The Concordian - October 17th, 2017

Concordia University’s weekly, independent student newspaper

theconcordian

VOLUME 35, ISSUE 8 | TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2017

theconcordian.com  /theconcordian  @theconcordian

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Sidelined no more

A year after tearing his ACL, third-year rugby player leads Stingers on a winning streak Sports p. 15

also in this issue

news

life

arts

music

Student complaint Building a tourism Mapping out the Finding music in to Quebec HRC p. 4 business abroad p. 9 political climate p. 10 everyday life p. 12

opinions

Why does this keep happening? p. 17

news

NEWS EDITORS /// news@theconcordian.com CANDICE PYE & ETIENNE LAJOIE ( @candicepye @renegadereports) )

LOYOLA

Building renewal project to cost $8.37 million

New generator and boiler at Loyola campus to be funded by two levels of government ÉTIENNE LAJOIE NEWS EDITOR An infrastructure renewal project for a generator and a boiler needed to power and heat certain buildings connected to the centralized systems of the Loyola campus is projected to cost a maximum of $8.37 million, according to documents obtained

by The Concordian through an access to information request.

The authorization for the renewal project was given following the recommendation of the university’s Finance and Real Estate Planning Committees.

It was one of three resolutions concerning the renewal project that were passed during a closed session of the April 19 board of governors meeting.

In an email, university spokesperson Mary-Jo Barr wrote that the amount “is based on an estimate, and the final cost will be confirmed as part of the tendering process.”

Part of the projected cost—$3.1 million—will be funded by the federal government’s Post-Secondary Institutions Strategic Investment Fund (SIF). The SIF and Quebec’s Plan québécois des infrastructures 2016-2026 (PQI) will also fund the research centre due to be built on

Concordia’s Loyola campus.

According to Barr, the remaining cost of the $8.37-million renewal project will be “funded by a separate fund paid for by the PQI.” “Concordia is contributing [approximately] $930,000 to the Loyola Campus Infrastructure Renewal Project,” Barr said.

Funding for the $52.75-million research centre, to be built behind the existing Richard J. Renaud Science Complex will also be split three ways.

“Approximately 40 per cent is covered by the federal government, 30 per cent

by Quebec [provincial government] and 30 per cent by Concordia,” according to Barr.

The research centre, named Applied Science Incubator in the documents obtained, is a 8,700 square metre extension of the campus' current science facilities.

An internal memo reviewed by The Concordian confirmed a fund was created for the project on May 27, 2016

by Nancy Sardella, a senior financial officer in the university’s Restricted Funds department.

The principal investigator of the project—who is “responsible for the management of the research project, both financially and operationally,”

according to Concordia’s Researcher’s Guide to Financial Management—is Roger Côté, the university’s vice-president of services.

The fund was created approximately a year before the announcement of the Applied Science Incubator. According to Barr, it was created “to allow the university to prepare its submission to the governments for project funding.”

As well, the fund included “expenses related to feasibility studies, such as conceptual architecture drawings, estimates and technical studies.”

In response to The Concordian’s request for the science building’s architectural plans, secretary-general and general counsel Frederica Jacobs wrote that, because “the project is in its preliminary phase, final architectural plans are not available at this time.”

According to the board of governors’ resolution during the April 19 meeting, the cost of the research building project “will be paid from a combination of funds received from the federal government through its Post-Secondary Institutions Strategic Investment Fund (SIF), contributions from the government of Quebec and the university’s own capital budget.”

A decision-making summary signed

An infrastructure renewal project for a generator and boiler at the Loyola campus will cost around $8.37 million. Photo by Alex Hutchins.

by Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Damede-Grâce borough director Stéphane Plante on June 30 indicated that 54 more parking spaces will be needed for the new project, according to a study done by the engineering firm CIMA+.

The summary reads that “it is very probable that [the borough] will need to add parking spaces on street parking reserved for residents when the project is done and to answer to the demands of residents.”

In early September, the C.D.N.— N.D.G. borough determined the project could proceed despite opposition by N.D.G. residents, including Irwin Rapoport, who created a petition

requesting a referendum to determine whether or not it should be built.

Rapoport and other N.D.G. residents said they hoped to preserve the green space on which the building would be constructed. “The residents are seeking a moratorium on any development of green space on the campus,” Rapoport told The Concordian at the time.

On Sept. 11, borough officials discovered a clause in Bill 122, a new provincial law adopted in June, which states “public property intended for collective use in the education sector is no longer subject to approval by a referendum.” Consequently, the project was able to move forward without the threat of a referendum.

SCIENCE

engAGE-ing in research to reassess aging Concordia research centre explores music therapy, community programs, technology MEGAN HUNT ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR As Concordia’s newest research unit, the engAGE centre has one very specific focus: interdisciplinary, innovative research that aims to improve the lives of elderly people.

Funded by the office of the vice-president of research and graduate studies, the engAGE centre features research from all four of Concordia’s faculties.

According to Shannon Hebblethwaite, the director of the engAGE centre and an associate professor in the department of applied human sciences, the centre specializes in diverse and community-focused research that “aspires to change how we think about aging.”

“EngAGE researchers partner with older people and their communities to address challenges and facilitate opportunities in all realms of life— social, physical, cognitive, emotional and political,” Hebblethwaite said.

She also explained that the research conducted at the centre

Concordia engAGE research centre is focused on interdisciplinary research to improve the lives of elderly people.

Photos courtesy of Shannon Hebblethwaite.

is separated into four groups: culture, creativity and aging; community, care and connectivity; health, well-being and the lifecourse; and politics, policy and the economics of aging.

Culture, creativity and aging is focused on fine arts approaches to elderly care, including art and music therapies in long-term care facilities and research about how cultural factors influence obituaries and the remembrance of the elderly.

Community, care and connectivity focuses on community programs and improving elder care, while the remaining two groups focus on

medicine and policy.

Specific research projects include a study on how technology influences the relationship between older people and their family members, coordinating “Art Hives” (free, public art sessions open to all community members), and research on how music therapy can impact elderly people living with dementia.

Despite the centre only receiving Senate approval in June, engAGE researchers have already developed connections with local, national and international partners.

EngAGE is working with community non-profit organizations,

including the advocacy group RECAA (Respecting Elders Communities Against Abuse) and Group Harmonie, a Quebec organization focused on assisting elderly people struggling with addiction and substance abuse.

Additionally, Eric Craven, the project coordinator for the Atwater Library’s Digital Literacy Program, serves as the centre’s community representative on the engAGE governing board.

EngAGE has also conducted research in partnership with a number of hospitals, including Sacré-Cœur Hospital and the Sir Mortimer B. Davis Jewish General Hospital, and has worked with

residents in long-term retirement homes, including Chartwells, a company with nearly 180 residences across Canada.

According to Hebblethwaite, the centre’s researchers will be focused on a number of events over the next few months. Several engAGE researchers are preparing to present some of their findings next weekend at the annual Canadian Association of Gerontology conference in Winnipeg.

Additionally, the centre will be co-sponsoring Age 3.0: Aging in the City, a public educational event on Nov. 1 that will feature panels and workshops given by the centre’s researchers. EngAGE’s governing board is also planning a symposium during the winter 2018 semester, although a topic and date have yet to be chosen.

Ultimately, Hebblethwaite’s primary focus is the research the engAGE centre facilitates. She said the centre’s main goal for November is to “explore opportunities for new and innovative collaborations among Concordia researchers and community partners.”

OCTOBER 17, 2017

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STUDENT LIFE

A variety of options for veggie-lover students

Concordia Animal Rights Association advocates for a vegan lifestyle CANDICE PYE NEWS EDITOR For the average university student, finding the time to eat—let alone eat healthy—during a busy school day can be challenging. For a student eating a plant-based diet, it can be downright impossible.

Lucky forveggie-lovers, Concordia University is one of the best places in the city to study as a vegan, according to the Association Végétarienne de Montréal (AVM).

In 2010, the Concordia Student Union (CSU) passed a motion requiring the university to ensure all activities on campus offervegan options. According to the AVM, the initiative was brought forward by Concordia alumnus Lucas Solowey when he was a member of the Concordia Animal Rights Association (CARA).

According to Caitlin Yardley, CARA’s current volunteer coordinator, CARA members are still “huge promoters of the vegan lifestyle.”

As the university’s official animal rights club, CARA’s mission is to work towards the protection of all animals through awareness, activism and encouraging compassion towards all living beings. “[Veganism] can be a very positive lifestyle change,” Yardley said.

While she has practiced a vegan lifestyle for six years, Yardley has been a vegetarian since she was eight years old.

“I originally became a vegetarian purely out of no longer enjoying meat,” Yardley said. “As I researched more about the harm caused to animals […] and the health implications animal products can have [on humans], I eventually became vegan and have never wanted to go back.”

When she began her studies at Concordia, Yardley became involved with CARA to help bring awareness to animal rights issues and encourage students to get involved with the organization.

“We get to inform Concordia about injustices animals face, which [students] may be unaware of or ignore,” Yardley said.

As a partner of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), CARA definitely cannot be ignored. PETA provides CARA with free media and goods to distribute to students attending their events. The student group also offers a variety of volunteer opportunities, such as working with Guardian’s Best Animal Rescue Foundation, Chatopia (a Montreal-based non-profit cat

rescue) and many other animal-oriented organizations.

CARA holds a variety of events each semester. Earlier this month, they hosted their annual Vegan Thanksgiving, where students could enjoy vegan treats while learning more about the food industry.

“The Vegan Thanksgiving was a great success this year,” Yardley said. “People really enjoyed the food we were giving out, which included veggie sausages, mini pumpkin pies, brownies and banana bread. Even those who were skeptical about the faux meats ended up liking them.”

Yardley added that many people who were already vegan or vegetarian came to the booth to express gratitude for the event. “[It] was great to see,” Yardley

said. “When I first became vegan, I knew no one else who even expressed interest in taking part in the lifestyle.

Within the past few years, there has definitely been a huge shift towards people becoming vegan.”

This shift has become increasingly apparent at Concordia. With the People’s Potato, the Green Beet, the Hive, le Frigo Vert and a number of other conveniently located veggie-friendly food stops, eating a plant-based diet is becoming increasingly accessible on Concordia's campuses.

Concordia student Sara ShieldsRivard has been a vegetarian for over two years.

“At first, I found it difficult because many of my friends at the time were not vegetarian, so when we went out to eat, we could never agree on

a place,” Shields-Rivard said.

“However, since then, I've discovered the vegetarian gems of Concordia […] These places have made being a vegetarian in university much easier.”

Shields-Rivard said, with the readily available vegetarian options on campus, avoiding animal-products is often the easier, cheaper option. “If you go to the People’s Potato, all you have to bring is a Tupperware and some change for donation.”

As a Concordia student following a mostly plant-based diet, Hannah Gold-Apel said she does not have a problem maintaining her diet at school.

“I find it pretty easy to eat plantbased at school, especially with the free vegan lunches provided at both campuses,” Gold-Apel said. “All in all, I think Montreal is a pretty good city to be a broke, vegetarian student in.”

For students interested in animal rights or a plant-based diet, Yardley said there are a multitude of events to look forward to in the near future.

This Wednesday, Oct. 18, CARA will be hosting a coffee break event in the JMSB lobby, where students can sample a variety of dairy-free milks.

On Oct. 26, CARA is partnering with Anonymous for the Voiceless to hold an anti-fur event called “Who Are You Wearing?” that will take place in the JMSB lobby from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For Halloween, CARA will be hosting a themed event where they will be giving out cruelty-free makeup.

More information can be found on CARA’s Facebook page at their office on 2020 Mackay St., P-303.

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin.

ASFA

Employment offer withdrawn over conflict of interest Federation’s council votes to restart hiring process to ensure transparency

IAN DOWN ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR The Arts and Science Federation of Associations (ASFA) has restarted the hiring process for its first Loyola campus office coordinator amid accusations of a conflict of interest.

Although no contract had been signed, the ASFA website indicated a candidate had been hired. The announcement was retracted once concerns were raised about the hiring process.

“The individual that we’re hiring, I do feel that she is extremely qualified,” said interim VP finance Francesco Valente about the candidate at a regular council meeting on Oct. 12. However, he said this candidate is “a close friend of all

the executives, which [he] thinks is a kind of a big conflict of interest.”

The candidate’s name was withheld from the meeting.

Interim ASFA President Julia Sutera Sardo said the decision to hire the candidate was made on the recommendation of downtown office coordinator Chris Lechkobit.

Valente, who is part of the ASFA hiring committee, said he felt he wasn’t properly consulted on this decision. Hiring decisions are made independently from the council by the hiring committee, which consists of the president, VP internal, VP finance and the Sir George Williams campus office manager.

Sutera Sardo said the hiring committee planned to consult legal counsel on the contract, and to

determine how many hours a week an office manager needed to be present at the Loyola campus before signing a contract with the candidate. ASFA has not previously had a Loyola campus office coordinator.

Valente also said the $1,500 originally set aside for the coordinator’s salary was likely not enough to pay them $15 an hour for the whole year, as per ASFA policy.

Liberal arts councilor Robert Young introduced a successful motion to restart the hiring process with a callout to council. The motion also included a review of the annual budget before the next meeting, to determine where extra funding for the new coordinator's salary could be taken from.

Council also passed a motion to allow interim VP of external affairs and sustainability Bianca Bruzzese to fill the position for

two weeks on a volunteer basis to determine how many office hours are necessary at the Loyola campus.

new tart hiring process for the ASFA council voted to res . ins tch Hu x Ale to by coordinator position. Pho

Loyola office

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OCTOBER 17, 2017

JUSTICE

Headed to the Quebec Human Rights Commision

CRARR and student considering filing a civil rights complaint against Concordia

Photo by Alex Hutchins.

ÉTIENNE LAJOIE NEWS EDITOR It’s Monday April 18, 2016.

Concordia student Maria* checks her phone and sees a text message: “Hey Maria, my names [sic] Eric*, I saw you on [Plenty of Fish], how’s it going? (:” She asks the man where he got her number. He answers with a screenshot of what Maria realizes is a fake account with her name on the dating app. “This is fake.

Someone has been stealing my info,” she quickly replies.

A day earlier, according to documents obtained by The Concordian, a post appeared on the Concordia University subreddit—a forum dedicated to the university on Reddit—claiming Maria had been seen performing sexual acts in a university office.

Soon after the post was published, she was contacted by a student she had met a few months earlier. He informed her about the post and attempted to start a conversation. Maria told him she wasn’t interested in talking.

Less than 24 hours later, a second post was made on the Concordia University subreddit, describing Maria as a “whore.”

These interactions are included

in a report written on April 22, 2016 by Concordia security investigator and preventionist Lyne Denis. The report documents weeks of alleged cyberbullying, online sexual harassment, intimidation and threats Maria faced from a fellow student.

The Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) offered Maria legal support following the recommendation of the Concordia Student Union Legal Information Clinic. On Sept. 2, the centre’s executive director, Fo Niemi, told The Concordian they would be filing a complaint against the alleged harasser to the Quebec Human Rights Commission.

In a press release sent out 19 days later, CRARR wrote that Maria was also “considering” filing a civil rights complaint against Concordia “for discrimination and failure to protect and support.”

Maria, a 21-year-old international student, first met her alleged harasser after posting a message on a Facebook page for new Concordia students.

“I made a post [to introduce myself] trying to make friends in the group,” she said. She was 19 at the time. “We met up in person, and we became friends. We were on and off in that friendship.”

The harassment began when Maria ran for an elected position in a student association in 2016.

A few months into her campaign, she said abrasive messages were being posted about her on Yik Yak, a now-defunct social media app that allowed users to anonymously post messages viewable by users within a certain radius, such as on or around campus.

Maria said she would receive messages from the alleged harasser shortly after the posts were made on Yik Yak. This behaviour became a recurring pattern.

“He messages me with, ‘Oh, look what’s being said about you.’

‘Oh, I’m so sorry that this is happening to you,’” Maria said, referring to any time a message about her was posted on Yik Yak. A Reddit account with her full name and the words “TheWhore” was also created around that same time. “He would always be the first one to message me with links to that,” Maria said. “It was posted five minutes ago, and he already knew. He already saw it, and he already had the time to text me about it.”

In April 2016, Maria said she confronted the student when another Reddit thread about her was created. “I know it’s you,”

she recalled telling him. “Just stop. I’m going to go the police.

If there’s a paper trail, I want it to lead to you.”

Maria explained that, “within five minutes of that conversation online, [the thread] was deleted.”

During the same month, she allegedly got calls from men on several occasions because her Facebook pictures and phone number had been associated with fake online accounts under her name.

“I was walking to class, I would receive calls from strange men like, ‘Hey baby, I know you’re in the H building, just wait for me,” Maria explained.

She said she also received rape threats “not from [the alleged harasser] but through the accounts he created,” yet she claimed little was done by the university to protect her.

A visit to Concordia’s security on April 22, 2016 was not the first step Maria took to address this ongoing issue. Two days prior, she went to the university’s Office of Rights and Responsibilities (ORR) to file a complaint for harassment, sexual harassment and threatening or violent conduct, according to CRARR’s Niemi.

The ORR’s annual reports indicate the office saw a steady

increase in the number of reported infractions of the university’s Code of Rights and Responsibilities—which include cases and consultations handled by the office—between the 201213 and the 2015-16 academic years.

In 2012-13, according to the office’s annual report, 59 harassment infractions and 16 sexual harassment infractions were reported to the office. Two years later, in 2014-15, 63 harassment infractions and 29 sexual harassment infractions were addressed by the ORR. The academic year Maria filed her complaint with the ORR, 99 harassment infractions were reported, according to the annual report, as well as 33 sexual assault infractions.

Concordia’s Code of Rights and Responsibilities reads: “Formal complaints by students against other students shall be adjudicated by a hearing panel consisting only of students.” When a formal complaint is made, the secretary of the Hearing and Appeals Panel selects three graduate or undergraduate students from the Student Tribunal Pool, as well as one non-voting chair.

The Student Tribunal Pool is nominated by the Concordia

OCTOBER 17, 2017

Student Union (CSU) each year in June. A maximum of 15 undergraduate students are chosen by the student union, in addition to a maximum of 10 students selected by the Graduate Student Association (GSA), according to Concordia’s Policy on the Establishment of Tribunal Hearing Pools.

Every student hearing panel (SHP) also has a chair, whose role is “to preside over the proceedings, keep order and ensure fairness,” according to the Code of Rights and Responsibilities.

In November 2016, Niemi compiled an unofficial list of lawyers who have acted as student tribunal chairs, including Roanne C. Bratz, Emmanuelle Demers, Sandra Mastrogiuseppe and Angela Onesi. The Concordian confirmed the four to be acting chairs.

The chair for Maria’s case was Vincent Lesage, whose appointment had been proposed by the then-university counsel, Bram Freedman, in 2002.

“They tend to be from big law firms,” Niemi said. “And in dealing with sexual violence and harassment, we start to raise questions about whether these people are trained enough to deal with this issue.”

University spokesperson Mary-Jo Barr explained that tribunal chairs were chosen “due to relevant experience” and because they agree to chair the tribunals on a volunteer basis.

“They are trained by our tribunal office on all our processes and policies,” she added.

Maria’s SHP did not take place until October 2016, four months after her visit to the ORR. In April, the same month she visited the ORR and Concordia Security, Maria filed a report with the Montreal police’s 20th precinct, near Concordia’s downtown campus.

An employee from Concordia Security accompanied her to the precinct on April 25 at 10:30 a.m., according to the incident report filed by Concordia Security's Denis’s incident report.

When asked if Concordia had a copy of that report, Barr said

the university would “not comment on a specific case.” “We can confirm that when a student brings to our attention a concern for their safety, with or without a police report, we look carefully at how we can support that student,” Barr explained.

According to Maria, the university offered her very little support.

“Pending the trial, at the beginning of April last year, [Concordia Security] offered to walk me to the metro [at] night, but that was it,” Maria said, adding that her alleged harasser could still approach her on campus.

Maria said she also received no follow-ups from the police regarding her report. “The Sexual Assault Resource Centre [SARC] offered to get me support, offered to be there for me, offered to email my professors asking for extensions, but that’s it. There were no continuous follow-ups.”

On April 20, Maria’s alleged harasser received an email from the ORR informing him that the office wanted to schedule a meeting with him and Concordia Security “to discuss [...] concerns regarding his alleged behaviour involving another member of the university.”

A meeting was set up between the alleged harasser, ORR and Concordia Security on May 5, 2016. In her report, Denis wrote that the individual said “he would be available at any time after his last final.”

“The university accommodates him and his final schedule, but no accommodation was given to me,” Maria said.

On Oct. 25, 2016 at 1 p.m., Maria entered a room in Concordia’s GM building for the hearing.

Niemi and Maria later criticized the trial’s procedure. Maria told The Concordian there was a power imbalance. “I was represented by two CSU student advocates. He was represented

by two university advocates paid by the university,” she said.

In addition, Maria had to sit at the same table as her alleged harasser. “If I wanted to go to the restroom, I would have to almost touch him because the room was very narrow, [and] he had his friends sitting outside, his witnesses, laughing. I could hear myself being called a whore,” she recalled.

Acco rd i n g to Barr, “any party or person who feels uncomfortable in the physical setting can bring this up and solutions can be sought.” She added that survivors can be provided with information and support from the SARC coordinator throughout the process. According to the SHP decision, Maria’s advocate said SARC coordinator Jennifer Drummond would act as a witness. However, Drummond did not testify at the trial because “she had a prior commitment,” the SHP decision reads.

During the hearing, the respondent claimed he gave Maria’s phone number—which eventually ended up on fake online accounts—to an individual who used the alias William.

The respondent said he met the individual through the online gaming platform Steam but had never met him in person throughout their five years of acquaintance.

Maria’s advocates asked the SHP to expel the respondent, arguing that “if the respondent is not adequately sanctioned, the complainant will not be able to continue her studies at the university.”

In response, the respondent’s advocates argued that “the complainant’s advocates failed to establish a direct link between the respondent and the charges contained herein.” For that reason, they added, a sanction of expulsion “would be very severe.”

CRARR executive director Fo Niemi is offering legal support to a Concordia student taking her alleged harasser to the Quebec Human Rights Commission. Photo by Kirubel Mehari.

After a deliberation, the SHP unanimously upheld charges of harassment and sexual harassment, and a majority of the panel upheld the “threatening or violent conduct charge.”

In light of the decision, the SHP imposed a written reprimand and compensation for the cost associated with Maria’s need to change her cellphone. However, Maria said this was not an issue, since phone companies have policies to replace phones for free in cases of harassment.

Maria said it was very stressful for her to inform her family about the harassment. “I come from a very conservative family [and] the culture is not very feminist,” she explained. “Just the fact that I had to call my dad [and] having to explain to him, ‘I’m being called a whore. I can’t walk to campus without someone wanting to rape me.’” According to Niemi, Maria’s alleged harasser has also threatened to sue her.

In its Sept. 21 press release, CRARR wrote that “common patterns of the university’s failure to protect and support [students include] being kept in the dark about the aftermath once a decision is rendered, especially where personal safety is concerned.”

In its conclusion, the tribunal decision read that the “majority of the SHP recommended that the present file be forwarded to the appropriate department(s) for its assessment and management.”

Niemi said he doesn’t know where the file was forwarded.

In an email, Barr wrote that the file “could be forwarded to Security, the Office of Rights and Responsibility and/or the Dean of Students—all depending on the circumstances.”

According to Niemi, Maria has been suspended from her program. Maria said she is not attending classes at the moment because her grades suffered too

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much throughout the ordeal.

“In the middle of my finals, I was walking with security to the police department, spending five hours with them to write reports. How was I expected to do anything?

Concordia was aware because I was going with [them] to do all these procedures,” Maria said, adding that the university did not unenroll her from the classes she expected to be excused from.

“Classes that were supposed to be dropped were not dropped,” Maria said, and her GPA suffered as a result.

According to Maria, she only knew about the support available to her on campus because she was involved in student politics. “Had I just come to my class and then went home, I would not have even been aware of these bodies, and would have had effectively no support,” she said.

Niemi said the Quebec Human Rights Commission “will investigate the harasser [and] gather all the evidence to eventually rule whether she has been a victim of harassment and discrimination.” Despite the SHP’s decision to uphold the charges of harassment and sexual harassment, Niemi said he and Maria are not satisfied. As the SHP decision acknowledges, the tribunal “does not have the authority to impose conditions restricting the respondent’s movements on campus.”

If the Human Rights Commission recommends damages, Niemi said CRARR “is looking at five figures.”

Maria said she “wanted to make sure [her] experience had some good come out of it.”

“I want to make sure that this person will not go out in the world and perpetuate those same actions to someone else.”

*Names have been changed to ensure the individuals’ privacy and protection.

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin.

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OCTOBER 17, 2017

STUDY

Concordia ranks last in sexual assault study

University receives D- grade in student-led evaluation of sexual assault policies IAN DOWN ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR Concordia’s sexual assault policies are the worst out of 15 major Canadian universities, according to a recent student-led study.

Our Turn: A National, Student-Led Action Plan to End Campus Sexual Violence, which was published on Oct. 11, looked at the sexual assault policies of 15 Canadian universities and graded them on a 100-point scale.

The best-ranked university was Ryerson, with 81 per cent, or an A-.

Ryerson was followed by the University of British Columbia, with 78 per cent, and Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, with 75.5 per cent. With a score of 52 per cent, or a D-, Concordia was the lowest-ranked university on the list.

The study based its scores on 45 weighted criteria. Among other reasons, Concordia’s policy had points deducted for failing to reference rape culture, punishing students for making false claims and for not processing faculty and staff claims using the same policy as students.

The evaluations were carried out

Photo by Alex Hutchins.

by members of each university’s student union, using the 45-item checklist. According to CSU general coordinator Omar Riaz, the Concordia evaluation was overseen by academic and advocacy coordinator Asma Mushtaq and student life coordinator Leyla Sutherland. Neither executive could be reached for comment before publication.

Concordia Universityspokesperson Mary-Jo Barr said the university is “surprised by the findings of this particular report, as there appear to be several inaccuracies.” Six points were deducted from Concordia's score for not having a standalone

policy on sexual violence, even though such a policy has existed since May 2016. “We will follow up with the study authors to better understand the criteria employed and to seek corrections where necessary,” Barr said.

The study was authored by Our Turn, a collective of students from across Canada, chaired by Carleton students Caitlin Salvino, Kelsey Gilchrist and Jade Cooligan Pang.

Our Turn started with a campaign to improve the new Carleton University Sexual Violence Policy in the fall of 2016. Three human rights students, including Salvino, drafted an open

letter to the Carleton administration suggesting reforms to the incoming policy.

Despite collecting thousands of signatures from students, student groups and faculty, the changes were not implemented. As the students researched student-led solutions to campus sexual violence, they discovered other universities were facing “a crisis of campus sexual violence and an administration reluctant to work with students to address the issue,” according to the study.

To date, 20 student unions, including the CSU, have signed onto the National Our Turn Action Plan.

There are three components to this plan: prevention, including awareness campaigns and support training; support, including the creation of a campus survivor network and academic accommodations for survivors; and advocacy, including student-led campaigns to reform existing sexual violence policies.

According to Barr, “this fall, the university will ask for online community input on the university’s Sexual Assault Working Group’s report recommendations, and members of the community will be encouraged to share their thoughts, concerns and perspectives.”

STUDENT POLITICS

CSU survey: Financial security leads to better grades

Council also debates CREM endorsement, increased funding for First Voices Week

The Concordia Student Union’s general undergraduate survey reveals that, for every $1,000 of debt, students see a five per cent decrease in their grades.

Photo by Matthew Coyte.

MATTHEW COYTE ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR The consensus was clear at the last Concordia Student Union (CSU) council meeting: financial security seems to lead to higher grades.

A review of the May 2017 General Undergraduate Survey at the latest CSU council meeting revealed that for every $1,000 of debt, students saw a 5 per cent decrease in grades, and scholarships result in a 4.5 per cent increase in grades.

The survey also asked the student body to answer questions about income, food security, financial stability, and experience with sexual assault and violence, as well as discrimination.

Former CSU Loyola coordinator

Marcus Peters presented the findings to the council, but stressed that the results are not completely representative due to students unsubscribing from the CSU Live newsletter, which is how the survey was distributed. Another factor to consider, according to Peters, was the survey’s lack of questions regarding religion.

When students were asked if they had experienced any kind of sexual violence by someone within the Concordia community, two per cent of the respondents answered “yes.” An overwhelming majority of students who answered “yes” to questions about whether they had experienced discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity said the incidents had taken place in classrooms or

other departmental spaces, such as lounges and libraries.

“That should be something that we’re addressing—there is discrimination happening, and mostly in the classrooms where we wouldn’t expect it to occur,” said Rory James, a councillor representing the John Molson School of Business.

According to Peters, a total of 2,991 students completed the survey.

The goal of the survey was to “make accessible all information on student life,” he said.

Peters added that the lack of interaction between the general student body and the CSU made a survey the most efficient way to gather information about undergraduates at Concordia.

Another portion of the survey concerned student food security.

The survey found that the People’s Potato was serving an average of 265 people per day, with the cost coming to 73 cents per plate.

Support for CREM According to a report presented by external affairs and mobilization coordinator Ahmed Badr, the CSU council decided on Oct. 4 to support the eight recommendations presented to municipal electoral candidates by the Montreal Regional Student Coalition (CREM).

The CREM is a political coalition composed of various university and CEGEP student unions. According to Riaz, coalition members approached the CSU about supporting the recommendations.

These recommendations covered topics the coalition hopes candidates will address once elected, including transportation and the consultation of Montreal’s youth on issues around the city.

This became a contentious point at the meeting, as some councillors voiced concern over the lack of communication between executives and CSU representatives on the matter. General coordinator Omar Riaz confirmed the executives met and decided to support the recommendations, but the rest of the council was not consulted.

Councillors Rowan Gaudet and Rory James, and Arts and Science Federation of Association (ASFA) President Julia Sutera Sardo, among others, questioned the legitimacy of the CSU’s support since the matter had never been discussed at a meeting.

In response, Badr stressed that the CSU had only supported recommendations that fell in line with the CSU’s beliefs. “[The CSU] supporting the demands is essentially us joining

the coalition,” James countered.

He and others argued the issue wasn’t the recommendations that had been supported, but rather that the CSU was endorsing the coalition—something the entire council should have been consulted about.

Representatives motioned for the CSU to rescind its support of the CREM immediately until the topic could be properly discussed by the entirety of the CSU council.

Continuous support for First Voices Week The CSU moved to increase its financial support for the First Voices Week, an “Indigenous-led initiative to acknowledge and celebrate local Indigenous peoples and communities at Concordia and within the Montreal area,” according to the event’s Facebook page. First Voices Week is held in January and hosts events including speeches, concerts and discussions.

Last year, the CSU spent $4,000 to finance the event, but will now commit an additional $1,000. The goal of the additional funding is to secure this money for future years ,to facilitate the funding process for the event’s organizing committee and tensure the event has “room to grow,” according to Riaz.

life

LIFE EDITOR /// life@theconcordian.com SANDRA HERCEGOVÁ

BOOK LAUNCH

Documenting a battle for Indigenous land

Author Shiri Pasternak and band councillor Norman Matchewan from Barriere Lake gave a speech for the newly released book Grounded Authority: The Algonquins of Barriere Lake Against the State. Photo by Kirubel Mehari.

Author Shiri Pasternak releases her book Grounded Authority: The Algonquins of Barriere Lake Against the State MIA ANHOURY STAFF WRITER Four hours northwest of Montreal, you’ll find the Algonquins of Barriere Lake, an Indigenous community of about 450 people. It’s a community that has long fought with the provincial and federal governments for their rights and their land. Shiri Pasternak, an associate professor of criminology at Ryerson University in Toronto, tells their story in her new book, Grounded Authority: The Algonquins of Barriere Lake Against the State.

The book was launched at McGill University on Oct. 11, with a speech given

by Pasternak herself. She was joined by Norman Matchewan, a band councillor and community leader from Barriere Lake.

In her book, Pasternak discusses the fight of the Algonquins of Barriere Lake from the point of view of Indigenous law and jurisdiction. “The book draws an analytic thread through the early colonial aperture between sovereignty and jurisdiction to the present day,” Pasternak said. She elaborated that the book chronicles the continuous evidence showing that state control over Indigenous lands only leads to a struggle between the two groups.

Pasternak started working with the Algonquins of Barriere Lake because of Russell Diabo, a Mohawk policy analyst and activist who explained to her that, in order to understand colonialism in Canada, she

needed to understand the experiences of this community. In 2008, she began working in the community, and in 2012, she started writing her book.

The story of the Algonquins of Barriere Lake is a long and complicated one that concerns territory jurisdiction for the most part. It’s closely tied to the fact that the band lives on unceded territory, which means the land has never been surrendered to nor acquired by the Crown. In these cases, the federal government uses the Comprehensive Claims Policy to deal with Aboriginal and land rights “that have not been dealt with by treaty or other legal means.” The Algonquins of Barriere Lake have resisted this policy as it would force them “to cede their title to the land, forcing them to give up rights to 95 per cent of their land and accept provincial jurisdiction over their lands and territories,” according to Pasternak.

In 1991, to avoid the Comprehensive Claims Policy, Jean-Maurice Matchewan, the community’s band councillor at the time, and Norman's father, signed a trilateral agreement with the federal and provincial governments. It’s a resource co-management agreement of the 10,000 square kilometres to “harmonize Algonquin land use with settler land use based on Indigenous land use, consent and decision making,” Pasternak explained. It would be funded by the federal government so the Algonquins of Barriere Lake would not have to take on loans, and they would make a modest revenue from any resource extraction on the land.

According to Pasternak, however, neither government has abided by this agreement, even going so far as to deny its legitimacy.

This neglect is an “instance of how legal authority is established far from the courts and in a way that, nonetheless, shapes the boundaries of settler law: where it will have power, how it will have power, whether it will have power,” Pasternak said.

Matchewan explained that the Algonquins of Barriere Lake’s values are about caring, loving and respecting the land and its stories. Even the Algonquian language is closely related to the wildlife and the land they live on, he said. Pasternak commented that this community’s fight is about the right to live and have food on their table—it’s not about the right to property or private ownership.

The book documents the accounts of all the forms of deception and coercion used by the federal and provincial governments.

“In my book, I name all the bureaucrats, politicians, accountants and lawyers who terrorized these Indigenous people trying to defend their land from exploitation,” Pasternak said.

In 1995, as a way to withdraw from the trilateral agreement, the department of Indian Affairs debated the use of section 74 of the Indian Act, which imposes an elective system on the community, rather than a system of nomination.

In 2009, the department sent a notice to the Algonquins of Barriere Lake explaining that the government would not recognize their customary form of government and imposed

section 74. The way the Algonquins’ customary government works is that the elders of the band select the councillors by observing them from a young age, Matchewan explained.

Grounded Authority shows that the conflict is about “whose laws will apply and on what grounds,” Pasternak said.

She shared a story about when the band councillors were negotiating with Copper One, a company that wanted to begin a mining exploration on their reserve last winter. While Matchewan was explaining that the company needed the consent of the families responsible for the land in question, the Copper One representative tried to bribe Matchewan into taking a 50 per cent share in the company, according to Pasternak. Since then, the Quebec government has refused to grant the company the necessary logging permits to bring equipment to the territory.

On Oct. 11, Matchewan announced the band would be signing a new trilateral agreement on Oct. 13 after 26 years of fighting. “We’ve endured hardship to battle the Indian Affairs Act. We blockaded, we were criminalized, we were shot at with tear gas and pepper spray [...] It’s up to us to continue to fight,” Matchewan said.

Pasternak described the book as an expression of her deep respect for the community and their determination to protect their land.

It’s a tribute to the Algonquins’ relationship with the land and the times they had to stay out in the cold to maintain their rights.

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theconcordian

OCTOBER 17, 2017

HIP VENUE

Riverside St-Henri a community hub for Montrealers Nightlife guru, DJ and club owner Nicolas Hamel has a unique vision for his new venue

Riverside St-Henri is located at 5020 St-Ambroise St. with a large outdoor garden and patio. Photo by Adrian Knowler.

ADRIAN KNOWLER STAFF WRITER

by bare bulbs strung overhead. Walk a little further and you’ll wander out into the vast lawn that Hamel wants to Riverside St- Henri isn’t Nicolas convert onto a community garden and Hamel’s first bar in Montreal, but gathering place. he’s doing things a little bit differently “It’s my first place that’s not just this time. The 30-year-old owner of about business,” Hamel explained. “I Mme Lee has been in the bar industry want it to be a place where people since he was 16. He also used to own can eventually say, ‘Hey, I helped grow Newspeak, Ping Pong Club and Studio those vegetables.’ That’s part of the 270, a recording studio in the Plateau. mentality that I’m trying to build, but But he doesn’t see Riverside as just it’s complicated and it takes time.” another bar.

Part of Hamel’s vision for the venue “I don’t want Riverside St-Henri to includes creating the most environmentally be seen only as a bar; it’s a community friendly business possible. hub,” Hamel said. “We’re not another “Environmental sustainabilit y is business that’s just there for the trend. super important to me,” Hamel said. He We’re trying to help and get involved in is focused on using sustainable water the community long-term.” and smart waste management programs Hamel has big plans for Riverside—as to limit Riverside’s ecological footprint. big as the property’s 10,000 square foot “The way the location is set up allows grounds. Work is in progress to add a me to test stuff, like capturing rain water. community garden for families, a café I cannot do that in a downtown location, but I can try that [at Riverside],” Hamel said.

Even within Riverside’s existing functions as a bar and club, there’s a lot of flexibility. “To go from a chill beer garden to a nice wine bar to a good club, it's all about timing and refinement," Hamel said.

“I have a clientele for every time of the night. Everybody from the youth of Westmount and N.D.G. to the moms and pops of St-Henri.”

However, Hamel acknowledged Owner Nicolas Hamel is also a renowned DJ in the city and aims to make Riverside a musical hub. Photo by Adrian Knowler. that the way the public perceives and restaurant to go with the multitude of night-life options already offered in the city. He has a three-year roadmap for integrating new features into the venue, like free Wi-Fi throughout the property and seminars hosted in the building or the venue’s garden space.

Riverside is also the home to experimental events, such as a live 3D virtual reality broadcast organized by a crew from Université du Québec à Montréal in September.

Riverside, which opened in July, is a venue that doesn’t fall neatly into an existing category of business. It’s a wine bar, but it’s also a dance club. Inside, there are booths to sit at and a huge bar. Step outside and you’re on a casual outdoor beer garden-style terrasse with colourful picnic tables, a shipping container fashioned into a bar and young people chatting around oil drums painted à la Keith Haring. The soft lighting is provided

Riverside is out of his control. “People are very quick now to put something in a box.”

When it comes to delivering quality wine to his clientele, Hamel said he is trying to encourage younger people to enjoy high-end wines while keeping the price down. “We’re trying to push quality, niche wines to a more [accessible] market,” Hamel said. “We’re trying to elevate the willingness of people to discover more.”

The size of the venue gives Hamel some advantages such as partnering with local restaurants and food trucks that sell in front of Riverside every day.

Hamel plans to add a full kitchen to Riverside as well. “I want to eventually have somebody come at eight in the morning for a coffee and stay until 3 a.m. at the club,” he said. “My goal is to have seven different businesses with seven different ambiances.”

As well as being a bar owner, Hamel is a 12-year veteran of the Montreal DJing scene and just released a techno project with his DJ partner under the name Anti Anti. He said he wants Riverside to become a “musical hub.”

He described the music the venue plays on its massive sound system as “more dance, boogie, disco-ish stuff.” ”We do have some hip hop playing, but it’s not a Top 40 place,” Hamel added.

“It’s quality music but very accessible.

I want people to feel somewhere else when they’re here.”

Hamel draws positive comparisons between outdoor music festivals like Osheaga and the atmosphere at Riverside.

“When you go to a festival, everybody is smiling. When I created this place, that was the mentality I wanted to bring.”

OCTOBER 17, 2017

theconcordian

9

HUMANS OF CONCORDIA

An exchange student begins her first business: Roma Experiences

TingLi Lorigiano during her stay in Santorini, Greece. Photo courtesy of TingLi Lorigiano.

Concordia alumna TingLi Lorigiano shares her travel exchange experience SANDRA HERCEGOVA LIFE EDITOR

various restaurants and to visit historical sites such as the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill.

With a major in genetic engineering and experience in the tech industry, Lorigiano had no problem setting up her own website and logistics for her business. After creating all the social media accounts, she hired 10 people to be part of her team. “I raised a team from one to 10 in my first three months in a country that I’ve never worked in before, and I didn’t yet speak fluent Italian. I hired tour guides and team promoters. We delivered wonderful historical experiences to Chinese tourists at least three times a day,” she said. “I had to be very meticulous with logistics. I had to buy tickets ahead of time, I had to know how the Colosseum ticketing system worked.”

According to Lorigiano, Roma Experiences has been running for the last eight months

Travelling across Europe, going on student exchange, learning a new language and starting a business all sound like goals many young people have on their bucket list. One student not only managed to accomplish all these things, but she did it in just one year.

Concordia alumna TingLi Lorigiano embarked on a year-long student exchange to Italy, during which time she also visited 30 cities in 10 countries. During her stay in Italy, Lorigiano founded Roma Experiences, the first Chinese tour operator service in Rome.

“I was at the Colosseum in Rome, and I realised that there weren’t any Chinese tour groups,” she said. “So, I inquired what the situation was like, and I decided that I would just start my own.”

Lorigiano is of Italian and Chinese descent and grew up immersed in both cultures. “I grew up with serious Chinese traditions and very traditional Italian traditions. I always had to explain Italian traditions to my Chinese friends and vice versa,” she said. “I felt that it’s important for Chinese visitors to learn about Italian traditions, so I wanted to help them learn about Italian culture.”

According to Lorigiano, no one working in the piazza of the Colosseum spoke Chinese—most were European. “There was a language barrier,” she said. “I connected the two worlds.” Lorigiano speaks fluent Mandarin and was learning to speak Italian at that time. She is now fluent in Italian.

She started by organizing tours where Camels in the Marrakech Morocco desert. Photo by TingLi Lorigiano. she would bring Chinese tourists to

and has generated $40,000 CAD in sales revenue. “I was able to sustain myself for the last seven months in Italy. I used the money to travel, pay my rent, live in Rome,” she said.

The business is still running now that Lorigiano is home. The company’s vice-president took over the company.

“It’s pretty cool to know that, before this year, in Rome, there were no Chinese tours available. And now they are,” Lorigiano said.

Creating Roma Experiences was an enriching leadership experience for Lorigiano.

“It taught me a lot about business, and it showed me that my passions are not in tourism. My passion is in tech. I was way more interested in the website, e-commerce and the retail technology part of it.”

In November, Lorigiano is moving to London to work for a tech startup. “I knew that I wanted to work somewhere where the tech scene was more apparent, more

vivid and vibrant, so London was the best choice for me,” she said.

Based on her experience, Lorigiano insisted that studying abroad can be life-changing. “You never know what is going to happen,” she said. “That’s why it’s important to go on exchange [...]

People grow up in Montreal, they work in Montreal, but there are so many other opportunities. Being Canadian, you have great visa opportunities as well.”

Lorigiano said she would advise students to check out all the job, volunteer and internship opportunities offered at Concordia to see what might interest them.

“Make a list of things that you think are really important, and just highlight what you want to go visit or inquire about,” she said. "You grow the most when you are put in the most uncomfortable situations such as travelling and being part of things that you are not comfortable with.”

Mountains in the northern part of Italy at Bolzano-Trentino Alto Adige.

Photo by TingLi Lorigiano.

arts

ARTS EDITOR /// arts@theconcordian.com MAGGIE HOPE

EXHIBITION

Many gathered at Galerie Antoine Ertaskiran for the exhibition’s opening on Oct. 11. Photo by Kirubel Mehari.

The vibrant landscape of our political climate

Nicolas Grenier debuts latest works in his first solo exhibition with Montreal gallery MAGGIE HOPE ARTS EDITOR “If I was to … think about how to position myself within the current political landscape, which words or concepts would I use to start laying down the ground?”

This was one of the questions artist Nicolas Grenier asked himself when creating the works for his most recent exhibition.

The multi-disciplinary artist and alumnus of Concordia’s fine arts program teamed up with Galerie Antoine Ertaskiran to present Precarious Geographies, a collection of paintings examining ideas of political and social structures. Grenier, who is interested in contemporary politics and news, wanted to create works that expressed concepts like personal beliefs and activism and what they mean within our current political climate. He then came up with the idea of representing them by using diagrams to, essentially, “map” them out.

According to the artist, Precarious Geographies is about the relationship between activism and philosophy. Grenier explained that, since the election of the current American president, people have

become more outspoken and committed to their political views. The artist said he believes that by taking an activist stance, a person must “believe in something enough to fight for it.” This idea can present some problems, however, because it assumes a person’s view or belief is absolute. In his life and work, Grenier enjoys questioning the concept of absolute ideas, and so he decided to explore it further.

Upon coming up with this idea, Grenier then asked himself: “How do I, as a painter, visually display [it]?” The artist, who sometimes spends months developing his projects, admitted he liked the idea of land as a starting point for the pieces in Precarious Geographies. He used it to build upon the ideas and concepts in his paintings.

From there, the artist decided to include elements of text and diagrams, as a way to surprise the viewer since diagrams are not usually in conventional paintings. According to Grenier, the use of words in his paintings “restricts the range of interpretations [of a piece], but it also pushes the work in a specific direction. It has some openness, but also some closure.” The exhibition is Grenier’s attempt to physically map out “philosophical and political ambiguities”

A viewer observes Grenier’s piece, titled What We Want / What You Want. Photo by Kirubel Mehari.

that exist in the current political climate of the Western world by painting them in an abstract but concrete way.

A piece titled Going for it occupies an entire wall of the gallery. A warm, brick-coloured background gives way to what can only be described as a “stack” of different coloured squares. The bottoms of the squares fade into horizontal lines that stretch across the bottom third of the canvas. Sharp edges and perfect gradients showcase Grenier’s practiced technique and make it hard to believe the pieces are in fact paintings and not graphic art.

The colours Grenier uses are extremely saturated and somewhat unnatural. The artist explained that it sometimes takes him months to develop and mix colours, and although he admitted that nature does influence his work, he wanted to create colours not typically seen in the natural world.

On a wall adjacent to Going for it hangs What We Want / What You Want, one of the more vibrant pieces within the exhibition. A large block of colour sits in the middle of the canvas, and resembles a cross-section of a piece of earth. The top layer of the block is a deep blue with white flecks, emulating a night sky. Lines cut across this layer, diagonally

dividing the block into four sections—much like axes on a grid. At the ends of each axis is written—in small, inconspicuous text—the words “what we want” or “what you want.”

Since the two axes travel in opposite directions, the piece suggests the two phrases exist in separate spaces. Underneath the blanket of deep blue are layers of bright reds, greens and burgundies. The block is suspended against a background gradient of vibrant yellow and red.

Both Going for it and What We Want / What You Want were created this year. The entire collection of works in this exhibition came together over the past 12 to 18 months.

A self-proclaimed thoughtful and meticulous artist, Grenier allows himself ample time to mull ideas over and carefully assemble every piece. The artist, who works out of Montreal and Los Angeles, is excited to share his first solo collaboration with Galerie Antoine Ertaskiran.

Precarious Geographies will be on display until Nov. 11. The gallery is located at 1892 Payette St. and is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, or by appointment.

Admission is free.

One of Grenier’s larger works, Going for it, occupies an entire wall of the gallery. Photo by Kirubel Mehari.

OCTOBER 17, 2017

theconcordian

11

EXHIBITION

Creating stunning visuals across disciplines Concordia painting and drawing professor, François Morelli, exhibits his life’s work

CHLOË LALONDE ASSISTANT ARTS EDITOR Large-scale ink and watercolour drawings adorn the walls of 1700 La Poste, while wire sculptures take over its main floor space. The pieces were crafted by François Morelli, a professor of painting and drawing at Concordia whose work ranges from free drawing and sculpture to performance and ink stamping.

Pieces straight from Morelli’s sketchbook are linked together to create a mural in the upstairs balcony space of the gallery.

Morelli's Belthead project rests in the back room of the gallery. Huge, colourful drawings of tangled belts cover the walls like vines, bringing attention to a sculpture by the entrance, which inspired the drawings.

In a documentary which screens every 10 minutes after the hour in the gallery’s basement, Morelli says: “Do what you do because it is important to do it.” It is a message that will resonate with most people regardless of their involvement in the arts.

With his work, Morelli creates a whimsical world where it's okay to make mistakes. Ink blotches, both large and small, are welcome.

Morelli explained that he often starts drawing with a few random strokes and continues intuitively from there. In most of his work, the viewer is able to see lightly painted lines that could have transformed the piece into something completely different, yet the artist chose not to follow them. His approach is authentic and unfiltered—a process which was likely taught to him over

the course of many years. the sidewalk, people and the flow of people The first was Migration, which involved a As a painting and drawing student at in transit all became involved in the artist's hay sculpture being carried from the United Concordia in the 70s, Morelli began doing performance work.

Nations to St-Jean-Port-Joli, Que. rubbings of the trees on his street and A sculpture from one of Morelli’s collections, Creating art, teaching art and performeasuring the distance between them. titled Marche Transatlantique, is featured mance art have a symbiotic relationship in Rubbing involves placing a sheet of paper in the exhibition. Marche Transatlantique Morelli’s body of work. One cannot exist on a textured surface and rubbing it with a was the result of a romantic affiliation and without the other. pencil or another medium, so the textured a personal invitation. In this performance pattern of the surface transfers onto the piece, Morelli walked with the absurd, paper. According to the artist, his goal was grotesque sculpture on his back from the François Morelli’s exhibition will be on display to make a large drawing on a scroll that Berlin Wall to Philadelphia, where he was at 1700 La Poste (1700 Notre-Dame St. would interact and engage with what was invited to participate in an exhibition. This W.) until Dec. 17. The gallery is open from on the street by including textures, lengths performance was the second of three walks. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Wednesday to Sunday. and measurements.

“As I was doing this, the police stopped me, asking me what I was doing. I told them I was making a drawing, making art,” the artist said.

“From that point on, I realised that, in doing this, I would be interfacing with people and they are going to be asking me questions.”

Morelli said that over llection. elli’s Belthead co in François Mor e ec pi A the years, he has been . ntique sculpture arche Transatla M e building on the idea of th of es ch Morelli’s sket social movement. He explained that, in using public spaces for his art, he takes an anthropological approach to his practice and works with historical sites and the social, political and economic realities surrounding The sculpture François Morelli used in his them. Architecture, performance piece titled Marche Transatlantique.

Photos by Chloë Lalonde.

FILM FESTIVAL

Artfully showcasing unsettling stories

Highlights from the Festival du nouveau cinéma include striking films from two Canadian filmmakers ALEXANDRA COLATOSTI SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR

The Festival du nouveau cinéma wrapped up on Oct. 15, following two weeks of showcasing some of the best new films of the year. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights.

La petite fille qui aimait trop les allumettes It’s difficult to describe this film as anything but disturbing and violent, but it’s not a bad film by any means. Directed by Québécois filmmaker Simon Lavoie, La petite fille qui aimait trop les allumettes will stay with you long after you’ve seen it due to its graphic depiction of family abuse, neglect and assault. Teenaged Ali (played formidably by Marine Johnson) was raised to believe she was a boy. The film

shows her living in isolation with her brother and volatile father, who beats them senselessly any time they step out of line. Although the film is shot in black-and-white, Lavoie still manages to convey the gruesome details, which only elevate the film’s morbidity. Ali’s father seems haunted by a life-altering event, told only in flashbacks throughout the film.

In present day, Ali is not only unaware she is a girl—she also doesn’t understand that her brother impregnated her when he raped her in the woods. When a sympathetic man from a nearby town explains who she is and what happened to her, Ali takes control of her life and fights for survival. But when the truth of her family’s secrets are finally revealed, it feels like a punch to the gut. Despite the heartbreaking revelation, the film ends with a glimmer of hope, making it worth all Ali had to endure.

Marine Johnson plays Ali in La petite fille qui aimait trop les allumettes.

Sweet Virginia There is nothing sweet about this film, and that’s what makes its title so effective. Set in a small town where three brutal murders have just taken place, Sweet Virginia tells the story of Sam (played by Jon Bernthal), a tortured ex-bull-rider who now manages a motel, and his friendship with Elwood (Christopher Abbott), a deranged hitman who inserts himself into Sam’s life. Rounding out the main cast are Rosemarie DeWitt and Imogen Poots as Bernadette and Lila—two disgruntled widows harbouring a few secrets of their own. Elwood books a room at Sam’s motel shortly after murdering three men in a local diner, two of whom are Bernadette and Lila’s husbands. Sam befriends Elwood, not knowing who he is, and the two strike up a rapport. The tension between them rapidly

builds as Elwood’s motives—and Sam’s connection to one of the victims—becomes clear. Bernthal impresses as the quiet, kindheart Sam, but Abbott is the true standout here. He showcases Elwood’s increasingly maniacal and sociopathic behaviour through subtle gestures—such as his ever-present and ever-creepy groan—along with an off-puttingly upbeat candor. While the ending is rather predictable, the audience is still jolted out of their seats when the film reaches its climax. Moreover, the film is visually stunning. Director Jamie M. Dagg managed to capture interesting features even in the most mundane settings, such as a motel room or the front seat of a car, through non-traditional camera placement.

If you’re into crime thrillers set in moody small towns, then Sweet Virginia is for you.

Jon Bernthal (right) and Christopher Abbott star in Sweet Virginia, a chilling and cinematic thriller.

music

Quickspins

MUSIC EDITOR /// music@theconcordian.com CALVIN CASHEN

1

THINKPIECE

The musical moments in our daily lives The world is filled with subtle sound cues that largely go unnoticed

WALTER TV

Carpe Diem (Sinderlyn, 2017)

Carpe Diem is the third album from Montreal-based trio Water TV. The album lives up to its name, “seizing the day,” with laid-back guitar lines and dreamy vocals throughout. “Begotten,” opens the album with timid vocals over soft strumming that builds and breaks with crashing cymbals and clapping hands, before tumbling into the high-energy second track, “Graceland.” “Spring Time” is a sunny interlude, a sonic ray of light juxtaposed beside the eerie “Laura Palmer,” a fitting reference to the crime drama series Twin Peaks . “Alaska Cruisin’” is a refreshing, upbeat moment amongst the sleepy nostalgic vibes that define the rest of the album. Where it capitalizes on warm, relaxed melodies to sustain its mellow vibe, Carpe Diem seems to lose emotional intensity in its redundancy, making for light, easy listening and not much else.

11 Trial Track: “Spring Time”

7.1/10 — MACKENZIE LAD, PHOTO ASSISTANT

HUSSAIN ALMAHR ASSISTANT MUSIC EDITOR My first time riding the Montreal metro was like a sci-fi experience due to the glowing fluorescent lights and the sheer amount of people.

Growing up in Saudi Arabia, we didn’t have the infrastructure for public transportation—although the country is currently building a metro system in the capital city, Riyadh—so riding the metro was a very foreign concept to me. I was mostly entranced by the sounds the metro made—the simple three notes that played when the doors were about to close. So I decided to research that little chime.

That sound serves a dual purpose: to warn passengers to stay clear of the doors and to give a certain ambiance to the metro. This simple melody has a very interesting history. According to the magazine Spacing Montreal , the sound originated from a metro ad in the 70s called: “Il fait beau dans l'métro.” The ad opens with a heavily synthed version of the chime. The rest of the ad is a ridiculously charming musical about the metro, filmed at Atwater station.

This chime is unique to the type of metro train Montreal uses, the MR-73.

According to Spacing Montreal, the chime was sampled from the engine noise the MR-73 makes. This specific train model has been around for a long time and, though it may sometimes feel and look antiquated, these trains helped create the charming sci-fi,

three-note melody. Even the new train models, used on the orange line, use the same chime.

People hear this melody everyday, but most don’t give it a second thought.

Repetitive sounds become par t of our daily lives, almost fading into the background. Yet, these sounds always have an interesting backstory.

The 516th episode of the popular podcast This American Life featured an 81-year-old man named Dick, who has an obsession with on-hold music—music that plays when we’re waiting on the phone. It wasn’t just any on-hold music.

It was a certain track he couldn’t name but always heard. So This American Life helped Dick track down the name of the tune and the story behind it. They eventually contacted the composers, Tim Carleton and Darrick Deel.

The friends collaborated on this track while in high school in 1989.

The track is called “Opus No. 1,” and was recorded in Carleton’s garage.

Years later, Deel started working for communication company Cisco, on their CallManager project—their enterprise phone line. He was given the opportunity to choose the default on-hold music for Cisco’s line of products. Eventually, this track became the default on-hold music for Cisco products all over the world.

Even though Dick had heard this track many times, and in the most annoying conditions—waiting on the phone for hours—he just loved this song. It would inspire him to spend hours looking for a song that was made in a teenager’s garage.

I have this vivid memory of watching a nature documentary on VHS as a child. I was alone in a dark room, watching a bunch of bugs on a leaf, when the music captured my imagination. It was some kind of ambient electronic music that had a particular educational-video sound. Every now and then, I look for that videotape in my parents’ house, just so I can re-experience the music that, in a lot of ways, shaped my musical taste.

Not even the most ardent music fans start their musical fascination with highly conceptual albums, but rather through ver y a memorable and simplistic melody they heard constantly. I remember thinking the pinnacle of music was the Grease soundtrack cassette my mother used to play before I went to bed. Eventually, my interests led me to listen to full albums and discover different artists, but my musical interests were initially sparked by a nature documentary and the Grease soundtrack.

We have an antiquated hierarchy of music. The world typically looks down on “primitive” music, like what’s used in commercials or the metro’s simple chime, and praises “high art” music, like John Coltrane’s intricate ja z z alb um s . Ye t , m u s i c co m e s , and is consumed, in many forms.

It's important to embrace all the different ways music affects us.

Sometimes , the most inane and least artistic music sticks with us the longest.

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin.

2

PROTOMARTYR Relatives in Descent (Domino, 2017) Protomartyr has returned with yet another darkly melodic and post-punk sensible album. Relatives in Descent rings with the same dark moodiness as Joy Division and The Cure, but manages to sound incredibly modern. Unfortunately, this blend of influences comes at the expense of the album’s quality, which sounds all too similar to the band’s previous releases.

Despite that, Protomartyr still knows how to write a mean hook, capturing brooding melancholy with a confrontational and muscular sound. Relatives in Descent pulls its power from familiarity. Protomartyr has built a prominent career on throwback post-punk sounds. It’s a shame, then, that the antiquated sounds the band pulls its influence from may contribute to its eventual downfall. Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with a throwback album, but it needs a bit of variety to retain the listener’s attention.

11 Trial Track: “A Private Understanding”

6.5/10 — CALVIN CASHEN, MUSIC EDITOR

OCTOBER 17, 2017

theconcordian

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PROFILE 3

ALVVAYS Antisocialites (Polyvinyl Records, 2017) After incessant touring and the inescapably infectious sleeper-hit “Archie, Marry Me,” Toronto outfit Alvvays has returned with a brand new album. In it, the band establishes a more refined sound, including more studio flourishes and even brighter sonics. The sounds that resonate throughout Antisocialites explore the same formula Alvvays presented with their debut album—cute, bubblegum-pop songs mixed with a brash and loud 90s flare.

Upon first listen, it’s clear Alvvays has abandoned their lo-fi leanings in exchange for squeaky clean, studio-quality recordings.

This is especially evident on the album’s best track, “Plimsoll Punks.” Like that song, much of the instrumentals incorporate twangy, spacey hooks bathed in an ocean of reverb.

It’s not exactly the most halting effort in the indie-rock canon, but a step in the right direction for a band still trying to find their footing.

11 Trial Track: “Plimsoll Punks”

6.8/10 — CALVIN CASHEN, MUSIC EDITOR

FOR EDITOR’S PICKS S THE BEST SONG WEEK RELEASED THIS

CJLO: Revamping and ready for more Josh Spencer is a long-time concert booker in Montreal’s local music scene ADRIAN KNOWLER STAFF WRITER These days, students aren’t listening to the radio like they used to. It makes sense, of course. With platforms like Spotify and SoundCloud offering music fans access to almost any track in modern recording history, the old-school radio model doesn’t match up with university students’ lifestyles. “‘If I can access every single song ever created on my phone, at any time, why the hell would I tune in?’” asked Josh Spencer, CJLO’s director of sponsorship, promotion and fundraising.

“Radio can be cool,” Spencer insisted. But he’s not blind to how many see the medium these days. “It can also be super lame.”

So how does CJLO plan to avoid the lameness of radio?

The man tasked with giving the station’s identity a makeover said he believes the answer is twofold.

“I really want to brand the station around discovery and local music,” Spencer said.

“When I tune in to CJLO, I’m going to hear music coming from my community, bands that I can check out live for like five bucks.”

Spencer joined CJLO in February, bringing several years of experience in local music management and promotion to the organization. His involvement in the Montreal music scene began when he graduated from McGill in 2015.

“I started managing three bands and one solo artist, booking house concert tours across

Canada, and started putting on festivals, the KickDrum Winter Marathon and Summer Marathon,” Spencer recalled. “Over two years, I put on over 150 shows with over 200 artists.”

The connections he built with artists, promoters and venues are helping CJLO become the destination on the dial for Montreal’s local music.

“I’ve had a lot of those artists approach me and say, ‘Hey I heard you’re at CJLO now.

Can I come in for an interview? Can I come in for a live session?’” Spencer said. “So we’ve already increased the amount of local artists [on the station].”

Spencer knows the importance of live shows to local artists and said he thinks that, by organizing them through the radio station, CJLO can stay relevant in the age of music streaming.

“Artists don’t sell CDs, they don’t sell music,” Spencer acknowledged. “[Concerts are] how [artists] connect, and how [musicians] make some money. The magical moments of music happen live.”

Spencer has used his old connections as a promoter to book CJLO-branded live shows around the city.

Every month until March, CJLO will host music department showcases, featuring genres such as hip hop, alt-rock, metal, world and electronic. Each showcase will

be held at Casa del Popolo and will highlight a different genre each month.

Spencer has big plans on the horizon for CJLO, starting with the launch of their new website in January. But it doesn’t end there.

“We want to move to FM, but the problem is that the dial’s full. We’re waiting for space to open up so we can bid on an FM signal," Spencer said. "We also want to move downtown. We want to be at Sir George Williams, but we’re not going to move unless we can get the same quality of space [as our offices on the Loyola campus].”

Spencer grinned with anticipation.

“We’re poised to pounce.”

Josh oversees all promotions inside and outside CJLO. Photo by Adrian Knowler.

PROFILE

Beach Fossils’ return is long overdue After a four-year hiatus, the band’s comeback is now set in stone

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SARAH JESMER STAFF WRITER It has been four long years since the music world heard new material from Beach Fossils. The band is back and here to stay with their new record, Somersault. Which sounds similar to their earlier works, yet, the final package is somehow different somehow.

During their hiatus, the group has learned more about what they want to sound like as a collective and what they want to offer as artists. It’s evident the band took their time—lead singer Dustin Payseur started a record label

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Sufjan Stevens (Asthmatic Kitty)

Payseur and bassist John Pena jam on stage. Photo by Sarah Jesmer.

with his wife. Now, he’s ready to come back into the spotlight with his bandmates.

Somersault, is a breezy, lo-fi, jangle rock record that feels like a good weekend with friends. Tracks like “This Year,” driven by a repetitive, soft guitar, are paired with the lush strings of a subtle orchestra.

The album is more energized, polished and exciting than Beach Fossils’ previous albums. The vocals cut through the guitar with piercing clarity, showcasing Payseur’s lyrics. This mix adds a dimension, while violins carry the songs softly in the back.

The far-out, beachy, garage tones of their 2010 debut album are sprinkled in small doses throughout the new album. This can be clearly heard on tracks like “Saint Ivy,” but this stylistic approach is intentional. It’s no longer just jamming for Beach Fossils.

The album features collaborations with Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell, in a back-and-forth duet with Payseur in “Tangerine.” The two pair up again in a spoken-word interlude, accompanied

by Cities Aviv on sultry saxophones, in “Rise Up.” The tones of this track are reminiscent of James Blake’s vocals.

“There’s not enough collaboration in rock music,” said Payseur about working with fellow artists, something he hopes to do again in the future.

And there will be a future, according to Payseur. Every Beach Fossils album feels like the last, he said, despite the

fact this new album is so unique. It marks the beginning of a new direction for the band, which will entail more features, more teamwork and promoting what they stand for as a band.

Payseur’s lyrics come from his own experiences, drawing on relationships with friends and significant others. Beach Fossils’ albums don’t stick to just one story. The record is an ode to someone close to the the singer, whoever that may be.

Somersault’s lyrics are coupled with sweet nostalgia and a whisper of political references. In “Down The Line,” Payseur references A.C.A.B. (the anti-police acronym meaning “All Cops are Bastards”) and a personal rejection of Wall Street. These political slants are new but necessary, according to Payseur.

This is shown in the lyrics, “Wanna believe in America, but it’s somewhere I can’t find,” featured in “Saint Ivy.” “It’s shitty to be in a place of privilege, like a white man, and be completely silent about things [going on in the United States],” he said, explaining why it’s important for the band to use their platform for advocacy.

“Actions speak louder than words. Getting out and participating in protests and putting money towards certain organizations, that stuff goes a long way,” Payseur said.

The Brooklyn-based band performed in Montreal last week, the third stop in their North American tour, accompanied

by Snail Mail and raener.

sports

SPORTS EDITOR /// sports@theconcordian.com NICHOLAS DI GIOVANNI ( @nickdg11)

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

Only hard work will take Stingers back to nationals Head coach Julie Chu expects players to give their best effort all season NICHOLAS DI GIOVANNI SPORTS EDITOR A season after playing at the national championships, the head coach of the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team, Julie Chu, knows only one thing can get them back there.

“We know the only reason we got [to nationals] was from hard work,” Chu said. “Nothing changes this year in our preparation. We’re going to expect our players to come in and give effort to be the best everyday.”

Last year, the Stingers finished in third place in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) with a 10-9-1 record during the regular season. They upset second-place Université de Montréal Carabins in the semi-final, which qualified them for the national championship. In the RSEQ final, the Stingers lost to the first-place McGill Martlets.

At nationals in March, the Stingers made it all the way to the bronze-medal game where they lost to the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds, with a score of 2-0. The Stingers finished the season as the fourth-best team in U Sports.

On Oct. 11, U Sports listed the Stingers fourth in their pre-season rankings. But for Chu, until Concordia steps onto the ice, they haven’t proven anything.

Julie Chu wants the Stingers to win a national championship, but they have to focus on the small details first. Photo by Kirubel Mehari.

“It’s always nice to be ranked and be considered a top team, but we haven’t played a regular season game yet, so for me in all honesty, it doesn’t mean a lot,” Chu said.

The Stingers have been preparing for the start of their regular season since training camp began in August. The Stingers started their pre-season in September, with three wins in three home games against the Brock Badgers, the York Lions and the Queen’s Gaels.

“It’s always great to contribute offensively, but what was fun for [those three games] was that there were a lot of different people who contributed,” Chu said. “It wasn’t two or three people who were scoring the majority of the goals. It was spread out amongst the players.”

Rookie forward Vyckie Gélinas was one of the players who scored, with a goal against Queen’s. Chu said Gélinas is part of a group of first-year players on the team ready to contribute goals and offensive production.

First-year forward Lidia Fillion also picked up

an assist in that game, and she is a player Chu expects will make an impact both offensively and defensively with the Stingers this season.

“Fillion is doing a good job of shifting into playing at [the universit y] level, and she’ll continue to adjust to the speed of t he g ame,” Chu s aid . “But she’s a t remendously smar t player, so she knows how to play with and without the puck.”

Regardless of who the captain and assistant captains are, Chu said she wants all her players to be leaders.

She also doesn’t want leadership to be limited to her forwards and defencemen.

“Even though Katherine Purchase is a goaltender for us, she has a big voice on our team. She has a great presence and will be a tremendous leader as well,” Chu said.

The coach added that the team’s ultimate goal this season is to win a national championship. But Chu said players have to focus on the small things first, like being great student-athletes and working hard for the team.

“We have to be willing to work hard everyday, set the tone and execute when it counts the most.”

The Stingers opened their season away against the Ottawa Gee-Gees on Oct. 15 with a 3-1 loss. Their next game is Oct. 21 at home against the McGill Martlets.

BASKETBALL

Previewing the 2017-18 NBA season Western Conference teams got stronger this off-season with multiple acquisitions DEAN BERTOIA CONTRIBUTOR Fa n s of t h e N ati o n a l B a s ke t b a l l Association (NBA) can rejoice as the wait for 2017-18 season ends on Oct. 17, with the Boston Celtics traveling to Cleveland to take on the Cavaliers.

This past off-season was full of league-altering moves, as seven of last season’s All-Stars ended up with new teams.

This has hoop fans drooling to see how these new-look rosters will click, and if any teams are good enough to topple the reigning champion Golden State Warriors. Here are three interesting stories to keep an eye on throughout the upcoming season.

WESTERN DOMINANCE Most of the big-time off-season moves saw big-name talent move from the Eastern Conference to the Western Conference. Three perennial playoff teams in the Eastern Conference—the Chicago Bulls, Indiana Pacers and Atlanta Hawks— chose to move their former franchise players to the Western Conference in favour of rebuilding with younger players.

Chicago traded shooting guard Jimmy

Butler to the Minnesota Timberwolves, Indiana moved forward Paul George to the Oklahoma City Thunder, and forward Paul Millsap was traded from Atlanta to the Denver Nuggets.

The West was already widely considered the more talented conference of the two, winning three of the last four NBA champions. This influx of talent has created multiple contenders to be Western Conference champions, such as the Timberwolves and Thunder.

The Warriors, who didn’t lose a single playoff game in the Western Conference before last year's final, will undoubtedly have a harder hill to climb this year.

THE YEAR OF THE ROOKIE This year’s draft class is being hailed as the best since the famous 2003 NBA Draft, which saw the likes of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Carmelo Anthony enter the league.

Now, multiple teams are counting on rookies to make an immediate impact.

The Philadelphia 76ers drafted point guard Markelle Fultz with the first pick, and hope his addition to their collection of top prospects will help end their fiveyear playoff drought. The Los Angeles

Lakers used the second pick on polarizing prospect Lonzo Ball. They hope the point guard’s court vision and passing ability can kickstart a new generation of stars in Los Angeles. Ninth pick Dennis Smith Jr. is the dark horse to win Rookie of the Year honours, as he is an athletic, scoring point guard who will play plenty of minutes for the Dallas Mavericks.

PENDING FREE AGENTS (LEBRON JAMES) At the end of this season, James has an option on his contract that allows him to stay with the Cleveland Cavaliers or become a free agent. His big decision is inevitable, as he is likely to opt-out in search of more money, and maybe even a new team. Whether he acknowledges it or not, the success of his team this season will play a heavy role in his decision.

A number of All-Stars, such as C l e ve l a n d ’s I s a i a h Thomas, Houston

Rockets’ Chris Paul and the New Orleans Pelicans’ DeMarcus Cousins, also have expiring contracts this year. If those teams are not successful this season, look for them to trade these players late in the season for prospects or draft picks, in case they plan to leave in the off-season.

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin.

OCTOBER 17, 2017

COVER STORY

theconcordian

15

COLOUR COMMENTARY

BY NICHOLAS DI GIOVANNI

Moritz Wittmann tore his ACL before the 2016 season, and had to watch as his team only won one game. Photo by Kirubel Mehari.

A triumphant road to recovery

After missing the 2016 season with an injury, Moritz Wittmann returned to Stingers ready to lead

NICHOLAS DI GIOVANNI SPORTS EDITOR One year ago, Moritz Wittmann was playing in an exhibition rugby match for the Concordia Stingers when his right knee buckled. He partially tore the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his right knee, but the injury didn’t require surgery at the time.

“Two months later, I was sort of good to run again, and I did the same thing. [The knee] buckled, and [the ACL] completely tore,” said Wittmann, who plays as a fly half. He had surgery on his knee in February after missing the Stingers' entire 2016 season.

Without Wittmann and several other players who also had knee injuries, the Stingers suffered with a 1-6 record during the regular season. For Wittmann, not being able to join his teammates on the field was heartbreaking.

“You watch the guys out there, and you want to be in there, and you want to play,” Wittmann said. “At times, you can’t even watch. It’s hard.

Especially with rugby, it’s such a physical sport, if you’re not taking part in the pain, you feel like you’re not part of the team.”

Moritz Wittmann, with his taped knee, makes a pass during the 2017 season.

Photo by Brianna Thicke.

However, head coach Craig Beemer saw a positive side to Wittmann’s injury. He said Wittmann never missed a practice, and he helped out the team however he could.

“I have seen a lot of players ‘disappear’ for the year after something as devastating as that, but in this case I saw the exact opposite,” Beemer said in an email to The Concordian. “He never let his frustrations show even though you knew, deep down, not being able to step on the field was killing him.”

After Wittmann’s surgery in February, he recovered in time for the 2017 season.

But his road to recovery wasn’t a smooth ride. The biggest bump along his journey was having to give up day-to-day activities for the first two months post-surgery.

“I’m used to just walking around, being active, running and doing any kind of sport,” Wittmann said. “So when you’re in bed for two months, you feel [bad]. You feel like you have less agency over your body; you don’t have control over it.”

Step-by-step, Wittmann went through the rehabilitation process to heal and strengthen his knee. During the recovery, his goal was to play in the Stingers’ first game of the 2017 season against the McGill Redmen. He played in that game, scored two tries, and the Stingers won 38-10. “[ T he g ame] w a s g reat. It w a s unreal, it was so much fun,” Wittmann said while shaking his head with a smirk only seen on people who have f inally accomplished t heir personal goals. He was also named Male Athlete of the Week for the Stingers after that performance.

Following the victory against McGill, the Stingers haven’t stopped winning. They have a 6-0 record and are in first place in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ).

Wittmann has played in all six games and is fifth on the Stingers for most tries, with two. Wittmann said winning games this year is a lot of fun for the whole team, but especially for the players who returned from injuries.

“At the moment, we’re just grateful to be winning a few games,” Wittmann said. “Last year was depressing, especially for most of the guys on the sideline. We would lose by 40 points, and this year we’re just dominating teams. It’s fun.”

Wittmann is in his third year with the Stingers, and even though he has had an adventurous career with the team, he said he never expected to play rugby at Concordia. Wittmann grew up in Zurich, Switzerland, and first heard about Montreal in an in-flight magazine. After high school, Wittmann wanted a new challenge, so he thought Concordia University would be the place to go. He came to study English literature—rugby wasn’t his priority.

“I wasn’t expecting to play here. That wasn’t why I came here,” he said. “I heard they had a rugby team, and I showed up after training camp, and asked, ‘Can I play with you guys?’”

Wittmann started playing rugby at eight years old while he was living in the United Kingdom because he saw his older brother play and was jealous.

Even though he has played the sport all over Europe and in Canada, he said rugby culture between countries isn’t that different.

“The culture is the same, everyone is prett y friendly,” he said. “It ’s sor t of a known thing around the rugby community to be friendly, opening and welcoming to people.”

In coach Beemer's opinion, Wittmann exemplifies this friendly behaviour.

“He wins over his teammates with his incredible attitude and his ability to make everyone feel important and included,” Beemer said. “What you don't see [behind the scenes] is him staying to support the developing players during scrimmages, cleaning up the training field post-practice and [taking on] the role of water boy just to be a part of what we are doing.”

While Wittmann continues helping out his teammates both on and off the pitch, all he wants to do is keep winning.

“I think we can win [the championship].

I’m pretty confident. That’s the goal.”

Montreal Canadiens fans are probably the toughest fans in the sports world right now. I’ve never seen a team start a season with a 1-3-1 record and get more heat from fans than the Canadiens are getting right now.

On the Canadiens’ season-opening road trip, they had a win against the Buffalo Sabres before losing to the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers.

Then, during their home-opener loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Oct. 10, Habs fans showed their frustration with the team by booing them.

The energy at the Bell Centre was depressing during the homeopener. Tomas Plekanec scored 75 seconds into the game, and the arena got some energy as a result. But once Chicago’s Alex DeBrincat and Brandon Saad scored 19 seconds apart late in the f irst period, giving the Blackhawks a lead that held for the rest of the game, the life was sucked out of the arena. By the second period, fans were jeering the Canadiens.

I think these fans seem to forget the Canadiens were only in the fourth game of their 82-game season, and the team can’t get eliminated from the playoffs in October. Relax. It’s not even Halloween and some Habs fans are already scaring me. It’s spooky to see some die-hard fans get so angry at a team so early in a season.

I’m a huge soccer fan and I follow European soccer. One difference I notice between European soccer fans and Habs fans is that, no matter what happens in the game, European soccer fans cheer on their team until the very end. The team might suck and fans might be unhappy, but you won’t hear any boos during games. Sure, they might voice their displeasure before and after games, but they show up to the game to support the players.

That’s your moral responsibility as a fan. You go to the game to cheer on your favourite players, not to boo them because they can’t win at the beginning of a season. It’s demoralizing for players, and surely does not help motivate them.

It’s sad to see Canadiens fans kill the atmosphere of a once-electric arena and turn on their own team. During the game, it’s time to cheer—not voice your displeasure. Sports teams cannot win without fans behind them. If you want the Canadiens to start winning, you need to cheer them on in both wins and losses. After all, hockey is a team sport involving both players and fans.

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

Taking action to prevent sexual assault Once again, a scandal has erupted around allegations of sexual assault at the hands of a powerful man. On Oct. 5, The New York Times reported that several actors, including Rose McGowan and Ashley Judd, came forward saying they had been sexually harassed by producer and former film studio executive Harvey Weinstein. Three women even accused Weinstein of rape.

This scandal has reignited a conversation about sexual assault as celebrities condemn Weinstein’s alleged actions and more people speak out about their own experiences with sexual assault or harassment. Needless to say, this is an issue that extends far beyond Hollywood and needs to be addressed.

Yet it is still easy to feel discouraged and powerless in the face of so many instances of sexual assault that have been ignored or covered up for so long.

Thankfully, closer to home, preventative action is being taken to educate people about sexual assault and consent. Concordia’s Sexual Assault Resource Centre (SARC) recently implemented a mandatory training program for first-year students living in residence. The workshop was designed by the centre’s staff with the purpose of educating new students about sexual consent and communication, according to Jennifer Drummond, the centre’s coordinator.

SARC already offers several consent

and awareness workshops available to faculty, residence assistants and varsity sports teams. Drummond said she hopes these workshops will do more than shed light on sexual assault, but rather educate students and prevent sexual assault from being committed in the first place.

A large part of prevention is about consent

are committed by someone the survivor knows. Although the statistics are widely reported, take a moment to really reflect on these numbers. It’s daunting to realize that one in three women and one in six men will experience sexual violence at some point in their lifetime.

This makes it all the more important to

which is why these workshops focus on sexual consent as it applies to assault and prevention. It is also important to understand that sexual assault can happen anywhere, be it at clubs or bars, on the streets at night, in classes or at parties—even in your own home.

According to statistics provided by SARC, 82 per cent of sexual assaults in Canada

speak out about sexual assault and make sure students recognize the behaviour, understand the necessity of consent and have the tools to intervene. We at The Concordian applaud SARC for implementing this workshop as it is one more step towards ensuring the safety of our fellow students.

We hope one day these workshops will be mandatory for all students and staff.

The more people learn about sexual assault and understand the realities of it, the easier it will be to de-stigmatize this issue and eradicate it from our campus and community.

Open dialogue about rape and assault is the best way for people to understand that these behaviours and actions are unacceptable and will never be okay—nor are they something to joke about. Until we work to ensure our peers are educated about this issue, it will only be that much harder to find solutions and implement change.

The allegations against Weinstein have sparked a conversation, but what needs to happen now is action. We at The Concordian hope to inspire readers to educate themselves about this topic and speak up about the issue.

The one positive outcome of this scandal is that it has empowered more survivors to talk about their experiences and educate others about sexual assault and consent. We want to encourage open discussion on the topic of rape and assault, and we hope this leads to more preventative action.

Whether you are a survivor of sexual assault, know someone who is or are just looking to learn more about the issue, Concordia’s SARC is a good place to start. For more information or to reach out for support, call 514-848-2424 ext.

3461 or visit the drop-in centre in the Hall building, H-645.

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin.

MENTAL HEALTH

Mental illness is as serious as physical illnesses

The stigma around mental illness needs to end, and the conversations need to start TRAVIS SANDERSON STAFF WRITER Full disclosure: I suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). If I’m not medicated, it will take me 20 minutes or more just to get out of my apartment in the morning. I will check to make sure the back door is locked several times over. I will check repeatedly that the stove and oven are off, despite having eaten cold cereal for breakfast.

Then I need to verify that nothing near the heaters could start a fire, even in the summer when I know the heaters are off.

Finally, and most importantly, if I cannot see the cat when I close the front door to leave, I assume that he has escaped and is lost somewhere outside. All the while, I keep my right hand on the pocket where my keys go to make sure I haven’t left them inside (and won’t be subsequently locked out).

I know a lot of people have morning routines, and they may even have similar rituals themselves. However, in my daily life, I must do these things. It’s not just a habit—it’s something that releases a pressure inside me and satisfies a seemingly physical need.

Now, keep in mind, this is just my attempt to leave home. None of this says anything of the day-long struggle to keep everything and everyone doing what I need them to do in a way that appeases these compulsions.

That is the most exhausting part.

This is my everyday experience if I am not medicated. It is a pain in the ass, but my symptoms are mild compared to many others who suffer from OCD. I take medication for these symptoms, and I am not ashamed of that because they tell my brain that many of these silly rituals are unnecessary. Therefore, medication gives me the option to focus on what’s really important, like going to school and doing reasonably well. So, am I crazy? Am I a lunatic not worthy of anything more than a life of seclusion and shame?

I’m not embarrassed about having OCD, nor should I be. Just as someone with a physical disability shouldn’t be embarrassed either. This is how we need to start thinking about mental illness. The stigma of “weakness” or “lunacy” are old and outdated, just as the terms “invalid” or “cripple” are. The time has come to talk about mental illness in a constructive manner. And so, I am putting myself out there to say that I am not crazy—my brain just works in a different capacity than others, and I will not apologize for that. I am not responsible for the position I have been put in, yet, I’m responsible for managing it.

So, why are some people scared to talk about mental illness? Perhaps it’s because they cannot see it. Or perhaps they simply fear the unknown. Well, I’ve got news for you: it is visible and we can see it all around us. Unfortunately, though, it will remain

unknown until we talk about it.

You know some of those folks living on our city streets, right near Concordia’s downtown campus, talking to garbage bins and yelling at shadows? That’s mental illness. And until we educate ourselves, they will continue to be marginalized by society. According to the Mental Health Commission of Canada, nearly 40 per cent of the homeless population in Montreal suffer from various forms of severe mental illness. They are not evil, they are not crazy, nor are they possessed (by anything other than the socially-constructed prejudices of others). They are examples of what happens when people fear you or don’t understand you.

Perhaps I could be one of them. Luckily, I have a network of understanding people around me and access to healthcare that keeps me in school and possibly off the streets. This is not afforded to everyone, but it needs to be.

You can help just by talking about it. I want to talk about this,

and I want to talk about it now. My hope is that this will get things started.

If you or someone you know is suffering from a mental illness, please seek help.

It is worth the effort. You can contact the Canadian Mental Health Association, Action on Mental Illness (AMI) Quebec or Mouvement Santé Mentale Québec for help or to get more information.

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin.

OCTOBER 17, 2017

theconcordian

17

PROTESTS

Why kneeling speaks louder than words Colin Kaepernick’s protest has emphasized the debate on freedom of expression MATTHEW GUIDA CONTRIBUTOR Colin Kaepernick, an American football quarterback, took the country by storm after kneeling during the anthem at a National Football League (NFL) game in September 2016. His reasons for doing so weren’t out of spite or insult, but rather to protest against the continued violence and injustice towards people of colour in the United States.

Kaepernick’s form of protest spread as other athletes followed his example, even branching off into other sports, such as basketball. Unfortunately, not everyone

approved of this type of protest. U.S. President Donald Trump, for one, reacted harshly, calling a player who kneels during the anthem a “son of a bitch,” according to The Guardian.

Furthermore, Trump said athletes who kneel or show any “disrespect” to the national anthem should be fired, according to CNN. His words sparked protest and shock throughout the sports world. Across the different leagues in America, athletes voiced their contempt towards President Trump.

Notable examples include the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball player Lebron James, who spoke out against Trump, calling him a “bum” on Twitter.

In light of Trump’s comments, the Golden State Warriors basketball team refused an invitation from the president to visit the White House. Even football player Tom Brady, a close friend of Trump’s, sided against him, calling his words “divisive,” according to CNN. President Trump has twisted a protest against racism into a matter of disrespecting the very essence of American pride. This isn’t the first time Trump has been insensitve towards issues of race, as

demonstrated by his poor handling of the events during the Charlottesville riot. Yet with all his claims of others disrespecting the flag, according to the Washington Post, on Oct. 12, Trump made a joke during a bugle call, which is a military tradition that consists of raising the flag to show respect.

Although Trump claims Kaepernick’s protest is an instance of disrespect towards the American flag, it is bringing up the topic of the right to freedom of expression. When Kaepernick knelt in protest, he didn’t intend to ridicule the sport or the NFL, nor did he want to insult the symbolic or literal importance of the American flag.

He wanted to bring awareness to a critical issue dividing Americans. He was protesting against issues of racial violence and police brutality—acts that are happening in America.

Mike Evans, a wide receiver for the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, responded to Trump’s actions, saying in an interview with CTV News: “You know people say it’s unpatriotic, but it’s unpatriotic of the president to disrespect our rights.”

White House officials claimed they stood

by Trump’s statement, and that it is always appropriate for the head of the nation to defend the flag. I was shocked when I heard the president justify his words by claiming he was protecting the American flag. I was surprised considering the flag was not the focus of the national anthem protests. What is under fire here are people’s constitutional rights.

As Kyries Hebert, a linebacker for the Montreal Alouettes, explained during an interview with CTV, whether it’s fighting for their country or fighting for a cause, people do not fight just to protect a flag.

Although it’s an important symbol for any country or cause, people fight to defend and respect the constitution as well as the people it protects.

American athletes are not alone in protesting during the anthem. They’re being joined by their fellow athletes in the Canadian Football League, including players for the Calgary Stampeders and the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Kaepernick’s and other athletes’ acts of protest have brought attention to a critical issue in America. Despite Trump’s comments, athletes in the United States, and even Canada, haven’t backed down. If anything, the actions to date have served only to reinforce the players’ resolve and unite them on issues of racial injustice and constitutional rights.

Regardless of race or nationality, we are all human. So long as we do not inflict harm on others, we each have the right to say our own piece. However, in today’s society, our words may no longer be enough.

If anything, our actions have more power than ever before. As Kaepernick and many others have shown, we must use our actions responsibly—there is no telling how much of an impact they can have in a world where words may no longer be enough.

Graphic by Alexa Hawksworth.

GUN VIOLENCE

Mass shootings: Why does this keep happening?

Las Vegas massacre highlights the deeper problem of gun control in the U.S. ELIAS GRIGORIADIS CONTRIBUTOR Fifty-eight people lost their lives when Stephen Paddock opened fire from the 32nd floor in his Mandalay Bay hotel room in Las Vegas on Oct. 1. This was the 273rd mass shooting of 2017—also the deadliest in modern American history, according to Time.

Various conservative news sources have reported that no one could have seen this tragedy coming. It was totally out of the blue. That’s strange given the fact that Paddock bought a total of 33 guns in the last year, according to CNN. In February, President Donald Trump signed a bill into law that forbade the U.S. Social Security Administration from submitting the names of people with mental illnesses to the national background check system. I believe this has no other purpose than to get more guns into the hands of more people.

When a man like Paddock can amass nearly 50 guns throughout his lifetime, the main problem isn’t mental illness or hotel security. The real culprits are the gun laws (or lack thereof) currently in effect in the United States, and the people unwilling to change them.

Even though assault rifles are illegal in the United States, Paddock had bump stocks—small pieces of hardware attached to his guns that help semi-automatic rifles fire nearly as quickly as full automatic ones.

The kicker? They were purchased legally.

Why are they legal?

The answer is the NRA (National Rifle Association). The answer is always the NRA. For decades, they have pushed for increased deregulation of firearms and even opposed the Federal Assault Weapons Ban in 1994. The group has so much power through campaign contributions and lobbying efforts that it’s literally undemocratic. They have spent over $200 million in the last 20 years promoting their agenda, according to the U.S. Federal Election Commission, and that somehow seems to drown out the fact that nearly eight out of 10 Americans are in favour of implementing the most basic gun control laws, according to the Pew Research Center.

Even the majority of Republicans (82 per cent) advocate for barring people on the no-fly list from getting guns. More than half of Republicans (54 per cent) approve of background checks for private sales or gun shows and a database that will track gun sales across the country, according to Pew Research Center Many Americans will argue that it is their constitutional right to protect themselves. In reality, nowhere in the American Constitution does it say people have the unalienable right to own a gun just because they are American. Word-for-word, the Second Amendment reads: “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Notice a very curious group of three words

that is often left out of the NRA’s and many Republican’s speeches: Well. Regulated.

Militia. That means if the freedom of the United States is under threat and militias are brought into action, their right to have arms will not be infringed. It does not say anything about private citizens. I imagine the beginning of the Second Amendment is often left out because “the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed” sounds a whole lot better for gun advocates.

In my opinion, the NRA has ignited this pro-gun fervor by convincing millions of people there is a secret, totalitarian super-government hell-bent on taking away their guns and freedom.

Truthfully, what gun control advocates are trying to do is simply make sure gun owners don’t misuse them or put anyone in harm’s way. Like, you know, the nearly 100,000 people who have died in the United States since 2014 from gunshots, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Right-wing media and politicians have a go-to tactic when a mass shooting they can’t politicize occurs.They avoid talking about the real problem at hand. Take Fox News’ Sean Hannity, for example. He spent more time talking about how he would have been able to help the people of Las Vegas had he been there, rather than discuss the serious ramifications

of the lack of gun control. These commentators and politicians give their thoughts and their prayers, and that’s it. However, they had no problem politicizing shootings when they happened in San Bernardino, Fort Lauderdale, Brussels or any other instance of violence that fit their anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Every time we say “never again,” people seem to think doing nothing will solve the problem. What really needs to happen is a significant overhaul of the current legislation and a bipartisan effort to limit who can obtain firearms to avoid more senseless deaths.

Graphic by Alexa Hawksworth.

18

theconcordian

FEMINISM

OCTOBER 17, 2017

The complicated ‘F’ word

The definitions of feminism and why it still needs to be applied in Canada today

BARBARA MADIMENOS STAFF WRITER I’m bringing up the “F” word again, and some of you may not like it. Some find it uncomfortable and are unable to situate where they stand on the matter. Some are passionate about it, while others are annoyed over how repetitive the topic is. However, seeing as we’re in the midst of Women’s History Month in Canada, I think it is fitting to once again open up the conversation about feminism.

Feminism is a difficult word to define.

Google it and you get an endless amount of web pages trying to define it, outline the different types and argue whether or not we need to define it. After searching through more than 100 pages to find a worthy article, it seems Wikipedia provides the longest list of the different types of feminism, including mainstream feminism, intersectional feminism, ecofeminism and even Marxist feminism. It’s daunting to even try to define this complex term and it raises the question: can feminism really be defined?

Since I personally identify as a feminist, I believe feminism can be defined with a very simple explanation: feminism is the movement of equality for men and women—regardless of your ethnicity, religion, culture, age, profession, etc. I believe the need for feminism is due to society’s gender norms that continue to be applied today. Feminism is necessary because it breaks down these norms.

However, this is my own interpretation and understanding. As mentioned before, there are several ways of interpreting feminism

today, but it seems this multitude of ways leads some people to think there’s no way to simply define it.

Is it a movement that cannot be justified due to society’s indefinite perceptions, sexism and patriarchy? Throughout history, Canada has made great strides in applying laws to instill women’s rights, such as the 1883 Married Women’s Property Act that allowed women to have legal control over their earnings. Also, women’s right to vote was fully established nationally once Quebec jumped on the bandwagon in 1940. The Civil Rights Act later prohibited discrimination in the workplace. Equal pay was established in 1977, and abortion was made legal in 1969.

Back in 2015, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was elected, he made the bold move to form Canada’s first gender-balanced cabinet. Many applauded his act and saw it as something obvious that should have happened years ago. But little action has been done to improve the state of feminism in Canada since then, or at least that’s how some see it.

However, women are still not treated the same as men. One in four North American women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime, according to Sexual Assault Canada. And despite the equal pay law, women are still only making 72 cents to a man’s dollar, according to the Canadian Women’s Foundation. Furthermore, women of colour, women with disabilities, older women and women of specific religions and minorities face even more extensive oppression.

I personally believe the relation between what is considered “feminine” versus “masculine” has disrupted the freedom

of choice to living independently. Why are women still struggling to find their voices in corporate, technological or political settings? Why are they worried about getting a job and starting a family?

This traditional understanding of gender norms must be rehashed since it’s one of the prime reasons feminism is still being fought for today. The application of human rights and respect is not being understood as rights for a “human,” regardless of gender.

They are being applied as a division of rights: men’s rights and women’s rights.

In order to combine this division into one issue, both women and men have to be more vocal about changing the way we view gender.

Parents must begin educating their children about the fact that the polarization between genders is wrong, and that it places unfair expectations on people. Society, as a whole, has to realize we are all entitled to make personal decisions, receive quality education and be respected. Until this is universally applied, the need for feminism will still exist.

Graphic by Alexa Hawksworth.

Comic by Libby Hopkinson.

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FEATURED CONCORDIA ARTIST

ALEX HUTCHINS My​ ​name​ ​is​ ​Alex​ ​Hutchins. ​I’m​ ​originally​ ​from​ ​Toronto​ ​(a.k.a​ ​the6ix)​, ​but​ ​I came​ ​to​ ​Montreal​ ​two years​ ​ago​ ​for​ ​school.​ I ​am​ ​now​ ​in​ ​my​ ​third​ ​year​ ​ of​ ​communications​ ​here​ ​at​ ​Concordia.​ ​I​ ​like all​ ​kinds​ ​of​ ​music​ ​(except​ ​ country),​ ​biking,​ ​yoga​ ​and​ ​long​ ​walks​ ​on​ ​the​ ​beach.​ ​I’ve​ ​taken​ ​a​ ​few art​ ​ classes​ ​in​ ​school​ ​throughout​ ​the​ ​years,​ ​but​ ​never​ ​intended​ ​to​ ​study​ ​or​ ​ pursue​ ​art professionally.​ ​I​ ​use​ ​drawing​ ​as​ ​an​ ​outlet​ ​to​ ​recreate​ ​the​ ​little​ ​ things​ i​ n​ l​ ife​ t​ hat​ b ​ ring​ m ​ e happiness,​ l​ ike​ f​ lowers​ a ​ nd​ c ​ oncentric​ p ​ atterns.​ The​ ​majority​ ​of​ ​these​ ​pieces​ ​were​ ​drawn​ ​over the​ ​summer ​when​ ​I​ ​ was​ ​outside​ ​admiring​ ​everything​ ​in​ ​bloom,​ ​but​ ​I​ ​do​ ​draw​ ​more​ ​than​ just flowers​ ​(sometimes)​ ​as​ ​you’ll​ ​see​ ​if​ ​you​ ​visit​ ​my​ ​Instagram​ ​page:

​@ ​ PSYCHADELINK

Etc is a space dedicated to showcasing Concordia artists!

Submissions can be sent to production@theconcordian.com

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