VOL102ISS39

Volume 102, Issue 39

March 18, 2013 mcgilldaily.com

McGill THE

DAILY

Moderate and conciliatory since 1911

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

Say

Pg. 8

yes to...

LEADERSHIP TRAINING PROGRAM

Leadership Skills Development Workshops Take the opportunity to sign up for the Leadership Training

Program’s FREE Skills Development Workshops!

These workshops were created to give students the chance to develop and build leadership and life skills. These skills often SURYH WR HQKDQFH DFDGHPLF VXFFHVV $WWHQG D PLQLPXP RI ÀYH ZRUNVKRSV WKURXJKRXW DFDGHPLF \HDU DQG UHFHLYH D FHUWLÀFDWH RI completion. All workshops are on McGill’s downtown campus.

Come and check out the FINAL workshops of the year ...

Use Your Your Leadership LeadershipSkills SkillstotoSpice SpiceUpUpYour Your CVCV Wednesday, March 20, 17:35-19:35

SACOMSS Sexual Assault Center of the McGill Students’Society

,PSURYH \RXU &9 ZLWK SUDFWLFDO WLSV RQ KRZ WR UHÁHFW \RXU OHDGHUVKLS VNLOOV DQG experiences!

Negotiation Skills Negotiation Skills Thursday, March 21, 17:35-19:35

This experiential workshop will explore and expand your own negotiation skills by being involved in an actual negotiation simulation. We can all be better negotiators and attain more win-win outcomes!

Professionalism: BeingYour YourBest Best Professionalism: Being

News meetings

Thursday, March 28, 17:35-19:35

Being professional or unprofessional has many repercussions in interpersonal interactions and attaining career success - learn how to better navigate this fundamental terrain!

NEW: MBTI NEW: MBTIWorkshop Workshop

Tuesday, March 26, 14:35-16:00 OR Wednesday, April 3, 17:35 to 19:05 Do you know what the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is ? Come to this ZRUNVKRS DQG ÀQG RXW DERXW WKLV SRSXODU DQG SUDFWLFDO WRRO WKDW FDQ FRQQHFW to your leadership identity!

Registration available online: ZZZ PFJLOO FD ÀUVW\HDU OHDGHUWUDLQLQJ ZRUNVKRSV For more info, drop by the Leadership Training Program in the First<HDU 2IÀFH in the Brown Building, Suite 2100, or call 514-398-6913

Free.

Confidential.

Non-Judgmental.

www.sacomss.org

We’re here to listen.

Thursdays at 6 p.m.

514-398-8500

Wednesday, March 27th Leacock, Room 232 @ 5:30pm

The Daily office SSMU B-24

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Members of the DPS are cordially invited. The presence of candidates to the Board of Directors is mandatory.

For more information, please contact chair@dailypublications.org

news@mcgilldaily.com

NEWS

The McGill Daily Monday, March 18, 2013 mcgilldaily.com

03 NEWS

Anti-police brutality march dispersed from the start

New pay equity agreement signed

Over two thirds of demonstrators arrested

Alternative Summit on Higher Education A walking tour of campus

Arts cuts will happen

07 COMMENTARY Questioning undemocratic GA reforms

Teaching feminism

Three steps toward better mental health at McGill

SSMU SPECIAL INSERT

09 SCI+TECH Looking to mobile game apps to tackle social issues

10

SPORTS

How the Toronto Blue Jays became contenders

12

3

Laurent Bastien Corbeil and Hera Chan The McGill Daily

T

he Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) came out in full force on Friday to clamp down on Montreal’s March Against Police Brutality, an annual demonstration organized by the Collective Opposed to Police Brutality (COPB). Police charged, tear gassed, and pepper sprayed protesters throughout the two-hourlong march.

240 people were arrested out of the approximately 300 who attended. Last year’s march saw a similar number of arrests, but the protesters were in the thousands.

On Thursday, SPVM chief of operations Pierre Brochet vowed to strictly enforce P-6, a municipal by-law that prohibits masks and an assembly of more than fifty people unless dates, times, and route are declared to police beforehand. The organizers of COPB have never declared their route to police beforehand, in protest of the restrictive laws surrounding protesting in Montreal.

Several protesters were targeted for violating by-law P-6 before the start of Friday’s march at 5 p.m. Police then charged to disperse the small assembled crowd.

Protesters regrouped on the intersection of Clark and de Montigny before being pushed

CULTURE

Photo Shane Murphy | The McGill Daily

again toward lines of riot police on Ste. Catherine. The crowd was kettled shortly after.

Other groups of protesters began clashing with police to free their comrades but were eventually pushed away by clouds of tear gas.

Nearly 150 people were arrested in the kettle, including two journalists from The Daily and Concordia’s the Link. Three people were released and taken to an ambulance after they began having a panic attack. Protesters cried out in French that the kettle was “too tight” and that they were not given enough space to breathe.

Two buses from the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) were later brought in to transport the protesters to the police station.

Arrestees were detained for several hours before being handed a ticket for violating P-6.

The journalists from The Daily and the Link were eventually released with the threat that criminal charges would be brought against them if they stayed at the demonstration. Journalists from the Montreal Gazette and the Concordian faced a similar situation minutes later.

Police later kettled anoth-

er group of protesters near the intersection of St. Denis and Ste. Catherine. Targeted arrests were made throughout the demonstration, including the violent arrest of a protester made at Berri and RenéLévesque at 6:45 p.m., in which five police officers pushed one demonstrator to the ground.

The COPB founded the Montreal March Against Police Brutality in 1997 as a day for people to publically pay respect to those who have experienced police brutality, and to draw attention to the systemic targeting of marginalized members of the community by police.

Philosophy students vote for accreditation

TNC’s Based on a True Story

Association waits for Quebec government approval

A Suuns documentary Juan Camilo Velásquez The McGill Daily

Chinese contemporary art at the Arsenal

14 COMPENDIUM Sleep deprived, et cetera

15

EDITORIAL

The Daily’s referenda endorsements

M

cGill’s undergraduate Philosophy students voted on Friday in favour of creating an independent, accredited student association.

The Philosophy Students’ Association (PSA), which represents all undergraduate students in the department, currently exists under the Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS). The PSA started the process of accreditation in October 2012 to gain more control over its finances.

In February, the PSA finalized the first step of the accreditation process

– incorporation – when it created an independent bank account.

Following incorporation, the PSA was required to hold a vote in which Philosophy students would decide whether they wished to accredit the PSA. After a week of voting, the PSA announced on Friday that it received enough “yes” votes to continue with the process. The provincial government requires student associations to receive a “yes” vote from at least 25 per cent of its constituents; the PSA needed 92 students to vote in favour.

According to PSA President Jonathan Wald, the final vote count was of 107 votes total, with 105 “yes” votes and two “no” votes.

Until the provincial government

approves the voting procedure, the results will be unofficial.

“We are not accredited yet; the Quebec government still needs to give its approval on everything, make sure that everything was done in accordance to their students, it will be, of course, official as of that moment,” said Wald.

The votes were counted on Friday at 5 p.m., after which the PSA sent emails to different campus groups to deliver the news.

“We alerted the AUS, SSMU, and the McGill administration that the vote has taken place and the results of that vote just to start that discussion,” said Wald.

AUS VP Internal Justin Fletcher told The Daily that the AUS has

yet to discuss the issue, and will wait until the decision is official before they discuss their relationship with the PSA. However, he did say that, “it is important that we respect that their students voted for it and it’s something they have been working hard on all year.”

The next step for the PSA, if the provincial government approves the vote, is to hold a GA in which students will create a constitution for the organization.

“The next step for us is to be holding a general assembly, which we are tentatively going to say is in two weeks, and that would be setting our fee and approving a constitution,” Wald said.

Ahmadiyya Muslim Studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Association presents

Contribute to illustrations and see your art in print!

World Peace Conference

Is World War III Inevitable?

Friday, March 22nd, 2013

Main event from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM Leacock 232 McGill University

Talk + Q&A Session â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Free & Open to All Various Speakers - Free Refreshments

For more information and free registration:

islamevents.ca loveforall.ca facebook.com/groups/AMSAMcGill/ faraz.rajput@mail.mcgill.ca (514) 649-6191

The Daily is looking for 2 Design & Production Editors.

illustrations@ mcgilldaily.com

email design@mcgilldaily.com with questions DIPLOMA IN BIOTECHNOLOGY AND GENOMICS CUTTING-EDGE TRAINING FOR THE REAL WORLD Get hands-on experience with state-of-the-art equipment used in genomic and biotechnology research facilities. With small class sizes and the experience of running your own research project, you will get a head start to pursue your graduate training and skills to enter the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry.

The Diploma in Biotechnology and Genomics is a 9 month, 30-credit graduate program which encompasses the study of genomics, proteomics, molecular genetics, protein biochemistry and bioinformatics that provides students with broad-based knowledge of theories, quantitative methods, applications of biotechnology and bioinformatics pertinent to genomic analyses.

concordia.ca/biotechnology biograd.fas@concordia.ca 514-848-2424 ext. 3401

Half-sections are twice the fun!

Come to our weekly Health&Ed, Sci+Tech, and Sports meetings.

Tuesdays at 5:30 p.m.

Daily office (SSMU B-24)

news

5

The McGill Daily | Monday, March 18, 2013 | mcgilldaily.com

McGill to hand out $5 million in pay equity Agreement comes after 12 years in court and conciliation Lola Duffort The McGill Daily

A

fter 12 years of wrangling with the administration, both in court and at the conciliation table, employees across the University will see approximatively $5 million in additional pay equity adjustments.

Since 2001, a relatively new provincial law has mandated McGill – as well as employers across Quebec – create internal pay equity models to assess and redress differences in compensation for persons who occupy positions in predominantly female job classes.

The McGill University NonAcademic Certified Association (MUNACA), whose membership represented the largest number of female-dominated job categories at the University at the time, contested the pay equity model

developed in 2001 by McGill.

“The model they chose was not in fact legal. They made an alteration to the line that made no sense that reduced the amount they had to pay out,” MUNACA VP Finance David Kalant told The Daily.

The original payout totaled close to $6 million, according to MUNACA President Kevin Whittaker.

MUNACA and several of its members lodged complaints with the Quebec Pay Equity Commission, who decided in October 2004 to investigate the McGill pay equity model without first formally hearing the complaints out in court.

According to MUNACA’s lawyer, Johanne Drolet, McGill immediately filed an injunction with Quebec’s superior court, arguing that the Commission could not independently decide to investigate pay equity models.

MUNACA waited over four years to be heard by the superior

court, and just a few weeks shy of their hearing, the Quebec Equity Commission offered McGill and MUNACA to mediate a conciliation process. In the winter of 2009, both parties agreed, and since have been at work on hashing out a new equity model.

According to Drolet, McGill was not the only large employer – and not the only university – to make these types of contestations.

“Especially when it’s a new law, employers will try the law, and try and see if their interpretation could be the correct one,” she said.

The new pay equity agreement will see more employees in female-dominated positions receive compensation than the 2001 plan, and additional payments made to some female-dominated positions that were already adjusted under the original plan.

The University will be responsible for compensating anyone who

held these positions from 2001 until 2009 – including those who have retired from McGill.

The University is required to make these payments within 12 months.

The University will not have to pay interest on these retroactive payments, something that MUNACA considered contesting, but decided not to in favour of expediency.

Interest on $5 million is “globally probably a large number, but for each individual it’s not worth waiting another ten years,” Whittaker told The Daily.

The administration has repeatedly pointed to pay equity as a burden on the University’s operating budget in the context of provincial budget cuts, a point of view for which Whittaker has little sympathy.

“I’m sorry that the University has to pay that out now during these financial woes but this was something that they did to them-

selves. Had they paid it out when they should have, 12 years ago, or at least discussed it, we wouldn’t be in this mess that we’re in.”

The Pay Equity Act also requires that employers perform audits every five years to determine whether pay equity is being maintained. The audit performed in 2010 by the University was also contested by MUNACA, both on the grounds that it was calculated according to an illegitimate pay equity model, and that the lack of information relayed to employees about the audit process and the adjustments themselves put McGill in violation of the Pay Equity Act. “They put numbers up, but it wasn’t maintenance,” Whittaker said.

MUNACA is currently in conciliation with the administration about re-doing the 2010 maintenance according to the new pay equity plan, and hopes to resolve the issue before the end of the year.

CAMPUS EYE An Alternative Summit on Higher Education Hera Chan The Daily and CKUT co-hosted a panel last Friday, which was broadcast live from the SSMU lobby as an Alternative Summit on Higher Education, which sought to address issues that were not discussed at the February conference organized by the Parti Québécois (PQ). The PQ Summit was met with widespread protest as the option of free education was not discussed. This panel consisted of Montreal activist and Montreal Media Co-op journalist Tim McSorley, Post-Graduate Students’ Society External Affairs officer Errol Salamon, McGill’s Teaching Union AGSEM’s VicePresident Justin Marleau, and member of L’Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ) Benjamin Gingras. Among other topics, the group discussed the meaning of the red square, the future of the student movement, and deconstructed myths surrounding tuition hikes and university underfunding.

6

NEWS

The McGill Daily | Monday, March 18, 2013 | mcgilldaily.com

Demilitarize McGill organizes walking tour Students visit sites of military research Farid Rener The McGill Daily

A

walking tour of locations where McGill conducts military research started at 3690 Peel, home to McGill’s Institute of Air and Space Law (IASL), on Thursday.

The tour – organized by a new incarnation of Demilitarize McGill, a student group that has been dormant since 2010 – was attended by approximately 15 students.

The IASL, which was founded in 1951, conducts research for the U.S. Air Force. Their website notes: “For more than a quarter century, the US Air Force has been sending its best and the brightest officers to study Space Law at the IASL.” Graduates from the IASL often go on to work with major governmental military organizations, such as the U.S. and French Air Forces, as well as major weapons manufacturers such as Boeing.

The group moved to the hallway in front of the Shockwave Physics Group (SPG) in the Macdonald Engineering building, where Cleve Higgins, a McGill graduate who uncovered the SPG’s links to the U.S. military in 2006, gave a presentation on their past and potential current research in thermobaric explosives.

Higgins, who was an activist with the now defunct GrassRoots Association for Student Power (GRASPé), was a founding member of Demilitarize McGill and wrote his thesis on McGill’s military ties.

Isaac Stethem, a member of Demilitarize McGill, told the group about how McGill filed a motion with the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec against 14 McGill students, seeking to disregard several Access to Information (ATI) requests.

“The details of these labs aren’t known anymore. That was one of the things that was included in the ATI requests [that McGill are refusing to provide],” Higgins said.

The last stop was at 688 Sherbrooke, which houses McGill’s Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) laboratory. Kevin Paul, another member of Demilitarize McGill told the group that the CFD has produced research on antiicing technology and simulation software for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), including attack drones used by the U.S. military.

According to Paul, after an ATI request was filed on the CFD lab relating to their funding by Lockheed Martin – one of the world’s largest military contractors, all mention of Lockheed Martin was removed from their website.

“This raises the question of the research priorities of the academics – whether the academics are neutrally pursuing their interests or the R&D departments of these companies,” Paul said.

Demilitarize McGill and the group moved across the hallway to the offices of Newmerical Technologies, which sells similar software to that developed at the CFD. Newmerical’s President, Professor Wagdi Habashi, is also

Photo Laurent Bastien Corbeil | The McGill Daily

The Macdonald Engineering building is the site of military research on campus. the director of the CFD lab.

“According to NASA, [the systems marketed by Newmerical] are the ideal solution to the UAV de-icing dilemma, for General Atomics – who are the manufacturer of every attack drone in the U.S.,” Paul said.

Today, McGill has no estabished position to evaluate the potential harms of military

research, something Demilitarize McGill wants to change.

In 2009, McGill lifted regulations that made researchers who receive money from the military indicate whether the research they were doing had direct harmful consequences. The lifting of these regulations has left the University with no policy guidelines on military research.

“The line on military research [does not] appear in [any] other research policy guidelines at the federal level, or with any of our peer universities,” Principal Heather Munroe-Blum told The Daily in 2009.

But for Alicia Nguyen, a member of Demilitarize McGill, “This is not an acceptable excuse to lack an ethical review.”

Arts course cuts going ahead as planned Administration switches justifications for the cuts Cem Ertekin The McGill Daily

A

n open forum on the termination of over 100 Arts classes was held in the Madeleine Parent room in the Shatner building on Thursday.

The forum was organized by the Political Science Students’ Association (PSSA), and included members of McGill’s administration, students, and faculty.

Dean of Students André Costopoulos told the forum that the main reason for the course cuts was limited resources, changing the administration’s original rhetoric concerning the cuts. When the cuts were first announced, Dean of Arts Christopher Manfredi

repeatedly reiterated that the cuts were being made solely to reinvest in Teaching Assistants (TAs) and internship programs.

“In an ideal world I’d like to see all classes being small seminars, that would be fantastic. We also live in a real world of resource constraints where we have 7,000 students to 270 professors,” Costopoulos said.

“It is clear that students and faculty are frustrated with the state of higher education within Quebec, frustrated with the lack of transparent discussions about the 8 per cent Arts cuts, and frustrated with the rampant uncertainty in the upper administration,” Anthropology Students’ Association (ASA) VP Internal Mercedes Sharpe, who was pres-

ent at the forum, told The Daily by email.

SSMU VP External Robin ReidFraser asked Costopoulos why the budget cuts imposed earlier this year by the Parti Québécois (PQ) government were not being spread out over a longer amount of time.

According to Reid-Fraser, the PQ proposed at the education summit in February that only a certain percentage of the cuts would have to be implemented now, and that universities could take the cuts as deficit.

Costopoulos responded that getting into debt with the hopes of getting funded later was not a good idea.

“The government says I’m giving you leave to go into more debt and if you do that in three to four

years, we’re going to start giving you money back; meanwhile you’re accumulating more and more debt.

Should that money not come in, you’re going to be in trouble. In the past 200 years we have accumulated a $100-million deficit, now we’re facing $40 million in two years,” Costopoulos said.

Justin Marleau, Vice-President (Teaching Assistants) of AGSEM – McGill’s Teaching Union, voiced the concerns of TAs facing the budget cuts.

“Ever since 2007 we have seen a decline in the amount of the overall revenue that the university has been putting toward teaching assistants,” Marleau said.

Associate Dean (Academic Administration and Oversight) Gillian Lane-Mercier said that

while there would be 101 fewer courses in 2013-14, the teaching assistant budget has been increased by 16 per cent.

Students at the forum pointed out that they were concerned with the amount of input students had in university affairs. Costopoulos responded by saying that he believed that students have an important voice, and pointed to committees and working groups that students have a voice in.

“Students are represented in the Faculty Council, the Senate, et cetera,” Costopoulos said.

“The problem is filling the student seats in these committees.”

More information about the cuts to Arts classes will be announced by the administration in the next two weeks.

commentary

The McGill Daily Monday, March 18, 2013 mcgilldaily.com

7

Drive-thru democracy Just a click away!

Morganne Blais-McPherson and Daria Khadir Commentary Writers

O

n February 27, 2013, SSMU General Assemblies (GAs) became time efficient. So long to the dreary days when we had to raise our hands, gaze around, judge whether or not there was a clear majority, and act accordingly.

So long to the disappointing times when we couldn’t meet quorum because McGill is full of dedicated students who, as much as they would love to, can’t come out to vote on important issues. With the new implementation of ‘clickers’, McGill is on its path to a more accurate, efficient democracy!

Imposing the use of ‘clickers’ for decisions in the GA cunningly changes the voting method from an open to a secret ballot under the guise of “time efficiency.” Shocked that student politics had now been reduced to a thumb-twitch, we demanded further explanation. SSMU President Josh Redel graciously provided the board’s rationality: time efficiency.

We pressed further on this limited

statement, claiming that count is only necessary in case of an unclear majority. The president’s answer?

“That’s inaccurate.”

Confused, I asked a friend – a Political Science undergrad, brilliant yet a member of the Conservative Party of Canada – to explain the inaccuracy. We learned that there are three costs in a democracy: participation costs due to attendance, information costs due to getting informed, and emotional costs due to anxieties regarding issues (essentially in seeing your school engaged).

Apparently, the first two are inhibited with a technological fix, such as online voting. The third is inhibited by low attendance in an apathetic university. If time were truly the aim of the conversion, the issue remains whether or not a GA should aim at time efficiency instead of discourse.

In fact, there was one instance when the Arts faculty, at least, got engaged: last year’s GA on the student strike. This was oft-cited GA when students tried to explain the other rationale behind the clickers: peer pressure in the GA during the vote. After all of these statements in support of anonymity, it became

apparent that secret ballots were the taken-for-granted ideal of a democratic model. Surprised at the lack of critical insight, we deplore this undemocratically chosen, questionable switch in the GA’s voting system. As issues can only be presented two weeks in advance, and GAs only occur once per semester, The Daily seems like the only viable medium to express this.

Is it surprising that, within a university that promotes the equivalence of education with GPAs, such a decision would be taken by SSMU Council and generally accepted by the student body? No. Is it surprising that this decision was imposed and questioning was dismissed by the SSMU Council?

Frankly, yes. One would expect such a transformation in the framework of student politics to be treated as an issue. Instead, we were distributed clickers as if this were a fun new knickknack for all of us to play corporate businessmen with. Here are some reasons why the switch from an open to a secret ballot is serious.

First, one is not accountable for their vote when it is anonymous.

There is a difference between coercion and asking someone to articulate

their decision. Those hiding behind the ‘peer pressure’ excuse seem to put both together. Fortunately, many of us know that politics is also about discourse, participation in public life, and, importantly, is a form of education in itself. We just don’t believe in putting that into practice.

Arriving at the second point, the secret ballot reinforces a disengaged, apolitical culture. Student life isn’t only about writing an exam and checking Minerva profusely. Public life and political engagement forces students to not only be informed but learn to build proper arguments. Questioning opinions weeds out inconsistencies and misconceptions, forcing the student to think critically. Fear of being questioned should not be a reason to instate clickers but to do opposite! The pervasive culture of ‘objective’/apolitical stances at McGill only deepens with a secret ballot, teaching students that ‘all that matters is that you vote’, as if decisions have no ramifications beyond the final tally.

Third, we question the accuracy of the name ‘General Assembly’ with this switch. Open ballots and consequent

debate (may) entice students not to vote purely as individuals but as member of a general population, who take into account what is best for everyone rather than themselves. With the new voting system, the GA becomes ‘individual drive-thru’, where the parts alone make up the whole.

And fourth, through both technology and council’s reading of the statistics post-vote, fraudulent activity becomes frighteningly easy.

After this covert and unaccountedfor change in the voting system, it becomes difficult to trust those involved in monitoring the process.

A reductionist version of ‘democracy’ has been imposed on the student body. With a dysfunctional democracy already degraded to one GA per semester and a quorum of 100 students which isn’t always met, we question whether this technological fix will in fact get people more engaged through ‘time efficiency’ or if it will further weaken student democracy.

Morganne Blais-McPherson and Daria Khadir can be reached at morganne. blais-mcpherson@mail.mcgill.ca and daria.khadir@mail.mcgill.ca.

FUNNY OR RACIST?: BLACKFACE, ETHNIC COMEDY, AND THE TENSION BETWEEN FREE EXPRESSION AND RACISM

Presented by the Minor Program in Canadian Ethnic and Racial Studies in conjunction with The UN International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

The McGill School of Environment is pleased to welcome Nobel Peace Prize Nominee

Sheila Watt-Cloutier

The Daily is looking for editors in

Thursday, March 28th, 3:00PM

Maxwell Cohen Moot Court (Room 100) New Chancellor Day Hall 3644 Peel Street Panelists: • Julius Grey: Attorney, civil libertarian and human rights advocate • Anthony Morgan: McGill Law graduate, contributor to The Huffington Post • Charmaine Nelson: Associate Professor in Art History and Communications, with specialization in race and representation • Fo Niemi: Co-founder and Executive Director of the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) • Franco Taddeo: Professional Montreal-based Comedian Moderator: Morton Weinfeld, Chair in Canadian Ethnic Studies For more information, please contact Prof. Morton Weinfeld: morton.weinfeld@mcgill.ca The public is welcome. Admission is free.

Conférence publique. L’entrée est gratuite.

The Right To Be Cold “I do nothing more than remind the world that the Arctic is not a barren land devoid of life but a rich and majestic land that has supported our resilient culture for millennia.

Even though small in number and living far from the corridors of power, it appears that the wisdom of the land strikes a universal chord on a planet where many are searching for sustainability.”

copy design web multimedia

Thursday, March 21, 2013 6:00 pm

Ritz-Carlton Hotel 1228 Sherbrooke St W, Montreal METRO: Peel

Admission is free

email coordinating@mcgilldaily.com for more information

8

commentary

The McGill Daily | Monday, March 18, 2013 | mcgilldaily.com

Stop lying, goddammit To make feminism accessible, we must stop lying to our children Annie Chen The McGill Daily

M

ost of the things we do are utterly hypocritical; lying to girls about gender equality is but one example.

Don’t lie – we tell our children that honesty and loyalty are the best virtues one could have.

BULLSHIT. We lie to our daughters. We tell them that they can do absolutely everything they want to do.

We tell them that with hard work and determination, anything can be accomplished. We don’t tell them that with all the hard work and determination, a boy will probably still come out on top. We don’t tell them that a boy will earn more money for the same job, have higher chances of being promoted, employed, respected, and praised.

Not being honest with young women about gender inequality prevents them from moving forward by sheltering them from the problem, even denying the truth outrightly, persuading our children that the problem doesn’t exist. Are you joking? Gender inequality is faced every day by every woman everywhere.

Why do we continue to protect this information from our children? Are we trying to prevent treating people with equity?

We teach our children to respect

others regardless of class, race, gender and a whole range of other factors, so why don’t we tell our children that not everyone faces the same obstacles?

Why don’t we tell them that men have the upper hand in this society? Why don’t we tell them that it’s okay for them to be not okay, that it’s okay if they’re angry and infuriated. THEY SHOULD BE INFURIATED. Women need to get angry, to fight back, to act now, to question the status quo.

Women need to know that they’re born into the world with a disadvantage. Instead of accepting the disadvantage, let’s educate and let’s fight back. Let’s start with the children. We need to make feminists of our children.

The biggest problem I have with feminism today is that it’s not accessible enough. Sure, we discuss theories in great detail in our twenty-person university lecture, but what about the millions of women outside of that classroom?

What about the women that face sexual assault or physical abuse and don’t know the rights they have, the services they could seek help, or the groups where they might find sanctuary. Feminism is not accessible. When we teach our children that everyone is equal and that we can all achieve our goals if we try hard enough, we are not only lying to them, but actually making femi-

Illustration Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily

nism less accessible by making it less mainstream and less common.

In a society where only the elite and privileged have the opportunity to discuss gender inequality, how are we going to push women’s rights forward? If only 5 per cent of the world know what a feminist is, how are the other 95 per cent supposed to tell their daughters that they deserve more? If we only sit in our spheres of privilege and discuss feminism

in university, with our jargon and academic papers, we’re being hypocrites. We are not standing up for what we argue in class. There are 3.5 billion women on this planet, how many of them know what concepts like feminism are? How many people know that women are allowed to get angry, allowed to challenge the status quo?

Women know that our world favours men, that our world favours heterosexual cis-gendered men,

preferably of a middle or upper class. But we do not give them the tools to air these grievances.

To start, we must stop lying to our children about equality. We must tell them the truth. And we must give them the tools to fight for feminist values.

Annie Chen is a U1 Psychology & Women’s Studies student. Annie can be reached at wenan.chen@mail. mcgill.ca.

Put your money where your mind is Three solutions to mental health problems at McGill Chris Bangs The McGill Daily

W

e have some problems here at McGill with mental health and wellness. Stress, depression, and anxiety are rampant in our community, and they are inadequately addressed. Mental Health Services is unable to meet the needs of students due to high demand, and for most international and out-of-province students these campus services are the only place for healthcare.

Students should work together to expand access to mental health services and reduce wellness burdens like stress and anxiety.

Queen’s University recently published a comprehensive report on mental health best practices for its community, and some of the information contained within is disturbing. At Queen’s, 16 per cent of students reported a lifetime diagnosis of depression, 14 per cent reported a diagnosis of

anxiety, and 5 per cent reported a diagnosis of an eating disorder. 4 per cent had considered suicide in the previous semester, and a further 10 per cent had at some point before that.

Stress was another large feature in students’ lives, with only 30 per cent of students reporting average stress levels, 40 per cent reporting above average levels and 20 per cent reporting tremendous levels of stress.

The reported consequences of this stress include mental health problems, decreased academic performance, ill health, and missed school or work.

Only two in three students reported that they were involved in meaningful and enjoyable activities, and a quarter of students did not think they fit in at Queen’s.

Too much stress and anxiety?

Mental health burdens too high?

Too many people feeling isolated?

That certainly sounds like McGill.

There is clearly something wrong here, but there is also an opportunity to reevaluate how

our community works. We should prioritize health and wholeness to turn McGill into a supportive place for all students, faculty and staff.

The Queen’s report recommends a pyramidal approach – like the old American food pyramid – to promote mental health on campus.

Promoting a healthy community is at the bottom, the large foundation where lean protein and whole grains used to be. Above lies transitions and resilience, and then encouraging help-seeking. Effective services occupy the smallest section of the pyramid. Here at McGill, we need to work on all of those areas.

Tuition and fees are capped by law, but universities can charge more if students approve the additional fees via referendum. That is how Student Services (which includes Mental Health Services) is funded.

McGill then skims a small percentage off the top of the money to pay for lawyers’ fees and building maintenance. The university is threatening to increase the amount they take, even while they ask us to approve additional fee increases. McGill stu-

dents already pay among the most in the province.

In the context of a campus with poor mental health, Mental Health Services undeniably needs more funding, so the fee increases should go to our services, not to the James building.

Here are three concrete solutions. First, we should offer more direct funding to Mental Health Services at McGill, but let’s be smart about it. We should pass a referendum offering additional money for Student Services if, and only if, McGill promises not to raise their overhead percentage fee for the services, as they are threatening to do. This would allow the service to see more students, for more sessions, for longer, and would make sure that 98.5 per cent of our additional funding goes straight to helping students. That’s a big deal.

In addition to funding direct treatment, SSMU should also create a $0.13 Mental Health Fund to support campus initiatives that promote mental health. It would raise about $6,000 annually, which

could support student research or conferences, puppy petting in the library at exam times, specialized help for disadvantaged groups, programs to integrate students into campus life, or campaigns to end mental health stigma.

Finally, SSMU should design a comprehensive Mental Health Plan, with benchmarks and goals, concrete responsibilities, and a progressive vision of wellness on campus.

Building on the pyramidal approach of Queen’s, we can build this plan by incorporating the expert knowledge found at our school and the lived experiences of our members.

Mental health and wellness should be a top priority, because school is hard enough without everything else on top of it. We can do better, and we should take this opportunity to centre our communities around wellness.

Let’s look out for each other.

Chris Bangs is a U3 Economics and Political Science student. He can be reached at bangs.christopher@ gmail.com.

SSMU ELECTIONS Special Insert President

VP Clubs & Services

Chris Bangs

Stefan Fong

Katie Larson

VP Finance & Operations

VP Internal

Tyler Hofmeister

Brian Farnan

Thomas Kim

Julia Kryluk

VP External

VP University Affairs

Samuel Harris

Sam Gregory Joey Shea

2

SSMU Special Insert

Choose wisely

A

nother year, another round of SSMU elections. Electing a new SSMU executive makes a statement about what we hope SSMU will be and accomplish in the coming year. Students need an increasingly mobilized and politicized executive, prepared to take on the challenges of an unreasonable administration and an increasingly political environment, both on campus and off. We expect the SSMU executive to have strong stances for which they will fight, tooth and nail. We’re disappointed by the increasingly anodyne presence of SSMU – organizing campus events is all well and good, but at the end of the day, what students really need is competent representation.

This year, there are only ten people running for the six influential, full-time, paid executive positions.

Many would-be candidates dropped out after committing to run, raising questions about a lack of interest in SSMU positions and a lack of preparedness on the part of those who do agree to run.

The Daily would like to remind our readers that the option for a ‘No’ vote for a position is available, and choosing this does not mean the position will be vacant, but that current executives have another chance to find qualified and well-prepared successors.

—The McGill Daily Editorial Board

SSMU candidate debate addresses relationships with the administration Lease negotiations cited as financial obstacle to student-run cafe Juan Camilo Velásquez and Dana Wray The McGill Daily

O

n Wednesday evening, the 20132014 SSMU executive candidates fielded questions from both current SSMU executives and audience members at an annual debate.

VP External The debate kicked off with Samuel Harris, who is running uncontested for the position of VP External. He addressed the topics of La Table de concertation étudiante du Québec (TaCEQ), community relations with the MiltonParc community, and current campaigns under the position, such as SSMU’s mandate to push for divestment from fossil fuels.

Harris stated that he was committed to ensuring that both TaCEQ and community relations stayed central to the position. “I want to bridge gaps between McGill and the greater society of Montreal and Quebec,” Harris said.

VP Finances and Operations Candidates Tyler Hofmeister and Thomas Kim answered questions about the feasibility of a student-run cafe and problems with the accessibility of funding for students.

Although Kim and Hofmeister were both in favour of a student-run cafe and its potential as a place of learning for students, both were hesitant to discuss its immediate feasibility. The two candidates cited the lease negotiations still underway as a major financial obstacle.

While they agreed on the need to help students access funds more easily, Kim and Hofmeister disagreed on how the funding committee should be reformed.

Hofmeister believed that the absence of

clear and updated documents was a major barrier to accessible funding. In contrast, Kim said that a lack of engagement on the VP Finances and Operations’ part was to blame.

VP Clubs & Services After two other candidates dropped out, Stefan Fong remains the only candidate for VP Clubs & Services. Current VP Clubs & Services Allison Cooper asked how Fong would integrate words like sustainability, space, and equity into the portfolio.

Fong praised the space campaign as a “great initiative,” and promised to continue efforts next year. He also supported existence referenda for clubs, saying, “while it would be bad for a service to be shut down, it is a good option.”

VP University Affairs As the portfolio most directly involved with the administration, candidates Samuel Harris and Joey Shea both proposed slightly different methods of relating to the administration next year.

“We have seen the students against the administration. We need to bring the relationship back together, and realize we are part of the same community,” Gregory said.

Shea disagreed with this approach, arguing that the portfolio was to act as a liaison between the administration and the students, who should remain a distinct group.

In response to an audience question about upholding the administration to divest from fossil fuels, both candidates were hesitant, and emphasized long-term solutions. “We are being too optimistic,” Gregory said.

VP Internal Brian Farnan and Julia Kryluk talked about reforms to Orientation Week and integrating

equity in the events planned the VP Internal.

Kryluk mentioned her desire to plan a SSMU Frosh that caters to students who do not drink.

“I really want to forge something extra special next year having an all-ages SSMUrun Frosh, that would run as the same time as faculty Frosh,” said Kryluk.

Farnan, however, said that after shadowing the current VP Internal Michael Szpejda he does not believe drastic changes in the Orientation Week structure are needed.

“A lot of the events are set in stone, so I’m not gonna pretend to promise that I can change that [...] To try and change drastically, that has already been a year-long process,” said Farnan.

Farnan also commented that when integrating equity, SSMU should “stop reacting, and start planning,” citing the blackface incident at 4Floors in November 2012.

Kryluk also referred to the incident and expressed her belief in researching events that have had equity complains in the past to work with the Equity Committee in order to move forward and avoid making the same mistakes.

President Both Chris Bangs and Katie Larson depicted the portfolio’s relationship with the administration as an uphill battle, but expressed cautious optimism at the chance to establish a new line of communication with the new principal, Suzanne Fortier.

Larson stated that “at the end of the day, with things like budget cuts [...] we play this weird dance with McGill where sometimes we want to do things but they always have the opportunity to pull the rug from under us.”

Bangs responded by saying: “McGill

— Candidate photos taken by Hera Chan and Robert Smith —

often offers student politicians a choice of a not great option or an even worse option. I think we have to flip the table and tell them ‘here’s a good option and here’s another good option for students’.”

“I think it’s very disturbing that you said that McGill can pull the rug from under us but that we should just work with them very nicely,” he added.

Larson also responded to Bangs’ comment and said that, “It’s a reality of a thing, you can’t just ignore it and say you can’t say that McGill can’t screw us over. They can.”

Current SSMU President Josh Redel asked candidates what their first step would be if they were to start lease negotiations right away. When addressing one of the most contentious issues for SSMU, Bangs took a much more hardline stance than Larson.

“What I would do first is go to a print shop and get four or five big banners, think [of a smart slogan] about the lease and put it up on the SSMU building. I’d publicly say, it’s not okay for McGill to choose James admin over clubs, lawyers fees over student services,” Bangs said.

“Then I would send an email to all the members telling them what’s going on. I’d start building from a base of disclosure and power,” he added.

Larson answered Redel’s question by saying that “[the negotiation] is a communication thing, and that McGill realistically, they are not gonna kick us off campus, if they did, it would really be a disaster. However, that doesn’t mean you can just sit there and not make the lease happen.”

When asked about Senators trying to protect their faculties from budget cuts, Larson conceded that most faculties at McGill had their own interests in mind.

Bangs, however, disagreed with the idea of students “at each others’ throats.”

March 18, 2013 | The McGill Daily

PRESIDENT SSMU President is the only undergraduate representative on the Board of Governors, is a member of Senate Caucus, and coordinates negotiations with the administration. The President also oversees Elections SSMU, coordinates the SSMU Handbook, and assists with Human Resources in the SSMU office, among other tasks.

Chris Bangs

C

hris Bangs approaches the presidency with extensive plans to improve SSMU, both as it relates to student involvement and to the university. With a focus on equity, sustainability, and participation, Bangs’ platform brings several concrete suggestions to the table. As an Honours Economics, Political Science, and Urban Systems student, Bangs has spent the past year as SSMU Political Campaigns Coordinator. In this position, he effectively brought a wide range of legislation to SSMU Council, including everything from motions regarding tuition to harmful military research at McGill.

Bangs’ political involvement goes way beyond SSMU: spearheading the recent Divest McGill campaign, as well as supporting previous social and environmental justice initiatives, Bangs is familiar with all facets of McGill bureaucracy. After riot police entered

campus on November 10, 2011, Bangs worked with current SSMU VP Clubs & Services Allison Cooper, among others, to carry out the independent student inquiry to ensure students were effectively represented in the administration’s agenda.

In light of severely under-attended GAs this year, Bangs hopes to create two part-time student staff positions to ensure that student and interest groups take advantage of these democratic forums. Bangs has proposed a SSMU mental health fund with a fee of $0.13 per semester, which would support campus initiatives surrounding mental health as per student interest; some examples include student research, conferences, or awareness campaigns. Bangs also plans to undertake a tuition and fee review to ensure that McGill does not overcharge students, and complies with legal regulations.

Katie Larson

A

U3 Music student, Larson has been a student politician at McGill for the past three years. Having served as both VP External and President of the Music Undergraduate Students’ Association, Larson spent this year as the Music Representative on SSMU Council. Larson has worked under all six of the SSMU Executive portfolios and served as a SSMU Frosh coordinator.

Larson’s conciliatory approach to the administration is informed by her stance that “personal political leanings have no precedence when one is in a representative role.” Accordingly, while Larson’s platform includes strengthening communication between undergraduate groups and the broader McGill community, she does not aim to significantly change the current

General Assembly structure or SSMU’s current relationship with the administration.

Instead, Larson plans to hold consultative President’s Round Table discussions. Larson sees SSMU’s main role as a support for student clubs and services. As such, her platform focuses mostly on internal issues without taking a stance on broader issues, such as sustainability or tuition.

Like Bangs, Larson has stressed the importance of supporting health initiatives.

Larson has not stated the tangible form that changes would take other than discussions during campaigns, consultation fairs, and summits. Larson also wants to reform the SSMU Executives’ positions by better defining job portfolios, an idea that was brought forth and executed by last year’s executive.

Endorsement: Chris Bangs

T

he Daily endorses Chris Bangs for SSMU President 2013-14. While Larson has a strong background of experience on SSMU and faculty councils, she hasn’t used these positions to effectively advocate for students. Bangs, in a myriad of ways, has used channels on campus to promote and fight for initiatives to better campus and student life.

Bangs is familiar with both SSMU Council and executive portfolios, and his frequent attendance at both SSMU and faculty councils shows a deep commitment to student issues.

Bangs’ platform also has more concrete steps and original ideas for his presidency.

SSMU President is the only undergraduate representative to the Board of Governors (BoG); Bangs has shown familiarity with the role and history of BoG’s decisions, and wouldn’t be afraid to extend his advocacy to the highest levels of decisionmaking.

The last few years have revealed a frightening attitude on the part of the McGill administration regarding SSMU. The loss of the use of the McGill name for student

clubs and groups, the failure to listen to student (and alumni) voices, and the incredibly drawn-out lease negotiations – which will undoubtedly involve an increase in the rent that SSMU pays to McGill – are blows that recent SSMU executives have suffered at the hands of the University. Larson’s conciliatory approach and failure to take strong stances against these types of administrative decisions will translate into a dangerously weak executive and further loss of SSMU and student autonomy in years to come.

3

4

SSMU Special Insert

VP CLUBS & SERVICES The VP Clubs & Services is charged with representing, supporting, and coordinating between all of the clubs and services under SSMU. They are the building manager for the Shatner building, which includes booking rooms for groups, and coordinating with staff, such as Activities Night organizers and the Interest Group Coordinator.

Stefan Fong

F

or the past two years, Fong has been deeply involved in the Musician’s Collective, a SSMU service that connects student musicians with a variety of resources, such as instrument loans, lessons, and practice spaces. Within the group, he’s served a variety of roles – in his first year, he was VP External, eventually adding the responsibility of VP Finance to his position, and this year, he claims that he’s served as President. Through this capacity, he’s become familiar with the Clubs & Services portfolio, and understands the processes of club funding and audits. Still, his experience working directly in SSMU and with Council is limited.

His platform focuses primarily on being a support system and resource for SSMU’s many student groups, but he also hopes to build on his predecessor Allison Cooper’s work in rethinking the building space. He cites her “space campaign” – a plan soliciting student suggestions on how the

Shatner building should be used – as an initiative he’d like to continue, pointing specifically to the space left behind by the Voyages Campus travel agency as a location where students should have a voice in deciding the future of the space. Finally, he hopes to work closely with the Environment Committee to improve the building’s sustainability and energy efficiency, citing the outdated H-VAC system as a particularly egregious waste of power he’d like to see improved.

As for the controversial SSMU building lease negotiations (now ongoing for several years) he takes a conciliatory stance, and says he hopes the lease is signed very soon, with the caveat that environmental concerns are incorporated into the agreement. His approach to the administration is a friendly one, though he points to their apparent attempt to “distance themselves” from the student body as troubling and something he is prepared to combat.

Endorsement: ‘No’ vote

T

he Daily endorses a ‘No’ vote for Stefan Fong as VP Clubs and Services. The Clubs & Services portfolio has the most direct impact on students and student life, so an intimate familiarity with the wide array of

clubs and services funded by SSMU is essential. Unlike his three predecessors – Allison Cooper, Carol Fraser, and Anushay Khan – Fong has a distinct lack of experience within the Clubs & Services portfolio. His somewhat

conciliatory approach to the administration is also cause for concern – we need a representative who will stand up to administrators during lease negotiations and safeguard our use and shared ownersship hip of the McGill name.

VP EXTERNAL The VP External represents the members of SSMU in the wider community. They are in charge of keeping us aware of larger campaigns to improve post-secondary education and in communication with other institutions, maintain relations with McGill’s labour unions, and lobby relevant governments to further the interests of SSMU.

Samuel Harris

S

amuel Harris, the only candidate in this year’s VP External race, makes his bid for the position with a year of experience in the SSMU External Affairs committee under his belt. Having spent time shadowing Robin Reid-Fraser, the current VP External, he’s attended TaCEQ (Table de concertation étudiante du Québec, a student federation to which SSMU belongs) meetings and closely observed the external portfolio.

Harris’ platform focuses on building bridges between SSMU and the wider Montreal and Quebec communities, using initiatives such as an improved Intro to Quebec week – currently a week-long series

of speakers and events – engaging students with municipal elections, and giving them opportunities to exchange ideas with other Montreal universities while brushing up on their French language skills. He also hopes to strengthen ties with the Milton-Parc community by institutionalizing the Community Ambassadors project, and to increase the visibility of TaCEQ on campus.

Harris supports Divest McGill (which falls into the campaigns portfolio of External), condemns the PQ’s plans for tuition indexation, and appears to be ready to get tough with the administration if need be.

Endorsement: Samuel Harris

T

he Daily endorses Samuel Harris for VP External. Harris’ commitment to connecting students with the greater Montreal community, with other universities, and with Quebec culture is something we’d like to see followed through – his plan

of action leads us to believe it actually will be. Furthermore, Harris has spoken out against plans for tuition increases or indexation, a position that is in line with SSMU’s mandate to fight for accessible education.

Our only caveat concerns his desire to

increase the visibility of TaCEQ, a largely ineffectual student federation on campus. Harris, a native Montrealer with a good grasp of the world of Quebec post-secondary education, should be advised to get McGill students a voice where they may actually be heard.

March 18, 2013 | The McGill Daily

VP FINANCE & OPERATIONS The VP Finance and Operations manages SSMU’s budget and overall financial health. They oversee and coordinate between a number of funding committees, including the Financial Ethics Review Committee, and are responsible for the operations of Gerts and SSMU Minicourses, among other projects.

Tyler Hofmeister

T

yler Hofmeister comes at his run for VP Finance with campus leadership and finance experience. As a co-chair of this year’s Management Carnival, he created and managed a budget of more than $100,000. As chief of staff for the Management faculty frosh, he oversaw a staff of 32 people.

Other campus experience includes a position as a committee director for the McMUN Model United Nations conference. In preparation for his run, he shadowed the current VP Finance, learning the basics of club budgets and audits, and meeting with the comptroller, the head of accounting for SSMU. His platform includes a strong commitment to getting the student-run cafe plans in motion – pending lease negotiations and other such road blocks, he believes renovations could

begin as early as next summer. He hopes to open up and clarify SSMU financial operations to clubs and students alike, issuing easy-toread financial reports and clearer instructions for applying for funding. In addition, he hopes to establish an engagement fund, similar to the equity fund currently being discussed; it will fund student projects to build community on campus. Another of Hofmeister’s projects is to create a database of suppliers so groups and clubs can easily assess information on which companies are the most ethical and affordable when purchasing goods.

He hopes to see the lease negotiations resolved as soon as possible, and believes that remaining open to the administration and engaged with their perspective is the best way to work with them.

Thomas Kim

T

homas Kim’s experience is primarily off-campus, and is situated more in the realms of brand management and event planning than finance or accounting.

Still, he maintains this will not impact his ability to effectively manage the approximately one million dollar portfolio of the VP Finance position. He places emphasis on his ability to communicate effectively and act as a liaison between clubs, services, and students so that they understand how to access funding.

By reaching out to alumni for donations, and working toward the incorporation of the SSMU as a “charitable trust” which is able to issue tax receipts, Kim hopes to focus on

Endorsement: Tyler Hofmeister

S

SMU has repeatedly spoken about its tight finances, rendered even more shaky by the potential fallout following the lease negotiations and higher rent with the University. The Daily endorses Tyler Hofmeister due to his experience managing money and leading a team. VP Finance is not a position that requires intense political involve-

ment or extensive communication with the administration, offsetting Hofmeister’s disappointingly conciliatory approach to lease negotiations. Rather, the position requires financial competence and trustworthiness. For all of his suggestions, Kim does not inspire confidence in his ability to ensure the viability of SSMU’s financial status.

short and long-term SSMU financial stability – looking in particular to ease the budgetcrunch created by lease negotiations. He also offers concrete suggestions to streamline the profitability of Gert’s and Minicourses.

On the student end, he promises to promote student awareness of the Finance portfolio through blogs, lunches, and meet and greets, and to aiding clubs and services as they navigate funding applications and audits by holding workshops and office hours geared specifically to them.

Kim offers many specific ideas on how to proceed with the position, but his lack of experience specifically related to finance is troubling.

5

6

SSMU Special Insert

VP INTERNAL VP Internal manages internal communication between the Society and its members, oversees the planning and management of campus events – from Orientation, to 4Floors, to Movies in the Park. Internal also manages the staff in the Internal portfolio.

Brian Farnan

B

rian Farnan’s years at McGill have been a whirlwind of participation in student politics and campus life. Beginning as operations staff at frosh, he rose to be the head of operations staff and coordinator, and this past year, as a Frosh coordinator and AUS VP External (meaning he sits on both AUS Council and SSMU Council), he shared in the Orientation Week planning and execution. Having made his decision to run for the role of Internal last September, he’s shadowed VP Internal Michael Szpejda for several months, learning the ropes of the portfolio.

He also has experience in programs such as the Student Life Ambassador Program, Big Buddies Tutoring Club, and Right to Play (an organization of which he is currently VP External).

Community engagement is central to Farnan’s conception of the Internal position. Having met with Milton-Parc community representatives, he hopes to incorporate an understanding of McGill’s place in the larger community into all of his events, while working with the VP External to

invite the community in and encouraging students to branch out. One of his concrete suggestions is to establish an equity, community, and sustainability chair for every Internal events committee, allowing them to give feedback at the earliest stages of planning. Other components of his platform are updating SSMU’s communication methods (he mentioned everything from Reddit to writing in bathroom stalls) and collaborating closely with other SSMU executives to work toward common goals. Another idea of Farnan’s is to create an online space where McGill and SSMU’s inner workings – for example, the interaction between the Board of Governors and SSMU – are made clear through simple graphics and charts.

Farnan’s extensive experience, enthusiasm, and commitment to the community make him good for endorsement. He spoke about safe space, as well as problems SSMU has had with poor decision-making and the consequent reactions, and his intentions to incorporate a diversity of groups in early stages of planning instead.

Julia Kryluk

I

n her three years at McGill, Julia Kryluk has accrued experience in student politics both through the Faculty of Science, and by working more directly within the Internal portfolio of the SSMU. Kryluk has served on the student programming network committee, responsible for organizing SSMU events such as Frosh and 4Floors, and overseen by the VP Internal, for the past two years, and has worked with the First-Year Office this year. She has also served as a Frosh coordinator and sat on the Science council, allowing her to interact with the SSMU Council and practice submitting motions and writing reports.

Her platform hinges on creating SSMU events which are accessible and inclusive – (for example, adding more all-ages Frosh events, or events which involve clubs more directly) – as well as innovating

new events (as a McGill cheerleader, she hopes to re-vitalize the Mcgill homecoming football game).

One concrete idea she has to improve the way in which events are accessed is to create an interactive calendar on the SSMU website that compiles faculty, SSMU, and club events. Equity and sustainability are also concerns of Kryluk’s – she hopes to work with the SSMU Equity Commission to train event coordinators to ensure that all events are safe spaces, and to zone in on event locations and materials in order to find new opportunities for environmental caretaking.

Raising student awareness of events and fostering school spirit are Kryluk’s central concerns as she makes a run at the VP Internal position – but her suggestions are less concrete and her vision less far-reaching than Farnan’s.

Endorsement: Brian Farnan

T

he Daily endorses Brian Farnan for VP Internal, with a few caveats. While both Farnan and Kryluk pay lip service to sustainability and equity, Farnan’s more concrete suggestions lead us to believe he is better prepared to take serious action next year. The VP Internal portfolio has had many

problems in the last few years, concerning itself more with promoting a binge drinking culture than creating safe, diverse, and inclusive events that respect principles of equity.

The Daily issues its endorsement with a request that Farnan make good on his word, take equity and accountability seriously, and

engage with the fact that dismissing rape culture and oppression in campus space is unacceptable. Farnan’s wish to maintain relations with the Milton-Parc community must bind him to proving that SSMU events are not synonymous with offensive themes and embarrassment.

March 18, 2013 | The McGill Daily

VP UNIVERSITY AFFAIRS The VP University Affairs maintains relations between SSMU and the McGill administration, and coordinates representation on Senate committees and subcommittees. They also oversee groups like the Equity Committee as well as various fund-awarding committees. The VP UA chairs Senate Caucus and oversees outreach to McGill services and offices on behalf of SSMU.

Sam Gregory

S

am Gregory hopes to take a conciliatory approach to the position of VP University Affairs, noting that SSMU has an opportunity to forge strong ties with new principal, Suzanne Fortier, and new Deputy Provost (Student Life & Learning), who will assume their positions in the fall. Gregory believes the ongoing negotiations with the University over the lease to the SSMU building will require a friendly and respectful approach, which he feels he is well-suited to delivering. Gregory said that while he supports the principles behind Divest McGill, he would like to garner campus support from across faculties and extend Divest McGill’s proposed timetable for divestment before committing his support to it.

While Gregory prefers a low-key approach to politics, he did note that if the University were particularly antagonistic to SSMU, he

would consider working outside of the formal channels to further SSMU demands.

Gregory wants to improve SSMU’s equity mission by pushing for McGill to adopt a university-wide equity policy, and he wants SSMU to adopt the principles of Universal Design to improve access to the SSMU building. Gregory would like McGill to move back toward using university-wide consultation fairs, as he feels they were better run and more successful than the student-run fairs this year. Gregory thinks his greatest strength is his experience, having shadowed the current VP UA Haley Dinel for the past year as the Committee and Senate Secretary General for SSMU. He has also been the Inter-Residence Council President and is the current Ombudstudent for McGill Food and Dining Services.

Joey Shea

T

hroughout the campaign, Joey Shea has returned to the issue of equity. Shea would like to “institutionalize equity” by holding equity workshops for SSMU councillors, working toward introducing genderneutral bathrooms and Universal design across campus, ratifying a Universal Equity Policy, and creating an equity events protocol to prevent recurrences of problems like blackface at 4Floors. Shea thinks the current state of funding for student services is unacceptable, and is interested in exploring the possibility of using targeted SSMU fees to bring student services up to the same standard as other universities.

Shea would also like SSMU to become a centre for student jobs and research, by opening opportunities for students to gain course credit at SSMU positions dedicated to researching academic and campus-life issues. Shea, like Gregory, hopes to approach her working

relationship with administrators and faculty in a friendly manner, as she has done in her position as VP Academic with the Political Science Students’ Association (PSSA). She also feels the disconnect between students and faculty is largely caused by a lack of face-to-face communication, and so will request the presence of upper administrators at SSMU General Assemblies and create joint SSMU-administration committees.

Shea feels her interest in provincial politics sets her apart from Gregory, and she would like to bring students, faculty, and administrators together to demonstrate against the provincial budget cuts to universities. Shea also supports the principles behind Divest McGill, but feels the campaign needs to do a better job communicating with all students; if elected, Shea would be interested in SSMU researching ways to institutionalize a culture of sustainability on campus.

Endorsement: Joey Shea

S

am Gregory and Joey Shea have very similar platforms. They both show a concern for equity, a desire to introduce cross-faculty grading standards, and initiatives to extend the course evaluation period. Both candidates also express some support for the principles behind Divest McGill and are critical of the campus protest protocol.

However, neither candidate was eager to outline the tangible political steps they will take to fight for divestment and against

the protocol; we wonder whether they will back their words up with actions. We are concerned, also, with the conciliatory approach both candidates plan to take with the McGill administration; over the past five years, the administration has consistently shown a lack of concern for student opinion, and we worry that these candidates are too optimistic about what they can achieve using a conciliatory approach.

With that in mind, and against the backdrop of the upcoming cuts to the University

budget, The Daily endorses Joey Shea for SSMU VP University Affairs. Shea wants to liaise with the Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ) to help mobilize McGill students against the cuts, and shows a greater willingness to work outside of formal channels should negotiations with the University breakdown. Despite Shea’s lack of experience in Senate, of the two candidates, she understands what the portfolio entails, and engages more with the political nature of the position.

7

sci+tech

The McGill Daily Monday, March 18, 2013 mcgilldaily.com

9

Games for the greater good Decode Global raises awareness with mobile games app Leyla Omeragic Sci+Tech Writer

“

Games are…unifying across cultures and across countries,” said Angelique Mannella, founder of Montreal-based startup Decode Global, in an interview with The Daily. Decode Global develops mobile applications that it hopes will serve as vehicles for social activism and change. Lately, the company has garnered attention from both domestic and international media for its innovative approach to the problem of water scarcity in rural India.

Many village schools lack sufficient sanitation facilities due to inaccessible water sources. For this reason, it is not uncommon for girls to withdraw from schooling at the onset of menstruation. Additionally, the traditional female position within most family units in rural India requires that she partake in collecting water for the household, compromising academic endeavours.

A United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative case study estimates that drop out rates in the rural parts of India are as high as 60 per cent.

Decode Global’s mobile app “Get Water!” aims to raise awareness of water scarcity and how it affects the lives of girls in developing areas. “The main audience for the game is North Americans, people who don’t necessarily experience not being able to go to school because there isn’t access to clean water,” explained Mannella, “but [the audience] can be sensitized to the issue…and [they can] help raise awareness about it, just by playing the game.”

Like-minded non-governmental organizations are actively trying to solve the same problem, but setting Decode Global apart is the medium Mannella selected to spread their message. The company’s mission statement cites the role of mobile games in “sustainable social change.”

Mannella recognized the growth potential in the mobile apps sector early on. With smartphones at everyone’s fingertips, the implications of an app-based campaign may reach an audience unprecedented in size. The prevalence of mobile phones extends beyond North America, with the number of mobile phone subscribers in rural India surpassing 320 million last year. 3.6 million of these users have access to the internet on their smartphones. Despite the high presence of mobile technology, rural areas often lack running water and electricity.

A six-month experience managing technology and database systems at a microcredit orga-

nization in South America as an undergraduate inspired this McGill alumna’s objective to use technology for social action. NetCorps, the program in which Mannella participated, was discontinued in 2008, but she sought to fill its place with her budding project. With the aim of creating “an internationally focused company that combines technology and social impact while giving young people the opportunity to work on their projects, see the world, and develop their skills in nontraditional ways,” Decode Global was born in early 2012. It was the unique gaming industry Mannella unearthed upon her return to Montreal that brought the company’s focus to games.

Games are enticing and fun, and using mobile games as a platform for social change suggests that they can also be educational and inspiring. Roy Baron, one of Decode Global’s 2012 Fellows involved in developing Get Water!, commented on the medium’s significance. “Games are inherently interactive and involve the audience with the issue… [allowing] players to not only view someone’s situation, but to actually live it.” A challenge for the developers lay in addressing the ways in which water scarcity compromises girls’ education while maintaining a hopeful tone in the game’s storyline. The team addressed this challenge by designing a simple game that could easily be played during one’s commute or while waiting in line. The game presents a fun and relaxing outlet while engaging its player with pressing social issues. “Get Water! doesn’t seek to depress or throw the issue in people’s faces,” Baron told The Daily. “Instead, it offers a compelling and entertaining experience that’s intended for people to play in short snippets.”

Get Water! is a side-scrolling, endless runner game that provides a first-person perspective on daily life through the eyes of a young woman named Maya. Maya is not only an avatar in this game, but a role model for girls in similar circumstances. “Maya is a head-strong, book-loving, optimistic girl,” reads Get Water!’s Indiegogo page, which was created to attract crowdfunding for the project; she embodies what we colloquially call ‘girl power.’ The ultimate goal at the end of the game’s obstacle circuit is that Maya attend school.

Though the game’s simplification of the challenges these women face may increase its appeal to its North American audience, it could also undercut Decode Global’s mission of raising awareness. The storyline presented in the game detracts from the nuances of water scarcity

Illustration Alice Shen | The McGill Daily

and the resultant lack of opportunity for women in rural India.

Decode Global’s campaigns on the ground, carried out through local partnerships, strive similarly to empower women through education.

In close partnership with New Delhi social enterprise Boond, which targets a range of social issues through grassroots initiatives, Decode Global has established a presence within the communities it aims to help. Boond’s workers advocate for the benefits of feminine hygiene in communities that are remote from supply-chain logistics. Decode Global is currently developing a mobile game for Boond’s women’s healthcare workers to integrate in their outreach to village schoolgirls. “We [at Decode] bring in the technology expertise, and Boond brings in the expertise

of working in…very rural areas in India,” Mannella told The Daily.

In Maya’s gamified case, access to hygiene and water sanitation means being able to attain a proper education. Decode Global believes that their technology can do even more to empower these women. Beyond health outreach campaigns, Decode Global’s apps can support the development of small businesses. In lowresource communities, women are heavy users of the mobile technology to which they have access. Yet their technological needs get little attention. “We look at ways to build more applications and games that are beneficial to them, which can help them be more successful entrepreneurs,” said Mannella, “independent of anything else, that’s a big priority for us.”

Decode Global, in collabora-

tion with Concordia University’s research centre in Technoculture, Art and Games and Dawson College, will launch a summer program that specifically focuses on games for social impact. Through such programs, the group aims to nurture the burgeoning games-forchange community in Montreal and to incubate future projects and innovations in the field. Whether games and partnerships such as this will truly encourage change through awareness-building and on-the-ground work – instead of merely fostering ‘slacktivism’ in its players – remains to be seen.

The Get Water! mobile app will be made available for iOS on World Water Day, March 22, 2013. The release of an Android-compatible app will follow in early April.

sports

The McGill Daily Monday, March 18, 2013 mcgilldaily.com

i0

Illustration Julia Boshyk | The McGill Daily

In search of a title The restoration of the Toronto Blue Jays Lewis Krashinsky Sports Writer

T

he sound of an R.A. Dickey knuckleball may not carry the same resonance as many other common ballpark features, such as a B.J. Ryan post-Tommy John surgery fastball, the frequent spit of each manager, and even the intoxicated rowdy fan in the third row mad that he just paid twelve dollars for his sixth tallboy. The fluttering, baffling 74 miles per hour masterpiece of a pitch might just be the quietest thing in all of baseball. Toronto Blue Jays’ fans would be just fine hearing that knuckleball float softly into the catcher’s mitt as opposing bats flail aimlessly.

The 2012 National League Cy Young award (given to the best pitcher in each league) winner is the cherry on top of the most eventful offseason in recent memory for the lone remaining Canadian Major League Baseball (MLB) team.

After the collapse of the J.P. Ricciardi era Blue Jays following the 2008 season, a feeling of malaise came over the entire Canadian baseball fan base. They saw the failure of the Billy Beane (the general manager at the center of the book and movie Moneyball) prodigy to displace the top dogs of the American League (AL) East: the gluttonous New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. Replacing him was his assistant General Manager (GM) Alex Anthopolous, the unknown former letter opener for

the Montreal Expos, who had a bold plan. He initially traded possibly the greatest pitcher the franchise had ever known in Roy Halladay for three top prospects, thereby initializing the rebuilding process of a franchise that has not been to the playoffs since before Justin Bieber was born (1993).

Quickly the team began to take shape. Anthopolous made crafty deals that brought in young potential cornerstone talents in Brett Lawrie and Colby Rasmus.

He drafted and stockpiled a multitude of top prospects that formed one of the best minor league systems in the Major Leagues, which led to increased faith in the plan to slowly build a perennial contender.

Gradually expectations rose and fans wondered which season the results would finally show, settling on the 2012 season.

However, things did not go as planned. Slugger Jose Bautista missed almost the entire second half of the season due to injury.

Ricky Romero lost the ever-important ability to throw a strike, seeing his Earned Run Average (ERA) balloon to 5.77. As poorly as Romero performed he was also one of only two starting pitchers who made it through the season injury free.

Playoff hopes were met by another fourth place finish and the notion that perhaps the rebuilding process, which previously evoked the promise of success, had failed.

Closing out the painful 89-loss season, the Blue Jays were a team plagued by questions. They had a troublesome shortstop that had the

ignorance to wear a homophobic slur on his eye-black, a starting rotation decimated by injury, and a manager that wanted to be elsewhere.

But through a series of moves between November and January the Blue Jays were transformed from a cellar dweller into the team that Las Vegas says is the favourite to win the World Series at 8:1 odds.

The decision to trade discontent manager John Farrell to Boston was tough to comprehend. Farrell’s eyes were set on filling the vacant managerial role in ‘iconic’ Boston, or according to him, his “dream job.” Despite Toronto giving Farrell his first shot at managing a team, he insisted upon leaving for Boston just two seasons later. In the search to replace the unappreciative manager the Blue Jays settled on the familiar face of John Gibbons, who had managed the team from 2004-08. Through the ups and downs of his four-year stint as manager the one thing that was evident was that Gibbons always wanted to be there. He was a constant, undistracted presence for the players and the fans, something that should not be underappreciated.

Gibbons will have his hands full managing a team full of newly acquired talent. In the blockbuster steal of a trade with the Miami Marlins, already coined by the media as ‘The Trade,’ Toronto acquired second baseman Emilio Bonifacio, three-time all-star shortstop Jose Reyes, four-time all-star pitcher Mark Buehrle, and two-time all-star pitcher Josh Johnson. In addition, the Blue Jays also had one of the most underrated moves of the off-season,

signing outfielder and near batting average champion Melky Cabrera, who served a fifty game suspension last season for testing positive for performance enhancing drugs that severely diminished his perceived value. However, if he can stay clean and play with the ability he showed before the suspension, he could join the four former Marlins in forming a tremendously improved ball club.

The biggest and most debated single acquisition, however, was acquiring R.A Dickey. A lot was given up – top prospects Travis D’Arnaud and Noah Syndergaard, – for the 38-year old knuckleballer with no ulnar collateral ligament (elbow ligament involved in throwing) who has only pitched effectively for the past three seasons.

Many questioned whether too much of the future was given up for a peculiar pitcher closer to the end of his career than the beginning. The skeptics still remain, but the bottom line is that the charismatic Dickey can flat out pitch. In 2012, he won twenty games, had an ERA of 2.73, struck out the most batters in the National League with 230, and held opposing batters to a meager .278 on base percentage.

He had similar success in the 2010 and 2011 seasons, averaging a 3.06 ERA between the two. Dickey is the ace the Blue Jays have been looking for since the departure of Halladay.

For the team that has constantly had to compete against the in the Yankees and Red Sox - continual playoff contenders with deep pockets - the timing could not be better.

It is the first time in perhaps the

last ten years that both New York and Boston appear vulnerable.

The last season and a half have not been kind to Boston.. With rumors about an undisciplined and poorly led clubhouse, much of their core talent was either traded or released by the end of the 2012 season. New York has now just recently begun to show their age, with a rash of injuries across the board to notable players such as Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson, Michael Pineda, and Mark Texeira.

Despite all this, the AL East still remains a stiff challenge. The resourceful Tampa Bay Rays and the surprising Baltimore Orioles still remain tough.

While the combination of all the acquired pieces will surely result in a better whole on the field, it also provides a reason to care about baseball again. Not just for fans in Toronto, but for all of Canada.

With the heart-rending loss of the Montreal Expos franchise in 2004, combined with the perpetual poor play and diminishing crowds of the Blue Jays, it would not have been unreasonable to question the future of baseball North of the border. But now, with the legitimate chance of contention and the possibility for meaningful September ballgames, baseball is very much alive in a country that craves something to grasp in the summer months. Come April 2, the sound – or lack thereof – of R.A Dickey’s knuckleball will be heard across the country for the first time, and with it comes the filling of seats, the excitement of fans, and the relevance of a sport that was once lost.

Daily Publications Society’s

STUDENT JOURNALISM WEEK 2013

B N !

Z B NPOE

S V I U !

P U !

9 2 !

SDI

2 3 !

I D S B N !

Z TEB nd

p n /t d / z m j b e hjmm

Tuesday CAREER PANEL

Monday PHOTO EDITING WORKSHOP

ETHAN COX (RABBLE.CA) DOUG SWEET (McGILL RELATIONS OFFICE) + OTHER PANELISTS

SSMU BUILDING, DAILY/DÉLIT OFFICE, B-24 2:00 P.M. TO 3:00 P.M.

SSMU BUILDING, LEV BUKHMAN ROOM 1:00 P.M. TO 2:00 P.M.

Wednesday

COPY EDITING WORKSHOP

ATI, MEDIA LAW AND INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM MONIQUE DUMONT, RADIO-CANADA (ENQUÊTE) FAIZ LALANI AND ERIC BROUSSEAU, McGILL LEGAL CLINIC

SSMU BUILDING, MADELEINE PARENT ROOM 1:00 P.M. TO 2:00 P.M. BEHIND THE SCENES QUEEN ARSEM-O’MALLEY, THE MCGILL DAILY COORDINATING EDITOR NICOLAS QUIAZUA, LE DÉLIT, RÉDACTEUR EN CHEF

SSMU BUILDING, MADELEINE PARENT ROOM 2:00 P.M. TO 3:00 P.M.

SSMU BUILDING, CLUBS LOUNGE 3:00 P.M. TO 4:00 P.M.

Thursday JOURNALISM SCHOOL PANEL + MEET & GREET HENRY GASS, COLUMBIA JOURNALISM SCHOOL ADAM KOVAC, FREELANCER (MONTREAL GAZETTE) RICHARD TARDIF, JOURNALISM INTERNSHIP PROGRAM SOPHIE TREMBLAY, CBC MONTREAL

BURRITOVILLE - 2:00 P.M. TO 5:00 P.M. ACTIVISM PANEL HOLLY DRESSEL, BEST-SELLING AUTHOR & ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, McGILL SCHOOL OF ENVIRONMENT GRETCHEN KING, CKUT-FM MARTIN LUKACS, MONTREAL MEDIA CO-OP

ARTS BUILDING, AHCS-GSA, B-22 - 6:00 P.M. RECEPTION GERTS’ - 7:00 P.M.

kx

culture

The McGill Daily Monday, March 18, 2013 mcgilldaily.com

i2

Punks and their prosecutors TNC’s collaborative effort, Based on a True Story Nathalie O’Neill The McGill Daily

A

s a piece of ‘devised theatre’ (a play created through the collaboration of cast and crew), the strongest aspect of Tuesday Night Cafe’s (TNC) Based on a True Story is its natural and realistic performances.

But this spontaneity is also a weakness: director Isaac Robinson’s production lacks a convincingly unified underlying message, resulting in a play that is more entertaining than enlightening. While Based on a True Story tends to oversimplify character dynamics, its fast-paced realism makes for an engaging and interesting show.

Robinson approached TNC with an idea for a play featuring semifictional characters based on his experience growing up with “street punks who dealt drugs, crazy tattoo artists, skin heads, [and] abusive cops who liked to chase kids with mohawks. I was having such trouble writing the show,” writes Robinson in his Director’s Note. “It was too close to home, too cathartic even.”

So he let the cast and crew build the story themselves, through rehearsal and improvisation, to create a collaborative piece. The resulting story follows Danny, his live-in girlfriend Camille, and his best friend Stevie,

through their experiences with drugs and encounters with the law.

The precarious balance of their lives is disturbed following the arrest of Danny and, later on, Stevie. The play also follows the teens’ prosecutors, Officer Davis and Judge Parks.

The production’s pace is engagingly dynamic, with short scenes lasting only a few minutes. This ensures an almost perfectly smooth flow between the multiple overlapping narratives. The main fault of the production lies in its lack of an emotional grey area. The cast relies on instantaneous outbursts, frequently breaking into shouting matches, to convey powerful emotions. These over-the-top moments are less effective than the more powerful toned-down scenes, which hit a little closer to home.

With the emotional middle ground missing, the piece has an occasionally jarring feel.

Cara Krisman as Stevie, Justin Lazarus as Danny, and Kim Drapack as Camille sometimes overreach their characters’ edginess, especially near the beginning. It takes a few scenes for the characters to develop beyond rebellious punk-kid stock figures, and only in the second act do they really take on multidimensionality. The resulting characters’ variety makes them believable, as their personal paths are intricately woven together in a vivid mimicry

of real relationships.

Based on a True Story offers the classic villains-with-secretpersonal-struggles narrative.

Officer Davis’ background story is simple and effective, more so than Judge Parks’ cliché family ties to the street kids. Davis’ complex but relatable individuality comes across as a nuanced interpretation and deconstruction of an authority figure, as Ruderman manages to fold in issues of police brutality with Davis’ personal struggles.

While he recounts a story of colleagues beaten with bricks by angry kids, it becomes increasingly clear that his duties on the beat leave him worn out, and his demotion to a desk job is a blessing in disguise.

“There is no wrong or right presented by this devised piece […] it shows only choices,” writes Robinson.

But the ideas in Based on a True Story are perhaps more ambiguous than Robinson originally intended.

The characters’ paths are shaped as much by outside events as they are by their own choices. Despite being too black-and-white at times, Based on a True Story manages to draw in the audience with its smooth pace, believable characters, and complex relationships. Robinson’s production, gripping and raw, is an entertaining embodiment of devised theatre’s ability to create naturalism onstage.

Photo Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily

A soporific look at Suuns Andi State’s Suuns Europe 2011 film fails to impress Kaiva Brammanis Culture Writer

T

he experience of live music is an incredibly difficult thing to describe to someone else.

A review can artfully praise the execution of particular songs, a photograph can capture the enthusiasm of a band, and a film clip can provide a taste of the energy onstage, but nothing replaces actually being at the show itself. Filmmaker Andi State seems to grapple with this problem in Suuns Europe 2011, where she attempts to relay her experience of Montreal band Suuns’ 2011 European tour. State’s film is a messy collage of personal thoughts, clips from shows, and various other “in-between” moments of the tour. It includes several captivating moments, but these are overshadowed by slightly cringe-inducing poetic efforts and predictable montages of European scenery. The fiftyminute film ends up being less of an intriguing glimpse into the world of

touring, and more of a disjointed and confusing collection of a fangirl’s ‘artistic’ video diaries.

It is a Thursday night at The Plant, and Suuns Europe 2011 is being screened as a joint presentation with Passovah Productions.

Copious amounts of popcorn circulate the half-full room as the audience is submerged into State’s vision of Suuns – a vision that is immediately underwhelming. Though the concert clips are intriguing, State is too eager to tell you all about what it’s like to tour with a band. She includes many unnecessary shots of mundane moments: a couple band members standing around on curbs with their gear, smoking cigarettes; another band member’s bag of toiletries, viewed from various angles; and too many images of sleeping musicians to count. State’s attempt at a blasé attitude quickly wears thin; her delight in being behind-the-scenes is uncomfortably palpable as she gets caught up in these dull clichés. Be it the Parisian streets at night or the Alps glimpsed from a train’s window,

State’s depiction resembles a muchtoo-lengthy photo album of your friend who backpacked through Europe last summer. You know it must have been cool to be there in real life – but you just can’t be bothered to relive it all with her.

Above all else, though, State’s poetic murmurings in between scenes are an unwelcome distraction.

At times they are just awkwardly boring, but several are downright unappealing and out of place. For example, a long monologue lists various ways of dying she sometimes “thinks about”: we are forced to listen to her hiss “asphyxiation” and “drowning” as she ruminates on life’s inescapable end. These interludes might have been entertaining if State had either poetic talent or an intriguing voice, but unfortunately she possesses neither, and these moments result in nothing but questioning eye contact between audience members.

The film’s redeeming moments come in a few of the snippets from live shows. Suuns’ hypnotic, forcefully pulsating songs are appropriate

for the dark, gloomy venues in which they are performed. Much here is due to Jeremy Gara’s sound design, but State does do a fair job of faithfully presenting the perspective of an audience member. The camera glances over various band members, lingers for a few moments on particular instruments, and scans the crowd of fellow fans. Constantly flashing lights provide a familiar sense of disorientation. The final song of the film spirals into a glorious climax of sound and energy, echoing the absolutely enthralling feeling of hearing your favourite song live.

This is perhaps the film’s only strength: it makes you want to be at a Suuns show. My sole experience seeing the band live was two years ago, when I heard the last few songs of their set at Osheaga – a show that did not do them justice. They are not meant to be listened to in a sunny field on an early August afternoon; it is the sort of music you need to immerse yourself in completely on a late night in a crowded room. With regards to the movie, lead singer

Ben Shermie seems quite indifferent, and insists that State was really just “a fly on the wall” during the touring process. He does add, however, that the band would have been less inclined to agree to the film had State’s vision been something more involved, such as a more traditional tour documentary with interviews.

When asked if the film recalls specific tour moments, Shemie offers a half grin and points out that there are “a lot of feet” shots, which obviously could be from any night.

State’s concert clips do often take Suuns’ shoes as a focal point – to be fair, exactly what is at eye level when you’re in the front row – but the effect quickly loses its lustre.

Perhaps this is a good way to describe the movie as a whole: one fan’s perspective, but ultimately, not much more. Skip the film, and see the show instead.

Suuns will be playing with Technical Kidman at Sala Rossa, 4848 St. Laurent, at 8:00 p.m. on April 4.

Tickets are $11.

culture

The McGill Daily | Monday, March 18, 2013 | mcgilldaily.com

13

Photo Courtesy of Arsenal Montreal

Gao Brothers. Miss Mao No. 3, 2006. Stainless steel sculpture. 250 x 180 x 160 cm.

Storming the empire Arsenal hosts contemporary Chinese art Charles Larose-Jodoin Culture Writer

A

rsenal Montreal, a gallery in Griffintown, is currently hosting an exhibit of conteporary Chinese art, “Like Thunder out of China.” It is one of the first times that contemporary Chinese artists have been showcased in Montreal. The basis for the name of the exhibit is the Chinese phrase that refers to artists as “men with thunder and lightning at their heels,” because of their tendency to expose and critique the current order. As a result of their highly dissident nature, most of these artists are not permitted to exhibit freely in their country – several of them were also not allowed to travel to Canada – because of Canada’s strict visa requirements for Chinese nationals. The exhibition includes Han Bing, the Gao Brothers, Lu Fei Fei, Dai Guangyu, Zhang Huan, Qiu Jie, Wu Junyong, Chang Lei, Hung Tung Lu, Gu Wenda, Gao Xiang, Cang Xin, and He Yunchang.

The idea for the exhibit was pitched to Arsenal by Margot Ross, a Montreal-based art consultant and curator. Ross felt that while contemporary Chinese artists had become a popular phenomenon both in China and in many big cities in the West, they remained barely visible

in Canada. Pia Camilla Copper, a Montreal-based freelance curator and expert on Chinese and Iranian contemporary art, handpicked the artists. Her selection aimed to provide a broad range of artists whom she felt “were speaking about their country’s issues: urbanization, [the] one-child policy, spirituality, the burden of the past, the Cultural Revolution, and propaganda.”

The work is often highly critical of particular government policies. Lu Fei Fei’s The Story of Zhuyuan addresses the issue of unregistered children, an unfortunate consequence of China’s long-running one-child policy. Lu produced a series of photographs of two girls, who are either depicted in the countryside, holding up their nation’s flag, or in front of a government slogan that reads “a girl is always good.” The girls depicted in the pictures – elder sisters in twochild families – cannot receive basic services, such as education, because their births were unregistered. Their parents, disappointed that their first child was a girl, decided to avoid fines by leaving their daughters’ births off of official records, while trying to have another child who would hopefully be male. In China, families often face large fines or other serious consequences for trying to register more than one birth.

Lu uses the symbol of the nation’s flag and the government’s stern pro-

paganda as a powerful element in her visual critique. In an interview with Copper, Lu explained that “in democratic countries, the flag is a symbol of glory and dignity, the symbol of the nation. In a country where people do not have the right to vote, the national flag represents the government’s will and power. The flag as well as the ‘One Child in Zhuyuan’ slogan signify the same thing […] Like the girl, the situation of women remains unnoticed. The situation of the girl child is similar to that of the Chinese people, helpless, coerced by power, without freedom or power to choose.”

The Gao Brothers’ irreverent sculpture of the former Chairman, Miss Mao, makes a caricature of the founder of communist China. Mao is presented in stainless steel with the absurd additions of prominent Betty Boop breasts, a Disney-like button nose, and a vampire’s mouth. Like Lu, the Gao Brothers are direct and unflinching in their political aims.

As they told Copper during their interview for the exhibit, “this work exposes the truth that Mao’s politics are a lie [...] Miss Mao is the irony of Mao and his system and the people fooled by Mao’s politics.” The Gao Brothers’ father died at the hand of the Red Guards during the tumultuous and violent Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s. Miss Mao has been exhibited all over the world and has attracted the ire of the Chinese

authorities, who have blocked and confiscated it several times at customs, and even destroyed one version of the piece.

Many of the works, including those by Zhang Huan, Han Bing, Cang Xin, and He Yunchang, can be classified as performance art.

Most notable are the photos documenting He’s performance, One Meter Democracy, in which a 0.5-1 centimetre deep cut was made on the right side of He’s body, from his clavicle down to below his knee.

The whole process is said to be executed under the assistance of a medical doctor, without anaesthesia. Before the cut was made, He held a pseudo-democratic vote to determine whether or not the procedure would take place. According to Copper, “many of the artists [such as] Cang Xin, He Yunchang, [and] Zhang Huan had a classical painting background, (often at China’s Central Academy of Fine Arts) and wanted to break away from that. They also wanted to use their bodies to signal that they lived in a repressive dictatorship that could control those bodies.”

Contrary to what one might expect to find in a representative selection of dissident artists critiquing the current order, Lu FeiFei was the only female artist featured.

Copper explained that “there are many Chinese female artists. In fact,

China [has been a] a very egalitarian country since the advent of Communism. However, I just decided to include one because, often women artists are less political, more interested in the private sphere.”

That, unfortunately, is a fault in an otherwise exceptional exhibition.

The artists represented are overwhelmingly male, and much of the work has strong anti-establishment overtones. While it’s great to present that narrative, it fits uncomfortably well with the way that China is typically understood in Western consciousness. If Arsenal’s main goal was to present the antipathy that Chinese artists feel towards their government, then it certainly succeeded.

The works did not, however, represent other aspects of life in China, by choice, it seems. Given the way that Western media tend to represent only the worst aspects of China – pollution, corruption, and the trampling of human rights – it seems a missed opportunity not to represent the more human, every day side of life; the side that is rarely portrayed in North America or Europe. That said, we should be grateful to Arsenal for bringing such an arresting selection of Chinese contemporary works to Montreal.

“Like Thunder out of China” will be shown at Arsenal, 2020 William, until July 27.

compendium!

The McGill Daily Monday, March 18, 2013 mcgilldaily.com

lies, half-truths, and eight-hour naps

i4

‘A call to end circadian discrimination’ Max Honigmann The Twice-a-Weekly

I

t’s 6 a.m., and daylight has begun to peer out timidly above the horizon. The morning people are starting their days, sipping their coffee, and tightening their neckties. I, on the other hand, am wrapping up my night, and have long since discounted the possibility of such an earlyrising lifestyle…

I’ve done it again, stayed up ridiculously late. Or is it early?

My mind is starting to get hazy, my eyes strained. I should be fast asleep right now, deep in the dream-daze of REM sleep, with a few hours to go until a wailing alarm clock jolts me awake for my morning obligations. Instead, I opted to roam the empty city streets, read Hunter S. Thompson (an infamously late riser himself ), and browse Wikipedia for hours on end. Not only am I now an expert on the Battle of Thermopylae, but I’ve just passed what I like to call ‘the Threshold’ – that final boundary of drowsiness that fades away when you’ve been tired for so long that you feel wide awake.

A few years ago, the notion of regularly waking at 3 p.m. would have struck me as absurd. Half the day, wasted! Obligations and opportunities, neglected! And what about my education? Well, there’s no denying that the 7:17 a.m. morning bell made it difficult, if not downright unhealthy, to live on the later side of things during my high school career.

Many an all-nighter was pulled, and first period passed by blurrily at best. Fortunately, the freedom and independence granted to a university student are much more accommodating to these tendencies. I do applaud McGill for offering an adequate variety of evening courses – one can design a class schedule with no academic commitments before one in the afternoon, which can allow for the sustainment of a 5 a.m. bedtime. I do, however,

Illustration A. Caffeinator | The Twice-a-Weekly

view 8:30 a.m. classes as a kind of cruel joke, and avoid them like a plague. Even the morning people dread them. It’s a shame, because some of those subjects seem quite interesting. Thus, I call for their immediate abolition (expect a full-scale protest movement to follow suit).

It’s hard to deny that night owls are missing out on the many advantages inherent to the world of daylight. We sacrifice suntans, matinee prices, and if I’m being entirely honest, a few decent career paths. But I genuinely believe that morning people are missing out on just as much. There’s something irreplaceable about being up at those really obscure hours – and if this

all seems like crazy talk to you, I’ll do my best to explain. I can’t speak for everyone, but I think that many night people form their unorthodox sleeping habits out of an appreciation for night time, rather than some deficiency of motivation. As the great novelist Robert Louis Stevenson once put it, “There is a romance about all those who are abroad in the black hours.” Is it the morning glory of a pastel sunrise? The rare sense of tranquility that can only be felt while the rest of the world sleeps? Or perhaps it’s something else, something deeper, fundamental to the spirit?

Whatever the reason, circadian discrimination has no place in our post-agrarian world. Waking up

with the sun may seem natural to some people, but to those of us who are wired differently, it’s highly unpleasant, both physically and mentally. On the bright side, progress is being made. More and more employers are allowing their workers to telecommute, them the same amount of work but on a much more agreeable itinerary, granting substantial benefits to an employee’s attitude and well being.

Groups of compassionate parents across North America, armed with the results of countless contemporary studies, are pushing for more reasonable school hours across the board. No one is trying to force the general public to accept a different sleep pattern. All we’re asking for is a new way of living that better

conciliates the preferences of both morning people, night people, and everyone in between.

At the end of the day, my goal is to own my sleep schedule, rather than let it own me. In the occasional case of an absolutely imperative morning commitment, a few strategically-timed naps get my sleep schedule back on track with little to no fatigue. Others may stand by their regular interval of eight hours nightly, and you know what, more power to ‘em.

But for me, the latest hours are the greatest hours. So whether you’re an insomniac, graffiti artist, or graveyard shift worker, here’s to all the people rocking the nocturnal lifestyle out there.

Cheers, and good night.

Compendium! is not just for satire. send your rants, raves, and random musings to compendium@mcgilldaily.com

15

EDITORIAL

volume 102 number 39

The Daily’s referenda endorsements

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

Queen Arsem-O’Malley

coordinating@mcgilldaily.com

coordinating news editor

Juan Camilo Velásquez

Illus

news editors

Laurent Bastien Corbeil Lola Duffort Farid Rener commentary editors

Jacqueline Brandon Steve Eldon Kerr culture editors

Kaj Huddart Hillary Pasternak features editor

Christina Colizza science+technology editor

Anqi Zhang

health&education editor

Ralph Haddad sports editor

Evan Dent

multimedia editor

Kate McGillivray photo editor

Hera Chan illustrations editor

Amina Batyreva design&production editors

Edna Chan Rebecca Katzman

copy editor

Nicole Leonard web editor

Tom Acker le délit

Nicolas Quiazua

tratio

n Al

ic e S

he n

| Th

Question re: Athletics Ancillary Fee – NO / NO 1) NO – While The Daily acknowledges the important role of athletics in campus life, and wants to support all student services that encourage a wide range of initiatives, we endorse a “no” position on an increase of the athletics fee by $7.25, to $127.75. Athletics fees are already very high, and the fee is non-opt-outable. Furthermore, the PostGraduate Students’ Society (PGSS) has expressed grievances with the amount of money spent on athletics, and the ways in which this money is distributed. In Athletics, coaches are highly paid, yet many student athletes still pay out of pocket to be on sports teams, and students still have to pay for a yearly gym membership on top of their fees. In addition, McGill’s administration has more than doubled certain charges to Athletics, leaving Athletics to place the burden of the administration’s hike on students. Instead of raising ancillary fees for students to deal with budget issues, the Athletics department should be engaging students in re-prioritizing their budget.

2) NO – This question asks to index this fee to inflation every year until the 2016-2017 school year.

Automatic indexation eliminates all consultation with students about their fees. Indexation increases the fee every year without student approval, which also justifies a no vote.

rec@delitfrancais.com

cover design Amina Batyreva and Hera Chan contributors Chris Bangs, Julia Boshyk, Kaiva Brammanis, Annie Chen, Cem Ertekin, Sarina Gupta, Max Honigmann, Charles Larose-Jodoin, Fedor Karmanov, Lewis Krashinsky, Davide Mastracci, Shane Murphy, Nathalie O’Neill, Leyla Omeragic, Alice Shen, Robert Smith, Victor Tangermann, Dana Wray

3480 McTavish St., Rm. B-26 Montreal, QC H3A 1X9 phone 514.398.6790 fax 514.398.8318 advertising & general manager Boris

Shedov sales representative Letty Matteo ad layout & design Geneviève Robert Mathieu Ménard dps board of directors Queen Arsem-O’Malley, Erin Hudson, Rebecca Katzman, Michael Lee-Murphy, Anthony Lecossois, Matthew Milne, Sheehan Moore (chair@dailypublications.org), Farid Muttalib, Shannon Palus, Nicolas Quiazua, Boris Shedov

All contents © 2012 Daily Publications Society. All rights reserved. The content of this newspaper is the responsibility of The McGill Daily and does not necessarily represent the views of McGill University. Products or companies advertised in this newspaper are not necessarily endorsed by Daily staff.

Printed by Imprimerie Transcontinental Transmag. Anjou, Quebec.

ISSN 1192-4608.

e Mc

G ill

D a il

y

Question re: Student Services Ancillary Fee – YES / NO 1) YES – The Daily advises its readers to vote “yes” to the student services ancillary fee increase by $8.50, to a total of $141.50 – but again, we do so with strong reservations. The student services ancillary fee covers incredibly important offices and initiatives including, but not limited to: the First Peoples’ House, the Office for Students with Disabilities, Mental Health Services, MacDonald Student Services, and Student Health.

2) NO – By indexing the fee for the next four years without the consultation of current and incoming students, McGill is placing a financial burden on students and then denying students the autonomy to annually decide on the fee themselves.

Question re: Creation of the SSMU Equity Fund – YES SSMU funds, like the Green Fund – which promotes projects around sustainability and environmental issues on campus – are a win-win. Students have the opportunity to propose ideas and receive funding to make them happen, gaining valuable experience while running innovative projects; meanwhile, the campus benefits from new initiatives. We endorse a “yes” for a SSMU Equity Fund – this $0.50 opt-outable fee will fuel a new generation of innovative, studentgenerated ideas that promote equity.

Question re: Creation of a McGill Writing Centre Ancillary Fee – YES

Question re: SACOMSS Fee Renewal – YES

The Daily advises its readers to vote “yes” to the writing centre ancillary fee – but we do so with strong reservations. Though a $1.50 fee is nominal, it’s yet another example of our university administration requiring its students to pay additional fees for incredibly basic services. We pay tuition to be educated by McGill – and that education includes the ability to write effectively.

That the University has sidestepped this responsibility is disappointing, and part of a troubling trend. Still, we say “yes”: we want to ensure that all students have access to the resources offered at the centre. We mustn’t allow our University’s lack of commitment to student services to get in the way.

The Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society (SACOMSS), McGill’s resource centre for survivors of sexual assault, is an absolutely essential service.

We strongly urge every student to vote “yes” to their $0.75 fee renewal, which is their main source of funding.

SACOMSS services include advocacy, outreach, support groups, and crisis intervention; they extend far beyond McGill students and are open to the entire McGill and broader Montreal community. Their existence is particularly important, in light of the fact that nearby Concordia University does not have a sexual assault centre. SACOMSS is nothing short of a life saver for people all over the city. SACOMSS’ support for survivors of sexual assault and social justice initiatives are an integral part of the McGill and wider Montreal community.

CONTACT US NEWS COMMENTARY CULTURE FEATURES SCI+TECH HEALTH & ED SPORTS MULTIMEDIA PHOTO ILLUSTRATIONS DESIGN&PRODUCTION COPY WEB

news@mcgilldaily.com commentary@mcgilldaily.com culture@mcgilldaily.com features@mcgilldaily.com scitech@mcgilldaily.com healthandeducation@mcgilldaily.com sports@mcgilldaily.com radio@mcgilldaily.com photos@mcgilldaily.com illustrations@mcgilldaily.com design@mcgilldaily.com copy@mcgilldaily.com web@mcgilldaily.com For meeting times, check the “Contribute” tab at mcgilldaily.com

WIN ONE of 25 DOUBLE PASSES to the PREMIERE on MARCH 21 at 7PM at the CINEPLEX FORUM presented by

Starting March 8, come by the McGill Daily office (Shatner B-26) to get a double pass. First come, first served. Student ID required.

STARTS FRIDAY, MARCH 22!