April 9, 2019

theconcordian

CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY’S WEEKLY, INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER

 /theconcordian  @theconcordian  @theconcordian  theconcordian.com

VOLUME 36, ISSUE 26 | TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2019

Extending the stage Autodidactic Concordia Theatre encourages accessible performance creation Arts p. 10

also in this issue...

news

life

Bill 21 impacts Concordia aims career goals p. 2 for the stars p. 8

music

Meet Thebe Kgositsile

sports

p. 12

Player tracking in the NHL p. 13

opinions

Caught between two cultures p. 16

news

NEWS EDITORS /// news@theconcordian.com IAN DOWN & MIA ANHOURY ( @IanDown1996 @mia_anhoury)

CITY IN Dilemma for education students BRIEF

BILL 21

The CAQ’s secularism bill would change plans of current students

IAN DOWN NEWS EDITOR The STM board of directors voted to grant its inspectors new powers to detain passengers and issue parking tickets on Wednesday, according to CTV. The vote needs to be approved by the SPVM and Quebec’s public security minister. If approved, inspectors will also have the ability to tow cars in bus lanes and to access police databases.

Signature sur le Saint-Laurent, the consortium responsible for building the new Champlain bridge, announced on Thursday the bridge will be opening in June, according to Radio-Canada. The bridge will be open inbound to Montreal on June 3, and outbound on June 17. The $4 billion project has been in the works for four years.

The number of foreign buyers in Montreal’s housing market increased by more than 20 per cent from 2017-18, according to La Presse.

These buyers, about one third of whom are from China, bought more proper ties on the island than all Canadians outside of Quebec. The provincial government has refused to grant Mayor Valérie Plante the power to impose taxes on foreign property transactions.

Ikram El Mashoubi worries she won’t be able to finish her internship next year if she doesn’t take off her hijab. Photo by Jad Abukasm.

JAD ABUKASM ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR “The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) is imposing a belief on me,” said Ikram El Mashoubi, a third-year education student at Concordia who wears a headscarf.

If Bill 21 passes, El Mashoubi would have to give up her scarf to pursue a teaching career in public schools. “We will become second-class citizens just because we choose to practice our religion freely, which I have the right to do,” she said.

“When I first heard the news, I cried my eyes out,” said El Mashoubi. “My life trajectory that I was so happy to follow shifted 90 degrees just like that.”

The CAQ tabled their secularism bill on March 27. The bill is an attempt to achieve religious neutrality in the province by banning religious symbols worn by public workers. This includes teachers, police officers and governmental lawyers.

While the government claims the bill balances community and individual rights, much opposition arose claiming the proposed bill violates rights outlined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“It is a violation of freedom of religion and a violation of the right against discrimination,” said Azim Hussain, a lawyer specialized in constitutional law. Premier

François Legault said individuals who refuse to abide by the proposed bill can simply change jobs.

“I have given, so far, three years of my life to proudly and rightfully become a licensed teacher,” said El Mashoubi. “I have spent tens of thousands of dollars.

I have put my heart, tears, and so much love into this career. I gave so much of myself and my time into teaching.”

“Legault can’t possibly ask me to just look for another job,” El Mashoubi said.

Hussain said the bill lacks legality since the CAQ initially misused the notwithstanding clause, which could be detrimental to the legislation. The notwithstanding clause in the Canadian Constitution is used by both provincial and federal governments to override sections of the charter that they do not agree with for a five-year period.

“There should first be a court process that determines whether the law is constitutional and then the government should decide whether it would invoke the notwithstanding clause,” said Hussain.

Instead, the government invoked this clause prior to tabling it.

Concordia political science Professor, James Kelly, whose field of study is the Canadian constitution, said courts have already ruled that the clause can be used in a pre-emptive way.

“[The C AQ is] not acknowledging that it violates rights explicitly, but they are implicitly saying that by invoking the notwithstanding clause,” said Kelly.

Once the clause is used, there cannot be constitutional challenges to the bill, but other challenges can be made, such as administrative ones.

T he lac k of def init ion reg arding religious symbols could be the target of administrative challenges. Minister of Immigration, Diversity and Inclusiveness, Simon Jolin-Barrette, told CTV Montreal that “everyone in Quebec knows what a religious symbol is.” However, Kelly said an administrative challenge would only delay the legislative process.

According to Magida Chatila, a social worker in a Notre-Dame-de-Grâce elementary school, Bill 21 will have many other consequences outside the classroom.

“In francophone schools, there is a huge lack of teachers and professionals, such as psycho-educators and speech therapists,” said Chatila. “This situation is particularly difficult for special classes whose students need special education.”

Some of these students have an academic delay of two years. Other students do not even have a permanent teacher. “Students have been taught by many substitute teachers before someone accepted to take a job,” said Chatila.

Former Mayor Denis Coderre will fight in a charity boxing match for at-risk youth at the end of next month, according to The Montreal Gazette. Coderre, who has reportedly lost 100 pounds since his tenure as mayor, showed off his sparring skills to the media last Thursday. The same day, the veteran politician said in an interview with Tout le monde en parle he will not run in the next municipal election.

Graphic by @ sundaemorningcoffee

As a response to the lack of teachers, some schools have hired personnel without the proper certification to teach. “At the school where I am currently working, around 10 teachers out of the 30 do not have the proper requirements to teach,” said Chatila.

By preventing new teachers like El Mashoubi to work in public schools, Chatila fears that the lack of workforce will only grow. This would be detrimental to students from public schools, she said.

While the CAQ holds a majority of seats in the national assembly, many think there are ways to legally oppose the bill before it passes. Kelly predicts that once all the testimonies pass through Assembly, the bill’s flaws will arise. This is what caused the previous secularism attempts to fail in the past two decades, according to Kelly.

APRIL 9, 2019

theconcordian

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NATION Short-term rental, long-term struggle IN BRIEF HOUSING

Council rejected motion to disallow short-term rental reimbursements JAMEE MCRAE CONTRIBUTOR The council of the Concordia Student Union (CSU) rejected a motion to unauthorize the reimbursement of short-term marketplace rental fees to the university’s undergraduate student clubs on March 13.

“Council voted against it,” said Sophie Hough-Martin, general coordinator of the CSU. Council thought such a stance would be inhibitory to Airbnbs, but Hough-Martin disagreed. “I think there are enough options for affordable travel accommodations,” she said.

There is a growing fear that short-term rentals contribute to gentrification, as rental spaces that were once residential have become commercial. Active Airbnb units in Montreal increased by 58 per cent in 2017, according to a study performed by McGill’s School of Urban Planning. The study also showed that 91 per cent of Airbnb units were in the city’s urban core.

“We like to promote initiatives fighting gentrification on the ground,” Hough-Martin said. “There are a lot of different community organizations. As of right now, we haven’t taken more action. If we were to get a request to support one, we would have incentive to.”

A challenge students face while apartment-hunting is availability. HoughMartin explained that as the number of short-term rental spaces in Montreal increases, the number of long-term ones decreases. Thus, it becomes even harder to find a place to live.

The CSU adopted a position against gentrification in April 2018. The purpose of the position was to promote the CSU’s practices to fight the effects gentrification has

IAN DOWN NEWS EDITOR

Graphic by Ana Bilokin.

on students, most notably, rental fee hikes.

“Affordable housing is something all students can agree with,” said Hough-Martin.

“Rent prices have increased, and it has become difficult [for students] to live in the city.”

According to the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the vacancy rate of multi-bedroom apartments in Montreal is 1.8 per cent. “That’s on par with Vancouver and Toronto. That’s a housing crisis,” said Leanne Ashworth, manager of the CSU OffCampus Housing and Job Resource Centre (HOJO). “This has always been a difficulty for students, I think, but right now, we’re seeing the vacancy rate—the lack of—come alive.”

Ashworth said students need to rent affordable apartments close to school, but availability contends with short-term commercial rentals. HOJO helps students find apartments in areas of the city considered to be convenient to students. HOJO has since expanded its apartment searches to Hochelaga, Rosemont, and St-Michel. Students are having to trade

high rental fees for longer commutes—a compromise they are forced to make.

The average rental price of an apartment in the Plateau has jumped by $200 in the last two years, according to a HOJO report.

In 2017, a three-bedroom apartment in this neighbourhood would have cost $1,251 per month. Now, it costs $1,481.

Despite an 18 per cent increase, living with roommates remains the most affordable option.

“In general, I think students are mostly paying over $500 a month,” said Ashworth. “At this point, it would be difficult for a student to find a three-bedroom apartment for $1,500. That would be very difficult. It would more likely be closer to $2,000, if it was in central Montreal.”

“I think we need to pressure the government at all levels to keep Montreal affordable,” Ashworth said. “We can’t keep having the rent going up every year by hundreds of dollars because this will not be a student city anymore.”

ELECTIONS

RiZe, New Community elected Cut the Crap slate appealing disqualification to Judicial Board

MIA ANHOURY NEWS EDITOR Candidates from both the riZe and the New Community slate have been elected as executives for the Concordia Student Union (CSU). All Cut the Crap candidates were originally elected until they were disqualified by the Chief Electoral Officer, Florian Prual.

Danielle Vandolder-Beaudin, the finance coordinator candidate from Cut the Crap, incited students to vote for the slate during the polling period, which is in violation of the union’s standing regulations. “It’s probably one of the worst things she could have done,” said Prual.

Cut the Crap announced they will be appealing the disqualification to the union’s Judicial Board, however they refused to further comment on the matter.

New Community general coordinator candidate, Marcus Peters, said “I think it's clear that online presence in popular Concordia Facebook pages will now arguably be the strongest factor in determining the victor in an online election.” Half of the elected executives were from the New Community slate.

The first-ever online-only election brought in the highest voter turnout in the

Former Justice Minister Jody WilsonRaybould and former Secretary of the Treasury Board Jane Philpott were expelled from the Liberal caucus last Tuesday, according to Global News. In his announcement, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cited disintegrating trust with the former cabinet members amid the fallout from the SNC-Lavalin scandal. Trudeau and members of his office are accused of pressuring Wilson-Raybould to reach a deferred settlement in a bribery case against the Quebec engineering firm.

The federal government imposed carbon taxes on four provinces last week, according to The Guardian.

Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick now have a $20 per tonne tax on carbon pollution, which will rise by $10 per year until 2022. Every province was mandated to implement its own carbon tax by April 1 or be subject to the federal tax.

Nova Scotia will soon have implied consent for organ donation, making it the first such jurisdiction in North America, according to CBC. Premier Stephen McNeil tabled the legislation last Tuesday, which would compel those who do not wish to donate their organs to opt out. Belgium and Spain already have similar laws.

Whale and dolphin captivity may soon become illegal thanks to a bill passed by the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans studies on Wednesday, according to CBC. If it passes Parliament, the new law would impose fines of up to $200,000 on theme parks found to have the animals in captivity. Marineland in Niagara Falls is the only Canadian theme park that still holds whales and dolphins on a long-term basis.

Graphic by @sundaemorningcoffee

Photo by Mia Anhoury.

CSU elections, with over 4,600 voters.

Since the 2017 elections, voter turnout has hovered around the 1,000 mark, out of the 30,000 students eligible to vote.

Concordia student Miriam Lafontaine was elected as the arts and science student representative for senate. As one of the journalism students who motioned for a strike in March, Lafontaine hopes to influence decisions about unpaid internships in the university. A fall reading week, according to Lafontaine, would be beneficial to students.

Following these elections, the CSU will be adding three new stances to the union’s Positions Book. The CSU will support the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Green New Deal climate plan for Canada, which was tabled by the group La planète s’invite à l'université.

As previously reported by The Concordian,

the union is in conversation with the university about the possibility of being in charge of the health insurance plan for international students. The union has reaffirmed its goal by asking students if they agree and a majority of voters approved the referendum.

CSU Finance Coordinator John Hutton said students “are tired of paying for the country’s most expensive health plan.”

He added that “the results send a strong message to the administration that student union management is the way to go.”

In the other approved referendum, the CSU will support the Food Autonomy Campaign through funding, research and campaigns. Its objective is to create a student-run and owned food distributor and to increase flex dollars given to students in residence, among other goals.

Finally, a new fee levy of $0.09 will be introduced in the summer 2019 term to help establish a Student Refugee Program at Concordia. The program will sponsor refugee students and support them in their integration in Canada and at Concordia. The referendum was tabled by Concordia’s chapter of World University Service of Canada.

ELECTED EXECUTIVES FOR THE 2019-20 YEAR ARE: Margot Berner – General coordinator Manuela Simo – Loyola coordinator Paige Keleher – Student Life coordinator Apochele Christina Kamwendo – Sustainability coordinator Jessica Avalos Salas – Academic & Advocacy coordinator Emily Faraj –Internal Affairs coordinator Nicolas Chevalier – External & Mobilization coordinator Désirée Blizzard – Finance coordinator

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theconcordian

APRIL 9, 2019

SEXUAL VIOLENCE

The age of consent

Students for Consent Culture releases retrospective report

WORLD IN BRIEF IAN DOWN NEWS EDITOR A Sikh climate activist is encouraging Sikhs around the world to plant one million trees in 2019, according to The Guardian. Rajwant Singh of EcoSikh planned the movement to coincide with the 550th birthday of the religion’s founder, Guru Nanak, on April 15.

Sikhs across the world have taken up the challenge, including in India, Canada, the United States and Kenya.

A Chinese ambassador discouraged other countries from participating in a meeting on China’s alleged human rights violations, according to Hong Kong Free Press. China is allegedly holding over one million of the country’s predominantly-Muslim Uighur in detainment camps. In a letter made public by Human Rights Watch, Ambassador Yu Jianhua said the UN meeting on China’s treatment of its Uighur minority population was politically motivated.

Archive graphic by Zeze Le Lin.

IAN DOWN NEWS EDITOR Eighteen months after making national headlines with its action plan on campus sexual violence, Students for Consent Culture (SFCC) released its first retrospective report last Wednesday.

SFCC is a national collective of students dedicated to fighting campus sexual violence and reforming university sexual violence policies. The group supersedes OurTurn National, which was founded by a group of Carleton students in 2016.

The retrospective report was pushed after one of OurTurn’s board members abruptly incorporated the group last year. All other board members were fired in the process.

Those students then went on to form Students for Consent Culture.

In October 2017, OurTurn published OurTurn: A National, Student-Led Action Plan to End Campus Sexual Violence. Released just one week after allegations of sexual assault against Harvey Weinstein were made public, the report quickly made national headlines.

SFCC National Chair Connor Spencer credits the timing of the report with boosting the action plan’s public profile.

Spencer also said it was the first real attempt to identify best practices for university sexual violence policies. “The combination just sort of made it spiral way past the impact we thought it was going to have,” said Spencer. “We knew what we had created was important, but we had no idea people were finally ready to listen.”

Since the OurTurn report was released, members of SFCC have participated in eight

federal and five provincial consultations on sexual violence. OurTurn’s chair at the time, Caitlin Salvino, was appointed to the Federal Status of Women Gender-Based Violence Committee. The report has been mentioned four times in the House of Commons.

The OurTurn report’s scorecard, which drew considerable media attention, assigned letter grades to university sexual violence policies. With a grade of D-, Concordia received the lowest score of the 15 schools evaluated. A lack of a proper standalone policy, the inclusion of a frivolous complaints clause, and a failure to acknowledge the existence of rape culture on campus, were among the reasons cited.

“Despite the extensive media attention, the goal of the report and scorecard was not to embarrass institutions, but rather to fill a knowledge gap in best practices for campus policies in order to empower student activists and advocates,” the retrospective report reads.

Instead of new grades for each policy, the retrospective report includes a template for students to grade their own schools’ policies. CSU General Coordinator Sophie Hough-Martin graded Concordia’s old and new sexual violence policies, the latter of which was released in December 2018.

She gave the old policy 37 points out of 100; The OurTurn team had given it 52.

“The initial policy evaluation by OurTurn was hyper-inflated, as it counted common practices that weren't included in the policy itself,” she said.

Hough-Martin gave the new policy 52 points out of 100. “The only substantive improvements were that we gained 3 points

in the section on education. Additionally, for the formal and informal processes [for handling a complaint], our grade improved from 5/30 to 13/30.”

“With that said, the document is still highly referential and reliant on other policy processes," said Hough-Martin. "It does not stand alone as defined in the OurTurn: One Year Later report."

Spencer said SFCC is working on new grades for each school, which will be released in fall 2019.

The new report also includes a list of best practices for university sexual violence policies. Among these, universities must have a stand-alone policy. This policy must include rape-shield protections that prohibit investigators from questioning complainants about their sexual history.

It must also acknowledge the existence of rape culture on campuses. Spencer defined rape culture as “a sociocultural understanding that promotes or enables sexual violence or the disbelief of women when they come forward.”

The anniversary report also outlines what shouldn’t be included in a sexual violence policy. Notably, it says that policies must not include a frivolous complaints section that discourages students from knowingly filing false reports. “Such a clause is likely to deter someone from deciding to file a complaint through the policy,” the report reads.

Policies must also not include time limits for filing complaints, or exception clauses.

The former allow administrators to intervene in the complaint process to influence the outcome. Spencer said such policies are rare, with one example mentioned in the anniver-

The Saudi government is giving the children of journalist Jamal Khashoggi luxury homes and five-figure monthly payouts, according to The Washington Post.

The gifts are reportedly compensation for the killing of their father last October, as well as enouragement to withhold criticism of his murder.

Kashoggi’s alleged killers are still on trial in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman continues to deny involvement in the murder.

A Bruneian law making gay sex punishable by stoning to death came into effect on Wednesday, according to CNN. In response, businesses across the world have announced boycotts against businesses owned by the southeast Asian country. Among the companies are TV Choice magazine, which intended to host the TV Choice awards in Brunei, and the German bank Deutsche Bank.

Graphic by @sundaemorningcoffee

sary report coming from the University of Ottawa’s policy: “An exception to this policy will only be considered by the president in rare or in unforeseen circumstances.”

“Let’s say that a donor’s child is accused, and is going through a process and is going to be reprimanded. The president could step in and be like ‘nope, never mind,’” said Spencer.

The retrospective report lays out SFCC’s plans for the future. They will publish an evaluation of the changes in sexual violence policies across the country in the past two years. They will create a cross-country support network for students fighting sexual violence. In January 2020, SFCC will publish a national research report on predatory professors.

APRIL 9, 2019

theconcordian

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DECOLONIZATION

Bringing Indigenous knowledge into school Indigenous Directions Leadership Group discusses the future of Indigenization at Concordia

MINA MAZUMDER ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR Concordia’s Indigenous Directions Leadership Group launched its action plan last Thursday, which includes governance changes, student recruitment, Indigenous knowledge and pedagogical changes.

The plan is based on consultations done in the last year with Indigenous students, faculty and staff about changes needed for more Indigenization on campus.

“I would [like to] see a point where all students who graduate from Concordia will have some Indigenous knowledge and experience as part of their education journey,” said William Lindsay, senior director of Indigenous Directions at Concordia.

Indigenous people “are starting to feel comfortable here, but plans like these go a long way to helping the university change for the better too.”

Although the plan was scheduled to be released last fall, Lindsay said additional consultations were required to create a more accurate representation of the university’s needs. After drafting the plan, the Indigenous Directions Leadership Group presented it to various faculty and staff members including the president, dean of students, members of senate and

The IDLG unveiled its action plan at a pulic event on Thursday. Photo by Hannah Ewen.

chairs from multiple departments to have it approved and launched.

According to the action plan, the administration plans to facilitate students' self-identification as Inuit, First Nations, Métis or part of an international Indigenous community on their admissions applications by summer 2019. In addition, they hope to increase the number of scholarships for Indigenous students by fall 2019.

T hroug h t h e developm ent of an Indigenous GradProSkills course by fall 2020, the plan wants to encourage Indigenous graduate students to become

faculty members. The report also outlines plans to develop a policy regarding the use of Indigenous languages and terms in both internal and external communications at the university-level.

Heather Igloliorte, the special advisor to the provost on advancing Indigenous knowledge, said the consultation review focuses on achieving short-term goals and what is expected in the next three years.

“It’s an ambitious plan, but it is achievable, because it is all steps that will set us up for future actions,” she said.

Concordia being the only university

in Quebec with a First Peoples studies program, Lindsay said this new plan aims to further the work that has already been done. "The documents introduce people to traditional and modern knowledge about Indigenous people,” he said. “It is created

by Indigenous people.”

Concordia is the leading university in Quebec working towards becoming a more Indigenous-inclusive institution, according to Lindsay. He hopes it will encourage other schools to implement a similar plan. “McGill is doing something similar, but I don’t think it is as comprehensive yet,” he said. Lindsay has done similar work during his time at Simon Fraser University.

Elder Charlie Patton of Kahnawake, said “this action plan is about getting the broader community around us to understand who we are.”

Patton said learning about Indigenous people starts with studying their culture and being grateful for the resources that nature has given us. “Our native people have something to offer when they talk about the earth, and that’s something that many people have forgotten.”

Igloliorte hopes to eventually see a graduate program for students who want to expand their knowledge beyond the undergraduate program.

With files from Ian Down.

SUSTAINABILITY

A bright future for Concordia Student proposes LED light project to university

ELIZABETH SPINOZZI CONTRIBUTOR Concordia University’s Next-Generation Learning Project is well underway within its first year, and has already reached half of the $250 million it set out to raise. The project includes nine strategic directions, one being to better the environment and make changes to the school accordingly.

Simon-Benoît Bretchko, a psychology student with a minor in marketing, introduced Concordia to a new sustainable LED light with the help of local engineer Mar tin Roy and a group of Concordia students. The light is made by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design’s (LEDD), of which Bretchko is vice-president.

LEDD’s lights do not have a ballast, which is an electrical component that limits the electrical current. “Our lights function as efficiently without a ballast,” said Bretchko. Although traditional fluorescent lights use a ballast, he added that not using one reduces the cost of production without affecting the level of brightness.

Bretchko’s product is estimated to save Concordia $11 million in electricity, which will advance the school’s goal of becoming Canada’s most efficient university. As a Concordia student himself, Bretchko proposed the idea to improve students’ study habits at the Vanier Library, where he spends a lot of time.

Last November, Concordia installed 20 W LED T8 fluorescent retrofit bulbs from LEDD in the Hall building’s fourth floor staircase. These lights have comparable lighting and colour to existing fluorescent lights on the lower floors.

“To date, these lights have performed flawlessly and are helping to reduce our energy consumption,” said Daniel Gauthier, one of the school’s engineers.

According to Bretchko, light and power consumption would be reduced by 55 per

cent. “If [the university] changes from the fluorescent lights to LEDD lights in all of their buildings, the cost will be returned in an estimated 2.1 years, which is where the $11 million comes from.”

Bretchko is also pushing for student involvement. He said LEDD would create inter nship positions for students, if his project is approved. According to Bretchko, students would help with the maintenance of the lights. If a light burns out or needs replacing, a student will be

Bretchko says his lights reduce consumption by 55 per cent.

Photo by Simon-Benoît Bretchko.

trained to repair it, to avoid the cost of a handyman and to increase efficiency.

“My role is to find new clients and small enterprises to present our lights,” said Sofiane Maret, an intern at LEDD.“I chose this because there is opportunity for work after and the company is doing something for the environment.”

In recent years, Bretchko has hired four Concordia students as interns, and plans to continue involving them, as well as international students.

The lights used by LEDD are sustainable and less expensive.

Photo by Elizabeth Spinozzi.

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theconcordian

APRIL 9, 2019

PROTEST

ConU inaction prompts students to protest Students demand a standalone policy on sexual violence and misconduct

MIA ANHOURY NEWS EDITOR Many Concordia students are unhappy with the way the university has handled sexual misconduct complaints. So much so that students will be protesting this Friday in front of the administration building to demonstrate against Concordia’s inaction.

Gaby Novoa, one of the organizers of the demonstration, said it’s important to unite in support of survivors of sexual violence. “The administration has demonstrated that they are not interested in listening to students—we are protesting to make sure that our campaign for a survivor-centric policy is heard, and recognized as urgent and essential,” said Novoa.

According to Bill 151: An Act to prevent and fight sexual violence in higher education institutions, universities must have a standalone policy. Although Concordia has repeatedly said its current policy is a standalone one; it refers to the academic code of conduct and the various collective agreements and contracts with faculty regarding the appropriate procedures for filing and responding to a complaint.

“It’s really hard to read if you’re a survivor going through this process,” said Margot Berner, one of the demonstration’s organizers. The current policy,

according to Berner, “really cements that gap between faculty and student because they are held to different standards and they have different protections under these policies.”

Although the university’s Standing Committee on Sexual Misconduct and Sexual Violence has been holding community conversations to hear feedback from the students, Berner said they haven’t been heard . St udents have even presented the committee with an

extensive document outlining the issues they perceived in the current policy and how to mend them.

For Berner, the protest is a “response to the administration being ver y focused on PR and not really focused on making actual changes to their policy.” She added “there’s been no action, there’s been no assurances, there’s no concrete timeline we can hold them accountable to and it’s mostly been institutional gaslighting.”

Graphic by Ana Bilokin.

The students are demanding a standalone policy on sexual violence, a concrete action plan with timelines to respond to student recommendations and that Concordia lobby the Quebec government to change its privacy laws.

Per Quebec’s privacy laws, educational institutions cannot reveal the result of an internal investigation to the public nor to the complainant. “As a university, they have a lot of power, and a lot of pull, and they have a lot of friends in government,” said Berner.

“Even just making these demands public and working towards this step-by-step is something they can do.”

Berner said the universit y's been dismissive of the students’ request at communit y conver s at i on , going as far as changing the format of the community conversations. Instead of the initial back-and-forth conversations students were able to have, the sessions were changed to a presentation and a controlled question period. “If they are going to ignore our voices, we’re going to get a lot louder,” said Berner.

Diana Gerasimov, another organizer of the protest, said “I think we, ascurrent students within the current sexual violence climate at Concordia, have a greater responsibility to persevere with our aim for policy changes to be seen as high-priority.”

COMMUNITY

Intersectionality within mental health Student association discusses asking for help in the black community

SASHA TEMAN CONTRIBUTOR Concordia’s very own ACSioN Network— which stands for African and Caribbean Synergic Interorganizational Network— hosted a mental health awareness event on Friday. ACSioN is an umbrella association within the black diaspora at Concordia along with the Caribbean Student Union, Haitian Students’ Association and the African Students’ Association of Concordia.

Tetdra Providence, a linguistics major and the president of ACSioN Concordia, said the objective is to beat the stigma surrounding mental health in black communities.

“For many of us, be it Caribbean and African backgrounds, it’s sort of a cultural thing where the way our families respond to issues of mental health makes it seem like an excuse,” said Providence. “It’s not normal within our culture, it’s just not approached the same way as it is in, say, North American culture for whites. It’s a thing that historically has been that way, and there hasn’t been the most interest or input in terms of changing it into something better.”

Providence hopes that by hosting these events, students from black communities will want to speak up about issues that are bothering them. Many clubs at Concordia such as BIPOC hold mental health awareness events all the time, but a lot of

people are scared of stepping foot into a room where it’s being discussed, according to Providence.

Providence said that often times, people fear what others think of them, assuming that because they attend these events, they must have a mental health issue or need some type of support. She added that people also fear they will be treated differently once they speak up about their mental health issues. “ Ever yone, not ju st in t he blac k community, is sheltered about mental health,” said Providence.

To facilitate the process, Providence set up an anonymous link where attendees were able to ask questions prior to the meeting. In addition, two of the three guests were health professionals from the black community, a nurse and a psychologist.

“A lot of people don’t want to see a therapist if that therapist can’t understand their background difficulties, so we search and try to find people who are black who can come and directly inform our audience,” Providence said.

Andie Franceska Franklin, the assistant outreach coordinator for ACSioN, said the

ACSioN is an umbrella association within the black diaspora at Concordia.

Photo by Gabe Chevalier.

event raised the issue of mental health awareness in black communities being linked to religion and poverty.

“In black communities, they don’t see it as a real issue, they tell you to turn to the bible or if you have some kind of mental issue, they blame it directly on the devil,” said Franklin.

“It’s big on religion.”

As a culture, there is a larger concern with what is immediate. According to the World Health Organization, socioeconomic status is largely linked to mental health, given that people who are impoverished, homeless or have substance abuse problems are at a higher risk for mental illnesses.

“Financially, it’s a lot of money to seek mental help,” said Franklin. “A lot of it has to do with income, too. If you’re living in an impoverished neighbourhood or a lower-class community, you don’t have time to be focusing on mental health, instead we’re going to focus on things that we can do now.”

According to Mental Health America, people need to be more conscious of the fact that issues such as racism and oppression continue to have a major impact on the mental health of those in the black community.

More information about ACSioN can be found on their website. A list of mental health services can be found on Concordia’s website.

life

LIFE EDITOR /// life@theconcordian.com ALEX HUTCHINS ( @alexhutchinns96)

CONFERENCE

Artificial Intelligence as an agent of change AI and human rights forum included speakers from across the world

The Human Rights and AI Forum was held on April 5 at Concordia’s 4th Space. Photo by Hannah Ewen.

KAYLA-MARIE TURRICIANO COPY EDITOR On April 5, the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS) hosted the Human Rights and A r t i f i c i a l In t e l l i g e n c e Fo r u m i n Concordia’s 4th Space.

“Because we’ve done some work with Global Affairs Canada, the Dutch Foreign Ministry, and worked directly with different companies, we thought ‘let’s try to get a discussion going,’” said Kyle Matthews, MIGS’s executive director, about the event.

Panelists from across the globe, some of whom Skyped in remotely, convened to give their expertise on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology with regards to human rights in different scopes.

“I’m happy we’ve generated discussions, that we’re connecting students and researchers of Concordia to practitioners in private sectors and in government,” said Matthews. “MIGS works on cutting edge issues with human rights and global affairs.

We see, because Montreal is becoming the AI centre of the world, that there’s a unique opportunity for us to play a part in elevating the human rights discussion on a whole set of issues and conflicts.”

TROLL PATROL: FIGHTING ABUSE AGAINST WOMEN ON TWITTER From L on d on , Tany a O 'C ar ro ll , director of Amnesty Tech at Amnesty International, spoke about the innovation of AI in researching and crowdsourcing to enforce human rights.

Amnesty Tech’s Troll Patrol was a language decoding program that filtered

hate speech towards female journalists and politicians on Twitter. The AI found instances ranging from sexism and racism, homophobia and Islamophobia, and more, with the majority aimed at women in minority groups.

The AI worked in tandem with volunteer human decoders, whom O’Carroll said are an important part of the loop. O’Carroll explained how the issue isn’t that Twitter doesn’t have a terms of abuse policy—it does, and it’s called “The Twitter Rules.”

The issue is they don't have enough moderators, which O’Carroll called their “business decision.”

The AI accurately predicted and identified only 52 per cent of abusive content on Twitter. O’Carroll acknowledged that, while this isn’t perfect, it’s valuable in challenging the data and bringing change to human rights issues on a large scale.

EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR WITH A HUMAN-CENTRIC APPROACH During Enzo Maria Le Fevre Cervini’s panel, the major topic was governance.

Le Fevre Cervini works with emerging technologies and international relations for the Agency for Digital Italy.

Le Fevre Cervini said the fourth revolution of AI is based on data gathered from the public sector, which emphasizes the need to focus on the quality and the quantity of data. The ethical dimensions should be less about the technology and more about its product—there needs to be a reassessment of AI as technology that can play a pivotal role in bridging the gap between parts of society.

Prometea, an AI software, quickly processes legal complaints at the DA’s office in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The complaints are compared to similar cases and the accused is either appointed a judicial hearing or not, according to the results. With just the DA computer system, it could take someone 30 minutes to get through 15 documents. With Prometea, all documents in the system are processed in two minutes.

“Technology is a major agent of change,” said Le Fevre Cervini, which is why he hopes governance of AI will change to allow the opportunity for technology to be more human-centred and widely available.

ETHICS AND AI “There’s an assumption that AI will be smarter than humans, but they’re just good at narrow tasks,” said Mirka Snyder Caron, an associate at the Montreal AI Ethics Institute.

During her panel, Snyder Caron spoke about behaviour nudging, such as those little reply boxes at the bottom of an email on your Gmail account. While it may be easy, it’s “terribly convenient” because you’re just recycling what you’ve already done—the prompts are based on general replies and your previous emails.

Snyder Caron emphasized that it's important to remember that AI systems are still just machines that “can be fooled” or “experience confusion.” She gave an example of an AI system that was unable to identify a stop sign covered in graffiti or one with squares concealing part of the word so it didn’t stop.

“Machine learning can adopt status quo based on patterns and classifications because of biases,” said Snyder Caron. To avoid problems such as discrimination, there needs to be increased diversity at the beginning of the AI process. For example, having a diversity of people inputting data could remove a layer of biases.

BIAS, FEMINISM AND THE CAMPAIGN TO STOP KILLER ROBOTS Erin Hunt, a humanitarian disarmament expert and program manager at Mines Action Canada, spoke about the darker side of AI—the dangers, in particular, of autonomous weapons.

With regards to autonomous weapons, aka Killer Robots, Hunt asked: “How are we sure they won’t distinguish atypical behavior?” Because they sometimes can’t distinguish between civilians and combatants, they don’t conform to human rights laws.

Hunt spoke about how biases lead to mistakes, and presented an example of a study of AI identification where 34.7 per cent of dark-skinned women were identified as men. Some AI target people that shouldn’t be targeted, such as people with disabilities. For example, there are regions of the world where people don’t have access to prosthetic limbs and use wood or metal as substitutes. This could be picked up by the AI as a rifle, thus having failed its job.

Technical difficulties with Skype during the panel further enforced Hunt’s point that if we can’t get a simple call from Ottawa to go through, we shouldn’t have autonomous weapons.

8

theconcordian

APRIL 9, 2019

COMPETITION

Shooting for the stars

Space Concordia aims to launch first civilian liquid-propelled rocket

Letter from Morocco Keeping up with friends while abroad VIRGINIE ANN CONTRIBUTOR

From left: Juan Sebastian Prieto, Oleg Khalimonov, Anania Yeghikian, Camille Bernier-Tremblay, Matthieu Hoang-Cao, Kevin Bolusi, Olivier D'Angelo at Spaceport America after recovering their rocket.

MONICA MATIN CONTRIBUTOR The rocketry division of Space Concordia is participating in the Base 11 Space Challenge, a $1 million race to develop the world’s first civilian liquid-propelled rocket to go to space.

Since its inception in 2010, Space Concordia has won several national and international competitions, including two first-place prizes at the Spaceport America Cup in 2018. The student society consists of over 200 students from various academic fields who are separated into the spacecraft, robotics and rocketry subdivisions. Today, the rocketry division is taking on its biggest challenge yet: going to space.

“No student group has ever succeeded in what we are trying to do,” said Hannah Jack Halcro, president of Space Concordia. “There's no accounting for just how completely above and beyond the rocketry division is going with the space rocket project. Very little of what we do at Space Concordia is covered in our courses. The other 90 per cent is willpower, teamwork and good research.”

The Base 11 Space Challenge is a competition that encourages students to be the first to design, build and launch a

liquid-propelled rocket to an altitude of 100 kilometres. This altitude is referred to as the Karman line, which represents the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space. Schools across North America are competing for the chance to make history and win $1 million in prize money. If Space Concordia is successful, they will have built the most powerful amateur rocket motor in history.

“The dream was always to get to space,” said Rocketry Lead Oleg Khalimonov. “So we said, ‘Fuck the competitions. We’re going to do this; we’re going to build this rocket and we’re going to go to space.’

That’s why we decided, for the first time, to not enter into any other competitions, drop all side projects, and just consolidate all of our efforts and work very, very, very hard on this one crazy task.”

The first phase of the competition recently passed in March. Students produced a document of their designs for the rocket, its safety plan, as well as an outreach and diversity strategy.

Space Concordia students are currently in the testing phase. They have built parts of the rocket and are preparing to test their engines.

“We’re taking this competition exceptionally seriously,” said Khalimonov.

“We’re working night and day. […] The

preliminary design review is basically a summary of all the work we’ve done to date on the rocket put into one big document. I’m proud to say it’s one of the most impressive documents I’ve ever worked on. It’s about 600 pages.”

The most prominent challenge the group faces is their lack of funding.

Space Concordia is financed through sponsorships and donations. However, even a fraction of the project can add up to thousands of dollars.

“Imagine if the Apollo missions had a budget smaller than buying a house,” said Halcro. “Everything we are doing is so much bigger now, and our growth is so fast that our sponsorship team is having a hard time keeping up.”

Despite the obstacles they face, Space Concordia students are hopeful and determined to accomplish this milestone feat.

The competition is the biggest challenge the rocketry division has ever taken on, and the team is working hard to achieve their longtime goal of launching a rocket to the edge of space.

“It’s insanely difficult, but you do these things because they are difficult,” said Khalimonov. “If you don’t think you can win, what’s the point in trying?”

Photos courtesy of Oleg Khalimonov

Space Concordia is participating in the Base 11 Space Challenge, to develop the world’s first civilian liquid-propelled rocket destined for space.

Dear Katy, There is so much I wish I could write to you—but where do I even start? I know it’s my fault for not taking the time to write to you more often. I’ve been busy trying to absorb all the tomorrows filled with even more stories than the yesterdays. But as I sit in a rattling bus taking me from Marrakesh deep into the Atlas Mountains—where I plan to wander in Amazigh villages—my thoughts run wild and I feel the need to write to you.

The landscape is truly unbelievable. It’s a mix of infinite mountain peaks and barren valleys. The sun heats up the bus, and I keep exchanging sighs of desperation with others who are clearly more patient and used to this weather. Yet, they’re amused to see me, this young woman traveling alone. It seems as though my every move is meticulously tracked, or maybe I’m just self-absorbed.

I stumble through discussions, trying to squeeze in the few words of Morocco's Arabic dialect, Darija, that I’ve learned here and there. As I travel through the north, I feel as though I only catch a glimpse of people's lives: men far away guiding their flocks of sheep and kids begging as they reach out to the bus windows. Then the road turns, and the kids are replaced with a view of the imposing ksour, an ancient mud and clay village. While the remaining castles have been wrecked by time, they are architectural masterpieces in my eyes. These images feel surreal, as though from a movie that I will never get to view entirely.

While I’m escaping the calmness of Rabat to take a break from my studies, I can’t help but think about what I’ve learned here. There’s something really overwhelming—and powerful—about witnessing the extent of class disparity, colonial repercussions, and developmental challenges—realities I’ve only encountered surrounded by four walls in an air-conditioned classroom. While on my way to Marrakesh a few days ago, when I looked away from the window, even for a minute, the metallic slums transformed into unblemished, renovated buildings.

The two worlds are so disconnected from each other that the bridges—both old and new—connecting them feel strangely simple. The disparity became even clearer to me as I witnessed an old shepherd wearing a brown djellaba—the traditional robe—slowly crossing the road with his sheep, while an expensive-looking sports car zoomed by.

Morocco's inconsistent realities are indisputable. La calèche d’un bord, et le pétrole de l’autre.

I’m starting to see a paradoxical world here in Morocco, where values clash with beliefs and actions. Sometimes, men welcome me, feed me and discuss politics and religion with me, while their own mothers and daughters sit quietly without access to education nor the need for it, according to those same men. I am allowed to do and say as I please, but I’m shown the charming side of a place whose people are secretly choking from the inside out.

My foreign naivety is entirely gone now, and I am very grateful for it. I have a feeling this journey will change my stance towards this asymmetric country.

I hope the winter isn’t too harsh on you.

Sincerely yours, Virginie P.S. You know that night... I did get on the back of that stranger’s motorcycle in Marrakesh. Ha! Graphic by @sundaemorningcoffee

arts

Happening in and around the White Cube this week…

ARTS EDITOR /// arts@theconcordian.com CHLOË LALONDE

FEATURE

How student-artists perceive one garment From globalization to self care, the shirt covers it all

CHLOË LALONDE | ARTS EDITOR

30X150 WOMEN ARTISTS AND ARCHITECTS FILM FESTIVAL In collaboration with the Canadian Women Artists History Initiative and the Atwater Library’s Digital Literacy Program, students registered in ARTH 381, Feminism & Art History, have made 30 short films highlighting Canada’s female artists and architects. Each film is 150 seconds long and includes interview testimony from art historians and fans of the artists, as well as a general overview of their lives and works.

WHERE: MB-9.EFG WHEN: April 9 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.

Close up of Elisabeth Perrault’s untitled piece. Photo courtesy of the VAV Gallery.

CHLOË LALONDE ARTS EDITOR From FASA grants for individualized projects, to student run exhibitions at the VAV Gallery and the Art Matters festival, Concordia fine arts students are given many opportunities to showcase their work annually. Student work of all mediums, and touching upon a broad range of issues is included; nothing is left unaccounted for.

A m ong t he s e are t he wor k s of Elisabeth Perrault, Petro Psillos and Camille Charbonneau, student artists who work in a variety of mediums but share some common political and material ground.

These three student artists have used shirts as the medium for their messages.

Perrault’s untitled piece, exhibited during Relics.jpeg, at the VAV Gallery from Oct. 1 to 19, is a very large button-down shirt with printed motifs, made entirely by hand. The exhibition was curated based on material engagement according to the VAV’s curatorial statement, “relating to one another in their physicality and their ingenuity in the exploration of materials.”

Perrault's work merged her skills in textile, fibre and design with screen printing processes to summarise the history of labour exploitation in the textile and fashion industries. “The image is made up of a young American girl in the 1900s. Through her, we can perceive actors exploited in their workforce,” said Perrault. “A shirt is a universal garment that most people have at home. A unisex garment that has no identifiable identity. It's a reminder of how our everyday clothes are made.”

“The transparency of the material is for emphasis of the voluntary blindness of our society in the face of this ethical problem,” the artist said. Perrault’s design, choice of fabric, buttons and screen printed image encourage consumers to divest from fast

fashion, reflecting the past and present of the clothing industry.

Similarly, painting and drawing student, Petro Psillos, created another large t-shirt made out of smaller, identical ones.

“War (1991) is part of an ongoing series of authority-related t-shirt installations and sculptures,” said Psillos, who sewed four promotional t-shirts worn by Cineplex employees (himself included), to depict Ricardo Trogi’s recent film, 1991.

“Because I work at Cineplex Laval, I had to wear this shirt as part of my uniform for a month straight,” explained the artist. “During that time, the shirt got butter stains, popcorn oil stains, sweat, tears, rips... I started to think about how the employees of the cinema behave like a community, and how we’re all working together towards the end-goal of a corporation, but also developing skills and techniques, relationships and habits.”

Both Perrault and Psillos’s pieces critique contemporary consumption and labour exploitation by using the shirt as a medium.

“Since we look all the same wearing the same t-shirts, we are easy to group as one entity. To the outside customers [...] we look all the same, without personality, not individual, not unique.” said Psillos.

His work—exhibited as part of Art Matters during Sites of Embodied Silence at the VAV Gallery—uses the relatability of the shirt to confront viewers, increasing the typical size of the garment to create a wall, a physical obstacle to navigate in the gallery space.

For War (1991), Psillos intended to connect the exchange between business and culture as a testament to Quebec’s shrinking national identity. He saw this as a parallel to the way Cineplex and other corporations impose authority over their employees, especially through language control within immigrant communities enforced by Bill 101 and 115. “In both cases, I am stripped of my individuality and expected to submit to another person’s perspective,” said the artist.

Through the film it represents, to its colour and wear, War (1991) contains powerful references to escapism, globalization and bloodshed. Buttery popcorn stains allude to the dispute of oil and its production, and the size and name of the piece refer to the then recent demolition of the Berlin wall.

As a global symbol, the shirt can also be intensely personalized. Camille Charbonneau’s performance piece, 1 Corinthians 6:19, conceives the body as something that is borrowed, to be confined to a gender binary, and something to be hidden.

The piece, exhibited during Art Matters, consists of garments lined with beads.

“While worn, the beaded sentence ‘YOUR BODY IS A TEMPLE’ found in the shirt, on the in-sole of the shoes, and inside the knees of the pants is imprinted on the skin through pressure,” explained Charbonneau.

“The use of the shirt, and of the other pieces of clothing in the project, stand as a symbol of oppression [...] the emphasis put on the body being ‘a’ temple instead of ‘your’ temple limits someone's well-being to a singular way of applying care to a body, and for gender non-conforming individuals, that care involves removing the shirt, and letting the wounds heal.”

The biblical passage 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 reads, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honour God with your bodies.”

Physical care, clothing restrictions and overall behavior enforced by social norms compiled with critiques on globalization, consumption, violence and politics are embedded in these artists’ respective works. As an often mundane object, the shirt embodies all of this, and proves to be a symbol of Concordia’s 2018-19 art scene.

ON THE EDGE Featuring various printmaking and collage works by Alex Guèvremont, Catherine Desroches, Austin Henderson and Sandrine Haineault, On the edge is “a poetic walk across the abstraction and the figurative space.” Mouseprint Gallery, founded in 2008 by Patrick Visentin, technician and professor of print media at Concordia, is an exhibition space that showcases artwork from both established and emerging artists.

Where: Mouseprint Gallery (EV-9.416) When: Now until April 12 Finissage on April 9 at 4 p.m.

INEFFABLE Ineffable is a product of the Fine Arts Reading Room (FARR) winter residency, culminating to students’ research in playwriting and dramaturgy.

According to the Facebook event page, Sue E. and Ollie V. will be reading the latest version of their script, which examines silence in the lives of two queer, African and Caribbean people.

The same source states that, “within this liminal space, Pharah and Mars remember their youth together in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal. To them, this was an island of sexuality and creativity; an island removed from their families overseas and encased in silence.”

Where: EV Junction, EV-2.785 When: April 12 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

EXTERNAL MEMORY With pieces ranging from video and performance art to sound, electronic arts and virtual reality, External Memory showcases the Intermedia Cyberarts (IMCA) 400 graduating student exhibition. Open for one night only, 16 students question the concept of the “external memory,” how it affects the environment and exists in our recollections. As described on the Facebook event page, “traces of our experiences can reside on a hard drive, in an object, on the internet, or in the mind of someone else. Smells, sounds, movements, tastes and sights have the potential to provoke the resurgence of buried thoughts, emotions, and impulses.”

Where: Eastern Bloc, 7240 Clark St. When: Vernissage and performances on April 12 at 6:30 p.m.

Graphic by Ana Bilokin.

10 theconcordian

APRIL 9, 2019

COVER STORY

Making theatre accessible for all Autodidactic Concordia Theatre challenges typical structures of theatre through total inclusivity DAISY DUNCAN ASSISTANT ARTS EDITOR How can the arts become more accessible? The Autodidacts Concordia Theatre (ACT) club works to remove hierarchy in theatre and prove that it is truly for everyone.

ACT was started in 2016, when a group of students arrived at Concordia, and couldn’t find anything doing what the club hoped to do—provide theatre for all, no experience needed. The founders, Alexander Luiz Cruz, Dexter John Lavery-Callender, Matias Rittatore, and Zoë Bujold, met at Dawson College, where they participated in a project similar to ACT. This provided a safe, comfortable and inclusive space for those who were interested in theatre, but not studying it.

The club provides a space for community and connection, promoting shared passions for theatre, regardless of background or experience. ACT provides an alternative space for people to be creative and perform theatrically, unlike more intensive, hierarchical performance environments.

Here, the competitive nature sometimes found in the arts is removed, and everyone is given an equal opportunity to perform and participate.

ACT holds performance workshops the fall semester, and works on a production during winter semester. The group funds itself through CSU grants and by holding

FILM REVIEW

events like bake sales, to cover costs of location and materials.

Participants, however, are not required to pay to take part in ACT—it is truly open to all. As for ticket sales during the run of the annual show, all proceeds go to the Theresa Foundation, a charity based in Montreal, that supports families of AIDS victims in Mnjale, Malawi.

In the workshops, participants practice a variety of styles and techniques, including improv, scene studies and monologues.

In the winter production, auditions are open to the public, and not only for acting roles—the club also auditions for writers, directors and people working behind the scenes.

The club is currently working on their annual winter semester production, titled Only Human. This is ACT’s biggest The club is currently working production yet, as the club has steadily grown over its three years. Photo by Hannah Ewen. on their annual winter semester production, Only Human . This is ACT’s than the comedies and dramas that the remain the core of the club, but also hope biggest production yet. Only Human centers club has presented in the past. that in coming years, ACT will continue As the founding members and exec- to grow, through innovating, pushing around the character of a former child star, now grown up and hosting a talk utive team graduate from Concordia in and challenging itself within the realm show. The show is focused on demonic coming years, and move on from ACT, of theatre. possession, with three guests sharing they have hopes for the future of the Only Human will be showing from their respective, alleged experiences club. “Essentially, our goal is to create a May 1 to 4 at the Mainline Theatre, with possession. At its core, as Cruz space for people who don’t necessarily located at 3997 St. Laurent Blvd. The and Rittatore shared, the play navigates have any experience to try theatre. The club is open to the public, and will be themes of desire and how far one would club provides some sense of community hosting workshops in fall 2019. Find out go to get what they want. This production and some experience,” explained Cruz more about the club on their Facebook is more within the genre of horror, rather and Rittatore. The founders want this to group, The ACT Club.

Review: The Lower Plateau

How Montreal local and McGill graduate Liz Singh turned her life into a film KATELYN THOMAS COPY EDITOR Liz Singh spent nearly half a decade working on her first film, The Lower Plateau, which was released in 2018.

Made on a $19,000 production budget using just one camera and a boom mic, the film was Singh’s way of illustrating the many facets of her own life in the lower Plateau as an emerging artist.

Based in Montreal, Singh obtained her bachelor’s degree in cultural studies at McGill in 2006, and went on to study film and television production at the University of Southern California.

Singh’s inspiration in pursuing this venture arose from a lack of interest in other opportunities. “I was looking for a project, and I couldn’t find anything I wanted to work on, so I made my own,” she said. Filmed in Montreal, the cast and crew consisted of about 50 people, many of whom had never worked on a movie set before. For a bunch of first-timers, the end result is quite impressive.

The Lower Plateau follows a 20-something named Jaine, who seems to be idling in uncertainty as to where to take her life. In an experience that is all too familiar to the creatively-adept young adult, she navigates toxic relationships, unemployment and a routine that seems tantalizing in its swift ability to direct her attention back to both.

A few solid friendships pull Jaine the parallels bet ween her and Jaine T h o u g h T h e L o we r P l a te a u i s a through the worst of times, though each are clear, despite one poignant detail. noticeable first attempt a full-length bond bears its own set of scraps. Singh If Jaine is a version of Singh in any film, if it’s any preview of what Singh attributes the personalities of some of capacity, I have reason to believe that and the rest of her crew are capable of the supporting characters to her real-life she represents a Singh of the past. The under a tight budget, I’m looking forward companions. “I think probably every beaming woman who stood before me to whatever’s next. character that you write is a facet of to eagerly discuss the details of her The Lower Plateau was screened on yourself, and then mixed in with bits debut film seems to have surmounted April 7 at Transparent Film Festival in and pieces of people you know,” she a period of uncertainty and poured her New York City, and will be available said. “I wanted it to feel like my life in heart and soul into her art. The result is online next month as part of the Liftthe lower Plateau; a lot of people I know, content as beautiful as it is sad.

Off Sessions. this is how we’re living, sort of working in bars and working at night, doing multiple gigs and making art on the side.”

Right now, Singh and co. are working on a few web series, one of which may involve “a modern take on superheroes,” Singh said. Through her production company, D é p a n n e u r F i l m s— which was established in 2014 under the name Cinéma La Vox—Singh has also put out a web series that resembles The Lower Plateau , called Bonjour Hi. In listening to Singh describe her past as well as her ambitions, The Lower Plateau follows Jaine, played by director and producer Liz Singh, as she navigates obstacles life throws at her.

music

MUSIC EDITOR /// music@theconcordian.com SIMON NEW

SHOW REVIEW

Uncle Acid in the Graveyard The Dea d b eats and Graveyard f l ood Coron a w it h s moke

HUNTER WALWASKI STAFF WRITER Long hair. Leather. A fascination with the occult. House lights dim as a smokey haze rises. Someone spills beer on your shoe. Riff-driven sonic psychedelia bounces from wall to wall, very noticeably travelling through your ear canals on its supersonic yet sluggish coma-inducing journey. Welcome to the stoner rock concert.

Local consumers of all stoner-related sounds converged at the Corona Theatre this past Friday for an evening of European psychedelic madness. Gothenburg hardrock outfit Graveyard delivered an eclectic show, assisted by British act Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats and English alternative-rock openers Demob Happy.

The timing was nothing short of perfect.

With Trudeau’s recent green legalization still fresh to the city, its effect on the stoner rock culture could be seen in full force that night. From the sea of synchronized bobbing heads to the venue’s questionable air quality, this concert was very much a celebration of Canadian freedom and local drug culture. While the signs said to keep

SHOW REVIEW

Graveyard building up their groove to a shaking climax. Photo by Hunter Walwaski.

it nine meters from the door, I’m not sure people understood that didn’t mean towards the venue’s interior.

While Demob Happy’s daunting flavour of alternative rock served as a worthy competitor to Graveyard and Uncle Acid’s massive sounds, unfortunately they served only as an enjoyable prelude. It wasn’t a fair competition though, as with stoner rock, volume often triumphs over quality, and we all know that the sound guys turn the volume up a notch on the soundboard each time another band takes the stage.

Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats conquered with their grooving southern/desert rock sound. Despite sounding fairly similar to contemporary acts such as Kyuss and Orange Goblin, with Black Sabbath influence oozing out of their performance, Uncle Acid’s constantly-rumbling tone was used to full effect during this show. All of their songs seem to be built around these groovy riffs that could entertain on repeat.

Unfortunately, the keyboardist in charge of delivering the band’s ominous vibe could not be heard over the incessant guitar

riffs and percussion hits, rendering him fairly useless. It’s a shame too, as it looks like they brought in a session keyboardist for this tour.

While Uncle Acid and his rag-tag gang of long-haired bandits engaged in ceremoniously worshipping the riff for a little over an hour, Graveyard succeeded with longer song compositions, all ultimately detonating at their well-teased conclusions. Starting at a mellow pace, building up through song progression, and finally leading to an intense sonic culmination seems to be Graveyard’s bread and butter formula.

The general rule is that live performances usually sound better than songs in-studio, especially with how loud these bands get.

Graveyard was no exception. It was one of those incrementally-surprising evenings.

I haven’t been to a show in a few months, so the familiar air and concert atmosphere got me pumped up during Demob Happy’s performance. Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats followed suit; most people seemed to be enthralled in the group’s incessant riffing.

I thought that was the night topper, but of course Graveyard stole the show in momentous fashion. This is not a tour to miss, and I don’t even smoke. Imagine what a stoner would say.

FKA Earl Sweatshirt

Rapper Thebe Kgositsile tries to move past his pseudonym and his old music SIMON NEW MUSIC EDITOR “Mask off, mask on, we trick-ortreatin' / back off, stand-offish and anemic.” These lines broke the four-year gap between Thebe Kgositsile, known as Earl Sweatshirt’s 2015 album I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside and his most recent Some Rap Songs. The grim imagery, disjointed syntax and nine-syllable close rhyme are tools of Kgositsile’s trade.

With his latest album and tour, Kgositsile has tried to distance himself from Earl Sweatshirt, the moniker that symbolized his come-up in 2010 alongside Odd Future. At 16, Kgositsile was spitting horrorcore bars about knocking blunt ashes into the caskets of catholics. His lyrics were as brash and boorish as they were vivid and dense, with a monotone that magnified their intricacies. After his mother sent him to a reform school in Samoa for acting out, he came back to release three of the best rap albums of the decade. As Kgositsile grew up, his maturity came with reclusion. Once a foul-mouthed delinquent, he wrestled with depression and his music became more lucid and introspective.

Some Rap Songs deals with the death of his father in January of last year, who was a lauded South African poet and absent during Kgositsile’s childhood. The ensuing album is predictably dark, but where I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside was brooding and focused, Kgositsile’s footing on Some Rap Songs is unsure.

The album cover is a blurred closeup of his face, and much of the tape has him sorting through wreckage and piecing his story together. His bars come across as poetic, and that’s because they’re intended to be: “It’s really dense. It can be overwhelming and have an air of exclusivity to it, a pompousness that I feel is only balanced out by me being like, I know what I’m doing to you. So I’ma sprint for you. I’ma act like your time is valuable,” Kgositsile told writer Sheldon Pearce.

Kgositsile entered stage in a flannel, sweats and Air Force 1’s.

His lyrics rang out with a force like flowing water, these were his truths.

He moved slowly, like a wise elder and had no time for the extraneous.

Every word hit even harder than on the album and there was no sign of backing vocals. He took playful jabs at the audience, almost trying

to calm them down. I overheard a conversation about how a girl was switching lockers to be next to her boyfriend. These were the kids that he had made fans as the best rapper in Odd Future. It felt like Kgositsile was a prophet that had grown up simultaneously with the crowd but not alongside them. He was telling tales of pain and tumult as well as a spectrum of fame and experience that were just beyond the audience’s grasp. As he shuffled from one side of the stage to the other, he would rap into the air and, as he glanced at the audience, would look away as if he couldn’t face them. It was powerful to see the struggles in his music manifested.

Kgositsile played consecutive songs from the new album, dipping into I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside, and hesitated to go back further in his catalog, even though tracks from 2013’s Doris had the crowd the loudest.

Kgositsile was evading a past that his fans haven’t let go of. Some Rap Songs is Kgositsile’s definitive album; it is unique in how excruciatingly personal it is. Hopefully as Kgositsile takes the mask of Earl Sweatshirt off, his fans will embrace the storied character of Thebe Kgositsile.

“I don’t wanna see no struggle hands for this,” said Kgositsile.

Photo by Simon New.

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theconcordian

APRIL 9, 2019

PROFILE

Everlasting love

Rayana Speede gets real about love in her multi-platformed art creation, Everlasting IMMANUEL MATTHEWS ASSISTANT MUSIC EDITOR Everlasting is the title of Rayana Speede’s upcoming EP and poetry book, but it’s also how she describes love, in all its forms.

The 23-year-old, an artist in every sense of the word, is preparing to release a unique project that demonstrates her wide range of talent.

While some choose to release music on Soundcloud, and others post poetry on blogs or websites, Speede decided she wanted to release a musical project and poetry book together as complementary works of art. The music will be available digitally, while the physical collection of poems will include QR codes, connecting the readers to corresponding songs.

Speede looks to redefine how love is discussed throughout art, using the creative passion she’s been developing since childhood. As a proud JamaicanCanadian, her culture at home was a natural but driving force in growing her love for music, as well as art in general.

“My family’s really ar tistic,” said Speede. “We’re a typical Jamaican family who loves music. We’d just be chilling in the living room, singing together, just for fun. That’s something we love to do as a family.”

Speede’s family is no stranger to talent, as a majority of her immediate relatives practice some form of ar t, whether that be singing, painting or poetry. Her uncle, Mello G, has even gained popularity throughout the city as an established reggae singer. All that aside, expectations were always the last thing on Speede’s mind, throughout the process of creating Everlasting, performing at local underground shows, and singing in her church choir. Her and her family’s faith, on the other hand, have been one of Speede’s greatest inspirations.

“I was raised, and live in a Christian household. That’s my faith as well,” Speede said.

While the Books of Psalms and Proverbs of the Bible inspired S p e e d e ’s w o r k , h e r beliefs also have a lasting impact on her mindset and how she views her career goals. “Faith really makes you redefine success, as well,” she said.

“It’s not about buying houses and flexing. I care about sharing joy and love.”

Speede hopes to use her art as a medium to convey her beliefs concerning love, especially those often ignored in mainstream media.

“I wasn’t in a relationship for a while, but Speede released her first EP, Love's Aftertaste, in 2016. Photo by Immanuel Matthews.

I had so much love in my life,” Speede said.

Cover art for Speede's upcoming EP and poetry book.

“I really wondered to myself, ‘Why In fall of last year, isn’t there a song I can listen to that’s Speede had the idea to catered to my mom, or to my dad, or begin Everlasting . to my sister?’” “ I n S e p t e m b e r, I For Speede, today’s media often fails started putting together to portray the true emotions that people different poems I had feel on a daily basis. She believes that written and was working flings and romantic love are not the on,” Speede said. “I really only forms of affection that should be wanted to make a book highlighted in art. with all of the poems I “In this project, you really go through had written. I also really what my view of love is, and how to wanted to release music. sustain all of its different kinds,” the Then I thought, ‘Why not artist said. “I can experience love for my just do both?’” mom, or for my nephews and nieces, all Now, Speede hopes in different ways.” to expand her audience Speede has been singing since she with the release of her was five, and writing poetry since the age poetry book alongside of 10. In 2016, she released her first EP, the EP, and believes in Love’s Aftertaste, after being selected to Everlasting ’s potential take part in a six-week artist residency to help create a dif ferent discourse I really hope this project opens those kinds of conversations.” program at Up Next studio in Montreal. around love.

Keep an eye out for her single, “Love The program spurred the creation of “I think it will open the doors for the four-track project, which features people to be open with each other, and is,” dropping on all music streaming soul-caressing R&B vocals, paired with talk about their feelings,” Speede said. platforms on April 19, and Everlasting , jazzy, laid-back instrumentals.

“It doesn’t always have to be romantic. set to be released mid-May.

Quickspins PHONTE

at his smoothest. The opener, “Can We,” is a gorgeous ode to a lazy day with a partner. It’s the most fleshed out idea on the project, and the longest track at four minutes. The other standout moment is a classic Phonte verse on the Kaytranada-produced closer, “Heard This One Before.” Pacific Time could have been an excellent R&B album, but its 10-minute length makes it feel inconsequential. Still, that opener is a must-add for your bedroom playlist.

KHALID

7.5/10 PACIFIC TIME EP

Foreign Exchange Music Phonte, a velvet voice and frontman of Little Brother, one of the most important underground rap groups of the 2000s gave fans a treat to get them to summer. Pacific Time is a four-track waterslide in the sunshine. While Phonte is known for his whip-smart bars and folding flows, he has always impressed with his R&B persona, and this tape has him singing

 TRIAL TRACK: Can We  STAR BAR: “'Cause life's a B when your E-Y-E's can't seize the intangibles / It's like stumbling and tumbling through a drum machine / So kids, read the Lin-Manuel / Miranda Rights, no plans tonight” - Phonte on Heard This One Before (feat. BOSCO & KAYTRANADA) - SIMON NEW, MUSIC EDITOR

“Paradise,” using his falsetto without overdoing it. Free Spirit begins with a couple mellow tracks before getting into the upbeat ones, like “Right Back,” which you’ll enjoy while driving in the car with the windows down. His songwriting is more personal, and covers his loneliness and tendency to get attached quickly. The album, however, is a well-weighted accumulation of his strengths as a storyteller and a singer; Khalid didn’t take many risks. It’s an overall summer banger you won’t regret listening to.

8.5/10 FREE SPIRIT

RCA Records

Khalid’s sophomore album is a 17-track compilation of his maturity, his rise to fame and his heartbreaks. He goes back to his R&B roots in urban beats after experimenting with reggaeton and pop instrumentation in his Suncity EP. If you thought Khalid couldn’t perfect his falsetto more than he already has, you were wrong. The 21-yearold displays more control than ever in “Alive” and

 TRIAL TRACK: Self  STAR BAR: “He knows I hear him cryin'/ Cryin' out for help /I don't know how to save him/ I can't even save myself / There's many people dyin' / I've always been afraid / Not that I'm scared of livin'/ I'm scared of feeling pain.” -Khalid on Self — MIA ANHOURY, NEWS EDITOR

sports

COLOUR COMMENTARY

SPORTS EDITOR /// sports@theconcordian.com NICHOLAS DI GIOVANNI ( @n_digiovanni)

WITH NICHOLAS DI GIOVANNI

FEATURE

Player tracking to be introduced Montreal company Sportlogiq teams up with NHL for new technology NICHOLAS DI GIOVANNI SPORTS EDITOR At the 1996 NHL All-Star Game in Boston, Fox and the NHL introduced a puck tracking system that superimposed glowing lights around the puck. When a player’s shot was strong, it glowed red; if it was weaker, it would be blue. Fans didn’t like it, and when Fox lost its NHL rights after the 1997-98 season, the glowing puck died with it.

Over twenty years later, the league reintroduced its new player tracking system at the 2019 All-Star Game. Next season, NHL fans will get to see these player tracking systems implemented in broadcasts for the first time, and a company from Montreal will help release the new technology.

Sportlogiq currently works with 27 NHL teams to track player movements on the ice. Their system uses an algorithm that tracks players through broadcast cameras, but the NHL will place sensors on players’ equipment and pucks.

“Player tracking includes where a player is on the ice, how fast they’re skating, and everything else to what they’re doing on the ice,” said Christopher Boucher, Sportlogiq’s director of hockey analytics and services. “What’s tracked is location of all players and every puck possession event that occurs. This allows us to have information on players and teams.”

Al t h o u g h B o u c h e r couldn’t go into more detail, Sportlogiq will be providing the optical solution for the NHL’s puck and player tracking technology next season. During the broadcast, fans will receive extra information about what’s happening on the ice.

“This can benefit fans in a few ways because, at the broadcast level, there will be more insights, such as the speed of players or speed of a shot,” Boucher said. “Then there will be more interesting stuff in terms of analytics. While a team is on the ice, we will be able to show the strength of one team over the other with a little widget on the screen.”

Like anything new, Boucher warns there will be pushback from fans, the same way Fox’s glowing puck was cast aside. The NHL and its broadcasters will go through a trial and error period next season to determine what fans prefer.

“There are broadcasters who have tried some stuff, and we’ve been involved too,” Boucher said. “That’s going to continue, and when they find something fans enjoy, they’ll run with it.”

Boucher added that younger fans will be more willing to accept the new technology, and that’s who they have to gear their product towards.

Graphic by Ana Bilokin.

“I don’t think [the pushback] is a question of mentality, but a question of being able to process more information more quickly,” Boucher added.

“My kids, as an example, they don’t just watch TV. They have the TV, their phone, and YouTube on. Younger kids can process more information a bit better, so they’ll have an appetite for it.”

Although advanced stats are on the rise, fans still prefer talking about the simple stats, such as goals and assists. But Boucher sees a future where fans talk about these advanced stats too.

“Obviously, the goals and assists, and [Connor] McDavid beating guys one-onone will always be the more important story,” Boucher said. “But once [player tracking systems] are there and digestible on screen, then people are going to start talking about it. It’s going to take some time.”

OBSCURE SPORTS

Roller hockey lacking popularity Playing the sport is the best way to improve at ice hockey

NICHOLAS DI GIOVANNI SPORTS EDITOR

summer, fall, and winter. The Ducks compete in tournaments across North America, and some of their players have played for other competKévin L’Heureux has played roller hockey itive teams in the United States and France. all over the world, including in Italy and L’Heureux played in France in 2011, and in China. When he plays in Montreal, he goes the United States with the Hartford Fireants for to Le Rinque in Town of Mont-Royal, the three years. He took his roller hockey career to a only rink that hosts indoor roller hockey in new level, however, with the Canadian national the city. team. L’Heureux played at the 2017 WRG World “Before Le Rinque [was built in 2017], we didn’t Skate Championships in China and the 2018 have a spot to train for roller hockey, but now World Inline Hockey Championships in Italy. we do,” L’Heureux said. “But the sport is not seen “It was an incredible experience—you enough; it’s not talked about, it’s just not known.” see how popular the sport is,” said L’Heureux L’Heureux plays defence for the Montreal about travelling abroad to play. “Around the Ducks in the highest level of amateur roller world, it’s growing in popularity, but here in hockey in the city. The Ducks play in the Montreal Quebec, it’s really hard to develop the sport.”

Roller Hockey League with four total teams, The defenceman says roller hockey isn’t with three seasons each year—one in the growing enough in Quebec because of the lack of space and resources.

L’Heureux (right) played for the Canadian national team in 2017.

L’Heureux also coaches Photo courtesy of Kévin L’Heureux. roller hockey to young kids once a week, but still admits he doesn’t have very many kids attending his practices.

“We’re trying to teach more kids because it’s the sport that most resembles ice hockey,” he said.

“The better you are at roller hockey, the better you will be at ice hockey.”

Despite the name similarities between ice and roller hockey, L’Heureux said there are many differences between the two sports.

Roller games are played on a surface of 164 by 82 feet (versus 200 by 85 in ice hockey), with four skaters on each team, plus a goalie.

The goalie also wears roller skates, which makes the position more challenging to play than in ice hockey, or even a ball hockey.

“When you skate, you have to push harder on your legs to go faster,” said L’Heureux about how the technical aspects of roller hockey are different than on ice. “You can’t take two strides then glide like on ice. Then what gives everyone trouble is stopping. When you do a hockey stop, your weight is on your front leg. But in roller hockey, it’s on the back leg, because if you do it with your front, for sure you’re going to break your ankle.”

With a four-on-four game in a smaller rink, roller hockey’s style of play is a vast contrast to ice hockey’s dump-and-chase, “hit whatever you see” mentality. Teams in roller hockey maintain possession as long as possible, and only give up the puck when they make a mistake. “There’s a lot of skating, and it’s all about positioning,” L’Heureux added. “It really is different from ice hockey.”

For players who pick up the sport for the first time, L’Heureux warns they need to have patience, because of its steep learning curve. “If you don’t give it time, you’re going to get discouraged,” L’Heureux said. “You can’t just say, ‘This is too hard for me, I’m going to play ball hockey instead.’”

Two years ago, when I started as the Sports Editor of The Concordian, I really didn’t know what to expect. I had just finished my first year in journalism and didn’t have much experience with handling a publication. I also didn’t know what it was like to write for a newspaper, which is a declining industry.

Two years later, as I’m writing my final Colour Commentary, I can safely say my experience in this role has been surreal, and I learned quite a bit while doing it. Sure, people don’t pick up physical newspapers as much, but we’re still trying to put our best content out there.

The biggest thing I learned was time management, and how to roll with the punches. I remember before my first issue in August 2017, I sat in front of my computer trying to figure out how to get everything done. When the stories I wanted in that first issue had setbacks, I panicked. I kept questioning how I would have my section ready in time or how I was supposed to do this for the rest of the year.

Each week during the first year, I learned how to deal with those problems.

A dozen issues in, I got the hang of it; I planned my content in advance, and always had stories prepared. That’s the challenge of working with a weekly newspaper—stories might be timely, but you need to get things done.

Having other student journalists write stories also taught me how to be patient and how to deal with people. I always felt like the writers and I were part of a sports section team, so I wanted to treat everyone properly.

It can be intimidating, especially for first-year students, to approach the student media, so I hope they felt welcomed.

Publishing a newspaper is a team effort, and I’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the best teammates anyone could ask for. I see how hard the other section editors work, making their pages look fantastic every week. Each editor brought a different style, but all together, the paper was second-to-none.

We definitely wouldn’t have had such fantastic teams the past two years without our Editor-in-Chiefs, Katya Teague then Maggie Hope, and our Managing Editors Alex Cole and Candice Pye. Of course, our Production Editor Loreanna Lastoria made everything look so great.

I want to thank Mackenzie Lad, Alex Hutchins, Kirubel Mehari, Hannah Ewen, and Gabe Chevalier for spending countless hours at games taking breathtaking photos. I wouldn’t have published anything without those. Without our copy editors the past two years—Valeria Cori-Manocchio, Katerina Gang, Kylee Ross, Rebecca Luger, Victoria Lewin, Katelyn Thomas, Juliet Booker, and Kayla-Marie Turriciano—our articles wouldn’t have been so easy to read. I also have to thank the copy team for making me a better writer.

The Concordian teams of 2017-18 and 2018-19 absolutely killed it, and I’m looking forward to what this paper will do in the future.

14 theconcordian

APRIL 9, 2019

Capturing the best of the Stingers Our photo team caught the emotion and action from this year's athletics season NICHOLAS DI GIOVANNI SPORTS EDITOR The 2018-19 Concordia Stingers athletic season has come to a close and The Concordian has captured most of what these student-athletes accomplished. The men’s rugby and basketball teams took home championships this year, while the women’s basketball team surprised everybody by qualifying for nationals. Our photo team followed the Stingers teams along the way and captured some of the best moments from this season.

The Stingers men’s hockey team won this year’s Corey Cup against the McGill Redmen, which left everyone happy. Photo by Hannah Ewen.

Fifth-year veterans Ricardo Monge and Garry Merisier celebrate their first and only title with the men’s basketball team. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.

The men’s rugby team celebrated their second-straight championship at home on Nov. 10. Photo by Hannah Ewen.

The emotional side

Philippe Hudon left the ice for the last time as a Stinger with the support from a fan. Photo by Hannah Ewen.

The men’s basketball team hold up their championship trophy. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.

APRIL 9, 2019

theconcordian

The action

Claudia Asselin takes a throw-in. Photo by Alex Hutchins.

The Stingers and the Sherbrooke Vert et Or jump for the ball in men’s rugby. Photo by Gabe Chevalier.

Syphax Djerroud goes for the ball in a men’s soccer game on Sept. 23.

Photo by Mackenzie Lad.

Forward Claudia Dubois scored six goals and nine assists this season.

Photo by Gabe Chevalier.

A Stingers defender tackles a Laval Rouge et Or player on Sept. 29.

Photo by Gabe Chevalier.

Behind the scenes

Players on the women’s hockey team line-up on the goalline prior to a game—as opposed to the blue line for men’s hockey. Photo by Gabe Chevalier.

Offensive lineman Maurice Simba, one of the top prospects in May’s CFL draft, talks with a patient at the Shriners Hospital. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.

Concordia’s cheerleading team made a return to football games this year.

Photo by Hannah Ewen.

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opinions OPINIONS EDITOR /// opinions@theconcordian.com SANIA MALIK

EDITORIAL

STM inspectors don’t need more power You’ve all probably heard the running joke about STM inspectors being failed police officers. It’s hard not to believe this when we see some of them strolling around metro stations, holding their batons and glaring at innocent travellers intimidatingly. Even though this joke implies that STM inspectors hold powers similar to SPVM officers, it’s important to note they don’t. And we at The Concordian think they shouldn’t be given more power than they already have.

On April 3, the STM board of directors passed a resolution saying it wants STM inspectors to be special constables, according to CBC. This means they’d need more than their current 14-week training. They’d also be allowed to access data that is kept for police officers, and they would become accountable to the Bureau of Independent Investigations.

As of now, STM inspectors have the power to ask for identification, issue fines for not paying the metro fare and restrain those who break the law until police officers arrive, according to the same source. But, funnily enough, one of the powers they don’t have is the power to use brutal violence to subdue someone who’s allegedly broken the law. We’d think otherwise, though, by looking at some STM inspectors’ history of unnecessary violence against alleged law-breakers.

Graphic by @sundaemorningcoffee

Just last month, a video circulated in which two STM inspectors aggressively attempted to detain a black man, 21-yearold Juliano Gray, who didn’t pay his metro fare. The video shows the inspectors on top of Gray at the Villa-Maria station. They swing their metal batons several times while Gray screams, “That hurts!” and “I stop!” in French. At one point, Gray’s head is near the oncoming train, and the officers still don’t let him get up. Gray eventually ran away from the inspectors and is now seeking justice with Montreal’s Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR).

Because of the violent incident, Gray said he sustained injuries that stopped

him from continuing his job as a part-time dishwasher, and that he is suffering from post-traumatic stress, according to the same source. CRARR is calling for an independent external inquiry into the situation, and for officials to possibly press charges against the inspectors.

We at The Concordian are shocked and disturbed by the STM inspectors’ use of violence to detain Gray. Just because someone doesn’t pay a $3.25 metro fare, doesn’t mean they deserve to be brutally beaten. It was unnecessary, excessive and damaging. We believe the inspectors must be held accountable for their actions.

There is already a history of abuse of power when it comes to STM inspectors— this video just proves how dangerous it could be to grant STM inspectors more police-like powers.

The STM Chairman of the Board of Directors Philippe Schnobb has said the goal of giving inspectors more power is to provide a “better customer experience” according to CBC. While the board doesn’t want to arm the inspectors, giving them more power would let them intervene when people complain about bothersome passengers.

We at The Concordian don’t think STM inspectors need to be given more power to provide a “better customer experience”—the metro is not a shopping mall, nor are we there for the sake of the experience. We just want to know that we are safe, and that our metro rides won’t be hindered by unnecessarily dangerous situations.

If one takes a look at other cases where STM inspectors have abused their authority, it’s hard to support the idea of giving them more power. Instead, perhaps their 14-week training should be extended, and the idea of de-escalating dangerous situations should be promoted.

We at The Concordian support the idea of STM inspectors using their voices before violence when it comes to dealing with problems.

IMMIGRATION

The missing bridge between two worlds One student’s thoughts on leaving Chile and entering Montreal’s diverse atmosphere

ESPERANZA TACCHI STAFF WRITER Moving to a different country often leads us to feel between places and cultures. I’m sure most of us who have come from a foreign land to study here at Concordia struggle to find that sense of belonging, whether our place is here, there or neither. It is easy to lose your sense of identity and feel lost, or like you have no sense of direction after your studies. Does this sound familiar to you? Because for me, it is a recurrent state of mind.

It is important to acknowledge the privilege many of us have to have been able to leave our homes in order to pursue a degree. However, this is not the situation experienced by the vast majority of people who immigrate. Many do so due to the hardships, conflicts and lack of opportunities they face in their home countries. Regardless of the case, experiencing nostalgia, sadness and/ or lonelinessis common. We all leave a life behind in order to make a new one; making multiple sacrifices along the way, since parting with what is familiar to us is never an easy task. Of course, there are the family and friends you’ve left behind, which always encompass one

of the biggest pulls between both worlds.

Personally, growing up, I always had a particular itch to leave Chile, in order to get a new perspective on both the exterior world and my interior one, too. I was so confident that a change was in order—that if I moved, it would be permanent. I was and I still am extremely grateful for the privilege I have that allowed me to make that decision in the first place.

But now that three years have gone by, I’m able to acknowledge how wrong and naive I was. Ever since I left, I have felt in between places and countries; not fully here but not quite there, either.

In Montreal, we experience new

challenges. Language becomes a barrier if you don’t speak French and learning it can be a difficult task. Especially since by attending Concordia, we are mostly exposed to English speakers, which leads us to connect with only a small percentage of Francophones. However, one of the best features this city has to offer is diversity. No city is perfect, nor has it all, but Montreal does have a certain degree of multiculturalism, which helps us bridge the gap between our two worlds.

I must also acknowledge the fact that we are students living in a student city—in fact, Montreal was named number one in the world in 2017 according to a 2017

QS World University ranking, an annual publication of university rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds. That being said, there’s always someone else you can bond with over the struggles that come with moving and living in a different country.

Nothing in life is permanent but change, and we are happiest when we do not resist it or overthink about the future. What I’m trying to say is that it is ok to feel conflicted, lost, homesick, sad, unsure, lonely—you name it. We must allow ourselves the space to experience the baggage that comes with moving farther away from home. This way, in this new place, we learn to grasp and contemplate our previous life from a new perspective.

At the same time, we create a mindset that allows us to live and make the most of our current student experience.

Changing countries has multiple complications, which at times can be overwhelming, but feeling lost or homesick from time to time is natural.

Getting anxious about where we are going next will only take away the peace that we enjoy in the moment. We will get there as we once got here. And if there is still a void you cannot fill, I strongly recommend you fill it with large quantities of Quebec’s greatest gift: poutine.

Graphic by @sundaemorningcoffee

APRIL 9, 2019

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17

EXPERIENCE

A Concordia student’s wake up call

One student’s experience as a first-year journalism student and what he has learned DAVID SAMI CONTRIBUTOR As due dates for finals rear their ugly heads in the nearing weeks, it’s a good time to reflect on my first year at Concordia. When I was accepted into the journalism program, I didn’t think much of it. I didn’t expect it to be hard, because I was in a journalism program in CEGEP. I had this stupid thought that journalism was simple and that I had basically learned all I needed to in CEGEP. Two weeks into my first semester, reality hit me like a freight train. This year, I’ve learned some valuable lessons that came from trial and a whole lot of error.

The first lesson I learned was when we were asked to interview people for a streeter article. I don’t have a problem talking to people one-on-one, but not when I have to engage the conversation, so it was already a rocky start. When one of the first people I tried to talk to told me to “go away” using more colourful language, morale was pretty low. However, determined to do well on my very first serious assignment of the semester, I kept at it, and sure enough, some people were willing to talk to me. I learned that while not everyone will want

to talk to me, people are generally nicer than I think they are, and it’s all about how you approach the conversation.

Another important lesson was to always have a contingency plan. No matter how bulletproof you think your plan A is for an assignment, you always have to be prepared for the worst-case scenario. I recently learned that the hard way, when a topic for a feature story I was going to write fell through just over a week before the due date. Being the ever-so-foolish optimist that I was, I never considered a plan B, because I never considered the possibility that my story might fall apart.

I was anxious and stressed out, but my teacher and classmates helped me find a new topic for my article. Everything worked out in the end—but it was a real eye-opener.

The most important lesson wasn’t something I learned from the journalism program, but from applying to another program, creative writing, and failing twice. When I first failed to get into the program, I was shocked; I was sure my writing was good enough to get me admitted. I thought it was simply because I didn’t read the guidelines clearly (I didn’t) and that my rejection had nothing to do with the quality of my portfolio.

When I failed the second time, I reviewed the stories I submitted, and noticed all the amateur mistakes I had made; mistakes that I’d never made before. It was a real wake up call for me.

I was so focused on shaping my story the way I wanted that I didn’t consider writing it properly. So confident that I was above making stupid grammatical mistakes, I never bothered to reread them before submitting. Those failures made me realize that no matter how good you think you are at something, that shouldn’t stop you from improving and working hard.

Af ter only one year at Concordia, I have learned a lot about myself, especially what I need to imp-

rove. My time studying journalism has taught me to be more diligent, better prepared, but most of all, to never take the easy way out—to always work hard. I hope the following years spent studying here help mould me into a better student and a better person.

Graphic by Alexa Hawksworth.

SPORTS

Liking sports for the sake of the game

How sexism prevents women from being part of the conversation in sports and sports coverage MADEHA CHOUDHURY CONTRIBUTOR Watching sports is not a quirky personality trait, it’s not a way for women to differentiate themselves from other women, and it’s definitely not unusual that women enjoy it.

I know several men who think the opposite; that women force themselves to learn everything they can about sports—from the rules of the game to the good and the bad teams—for the sake of standing out.

Or they think that women just say they like a sport because the players are attractive.

Either way, it’s common for people to not take women seriously when they try to

talk about sports.

In a group of avid basketball fans with support for two opposing teams, different opinions are sure to be brought up. Maybe this player’s stats haven’t been looking too good the last few games, or maybe this team’s coach has been making bad calls lately. Whatever it is, “sports talk” is bound to happen.

As a Toronto Raptors fan, I’d love to be part of the discussion. But my opinions are quickly dismissed, I’m repeatedly interrupted until my voice is drained out, and facts just aren’t believable when I bring them up. It’s not because I don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s because I’m a woman.

Most sports are controlled by males, from the administration to the professional players to the journalists. In the media, only 4 per cent of sports media coverage is based on women’s sports, and 12 per cent of sports news is given by women.

As viewers, we’re used to watching men guide the conversation, participate in the debates and bring up the numbers. We don’t think it’s any different when the men in our lives do the same.

When it’s time for playoffs, the English Football League (EFL), National Hockey League (NHL), National Basketball Association (NBA), and National Football League (NFL) dominate not only sports news, but regular news as well. When a reigning team wins

Graphic by @sundaemorningcoffee

a trophy, it’s everywhere.

In the International Ice Hockey Federation Ice Hockey Women's World Championship (IIHF), Team Canada and Team USA have played in the finals for all 18 tournaments and are the top two in standings. It’s a proud achievement for both countries, yet it’s still disregarded because it’s a team of women.

In Canada, hockey is a major sport. The Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) has been the main front for female hockey players, but the league will be terminated as of May 1 due to financial reasons. Imagine the reaction if the Montreal Canadiens held the same title as Team Canada in the NHL, or if the team’s operations were to be discontinued.

By being a woman who likes sports, I’m out of the norm. If I want to watch a basketball game with other fans, it’ll probably be with a bunch of guys who will suggest going to a nearby bar. I’m already shunned by sober basketball fans, why would I want to fight harder with the drunk ones? Why should I have to prove my worth by passive aggressively forcing myself into the conversation and talking about how many games I’ve watched and how long I’ve been a fan?

Gender inequality within sports is bigger than the lack of coverage of women’s sports—it boils down to overlooked fans because they’re women. The facts are there, but we shouldn’t have to constantly assert ourselves into the conversation, whether it’s to talk about sports or the imbalance of women in sports media.

theconcordian

APRIL 9, 2019

WEIGHT

the art of being single

Diary of a fat kid: deconstructed Learning to accept yourself and deal with trauma as an overweight person

W/ KAYLA-MARIE TURRICIANO

Goodbye for now To my dearest readers (you know it’s going to be cheesy from here on out), the time has come for me to say goodbye—but only for now!

These last few months, I’ve shared my thoughts, experiences and feelings with you about being single and trying out the dating scene. While it’s been a little scary to put it all out on the line for all those who read this, it’s also been quite a cathartic experience. In case some of you didn’t notice, I don’t actually have my life together; this column was as much of a learning and comforting experience for me as it was for you.

On that note, hopefully I’ve comforted some of you with the fact that you’re not alone and there’s nothing wrong with you when shit hits the fan or when things fall through. At the end of the day, it’s all about being okay with yourself and knowing that you’re a badass person. Someone somewhere, one day, will be lucky to be with you. But until then, remember that being in a healthy relationship with yourself is the most important thing, and that being single doesn’t mean you’re not worth loving or that you’ll never find someone.

As I always say, things may suck for a bit—sometimes for a while—and it might seem like an eternity, but it never lasts. With summer (finally!) almost here, take these few months to try out the dating scene, continue meeting new people, fall in love, get your heart broken, break someone’s heart—but try to be gentle when you do it. Heck, you can even say ‘screw it’ and live your best single life!

Graphic by @sundaemorningcoffee

In the end, the most important thing to remember is that no matter what happens, good, bad or nothing at all, just make an art of being single, because it won’t last forever.

Graphic by @sundaemorningcoffee

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ZACH LUMBROSO CONTRIBUTOR TW: Eating disorders, body image, body dysmorphia First, let me get this straight: being fat is not wrong. It’s not because you do not correspond to the ideal conception of beauty set by Instagram influencers that you are not worthy of living, nor are you responsible for anything. If you feel at peace with your body, good for you, and you should never feel pressure because your kind of beauty is different from others’ standards.

“Hey, fat guy!”, “Are you the guy from Super Size Me?” Yes, I’ve heard these phrases directed at me. “Susan Boyle,” “Big Mama,”—these were just some of my nicknames. On Jan. 31, 2018, I was 18 and weighed 287 pounds, almost twice the normal weight for a boy my age. My BMI was 42 at the time, and deemed me morbidly obese.

Being overweight is tough, especially as a teenager. Teenagers are cruel and immature. Some will try to hurt you—these ones, you’d better ignore altogether. Others will try to fight with you, and I fought back, which I do not recommend since it almost got me expelled. Most of the time, people won’t realize they’re hurting you. In this case, you have two options: say how you feel, which requires an extraordinary amount of courage, or hurt in silence, which is the option most people choose, and the most destructive.

Depending on the characters, some people will be very affected by mockery, and some just won’t care.

I belonged to the first category. One time, I was coming home from school when an old woman stopped me to comment on my sweater, and as she left, she yelled, in front of my friends, “And don’t get any fatter!” I’d never been so humiliated, and I spent the rest of the afternoon crying on my couch.

Harassment is one thing, but what’s worse is isolation. When you’re fat (let’s call a spade a spade), you don’t go out, because people might notice your double-chin; you don’t go to parties because girls might reject you; you don’t go on vacation because you’re uncomfortable being shirtless, it goes on and on. You stay at home, so you feel miserable, so you eat to forget. And once you enter this vicious circle, it’s very difficult to get out.

That’s how I went from being a perfectly healthy 13-year-old boy to becoming an 18-year-old teenager with no girlfriend, no real friends, and for whom tying shoes was a struggle.

Because being overweight is such a painful reality, I think some people tend to find excuses: “I have big bones,” “It’s genetic,” or “I have a hormonal problem.” And sometimes it’s true, but in most cases, I think being overweight is the result of bad eating habits, not enough exercise, or both. And even if you have to accept this responsibility, it does not make you any less valuable of a person. As a matter of fact, I tend to consider overweight people victims. Yes, you might snack too much sometimes or find excuses to avoid the gym, but this is not due to you having an abnormally large stomach or lower physical abilities. Eating is often compensation for trauma.

In my case, it was an unfortunate, routine doctor’s appointment that started it all. I was six years old and in perfect shape. The quack pediatrician checked me and told my parents, “If he’s not skinny now, he is going to become fat later.” At that very moment, he implanted that idea in my dad’s brain like Leonardo DiCaprio implanted the idea that the world was not real into Marion Cotillard’s head in Inception.

I recall a ski trip with my cousins.

It was lunch time and we decide to go to a restaurant. Everybody savoured a raclette except me—my dad forced me to eat salmon with straight beans. I was

only 10 and unknowingly, he created a complex in me.

As I said earlier, there’s no guilt to feel about being overweight, whether you’re slightly overweight or obese.

However, because it is a disease that can put your life at risk, I’ll never blame someone for wanting me to lose weight.

My dad used to tell me, “You know I don’t care about your appearance, as long as you’re healthy.” We live in an era of self-acceptance, which is great, but if you want to change, it’s your right to.

So, if you want to lose weight, here are my Four Fight Commandments (because it will be a fight): First, talk with the people who care about you.

Believe me, nothing will bring you more comfort than their support. I know the loneliness of being overweight, and it’s too much pain to endure for one person. Vent as much as you need; they will never judge you and it’ll be a huge load off your shoulders.

Second, talk to a therapist. I know it can be scary. I refused at first, but you must identify your trauma to be able to treat it. A therapist will listen to you and give you a professional and educated opinion.

Third, find the right diet for you.

We all have different bodies and taste buds. You have to find, with the help of a dietician, the diet most adapted to your body type and eating habits.

Last, if you feel like you can’t do it alone, surger y is one solution. It’s called bariatric surgery: gastric band, sleeve or bypass. These are major and irreversible surgeries, so you want to think twice before going through that.

I’ve considered this option, and there is no shame in that.

Don’t get me wrong, it will be a long road, sometimes you will want to quit, but if I did it (and I was a desperate case) everybody can. And don’t forget, whether you are skinny, fat or somewhere in the middle, the only thing that matters is that you are at peace with who you are.

APRIL 9, 2019

Comics by @anthonylabonte

theconcordian

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APRIL 9, 3, 2019 2018 APRIL Graphic by Zeze Le Lin. Graphic by Zeze Le Lin.

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