society’s seemingly relentless need to categorize others’ gender

and sexuality by relaying her own experience of individuals trying to “work out” her sexuality.

As the daughter of Biafra war survivors, Ify may have had an unconventional and complex upbringing, but managed to communicate her story to the audience in relatable terms. For example, it’s not uncommon to have a parent forbid you from doing something with friends, such as going camping in Ify’s case, but the reasons might not usually include “we didn’t escape the war and move to Canada for you to sleep outside!”

[Comedy] can be cathartic for both audience and performer.

Like many of the other performers, Ify touched on her dating experiences, particularly having to navigate the dating scene as a woman of colour in a racist world. This world, oftentimes, is ignorant of its own racism, as illustrated by the stellar “pick up line” that cause her to delete her Tinder account: “I’ve never been with a black woman.” The evening’s goal wasn’t only to make the audience laugh, but to question society’s norms surrounding the objectification of women, the exoticization of women of colour, and the need to categorize people into neat, binary boxes.

Taylor Mitchell | The McGill Daily Kalyani Pandya, whose biography introduced her as holding the title of “Ottawa’s Funniest Dyke,” stood out in particular among a lineup of incredible performers.

Kalyani’s set up, delivery, and in particular her character portrayal, was impeccable, making it clear she was very comfortable on stage.

As someone who is able-bodied and experiences white privilege, there were times during

the evening where I felt uncomfortable as subjects of ableism and racism were touched on. However, I think this was a necessity. It helped me to question myself. Why do these things make me uncomfortable? How do I contribute to the perpetuation of these negative stereotypes or societal norms? Have I unwittingly been continuing to behave in a way that harms others?

As the event organisers pointed out, feminists can be hilarious, and it’s good to keep a sense of humour when fighting for social justice. The Center for Gender Advocacy organized an entertaining and informative night of comedy with a stellar line up. It’s exciting to see so many up-and-coming comedians from Montreal and the surrounding area, and refreshing to attend a comedy show that represented a multitude of voices.

Cosmic rays and meteorite strikes

Nicolas Baier’s solo exhibit recreates nature’s grandeur with technology

Max Binks-Collier Culture Writer

A

stérismes, or asterisms in English, refers to “constellations created without scientific basis.” Renowned Quebecois artist Nicolas Baier uses this concept, as evocative of the celestial as it is idiosyncratic, to explore how “natural and man-made systems” merge into epistemological frameworks that construct meaning.

Hosted by Division Gallery, Baier’s solo exhibit, “Astérismes,” raises an important question: with recent technological developments, can mankind recreate nature’s sublime?

Division Gallery is a strange, swanky contrast to the brownstone buildings and abandoned lots that surround it in the Little Burgundy neighbourhood of Montreal. Its high ceilings allow plenty of wallspace for Baier’s sprawling works.

Upon entering the gallery, the viewer encounters Rayonnement fossile, which was stippled black

and white to evoke the static of a television screen. In the label beside the piece, Baier informs us that the traces of cosmic rays, dating back to the Big Bang, are still perceptible in television monitors.

The work was also reminiscent of a grainy photo of a wind-blown and choppy sea, suggesting that Baier undermines rigid distinctions between the man-made and the natural by making us recall that everything — from televisions to oceans — is the progeny of the Big Bang. The piece forces viewers to acknowledge the awe-inducing immensity that lurks all around us, even in those parts of our lives that we consider the most banal.

The piece beside it, Forêt, reflects on the immensity and infinity of both time and knowledge. The piece, in bas-relief and made of mousse and epoxy paint, was a monochrome white that, according to the label, “evokes the untouched, the original, the initial, and thus the unfathomable: colour without data, void

of even zeros.” The piece depicted bookshelves stretching back eternally and crammed with dossiers representing “a forest of information storage devices — knowledge accumulated in an infinite library” reflecting the eternal “quest for knowledge.”

If Rayonnement fossile excavated the fossils of the Big Bang embedded all around us, then Forêt was a metaphysical thought-experiment (What was there before the Big Bang?) meets the Library of Babel, Borges’ universe-as-library.

In Réminiscence 05 and Réminiscence 06, Baier shows the extent to which our ceaseless quest for knowledge has developed. We’ve gone from gawking at the sublimity of eons-old fossils to tackling the task of conjuring epochal immensity in all its majesty. The works are computer generated images of the moment 66 million years ago when a meteorite fell to Earth and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. Réminiscence 05 shows a crimson cloud-bed, roiling

and tumultuous, looming in angry pillars. The dramatic shadows and yellow haze add to the sense of fatal grandeur. On the other hand, Réminiscence 06 is beautiful for its serenity. It depicts gently rising and falling, sediment-brown clouds stretching back to misty sunlight.

[With] recent technological developments, can mankind recreate nature’s sublime?

With displays like this, “Astérismes” draws our attention to how advances in technology are opening up a new dimension of experience and meaning via its ability to reconstruct nature in all

its grandeur, capturing moments that may not be registered by the human eye. But it also raises the question: just how genuine are these digital analogues of the natural sublimeÉ Baier even admits that the two Réminiscence pieces, though they give us the “point of view of God,” are “only artifice since this image is but a supposition of what the sky looked like.”

Perhaps “Astérismes,” with its large amount of research on physics, would answer the question of whether mankind can create a sublime to match nature’s by reminding us that the universe is ever-expanding, its circumference an eternal elastic, and that though humanity will invent new technologies to simulate its grandeur, it is the universe that will implode and destroy all. And what’s more sublime than that?

“Astérismes” runs at Division Gallery (2020 William) until November 5.

EDITORIAL

Volume 106 Issue 4

September 26, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

19

editorial board

3480 McTavish St., Rm. B-24 Montreal, QC H3A 1X9 phone 514.398.6784 fax 514.398.8318 mcgilldaily.com

The McGill Daily is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory. coordinating editor

Sonia Ionescu

coordinating@mcgilldaily.com

managing editor

Cabot Square ‘safety’ redesign actually anti-homeless and anti-Indigenous

Ralph Haddad coordinating news editor

Ellen Cools news editors

Xavier Richer Vis Marina Cupido commentary & compendium! editors

Khatira Mahdavi Inori Roy culture editors

Taylor Mitchell Coco Zhou features editor

Saima Desai science+technology editor

Igor Zlobine sports editor

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multimedia editor

Chantelle Schultz photos editor

Kevin Tam

illustrations editor

Marina Djurdjevic copy editor

Anne-Cécile Favory design & production editor

Rahma Wiryomartono

web editor

Marc Cataford

le délit

Ikram Mecheri

I

n August, the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) announced a plan to shut down and remodel the Atwater metro entrance in Cabot Square starting January 2017, citing security concerns as the reason behind the project.

Supporters of the initiative have complained about the presence of people who are homeless, and who regularly gather in and around the building. These people are said to be solely responsible for high rates of crime in the area; almost a third of all crimes committed in the STM network between 2011 and 2013 took place at Atwater station. Due to ongoing systemic discrimination against Indigenous peoples by the Canadian settler-colonial state, a disproportionate number of people who are homeless in Montreal are Indigenous; hostile architecture and the destruction of spaces which provide shelter are classist and discriminatory against them. The proposed solution, far from addressing the root causes of crime and homelessness, will marginalize and endanger the people who take shelter in the metro entrance.

These renovations comes barely two years after the completion of another massive construction project at Cabot Square, which made the space less welcoming to those who spend time and sleep there. Areas of grass were paved over, and benches were fitted with railings that deter people from sleeping on them. These changes were especially harmful to Indigenous peoples who are homeless, as Cabot Square serves as a place of gathering and

hosting activities centered around Indigenous culture and heritage.

The marginalization of these communities renders them ‘criminal’ and unwelcome in what is supposed to serve as an inclusive public space. Moreover, the $3.3 million STM plan to refurbish the Cabot square metro entrance paves the way for greater police scrutiny of the area itself: the metro entrance is being outfitted with glass panels so police can observe the interior at all times. Local authorities have a poor track record of dealing humanely with homeless communities, especially those who are Indigenous and racialized.

These initiatives are hardly surprising in a society that demonizes the homeless at every turn, and whose very foundations rest on the disenfranchisement of Indigenous peoples. Without consulting these marginalized communities, the city and the STM are not striving for a solution that would include marginalized peoples who regularly use the space, but rather choose to adopt a solution that puts them at greater risk of police scrutiny and displacement. It is unacceptable that the City of Montreal and the STM did not consult all the communities directly affected by the reconstruction of the Atwater metro station entrance. In the future, consultations should ensure that resources are spent in ways that prioritize the wellbeing of marginalized groups, who most need the space.

—The McGill Daily editorial board

rec@delitfrancais.com

cover design Rahma Wiryomartono contributors Nadia Boachie, Max Binks-Collier, Amy Currie, Shanell Fan, Praise Feng, Manuela GalindoCarvajal, Carly Gordon, Matthew He, Clara Kyung, Caroline Macari, Angelo Manaloto, Sarah Meghan Mah, Siobhan Milner, Anna O’Driscoll, Yan Ong, Sebastian Pazdan, Luke Robitaille, Mia-Kate Salinger-Messer, Justine Touchon, Jay VanPut, Priscilla Wang, Becca Zhuang

Errata

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ISSN 1192-4608.

“‘No future’ for Accountable Leadership Policy” September 19th, News, page 6, named Adam Templer the Clubs and Services Representative. In fact, he is the Clubs Representative. The Daily regrets the error.

“McGill releases Draft Policy against Sexual Violence”, September 19th, page 5, stated that the Draft Policy against Sexual Violence was written by an ad hoc Senate committee over the summer. In fact, it was written by Associate Provost (Policies, Procedures, and Equity) Angela Campbell. This article also stated that the DPSV will be brought to Senate for approval in October. In fact, it will be brought to Senate for information in October, and for approval in November. The Daily regrets the error.

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Compendium!

September 26, 2016 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

20

Lies, half-truths, and ‘looming divisiveness’.

White tears increase on campus

Phlar Dabdoub The McGall Weekly

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McGall sees a 40 per cent rise in white tears

ccording to a recent study conducted by StatsMcGall on the undergraduate student body, white tears on McGall campus have significantly increased since last year. According to the organisation, there has been an estimated 40 per cent increase: “and this is just for the month of September,” read the report. The results were announced at the recent McGall Block Party, which was held on lower field and hosted by none other than Principal and Vice Baroness Suzie Forte herself.

“We are befuddled by this rise in white tears,” said StatsMcGall head coordinator Bevan Jerry, himself a student and activist on campus, and

a self-identified witness to many white tears. “We thought they had reached their apex last year after students voted overwhelmingly to adopt a motion at the SHMU Winter General Assembly to set up an ‘an actual safe space for BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and people of colour] students on campus.’” The motion failed online ratification shortly after. According to the study, cis white male tears account for around 95 per cent of the overall increase of white tears on campus.

Baroness Forte started chanting “All Lives Matter!” shortly after the announcement of the updated campus white tears index. Her chant was greeted with scattered applause and scowls from students of colour who were caught off guard by yet another microaggression, as they simply

Crossword

Last week’s answers

wanted to “get to class without having to be constantly reminded that McGall doesn’t give a shit about us,” according to bystander and campus activist Chantal Jules.

In an interview with The Weekly, Jules highlighted that the most recent instance of the resurgence of white tears on campus is the petition “We’re Relevant Too,” on the popular website www. change?.net. The petition calls on SHMU to ratify the We Love Legal Procedure Board’s decision that setting up a safe space in SHMU “just for BIPOC” is unconstitutional. The petition, the launch of which coincided with International Day of Peace, stated “white students on campus are uncomfortable with recent divisive politics,” and that they “don’t see race

Jay VanPut The McGall Weekly

or colour” – echoing Marc Jacobs’ historic announcement following criticism of the white models with dreadlocks used in his show earlier this week.

“Being back home in the Middle East this summer really made me forget about white people,” said student activist Rami Shmalek. “I got so used to not being told by white people that I’m being ‘too emotional’ or ‘reverse racist’ when I was pointing out human rights abuses to them […] When I landed at King Trudeau International Airport earlier this month and saw all these white people, I said to myself, ‘Shit, I’m going to have to do some readjusting.’ This morning’s announcement was a stark reminder of that too.”

Bevan Jerry, also a self-identified BIPOC ally, said that the StatsMc-

Across 1. 44th President of the United States 6. Hosts 9. Drake ft. Lil Wayne & Tyga: The ______ 14. How to access 16 across 15. European peak 16. Modern letters 17. Licorice-like flowers 18. Chinese “way” 19. Dog-___ 20. What an aspiring chef might watch 23. What people do before going out 24. Dolorous ___ from Game of Thrones 25. Young person, not studying or working 27. ____ Straits 30. Something to avoid stepping on 36. Course 37. Off-roader’s purchase, for short 38. High male singing voice, for short 39. Conjunction 40. Change, chemically 43. “___ __ Believer” 44. Colossal 47. ©, for example, abbr.

48. Mulan song, “I’ll make __ ___ out of you!”

49. Movie directions 52. Colonel, captain, etc 53. Enthusiasm 54. Slang for 60’s war zone 56. Female friend: ___ pal 59. What a student might say after a test 65. Very bad treatment 67. “The Matrix” hero 68. Disease that affected FDR 69. Adjust 70. Branch 71. Choose 72. Equals 73. Whitney Houston’s genre 74. Prominent part of an apotosaurus

Gall results should not distract the administration from listening to its BIPOC students as well. “Yes, there is a significant increase of white tears and we should address that, but the McGall administration can’t only concern itself with these tears. What about others?”

When approached for comment after the semi-successful Block Party, Baroness Forte seemed confused. “I had no idea students were this upset,” she declared.

When asked whom she meant by “students,” she replied, “well… the white ones, that’s where all the tears are coming from, right? We should probably do some damage control.” However, it remains to be seen whether this damage control involves throwing BIPOC students under the bus, again.

Down 1. Snowman from Disney’s “Frozen” 2. U2 frontman 3. Pharmaceutical company 4. Something illegal 5. Means to __ ____ 6. Damon of “Good Will Hunting” 7. Type of arcade machine 8. Cereal utensils 9. Quietest 10. Medical suffix 11. Canvas 12. Layer 13. Kind of shoppe 21. Famour writer Poe 22. Lo-____ 26. Definite article 27. Bores 28. Kind of column 29. Kind of gun 31. 4G ___ 32. Benefit 33. True inner self, according to Jung 34. Type of empire 35. Had a shot 41. Bean counter, for short 42. Attempting to do something, slang 45. Sniffer, en Francais 46. Balances unsteadily 48. Part of a shirt 50. No, slang 51. Two-dimensional 55. Type of Populus tree 56. Framework for financial accounting 57. ____-bodied 58. Fretted instrument 60. Beach bird 61. Starting place 62. Baldwin of “30 Rock” 63. Popular cartoon “____ & Morty” 64. Specks 66. Knight in Game of Thrones

Across 1. sash 5. slabs 10. herr 14. pupu 15. pipit 16. open 17. adit 18. ave des pins 20. zinc 21. rex 22. res 23. hat 25. dna 26. mse 29. bonita 32. seen 33. rpg 34. arisen 35. tar 36. amir 37. limo 38. per 39. vine 40. korn 41. pee 42. edemas 44. elo 45. aarp 46. yodels 47. red 48. rpm 49. emu 50. pay 51. now 53. pont 57. sherbrooke 61. area 62. ease 63. ultra 64. reek 65. ales 66. smear 67. cote Down 1. spaz 2. audi 3. spin 4. hutchison 5. spartan 6. live 7. apex 8. bid 9. sterner 10. hops 11. epi 12. ren 13. rns 19. sean 24. ate 25. dear 26. mr mime 27. spinal 28. egress 29. balker 30. oriole 31. nimrod 32. steep 36. ave du parc 38. perm 41. papyrus 42. eyewear 43. dom 45. arab 50. pres 51. note 52. okra 54. oreo 55. neet 56. take 57. sea 58. hal 59. ese 60. olm