December 10, 2019

The Concordian.

SEPTEMBER 5, 2017

MUSIC // CJ Flemings Profile / Quickspins / Albums of the year

ARTS // An ode to Agnes Varda / Indigenous street art / New MMFA collections / White cube year in review

SPORTS // Stingers report card / Sports moments of the decade / Colour Commentary

NEWS // CUPFA 2020 election / Climate crisis & art / "Don't buy that!" / Poli Savvy

*sports pg. 14

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

OPS // Woke culture / Danger of dating apps / Saving journalism / Unhealthy consumerism

*music *news pg. pg.

12 2 VOLUME 37, ISSUE 16 TUESDAY DEC. 10, 2019

News.

NEWS EDITORS Jad Abukasm /  @JAbukasm Virginie Ann /  @LaVirginieAnn news@theconcordian.com

ENVIRONMENT

Regards Croisés: Discussing climate crisis through Indigenous art Olivia Johnson Contributor The House of Sustainable Development presented Regards Croisés sur la Crise Climatique et les Droits Humans to discuss the climate crisis and human rights through arts and science, alongside Équiterre and Amnesty International Canada Francophone on Nov. 28.

The event was meant to highlight the current climate crisis and its effects on basic human rights, according to Courtney Mullins, Équiterre’s senior communications officer. It focused on Indigenous communities, with the goal of exploring how to work together to cope with climate change.

Mullins explained that vulnerable populations, who are the least responsible for the climate crisis, are usually the most affected. She stressed the importance of creating links between the climate crisis and human rights, as they have the same

root problem.

“We really wanted to bring forward that the climate crisis is not just from a scientific perspective but from a cultural perspective as well,'' said Mullins.

The event began with a performance by Émilie Monnet, Dayna Danger and Nahka Bertrand, three members of Odaya, a music group composed of Indigenous women formed in 2007. They opened with the song “Seven Grandfathers,” which

is performed using vocables, words composed of various sounds or letters without referential meaning, accompanied by traditional drums.

The song describes how many Indigenous people think seven generations ahead and three generations behind, Bertrand explained.

“So we situate ourselves in the middle.

It’s the thinking forward tool for future generations, to the faces that are coming and their wellbeing.”

Bertrand, who joined Odaya

in 2011, talked about the importance of using science to start a dialogue, but also the value of using arts and Indigenous culture to create emotional connections to environmental issues.

The event also presented Hivunikhavut – Notre Futur, a short film by Marianne Falardeau-Côté about her work in Nunavut that bridges local and scientific knowledge in the Kitikmeot Region. The film told the story of a two-day workshop that took place in Nunavut in March

of 2018. The workshop combined art, science and storytelling as a means of discussing possible future changes to the region. Participants from Kitikmeot were asked to contribute to scenario building, or creating “plausible stories about the future” on marine development, governance and climate change.

“Art has actually been shown as a great way to bring together knowledge systems and bridge different ways of knowing,'' said FalardeauCôté in an interview with The Concordian. “When art is involved it gets more to the emotions and we put away our boundaries and just go into it.”

She explained that it’s important to bring art into these conversations and that, in her experience, people react more to art.

“There was something about the paintings that words would never be able to describe,” she said.

Graphic by @sundaeghost

SUSTAINABILITY

"Don't buy that!"

A festive Concordia workshop reshapes how we think of gift-giving Juliette Palin Staff Writer With the average Quebecer spend ing approximately $458 over the holidays, as shown through a survey reported

by Global News, you can count on people’s wallets being stressed.

Concordia University’s Centre for Creative Reuse (CUCCR) and the Art Hive hosted a workshop titled “Don't buy that!” on Dec. 4. Teaming up w it h Susta i nabi l it y Ambassadors, the workshop offered alternative gift-giving ideas by creating their own hol id ay present s a nd decorations.

Arrien Weeks, a coordinator for the CUCCR, explained that wrapping, purchasing and even making gifts can create lots of waste.

“We just came together to try and change that,” Weeks said.

The event, hosted downtown at the Hive, included four different stations. Each was curated to a specific need:

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a card-making station, ornament crafting, knitting help, and their popular beeswax wraps workshop. It also included vegan baked goods made by Devonly Bakes, a student-run catering service.

Materials used at the workshop were all reused or recycled. “I’m hoping it can make people rethink how they approach gift making, gift-giving, and just trying to reduce people's consumption at the end of the day,” Weeks said.

TheWednesdayevening crowd consisted of a mix of Concordia students, alumni and other event-goers who had never even been to the campus before. Abigail Lalonde, an avid knitter who volunteered for the event said, “The skills that we share with each other are useful. It supports a really good state of mind, which is self-sufficiency. I hope that people can come and learn something. That they can feel included. That they can share

with someone.”

Kate Evoy, a student at Concordia, brought her friend Lexi Benware along to the event. The pair was eager to try different arts and crafts.

When asked about the workshops’ va lue, Evoy sa id “Obviously the sustainability is a huge part of it. Mixed with a community atmosphere, I think that's such a good way to introduce people to sustainability and the effects of consumerism and all that.”

“Events like this one help build a culture around sustainability efforts,” said Benware. “It's not just one person doing it – people are coming together and making it more normal and natural for people to do.”

The two friends believe that presenting alternatives to the materialistic holiday we all love can educate people on the negative effects of consumerism. Evoy said instead of the typical doomsday rhetoric she's used to, she was warmly welcomed.

“It's more like, come partake in this, and it's fun, and we’re doing good things,” she said.

IvanChamberland, a Concordia alumna, wa s i nspi red by t he ingenuity of beeswax wraps. In today's throwaway soc iet y, Chamberland finds herself excited to learn new ways of consuming alternatives to disposable items.

Photos by Laurence B.D.

CUPFA

Transparency headlines the CUPFA 2020 elections Longtime professor wants to make a change

WORLD IN BRIEF: Swapping

prisoners, U.S.

shooting, and 43 casualties

Isaiah Martel-Wilson Staff writer Since the last elections in 2017, there have been rumblings of miscommunication bet ween members and the executives of the Concordia University Part-Time Faculty Association (CUPFA).

Shortly before the end of the semester, Vision 2020, a slate running for CUPFA presidency, sent a press release to student newspapers highlighting major issues. “The current executive ignores key constituents: this is exemplified by their fumbled response to the sexual misconduct allegations,” read the release.

Neil Fernandes, a JMSB professor of over three decades and the main candidate behind the Vision 2020 campaign, also expressed concerns pertaining to the selection of executives, pointing to a lack of due process being involved.

“People ought to be encouraged to apply for them based on their qualifications, not based on a personage,” said Fernandes.

Instead, he plans on leading a group of talented candidates seeking to upgrade the current leadership of the Concordia University PartTime Faculty Association.

Fernandes has made it a point to outline key issues which he is dedicated to improving as president, such as principled leadership, balanced representation and transparency. He associates CUPFA miscommunication with the erosion of the association’s core values.

“I am severely concerned about the character and the core values of the association as I knew them, know them and hope to have them preserved as,” said Fernandes.

In fact, the beginning of 2018 saw Concordia University publicly question CUPFA’s transparency with students, faculty and the public. This theme remains relevant, not only to the relationship between faculty and students, but between executive committees and its members.

Back in January 2018, Concordia was forced to address allegations pertaining to sexual misconduct involving both full-time and part-time professors from the creative writing department.

“I’ve been reading it as an open secret, but it was not an open secret to me,” said former Concordia University President Alan Shepard in January 2018 during a press conference. “I wasn’t aware. If I had been aware, I would have acted sooner.”

Heavy criticism befell the school, some of which came from a former student and one of this country’s most successful authors, twotime Giller Prize Nominee, Heather O'Neill.

“He says he never heard any inkling which is very bizarre and hard to believe that he could be so clueless,'' said O’Neill in an interview with Global News in January 2018. During her tenure at Concordia in the 90s, she claims she was sexually harassed by late professor Robert Allen, prompting her to speak up on the current allegations plaguing her former University.

Current Vice President of Professional Development Lorraine Oades shares similar concerns regarding CUPFA’s handling of those allegations. “We also want our Association to be more connected to our main constituents, the students,'' said Oades in an interview with

The Concordian. “Our current executive has

neglected and mismanaged this, particularly through the CUPFA panel on Sexual Misconduct but also in many other ways.”

As Fernandes is no longer a full-time employee, he used his free time to further investigate the association from top to bottom, compelling him to run for CUPFA President beginning in January 2020.

“It’s CUPFA, it’s not called CUPFU,” said Fernandez. Although they are called an association, they are structurally a Union.

When visiting their website, their mandate states: “As a union, the Association builds on the networks established to defend the working conditions of our members.”

CUPFA operates as a union due to the fact that they are professional teachers/ part-time professors. The CUPFA executive committee consists of eight positions ranging from President to Treasurer. All parties must be elected. The CUPFA constitution states that all members who are elected will have a tenure of three years. Their mandate states; “We have developed solid coalitions with the Concordia University Inter-Union Council,” confirming their union status.

This distinction can be confusing to the public. Although both are similar, the major difference is that members of a union have the legal right to engage in collective bargaining with an employer, and the employer is legally obligated to bargain with the union.

If employees feel the need to address issues within the workplace, a union legally obligates the employer to negotiate with the employees, but an association does not. This specific choice in words leaves room for interpretation.

It remains unclear why it is referred to as an association despite its status as a union.

Concordia is home to over 6,000 faculty members, 1,100 of them being parttime. CUPFA was established in 1989. On their website, their mandate states: “As a union, the Association builds on the networks established to defend the working conditions of our members.”

Current CUPFA President Robert Soroka was unable to respond due to scheduling conflicts.

in New Delhi blaze Jad Abukasm News Editor

The United States and Iran swapped prisoners last Saturday.

U.S. citizen Xiyue Wang was released by Iran in exchange for Iranian Massoud Soleimani. Wang was held for spying charges and Soleimani for violating U.S. sanctions, reported Reuters.

This is one of the few acts of cooperation between the two rival countries whose ties have been worsening since the election of President Trump. Leading efforts in appeasing U.S.-Iran tensions were scattered when President Trump retracted the U.S. as a signatory of the 2015 nuclear deal. After thanking Iran on Twitter for a “very fair negotiation,” President Trump said that the deal showed that U.S. and Iran “can make a deal together.”

At least 43 workers died in a factory fire last Sunday in New Delhi.

The victims were workers sleeping in the factory. "Most who've died were sleeping when the fire broke out and died due to asphyxiation," said Sadar Bazar's assistant commissioner of police to Agence France Presse. Although the nature of the fire is still unknown, the Director of the Fire Department of New Delhi said the building did not comply with fire regulations. The Agence France Presse also reported that in many Indian cities, factories are utilized as dormitories for poor workers at night to save money.

They are usually located in old and cramped neighborhoods where rent is cheaper.

Three were killed and eight injured in a shooting at a naval base in Pensacola, Florida last Friday.

The three victims were honoured as heroes by the U.S. Navy for trying to stop the shooter, reported the Associated Press . T he shooter, Moha m med Alshamrani, a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Saudi Air Force, was shot dead by one of the injured sheriff’s deputies.

Alshamrani was undergoing f light training in Pensacola, like many other members of foreign militaries. Whether Alshamrani acted alone, in affiliation to a broader group, or if it was a terrorist act, is still undisclosed.

Graphic by Alexa Hawksworth

Graphic by @sundaeghost

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News.

NEWS EDITORS Jad Abukasm /  @JAbukasm Virginie Ann /  @LaVirginieAnn news@theconcordian.com

LAW

Concordia's Law and Society program launches a new three-year partnership with the Court of Quebec

SIMPLY SCIENTIFIC: Cognitive bias Jad Abukasm News Editor

Walking up to a Pittsburgh bank in broad daylight, a loaded gun in one hand, an empty bag in the other, McArthur Wheeler never presumed getting caught as he smiled at the surveillance cameras, clearly pointing his gun at the clerk.

But when the city police handcuffed him, he surprisingly cried “I WORE THE JUICE!”

Marissa Ramnana, Assistant News Editor

“Getting the acceptance letter moved me beyond happiness,” said pilot project participant Gelu Balan, a student in the Law and Societ y program.“[It] filled me with the sense that I was slowly paying my parents back, for all the sacrifices they had to make to bring us to this country, and to g ive me t he l i fe t hey would have never been able to envision us having back home.”

the decision.

"Understanding and knowing the legal system is an important element in a free and democratic society," said Minc.

Minc continued that the project is a necessary bridge between the abstract nature of university studies and the realities of the court.

“We were looking for ways to get students out of the classroom and out of the university, to see the things they are learning about in action,” said Law and Societ y Program Director Eric Reiter. “One of the great things about having a Jurist-in-residence at Concordia is [giving students the opportunity to have] this sort of practical and experienced-based learning."

Ba la n is a mong t he seven students who were chosen for this pilot project, which sta r ts i n t he Wi nter 2020 semester. The dean of Arts and Science, a long w it h Scot t Hughes, senior associate chief judge of the Court of Quebec, signed an agreement for a three-year relationship between Concordia and the court. There For students like Balan, will be a different group of it’s a dream come true. He is students involved each term. aiming to become a criminal defence attorney who special Jurist-in-residence and izes in juvenile crime. “I want ret i red ch ief judge of t he to gain the tools necessary to Municipal Court of Montreal, one day serve as a buffer between Morton Minc, is spearheading the accused and the state. I do this new partnership with the not want to stand-by while Court of Quebec. Next semester, youths have their lives destroyed the seven students will each before they even begin,” he partner with a judge from the said.

Court of Quebec. They will have the opportunity to immerse Reiter explained this t hemselves w it h t he inner project is unprecedented for a workings of the court, observe university that doesn't have a trials and have a sit-down with Faculty of Law, and will give the judge after the trial to Concordia students the oppordiscuss the complexities behind tunit y to u ndersta nd how

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complicated the justice system really is.

“I think this will really give them a sense of how the justice system responds to much more everyday problems, rather than the big national issues that we tend to hear about in the media," said Reiter. "[The Court of Quebec] is much closer to people and t heir ordinar y concerns.”

The students who were chosen for the pilot project were carefully selected because, as Reiter explained, it’s quite dema nd i ng on t he cou r t .

Invitations were sent to students based on specific criteria, such as bilingualism, high academic achievement, and their progress in the program. They also had to have completed specific classes in order to understand some of the content they will be faced with in court.

“I felt honored that my hard work and dedication over the past few years enabled me to be one of the students considered for this project,” said Balan. “I wish to acquire skill-sets that will enable me to do my part in the process of making the world a better place, one case at a time.

I really hope that studying law will grant me the opportunity to do something meaningful and right with my life.”

Wheeler’s case was studied by psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger and would lead to the phenomenon now called the Dunning-Kruger Effect. According to their findings, some individuals tend to mistakenly assess themselves and their intellectual ability as better than it really is. Have you ever scrolled through social media comments to find a 63-year-old trying to argue with recognized experts about climate change? Then, you understand the gist of it. Ok, boomer, am I right?

In Wheeler’s case, the burglar thought that drenching himself in lemon juice would make him invisible. After all, lemon juice ink remains invisible until heated up. Makes sense right...? I’ll let you be the judge of that.

Dunning and Kruger also developed a graphic to exemplify this effect. The vertical axis represents ‘confidence’ and the horizontal axis, ‘knowledge and experience.’ Dunning and Kruger found that beginners tend to consider themselves as experts, but then self-esteem drops drastically upon digging deeper into a subject, before slowly rising as that person actually becomes an expert. Yes, I’ve been personally affected by the effect in my first ever martial art class when I got knee kicked in the chest. Not cool, but I definitely deserved it.

Many experiments were conducted to evaluate people’s perceived skills. For instance, a group of professional comedians and another set of students were asked to rank jokes from one to 11. The rankings averaged at around eight on the chart, with the people showcasing the worst skills placing themselves in the 58th percentile, AKA better than 57 other people out of 100.

Now don’t get bummed out by thinking that being confident in your abilities means you’ll never be a successful human being. Just keep in mind to maintain a level head and remember what Socrates once said, “I know that I know nothing.”

Visual by Britanny Clarke and @sundaeghost Graphic by Jad Abukasm

SEPTEMBER 5, 2017

STUDENT POLITICS

CSU revokes sports shooting club's recognition following referendum Henry Lovgren Staff Writer

Concordia University Sports Shooting Association (CUSSA) lost CSU recognition in a campus-wide referendum, on Nov. 15. The debate over allowing sports shooting clubs came to an end when 55.6 per cent of respondents voted against approving the club.

Proponents of the CUSSA argued that guns are not exclusively used to commit atrocities.

Last July, the CUSSA formed after a group of students applied to become an official club registered with the CSU. Almost immediately, the club encountered difficulties with councillors conflicted about authorizing the club. Marin Algattus, the CSU’s Internal Affairs Coordinator, oversaw the committee responsible for approving sporting-clubs like the CUSSA, which conditionally approved the club for a one-year trial.

She said councillors felt conflicted about authorizing the club, given the ongoing history of gun-violence, but remained ideologically neutral.

“We had to put aside our biases even though a few councillors felt hesitant about approving the [CUSSA], we decided the club deserved an opportunity,” Algattus said.

Following the CSU’s conditional approval, the CUSSA hosted four events: two days of training followed by a weekend at the firing range. James Hanna, president of the CUSSA and a CSU councillor, said attendance was greater than expected and the events attracted people from a variety of backgrounds. “We wanted our club to be inclusive and not be that stereotype of conservative white guys going out and shooting guns,” he said. “Everything about it was fun and safe.”

However, in an unprecedented move, a CSU councillor proposed a referendum minutes after pulling out from the committee which initially approved of the CUSSA. Minutes from the meeting show that besides Hanna’s abstention due to his conflict of interest, councillors voted unanimously in favour of sending the club to a referendum. The decision cited the shooting at “[Concordia’s] sister school Dawson,” and ongoing gun-violence in the United States as sufficient criteria for a vote.

Hanna believes personal ideologies influenced the CSU’s reluctance towards approving the CUSSA. He said that the CUSSA is a sporting club, not unlike a football or archery club but did acknowledge that the use of firearms could cause controversy.

“I understand why some people objected to our club, but there is a communist club at Concordia, and many people would object to that, but they still get funding,” Hanna said.

Hanna opposed the referendum and said it created a new precedent for future clubs applying for CSU recognition. He said that other controversial clubs, such as those for political parties or movements, never required a campus-wide referendum to obtain recognition. Additionally, Hanna said the CSU's initial conditional approval and then referendum was unusual.

“First [the CSU] gave us conditional approval, which they never do, and then they removed it through a referendum. Is every new club now going to need the support of the student body? It doesn’t make sense,” Hanna said.

However, Algattus said the referendum is not creating a new precedent. She said that CSU councillors are neither influenced by politics nor ideology and that the councillors she worked with are dedicated to neutrality. Algattus said the referendum is an extraordinary option for an exceptional situation.

“Ultimately the councillors decided that because of all the school shootings in the U.S., the student body should be involved,” she said. “I don’t think this is setting a precedent like some have suggested because it is a really unique situation.”

Patrick Oliver, a Concordia student, voted against the club in the referendum. He said that as an American, he is all too familiar with the threat of school shootings. Oliver said the CUSSA’s claims of being an athletic club had no impact on his vote.

“A lacrosse team is a sporting club too, but people aren’t going to go there and learn how to use a weapon, it’s unnecessary,” said Oliver.

In the meantime, Hanna said he is dedicated to keeping the club operating and plans further events despite the lack of CSU recognition. “We are still going to the range and will use every avenue to become approved like any other club,” said Hanna.

“Guns are never near campus, they are always stored at the range -- we are teaching people a sport, not to go out like maniacs and kill.”

Regardless, students like Oliver do not believe approving the club is a risk worth taking.

He said that students interested in going to a firing range should do so on their own time and without the recognition of a student organization like CSU. “Weaponry and schools never go well together," said Oliver. "Imagine if someone learned how to shoot from a university-approved club and came back to that same university and used them against students.”

Graphic by @sundaeghost

POLI SAVVY:

SNL turns the political drama at Buckingham Palace into high school Virginie Ann News Editor Well, Christmas has come a bit early this year, thanks to Saturday Night Live!

Anything with Paul Rudd, really anything, feels like a gift from Santa.

Over the weekend, the late-night comedy show produced a skit portraying the world leaders as cool kids teasing the black sheep of the gang, U.S. President Trump.

While Paul Rudd was impersonating a bad boy-version of French President Emmanuel Macron, Jimmy Fallon took the role of an over-apologetic Justin Trudeau and James Corden was U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The skit was a recollection of a conversation from the NATO summit that took place a week ago at Buckingham Palace, in London. Trudeau was caught on hot mic by a CBC producer venting to the other leaders about Trump’s lengthy 40-minute press conference from earlier that day.

As much as the skit was delicious to watch, some people were quick to point out that such comments could hurt the Canada-U.S. relationship. “At a time when Canada needs strong relationships more than ever, Justin Trudeau's poor judgment, lack of professionalism and love of drama continues to weaken Canada’s position on the world stage. We saw this just yesterday at the NATO Summit," said Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer on Parliament Hill.

You might wonder what all the fuss is if the entire world is already laughing at the guy...

Even the U.S. President's leading political rival, Joe Biden, used the footage of Trudeau’s comments for one of his Democratic Party's presidential nomination ads on Twitter. The post read “The world is laughing at President Trump.”

Does this give a free card for bullying? No. Will it affect Canada’s relationship with America?

Well, I would hope that this precious relationship is strong enough to survive high school gossip, Andrew.

Graphic by @sundaeghost

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Life.

LIFE EDITOR Kayla-Marie Turriciano /  @lifewithk_ay life@theconcordian.com

SUSTAINABILITY

Dreaming of a green Christmas?

Here are a few sustainable gift ideas to try

Graphics by Salomé Blain, Kayla-Marie Turriciano, photos by Laurence B. D.

Lillian Roy Assistant Life Editor

It’s the holiday season, and you know what that means: snow is falling, decorations are going up, and Michael Bublé has suddenly entered society’s radar again. Crack open your wallets, ladies and gents, ‘cause it’s time to go Christmas shopping.

Last week, I made the mistake of stepping into a Winners on a Sunday afternoon. The place was jam-packed with ravenous Christmas shoppers, their carts overflowing with clothes, toys, home decor, technology, sports equipment, you name it. Simply put, it was an absolute hellscape—the shelves nearly picked clean, it felt like the apocalypse was just around the corner.

The whole experience got me thinking about the sheer amount of waste Christmas gifts produce each year.

From polyester pajamas to plastic playthings, many popular presents are non-biodegradable, and if we’re being honest with ourselves, most of these items will end up in our landfills and oceans rather than our recycling facilities. Although there’s only so much the individual consumer can do, the more we are conscious of what we buy and where it goes, the more we can reduce our impact this holiday season. So without further ado, here is a list of sustainable gift ideas to try this year: Houseplants Houseplants have become insanely popular in the last decade or so.

Although I personally manage to kill everything I touch, a lot of my friends are big time plant parents and are always happy to add to their collection.

Also, I hate that I just said ‘plant parents.’

If you can, try to buy your

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plants at a local shop rather than online or at a big box retailer. Besides being a more sustainable option (usually), I find that these smaller stores have a more unique selection, and staff tend to be very knowledgeable about what species make good gifts.

Thrifted and/or Vintage Items Not only is thrift shopping a greener option, it’s affordable too. While gifting something that is already used might seem a bit weird at first, you can find a ton of quality, beautiful items at your average charity shop—I’ve even found clothing with the tags still on. If you don’t want to spend your afternoon sifting through items in person, websites like ThredUp and Ready to Wear Again make it easy to narrow your search by size, style or brand.

If you wanna kick your thrifting up a notch, try shopping for vintage items. While this route can be a little more expensive, shopping vintage can turn up some pretty special finds, and the extra thought and care will be much appreciated. Ragstock.com is a great online resource for vintage clothing, and Montreal is packed with all kinds of vintage shops like the Mile End’s Citizen Vintage and Local 23.

Donations

stand the test of time is well worth it, and much less wasteful. This type One Christmas when I was a kid, my of product can range from ultra-dugreat-uncle sponsored a polar bear rable coffee mugs and winter boots in my name with the World Wildlife to timeless furnishings and clothes.

Fund. It was a great gift because a) I was sad about the polar bears dying, Of course, this type of gift is only and b) it came with a cute little polar sustainable if the person receiving it for it. bear stuffie. This present was both actually has a need low-waste AND beneficial to an When it comes environmental cause, which is pretty to buying items that cool. are If your loved one has a cause that they meant are passionate about and you have a to bit of cash to spare, consider making last a donation on their behalf. Obviously, for this type of thing isn’t for everyone, but if you think it will be well received, go for it!

Items for long-term use It’s no secret that much of what we purchase can become unusable or obsolete over time. Oftentimes, items wear out more quickly because they’re poorly made or because something newer and shinier has entered the market. While it’s normal and completely okay to replace things that are broken or utterly outdated, an investment in higher quality items that will

years to come, make sure you know a thing or two about the person you’re buying it for!

One last tip before I go: as you com-

plete your December shopping, consider switching up the way you wrap your Christmas presents. Most gift-wrap is non-recyclable because of its glossy finish, so make sure you look for wrapping paper that is recyclable and/or biodegradable. Better yet, try using some old newspapers instead—topped off with a bit of ribbon or twine, I think this actually looks pretty cute.

Plus it’s free, which makes it even cuter.

Happy holidays everyone!

SEPTEMBER 5, 2017

RECAP

The end of a decade

The next 10 years are going to be as great as the last 10

the art of being single

W/ KAYLA-MARIE TURRICIANO

SENDING YOU OFF INTO THE NEW YEAR Welcome to the final column of the year!

Kayla-Marie Turriciano Life Editor

There are 21 days until 2020.

A brand new year, plenty of opportunities, adventures and achievements to experience. But it feels grander, more important somehow. There are 21 days until a brand new decade and, while time is a construct, the idea of going into a whole new decade is kind of stressing me out—okay, very much stressing me out. I’ve had multiple existential crises, more than usual, when thinking about the future.

At the start of this decade, in 2010, I was in my last year of elementary school.

When you’re 12 and someone asks you where you think you’re going to be in five, 10 years, it’s often along the lines of go to school, get a job. Well after those five years, I finished high school. Then I went to CEGEP. And now I’m in my last year of university.

“Where do you see yourself in 10 years?” I have no idea. And that thought scares me. Up until this moment in my life, everything has somehow fallen into place according to a relatively “normal” timeline.

From here on out, I have no idea what to do, where I’m going to end up, what I’m going to be doing with myself and my life. And it’s absolutely freaking me out.

I have to remind myself to look at the past year, at what I’ve accomplished: I got my first job in journalism, got an internship over the summer for a job which I got to keep, I started my column in this paper, I got through another year of university without any major breakdowns, got good grades while balancing multiple jobs, and so much more. Looking back over the last decade? I’ve accomplished so much and most of it was just growing up: I survived multiple levels of schooling, got my license, bought a car, fell in love, had my heart broken, I’ve lost loved ones, made and lost some amazing friends, and began the journey to finding and establishing myself.

Thinking back to everything I’ve done over the years, it makes looking forward a little less scary. Did I know what I was doing with myself at 12, 15, 18, 20? Absolutely not. But I still managed to get things done, and I’m proud of everything I’ve accomplished because it’s all made me who I am today.

Now, I don’t know what I’m going to do after I graduate. I don’t know what job

Graphic by @sundaeghost

I’m going to get, or when I’m going to fall in love, get married, become a parent, get my own place, buy a new car. I don’t know if I’m going to lose friends, make friends, gain a larger family or lose loved ones. I don’t know if I’m still going to be living in Montreal, in Canada, in North America, or if I’m going to be living at all.

While that might sound morbid, it’s just the reality of life; you truly can never know when your last day living is. While it may not be so simple to say that you should make every day the best day ever in case you don’t see tomorrow, it’s best to just live everyday. Work hard for what you want short term in case you don’t make it to be 27, but also work for what you want in the case you make it to 93. Be kind to people and to yourself. Don’t be afraid of telling and showing people how you feel because you never know when the last time you’ll be able to do that is.

I don’t know anything about the upcoming year and the rest of the decade and there’s no point in stressing about it because you just can’t know. No matter how much you plan, life has a funny way of throwing you curveballs that can completely change your life, for better or for worse.

So, If you’re stressed about the year 2020, or the new decade ahead of us, look back to the last 11 months and 10 days and see what you’ve accomplished; look back at the last 10 years of your life and see how much you’ve grown. You’ve accomplished more than you realize and more than you give yourself credit for. Life is hard, and even if you think you’ve accomplished nothing, just being alive and being able to read this says a lot about you and what you’ve done with your life.

May 2020 and the next decade bring you more achievements, adventure, moments of self-realization, happiness, pain, love and loss. Most importantly, I hope it brings you the satisfaction of getting through one more year, one after another. And if no one’s told you recently, I’m proud of you, you’re doing amazing, and you got this.

In January, I started this column as an outlet for me to yell about my dissatisfaction with dating culture. These past 11 months have been a rollercoaster of emotions and of real life experiences of dates I have gone on, of boys I have fallen for, that have broken my heart, taught me lessons about men, about dating, about being single and looking for love in a hookup culture.

This column has been the place for me to explain different aspects of dating, to give advice on how to handle being single, to share my experiences and personal anecdotes with however many readers actually read these 400 words every week. Those 15 or so minutes every week have been the most liberating of my week.

This past year has taught me how to let go of toxic people, how to make an effort for the people you like, to shoot my shot unapologetically, to show people how I feel, and most importantly that, no matter what happens, good or bad, everything happens for a reason and it’s all a part of the art of being single.

Thank you to all my readers for sticking through my rants, my hatred for the shitty things that happen within dating and hookup culture, my sad moments, my life lessons, my maybe terrible advice—I’m not really sure what I’m doing but thank you for putting up with it all.

Before we come back in 2020, here’s a roundup of some of the most important lessons—all in my opinion obviously—that I’ve written and want to share once again.

If you want to shoot your shot but are afraid of doing so, read “Just do it—just shoot your shot.”

If you want to understand more about how ghosting affects people, read “Ghosting, bad dates, and trying again” or “Accepting not knowing why you’ve been ghosted.” If you’re looking for how to get over someone, take a gander at these articles: “Don’t give up on finding your person” or my first ever article “Accepting that it’s okay to not be the one.”

I’ll see you all in the new year with more advice and life lessons. Until then, have a great holiday season, make the most of the time off, do what’s best for you, and remember to keep making an art of being single.

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If you have any topic suggestions or questions for advice, feel free to reach out to life@theconcordian.com

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Life.

LIFE EDITOR Kayla-Marie Turriciano /  @lifewithk_ay life@theconcordian.com

COMEDY

Braving the world of stand-up comedy

In a male-dominated field, Diana Gerasimov tries to get the audience laughing in a different way Callie Giaccone Assistant Opinions Editor

After getting out of a bad relationship where she felt powerless, and dealing with health issues c on si st i ng of debi l it at i ng mig ra ine at tack s, Dia na Gerasimov found herself in a very dark place. For months, she felt that there was nothing that interested or captivated her.

One day she was scrolling through Facebook when she saw a post calling for people who wanted to try stand-up comedy. She signed up, feeling reckless and thinking that this would be a one time thing.

Turns out, she was wrong.

“No one was expecting me to do this. I didn’t expect myself to do this and I didn’t really care if it turns out bad,” she said.

The process of getting ready for her first show helped change Gerasimov’s outlook. “I didn’t feel motivated by anything, as one does when their mental health is poor,” she said. “This gave me a sense of purpose that I hadn’t felt in a while.”

At the end of her first show at Barfly in Montreal at the start of the year, s h e fe lt e x t r e m e l y pr ou d of herself.

Gerasimov finds inspiration for her jokes in many places. For one, she was raised by her single mother who is a Russian

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immigrant. She was always able to make people a rou nd her laugh by imit at i ng her mother’s accent or pointing her supertious ways. built jokes around her friends

thought was funny about her cultural background.

“I exploited the stereotypes against me, and now I’m reclaiming them,” she said. Gerasimov also gets inspired by her environment. “I’m a big eavesdropper, on transportation especially, and I try to build a context around whatever joke or punchline I’ve written.”

Gerasimov is a Concordia student, studying communications and cultural studies. Even though she works hard on her stand-up, she doesn’t find that it really interferes with her schooling.

“Juggling school work and stand-up feel pretty easy,” said Gerasimov. “They both compliment each other, where stand-up kind of feels like eating a greasy poutine and school is like eating a jar of pickled beets.”

Being a 22-year-old woman, t here aren’t many comics like Gerasimov. Comedy is a male-dominated space and can often feel intimidating; because of t his, Gerasimov didn’t expect to find such a feeling of togetherness through this craft.

“I found a sense of communit y and suppor t.

People are inviting you to shows and people want you to meet other comedians,” she said.

But it was more than that for Gerasimov: she noticed that people are interested in specifically seeing her do stand-up. She says that most people that do stand-up are 35 years old and over, and are typically male. She loves surprising people on stage because she doesn’t look like your typical stand-up comedian.

Gerasimov explained that this surprise comes from a lack of representation. “You are constantly put in a box as a woman,” she said.

“You’re either smart, pretty or funny.

You can’t have it all. You can’t be multidimensional and complex. You have to be one thing.”

“During my last set, a 50-yearold guy came up to me after and was grazing my arm for four minutes,” she recounted. “This was before he gave me advice on how I should go forward with my set and telling me that my tone was too monotone.

He also said he found me to be extremely hilarious.”

Her routine often includes men and sexism, although not without repercussions from the audience. When she does certain

jokes, she sometimes gets bombarded by unwanted suggestions at the end of her shows.

A few times, Gerasimov has been heckled or cat-called during a performance. While this can be quite alarming, she explained it's important to try and tie the comment into her joke somehow. If she’s doing a bit about how men are frustrating and a man yells “I love you,” she can use this to help her own joke and make her point. This helps her regain control, because problems can arise when she lets something like that destabilize her.

One of Gerasimov’s favourite times performing was at LadyFest, a female-run comedy festival in Montreal that’s been going on for five years and showcases female performers. She attended as a guest and didn’t expect to be performing, but then received a last minute opportunity.

“I think it went well because I didn’t have so much time to psych myself out, which I normally tend to do,” said Gerasimov. “I analyze a joke for so long it becomes unfunny to me.”

Sometimes Gerasimov suffers from imposter syndrome; she often questions if she is even allowed to call herself a comic.

“Men don’t have a problem calling themselves comics after a few times performing, and women constantly have to prove they are funny to an audience,” she said.

If Gerasimov could become very successful, she would do comedy as a career, but otherwise, it is a diff icult thing to pursue professionally.

“It’s either you’re doing comedy and several other things to keep you af loat or you’re super successful,” she said. Gerasimov is also interested in script writing.

She’s written a few episodes for a

web series, and hopes to continue to develop skills that she’s learned from writing stand-up routines.

“[Comedy has] given me so much more confidence in day-to-day interactions, networking, approaching people and putting myself out there for different o pp o r t u ni t ie s,” s a id Gerasimov.

She also explained that comedy can be terrifying because it’s so vulnerable. It’s not like a music show where it’s polite to clap whether a performer is good or bad; it all comes down to audience responses. It’s automatic, and you don’t have any control over it. You are truly at the mercy of your audience. “It almost seems pathetic to be like, ‘let me make you laugh’,” she said. “I’m basically on stage begging for people to laugh at me.”

“If you really must joke about something that might offend, be ready for the commentary,” said Gerasimov, noting that accountability in stand-up is becoming more of a priority. “But to be quite blunt, if you feel as though you have nothing to joke about because ‘everyone is so sensitive,’ then you're just a lazy writer.” She explained that this doesn’t mean issues shouldn’t be addressed in comedy.

“There are ways to write jokes that offer a commentary on the state of the world, I think it just comes down to intention,” she said.

This past week, Gerasimov performed twice at the Diving Bell Social Club. Keep an ear out for her next show on Facebook – it might just be the study break you need right now!

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Photos by Cecilia Piga.

Arts.

ARTS EDITOR Chloë Lalonde arts@theconcordian.com

MUSEUMS

New collections at Montreal’s Museum of Fine Arts prompt some questions Are museums and art collectors tokenizing or supporting artists?

Chloë Lalonde Arts Editor Bruce Bailey, below, is a philanthropist, art collector and “major friend” of Montreal’s Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA).

Originally from Ontario, Bailey studied law in Halifax and became close with many artists attending Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD), thus beginning his art collecting practice.

Today, his collection includes hundreds of works, from local Canadian artists like Michael Snow, Christopher Wahl and Kent Monkman, to old masters, like Francisco Goya, Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt and Otto Dix. A mere handful of these are currently on display at the MMFA in “For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.”

The name attached to this collection is derived from a line in Song of Myself, a poem by Walt Whitman. The collection’s curator, Mary-Dailey Desmarais, chose this name to allude to Bailey’s love for humanity, the human experience and all the good and bad that goes with it.

The moon is a recurring image among the collection. I see it as something that grounds us, reminding viewers of their size and role in the universe: something the entire world can look to.

The museum also recently opened a new collection wing, The Arts of One World, a tribute to Martinique poet and philosopher, Édouard Glissant, whose work questioned ethnocentric views of world history. The collection is divided into wings and rooms dedicated to different continents, Africa, Asia, the Mediterranean and the ocean (“The Blue Continent”), each containing

contemporary art works and cultural objects.

The collection is a result of years of work and a team of cultural curators, critical museologists, and various historians and art specialists. The exhibition prompts further research and educational practices for children and adults, with tours, workshops, discussions and more. It isn’t a collection to be taken lightly, it requires reviewing and multiple visits – or just one very dedicated and attentive day.

Part of The Arts of One World collection, Recasting the Fabric of the Americas includes a gold emblazoned work by Mexican artist, Betsabeé Romero.

Guerreros en cautiverio III (Captive Warriors III), centre, is a piece purchased from Bailey’s private collection. Guerreros en cautiverio III is an engraved tire decorated in gold leaf.The statement accompanying the work described Romero’s interest in human migration, borders and boundaries, and cultural traditions, “to activate the craft of history, to weave memory in new ways, particularly those of Indigenous peoples.”

“Weaving memory in new ways…” Collecting and displaying cultural artefacts, paintings included, isn’t easy. It has to be approachable. It has to make you want to look closer and do the work, encourage exploration, reading, and questioning.

I find myself asking whether these works should be in

a museum at all, would they be better off in their homes? Where are their homes? Who made them?

It’s easy to track contemporary works, and including them in rooms saturated with ancient objects is empowering. But they’re hard to follow when walking through. Everything needs to be read.

“We are now living in a golden age,” Bailey said. He has an engaged and audacious vision, radically supporting Indigenous and gay artists.

Viewing these two new collections, Bailey’s and The Arts of One World, put the practice of collection at the f o r e f r o nt .

Each time an object is displayed, its context, at face value, will change too. Bailey’s artworks don’t mean the same thing in storage as they do up on the gallery’s walls. The way they are placed and the works they live beside will change the story they tell. Collections create a narrative, and viewers should ask themselves who the narrative is for, who put it together and who might be at a loss because of it.

“Art has been a refuge for me because it has allowed me to create an alternate world that allowed me to escape from the grim realities of my real world,” Bailey said, in a documentary, screening at Cinéma du Musée about his work as a salonnier.

The term “salonnier” refers

to “les salons de Paris,” a cultural archetype of largely private and upper-class gatherings, most frequently involving the arts.

“By establishing an intellectually stimulating and egalitarian space for discourse, [salonniers] promote Enlightenment values of rationality, equality, and fraternity, realize a distinct social good and are at the forefront of important issues shaping society and politics,” according to The Public Sphere’s Salons.

While salons are traditionally elitist happenings, Bailey’s role as an openly gay salonnier, and thus a significant figure of Canadian culture (the National Post called him the Canadian Gatsby) dismantles some of these notions. Although it’s hard to find the line between the good that is being done and the tokenizing.

The tokenization of art (“offering fractional ownership of single tier-one artworks,” according to The Tokenizer), is a very capitalist thing in and of itself, but I’m using the term here to refer to “a member of a minority group included in an otherwise homogeneous set of people in order to give the appearance of diversity,” according to Lexico.

The western institutional art world and the people that run galleries are predominantly white. The works chosen to be part of this collection become cherry picked symbols of the culture and country from which they were made. Accepting that as a fact, and attempting to dismantle it so collections like The Arts of One World can exist, free of these notions, is impossible.

Photos by Cecilia Piga.

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Arts.

ARTS EDITOR Chloë Lalonde /  @ihooq2 arts@theconcordian.com

THINK PIECE

Indigenous representation through street art Reflecting on the place of visual art in the Montreal streetscape

Lorenza Mezzapelle Assistant Arts Editor Wherever you go on the island of Tiohtià:ke (Montreal), you will find street art.

Regardless of the borough or neighbourhood, you are bound to stumble upon a sculptural installation, mural or the good ol’ reliable mosaics and vitrines in various metro stations. It’s what gives the city its charm and personality.

Other than during the annual MURAL festival, I rarely think about the street art that I see nearly every day. However, upon a recent weekend trip to Tkaronto (Toronto) I began to think about street art a lot more, primarily due to the fact that I did not really see any.

I’ve been told by many friends, and via a thorough Google search, that Toronto has plenty of wonderful street art. And yet, during my three-day venture through numerous districts and boroughs of Toronto, I did not come across a single one. Except, that is, for the renowned 3D TORONTO sign, situated in Nathan Phillips Square.

In 2018, the sign, which is very popular among tourists, was modified to include the Medicine Wheel, an Indigenous symbol that represents various spiritual concepts, including health. The last time I had seen the installation, I was quite young and I did not think much of it, as it was just a large illuminated “Toronto.” This time, I began to reflect on the place of the installation in the city, the inclusion of the Medicine Wheel, and Indigenous representation in the Montreal streetscape.

Other than the Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women mural, by artists Fanny Aisha, Guko and Monk-e, commissioned by Missing Justice, a solidarity collective working to eliminate violence and discrimination against Indigenous women in Quebec, I have yet to

come across street art by Indigenous artists or for Indigenous people. However, there are plenty… just not in areas frequented by most.

So, what does this mean about representation in Montreal?

Two large murals of Leonard Cohen are placed at two of the busiest intersections in the city, but Indigenous art work, like Skawennati’s The Celestial Tree, is situated on Pine Ave. and McTavish St., an intersection less frequented.

Shanna Strauss’ 2017 work, Ellen Gabriel & Mary Two Axe Earley, Tiohtià:ke unceded Haudenosaunee territory, pays homage to Mohawk activists Ellen Gabriel and Mary Two Axe Earley. Situated on St-Antoine St. West, in Saint-Henri, the mural features a portrait of the women and was created in solidarity with Indigenous women from Tiohtià:ke, in an effort to resist colonial violence and fight for the recognition of Indigenous rights.

Towards the downtown core of Montreal, at the intersection of Atwater Ave. and Lincoln Ave., one can find Meky Ottawa’s 2018 mural, Hommage à Alanis Obomsawin. As the name states. the work is an homage to Alanis Obomsawin, an activist committed to the defense of First Nations and the rights of Indigenous children. The mural consists of a portrait of Obomsawin, and numerous children holding hands.

Ottawa, an Atikamekw artist, collaborated with MU Montreal, in creating the piece.

MU is a project that aims to turn Montreal into an open air museum. Since their conception in 2007, the group has produced over 120 murals.

At the McCord museum, one might stumble upon Inuk art-

ist Jusipi Nalukturuk’s 1936 work, Inukshuk. The sculptural installation, owned by the McCord Museum, is an ode to Indigenous ancestry. The work consists of over 200 stones and was initially assembled in Nunavik.

Even upon further research, I am shocked to discover the plethora of hidden works

by Indigenous artists within the Montreal art milieu. Each work offers a piece of history that is not taught in the classrooms and aims to maintain both personal and collective histories that have otherwise been destroyed by colonial violence.

Considering the diversity of artists featured at street art festivals, like MURAL, it is infuriating that Indigenous people are not properly represented on their own lands and in their streets, to say the least. With artists from Colombia, the Netherlands, and settlers being given the opportunity to showcase their works at one of Montreal’s largest art festivals, it certainly raises questions where representation and attribution are concerned.

I am left wondering, does it really count as representation if marginalized artists are offered a place to show their work that is virtually hidden from the majority of the population? It seems to me like yet another inadequate attempt at reconciliation.

Further information about Montreal street art can be found at Art Public Montreal, at artpublicmontreal. ca, and at MU Montreal at mumtl.org.

Photo by Mackenzie Lad. Graphic by @sundaeghost

TRIBUTE

Agnès Varda: Queen of the Margins

SEPTEMBER 5, 2017

Happening in and around the White Cube this week...

CHLOË LALONDE | ARTS EDITOR

Cole Paquet Staff Writer In a 2009 interview with The New York Times, French filmmaker Agnès Varda dubbed herself “the queen of the margins,” referring to her inability to find commercial success with her work. “But the films are loved,” she said. “The films are remembered and this is my aim. I want to share emotions, to share the pleasure of being a filmmaker.”

Varda, who is perhaps best known as a pioneering figure of the highly influential French New Wave movement, passed away last March at the age of 90, leaving behind an incredible body of work that spanned a staggering six decades. After making the rounds within the festival circuit, Varda’s posthumously released final film, Varda by Agnès is receiving a limited theatrical run across select theatres in North America. The film features the cineaste reflecting on her career as a filmmaker and offering an intimate, first-hand account of her life’s experiences.

In typical Varda fashion, it is imbued with a sense of wit and cleverness throughout and acts as a reminder of just how unique, sincere and uncompromising a voice Agnès Varda truly was.

Stylistically, Varda’s films would often experiment with traditional means of storytelling and incorporate elements of both documentary and fiction films. Thematically, they were daring and bold, typically addressing subject matters deemed too delicate or subversive for most movie-going audiences.

Her 1977 film One Sings, the Other Doesn’t, for example, is set against the backdrop of the women’s liberation movement of the 1970s and examines the debate surrounding abortion at a time when it was outlawed in France. One Sings was Varda’s attempt at making a film of special interest to women, one that dealt with women’s issues and challenged dominant representation, which she felt was insincere. “Is there such a thing as a woman’s film?” Varda asked in a 1977 interview with The New York Times.

“There are always stories about virile male friendship but not about friendship between women. The women are always motherly or tarty.”

A self-proclaimed “feminist before

birth,” Varda was one of the few female writers/directors of her era and utilized her unique position to tell women’s stories from a woman’s perspective. Varda’s voice was both distinct and refreshing, a standout in an industry otherwise dominated by men.

Exhibition spaces used to be crammed

In 1962, she released her critically acclaimed Cléo de 5 a 7 , which remains among her most well-known and lauded works. Taking place within a single afternoon, the film follows the titular Cléo as she awaits the results of a medical test that could potentially reveal a cancer diagnosis.

Tall, blonde and full-figured, Cléo derives her worth from her appearance and the validation she receives from others. Throughout the film, however, Cléo gradually learns to break free from her need for approval, ultimately choosing to take control of her own identity. As Nourhan Hesham of cleojournal. com wrote:

“Cléo resists objectification and assumes agency by stripping herself of her tobe-looked-at-ness.” In a 2010 interview with the Federation of European Film Directors (FERA), Varda discussed the role of the gaze in Cléo, stating: “A woman’s first feminist act is to see – and say – ‘okay, people might be looking at me, but I stare back.’ ”

In addition to women’s issues, Varda was particularly fascinated by the personal lives of others, specifically those living on the fringes of society. “I really have the feeling that it’s interesting to approach people,” Varda told Cineuropa in a 2019 interview, “But mostly the ones on the margins, the people we don’t speak about that much in cinema.” Though Varda’s aforementioned “queen of the margins” comment was in reference to her commercial success, it is also reflective of the filmmaker’s intense curiosity with the alienated and marginalized, whom she championed through her films.

One of those films was her 1985 venture Vagabond, which documents the final two months in the life of a young female vagrant.

Varda had long been interested in exploring the lives of the impoverished and destitute, but it was not until hearing of the increased poverty rates in the early 1980s that she decided to make Vagabond. Feeling fatigued over the abundance of films about Parisian intellectuals, Varda’s aim with Vagabond was to portray “the real France” that she felt had been ignored in contemporary cinema.

Though we may never again see a filmmaker as inventive and as dauntless as Agnès Varda, her works and legacy will undoubtedly continue to live on in the hearts and minds of cinephiles everywhere. Varda

by Agnès allows us one final farewell to the mother of the French New Wave. It serves as an apt send-off to one of cinema’s great visionaries and a fitting bookend to a lengthy and illustrious career.

Varda by Agnès is now playing at Cinema Moderne and Cinema du Musée.

For showtimes please visit cinemamoderne.com or cinemadumusee.com.

Graphic by @sundaeghost

with art works. Large paintings would collage the walls in Paris’s Salons, where the walls would be any colour but white. The idea of the “contemporary” exhibition space, the White Cube, was developed in the 30s alongside Cubism and the rise of abstract art. In the 60s, artists began to push themselves away from this notion of showing work. Art critic Brian O’Doherty coined the term in 1976, when he published a book titled “Inside the White Cube,” where he described how the thing came to b e , g iv i ng t he c ub e c re d it for it s ambiguity.

The cube allowed for many developments within the art world, but created entirely new hierarchies. As with anything, it isn’t perfect. And it certainly isn’t for everyone.

My column, the White Cube, has taken a turn too, evolving from Maggie Hope’s weekly “Palette.” The White Cube used to be a list of events happening in alternative and conventional art spaces somehow related to Concordia.

Ve r y s t r a i g ht f o r w a r d , v e r y “ W h i t e Cube-ish.”

Here and there I used the White Cube to rant, namely about Banksy, and fangirl over meeting Kent Monkman. This year, I made the decision to use the White Cube as a platform for reflection, recounting my experiences in conventional and alternative art spaces to you.

I wrote about paper making and artists I have encountered, about feeling frustrated in my own practice, and my favourite works. I expanded the White Cube in a feature where I investigated financial matters in the industry at Concordia and in local institutions.

The White Cube has become somewhat of an icon to me. I went so far as to get a tattoo of a transparent cube (like those you would draw in elementary school geography) on my ankle. A reminder to stay out of the box, to seek alternative spaces and support grassroots art movements.

I’ve started my own things too, and it’s beginning to get more and more difficult to write from the outside. As I become more involved, my writing comes even more from the heart.

In 2020, I will do my best to focus solely on alternative art experiences in this column, diving into my experience in art education and material culture.

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Music.

MUSIC EDITOR Immanuel Matthews /  @immanuelmatt music@theconcordian.com

AOTY

The Concordian's albums of the year

We decided to make a list of our staff’s favourite albums of 2019 – here they are “To be honest, I was always putting off listening to Billie Eilish in general, just because of the general buzz around her. Kinda like when people wouldn’t watch Game of Thrones because it’s so popular. But then, on a roadtrip with some friends, we blasted her latest album and ever since, I’ve been addicted.

I guess I just associate it with one of the best moments of my life with some of my favourite people.”

With 2019 coming to an end, we at The Concordian wants to share our favourite albums from the past year, before Michael Bublé and Mariah Carey (rightfully so) take over playlists for the month.

Here are The Concordian staff’s Albums of The Year: Immanuel Matthews, Music Editor The Lost Boy by YBN Cordae

“This was a tough choice for me, but I had to go with this project – and no, I promise you it’s not because of its Grammy nomination. This project introduced me to Cordae, and there was something about its beautiful, creative musical production, lyrical complexity, and overall honesty that gave me goosebumps during my first listen-through.

While it might not have the same replay value as other projects this year (cue Posty’s Hollywood’s Bleeding and Jack Harlow’s Confetti), The Lost Boy’s overall quality and vibe is one I’d expect of an artist much older than 22.

Matthew Coyte, Managing Editor Pony by Orville Peck

“Finally, a voice in country music with something different to say. I’m not a big fan of stadium country, so Pony was perfect for me. It’s a more low-key take on the genre. His take on the genre grabs your ear from the first song. I also got to say that I had no idea that “cowboy chic” could work as a style, but Peck kills it. My favourite track on it is “Dead of Night,” it’s a great story about two travellers walking through the desert.

Orville Peck is one of the most interesting artists of the year, every song on this album is unskippable.”

Mackenzie Lad, Digital Editor & Production Manager Igor by Tyler, the Creator.

Jacob Carey, Assistant Music Editor So Much Fun by Young Thug

“While none of the albums that came out this year completely blew me away, I think that Young Thug’s album lives up to its name. While it may not be his best project (that goes to Barter 6), the album’s a fun collection of classic Atlanta Thug sounds and various features that will be most satisfactory when heard in the late clubbing hours of the night for years to come.”

Alex Hutchins, Creative Director Ginger by Brockhampton

“It was my first time listening to Brockhampton. I ended up getting really into them, as artists and a collective. I also just felt like Ginger was made for me. Like, they took all of my feelings and poured them into an album just for me.”

Katelyn Thomas, Editor-in-chief Father of the Bride by Vampire Weekend

“I feel really bad that I’m not saying the Jonas Brothers, but this album is the first in a really long time where I don’t feel like I have to press ‘skip’ at all. There are also a few Danielle Haim features and to be honest, go Haim or go home.”

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Some albums come into your life at the right time, and Igor did just that for me.

There’s a lot I’d like to say about this project (and I don’t think I’ve really stopped talking about it since it came out this spring), but I think Tyler’s disclaimer sums it up pretty well: “Don’t go into this album expecting a rap album. Don’t go into this album expecting any album. Just go, jump into it.”

Matthew Ohayon, Sports Editor Show Some Teeth by Sullivan King

“Move over ‘peanut butter and jelly,’ you’ve officially been pushed aside to the second most iconic duo in the world.

Taking the reigns is the combo of dubstep and metal. This is Sullivan King’s first album, and I expect many more great ones to come. I listen to the same artists all the time, so for me it was either that or Illenium’s ASCEND; those are the only 2019 albums I’ve listened to.

ASCEND is also fantastic, definitely worth a listen as well.”

Virginie Ann, News Editor Amadjar by Tinariwen

“I discovered Tinariwen while on my way to the Sahara Desert last April and listening to this new album brings me back instantly. Amadjar means “foreign traveller.” It’s a slow mix of traditional and electric guitar which feels equally ancient and dreamy. Get high, have some tea and listen to these desert blues.”

Jad Abukasm, News Editor Brol la Suite by Angèle

“The album Brol came out in 2018.

Already full of amazing songs, Angèle added seven new songs last November to her album now renamed Brol la Suite. I just feel like I can listen to that album at any given point and mood and still relate to at least three songs at a time. It’s so unfortunate that I can’t go to her concert next week.”

Youmna El Halabi, Opinions Editor When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go by Billie Eilish

Fatima Día, Head Copy Editor Amir by Tamino

“Although the album came out at the end of 2018, it really took off at the beginning of this year. I first heard it in Barcelona when I had gone to stay with my family—it was a bit of a tough time for me and Tamino’s transcendental voice helped me keep my faith in the universe. Yes, I mean it. His voice has an incredible range, and when he reaches that falsetto in his song “Habibi,” you just know that faith is worthy. He’s Egyptian-Belgian, and incorporates Arabic harmonies and melodies into all his music. Amir means prince in Arabic, and it’s also his middle name—makes me very giddy. He’s become the Amir of my heart.”

Chloë Lalonde, Arts Editor & Production Assistant Norman Fucking Rockwell! by Lana del Rey

“I’m the kind of person that really sticks to my artists, I have listened to the same albums over and over again for years. So if I am being honest with myself, the only albums I’ve actually listened to repeatedly this year are Outer Peace by Toro y Moi, Clairo’s Immunity, Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell!, Blink-182’s NINE, Cashmere Cat's Princess Catgirl, FKA Twig’s Magdalene and Tei Shi’s La Linda. Lana wins. Lana always wins.

Big fat cancer 2019 mood.”

Kayla-Marie Turriciano, Life Editor Hollywood’s Bleeding by Post Malone

“I’ve never been super into Post Malone but I did love some of his songs off previous albums so I was excited to see what Hollywood’s Bleeding was all about. The name itself was intriguing and something about Post’s voice along with the different styles of songs on the record are hypnotizing.”

certain vulnerability that is comforting to listen to. This, alongside the diverse instrumentals, allows for an introspective listening experience that will leave you feeling nostalgic but not over-emotional.”

Maggie Morris, Copy Editor Cuz I Love You by Lizzo

“Sorry, I’m not even a little bit sorry.

Lizzo is iconic and I’ve been playing her songs on repeat for the better part of a year now. There isn’t a single bad mood that this album can’t pull me out of.”

Nicole Proano, Copy Editor Run Fast Sleep Naked by Nick Murphy

“Montreal in the summer always feels like epic freedom and this album is the epitome of that. Nick Murphy’s live performance of “Sanity” at the Montreal Jazz Festival was even better than his recorded version, i f t hat ’s even possible.”

Britanny Clarke, Photo Assistant MŪN by Chilla

Lorenza Mezzapelle, Assistant Arts Editor ARIZONA BABY by Kevin Abstract

“It was really hard choosing between this and Apollo XXI by Steve Lacy but ultimately, the honest lyricism made the difference. With numerous references to his past a nd persona l experiences, the album possesses a

“I have family living abroad in Switzerland and I remember my cousin posting about this up-and-coming rap artist in France. I checked out Chilla’s music on Spotify and, woah. Her album MŪN is complete fire. She is such a versatile artist which really shines through in this album. I never skip a track when I listen to MŪN. As an artist myself, I thought she was such a badass artist, for all the girls out there looking to make it. I definitely recommend her tracks “Pour la Vie,” and “Oulala.”

PROFILE

CJ Flemings comes back for more

An interview with the Montreal rap artist following the release of his second studio album, Mascara Tears Jacob Carey Assistant Music Editor CJ Flemings is growing into the best version of himself.

Since the release of the Montreal rapper’s successful debut album, Forever Wanted More in 2017, there was mostly silence from the artist across streaming platforms.

“I held back from releasing a lot of music,” said Flemings. “I still want to put all that music out. I just haven’t gotten to that yet, but hopefully in the near future I can share that with everybody. I was really just working on my craft though. I feel like I didn’t miss with this last project, it’s better than the last one.”

This “last project” is said in reference to Mascara Tears, the long-anticipated, most recent body of work from Flemings. The album was released on Nov. 22, the same day that Flemings opened up for New York rapper Lil Tjay at Corona Theatre. Despite the successful turn out, Flemings sad that he’s still in the midst of planning something special for his own show to celebrate the album’s launch.

Mascara Tears encompasses themes of honesty, love, betrayal, and heartbreak, showing Flemings at his most vulnerable. His drive to go the extra mile may have come from his pairing with Juno-award winning producer, Michael Lantz, who motivated him in the studio.

“I love challenges,” said Flemings.

“When someone challenges me I’m more so like ‘Oh damn, you care about this right now.’ So I’m trying to get this, let’s get it right.”

Flemings did a lot of the work on his debut album, Forever Wanted More, himself.

NETFLIX & DEAL

03 Greedo and Kenny Beats come together for a sticky collaborative album

Despite being in prison on gun and drug charges, 03 Greedo has found a way to release new music. Recorded with the ever-popular Kenny Beats before his indictment, Netflix & Deal shows exactly why Greedo was so highly touted in the west.

The Los Angeles rapper’s voice sounds nothing like his peers. It doesn’t scream radio airplay or crossover friendly, but the confidence mixed with the auto-tune makes Greedo stand out on Kenny’s production.

8/10  TRIAL TRACK:

Blue People  STAR BAR:

“The curious case of Benjamin Button My money get newer each time I get older I got a chip on my shoulder Ocean's Eleven, MAC-11 make you play with your life By the scene, let you die” - Greedo on “Brad Pitt”

“Paid In Full” is just one example of the fiery chemistry the rapper and producer have on the album; Greedo sounds at home. This is especially true on “Brad Pitt” where the entire song references the actor and his various roles. It certainly makes for one of the most creative lyrics this year.

The chemistry Greedo displays with Kenny and the myriad of features on the album only proves how much of a travesty his imprisonment is. Free Greedo.

Now that CJ Flemings has finally accomplished one of his goals with the release of Mascara Tears, one can hope to see more of the young rap artist in Montreal’s glowing hip hop spotlight.

Photo by Laurence B. D.

Quickspins 03 GREEDO AND KENNY BEATS

Though he wanted to change things up.

" I didn’t really have much help with the production, you know. I was picking a lot of the beats, and I recorded and mixed a lot of it myself. I just felt like when going into Mascara Tears, I met Lantz and he was very disciplined about the production and all that, so I dived into the best versions of myself and tried to correct a lot of the mistakes I made before.”

The first song on the album, “Curtains,” was the first song that Flemings and Lantz recorded together after scrapping a previous, unreleased song. “Curtains” begins with a phone call clipping of a friend telling Flemings that he doesn’t see him anymore and that he’s acting differently. Flemings said he put in that snippet to remind others that there will be times in one’s career when you have to be selfish.

“I felt like I was going towards a direction where I really needed to care about myself,” said Flemings. “[I needed to] put myself in a vulnerable spot to show that there are times where you might feel like there are people who are distant from you, and it’s a problem, but if you’re focused on a goal and that’s what you’re working on, sometimes you just gotta overcome these challenges.”

—LOUIS PAVLAKOS, STAFF WRITER

RODDY RICCH

PLEASE EXCUSE ME FOR BEING ANTISOCIAL

Roddy Ricch has steadily been making noise in the hip hop world with his Feed Tha Streets mixtape series, and his talent was officially recognized this yearwithaGrammynomination.

The Compton rapper’s debut album, Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial, has arrived, solidifying the 21-yearold’s position in the genre as an undeniable talent.

In an age where hip hop is divided between conscious rap and shallow, catchy content, Roddy provides for a unique combination of catchy flows and meaningful lyrics, all while maintaining an underlying theme of motivation.

9/10  TRIAL TRACK:

Big Stepper  STAR BAR:

“It was hell in the projects, I survived the storm Got brothers in the sky, they die 'fore they born I know the worst conditions make a champion Look at my ice froze like a mannequin” - Ricch on “War Baby”

Each track seems to alternate between softer, melodic songs touching on themes like relationships and heartbreak, and more upbeat, heavyhitting tracks. Roddy constantly speaks about the tribulations of his “former” life, all while providing motivational reminders to his audience – a refreshing change from the typical rapper’s braggadocious claims of experiences with violence and crime.

Roddy has a little bit for everyone on this album, and it’s another addition to his impressive discography, further cementing the young artist’s rising status as a star.

— IMMANUEL MATTHEWS, MUSIC EDITOR

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Sports.

SPORTS EDITOR Matthew Ohayon /  @MatthewOhayon sports@theconcordian.com

REPORT CARD

Mid-year Stingers grades

It’s report card time for the 11 Stingers teams Football: C+ A lot of the positives from this season came from the individual performances of key players. Adam Vance threw for over 2,000 yards and was a Hec Crighton finalist. James Tyrrell emerged as one of the top receivers in U Sports, and has now signed a deal with the CFL’s Ottawa RedBlacks. Jeremy Murphy was named the U Sports rookie of the year. Besides that, not too much worked for the Stingers on the field. The team’s defense struggled immensely, the offense faced consistency issues, and the team dropped winnable games against McGill, and ultimately posted the same record as last season. With many of his key players graduating this year, head coach Brad Collinson will have to push for another strong recruiting class.

- Matthew Coyte

Men’s Soccer: B It was great to see the team participate in the RSEQ playoffs for the first time since the 2012-13 season. The Stingers faced adversity all season, and had trouble winning consecutive games. However, they still finished the season in fourth place with a 3-4-5 record, and played in the semi-final of the playoffs. I give the team a B because of their respectable season. Also, I think their playoff participation was quite huge for the men's soccer team. The team knew it was the first time in a while, which represented a step in the right direction for the program.

- Alec Brideau

Women’s Soccer: BIt's been a bit harder for the women's team in soccer. Finishing the season 2-7-5, the Stingers only won against the Université de Sherbrooke Vert et Or this year. They managed to get an impressive 1-1 tie against the first-ranked UQAM Carabins, but such results weren't enough to make the RSEQ playoffs. The team has talented players and great potential. Sometimes, it’s just about luck or little details. At some point, it should click for that team.

- Alec Brideau

Men’s Basketball: A-

Women’s Basketball: C+

There were some question marks around the Stingers after last season’s RSEQ Championship-winning season with Ricardo Monge and Garry Merrisier both leaving the team after graduating. Well, if the first six games of the season were any indication of how the Stingers are as a team, I’d say they are doing just fine with a 5-1 record. It is impossible to pinpoint one game breaker on the team but that is certainly no knock on them. In every one of their wins, it’s been a complete team win. Rookie Ali White and second year players Nathaniel Boisvert, Aleks Simeunovich and Tariq Barki Hamad have been pitching in off the bench as well. This is an incredibly deep and talented team that looks poised to repeat as RSEQ champions. It also helps when you have a very strong coaching staff that has their players buying into the team culture. U Sports needs to start giving this team, and conference, some more respect.

The case of the women’s team is an interesting one.

They are coming off a very strong season that saw them make an appearance in the nationals off the backs of their big three of Coralie Dumont, Caroline Task and U Sports rookie of the year, Myriam Leclerc. This year we’re seeing just how important Dumont was for this team as they hold a 2-3 record.

Perhaps the most interesting of all their games was their 70-65 loss at Laval. The Stingers held the Rouge et Or to only five points in the opening quarter and got 20 points out of Sabrina Lineus who only totalled 24 minutes of playing time. The Stingers seem to be a little bit out of sync at the moment but they are a well coached squad who will certainly put it all together for the second half of the season.

- Matthew Ohayon

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- Matthew Ohayon Graphics by @sundaeghost, photos by Laurence B. D., Alex Hutchins, Cecilia Piga, and Britanny Clarke

SEPTEMBER 5, 2017

Men’s Hockey: C-

Women’s Hockey: A

Where to begin with this team? The season looked really promising after the first two weeks of the season. Then everything went south at the end of the fifth game (in which they actually won 6-5 in OT over Wilfrid Laurier). In the final moments of that game, Philippe Sanche, Alexander Katerinakis and Anthony DumontBouchard all went down with injuries that have kept them out of the lineup ever since. Hockey is an unforgiving game and the Stingers’ 6-7-3 record is a reflection of that. Other teams don’t care about your injuries and you just have to deal with it. One of the bright spots however is rookie forward Tyler Hylland. Hylland has had a seamless transition from junior hockey to U-Sports, putting up 18 points in 16 games.

The second half will be a better one for the team as they will be much healthier after the break but they’ll certainly have their work cut out for them if they want to have home-ice advantage in the playoffs - should they qualify.

I’m not sure what more you could ask for from this team. After 10 games, the team is 9-0-1 and has been the top ranked-team in U Sports for seven straight weeks. Head coach Julie Chu continues to elevate her veterans like Audrey Belzile and Claudia Dubois while recruiting rookies who have had an immediate impact like Emmy Fecteau and Léonie Philbert. This team generates an incredible amount of chances, and have managed to shut down the best teams in the RSEQ. Even their one loss was in a shootout in a game where they managed nearly 50 shots on net. Mix in superb goaltending from Alice Philbert and division-leading scorer Rosalie Bégin-Cyr and you have a team that just overwhelms opponents. The only reason I’m not giving them an A+ is because we’re only halfway through the season. The true test for this team begins in January.

- Matthew Coyte

- Matthew Ohayon

Men’s Wrestling: B The men’s wrestling team has started their season well, clocking in at number 10 on the U Sports rankings three weeks running. While they’ve managed to stick around the national rankings, this is largely due to the team’s ability to grab points and not relying on individuals to carry the team. Only Aly Barghout (120 kg) and Julien Choquette (90 kg) are ranked members of the men’s wrestling team. Despite being slightly lower on the rankings than we’ve come to expect from this squad, don’t count them out yet. Wrestlers like fourth-year Francis Carter and Jordan Steen are a constant threat and are more than capable of lifting this team up the rankings.

- Matthew Coyte

Women’s Rugby: A It’s always great to see both men and women perform at such a high level at the same sport. After only two wins in seven games in 2018-19, as well as not making the RSEQ playoffs, the team bounced back with a perfect 6-0 season this year. The Stingers finished first in Section B and played through the RSEQ semi-final, where they lost 50-5 against the Université Laval Rouge et Or. It’s hard to give less than an A after that season.

- Alec Brideau

Men’s Rugby: A+ It’s pretty hard to find negatives in the season that team just offered. The Stingers successfully defended their RSEQ title, winning the championship a third straight year. They played solid rugby all season, and everyone contributed to the team’s success. The Canadian University Men’s Rugby Championship (CUMRC) was played at Concordia this year, ensuring the team’s participation in the tournament regardless of their results in the RSEQ season. Yet, they proved they deserved their spot among the best of the country. They also played well at the CUMRC, winning their first game, and offering probably their best game of 2019 against the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds, despite the loss. The semi-final loss was a hard one to swallow, but I think the team can still be proud of their accomplishments this season.

- Alec Brideau

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Sports.

SPORTS EDITOR Matthew Ohayon /  @MatthewOhayon sports@theconcordian.com

RECAP

Best sports moments of the decade

R ARY U LO ENT O C MM thew t a O C w/ MCoyte The good ol’ hockey game needs to change Hockey’s had a rocky couple of weeks.

Matthew Ohayon Sports Editor

With the decade coming to a close, I really can’t help but be nostalgic of all the incredible sports moments we’ve seen in the past 10 years.

I have to give a disclaimer; this will be inherently biased as a Canadian. So let’s just call it ‘my’ best sports moments of the decade.

Sports evoke so much emotion and, like music, can take you back to where you were when these moments happened. I can remember where I was for each of these.

Alright, let’s get down to it. These are, by the way, in no particular order, my favourite moments: Crosby’s Golden Goal

We begin where the last decade did. The Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver was the third time in history that Canada played host to the world’s greatest athletes. Never before had Canada won gold on home soil, until Alexandre Bilodeau grabbed the hearts of so many - on Valentine's Day, of all days - winning gold in men’s moguls.

Up until the final day of the 2010 Olympic Games, Canada held 13 gold medals. They had one more to collect. The feeling around the country was that even if they did collect the most gold of all the countries, if they didn’t take home the men’s hockey gold it would’ve been a bust for the entire Canadian Olympic team.

There was so much hype around this team, as there always is. But at the same time, odds makers had a reluctance by so many to give them any credibility after finishing seventh overall in the last Olympics in Turin.

Jonathan Toews and Corey Perry opened the scoring for Canada in the gold medal game, giving them a leg-up on the United States. Ryan Kesler cut their lead in half in the second period.

Then with 25 seconds left in the third period Zach Parise stopped the hearts of Canadians watching everywhere by tying the game up.

It was a pretty uneventful overtime, with no high quality scoring chances, until the 12:30 mark. Every broadcast around the world picked up Crosby calling for a pass, “IGGY!”

Crosby put it through the legs of Ryan Miller and single-handedly united a country. I still get goosebumps from watching those highlights.

I am also a firm believer that this game

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is what made Canada a flag-bearing country. I felt such immense pride to be a part of this country after that game, words do not even begin to describe the feeling of elation that I and so many others felt when that red light went off. I couldn’t sing our national anthem any louder if I had tried during the medal ceremony.

Marie-Philip Poulin gives Canada gold in Sochi

I know, I know. Another Canada vs USA hockey game - very original.

This game was insane; no other way to describe it. It was the second time the Canadians faced off against the Americans in this tournament and hoo-boy the sequel did not disappoint.

Heading into the third period, the US held a 1-0 lead and would extend that lead very early in that same period. It looked like it would take a miracle to beat Jessie Vetter, the American goaltender, at that point with the way she looked throughout the game.

Hockey is a game of hard work and skill, obviously, but sometimes you need a bounce to go your way. The Canadians got one off the stick of Brianne Jenner when it fluttered into the back of the net with just over three minutes remaining in regulation.

While all of this was going down, I was in my grade 11 English class, half listening to my classmates’ public speeches. I remember telling my teacher Ms. Novek, that “it’s borderline treasonous to not let me watch this game.” After a relatively lengthy argument, she allowed me to watch the remainder of the game in the back of the class if I promised to not disrupt her class and the speeches any longer.

Oh boy was that a mistake.

Marie-Philip Poulin scored in the dying moments of the game, and I stood up and shouted “F*** YEAH!” right in the middle of one of the speeches. I was kicked out of that class and sent to the principal's office quickly, but I didn’t really care. I booked it to the library where they had a TV to watch the rest of the game with the library staff and other students who were skipping class to watch.

Poulin scored and I jumped into the arms of a kid in grade nine that I had never spoken to before in celebration. That’s the beautiful thing about sports, but more specifically international competition; strangers immediately become friends as you cheer for your country together.

Luckily for me, the principal was a cool guy and didn’t care about me yelling obscenities in class and I got off scot-free.

Graphic by @sundaeghost

On Nov. 20, Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock was fired.

Shortly afterwards, a story came to light that he had purposefully humiliated then-rookie Mitch Marner in front of the entire team. While this probably doesn’t do much more than paint a picture about the type of coach Babcock was, it was the catalyst to Akim Aliu, -- currently a free agent -- to tweet about how one of the coach’s “proteges” had used racial slurs towards him ten years ago while protesting against Aliu’s choice in music.

It didn’t take long before people put two-and-two together and realized that the “protege” that Aliu was referring to was Calgary Flames head coach Bill Peters. The Flames immediately launched an investigation, and surprised many by doing a thorough job. The conclusion was Peter's admitting to using racial slurs and resigning as coach of the team. Aliu, who was born in Nigeria, but grew up in Ukraine and considers himself UkranianCanadian, has now met with the NHL to discuss the matter.

Let’s be honest, this has been a long time coming. Hockey has long been a predominantly white sport, and it’s clear that Aliu’s experience is more of the rule rather than the exception when it comes to racism in the sport. I’ve seen too many people defend this behaviour, using various excuses from calling the players sensitive, to claiming Aliu is seeking a payout (he isn’t) and claiming that coaches do what it takes to motivate their players.

Racism, sexism and homophobia are all far-too common parts of the culture of hockey. I’ve been called just about every name under the sun, and I’m a white guy. The experiences of these athletes who come forward and expose coaches, executives, players or whoever, should be heard and welcomed. We as fans of the game should be excited by this opportunity to root out those who use the sport to justify their behaviour.

Players are looked at like employees and coaches are often looked at as bosses.

No, this isn’t hockey’s demise, as I’ve seen various social media commentators suggest. This is a conversation that should have happened years ago. Hockey has been stuck in a bubble for too long, and stories like Aliu’s are far too common.

We’ve heard story after story of professional athletes describing their experiences with racism and abuse, and more are coming to light. Imagine how many stories we’ll never hear if things don’t change. To defend this type of behaviour is to accept it as acceptable, and it is not.

Opinions.

OPINIONS EDITOR Youmna El Halabi / @HalabiYoumna opinions@theconcordian.com

JOURNALISM

How can we save journalism?

Luisa Marini Contributor

Journalism is facing a crisis on many fronts. The business model based on advertising revenues is no longer sustainable and journalism layoffs are at the highest level since the last recession. Some political leaders are in a campaign against the mainstream media and social media algorithms are taking on the role of gatekeepers, deciding what kind of content people are exposed to. Recently, the spread of fake news gained momentum and public trust in media has been declining ever since. But aren’t journalists also responsible for the shrinking trust in traditional media?

The arrival of social media democratized the access to and production of information, making people connect to each other more easily. Instead of getting closer to communities from the beginning, journalists just watched, believing they would still be the only ones responsible for disseminating high-quality information. Which did not happen—as people relied on YouTubers and bloggers to get their news. Now, to regain the audience’s trust, journalists should find ways to reconnect with them.

The bad news is that audiences seem not to care about news anymore.

According to the latest Reuters Institute Digital News Report, almost a third (32 per cent) of people worldwide responded they “often or sometimes actively avoid the news,” including 41 per cent in the United States and 29 per cent in Canada. People run away from news because “it has a negative effect on their mood” (58 per cent) or because they feel “powerless to change events”.

At the same time new technologies have brought enormous-

these newspapers and media outlets. Inspired by Donald Trump, the president of my country, Brazil, the far-right conservative Jair Bolsonaro, often refers to the Brazilian mainstream media companies as “enemies," moving people away from traditional newspapers and broadcast channels.

It is easy to point fingers at tech companies and political leaders and demand them to take responsibility for the rise of fake stories. But we can not expect much from them.

While they don’t take action to rebuild the trust in journalism, journalists should. Or, at least, it is the only option we have.

Rebuilding trust, however, requires a lot of effort and rethinking of journalistic practices. Perhaps the idea of objectivity that fit well in traditional journalism for so many years maybe doesn’t make sense in such a complex world. Some claim that journalism should stand for something: to keep the powerful in check, to pursue the truth, to provide context and perspective. “We take journalistic objectivity to be as natural and immutable as the stars, but it’s a relatively short-lived artifact of 20th-century America,” the author Antonio García Martínez recently wrote in Wired.

We live in an era where events are instantly captured from a dozen angles, allowing multiple interpretations. To think that only one media outlet will produce the “undeniable truth” is a bit naive. People want to read other people’s opinions and discuss them, that’s one reason social media has become so politicized.

It doesn’t mean that journalism is dead and journalists don’t have a role in this new “public sphere”—they just have to get closer to audiences. Being transparent in reporting, which ranked among the most important factors that influence trust in journalism,

development, they have made it easier to produce and spread false stories. Although fake news is not a new phenomenon, they have gained more strength in a globalized world because of its speed, spread, and pow- er.

Some research indicates that the production of fake news is associated with the origin of print media in 1439. At that time, there were already conspiracy theories about sea monsters and witches or claims that sinners were responsible for natural disasters.

Today, however, fake news is being spread in a much larger way. According to a Freedom of the Net report, the algorithms of Facebook, Google and Twitter tend to promote viral or provocative articles that generate clicks, regardless of the veracity of their content. In effect, a BuzzFeed News analysis showed how false stories outperformed true stories from “traditional” media outlets on Facebook during the last US election.

Social media algorithms are taking the role as “gatekeepers”, a duty journalists once had pretty much to themselves—the only problem is that they can leave people to access false information. Despite some efforts, social media companies are still not fully engaged in combating the spread of disinformation on the Internet—and I am not sure if they will soon.

Besides, we see political efforts to weaken traditional media. Around the world, authoritarian leaders are appropriating the term “fake news” to characterize media coverage they do not like, which reduces the trust in

according to a Knight Foundation and Gallup poll, can be a starting point.

Focused listening—a practice where newsrooms try to listen to their underserved or disengaged audiences— has a great potential to create connections.

Stories with personal approaches are also becoming very popular, one reason why podcasts are amassing audiences right now.

Jonah Weiner argues that voices in podcasts convey “warmth, empathy, personality and provide us with company—an antidote to the loneliness of the internet”.

With so many resources to create storytelling, journalism should be seen as a field full of opportunities, not a dying career. A study by the Discourse found that independent, digital media outlets are emerging as a sub-sector of the journalism industry, with the potential to deliver public service journalism in communities using audience-pay models. These outlets use practices of “slow”, engagement and investigative journalism and, as smalls outlets, they connect with their communities.

The solution to the existential crisis may not be found in technology, but in reconnecting with audiences. It is simpler than we imagine and it is up to us.

Graphic by @sundaeghost

Opinions.

OPINIONS EDITOR Youmna El Halabi /  @HalabiYoumna opinions@theconcordian.com

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

Turns out "woke" isn’t for me to use at all

I dove into the history of the word woke, and got schooled by my ignorance Callie Giaccone Assistant Opinions Editor “Woke” : a word I use too often and have recently discovered I know very little about.

was hoping to write an article about my perspective of the word woke. I wanted to debunk the concept that woke is a destination, and that once we show an ounce of political or social awareness of the world around us we are woke — and that’s it, we’re done. It turns out that it’s even more than that. After a bit of research, it seems that maybe I shouldn’t be using the word woke I

quite so freely, as a white person.

According to Emily Brewster, the associate editor of Merriam-Webster Dictionary, woke means “aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues, especially issues of racial and social justice.”

So, why not use woke?

This word came from the 1920s in Harlem. Elijah Watson, news editor of an American Black culture website called Okayplayer on the Podcast In Black America, explains that many Black creatives became awoken to the world around them or woke, because they all lived very

close together and they were able to critique and understand different ideas of blackness.

“Whether they did create conflict or not, they all allowed different types of Black people to articulate their blackness in different ways,” said Watson. He explained that today, we use this word and often don’t really know where it came from.

Some people think it was brought to public consciousness

by American singer-songwriter Erykah Badu in 2008 with her song “Master Teacher,” as the chorus includes a line “I stay woke.” This is not true; Watson explained it was actually more likely coined by a man named William Melvin Kelley.

Kelley wrote an article in The New York Times in 1962 titled, “If You’re Woke You Dig It.” This piece touched on cultural appropriation of Black slang and how it is such a fundamental part of American culture.

This word was meant for Black Americans to learn about how the country functions. Watson said if you were woke, you understood how Black culture is constantly being stolen. Watson also stated that the internet has changed the power of the word.

“It became this ironic

thing, if you show the most miniscule amount of awareness you are considered woke,” he said. “For one that just dilutes it and makes it a universal thing, instead of this thing which had its roots in blackness.”

Since Kelley and Badu, the word woke, quite like many other colloquialisms that were born from Black culture have become popular; and because of this, they’ve lost their purpose. This plays into the issue of commodification of Black culture, something that is so present in Western culture.

Not only is woke a commonly misused word, we are missing the mark with the most modern definition. Sam Sanders from NPR explains his frustration with the word as well.“We’ve made woke a rigid state of being, instead of a process of continual growth,” said Sanders.

The word woke is heard everywhere, but this doesn’t mean we can use it the way we think we should. Language is powerful and it’s important to understand where words comes from and why we use them.

Graphic by @sundaeghost

FEMINISM

Don’t fall for the Girlboss scam Aviva Majerczyk Staff Writer Surely you’ve seen the branded content.

Whether it’s on a millennial pink

T-shirt, a sassy coffee mug, or the former Nastygal CEO, Sophia Amoruso’s memoir that started it all, #Girlboss culture has become inescapable online and off.

The girlboss moniker is attached to overwhelmingly white, cisgendered women who have achieved lucrative careers in their field of choice; generally the business sector.

The term’s purpose is to encourage women to climb the corporate ladder, in hopes that if more women are at the top of historically male-dominated industries, they will become more ethical and egalitarian.

Girlboss culture didn’t come out of nowhere. Girlbosses are just the millennial manifestation of the decades old “girl power” movement. Girl power started in the 1990s as a result of the radical “Riot grrrl” feminist movement. Riot grrrls would play underground women-fronted punk shows, circulate handmade political zines, and preach radical self-acceptance. Whereas Riot grrrl was a bottom-up DIY scene, girl power was the market’s top-down commodification of Riot grrrl’s ideals.

For example, The Spice Girls are often cited as a prime example of girl power, yet the band was assembled by two (male) managers connected to major label Vir-

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gin Record . Like much of girl power culture, The Spice Girls were manufactured to sell a product, and secondly, to sell the idea of “empowerment” to young girls.

Empowerment remained an important notion in the transition from girl power to girlboss culture.

“Empowerment” is one of those words that has become so ubiquitous in popular culture that it has begun to lose much of its original meaning. By definition, empowerment means gaining control over the actions and choices in one’s life.

Since girlboss culture is targeted to mostly white, middle to upper class women in the west, I struggle to

see how this veil of empowerment is necessary. Girlboss culture is not about making sure women have the education or structural means to achieve careers, it is simply bolstering already-privileged women into higher levels of financial success. Thus, empowerment is just a trendy word to rally behind that serves no real purpose other than making powerful women feel good about their accumulation of wealth.

Additionally, the notion that a company with women at the top is inherently more ethical is highly flawed. In the case of Amoruso, the original #girlboss of fashion retailer Nastygal, she had several allegations against her company’s culture of image consciousness and lack of accountability and respect for those working under her.

This “trickle down” mode of feminism will not work. Instead of placing our faith in a handful of corporate women to try to change the system from within, why not focus on structural change that will improve the lives of everyday women and other marginalized groups?

It will be hard to try to hack at patriarchy without taking capitalism to task as well. Feminist practices don’t need to always be “practical.”

Pushing for large structural change, rather than sticking more women into an already broken system, is the only way forward.

Graphic by @sundaeghost

SEPTEMBER 5, 2017

CONSUMERSIM

Do you really have to buy that?

It might feel good in the moment, but it has consequences Esperanza Tacchi Staff Writer With the holidays right around the corner, it is hard not to notice the insane amount of people flooding the main shopping boulevards.

Our compulsive shopping habits spike through the roof, hurting our wallets and wasting our time. We all feel pressured to have a gift for everyone, as if it is a sign that you care. But more often than not, we buy useless gifts just for the sake of giving a loved one something to unwrap and enjoy for two minutes on Christmas. Is this compulsiveness a sign of the decadence of today’s world? If we know this special holiday is about spending quality time with those we love, why do we keep making it about material objects?

Every time I sit at a cafe and people-watch, I realize how captivating vitrines really are and how successful marketing strategies are in fueling our consumerist behaviour. We are all victims of it, you know the drill: you pass by a shop, you stare at what they have and in less than 2 minutes you find yourself inside.

Maybe you’ll buy something,

maybe you won’t, but once you have been lured in, there’s no way back — you immediately start looking for something to satisfy an often unnecessary need.

Thus, it comes as no surprise that fashion is one of the most profitable industries. According to Statista, the fashion segment in Canada alone made US $6.81 million in 2019 and has an annual growth expectancy rate of 8.3 per cent, so by 2023 the market volume will be approximately US $9.37 million.

Going shopping at this

time of the year is not just expensive, it is absolute madness.

In less than a few moments in a department store, you could find yourself fighting over an ugly pair of boots with a crazy lady that’s determined to get her hands on them.

The funniest part is you don’t even need that extra pair of boots. Our consumerism really gets the worse out of us, and we are not doing anyone a favour; we are just contributing to the toxic industry that deteriorates our environment at the cost of fulfilling our material needs.

The high levels of dopamine our brain releases when we shop only keep us high for a second. As reported by Elle, studies have shown that those who are more prone to develop shopping addiction (yes, that is an actual thing) are also more vulnerable to develop depression or anxiety.

Maybe this Christmas we should try to keep our compulsiveness at bay and get what we actually need. Before going shopping, make a list of what is absolutely necessary, stick to your budget, and restrain from overtreating yourself or your loved ones. Our material desires often keep us from appreciating those around us and what we already have in front of us, so why not try something different for a change?

After all, we should be focusing on spending quality time and being cozy, rather than wasting our best energies out in the cold, consuming in ridiculous amounts.

And hey, if you’re good at arts and crafts maybe you can save a few bucks this Christmas by showing off your skills. It is sustainable and memorable!

Graphic by @sundaeghost

RELATIONSHIPS

The hidden dangers of online dating It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt

Some use them for fun, while others may be searching for their true love. But there is one thing that is certain about dating apps; they need more regulation.

A recent investigation discovered that most free dating apps don’t conduct background checks on sex offenders. In fact, Match Group, the largest dating app corporation in the United States, has admitted that they do not screen free dating apps for users with sexual-related charges.

The company owns some of the most popular dating apps to date such as Tinder, Hinge, Plenty of Fish, and OkCupid.

A simple background check could have saved the lives of multiple men and women who ended up raped or murdered. A study conducted by Columbia Journalism Investigations has found that this lack of uniform policy to conduct background checks on some of the world’s most commonly used dating apps had left users vulnerable to an array of sexual assaults.

However, what remains shocking is that Match Group had issued statements pertaining to the protection of its users by ensuring extensive screenings of potential predators, but it has done the opposite,

according to CBS News. For years, it had made false promises to users in which they agreed to examine sex-offender registries following the rapes of various women like Susan Deveau and Carole Markin. Both women had matched with men whom they later realized had been convicted of sexual-related crimes on multiple occasions.

Deveau matched with Mark Papamechail on the Plenty of Fish dating app back in 2016. His profile indicated that he was divorced, like Deveau, and looking for someone to marry. The two chatted for months and even went on several dates together until he raped her. Deveau became the second woman to file a police report against Papamechail following a sex-related crime.

According to the same analysis, in 10 per cent of the incidents, dating platforms had matched their users with a convicted criminal at least once before. These statistics should raise an immediate red flag considering the number of people using dating apps daily. The Community Justice

Initiatives (CJI) released a study suggesting that this problem will continue, given the growing popularity of online dating apps throughout the years. In 2008, only three per cent of adults used dating apps whereas the percentage soared to 12 per cent in 2015. Furthermore, the BBC announced in an article released this year that the number of recorded sexual assaults had almost doubled in the last four years. In England, recorded offenses intensified from 156 in 2015, to 286 in 2018.

Despite the dangers surrounding these dating apps, there are precautions that can be taken for women to feel safer before going on a date with someone they met online. First and foremost, you should always let a friend or family member know about the date ahead of time.

You can do this by sending that person your location through the Find My Friends app or via Facebook Messenger.

I also find that it’s usually best to meet your date in a public place in the event that if something bad happens, there’s always a chance that someone nearby will see something. Never forget, the internet is your friend! So in that case, don’t be afraid to do some digging on the person you’re meeting beforehand.

Graphic by @joeybruceart

Sasha Teman Staff Writer

Last tip, if your date takes place in a bar, always make sure to keep an eye on your drink if you feel uneasy because at the end of the day, it’s better to be safe than sorry!

Graphic by Victoria Blair

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Editorial.

FEBRUARY 20, 2017

Around this time of year, we’re inundated with holiday cheer, remakes of age-old jingles, cheesy Christmas special reruns, and ads encouraging us to find the best gift for that special so meone (not to mention every other person in your life).

But what if your relationship with your family– –if you’re fortunate enough to have one–– is trash? What if you don’t have any family at all? What if the holidays are marked by some life-altering tragedy that makes your mental health spiral every time December rolls around?

It’s also a time when people are expected to tolerate borderline-abusive behaviour from people in their lives in the na m e of holiday spirit.

Many of us have strained relationships with relatives, and sitting around the dinner table listening to Uncle Bob spew racist comments that he swears are just jokes is really tiring.

There see m s to b e this unspoken rule that the holidays are the time of year when people are supposed to “put their differences aside,” “be happy” and “grateful” for everything in their lives…

Want to make a counterpoint?

Ok, SNOWFLAKE. Attempt to keep talking until you manage to get that point across? Get over it.

What if you have an alright relationship with your family, but you’re an international student and can’t afford to go home for the holidays?

Not having family– –chosen or not––around this time of year can be really lonely.

And, surprisingly, there are many people who’ve lost loved ones during the holiday season, which makes this time of year either bitters w e e t o r c o m p l e t e ly unbearable.

Let’s start being mindful of the ways in which the holidays can be a toxic time of year for others. Let’s not judge anyone for prioritizing their mental health over their family members.

Let’s reach out, listen, and try to comprehend.

This is The Concordian.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF KATELYN THOMAS editor@theconcordian.com

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directors@theconcordian.com

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CONTRIBUTORS: ISAIAH MARTEL, HENRY LOVGREN, JULIETTE PALIN, OLIVIA JOHNSON, COLE PAQUET, LOUIS PAVLAKOS, AVIVA MAJERCZYK, ESPERANZA TACCHI, SASHA TEMAN

HEAD COPY EDITOR FATIMA DIA

Concordia University’s bi-weekly, independent student newspaper VOL. 37, ISSUE 16 DECEMBER 10, 2019.

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