The Concordian - October 27th, 2015

Concordia University’s weekly, independent student newspaper.

The Concordian

@TheConcordian

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VOLUME 33, ISSUE 9 | TUESDAY, OCT. 27, 2015

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We’re playoff bound

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

NEWS

LIFE

ARTS

Vigil for victims of police killings

Tasty Tiawanese and bubble tea p. 7

The skyline MTL almost had p. 9

p.4

MUSIC

OPINIONS

Reforming firstChance The Rapper at ConU p. 15 past-the-post p. 21

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015 NEWS EDITOR GREGORY TODARO news@theconcordian.com

NEWS CITY JESSICA ROMERA Copy editor

Over 100 electric car charging stations coming to Montreal By next spring, Montreal is set to install 106 electric car charging stations around the island, reports CBC. The city has already installed two charging stations as part of a test run, and according to Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre, they have been used up to 75 times a month. Both the municipal and the provincial governments will be responsible for installing the two different types of charging stations in Montreal: 240-volt stations and 400-volt stations.

Report: two thirds of Coderre’s Twitter followers are fake Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre has around 220,000 Twitter followers.

However, apparently only 36 per cent of those are real, reports the Montreal Gazette. Twitteraudit, an online program that verifies the authenticity of Twitter accounts, showed that almost two thirds of the mayor’s followers are made up from fake or inactive accounts.

Coderre’s spokesperson has maintained that the mayor has “never bought followers for his Twitter account,” reports the Montreal Gazette.

Outdoor amphitheatre for Parc Jean-Drapeau As part of the plans to revamp Montreal for the city’s 375th anniversary, Mayor Denis Coderre announced that an outdoor amphitheater will be built at Parc JeanDrapeau on Île Ste-Hélène.

Between the provincial and municipal governments, approximately $70 million will be poured into the project reports the Montreal Gazette.

The amphitheatre will allow for 65,000 attendees and construction is projected to be completed by 2019 at the latest, despite protest from StLambert residents fearing an increase in noise pollution.

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CAMPUS

Austerity strikes back at Concordia SCPA Students’ Association voted to be on strike from Nov. 2 to 6 GREGORY TODARO News editor @GCTodaro

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he School of Community and Public Affairs Students’ Association voted on Friday to strike against austerity during the first week of November.

SCPASA will be on strike from Nov. 2 until Nov. 6, according to the official strike motion passed last week. The motion cites the approximately $400 million in provincial grants and Concordia’s $36.6 million in cuts since the 2012-13 academic year as reasons for the strike.

The strike also corresponds with the “student associations and unions across Quebec representing workers from the health, the education, and the public sectors at large, [which] have enforced and declared strike actions for the fall 2015,” according to the motion.

The motion also indicated the strike will not apply to First Peoples Studies or inter-departmental classes. It also said that the SCPASA will “emphatically support the Manifestation Nationale organized by the Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante (ASSÉ) on Nov. 5.”

A portion of the motion mandated the SCPASA to ask “the Faculty of the School of Community and Public Affairs, notwithstanding the First Peoples Studies program, to be supportive of the Association’s decision, and that it acts in a spirit of solidarity.”

At the time of publication, School of Community and Public Affairs president Chedly Belkhodja said he hadn’t “had a chance to sit down and talk with students.”

Student Tribunals The SCPASA also approved a motion on Friday in support of students facing tribunals for their roles in the 2015 strikes. Through

the motion, the SCPASA “condemns emphatically the decision of the University’s administration and its President, Dr. Alan Shepard, to press charges as co-complainants against students acting under the democratic mandate of their association.”

The SCPASA also “urges the administration to acknowledge the political nature of these complaints,” according to the official motion. The motion also indicated that the SCPASA stands in solidarity with the Concordia students facing tribunals as well as students who have faced repercussions for striking at other universities.

CAMPUS

CSU to help student entrepreneurs The question will be put up for a vote at the CSU by-election SAVANNA CRAIG Staff writer For many entrepreneurs, finding resources to start a business can be a difficult pursuit. However, the Concordia Student Union is looking to making this easier for Concordia’s entrepreneurs.

At their special council meeting Oct. 21, CSU councillors approved a referendum question in favour of CSU sharing their resources to aid the creation of a Concordia organization benefiting entrepreneurial projects. The question will be voted on by students during by-elections which will be held Nov. 24 to 26. With the CSU’s resources, this organization would be run by individuals, mostly students, already involved with different solidarity economy projects.

Arts & Sciences councillor Ben Prunty said this concept was initially started as a petition. “After presenting the petition I spoke to a few of [those interested in the project] and council felt it was a constructive project worth exploring,” he said. The newly approved referendum question tested to see if students were interested in this project before further commitment and investment.

Prunty told the Concordian that the CSU is currently working on a two year minimum pilot

project that will have the desired goals that are stated in the referendum question. “The pilot project is so far aimed at supporting new and developing solidarity economy enterprises, but also to engage and connect students to an alternative to the typical capitalist model of entrepreneurship which is centred around private profit and an unlimited growth economy,” said Prunty. This solidarity economic organization is focused around benefiting the public, as well as democratic entrepreneurship. Prunty said the solidarity economy is operated outside of the “hero entrepreneur” myth, where one individual seeks risk and reward. This operation would instead engage com-

munities in relation to each other, working alongside these entrepreneurs on a project-by-project basis. “[This project would] create and build a future we would like to live in through entrepreneurial means,” Prunty said.

Prunty explained that with capitalist programs, much of the risk has already been taken by communities—as he described, ”where one person takes on all the risk and reward.” However, the CSU is currently working with students and community members to diminish complications from the capitalist model of entrepreneurship within communities. These entrepreneurial issues include inequities, power imbalances, as well as environ-

The CSU initiative is looking to help co-op solidarity ventures, such as The Hive, develop and grow.

Photo by Gregory Todaro.

mental degradation.

Recent contributions to the solidarity economy stemming from student support includes the Hive Cafe, the Burritoville co-op as well as the Popular University Student Housing (PUSH) fund—an off-campus housing and job bank. With the successful outcome of these organizations, the CSU has been encouraged to work on the economically beneficial autonomous organization. These organizations have provided experience to many students, allowing them to gain skills and be involved in networking opportunities.

Prunty said the CSU is building the pilot project for the purpose of intentional development of the solidarity economy. “We are in a pivotal moment for social entrepreneurship at Concordia, and, with the support of students, we want to make sure that economic democracy and community benefit,” said Prunty.

The limitations of who can join or not is based on capacity and impact—however, Prunty said that it is hard to say definitely depending on each organization.

“We are excited to work with students and the community to incubate new ideas into self-supporting, socially transformative new projects,” Prunty said.

For those interested in contributing to this project, contact CSU at solidarityeconomyconcordia@ gmail.com

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015

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CAMPUS

ASFA is under new management Team Support Change wins big in last week’s general election

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NATION JESSICA ROMERA Copy editor

Canada Post puts community mailbox project on hold Canada Post issued a statement on Monday saying that the move from doorto-door delivery towards community mailboxes will be suspended for the time being, reports Global News.

In the meantime, the country’s postal service operator says it will be collaborating with the federal government to come up with an adequate solution. In their party platform, the Liberals have promised to keep the door-to-door delivery method.

Boat capsizes in Tofino leaving five dead

ASFA VP Social Marc Da Silva, left, and ASFA president Jenna Cocullo, right at ASFA’s downtown office.

Photo by Gregory Todaro.

GREGORY TODARO News editor @GCTodaro

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ore than 600 voters cast their ballots during the Arts and Science Federation of Associations general election last week, and the Support Change team picked up every position in which one of their candidates was running.

All open positions in both the ASFA executive team and independent councillor positions were filled.

Jenna Cocullo (President), Marc Da Silva (Vice-President of Social Affairs), Lana Galbraith (Vice-President of External & Sustainable Affairs), Ian Campbell (Vice-President of Academic & Loyola Affairs), Mariah Gillis (Vice-President of Internal Affairs), Zachary Garoufalis (Vice-President of Financial Affairs) and Cleo Fonseca (Vice-President Communications & Promotional Affairs) begin their roles as part of ASFA’s executive immediately. All five independent councillor candidates—Angelica Sood, Christina Massaro, Etienne de Blois, Frankie Sunnyshine and Oliver Marshall— were voted into the five open positions and will be joining ASFA’s council for the November regular council meeting.

ASFA’s referendum question also passed. The approved sug-

gestion to ASFA’s bylaws lowered the necessary number for quorum—the number of people needed to pass or approve any official business—from 2.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent.

Getting the ball rolling New ASFA President Jenna Cocullo said she expects to have to clear a few hurdles at the beginning of her new mandate. The first hurdle for the executive team is to get less experienced executive members familiar with the procedures and day-to-day operation of ASFA. The second is the lack of time which comes with starting halfway through a normal executive mandate.

“We’re taking on a huge

structuring of the organization starting with with the relationship between ASFA and its member associations.

“We want to give a lot of autonomy to our member associations,” said Cocullo. “We want to remove a lot of the larger ASFA projects that happen and instead put a lot of our resources towards helping out MAs.” However, Cocullo added, this doesn’t mean cutting all of ASFA’s events. Instead, she is working on bringing ASFA down to only one big event per semester rather than several events.

Cocullo also said she wants to overhaul ASFA’s current executive structure. “We want to change the executive positions to coordinators because it’s

“

We want to remove a lot of the larger ASFA projects that happen and instead put a lot of our resources towards helping out MAs. —Jenna Cocullo, ASFA president task, and we’re already halfway through our mandate which starts annually in May,” she said. “It’ll be one of our biggest challenges—trying to revamp ASFA in such a short amount of time and doing it well.”

During her shortened time in office, Cocullo said she wants to prioritize the re-

more accurate of what we’re aiming to do—which is coordinate between MAs and use our resources and time to help them with their projects,” she said.

One suggestion she has for the new executive structure is ensuring the coordinator positions are paid.

Now that all of the executive positions are filled, Cocullo said ASFA council committees—which have been mostly inactive because of the missing executives—will begin to meet regularly. Some key committees, including the Financial Committee and Policy Committee, had been meeting since the beginning of the academic year.

Independent councillors ASFA has five position for independent councillors, which are councillors who sit on ASFA’s council independently from a member association and focus on contributing through various committees, and they were all filled during the election.

Frankie Sunnyshine is one of the new independent councillors.

He hopes to help bridge the gap between ASFA and Arts and Science students who either know nothing of ASFA or have a negative opinion of the organization.

“The students have to know that there are people who actually stand for the students and want to engage socially with them and ask questions rather than just having a title and doing little to nothing,” he said. “We have the largest student body in this academic institution and I feel that once we have more and more students aware of ASFA, our well-being as a whole will be in a very positive state.”

A whale-watching trip turned deadly after a whale watching boat carrying 27 passengers capsized in the open waters of the Pacific Ocean near Tofino, B.C., reports CTV News. Five people have been confirmed dead, all of them British nationals, while four other passengers have been hospitalized but are said to be in stable condition. An investigation is being held to determine why the boat, the Leviathan II, capsized. This is the second time a boat from Jamie’s Whaling Station has had a bizarre accident; in 1998, a boat captain and German tourist were thrown into the water and died.

Trudeau and family not moving into 24 Sussex Drive Instead of moving into the official residence occupied by our nation’s prime ministers, Trudeau will call Rideau Cottage home “until further notice,” reports CBC. The residence, usually home to the secretary to the Governor General since 1867, has 22 rooms and is located on the grounds of Rideau Hall.

A 2008 report by the auditor general said that there was roughly $10 million worth of renovations, including plumbing and electrical issues and cracked windows, to be undertaken at 24 Sussex Drive. No date has been given for the completion of the renovations.

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WORLD SAVANNA CRAIG Staff writer

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015

VIGIL

Vigil for victims of police killings Friends and families of victims speak out against police violence

Indonesian forest fires pollute more than entire U.S.A. In the Southeastern Asian nation of Indonesia, there are currently 115,000 fires burning, VICE News reported.

Mostly in the Sumatra and Kalimantan islands, carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases have been contaminating the air.

According to international estimates, the amount is greater than the amount emitted by the United States.

Last month, the Indonesian government announced a “crackdown on companies blamed for illegal fires,” writes VICE News, but the number of fires has only been increasing.

Kurdish government releases video of ISIS raid in Iraq On Sunday, a video was released by the Kurdish regional government, showing U.S. military and Kurdish forces raiding a prison in northern Iraq, reports The Guardian. The prison, located in the town of Hawija, was under control

by Islamic State militants.

The raid saved 70 hostages, 20 of which are members of the Iraqi security forces. This raid marks the first time the U.S. engages in direct ground combat in the Middle Eastern nation since the beginning of the war against ISIS in August of 2014.

Mexico avoids the worst of Hurricane Patricia’s impact After Hurricane Patricia landed on the west coast of Mexico, most of the damage caused came in the form of flooding, power outages and mudslides, reports the Los Angeles Times. Hurricane Patricia “grew at an incredible rate” within 12 hours, with power comparable to that of Typhoon Haiyan, which left over 7,300 dead or missing in the Philippines in 2013.

According to the official death toll, no casualties have been reported so far.

According to The Weather Channel, Hurricane Patricia intensified into a Category 5 hurricane. The storm has moved through Mexico and onto Texas.

Police watch on as family and friends of victims of police killings gather for an annual vigil outside of the Fraternité des policiers et policières de Montréal office. Photos by Gregory Todaro.

GREGORY TODARO News editor @GCTodaro

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ozens of people gathered outside of the Fraternité des policiers et policières de Montréal office Thursday night for a vigil remembering victims of police killings. Just across Gilford Street from the Laurier metro station, the vigil was organized

by Justice for the Victims of Police Killings Coalition, an organization created by family and friends of people whom died as a direct result of police action and intervention. Police stood guard in front of the fraternity of police office throughout the evening, overlooking the vigil as family of victims called out for independent civilian inquiries into police killings.

The sixth-annual Montreal event was organized in solidarity with a national day of protest in the United States coordinated by the October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality. Organizers say more than 60 people have been killed in Montreal by police since 1987.

Julie Matson, one of the founders of Justice for the Victims of Police Killings Coalition, lost her father in 2002 after he died while in police custody. After taking part in a panel of people who have lost a family member to police killings for a conference in 2010, she said she realized how important it was for the families of victims to have someone by their side who understands what they’re going through.

“Most people just have no idea how to treat you when they find out that not only has your

“

loved one passed away, but in such a violent way, most people … don’t know how to reply to you,” said Matson. “Here [with the coalition], it doesn’t matter because they all know. There was this amazing solidarity that I’ve never experienced before.”

asphyxiate—and none of the officers involved were charged.

She called the fight against police brutality “an uphill battle,” because police are a “brotherhood that keeps protecting [itself] at every single step.”

Bridget Tolley, founder of

Since when is it allowed for a brother to investigate another brother on the scene of an accident after striking and killing someone?

— Bridget Tolley, founder, Sisters in Spirit Matson was one of the speakers at the vigil, sharing the story of her father’s death.

Ben Matson was involved in a yelling-match with an off-duty officer in Vancouver over a parking dispute. Police were called and, Julie Matson said, beaten and arrested. Julie Matson said he was kept in a prone position, which caused him to

Sisters in Spirit Vigils as part of the Native Women’s Association of Canada, also spoke about the death of her mother, Gladys Tolley, who was struck and killed by a Sûreté du Québec squad car in the Kitigan Zibi Reserve near Maniwaki in 2001.

Bridget Tolley questions the reports and statements from that night and has been calling for

an independent investigation of the incident. She also said that the investigation of the incident was lead by the brother of the officer driving the car.

“How wrong is that?” She ask the crowd. “Since when is it allowed for a brother to investigate another brother on the scene of an accident after striking and killing someone? Since when?”

Then, Tolley turned to the police overlooking the vigil and addressed them directly.

“You guys are not perfect, we all make mistakes every day,” she said. “Please don’t tell me you guys don’t make mistakes.”

Tolley said despite having pushed for an independent investigation into her mother’s death for the past 14 years, she will continue to fight until the case is reviewed.

“I can’t move on,” she said.

“I’m a great-grandmother, I have a one-year-old great-granddaughter, and I think about her and I don’t want this to happen to any other families.”

Dozens attended the sixth-annual vigil in Montreal for victims of police killings.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015

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POLITICS

Federal election results frustrating students Young voters say they didn’t feel their voices were heard at the ballot box last Monday LAURA MARCHAND Staff writer

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ccording to Elections Canada, voter turnout jumped over seven per cent from 2011—and the Liberals seemed to have raked in the benefits, sweeping the nation with a Liberal majority with 39.5 per cent of the popular vote.

Some credit the increase to pilot programs such as student voting stations, which allowed students on campus to vote for any riding across the country. More than 70,000 electors voted this way—but in the wake of another sweeping majority, some find themselves again questioning the point in casting their ballots at all.

Kay, a student who volunteered for their NDP candidate, sees the result as a consequence of the current electoral

system, which encourages strategic voting and discounts the majority of ballots cast. (Kay’s real name has not been used to protect their career in politics.)

“So many wasted votes don’t elect anyone,” said Kay. “They serve as ineffective, wasted votes, and it breeds cynicism and it breeds discontent and apathy when it comes to politics. And they feel like feel like their vote doesn’t actually count, because it doesn’t. Fifty-one per cent of people—their votes went nowhere, and went on to elect no one in this election.”

“I think [electors] were voting for what they didn’t want rather than for what they did want,” said Raha Aras, VP of Communications for NDP Concordia. “So voting out of fear rather than support.”

Carl Bindman worked for an NDP candidate before returning to school as a student. “People wanted to get rid of Harper

and we had to lose for that to happen,” said Bindman. “It’s shitty for sure, but I can’t blame myself for that. I can’t be angry at people for having political will.”

Although the Liberal party has promised overhauls of the political system, Kay is sceptical that they will implement proportional representation.

“The experience in Australia [which uses a ranked ballot system] is that centrist parties get a bump,” explained Kay. “Which is possibly why the Liberals like the ranked ballot: because they’d be a lot of voters’ second choice, when they’re not necessarily people’s first choice.”

Now, some students and NDP supporters find themselves struggling to justify their vote.

“A lot of young people feel like their voices don’t matter,” said Bindman. “Before I did this I would’ve said that vot-

ing is super important and all of that. But having seen what happens, and what can happen, voting seems pretty inconsequential … It’s complicated. I’m not sure how I feel. Voting matters but I don’t know why.”

“I have no idea why I keep voting,” said Kay. “But I’ll continue to vote. I feel like it’s my duty. It is meaningful. You can impact the result—but you can’t impact the result much, in this electoral system, especially if you’re voting for a third- or fourth-place party. And that’s very frustrating.” “[If] many students who choose to not vote … feel that the party they support will never have a chance at winning, then they are just perpetuating that system,” said Aras. “[But I think] not voting on the basis of ‘my vote doesn’t make a difference’ is like giving up.”

EVENT

Boycott, Divest and Sanction week underway Event marks one-year anniversary of the BDS petition circulated at Concordia GREGORY TODARO News editor @GCTodaro

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he 2015 BDS Week started on Monday with its first lecture at the Hall building seventh-floor lounge.

BDS, which stands for Boycott, Divest and Sanction, is a global movement to put pressure on Israel until it complies with international law and respects Palestinian rights.

BDS Week was organized by Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights Concordia (SPHR) and co-sponsored by the CSU and SPHR McGill to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the

first petition about BDS passed around at Concordia. The week features daily events including presentations from lawyers, journalists and photographers.

Rami Yahia, a BDS Week organizer with SPHR Concordia, said the event aims to promote the use of BDS as a nonviolent way to speak out against the occupation and settlement of Palestine.

“We also want to emphasize the international laws that are being broken

by Israel,” he said.

While there are critics of the BDS movement, Yahia said the movement and SPHR Concordia have received a lot of support.

“We have a collaboration with the People’s Potato, we have Amnesty In-

ternational collaborating with us,” Yahia said. “It’s just amazing.”

The BDS movement has also received support from the CSU as well as student unions, trade unions and NGOs across the country.

Indigenous and Palestinian struggles BDS Week’s first event was a presentation by Clifton Nicholas, a documentary filmmaker and member of the Kanehsatake Kanien’kehá:ka Community. His presentation, called “Indigenous struggle in Canada and Palestine,” focused on the similarities between the indigenous struggle in Canada and problems currently facing Palestinians.

“The whole notion of an empty land open for exploitation is very familiar,” he said. “You hear the zionists notions of going to the desert and ‘making it bloom.’ It’s the same ideology that’s used here … these are the same arguments being used up to this day in particular with the tar sands.”

He also discussed how there are Palestinians who know Hebrew better than their own native language, similar to the way aboriginal children lost their language and culture through Canada’s residential school programs.

BDS Week continues until Nov. 30. To see a full list of events, visit facebook.com/sphr.official

Clifton Nicholas, a documentary filmmaker and member of the Kanehsatake Kanien’kehá:ka Community, spoke about the Indigenous struggle in Canada and Palestine.

Photo by Gregory Todaro.

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LIFE

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015 LIFE EDITOR CRISTINA SANZA life@theconcordian.com @theconcordian

CAMPUS

Meet someone new every day at the Grey Nuns Residence Concordia’s downtown residence is a great place for students to have a unique university experience

SARAH JESMER Contributor

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nly at Concordia will you use the words “dorm room” and “crypt” in the same sentence. At Concordia’s Grey Nuns Residence, dorm life is special in many ways.

Grey Nuns, a former nunnery, is the ideal place for students living on campus who want the ultimate university experience.

The Grey Nuns of Montreal were a Roman Catholic charitable organization founded on the evening of Dec. 31, 1737 by Marguerite D’Youville. The building on Guy Street became the motherhouse of the congregation in 1871, built to house around 1,000 nuns, three schools, and community services like an orphanage, charity efforts, hospitals and offices, according to an article on Concordia’s official website.

Concordia bought the motherhouse in 2004 as the number of actual nuns began to dwindle. The West Wing of the building was refurbished and has been housing university students since 2007.

When the last of the Grey Nuns moved out and relocated in 2013, the East Wing was refurbished as well and the building became home to hundreds of undergraduate students, according to an article Concordia’s official website.

The residence currently houses around 600 students with 67 countries being represented, based on a report from Lauren Farley, West Side manager of Grey Nuns.

The nunnery also holds a haunting history. While Concordia has renovated most of the building into dorm rooms, in the basement there is a crypt under the cement where about 280 nuns have been buried.

Adding to the spookiness, according to a 1918 article in La Patrie, on Feb. 14, 1918, a fire broke out on the top floor of the West Wing of the nunnery, where orphans and infants were staying. Over 60 children were killed.

Due to the incidents that occurred years ago, residents seem to have a

lot to say when it comes to answering the age-old question of “Is Grey Nuns haunted?” The different “haunted” experiences vary greatly through word of mouth. Whether it’s what seem to be scary dreams of nuns to spotting ghostly figures in the halls, the Grey Nuns history is very alive in people’s minds.

“I haven’t had any experiences but I’ve definitely felt like I haven’t been alone in a room,” said resident Holly Rowett. Fellow resident Keeara Byrnes feels the same. “I’m constantly feeling as though I am sharing my space with other people. There have been multi-

and renovated.” Thériault said that the room in which she signed her lease in was the same room where her great aunt’s memorial service took place. “It’s very weird seeing it not as religious as it was,” she said.

Nowadays, the modernized building offers a lot to students looking for the perfect mix between studying and socializing. Locations such as group study rooms and the well-known Reading Room in the chapel are popular study spaces for students looking for quiet escape, which can be hard to find when there are so many people living in one building. These spaces are also open to any Concordia student with a student

Grey Nuns Residence offers great spaces for both studying and socializing.

Photo by Marie-Pierre Savard. ple times that I have seen both nuns and children walking around corners and standing in the lifts,” she said. There have been stories about floating orbs seen at Grey Nuns. Students have also tried taking photos of the Grey Nuns crypt only to have the pictures turn out mysteriously blurry.

“It’s an interesting theory,” said resident Angélique Thériault, when asked if she thinks the building is haunted. Thériault’s family is tied to the building in more ways than one. “I had a great aunt who was a Grey Nun that lived at the Grey Nuns Residence before it was sold to Concordia,” she said. “We would visit her sometimes, so I was able to see it before it was changed

ID. The residence also offers an art room, where students can paint on the walls, and multiple games rooms, equipped with a T.V., a pool table and even a piano.

Some consider the cafeteria to be the centre of life in residence. “I’ve learnt that the [cafeteria] is the hub of Grey Nuns. It’s where you learn the most about people, and the easiest place to experience the people of Grey Nuns being themselves,” said Byrnes. “Most people, I find, don’t go to the cafeteria because they’re hungry for food, they go because they’re hungry for conversation.”

One of the main benefits of living in residence with fellow students is the community aspect. “It’s a big community of peo-

ple so it’s really cool that you get to see so many people. Every day you [could] meet a new person, if you wanted to,” said Rowett.

Residence assistants (R.A.s) also have the advantage of living in residence—not only having experiences of their own, but learning about other people. “We’re all trying to meet somebody new. That’s all we’re trying to do, trying to learn something about what other people have to offer, especially because it’s university and we’re all being focused and studying one thing,” said R.A. Miguel Laliberte. “It’s interesting to hear what other people are learning.”

R.A.s have the responsibility of overseeing their floors, creating relationships with students, and answering questions.

R.A.s help students adapt to university life.

They also organize events for students to meet others and experience Montreal.

A drawback of living at Grey Nuns is that hundreds of other students are around as well, which makes for a less private living experience.

“It’s very noisy. There isn’t much noise cancellation in the walls, even though East Wing is renovated,” said Thériault. “It’d be nice to get some quiet sometimes.” With easy access to the downtown bars, students will often come in very late at night. “When you’re passed out sleeping and the [students who were out partying] are coming back inside, sometimes I get random knocks at 3 a.m. and that wakes me up,” said Laliberte.

Despite the downsides of sharing a roof, Grey Nuns Residence is a hive of activity, rich in opportunities for residents to get connected with school, with history, with the city, and with each other. Despite the downsides of sharing a roof, Grey Nuns Residence is a hive of activity, rich in opportunities for residents to get connected with school, with history, with the city, and with each other.Despite the expected downsides of sharing a roof, Grey Nuns Residence is a beautiful hive of activity, rich in opportunities for residents to get connected with school, with history, with the city, and with each other.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015

theconcordian

7

FOOD

Fall in love with bubble tea at Nos Thés

The Taiwanese restaurant and tea room is the perfect way to kill your long breaks at SGW REBECCA LUGER Staff writer Add a little bubble to your day by going to Nos Thés, a tea room and Taiwanese restaurant. There are a few Nos Thés in Montreal, but the one on Ste. Catherine Street and the corner of Guy is the closest for students at Concordia’s downtown campus.

The restaurant itself is very aesthetically pleasing. The decor is modern, with white walls and yellow and grey accents. There is also something rustic about the ambience.

Mason jars are used as decorations and light fixtures hang down from the ceiling while soft music plays in the background.

Most of the entrees on the menu are served on either a bed of rice or noodles. I ordered the tempura noodles that had deep fried shrimp, sweet potatoes, squash, pumpkin and vegetables over homemade noodles. My noodles were a little firm, just the way I like them, and the batter of the deep fried vegetables was light and airy. The restaurant also has a variety of soups and dumplings.

Although it’s marketed as a Taiwanese restaurant, they also have some Japanese dishes, such as curry tonkatsu, Japanese-style fried pork chops and oyakodon, chicken and egg simmered in broth.

Nos Thés has a huge variety of flavours for their bubble teas. You can choose to sit at a table and order but I noticed that most young people walking in ordered a bubble tea at the counter to go. It’s a great alternative to just getting

Sit down and order some Taiwanese food or take a bubble tea to go at Nos Thés. Photos by Marie-Pierre Savard. a coffee. If you have a long break, you could sit down and enjoy a full meal.

For those who are unfamiliar with bubble tea, it mixes practically any flavour of tea with small, flavourful tapioca balls that sit at the bottom of the cup.

They have a full three pages dedicated to the different flavours of tea on their menu. What’s cool is that their creamy teas are lactose free.

I was never a fan of bubble tea before Nos Thés. I hadn’t found my flavour. My taste in tea is very plain and I’m not interested in fruity or overly-sweet flavours. I’m more of a green tea type of girl. With this in mind, I asked my waiter for suggestions. He pointed me to the Moroccan Mint Iced

Tea which is one of their classic flavours. Getting an iced bubble tea, in my opinion, is the way to go.

The Moroccan Mint Iced Tea was just what I wanted. It was sweet—but not too sweet—and there was a faint taste of maple. It was delicious and perfect.

The meals and drinks are cheap. A standard main dish is between $8 to $10 and the portions are large. As for the teas, the sizes available are small and large. Prices for bubble teas start at $3.60 for a small and adding the tapioca balls is an extra 50 cents. They also have a wide variety of hot teas at a cheaper price.

I did ask a few of the staff members for their vegetarian dish recommen-

dations and some tea favourites. Nos Thés has a lot of vegetarian options.

The yasai noodles plate is basically the equivalent of what I ordered, minus the shrimp. Another popular vegetarian dish is the Three Mushroom Rice, with shiitake, enoki and king oyster mushrooms and vegetables over rice.

As for bubble teas, I was told that the best thing to do is look at the “Staff Favourites” list hanging on the wall behind the cash register. The cashier told me that most people come in and order right off of that menu.

Nos Thés is located at 1609 Ste. Catherine Street W. Visit their website at nosthescafes.com.

FASHION

Taking inspiration from big metropolitan cities Onore designs bring a new edge and classiness to menswear KRYSTAL CARTY Contributor Francis Palumbo and Giuseppe Novello always knew they wanted to work in fashion, even though they didn’t have a technical background in the field.

“I could not see myself doing anything else,” Novello said in an email interview. “I saw fashion as a manner of expressing my style, my beliefs, my philosophy and my complete outlook on the world.”

Palumbo describes fashion as an outlet that allows people to express themselves in ways that go much further than just spoken words. “Fashion is more of an emotional thing. It’s supposed to make you feel something,” he said.

The two Montrealers chose to team up to start their own clothing brand of menswear, Onore. While Novello said he was purely influenced by his own love of fashion to enter the in-

dustry, Palumbo said he felt that there was something missing from what he was seeing other designers produce. “I strongly believe in high quality and I am completely against cheap labor,” said Palumbo. “I want to bring transparency and social consciousness to an industry that believes in cheap labor and cheap clothes, all the while giving people trendy and yet still timeless menswear pieces.”

The duo traveled through both Montreal and New York City in search of inspiration for their first collection. They found themselves drawn to both the poorest and the richest areas in both cities. They developed the theme of their first collection through these travels, which they call “The Rich and Poor.”

The duo took inspiration from art, music and architecture in the cities as well.

“Our colors, patterns, trims and fabric all reflect the collection’s theme,” Palumbo said. Balancing two different extremes, in this case, rich and poor, is a formula Onore uses to design their clothes, said Palumbo. They produced 12 separate items for their first collection. The pieces are structured and strong, opting for classic shapes and

fits rather than trendy ones. For colours, they chose to stick with dark neutrals, such as blacks, greys and browns, reflecting the darkness of the broken down cities they sought out but also the structure of the upper class counterparts.

The team had a lot on their plate when they launched their first collection. They were in charge of not only designing their products but also marketing them, developing them and starting their own online boutique.

Their second collection is currently in the works. They have begun conceptualizing their theme, though they remained firm on not letting any details slip until they are ready to launch.

Their social media accounts and blog will be the first to start releasing bits of the theme. The collection will likely be launched in the summer.

“We definitely hope to have an impact on the fashion industry in Montreal.

We hope to bring some life and inspiration to the city,” the designers said in an email.

“It is sad to see how our city has struggled to strive in this field. But, we’re determined to represent our city and hopefully revolutionize the perception of Montreal fashion.”

To stay updated on what’s next for Onore, check out their Instagram page, @onorenyc and their website onore.me

Onore designs reflect themes from upper and lower class cities. Photo courtesy of Onore.

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ARTS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015 ARTS EDITORS ELIJAH BUKREEV and LYDIA ANDERSON arts@theconcordian.com @theconcordian

EXHIBIT

Graffiti and street art on display at Artgang

One of SPone’s murals found behind the Artgang gallery.

Photo by Marisela Amador.

What Goes Around Comes Around finishes on Nov. 1 so catch it while you still can MARISELA AMADOR Contributor Artgang Montreal gallery on St. Hubert Street is currently displaying What Goes Around Comes Around , an exhibit for skilled graphic designer Greg Lamarche, also known as SPone.

SPone—an international artist originally from New York City—is commonly characterized as being “your favourite artist’s favourite artist,” according to Artgang. He is highly renowned in the world of graffiti art, and his latest exhibit delivers on all counts.

The layout of the exhibit and particular positioning of the pieces play a part in the narrative SPone portrays.

SPone’s website states that the creativity and grittiness of New York City is a constant source of inspiration for him

and this translates clearly into his collages. SPone uses found materials as well as his collection of vintage prints to produce most of his hand-cut paper collages. He uses different fonts, fragmented words and repetition in his work. His love for topography is evident in his pieces: the lines are thick and dramatic but always clean, and the shapes of the letters and words vary from geometric to more curvy ones. The size of the collages varied with dimensions ranging from 38.1 x 50.8 cm to 91.44 x 60.96 cm. The more standard graffiti pieces are asymmetrical and the use of shading is prominent while the colour palettes are simultaneously made up of bold, bright colours and soft pastels.

There is a cheery feel behind his art—an obvious optimism. His work is more than just tags—some of his pieces are purely hand-completed graphic designs and can be described as presenting contrasting messages. What Goes Around Comes Around is urban, hip, stylish and stunning to say the least.

Marie Letourneau is the communications director of Artgang Montreal. She said the gallery’s mission is to bring together both international and local artists to showcase their work side by side. This is exactly what is achieved with SPone’s work, as it is paired in a

two-person exhibit with Montreal photographer José Enrique Montes Hernandez’s Mémoires. Letourneau also said bringing artists together is a life project for the Artgang team and that many of the artists being curated are past collaborators. They ultimately want to make the St. Hubert Street location the next artistic hub in Montreal. Artgang also habitually commissions a curated artist to go into the studio and create murals for display. SPone’s mural sits in the back alley of the gallery.

His mural is the best stand-alone representation of his collection. It encompasses all the aspects that one expects from SPone’s work. Yet again, what you get from the artist is more than just a tag—it’s graffiti art that is worthy of gallery display. The font and colours are beautiful, bold and bright and they convey that same optimism felt throughout the whole exhibit.

It’s no wonder that this artist is so beloved and acclaimed. SPone’s exhibit is truly a must-see and worthy of appreciations by all art lovers.

What Goes Around Comes Around will run until Nov. 1 at 6524 St. Hubert St. Also catch Mémoires by José Enrique Montes Hernandez, which will also be displayed in the same space.

THEATRE

Celebrating Royal Victoria Hospital with a play Until Nov. 1, catch Infinithéâtre’s Progress! in the nurses’ lounge of the landmark hospital PAULINE NESBITT Staff writer Last Tuesday, Progress!—a play written

by Alyson Grant that uses ghosts to celebrate and commemorate the buildings of the Royal Victoria Hospital on Pine Avenue—held its preview on site.

The Royal Vic, as it’s known locally, opened in 1893 to mark Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee and moved to the Glen site in NDG last April.

Grant ascribed her inspiration for Progress! to her own attempts to come to terms with the changing function of the Pine Avenue buildings, which have been used by many Montrealers to recover from ailments, to give birth and to say farewell to loved ones.

“The exclamation mark [in the title] suggests the irony behind progress,“ said Grant.

Grant’s connection with the Royal Vic started in her early 20s when her boyfriend was a patient there. Although it was at the Montreal Neurological Institute where he eventually passed away, Grant spent a lot of time at the Royal Vic during his illness and had become very familiar with its smell and taste of its food.

The tale begins during the later part

From left: Daniel Brochu, Peter Farbridge, and KC Coombs.

Photo by Thomas Ledwell. of the Victorian era. As the show opens, the ghosts of the first two people to die in one of the hospital’s rooms come onstage to interact with the audience.

These characters, known simply as No. 1 (played by Peter Farbridge) and No. 2 (played by Daniel Brochu), form a Vaudevillian duo, delivering jokes and slapstick comedy. The action then shifts to a room where a suicidal woman (played

by K.C. Coombs) has just been admitted.

The ghosts set out to help her understand

the cause s for her sadness and despair that led to her attempted suicide. By doing so, they hope she will avoid becoming the hospital’s latest ghost. This retrospection offers moments of comic relief and evokes themes of religion, fate, the afterlife, abandonment, relationships and family ties while questioning the relevance of progress—all with the human touch expected at a hospital.

The director, Guy Sprung, said Progress! attempts to strike a very delicate

balance between humour on one side and despair and sadness on the other. “I hope we get that balance there, so that you come away with something and at the same time it is a celebration of this hospital and its history,” said Sprung.

The nurses’ lounge was converted into a theatrical space for this play.

“There is no doubt that the play has an extraordinary resonance because of the location,” said Sprung. The way the characters move around the set allows the audience to participate in the action as it unravels. Sprung also noted that the cast feels a certain amount of nostalgia towards these buildings, particularly since three of the actors and the stage manager were born within their walls. Vaudevillian in style, Progress! is an entertaining reminder of the historic relevance of these buildings.

Presented by Infinithéâtre—which promotes new theatrical works in Quebec—Progress! premiered on Oct. 21 and will be playing at the nurses’ lounge of the former location of the Royal Victoria Hospital on Pine Avenue until Nov. 1. Tickets are $20 for students and can be purchased at Infinithéâtre.com.

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LECTURE

Changing architecture, one can of paint at a time Los Angeles-based duo reflects on the architect’s creative role and exhibit space design

KELSEY LITWIN Staff writer The line that separates art and architecture was blurred during the latest instalment of the Displaying Architecture lecture series at the Canadian Centre for Architecture on Thursday night.

During the talk, Anna Neimark and Andrew Atwood—the duo behind the Los Angeles-based architecture firm First Office—explored the concept of a model on display as an exhibit and an architectural exhibit as a theoretical model for something that has yet to be

constructed. While presenting a handful of examples of their work, they raised the question of what the architect’s creative role should be when designing exhibit spaces.

Their focus on the way visitors interact with their work and their inexplicable fascination with shades of white paint seemed more fitting of painters than architects. Neimark and Atwood insisted, however, that they do not see themselves as such. Instead, as Neimark said, they look at “the capacity of architecture to contain things artfully.”

Their portfolio—which consists mainly of crisp, white, open spaces— reimagines how architects combine project and practice. Neimark said that as models become “a display of evidence,” the practice of architecture is scaled down, forcing a type of thought that is not taught in schools. In doing so, as architects they are brought further into the construction side of the process—even if it is on a much smaller level, they said.

One example, as the team recalled, was the model for a gallery space they designed, entitled Paranormal Panorama. They used six different shades of white paint to project a landscape onto all four walls of the space, incorporating the room’s existing features—such as electrical outlets and doors—as “characters.” They found that, when constructing the model, the one material

that could not be brought down to scale was the paint. This posed a different set of challenges as they highlighted the aforementioned characters.

As the architects added, a visitor’s ability to touch and experience a model, whether it is a maquette or a fullsized door frame that the visitor can walk through, will alter their relationship with it. Although a scaled-down representation of space allows for careful observation of details that otherwise might have been overlooked, as the pair agreed during the lecture, “nothing ever happens in these spaces.”

A model that is “too big for a pedestal, but too small for the space,” on the other hand—such as the duo’s “Duchamp Door”—has the ability to en-

courage a more intimate form of reflection as the viewer can interact with it.

However, if haphazardly placed, it could be overlooked as a simple architectural feature of the space rather than an object that can stand on its own.

In playing with those boundaries, Neimark and Atwood have fostered a great understanding of how art fits into real spaces, changing the visitor’s experience with one can of white paint at a time.

If you’re interested in the Canadian Centre for Architecture, you may want to visit The Other Architect, an exhibit that will run there from Oct. 28 to April 10. The exhibit focuses on positioning architecture as a field of intellectual research.

Neimark and Atwood theorize on how the model interacts with its exhibit space. Photos by Kelsey Litwin.

EXHIBIT

A cemetery of unrealized architectural projects The Montréal Jamais Construit exhibit explores rejected architectural projects MARIA BUKREEV Staff writer One of the things Montreal is known for is its wide range of architectural styles.

Indeed, within the same city we can find historic buildings in Old Montreal as well as more contemporary structures downtown. Yet, have you ever wondered what the city would look like if some of the many suggested architectural projects hadn’t been rejected?

Thomas Balaban—a university professor, curator, architect and creator of the multidisciplinary studio TBA—asked himself that question, and decided to let us take a look at what Montreal could have looked like under other circumstances.

Montéral Jamais Construit is an exhibit that offers a unique vision of Montreal by introducing us to 13 major projects planned over the last 25 years that ended up being terminated.

Hosted by the Maison de l’Architecture du Québec—a centre that wishes to promote architecture as art in our society—the exhibit fits in well since it

shares the same goals. Balaban, along with his colleagues Jennifer Thorogood, Maxime Lefebvre and Julia Manaças, regret the fact that architecture is taken for granted nowadays and that people don’t admire it for its aesthetic value anymore.

There is a caption from one of Brandon Stanton’s Humans Of New York portraits that comes to mind. “We’re all victims of the architect. Architecture is the only art that you can’t help but feel. You can avoid paintings, you can avoid music and you can even avoid history. But good luck getting away from architecture.”

This really explains how important architecture is in our lives and that it is impossible to simply ignore it. Montéral Jamais Construit goes further than simply showing us the beauty of the buildings we see everyday. The exhibit includes 13 model structures, sketches and details about a project’s construction next to a recent picture of the space where it was meant to be built. For each project that was dropped there is a note explaining the reason why it was terminated. Although most projects were rejected while they had only been developed on paper, some were already under construction. One such example was a new baseball stadium that was meant to be downtown—it was almost completed

This cardboard model could have become McGill University’s Art Pavilion. Photo by Andrej Ivanov. when its construction was called off for financial reasons. Other causes for dropping these projects included either political or aesthetic reasons, resulting in an Orchestre symphonique de Montréal building, or a cultural and administrative complex never being built.

Of course, there’s a number of other projects that were cancelled apart from those mentioned at the MAQ, but the 13 projects imagined between 1990 and 2015 that are displayed could have had a major impact on our city—some-

thing to which Balaban wished to draw the visitor’s attention. The importance of the exhibit is in that Montreal’s skyline could have drastically changed had these architectural projects come to life. The team behind the exhibit is now considering making a book with more details and more projects in order to raise awareness on the process of creation.

The exhibit runs from Oct. 23 until Feb. 14 at the Maison de l’Architecture du Québec.

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015

HALLOWEEN SPECIAL gaming

Taking your gaming habits q new spooky heights Robin Stanford Contributor In the dwindling days before All Hallows’ Eve, what better time to sit back and relax with a video game suited for the season? Instead of the jump scares of Scott Cawthon’s latest entry to the Five Nights at Freddy’s series, or the Capcom’s latest action packed Resident Evil, dare to take a journey to an even darker side.

True horror stays with the player long after the controller is put down. Horror is something that makes one hesitate for a moment before walking down an alley or turning off the light.

In order to look into what makes a horror game memorable, minor spoilers will be discussed about games that fit this description. Bonus! These video games can often be found on sale.

Horror that lingers and truly has an effect on a player tends to have certain core elements: the confined, the uncanny, and the unknown.

The Confined Open world experiences are unsuited

to horror games, as a player would have the ability to escape an uncomfortable situation quickly. This turns a potentially scary experience into an inconvenience for the player.

Good horror games, on the other hand, restrict the player greatly in terms of the area they are exploring. For example, in Sega’s Alien: Isolation the player is trapped aboard a space station with the monster of the 1979 movie Alien. In Outlast, by Red Barrels, the main character is trapped inside a dilapidated psychiatric hospital with former patients who have murderous intentions.

There is no way to escape the threat immediately, so the player is forced to sit with the imminent threat, a position that we tend to avoid in real life. Spooky!

The Uncanny This is the feeling that one gets when walking into a room where a light is flickering. Although there is nothing threatening, something doesn’t quite feel right.

A horror example of this is every single conversation in Konami’s Silent Hill 2.

Throughout the game, the protagonist speaks to several characters who all de-

liver their lines in a way that humans typically don’t. The rhythm of their speech is wrong, especially when put in the context of a spooky town.

Much like the flickering light, this serves to create a sense of uneasiness and makes the player more sensitive to what else might be amiss.

The Unknown Perhaps the most important part of any good horror game is to keep the main threat unknown for as long as possible.

Tension builds as a game progresses and the monster’s habits and appearance are slowly revealed. For example, in Amnesia: The Dark Descent by Frictional Games, for most of the game the monster who is hunting the main character is unknown. Every sound and movement on the edge of the frame is a potential threat and contributes to what the enemy could be.

Similarly, in Playdead’s LIMBO, the dangers are unknown often until they are unwittingly discovered by the player. Due to its stark film noir style, details must be filled in by the player. Everything in the environment, lacking detail, is a potential threat as filled in by the player’s mind.

In the end, the specialist who knows what makes us most afraid is ourselves.

Scare yourself with some real horror this Halloween. — Graphic by Charlotte Bracho

music

Creepy tunes R full moons Samuel Provost-Walker Music editor 1. Akira Yamaoka – Silent Hill: Original Soundtracks (Konami Music Entertainment; 1999) Lauded for their tense, foreboding atmosphere and ground-breaking, psychologically charged themes, the Silent Hill games are perhaps best known for their incredibly effective and gut-wrenching soundtracks composed by the one and only Akira Yamaoka. While later entries in the series put emphasis on Yamaoka’s emotionally bare trip-hop pieces, the original title features one of the most nerve-wracking soundtracks in the medium. A dark ambient album rife with the industrial sounds of clanging, cold machinery and ear-splitting circuit failures, Silent Hill truly made the most of its limited hardware without sacrificing quality. Even divorced of its original context, Yamaoka’s score is simply unnerving in the best of ways, like a thick, billowing cloud of dread, slowly suffocating every inch of life in sight. Though the game may not quite stand the test of time, Akira Yamaoka’s mark on the medium is still present, re-shaping the use of music in video games just as film did decades prior.

2. Scott Walker – The Drift (4AD; 2006) Oh, Scott Walker. Where to begin?

Once a pioneering baroque pop artist known for his unconventional arrangements and signature warbly croon, Walker soon suffered a sharp decline in sales, only to release what were essentially traditional pop cover albums in order to satisfy executives. After a lengthy hiatus, he returned a new man; though the vulnerable singer/ songwriter was still present, his voice almost intact, his demeanour had taken on entirely otherworldly form. While 1995’s Tilt showcases his bold new deeply expressionistic direction, 2006’s follow-up The Drift remains one of the most confounding, troubling and deeply terrifying musical experiences of the 21st Century. Through increasingly intricate and disquieting arrangements, Walker croons his way over a veritable backdrop from hell, often evoking a sermonizing cultish priest figure.

“Clara” is particularly unsettling; following a series of 1. volume swells and

brass strikes, a legion of cicadas begins buzzing infernally while the sounds of a man punching a piece of meat and grunting simultaneously suddenly find their way into the mix. The Drift is proof that some artists only grow increasingly ambitious with age; it also happens to be a towering nightmare.

3. Current 93 - I Have a Special Plan for This World (Durtro; 2000) By no means a conventional band, Current 93 have always been defined by their overly atmospheric, densely unnerving brand of folk; utilizing noisy elements of industrial music, frontman David Tibet and his peers utilize a slew of traditional instruments to render a serenely apoca-

2.

lyptic and lethargic package of the highest order. None of this beauty is present on I Have a Special Plan for this World, a single song, 22-minute EP. Comprised entirely of ambient drones, field recordings, a tattered, circuit-bent Speak and Spell from hell and the cold, didactic narration of Tibet reading a poem by famed horror writer Thomas Ligotti, the resulting concoction is absolutely horrifying. The EP takes on the form of a madman’s diary, each section fragmented by the infernal broken toy regurgitating broken information and surrounded by a mounting sense of dread and discomfort. Though the initial fridge-like hum and the lack of conventional “music” may not be for everyone, I Have a Special Plan for This World is an experience worth taking, if only to ensure that you still have a pulse.

3.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015

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11

theatre

Montreal’s beloved

Rocky Horror ball is back Philippe Spurrell has produced the Halloween show for 17 years

Robin Stanford Contributor

E

ccentric, kinky, entertaining or over-the-top—whatever you call it, Montreal’s Rocky Horror Picture Show Halloween Ball is hard to forget.

You may be familiar with the eponymous cult movie, but perhaps not with the iconic musical Halloween event, which is a challenge to describe.

“It’s one of those things that, when I describe it to people, they still have a puzzled look,” said Philippe Spurrell, who has produced and promoted the show for the last 17 years. “It’s basically the projection on a large screen in a movie theater of the 1975 film Rocky Horror Picture Show with a live cast on stage dressed like the characters that are projected on screen who move in perfect synchronization with actors in the movie,” said Spurrell.

A 40-year old cult classic, The Rocky Horror Picture Show—based on the 1973 musical stage production—is a satirical movie directed by Jim Sharman and starring now well-known actors such as Tim Curry and Susan Sarandon. Spurrell described the movie as a mix between parody and a homage to bad B-rated horror and science-fiction movies. At first it wasn’t a great success but the film eventually became a midnight movie sensation. Now known as having the longest-running theatrical release, the movie is screened all around the world every year. Our local Halloween event is actually the biggest in North America in terms of audience size. However, it has to do with more than just the numbers. “I like to think that we do it on the most spectacular level,“ said Spurrell.

Now boasting a cast of about 40 people, the show is bigger than ever. Circus acts, dance mash-ups and a costume contest hosted by Montreal underground figure Plastik Patrik are programed so as to entertain the audience before the main attraction. In addition, there are a number of traditions in which the audience interacts with the movie and the performers. So what is so different than just watching the movie at home, you may ask? Actually, a whole lot.

The first important step of this “multimedia interactive film theatrical experience,” as Spurrell put it, is to know where you stand. If you are already familiar with the event, as are countless audience members, chances are that you remember the whole game of callbacks and props.

But if you are not, you happen to be what they affectionately call a “virgin.”

Don’t worry, they won’t pry into your private life—well, not much anyway—since it’s just a nickname for people who have never attended the production before. For

The Rock Horror Picture Show Halloween Ball is an event that pairs live-action theatre with cult cinema. first-timers, it may feel at first like being at a party where you don’t know any of the people and inside jokes. Still, Spurrell said people should not be put off by this and give it a chance at least once. “It’s really its own kind of beast that you have to be there to really fully understand … To my knowledge there’s no course you can take, [like] Rocky 101, you just dive into it.”

Coming back to the concept of virginity, it can be said that experiencing the show for the first time is quite a lot like other initiations. “Most people’s first time can be absolutely thrilling or awkward,” said Spurrell.

People try this yearly event and then come back to it for an array of reasons.

Surely it is a good way to have fun on Halloween, but for many attendees it can be more than that.

Both the movie and the events are intimately connected to the LGBTQ community and what it stands for. As the Rocky Horror Picture Show slogan states, “Don’t dream it, be it.” This can mean a lot of things, said Spurrell, but for some it’s a bit more than just becoming a rock star. While relating to people he talked to during his 17 years of producing the show, he explained that this event can often act as a gateway of sorts for people struggling with their own sexuality—a kind of safe haven where one can feel, at least for one night, a little bit more comfortable in their skin.

“Don’t dream about what you really want in terms of love and whatever, just be it,” said Spurrell. However, he still insisted that it’s also a good place to just have some fun on a night when, let’s say, straight, macho men might feel like wearing high heels and sexy jartelles for a change. “If there’s one context where it’s totally appropriate, this is it,” he said.

Be it for the unusual movie screening, for one hell of a Halloween party or just for the sake of experiencing something new, Montreal’s Rocky Horror Picture Show Halloween Ball offers you three nights where you get to be as unconventional as you want.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show Halloween Ball will be presented at Imperial Cinema on Oct. 29, 30 and 31 with two screenings per nights. A $5 student discount is offered on Oct. 29.

For tickets and more information, visit rockyhorrormontreal.com.

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015

films

make

Halloween mov

Elijah Bukreev Co-arts editor

I

f you’re tired of rewatching the same old horror classics every year and have stopped caring for the latest Paranormal Activity or what-have-you, you may want to think outside of the box for this Halloween movie night. Here are six films, all released within the last five years, that will both chill you and give you something to think about. Most of them are independently produced, some of them are foreign, and one of them is a spoof, but all of them are truly original, while carrying along the horror tradition in a time when studios have led the genre down a very narrow path.

It Follows, U.S.A., 2014 This is a real blast—a high-concept, thoroughly terrifying tribute to ‘80s horror, complete with a John Carpenter-inspired score. While the plot may sound familiar—it involves a group of teenagers fighting off a mysterious force—it has a terrific premise and its simplicity makes it all the more effective. The plot is as follows (no pun intended): a young girl gets a sexually transmitted curse, and unless she passes on the curse to somebody else, she will eventually be found, followed and killed by a shapeshifting being. “It” can be anyone in the crowd, walking towards you at a skin-crawlingly slow pace. And even if she manages to pass on the curse to somebody else, it will eventually come back once its next bearers have been killed.

The fact that you know “it” is always walking towards you, even when out of sight, will keep you tense throughout, since you know “it” could catch up with you at any given time. And of course, if you’re willing to dig a bit deeper, you’ll find that, like with all great horror, the film uses its boogeyman as a way to address very rational fears—in this case, fears of mortality, aging and sexual anxiety.

The Babadook, Australia, 2014 Long before the eponymous creature makes its appearance—first as a children’s book and then in an increasingly physicalized form—there is a sense of mounting dread which arises from a single mother’s inability to deal with her young son, a six-year-old boy who obliviously causes destruction and requires vampiric amounts of attention. Through its colour scheme of cold whites and blues, the film is permeated by the untimely death of the boy’s father. It is that interior darkness, which eventually turns the mother into a Jack Torrence-like character, that seems to invoke the “babadook”—a grotesque spirit in a top hat and a cape portrayed, miraculously, through old-fashioned means and not CGI. The film is psychologically astute and has impressive acting performances, especially from Noah Wiseman in his first role as the young boy. The way it approaches grief, insomnia and children’s fears makes it an almost therapeutic experience, but

It Follows was screened at Cannes and received almost unanimous critical praise.

Samuel (Noah Wiseman), Amelia (Essie Davis) and their dog searching the house for monsters. before you get spooked off by that word, I’ll add that The Babadook has a generous amount of scares, and rarely has it been more terrifying—or fun, for that matter— to scrutinize the dark corners of a basement in the dead of night.

Goodnight Mommy, Austria, 2014 This Austrian import, made with no scare jumps or ominous music, is probably the quietest film on this list, but that doesn’t make it any less sinister. It uses a classic horror film setting—a house in the woods—to tell the story of two young twins who start to suspect that their mother, who has just come back from a facial surgery and is covered in bandages, is an impostor. At first, the boys are set off by her erratic behaviour and aggression, unfamiliar to them from previous interactions, but soon they find a picture of their mother with a look-alike woman, and start thinking their suspicions may in fact be well-founded.

All the same, the film is devilish in that you never know what to believe—when the boys have the woman tied up and are torturing her for answers, the line between victim and aggressor is effectively blurred. Could she simply have forgotten what her son’s favourite song was? Or is she actually not who she says she is? While some final twists may feel a bit forced, this is an entertainingly creepy film and, surprisingly, Austria’s submission to next year’s Oscar race.

Julia’s Eyes, Spain, 2010 Mexican-born director Guillermo del Toro has produced several Spanish and English-language horror films over the years, and one thing that implies is a great

A mother’s behaviour goes through a drastic change after a facial surgery—who’s hiding under the bandages?

Julia (Belen Rueda) will have to investigate a murder and find an invisible killer with her eyes closed. sense of style. In fact, Julia’s Eyes is distinguished by gorgeous camera work and some delicious gimmickry, which plays on the fact that its main character is starting to go blind.

The young woman must race against time and overcome a disease that slowly plunges her into literal darkness. And as if that wasn’t enough, she also finds herself investigating her sister’s mysterious suicide and trying to find the man who follows

her every move without ever being seen.

This is the kind of horror film in which it is the mystery itself that largely acts as the monster figure, and the process of deciphering an enigma takes the viewer on a dark and perilous adventure. It has enough thrills and twists to last you a while, and Spanish actress Belen Rueda is an involving lead who manages to add an emotional edge to the story. If your idea of a good time is a two-hour, >>

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015

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ie night good one a

Director Kim Jee-woon is no stranger to blood— he made the memorable A Tale of Two Sisters.

A mysterious agency controls whatever horrors are unleashed at an unsuspecting group of students.

>>

startlingly well-shot guessing game, you should go with sense of style.

In fact, Julia’s Eyes is distinguished by gorgeous camera work and some delicious gimmickry, which plays on the fact that its main character is starting to go blind.

The young woman must race against time and overcome a disease that slowly plunges her into literal darkness. And as if that wasn’t enough, she also finds herself investigating her sister’s mysterious suicide and trying to find the man who follows her every move without ever being seen.

This is the kind of horror film in which it is the mystery itself that largely acts as the monster figure, and the process of deciphering an enigma takes the viewer on a dark and perilous adventure. It has enough thrills and twists to last you a while, and Spanish actress Belen Rueda is

an involving lead who manages to add an emotional edge to the story. If your idea of a good time is a two-hour, startlingly wellshot guessing game, you should go with Julia’s Eyes.

The Cabin in the Woods, U.S.A., 2010 This is a film for people who are sick and tired of horror film clichés and want to see them torn to shreds—which is literally what happens in The Cabin in the Woods. While the film may be a bit short on scares, it is decidedly clever and accomplishes what the original Scream did in 1996—it deconstructs the horror genre from inside out in a way that is both funny and thrilling. It’s hard to describe the plot without giving too much away, but, as has been done to death, it starts with five

young people—one of them played by Chris Hemsworth—going to a cabin in the woods for a nice few days. But at the same time, an underground surveillance-like agency seems to be preparing for their arrival, manipulating them as puppets.

Joss Whedon, who co-wrote and produced the film, described it as a “loving hate letter” to the horror genre, and that’s exactly what it is—at once a feast for every horror fan to appreciate and a spoof that will delight those who can’t stand the genre.

I Saw the Devil, South Korea, 2010 Here’s an opportunity to discover South Korean cinema, which has some of the most twisted, violent and brilliant films you’ll ever see. I Saw the Devil, directed by the great Kim Jee-woon, is a

demented cat-and-mouse game between a serial killer and a secret agent seeking to avenge his murdered wife. While the agent has the killer cornered rather fast, he decides to leave him alive to enact a slow and painful revenge. However, in doing so he underestimates how much of a monster the killer is.

What qualifies the film for the horror genre is its extreme gore and violence, which caused it to be completely recut in its home country. However, none (or almost none) of it is gratuitous, and serves as an entertaining and weirdly lyrical story. Asian films, and South Korean films in particular, tend to be more violent than films made in the West, but this one takes the palm. I Saw the Devil will take you on a wild ride with Choi Min-sik, of Oldboy fame, as the serial killer.

event

Take a stroll with t ghosts of Griffintown Katerina Gang Contributor Griffintown’s most historic and haunted sites come alive during Haunted Montreal’s frightful new ghost walk, “Haunted Griffintown” this Halloween season.

Haunted Griffintown might best be described as a walking theatrical performance. The tour is led by trained actors and historians Donovan King and Tim Hardman, each of whom plays a character throughout the walk.

While the tour delves deep into Griffintown’s folklore, it is deeply rooted in historical events. Every story told has been researched by historians and “contextualized within Montreal’s culture,” said King. Haunted Griffintown tours depart from Griffintown Café on Notre Dame Street Ouest at 8 p.m. when the cold darkness helps set the mood.

The tour follows Professor Beeblebock (King) and his graduate student, Jacob Bayou (Hardman), as they take you through “Canada’s most notorious shantytown.” The tour’s first stop is a park at the

former site of St. Ann’s Church. The park is home to many ghost sightings, including one tale of a vanishing funeral procession.

It is hard not to feel a little spooked as you walk under the looming trees, past benches arranged like pews, in total darkness.

As the tour winds along the Lachine Canal, King and Hardman treat listeners to stories that masterfully blend history and folklore. The canal has witnessed many disturbing deaths. From typhus-stricken Irish immigrants dying in fever sheds in 1847, to a young boy crushed by a swing bridge in 1908, to a mysterious drowning in the Peel Basin in 2010, the stories told are delightfully horrific.

The stories give rise to some captivating paranormal sightings. As King and Hardman share stories of orbs hovering over sites of fever sheds, and of a vanishing young boy walking along the abandoned Wellington tunnel, it is hard not to feel as if someone is watching you.

The tour continues around buildings that seem to have lost their history. Condominiums disguise the forgotten site of the RAF Liberator bomber crash of 1944.

King and Hardman, however, breathe

The Lachine Canal walkway, where many mysterious deaths have occurred.

Photo by Katerina Gang. life back into the story, for the forgotten stories are a disrespect to the dead, notes Beeblebock, and “the dead do not like to be disrespected.”

Indeed, King felt it was important to host a tour of Griffintown before it was too late. “The Griff is at risk of losing a lot of its historic areas due to gentrification and condo-building,” said King. “I wanted to do a ghost walk in the area before the history is erased.”

The tour ends with Montreal’s most famous ghost story: the murder of prosti-

tute Mary Gallagher. King’s description of her gruesome decapitation and mutilation are enough to keep you up at night. His description of her reappearance on her street corner, however, really makes you lose your head.

King has been giving ghost tours since 2006. “I think people are fascinated by the paranormal because most people experience things in their lives that are uncanny and sometimes unexplainable,” said King. “The paranormal offers possible explanations for impossible situations.”

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015 MUSIC EDITOR SAMUEL PROVOST-WALKER music@theconcordian.com

MUSIC

@theconcordian

RECOMMENDATIONS

A short guide to math rock for dummies This week’s genre takes your least-favourite class and makes it way more hardcore

pensity absolutely brimming with fresh ideas even today.

With the turn of the 21st century came a shift in math rock’s general focus, with bands like Don Caballero and Tera Melos switching to a more noodly and riffbased format. Some math rock bands tend to hang in limbo somewhere between jazz and emo, most notably Japan’s melancholic instrumental outfit Toe, Oxford-based TTNG (formerly This Town Needs Guns) and Irish post-rock/math rock hybrid Enemies. This added emphasis on technical virtuosity comes with a firm grasp on melody, often working together to create some truly evocative and sharp pieces.

According to a 2006 Pitchfork interview with Chavez guitarist Matt Sweeney, “[Math rock] was invented by a friend of ours as a derogatory term for a band me and James played in called Wider. But his whole joke is that he’d watch the song and not react at all, and then take out his calculator to figure out how good the song was.

So he’d call it math rock, and it was a total diss, as it should be,” he said.

With the return of genre pioneers like

Voyce* — Alone in a Crowd: Angels | Demons (self-released, 2015)

Neon Indian — VEGA INTL. Night School (Transgressive/Mom + Pop, 2015)

Joanna Newsom - Divers (Drag City, 2015)

Half Moon Run — Sun Leads Me On (Glassnote Records, 2015)

Are you a fan of Drake, Usher or The Weeknd? Blend them all together, deconstruct their fundamentals and you get Alone in a Crowd: Angels | Demons.

Voyce*’s debut album takes every rule in the book and throws it out the window.

It is a deep and intimate exploration into a man’s psyche detailing the hardships of being an artist and recounts tales of love and loss. The 45-track album is emotionally resonant and approachable, creating a world that feels very lived in and personal. In this sonic landscape, Voyce* bares his soul and pushes the envelope regarding what it means to be an artist. Clocking in at a bit over three hours, this album can be appreciated in one sitting or in shorter intervals; whichever way one chooses to discover it, listening to it on a hi-fidelity sound system is an absolute must.

If one were to pick an album which accurately translates retro neon signs into audio format, VEGA INTL. Night School would be that very album. Pushing aside the questionably offensive nature of the band’s name, this long-awaited LP is definitely worth listening to, though it’s hard to discern whether it will have much worth in a few years’ time; half the album is a nostalgic and chill ride, while the other half isn’t quite as remarkable. That being said, the album’s chillwave charm exposes timeworn, yet somehow fresh and inventive vibes, without a doubt exploring and bringing the electronic ‘80s aesthetic into the present. The album takes on a playful and lighthearted, albeit occasionally cheesy, vibe, especially in accordance with the almost whispered vocals reminiscent of teen-boy bands.

Though shorter in length by Joanna Newsom’s standards, Divers, her fourth record, is wonderfully complex and full of the melodic storytelling the singer and harpist has become recognized for.

The unique arrangements and varied instruments found in tracks like “Leaving the City” and “Goose Eggs” contribute to the feeling of a more contemporary version of the singer emerging while still inhabiting a space outside of popular folk pop. Divers exemplifies Newsom’s genius lilting lexicon; she effortlessly rhymes Ozymandian and Sapokanikan in a poetic ode to Manhattan on the album’s strongest track, “Sapokanikan” before guiding the album towards a pleasantly subdued second half. A beautiful balance of theatrical folk tales and melancholic melodies, Divers is a delectable delight.

Half Moon Run’s sophomore album Sun Leads Me On shows what the Montreal-based band is truly capable of. The sound is much fuller than their debut album, Dark Eyes, exploring various psychedelic influences such as The Beatles, Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane, with a dash of synthpop for good measure. The album significantly diverges from their debut album, aiming for more audacious, fulfilling and mature heights. Rather than stick to their original niche, the band have chosen to grow sonically, as though Half Moon Run is far bigger than just four young men. Fans of the band’s work will find an infinitely more rewarding album in Sun Leads Me On; what it lacks in general originality it more than makes up for in character and consistency.

Trial track: “Surrender”

Trial track: “Hit Parade”

Trial track: “Sapokanikan”

Trial track: “I Can’t Figure Out What’s Going On”

9/10

7/10

8/10

7/10

SAMUEL PROVOST-WALKER Music editor MIA PEARSON Staff writer Take the stereotype of a bunch of nerds crunching numbers in math class, apply it to music and you get a complex, sweaty and often beautiful thing called math rock.

Math rock is all about complex time signatures, stop and start polyrhythms and angular, frayed riffs. Somewhere around the late 1980s and early 1990s, noise rock and post-hardcore outfits began experimenting with new dissonant chords and song structures, throwing out the standard 4/4 time signatures in favour of asymmetrical 7/8 and putting a greater emphasis on calculated atmosphere.

Many of the genre’s earliest examples are indebted to the sounds that came before, blending the intensity of post-hard-

Graphic by Charlotte Bracho.

core with these new chaotic song structures; San Diego outfit Drive Like Jehu are one such band. Combining the harsh intensity of noise rock and the yelped manic vocal stylings of post-hardcore with off-kilter rhythms and incredibly precise drumming, the band released two widely acclaimed albums of increasing mathematical complexity before disbanding.

Though their career was short-lived, their influence is still felt today.

Perhaps the single most important band to contribute to the genre’s genesis was Kentucky-based quartet Slint, a math rock band of incredible ambition and sonic breadth. Though their debut, the criminally overlooked Tweez serves as a noisy class in math rock’s fundamentals, even enlisting Big Black frontman Steve Albini on production duties, the band’s sophomore album, Spiderland, has attained legendary status as a central pillar of the genre.

Largely credited with establishing many of post-rock’s key tropes, namely the genre’s sparse crescendo-based structure, Spiderland is a haunting experimental opus of startling rhythmic diversity and artful pro-

Shellac and the increasing popularity of more modern outfits like Battles, 65daysofstatic and, to an extent, Oxford’s successful Foals, math rock has seeped its way into the public consciousness.

Through its versatility and various tonal modes, math rock has confidently escaped its origins as a niche spinoff of art punk, providing something for just about anyone. Don’t let its name fool you; you don’t need a foundation in calculus to understand and enjoy what this mathematical subgenre has to offer.

QUICKSPINS

ANDREJ IVANOV

STEVE JN

ONEIDA CRAWFORD

ANDREJ IVANOV

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015

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15

LECTURE

Chance The Rapper drops knowledge at Concordia

The Hall theatre brimmed with excitement as hip hop artist Chance The Rapper regaled his fans.

Prior to his show at L’Olympia, Chance The Rapper hung out with none other than Concordia’s own The Narcicyst. Photos by Marie-Pierre Savard.

GABRIEL FERNANDEZ Contributor

H

undreds of Concordians lined up outside the Alumni Auditorium in Concordia’s Hall building on Oct. 21 for a chance to see hip hop artist Chance The Rapper discuss art and life before his show at L’Olympia that same night.

The talk, which was held as part of Concordia’s very own class titled “Hip Hop: Past, Present, Future” and organized in collaboration with the Concordia Student Union, was held by Yassin Alsalman, an artist also known by his stage name The Narcicyst, and professor of the aforementioned class.

The lineup coiled like a snake from the front doors of the auditorium, out onto the sidewalk and up onto Mackay Street. As the doors opened, hundreds of anxious bodies shuffled their way into the room excitedly. This very crowd exploded in cheers just as Chance stepped out onto the stage, smiling and waving at those who called out to him. He greeted Concordia’s students with a casual yet joyful “hey guys,” before taking a seat, all the while attracting dozens of star struck eyes to his position.

Chancelor Bennett, better known by his stage name Chance The Rapper, was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. Though he began releasing music in 2011, it was his widely acclaimed 2013 mixtape Acid Rap, a psychedelic, bombastically scatter-brained journey, that quickly cemented Chance’s position as one of the most potent contemporary hip hop artists.

An independent artist, Chance reached international stardom almost solely through the release of free mixtapes and a slew of guest appearances.

His most recent release, a collaborative mixtape with rapper Lil B, came out in

August while his jazz rap collaborative project Surf, which he released in May of 2015 with his band Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment, currently ranks highly among review aggregator Metacritic’s highest rated albums of 2015.

Chance’s unique approach to his craft has made him an eclectic and curiously interesting performer, his distinctive singing voice and proficient rapping skills joining forces over jazzy and soulful in-

seem to understand is that, in politics, the torch doesn’t get passed down like that. You have to work your way up.”

Chance’s love for music manifested itself from a young age, and his decision to pursue his passion ultimately brought him to where he is now. However, Chance has used his artistic platform and political ties to launch social activism initiatives in his hometown of Chicago. One of these was the Save Chi-

Chance’s topics included life on the road and his musical influences. strumentals. Bennett said gospel and soul music were frequently being played in the house when he was a child and became strong influences on his work.

Chance grew up in the West Chatham neighbourhood of Chicago’s South Side. His father, Ken Williams-Bennett, is the Regional Representative for the U.S. Secretary of Labour for the Great Lake States of the Midwest. “My dad always wanted me to follow in his footsteps,” he said. “What people don’t

cago movement, which was done in collaboration with his father in May of 2014, during which the MC took to Twitter to help organize a successful 42-hour citywide ceasefire in an effort to prevent violence in the city and promote a sense of community for Memorial Day weekend.

The widespread violence in Chicago was a topic of discussion during the event. “Chicago really is that crazy when it comes to violence,” said Chance. “Like, every summer, it’s almost like a tradition

for kids to get shot. I remember coming back to school in September and kids I used to have in class had gotten killed.

I just recently came to terms with the fact that other places don’t associate the summertime with murder.”

The positivity the young artist often articulates in his music was reflected in the aura and the attitude he projected.

He generated laughs from the students on numerous occasions through his natural charm and quick wit and even surprised crowd members by pointing out Donnie Trumpet and Peter Cottontale of his band The Social Experiment, who were sitting in the front row. They regaled the audience with stories about how they met and the mutual respect that they’ve shared for each other’s talent since high school.

Chance discussed fatherhood during one of the more touching moments of the conversation. He welcomed his first child into the world in September, and explained how the birth of his daughter has changed him thus far. “It [has] taught me how to love better,” he said. The audience simultaneously let out a collective “aw” at the unmistakably genuine answer to The Narcicyst’s question. He also elaborated on the struggles that come with spending time on tour away from his family. “Every time I finish a show, I know I’m just getting one step closer to being back home.”

He added that this newly existent reality was the inspiration behind the name of his current tour, “Family Matters.”

The final portion of the event was a Q&A. Ending on a humorous note, one student stood up and challenged Chance to a rap battle, to which he nonchalantly replied, “um, no dude.” The auditorium erupted with laughter one last time before transitioning into a torrent of cheers and applause as Chance waved to students and made his way off the Hall theatre’s stage and onto L’Olympia’s.

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015

SPORTS

SPORTS EDITOR ALEXANDER COLE sports@theconcordian.com @theconcordian

MEN’S FOOTBALL

Stingers clinch playoff spot in thriller at McGill Keegan Treloars last minute kick sealed a Shrine Bowl victory as well as playoff birth for the Stingers

Runningback Jean-Guy Rimpel gets tackled while running the ball. Photos by Andrej Ivanov.

PEGGY KABEYA Staff writer

T

he Concordia Stingers eked out a close victory in Saturday afternoon’s 47th annual Shaughnessy Cup at McGill Percival Molson Memorial Stadium in front of a raucous homecoming.

With “win and you’re in” playoff implications on the line, the Maroon and Gold survived a furious McGill second-half rally to set up kicker Keegan Treloar’s 30yard playoff-clinching field goal.

“It’s a game kickers dream of,” said an elated Treloar following the game.“To be able to win the game and secure a playoff spot, it’s a day I’ll always remember.”

Despite the tight score, the Redmen’s 20 penalties for 185 yards were a reoccurring issue that plagued them all afternoon. McGill’s undisciplined play has been an point of contention all season as their numerous penalties extended multiple Concordia offensive drives in both encounters this season.

“It was a playoff game for us ... it was personal, it was our house and we really wanted to win this game,” said a frustrated McGill receiver Remi Bertellin.

“We had some issues with the referees, some penalties were legit and others [not so much].”

The Stingers counted on another big game from quarterback Trenton Miller who currently leads the RSEQ conference in passing yards, touchdowns, attempts

and completions despite only taking over as the starting quarterback in week two of the RSEQ regular season. “[Miller] is cool and calm all the time” said third-year defensive back Rashawn Perry about his star quarterback. “He never gets rattled and that’s why he’s a true leader.”

Nothing was more emblematic of Miller’s reputation as a cool customer than the game’s final drive. With 88 seconds left on the clock and the Stingers down 41-40, Miller led the Stingers offense on a 10-play 70-yard drive to set up the game-winning field goal.

“When I saw we had to drive the field I knew we could do it, Trenton’s been absolute money for us and he got us in a good position,” said Treloar.

The win keeps head coach Mickey Donovan undefeated against McGill, where he was the Redmen’s assistant head coach and defensive coordinator from November 2011 to February 2014.

“This rivalry goes so deep, it means the world to me to win the Shaugnessy cup,” noted Perry. “The way we fought to the end to get the win, my teammates are the best and I couldn’t ask for a better way to finish off my career against McGill.”

Next up for the Stingers comes in the form of another familiar crosstown rival as they pay a visit to the reigning national champions from the Université de Montréal, Oct. 31 at CEPSUM stadium.

Slotback Justin Julien prepares to catch a long pass from Trenton Miller.

Halfback Sean Mayzes tackles a Redman player.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015

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17

HOCKEY

Habs sign forward Tomas Plekanec The Montreal Canadiens continue to make moves early in the season SARAH KOSSITS Contributor

game this year and are just one game shy of the all-time NHL record for most consecutive wins to open a season. The record is shared between the 1993-1994 Toronto Maple Leafs and the 2006-2007 Buffalo Sabres. As a historical franchise who was a part of the original six teams, fans are hoping that the Habs will continue to make history and break the 10-game record.

Even if the team falls short of beating the record, fans remain excited for what’s to come. With the announcement from Angela Price that she and Carey Price are expecting their first child in April, fans are optimistic that they’ll be able to see a baby price sitting in the Stanley Cup come June.

Graphic by Charlotte Bracho.

This past week, Montreal Canadiens forward Tomas Plekanec signed a twoyear contract extension that will have him in a Habs uniform through the 2017-2018 season.

Plekanec, now 32-year-old, was drafted in the third round by the Canadiens in the 2001 NHL entry draft. He has played nine full seasons with the team and has proven to be a valuable asset; in nine years with the Habs, Plekanec has scored 193 goals and put up 277 assists for a combined total of 470 points. He has only missed 12 games.

Prior to the 2014 season, Plekanec was named an assistant captain by the organization which demonstrated not only their faith in him as a player but more importantly, as a leader.

His new contract is valued at US$12 million. He stands to earn earn $7 million in his first year and $5 million in his second. According to ESPN’s Pierre Lebrun, this deal does not include a no-trade or

no-move clause, meaning that the Canadiens can trade him while under contract if they need to.

Plekanec’s new contract will expire the same year as superstar goaltender Carey Price’s. This could mean the Habs will have to let Plekanec go in order to secure salary cap space for Price.

With his new contract, Plekanec will be making approximately $1 million more per season than he is now.

Habs fan Chelsea Martin believes securing Plekanec was a good move by the organization. “I love Plekanec, I think he’s really great,” she said, “[He] and Max Pacioretty play really well together so I’m glad we’re keeping him around.”

Another fan, Eddy Rousseau, also believes that signing Plekanec was the right thing to do and called him an important but quiet leader.

Rousseau, like many hockey fans in Montreal, is ecstatic with the team so far.

“Obviously, I’m very happy and excited for what’s to come,” he said. “We had a solid foundation last year, which gave fans a reason to be excited for this season.”

“I think the team is playing a lot better this year,” Martin said. “Last year they basically relied on Price but this year they’re playing well.”

The Habs have yet to lose or tie a

OPINION

TVA partners with the CIS for four years Why the deal could mean great things for Canadian university sports ALEXANDER COLE Sports editor @a_cole39

U

niversity sports across Canada got a whole lot bigger this past week when the Canadian Interuniversity Sport, or CIS, announced that it would be partnering with TVA for the next four years.

According to the CIS website, the deal begins this fall and will run all the way until the winter of 2019. In the deal, it was stated that TVA would get rights to the Vanier Cup football finals, as well as the Uteck Bowl, the ArcelorMittal Dofasco Mitchell Bowl and the CIS football semi-finals.

TVA will also procure the right to broadcast both men and women teams from many university sports, including basketball and hockey. So far a schedule has not been set for hockey and basketball matches but the Mitchell Bowl, Uteck Bowl and Vanier Cup are all scheduled for this November.

However, this is not the first time TVA has dabbled in university sports.

This past year, TVA signed a deal with the Réseau du sport étudiant de Québec in order to become its official football broadcaster, a move that has seen a few Stingers games make it to T.V. These deals are quite remarkable for the CIS due to the fact that their product will now be exposed to a much larger audience. If you were to look at the top five teams in CIS football, you would notice three of them are from Quebec.

You have the reigning champions, the Montreal Carabins, then the Sherbrooke Vert et Or and the Laval Rouge et Or. Now all of these teams will get to be seen by more of their fans and due to the increase in exposure, their fan base has the potential to expand.

It isn’t just Quebec teams that will benefit from this though; teams from all over the nation will experience a whole new level of exposure when their games are broadcast on French television — this will garner a whole new level of attention that is unprecedented for CIS teams. The CIS would become more popular across all of its sports and that is something the CIS desperately needs.

Anybody who turns on TSN would realize how little the CIS is talked about, especially in comparison to its American counterpart, the NCAA, something that

has affected people’s perceptions about the CIS brand in the past.

As someone who is new to Concordia, university sports in Canada was not something that interested me all that much. I never really thought much of them until I started covering a few games for the Stingers football team. It was then that I realised how high the level of play is. Games are incredibly compelling to watch. All of the players are extremely talented and those attributes don’t just stop with the football teams, they trickle down into all of the sports. However it seems like many students feel the same way I used to feel, which is really a shame.

With more people witnessing the best of our Canadian college athletes, perhaps attitudes will change and CIS athletes will get the recognition they deserve.

UPCOMING STINGERS GAMES FRIDAY, OCT. 30 6:00 p.m.

7:00 p.m.

7:30 p.m.

8:00 p.m.

Women’s soccer at Sherbrooke Women’s basketball at Carleton Men’s hockey vs. Wilfred-Laurier Men’s soccer at Sherbrooke

SATURDAY, OCT. 31 12:00 p.m.

1:00 p.m.

Women’s basketball at Ottawa Men’s football at UdeM

2:00 p.m.

4:00 p.m.

Men’s hockey vs. Waterloo Women’s rugby at Ottawa (RSEQ Championship)

SUNDAY, NOV. 1 6:00 p.m.

7:00 p.m.

Women’s soccer vs. Laval Men’s soccer vs. Laval The Concordian

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STINGERS

WEEKEND RESULTS ALEXANDER COLE Sports editor

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Stingers win big against Waterloo Richelle Gregoire leads the Stingers in an 85-61 victory on Friday night

RUGBY WOMEN’S The Stingers women’s rugby team won their RSEQ semi-final game against the Laval Rouge et Or by a score of 4620. The win gives the team a spot in the RSEQ finals and a spot in the CIS women’s rugby championship.

MEN’S The team went on the road Sunday against the École de Technologie Supérieur and won by a score of 30-15.

This means that the team will take on ETS once again, this time in a quarterfinal match-up at Concordia Stadium.

HOCKEY WOMEN’S The team started their weekend with a 3-1 loss on the road against the University of Ottawa. On Sunday, the women played against Carleton University at home and lost 2-1 in a shootout. With the two losses this weekend, the team dropped to a 2-1-1 record.

MEN’S On Saturday night, the men’s team hosted the McGill Redmen just hours after the very same schools battled it out for football supremacy. This time, it would be the Redmen who came out victorious. The final score was 3-2.

SOCCER WOMEN’S On Friday night, the Concordia women’s soccer team took on Bishop’s away from home and came away with a 5-0 win. Stingers midfielder Emma Berwick scored two goals in the effort. On Sunday, the women took on UQÀM in another away game. This time they would lose 3-1 at the hands of the Citadins.

MEN’S On Sunday evening, the men took to the field before the women to play an undefeated team from UQÀM. Much like the women’s team, the men lost but this time by a score of 1-0.

BASKETBALL WOMEN’S After winning against the University of Waterloo on Friday night, the women’s team defeated the Nipissing Lakers in another pre-season match-up at home.

Once again the women would blow out their opponents with a 94-60 win.

MEN’S The team played in the Brock Tournament this past weekend where they went 0-3.

On Friday night, the men played the host team and lost by a score of 74-68. On Saturday, the team played against the University of Windsor and were blown out by 19 points, 84-65. The team’s final loss came in a game against the University of Ryerson. The score was 82-74.

Stingers point guard Latifah Roach puts up hands while defending a play by a Waterloo player. Photos by Andrej Ivanov.

CASEY DULSON Staff writer The Concordia Stingers defeated the Waterloo Warriors at the Concordia Athletic Complex Friday night by a score of 85-61.

Stingers forward and fourth-year player Richelle Grégoire had a doubledouble in the victory with 25 points and 14 rebounds. The Stingers were great on defense as they forced the Warriors to turn the ball over 25 times.

“We lacked energy and intensity in the first half but in the second half we made some adjustments and came out with intensity, especially in the first five minutes where we got a couple of quick steals and some easy layups,” said Stingers coach Tenicha Gittens.

The Warriors scored the game’s first few points on baskets that included a three-pointer by Warriors guard Emily Wilk. The Stingers had a slow start to the game but got their groove going after Grégoire scored the team’s first basket two minutes into the quarter.

With a 7-3 lead early in the game, it seemed as though the Warriors were in control. However, the Stingers came storming back and then hit a couple baskets which gave them a 10-9 lead.

Marie-Éve Martin helped give the Stingers the lead with a three-point score.

At the end of the first quarter, the Stingers had maintained their lead and the score was 21-15.

The second quarter started with a bang as Warriors guard, Elizabeth Holmes hit a three-pointer. Her score would be matched only a few seconds later

by Martin of the Stingers. The Warriors had a 6-0 run led by free throws and jump shots by third year guard, Jacqui Rodrigues and Emily Wilk. The 6-0 run cut the Stingers lead down to two points.

At this point in the game, the Stingers had a 29-27 lead. The Stingers would eventually increase their lead by going on a 5-0 run to end the first half which was capped off with a buzzer-beater by rookie guard, Latifah Roach. The Stingers

Stingers forward Richelle Gregoire goes up against a Waterloo defender for a basket. led 36-29 at the end of the first half.

The third quarter started with the Stingers scoring two straight baskets by forward Shanica Baker and Martin.

The Warriors got their first points of the second half a minute later with a basket by Rodrigues. Later on in the quarter, Stingers shooting guard, Aurélie d‘Anjou Drouin hit back to back shots in the quarter and finished the quarter with eight points. The Stingers scored an impressive 33 points in the third quarter which allowed them to take a commanding lead. Despite a latequarter 5-0 run by the Warriors, they

still found themselves down 69-51 going into the final quarter.

The Stingers put away the game at the start of the fourth quarter after baskets by d’Anjou Drouin and Grégoire. Grégoire scored 10 points in the final quarter and led the team to a 24-point margin of victory.

“Our coach put us in situations that played to our strengths so we just executed that,” Baker said when talking about the team’s strategy.

The team’s next match will be an away game against Carleton University on Oct. 30.

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015

OPINIONS

OPINIONS EDITOR MATTHEW CIVICO opinions@theconcordian.com @theconcordian

EDITORIAL

I

OUR NEW PRIME SLICE OF MINISTER

t isn’t often that Canada makes it into international headlines, and rarer still that we actually blow up the internet.

Sure, there is your share of Bieber-hate or the brief flash of fame with Rob Ford’s comment about being well fed at home, but nothing has ever set a precedent for this international attention.

The upside: the world, like never before, is talking about Canadian politics rather than pop culture. The downside: the world, like never before, is talking about how “bangable” our Prime Minister is. Or, should we say, Prime slice of Minister.

But hold on here. Yes, Justin Trudeau is an attractive gentleman and, yes, we did just elect him into office to run Canada for five years, but this doesn’t mean we have the right to sexually harass him.

Isn’t sexually harassing someone who you gave a job to entirely not okay?

Trudeau is a Prime Minister, not a prime rib.

Feminism calls for equality of the sexes, and if it is wrong to critique Hillary Clinton on her shoes, her outfits or her hair then it is definetly wrong to openly sexualize Trudeau.

The world, from Pakistan to Australia, is thirsty for our Prime Minister. His hair, tattoos, boxing abilities, what he looks like topless, that “fine” smile and sense of style are all we have heard about lately.

Who knew the news would be even more Trudeau-centric post-election than pre-election?

But the important thing to emphasize here is that sexually objectifying anyone, in public office or not, is wrong.

Just because someone looks good in their clothes—be it a suit or a skirt— does not give you the right to comment, compliment or critique their looks. Just because someone is attractive does not give you the right to take to social media and talk about if you would bang said person or not. Just because you feel like you have the right, does not authorize you to take action.

It does not matter if you think someone

is delicious or disgusting, your opinions are your own and should remain within your own head. Voicing them out loud moves so fast from a compliment to sexual harassment it isn’t even funny.

Equality is something feminists have been battling for for years. And just as unacceptable as it is for someone to yell on the street, “hey baby you look better when you smile,” it is equally unacceptable for people to keep taking to Twitter to call Trudeau “hot.”

We elected our new Prime Minister for more than his looks. Well, maybe we elected him to kick Stephen Harper out of office, but still. Just because we elected him does not give us the right to sexually

objectify him.

Even if it isn’t in the name of feminism that you cut back on cat-calling “tasty Trudeau,” do it for the tax dollars it will cost if Trudeau actually files workplace harassment complaints against every single one of his employers.

Trudeau is attractive, but is in no way asking for your sexual attention. This is a man we just elected to run our country— leave the #shirtlessleader hashtag to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

No one deserves to be harassed, and our Prime Minister is no exception. This man runs your country. Stop taking to the internet to say if you would “bang” him or not.

Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie claim victory in Montreal. Photo by Andrej Ivanov.

EDUCATION

Public school teachers have gone above and beyond Work-to-rule tactics mean teachers are only working the hours they’re paid for

KELSEY LITWIN Staff writer Teachers from Royal West Academy held a “mark-in” in downtown Montreal on Oct. 17 in hopes of gaining recognition for all the work they do outside of the classroom. They sat on the steps of Placedes-Arts, demonstrating in opposition to austerity measures being taken by the Quebec government.

The sentiment over the last couple of months has been that the government, which is offering the teachers a twoyear salary freeze followed by a one per cent salary increase over three years, is ignoring the so-called “invisible work” done by public school teachers.

My message to them: your work is anything but invisible.

It’s visible in the student who conquered stage fright to perform in the school musical. It’s visible in the preteen who proudly announced to his parents that his marks are improving in math class. It’s visible in the student who decided to join their friends on the rugby team and fell in love with a sport for the first time. It’s visible in the countless alumni who have excelled and taken on

leadership roles in their communities.

I was the second of four children in my family to attend Royal West. Between the years of 2005 and 2020, there will have been at least one member of my family wearing burgundy and blue at any given time.

The invisible contribution of the school’s teachers—in the form extracurricular activities, one-onone meetings and well-devised lesson plans—has made me into the person who I am today: someone who is conscious of their environment and their ability to play an active role in shaping it.

I don’t know who thought it was a good idea to let a 15-year-old direct a play, but those afternoons trying to organize a group of 12 and 13 year olds in the middle of a hallway were instrumental in my personal development.

I can see now, however, that as the teachers strike for the compensation they truly deserve, students are missing out.

“We aren’t taking something away.

We just aren’t doing what we were doing for free,” said James Dufault, an English and drama teacher, speaking to CTV on the day of the mark-in. This is the same man who I remember, on a fall afternoon, instructing a room full of students how to

preserve tomatoes, filling jars that would then be donated to a local food shelter.

My younger siblings, who are in grades seven and 10, don’t come home with stories like that anymore. Rather, my little sister confesses to me that she is struggling in math but can’t go see her teacher for help over lunch period.

My younger brother isn’t going to get to help coach the bantam hockey team, as he hoped to do.

The school that they attend is not the school that I know and love.

Katharine Cukier, my homeroom teacher for the the majority of my time at Royal West, penned a piece for the Montreal Gazette a month ago about the Work-to-Rule measures that the teachers are taking. In her letter, she explains exactly what is wrong with the expectation that teachers can complete all of their work, from preparing lesson plans to correcting papers, in 32 hours.

Cukier also noted the biggest issue with the stance that the government is taking is much greater than withholding adequate compensation for the work being done. “What will happen to the

Graphic by Charlotte Bracho. bottom half of our society who are going to struggle to learn or struggle with the frustration of an overburdened teacher in a dysfunctional regular classrooms?” she wrote.

This strike is not about a group of civil servants asking for a pay raise.

It’s a matter of facing the reality of our public school system: that special needs students, who Cukier stated make up 15 per cent of the public school student body, and students from impoverished families will fall between the cracks.

An increase in resources is beyond necessary. Let’s start with those who stand at the front of the classroom, day in and day out.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015

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21

POLITICS

Democracy now? The Liberals and electoral reform

Trudeau was first-past-the-post but the numbers show that he wasn’t the choice of most

TRISTAN MASSON Contributor Eleven weeks later and here we have it: a majority Liberal government.

Many are cheering the end of the Harper era whereas others are scratching their heads wondering how this happened. To be sure, the polling firms seemed to be accurate with their predictions, but there wasn’t much talk of a majority government. A majority government means that a party, in this case the Liberal Party of Canada, holds a majority of the seats in the House of Commons, and therefore can pass laws largely uncontested.

The Liberal party received 39.5 per cent of the the votes cast, but received 54.5 per cent (184) of the 338 seats in the House of Commons. In Quebec, roughly one third (35.7 per cent) of voters chose the Liberals, yet this converted into more than half (40) of the 78 seats representing Quebec. To clarify, this isn’t the Liberals’ fault. This springs from the way we elect our governments in Canada. Called the single-member plurality, first-past-the-post or winnertakes-all, this electoral style is leaving Canadians dissatisfied. In fact, Eric Mintz, Livianna Tossutti, and Christopher Duun, authors of Canada’s Politics, note that while there is optimism for Canada’s democracy, there is a fading sense of efficacy in our politics.

What’s more, the skewed results occur at the expense of other parties, and in this election the New Democratic Party felt it worst: one in five voters voted for them (19.7 per cent), but they only got a little more than one in 10 seats (13 per cent).

This can be frustrating, especially since Canadians have had to bear the longest campaign since the 19th century—a time in which mass media didn’t have the same presence as it does today. That said, it’s worth outlining how this system works.

First, Elections Canada divides up the country into 338 ridings. Each riding usually has a candidate representing the different major parties. Second, when the polling ends, the votes counted in a voting district will decide which of these candidates wins the seat in Parliament.

How do they win?

Let’s take for example the riding in which the Sir George Williams campus is located in. Marc Miller, Allison Turner, Steve Shanahan, Daniel Green, and Chantal St-Onge represented the Liberal Party of Canada, the NDP, the Conservative party, the Green party and the Bloc Québécois, respectively. Marc

Tom Mulcair gives his concession speech after the Liberal party won a majority. Photo by Keith Race.

Percentage of vote

Percentage of seats

Number of seats

Liberal Party of Canada Conservative Party of Canada New Democratic Party

39.5%

54.5%

184

31.9%

29.3%

99

19.7%

13%

44

Bloc Québécois

4.7%

3%

10

Green Party

3.5%

0.3%

1 Statistics from Elections Canada.

Miller received 50.8 per cent of the votes, with Turner (23.4 per cent) and Shanahan (11.9 per cent) as runner-ups. This was a clear victory. The problem is, however, this turns out to be the exception rather than the rule. Not to mention 49.8 per cent of the votes go to waste.

What happens in hotly contested districts?

An example of this would be in Laurier-St. Marie. Three candidates ran closely: Hélène Laverdière (incumbent) for the NDP, Gilles Duceppe for the the Bloc Québécois, and Christine Poirier for the Liberal party. None of the candidates received close to a majority like Marc Miller did, yet Hélène

Laverdière walked away with a win despite having 62.2 per cent of voters vote against her.

This leaves many Canadians feeling unheard, and even with Elections Canada reporting a seven per cent increase in voter turnout, it leaves me wondering just how much Canadian democracy works for the people.

Political scientists Patrick Malcolmson and Richard Myers note in their book, The Canadian Regime, that only three of the the last 26 elections were won with a majority of the popular vote, yet 17 have resulted in majority governments for the winning party.

Finally, these shortcomings will

have an effect on unifying the country.

One way, as Malcolmson and Myers observe in The Canadian Regime, is that this system tends to foment regionalism.

Which can lead to some parts of Canada being left out of national policy. Clearly, this seems opposite to what our national government should accomplish.

Alternatives do exist and Justin Trudeau promised this election would be the last in our current first-past-thepost system. I sincerely hope he keeps this promise, or else someone else will be borrowing the very same words he used upon election night in 2019: “My friends, this is Canada, and in Canada better is always possible.”

THE CONCORDIAN IS SEEKING AN ASSISTANT OPINIONS EDITOR Do you love journalism and editorial experience? Send an email with your name, your C.V. and three writing samples to editor@theconcordian.com. Come meet us in person and share your ideas at one of our weekly story meetings held every Friday at 2 p.m. in our office (CC building, room 431) on the Loyola Campus.

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015

POLITICS

Rebuttal: Confronting prejudice in the niqab debate

“

Feminists have subverted lipstick and high heels, now they’re taking back the niqab

MAHA IKRAM CHERID Contributor

D

uring the recent election, the Supreme Court of Canada rendered a judgement on a highly contentious case regarding the right to wear the niqab during the citizenship ceremony. This became one of the most polarizing items on the political agenda.

Everyone had an opinion, especially the leaders of the three main political parties. After hearing over and over again the points of view of three white men, I felt an overwhelming desire to express an opinion that has been heard far too little in the public debate surrounding this issue: that of a Muslim girl.

As a feminist, as a Muslim and as an avid supporter of democracy and freedom, I absolutely believe that a ban on the niqab has no place in Canadian society.

It seems to me that current discourse on this topic always positions Muslim women as ignorant, uneducated victims that need to be rescued by the advanced Canadian society and taught better than to believe in their own inferiority.

This type of stereotyping is both offensive and inaccurate. Not only does it ignore the fact that an impressive number of these women have university degrees and are highly educated, it also fails to recognize that they are people and therefore capable of both critical thinking and independent thought.

Yes, of course they are influenced by the culture in which they grew up and evolved all their lives. Spoiler alert: that is the case for everyone in this world, including Canadians of European descent. All of our social realities influence the way we think, speak, act and dress. Yet somehow, no one tries to argue that we should ban fake lashes or skinny jeans because they were imposed on us by higher social

forces that are used by some sexist people to assert their dominance over women.

Which takes me to another biased assumption often implied in this debate: the belief that Western attire can be reappropriated by women, whereas all other types of dress are indications of barbaric cultural practices (as Harper once so poetically put it) from which they emerge, and thus can never ever be dissociated from the unequal realities that they represent.

In this day and age, there is no shortage of women re-appropriating cosmetics and clothing that were, for a very long time, used to oppress them.

Lipstick, high heels, corsets, crop tops— the list goes on. Women everywhere are taking back these items and proclaiming that they feel empowered because they choose to wear them, and they do it on their own terms.

I love this movement.

The idea of women reclaiming their culture, thus chipping away at the power of the patriarchy, makes my little feminist heart grow three sizes.

However, it always seems to regress back to its original size because the very same women who are so

willing to reclaim Western culture as their own are also among the first to shut down Muslim women who try to do the same with their own culture.

I want to emphasize that it is culture that is being re-appropriated. Religion is a part of culture, it’s true, but it isn’t its sole component. Which is why, by the

transform it into a source of empowerment for their community.

After all, here we have an immigrant woman who used the democratic tools available to her to fight against a policy made by the state because she believed it infringed on her constitutional right to religious freedom. Maybe it’s just me,

As a feminist, as a Muslim and as an avid supporter of democracy and freedom, I absolutely believe that a ban on the niqab has no place in Canadian society. way, different Muslim countries have different religious attire.

In Algeria, for instance, hardly anyone wears the niqab, because it isn’t part of the country’s cultural heritage.

In Pakistan, where Zunera Ishaq— the woman who started this debate— is from, the niqab in quite common.

Most importantly, even if the niqab has historically been used as a tool of oppression, it doesn’t mean that Ishaq feels oppressed by it, or that she and other women cannot change its cultural meaning and

but this lady doesn’t really strike me as an oppressed victim waiting for her white knight to come and save her from her evil, bearded husband.

I’m not trying to argue that there aren’t issues with how Islam has been applied in various ways across time and cultural backgrounds. My point is that Muslim women coming from these particular backgrounds are the ones who can most accurately identify the problems that need to be addressed.

Their voices are the ones that should be the most heard in this debate, yet they are so often put aside because mainstream society treats them with a condescending attitude that effectively silences any potential solutions they have to offer.

If what Canadians truly want is to ensure that no woman is discriminated against, then their efforts should focus on enhancing economic integration, offering more aid services to those in vulnerable situations and most importantly, making sure that all women’s constitutional rights are protected, including that of religious freedom.

Graphic by Charlotte Bracho.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015

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23

ETC Tweets of the week #BoycottStarWarsVII Maybe you’ve heard, there’s a new Star Wars movie coming out that probably won’t involve Jar Jar Binks. Everyone’s OK with that, but some people are miffed by the diversity of the new cast.

Gungan hate is socially acceptable for most Star Wars fans but when the trolls behind #BoycottStarWarsVII brought the crazies out of the woodwork, legions of Star Wars stood up. Here are the best subversions of the racist hashtag.

@TheWomensWatch THIS! All of this! Because a galaxy FAR FAR away would not be full of just white people! #BoycottStarWarsVII @pastoremase This #BoycottStarWarsVII thing is the sadness thing all year! @starwars #race @itstherapcritic “#BoycottStarWarsVII MUST be a troll, because people couldn’t POSSIBLY be so blatantly racist, right?” ...you wanna bet? @rebeccawatson 4ch: ha ha, we made up #BoycottStarWarsVII as a joke and you fell for it Us: so you’re not really racist?

4ch: oh no that part is super true @DarkMattersProj Just a reminder #BoycottStarWarsVII: SPACE IS BLACK.

the

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