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Arts & Entertainment, Film and TV

‘Kaleidoscope’ is Netflix’s shiny new toy

by Alice Kreinin on

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Anyone who has ever taken a creative writing class is likely familiar with the lipogram: A piece of writing that entirely omits one or more letters. A poem without es or a vignette with no as, it forces the writer to experiment and to think outside of the box as an exercise in creative restraint. Episodic chronology is the screenwriter’s letter e. Take away the function of an episode, or distort a poet’s alphabet, and you can expect the making of something you’ve never seen before. The new Netflix original Kaleidoscope aims to do just that. 

Released on Jan. 1, Kaleidoscope is an eight-episode heist story spanning the 25 years leading up to the theft of  $70 billion and its aftermath. The appeal of the show is that the episodes can be watched regardless of order. Netflix randomizes the episodes for each viewer, who are dropped into the story unfettered by chronology. As a concept, Kaleidoscope is exciting and promises a new way of consuming stories. But when it comes to the viewing experience, very little is gained from the scrambled viewing order. 

As streaming platforms compete to provide the largest quantity of content possible, quality inevitably takes its leave. Showrunners are now challenged to have their projects stand out amid an ocean of mediocrity. In turn, viewers have seen a recent rise in experimental television that bends the structure of a show to the viewer’s whim. Black Mirror’s choose-your-own-adventure style special, Bandersnatch, premiered on Netflix in 2018 and allowed viewers to alter an episode’s outcome by directly interacting with the plot. Bandersnatch found relative success and certainly tested the boundaries of what television is capable of. Similarly, Kaleidoscope pushes the envelope of narrative structure, specifically with the help of Netflix, which has been facilitating these new ways of consuming stories.

Overall, Kaleidoscope is not a bad show. It’s marginally entertaining, with solid performances from the cast and a snappy script. But I was disillusioned with the show’s experimentalism upon realizing that its only remarkable quality is the mixed-up timeline. To accommodate the lack of intentional episode order, the writers limit themselves significantly. Heist stories typically promise intricate, high-pressure plots, which are mostly relinquished in Kaleidoscope, since each episode needs to wrap up very neatly to avoid confusing the viewer. Character arcs become disjointed as their progression cannot rely on the show’s timeline. In terms of storytelling, these aspects of the show would have been strengthened with a traditional narrative structure. The fatal flaw, however, is that the intrigue of the format falls away almost immediately. I sincerely doubt that any viewer spends all eight episodes musing on how cool it is that they are watching it in a different order than someone else. All this begs the question of why the show even needed to be formatted this way. 

The show’s preview, a 52-second opening clip explaining the concept and previewing the season, answers this almost instantly. The clip boasts the ‘epicness” of the show in a melodramatic tone that is inconsistent with what Kaleidoscope actually delivers. If the creators intended the preview to build anticipation, its effect is something more akin to a light-up applause sign. Right from the start, Netflix eagerly overcompensates for a lack of substance. The non-chronological concept of Kaleidoscope was pitched by creator Eric Garcia before the heist plot even came to be, so it’s no wonder that the story itself falls into the traps of Netflix’s marketing. Such a transparently desperate prelude, urging the viewer to appreciate the ultimately inconsequential format of the show, reveals an overreliance on gimmicks as a marketing tactic. 

The creators of Kaleidoscope sacrifice good storytelling to create a shiny, money-grubbing trinket. They place too much emphasis on a concept that doesn’t hold up over the course of the show, becoming entirely irrelevant as the plot plays out. It’s cool, like a poem without e is cool. But what is cool for a show that is otherwise indiscernible from the mediocrity that already fills Netflix’s catalogue?

Student Life

Resolving forward, for the year, and for more

by Matthew Molinaro on

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The leap into the new year brings with it not only the start of the winter semester but the invocation behind your resolution: Ask not what 2023 can do for you, but what you can do for 2023. 

How do we make material promises, and start fresh from the ruins, the grounds of a year prior? 

Resolutions notoriously disappear, becoming ephemeral, fleeting promises we make to ourselves over champagne or a kiss from a loved one at the stroke of midnight. They might fade away quietly, like autumn colours, or slink away like inglorious scrawlings on a post-it note in a dumpster across the city. How do we imagine otherwise? How do you illuminate the hope that you had in your life? The McGill Tribune offers ways to improve your resolutions so you can hold yourself not only accountable but also with love.

Where are you going, where have you been?

A resolution begins and ends with a desire for something outside yourself—a change that might make you into what you could be and should have been. Starting from that core message troubles the stakes of some promises to ourselves. Though jokes about abandoning that healthy diet or that membership at Econofitness pervasively attack any chance to look inward as doomed to fail, do they ring true for you? For example, are you resolving to eat more carefully, work out more often, or change your appearance because you think these are acceptable resolutions or will make you (or someone else) love you more? Instead of critiquing promises that might fail, we should look at what our responses reveal about ourselves. There is no better time than the present for getting real with yourself in a quiet expanse, holding gentle the parts of your experience that require care and softness. Remember that self-love doesn’t come into form with one practice or with more or less on your schedule. 

Ambition and self-transformation

In March, you look back at yourself in January and regret what you thought would be a welcoming space for change in your life. You were going to finally re-learn how to play guitar (you loved learning as a kid!), you were going to be more spontaneous with your friends (you miss the freedom of first year!), you were going to stop when you felt overwhelmed and breathe deeply, with intention. 

You thought you failed. It doesn’t have to be this way. Sure, setting your standards not only high but in a different way may make them harder to achieve, but the only judge lives in your brain. Progress doesn’t work like time, the seemingly silky, causal moves from day to night, month to month. We bend and wade flexibly in times when our past mistakes fold into present mistakes. We get way in over our heads and we deflate, but we still stand. To look at those weeks where you felt isolated, buried by your classes, overwhelmed by your extracurriculars or by the moments that flesh out into what feels like infinity, and say “I don’t want this anymore” can create a path and shift the surface of your life. Beginning with the principle that progress works differently can be ambitious. The traces of a shallow pool, the guardrails, might vanish. Set benchmarks and dates to check in, regroup and rethink. Your year starts when you can.

We should all be resolutionists

We set resolutions at the places we sit. These places cut across lines of difference and touch others. You might want to give back more, you might be longing to practice refusal in your work or in your education. You might be needing to set boundaries with exploitative friends, teachers, bosses, co-workers, or people in your life. Remember to keep asking questions of yourself, and tie your changes to whom and what make you want to transform. Find what distorts your progress and prevents you from making a community, a home for those striving like you. Lift up your voice and others’ too, on this new, difficult, and contested route.

News, PGSS, SSMU

PGSS executives report unsustainable workloads

by Sabrina Nelson on

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Executives and commissioners working at the Post-Graduate Students’ Society of McGill University (PGSS) have reported an intense workload and excessive hours. On several occasions, executives have had to work nearly double the hours required of their positions without overtime pay. Inadequate graduate funding, staff shortages, and limited  time-frames for recruiting students for governance committee roles have all contributed to executives being overworked.  

In a November 2022 executive report presented to the PGSS Council, PGSS Secretary-General Kristi Kouchakji detailed that between Oct. 12 and Nov. 12, she logged a total of over 80 hours of work. She is paid to work 12 hours per week yet often works 15 to 18 hours, leaving Kouchakji feeling burnt out. She also believes that a culture of overwork has been ingrained at McGill, leading to higher expectations for those filling positions like that of Secretary General.

“Sec-Gens have leaned so hard into doing as much as they can of everything that the structural issues have gone unaddressed, and in the process, it has trained certain university committee chairs and admins to straight up expect Sec-Gens and [University Affairs Officers] to work unlimited hours, to sit on all the committees, and meet every last-minute demand thrown at them, which has made the problem worse,” Kouchakji wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune. 

According to Kouchakji, McGill’s overall lack of graduate funding has exacerbated labour issues at PGSS. Because many graduate students have to take on additional external employment so that they can afford to live, they have less time to sit on different PGSS committees for no pay. The responsibility for sitting on committees is thus left to PGSS executives. 

“[Graduate students are] understandably more selective about how they do use any small bits of time they might have,” Kouchakji wrote. “You’re not going to take on a bunch of volunteer work for the institution that put you in that position.” 

Hossein Poorhemati, PGSS’s University Affairs Officer, also believes the lack of volunteers is putting more strain on executives. He told the Tribune that the issue is compounded because McGill gives PGSS a narrow window of time to recruit. 

“We need people to represent us, but we don’t have enough students stepping up as volunteers, and we don’t have enough time to recruit. It takes us four to six weeks to process applications, yet often we receive emails from admins announcing a position that needs to be filled in two weeks,” Poorhemati said. “As a result, we have had to look around to see if any of our executives and commissioners can go and attend these meetings. That is where the problem starts.”

Poorhemati feels that earlier notices from the administration about recruiting committee representatives and additional information on what each position entails would help alleviate some of the burden faced by executives.  

Overwork is also a problem at the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU). Kerry Yang, SSMU’s vice-president University Affairs, told the Tribune that executives often work overtime. Yang explained that balancing  schoolwork with a full-time job is challenging and often unsustainable in the long run, especially for international students who are required to take a full course load.  

“Executives work from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., but because many casual staff and students have classes during that time, we often have to schedule meetings or host events outside working hours, which can really stack up the hours,” Yang wrote in an email to the Tribune.

This overwork has taken a significant toll on both the personal and academic lives of SSMU and PGSS executives. According to Kouchakji, PGSS has lost several executives due to the pressures that come with the job and their inability to keep up with coursework and research commitments. 

Science & Technology, Science Rewind

Top five scientific discoveries at McGill in 2022

by Russel Ismael on

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This past year was a remarkable one in scientific research, especially when you add McGill researchers to the mix. The McGill Tribune is pleased to bring you the impressive advancements in science made at McGill over the past 12 months.

Forging a better treatment path for triple-negative breast cancer 

Every year, approximately 5,500 women pass away from breast cancer, representing 14 per cent of all cancer-related deaths. Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is considered one of the worst types of breast cancers because of how quickly it spreads throughout one’s body and how it cannot be detected through the three “entrance” hormones for breast cancer treatment (estrogen, progesterone, and HER2). So, it was encouraging when scientists Dr. Meiou Dai and Dr. Jean-Jacques Lebrun of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) discovered a new targeted combination therapy to combat TNBC.

Both doctors are confident that their gene-editing approach will lead to breakthroughs in human clinical trials, as their team identified 150 types of tumour-inducing genes in prior tests. 

Cooks and scientists aren’t so different after all: Cooking techniques inspire new brain implant

Neural implants are widely used to treat brain diseases such as epilepsy and Parkinson’s. However, such implants trigger the brain’s foreign body response because the implant is more rigid than the surrounding brain tissue. To circumvent this rigidity problem, a team of researchers from the Montreal Neurological-Institute Hospital and McGill’s Biomedical Engineering department devised a solution—using silicon polymers, they created the softest brain implant ever, which goes undetected by the human immune system. The researchers  achieved this by adapting cooking techniques like caramelization and sugar melting to the medical field, as the implant is made out of hardened sugar. Unorthodox inspiration is not an unknown phenomenon, so it is natural to see this tradition persist in the sciences at McGill.

Feeling ugly? There might be a reason for that: McGill researchers discover why plants produce “unattractive” flowers

Cleistogamy is a type of self-fertilization in small, closed flowers that was first noted by Charles Darwin. Although Darwin could not study these flowers in full  due to poor sample size, this changed when biology professor Daniel Schoen, among others, studied what Darwin had first observed.

Schoen gathered over 2,500 species of flowering plants to analyze the cleistogamy phenomenon, finding that bilaterally-symmetric flowers produce half the number of offspring compared to radially-symmetric flowers. The production of both open and closed flowers is favoured in areas where pollination can vary, thus safeguarding reproduction while preventing inbreeding. 

A sustainable way of producing industrial chemicals

Nanocrystals are clusters of particles that are less than one micrometre in size and are widely used in many areas, like the cosmetic or pharmaceutical industries. They are the lifeblood of many devices, from solar panels to semiconductors. Professor Audrey Moores and her team in the Department of Chemistry developed a novel and environmentally-friendly way to produce nanocrystals through a process called high-humidity shaker aging. This method is groundbreaking because it uses fewer resources, is more cost-efficient, does not require solvents, and produces a higher yield of nanocrystals. 

Moores’ work contributes to research about transitioning to solvent-free chemical reactions, as solvents are often toxic and harmful to the environment. In a consumerist world, learning to prevent waste will be instrumental for future generations.

Water pollutants may now be detected at a glance 

Over 70 per cent of the Earth’s surface consists of saltwater oceans, so McGill researchers are right to turn to saltwater to see what it can do for us. Professor Parisa Ariya and her team developed a dynamic technique involving artificial intelligence to detect spills like oil, heavy metals, or other biological agents. The real-time sensor that they developed may eventually be mounted on satellites to detect pollutants in all of Earth’s oceans down to the nanometre level, allowing organizations to act quickly in order to prevent aquatic ecosystem destruction.

Hockey, Sports

Redbirds fall to Ravens in front of packed Winter Carnival crowd

by Julie Ferreyra on

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On Jan. 13, in the midst of a snowstorm, the McGill Redbirds hockey squad (11–5–3) welcomed the Carleton Ravens (7–7–3) to McConnell Arena in front of a crowd of 1,029. After a hard-fought game, the Ravens defeated the Redbirds 4-2. This result bumps the Redbirds to fourth place in the East division of the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) standings, one point behind the Concordia Stingers and a mere four points ahead of the Ravens. 

The evening kicked off with second-year centre, Caiden Daley, striking first. The goal came just over eight minutes into the first, off an assist by second-year Alex Plamondon and first-year Olivier Tremblay. The early goal set the intensity of the game and electrified the packed arena. 

Head coach David Urquhart noted that the spirit of the crowd aided the Redbird’s strong start. 

“You could feel the extra energy in the building, and our team was energized and responded with a great first period,” Urquhart wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune. “While it was not the result we wanted, it was fun to have the extra crowd support.” 

The first period ended with unsuccessful chances by second-year forward Eric Uba and swift saves made by fourth-year goaltender Emanuel Vella in the final minute.  

The Ravens evened the score at the top of the second, with a sharp shot making it past Vella in the opening minutes of the period. The Redbirds then squandered several attempts to retake the lead. Second-year forward Brandon Frattaroli’s rush from the Redbirds’ defensive zone all the way to the Ravens’ goal gave the fans hope but was ultimately fruitless. 

Growing frustration came to a head with a few scrums in front of the net and forward Jordan-Ty Fournier being handed a minor roughing penalty. This power play allowed Carleton forward Madoka Suzuki to swiftly bury a puck in the back of the McGill net, closing out the period with a 2-1 lead. 

The third period opened with an altercation between two Carleton players and third-year forward William Poirier, setting the mood for the final act of the game. Renewed speed and tensions reigned, as a third goal by Carleton in the first five minutes left the Redbirds deflated with a two-goal deficit to recover from. First-year centre William Rouleau took it upon himself to bring the deficit to one, scoring on a power play with  assists from forwards Uba and Frattaroli, reviving hope for Redbird supporters. 

In the last moments of the game, the atmosphere heightened, as the crowd hoped for overtime. After pulling the goaltender with two minutes left, the Carleton offence managed to tally one last goal, in the last minute of play. 

Team captain and fifth year defender, Taylor Ford, felt that his team had been outmatched

“We slowed down a bit in the second period and let them back into the game,” he conceded.  “Overall, we played well and didn’t capitalize on our chances. Their goalie played well.”

“We had a strong third period but the late push was not enough to come back from the two-goal deficit,”  Urquhart added. 

Despite this loss, the Redbirds are still in the top half of the OUA standings, in fourth position, with the next face-off against Université du Québec à Trois Rivières’s Patriotes on Jan. 18, before confronting them on home ice on Jan. 21. 

Stat Corner

The night closed with a total of 12 minor penalties, six per team, including five penalties for roughing, creating multiple power play opportunities.

Quotable: 

“The McGill men’s hockey team would like to thank all of those fans who came out and supported us. The arena was loud all night and it was exciting for us to play.” 

—Captain Taylor Ford  

Moment of the Game:

Those in attendance might have noticed that one of the two referees officiating the game, Elizabeth Matha, became the first woman to officiate a men’s game at McGill.

Ask Ainsley, Student Life

Ask Ainsley: Managing the winter blues

by Ainsley on

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Dear Ainsley, 

I am back at school, mid-January, and here I find myself in the bleak midwinter. I feel more and more sluggish and unmotivated as the days grow shorter. With the sun setting before 5 p.m. and school routines returning, many McGill students, including myself, are experiencing depressive moods, and I am worried things will only get worse. My guess is most of us are affected by seasonal affective disorder. How do I combat these winter blues and regain motivation?   

Sincerely, 

Managing Seasonal Affective Disorder (MSAD)

Dear MSAD, 

From what I understand, the seasonal affective disorder (SAD) you, and the students around you, may be experiencing is a form of depression triggered by a lack of sunlight during the fall and winter months. Symptoms of SAD can include changes in mood, disruptions in sleep, alterations in appetite, and a loss of interest in activities that once brought you joy. 

However, I want you to know that these symptoms are not just a result of the gloomy weather, but rather the interruption of your body’s internal clock—also known as the circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm is regulated by the hypothalamus, a part of the brain stimulated by sunlight. When the daylight hours are limited during the fall and winter, the hypothalamus no longer receives enough stimulation. This leads to an imbalance in your body’s production of certain hormones such as melatonin, which can make you sleepy and lethargic, and serotonin, which regulates mood, leading to feelings of depression and low energy levels. 

Nevertheless, there’s hope. There are ways to combat SAD. So, if you are feeling the effects of the winter blues, listen closely. Here’s how to get through Montreal’s dismal winter. 

Light therapy

You will want to practice light therapy, which can be as easy as spending more time in the sun or beside a sunlamp. Try going outside as much as possible to take advantage of the natural sunlight. Around noon, when the sun is brightest, bundle up in your warmest winter coat, hat, and scarf, and stroll around the block or to a nearby park to soak up the sun. When you’re indoors, keep your blinds open to let in as much natural light as possible. Using a sunlamp on darker days, when sunlight is scarce, is a great way to combat SAD. Whether it stems from a lamp or natural sunshine, the light will help balance your melatonin and serotonin levels, elevating your mood and combating the winter blues. 

Exercise

Exercise is beneficial for anyone who suffers from depression, as it releases endorphins—hormones that reduce pain and increase feelings of well-being. Exercise also increases your metabolism, which helps improve your energy levels. Low-impact aerobic activities, such as walking or dancing, are exercises well suited to treating seasonal affective disorder. Try gentle stretching, yoga, swimming (the McGill pool is free to students, so no need to spend money!), or running. The McGill recreation centre offers a wide variety of group fitness classes and access to the gym for a relatively low price to help you maintain regular physical activity. So grab a friend, book a class, and get moving!

Get enough Vitamin D

Vitamin D is known as the “sunshine vitamin” because our body produces it when our skin is exposed to UV light, and it is crucial to maintaining overall well-being and happiness. Incorporating vitamin D-rich foods into your diet may also help combat seasonal affective disorder. These foods include salmon, turkey, eggs, mushrooms, leafy greens, walnuts, oatmeal, bananas, and berries. Try to incorporate a few new recipes into your toolkit that promote bringing the sunshine back to your palate.

Spend time with friends and family

Although one of the symptoms of seasonal affective disorder is social withdrawal, it’s important to avoid isolating yourself and maintain a healthy level of social interaction outside of classes. This can help lift your mood and keep the depressive thoughts at bay. So, take part in activities like sledding, dinner parties, and winter walks that get you out of your comfort zone and allow you to spend more time with your loved ones. 

Formula One, Sports

Formula 1 neutrality legislation is anything but neutral

by Zoé Mineret on

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On Dec. 20, the Féderation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) updated the International Sporting Code––a set of common regulations that apply to all Formula racing series––to ban drivers from making personal, political, and religious statements without permission from the FIA. 

The FIA attempted to justify the ban by citing the organization’s commitment to upholding a principle of neutrality––the principle of political neutrality that is enshrined in the International Olympic Committee Code of Ethics. With this ban comes the threat that all drivers who do not maintain a “neutral” stance on personal, political, or religious matters risk breaching FIA regulations. Punishments for breaching the International Sporting Code regulations vary from fines to not being able to compete in a race.

The FIA’s ban comes after drivers such as Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton have begun to use their platform on race weekends to make political statements and speak out about social injustices. In 2020, after winning the Tuscan Grand Prix, Hamilton wore a shirt on the podium that read, “Arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor.” Following Hamilton’s statement, the FIA cracked down on acts of protest, ordering drivers to keep their race suits zipped up for the entirety of the podium ceremony and post-race interviews. 

By defining the confines within which drivers can share their political, religious, or personal views, the FIA is anything but neutral. The organization limits drivers’ freedom of speech and obliges them to comply with the FIA’s own political agenda. 

This move by the FIA reveals the organization’s hypocrisy. The new regulations serve to further muzzle racers, already a common practice within the FIA. In 2020, the FIA launched the #WeRaceAsOne initiative in an effort to denounce global inequalities. However, #WeRaceAsOne ceremonies were called off in 2022 as the FIA decided to “gesture towards action.” 

Predictably, the FIA has failed to implement any direct action to meaningfully increase diversity within the sport. While silencing the voices of its own racers, the implementation and subsequent eradication of the #WeRaceAsOne initiative only demonstrates the organization’s refusal to commit to actual change. Rather than supporting their athletes’ fights against the global inequalities the organization claims to stand against, the FIA repeatedly chooses to condemn their actions and silence their voices. 

The FIA’s position on political statements is unsurprising as the sport’s dedication to promoting neutrality is regularly weaponized as a tool to silence the voices of its racers, such as Vettel or in Hungary or Hamilton in Tuscany. By imposing silence through new regulations, the FIA is strengthening its stance regarding the separation of sports and politics. 

Moreover, the ban allows the FIA to continue to allow races in countries with widespread human rights violations without backlash from its drivers. For example, Sebastian Vettel and others were reprimanded by the FIA for wearing a shirt with the message “Same Love” at the Hungarian Grand Prix to protest Hungarian anti-LBTQIA+ laws. 

Several Grand Prix host countries accused of human rights violations also partake in sportswashing—or hosting important sporting events solely to improve their international reputation. In the case of Bahrain, the country signed a contract with Formula 1 that guarantees races will be held there until 2036 despite the reported ongoing human rights abuses. Thus, the FIA prefers to uphold the principle of “neutrality” rather than promoting the protection of human rights as enshrined in Article 1.2 of the Sporting Code.

But in practice, the FIA’s new legislation serves to prevent drivers from publicly denouncing the organization’s agenda. By slashing freedom of speech, the FIA makes it clear that their “efforts” towards equality and inclusivity are a smoke screen, washing out the dark practices that continue within the sport.

Campus Spotlight, Student Life

Uncovering the new face of McGill’s oldest museum

by Melissa Carter & Adeline Fisher on

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The reopening

Scores of excited visitors crowded the entrance to McGill’s Redpath Museum on Jan. 10 for its long-awaited reopening. Since March 2020, Redpath Museum, overlooking lower field, has been closed in accordance with Quebec’s and McGill’s COVID-19 health and safety guidelines.

Ginette Dessureault, the museum’s administrative assistant, explained that the museum’s decision to reopen was made in close consultation with McGill.

“McGill wanted to take a very cautious approach to reintegrating […] the students and staff safely into the building, and see how a couple [of] semesters went […] post-pandemic,” Dessureault said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “The timing is now right to reopen the museum because we know we’ll be open for a fair amount of time. There was some hesitancy about mixing the general public with the student population, [so] we wanted to make sure it was a safe time to do it.”

During its closure, the museum’s usual tours shifted to an online platform, allowing them to showcase their exhibits virtually, such as in the Biodiversity exhibit virtual tour. However, as Dessureault notes, a large part of the museum’s draw is seeing its collections in person.

“We had a few really successful virtual events, but really the core of our essence is to have the public here to see [the exhibits], to interact with [them],” Dessureault said. “The experience, being in person, is a tactile experience. All your senses are engaged, so I think it is a lot more pleasant for the visitor.”

The pieces remained at the museum all throughout the pandemic, and curators conducted safety checks to keep the museum’s collection well preserved. 

“There was always somebody here to monitor [and] […] to ensure the integrity of the collections,” Dessureault said. 

The experience

The museum’s pieces mainly focus on the natural sciences, with exhibits spanning from ethnology and biology to paleontology and geology. The Museum’s artifacts span multiple millennia, with fossils of some of the oldest known vertebrates, rare artifacts from prehistoric cultures, and taxidermied animals.  

The Redpath Museum was built in 1882 as a gift to the university from businessman and sugar baron Peter Redpath to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Sir John William Dawson’s appointment as Principal of the university. Dawson was an acclaimed natural scientist with a valuable collection of geological pieces and other specimens to be displayed for students and the public. 

For many students, seeing these pieces for the first time in person was a worthwhile experience.

“[The museum] definitely surpassed my expectations,” Zareen Subah, U1 Management, said while visiting the museum. “The Tyrannosaurus Rex was my favourite, just the jaw itself was half the size of my upper body, so that was pretty cool.”

Ryan O’Connell, U1 Arts, was observing a display on the museum’s first floor, before speaking to the Tribune. 

“I am so happy that something like this exists on campus,” O’Connell told the Tribune. “This is a great way to spend an hour or something in between classes [….] It was unfortunate I could not do that last year, but now I can.”

Though the museum sits right at the heart of campus and its steps have always been a popular place for students to gather, Dessureault explained that the closure affected students’ knowledge of the broader offerings held in-house at the university.

“We have found that many McGill students don’t even know about this building. [These students] have come in [the last couple of days] and didn’t even know that we had this resource on campus.”

Mahin Usman, U2 Arts, has been awaiting Redpath’s opening, wondering if she would get the chance to visit it before she graduated. “I remember passing by [the museum] a couple of times. And thinking, ‘this seems super interesting.’ I wanted to check it out, but I saw online that it was closed. So, in the back of my head, I have been hoping it would open before I graduated.”

Museum Educator Sara Estrada Arevalo began working at Redpath just a few months before the closure in 2020. Arevalo’s role at the museum was altered quickly by the rapid shift to virtual tours.

Arevalo expressed her excitement at returning to in-person tours after the extended shutdown.

“I think it’s one of the jewels of McGill because of its historical value and because of all the collections we have,” Arevalo said in an interview with the Tribune. “This museum was built to share collections with the public, so having visitors coming and having the opportunity to be in contact with the collections and learning from them is pretty exciting.”

The museum offers a low-commitment opportunity for students to participate in an educational visit that they may not have sought out further afield. 

“We are happy to be open and welcome all the visitors we’ve had in the past [few] days. It’s been just phenomenal. And the response has been incredible,” says Dessureault. “We really strive to serve the community, to see all the faces again and have everybody come back.” 

O’Connell encouraged the rest of the McGill community to pay the museum a visit, and noted the museum had “mass appeal” thanks to the variety of exhibits.

“It is absolutely surreal to just stand a few inches, and all that’s separating you is glass, from something that is 200 million years old. When can you say that you have that experience in your everyday life?”

The Redpath Museum Society (RMS) also allows students to get involved by assisting professors and curators of the museum with tours, events, and workshops.

Confronting the past

Though the museum preserves artifacts in stasis, it can also serve as a site for change through ethical and decolonial approaches to museum going. Redpath Museum features several archeological and ethnographic objects gathered through theft or illegal trading. James Ferrier, a former McGill Chancellor, contributed to Redpath Museum’s collection with Egyptian mummies that were presumed to have been acquired illegally from an illicit antiquities market. Another familiar name, Thomas Roddick, former Dean of McGill’s Faculty of Medicine, donated another mummy in 1895 after a colonial British military mission in Egypt. Both of these household names that are celebrated around our campus participated in the theft of ancient artifacts that  still sit in the Redpath Museum today. 

Redpath is not the only Western museum to display artifacts out of context, diminishing their cultural and historical significance. Recognizing this fact could offer a different way of viewing at an exhibit like the World Cultures collection, where a critical perspective on conservation, curatorship, and preservation can trouble and open conversations about the holdings from Central Africa and Egypt. Just as the McCord Museum’s exhibit on Indigenous Voices has sparked similar discussions, working to empower sovereignty and vitality from larger arts communities remains a prescient and collaborative endeavour.

McGill, News, PGSS

First PGSS Council Meeting of winter semester passes motion to mobilize against Bill 96

by Leo Larman Brown on

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The Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) held its first Council Meeting of the winter semester on Jan. 11. At the meeting, PGSS councillors passed motions regarding the impact of Bill 96 on international students and the distribution of reusable menstrual products to graduate students. They also debated the practice of passing legislation without reaching quorum. 

The first motion, brought forth by External Affairs Officer Onyeka Dike, aimed to approve a survey of PGSS members from January to March of this year regarding the impacts of Bill 96—a bill that expands the requirements for the use of French in Quebec. The motion would require that PGSS liaise with English-speaking CEGEPs to take a formal position and push the government to make changes to the Bill, such as countering the requirement for international students to learn French within six months of arriving in the province. 

“Bill 96 is one act of legislation that has some real far-reaching effects if you are an international student,” Dike said during the meeting. “International students cannot access some of the essential services, for example, if you have a dispute with your landlord that brings you to the [municipal courts], but the language of the courts is strictly French. If there has to be any translation, you have to pay for that yourself.”

The motion passed with 39 in favour, one opposed, and four abstentions.

Charlotte Aubrac, the PGSS environment commissioner, presented a motion to allocate PGSS funds to provide reusable menstrual products on campus and lower barriers to access. 

“With the $10,000, we will be able to purchase around 500 reusable menstrual products that we will give away for free to PGSS members,” Aubrac said. “I think a lot of people will benefit from it.”

The motion passed with 42 in favour, none opposed, and one abstention.

A heated debate broke out after Bradley Por, a PGSS member from the Graduate Law Students Association (GLSA), expressed concern that allowing motions to be passed without quorum would normalize not having quorum at PGSS meetings and ultimately set an undemocratic precedent. He further explained that at the previous PGSS Annual General Meeting (AGM), the PGSS may have not met quorum because it started almost an hour late and many people left.

Kristi Kouchakji, the PGSS Secretary General, argued that not reaching quorum has been the status quo for many years and that PGSS could not function if they needed to reach quorum because meetings typically have such low attendance. 

“[Not reaching quorum has] been normalized already for the past five or six years at the AGM, and we can’t keep operating in that scenario,” Kouchakji said. “We’ve tried just about everything legal to get quorum and nothing works.”

At the end of the meeting, a variety of amendments were proposed to the Society and Activities Manual of the PGSS, mostly to clearly delineate the roles and responsibilities of PGSS representatives to ensure that they are not overworked. All the proposed amendments were adopted, including one to ensure that the University Affairs Officer has a manageable workload, especially when the committee nomination and appointment process is underway.

Moment of the Meeting:

Onyeka Dike, External Affairs Officer, shared the personal experiences of international graduate students who were negatively affected by Bill 96 and argued that the Bill affects international students all across Canada.

Soundbite:

“It’s still important that we have an AGM, I don’t think the fact that we lose quorum, which will affect council business, changes the significance of the AGM. Because, the way I understand—and I also study constitutional law with a PhD—I think that the AGM is almost superior to the Council.”

—Bradley Por on the importance of maintaining quorum requirements

Basketball, Sports

Martlets basketball triumphs in tight game against UQÀM

by Eliza Lee on

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The Martlets (1–7) faced off against the UQÀM Citadins (5–3) on Jan. 14 at McGill’s Love Competition Hall in a thrilling match-up. Though the score remained close throughout the game, the Martlets pulled ahead in the final seconds to secure a 57-55 victory—their first of the RSEQ season. 

The first quarter saw a slightly rough start for the Martlets, with the Citadins scoring seven free throws and establishing an early lead. But McGill successfully incorporated three-point shots into their game strategy, racking up 18 points from six three-pointers throughout the match-up. Both teams put up solid defences, intercepting passes and recovering rebounds to gain possession. The plays intensified as the game went on, with both Martlets and Citadins fighting hard for each point to bring them closer to stealing the lead. 

By the fourth quarter’s end, the score was tied at 55-55. After a brief McGill time-out with just nine seconds left on the clock, a layup by first-year guard Stephy Tchoukuiegno awarded the team the two-point lead needed to secure the win. 

In an interview with The McGill Tribune, Tchoukuiegno explained that two falls she took early in the game presented a challenge, but she remained focused on performing her best. 

“I was just in the mindset of ‘play your game, don’t be stressed, and do what you’ve gotta do,’” Tchoukuiegno said. She also noted the importance of lively spectators in tight games like this one.“It feels good to have our crowd here supporting us.”

The win was especially meaningful for the team, as they lost both of their previous games against UQÀM this season, with the most recent loss being only two days prior. 

According to the team’s head coach, Rikki Bowles, the Martlets went into the rematch with a driven mindset in light of the previous losses. 

“Our expectation—what I told the athletes in the locker room—was to win this game,” Bowles told the Tribune. “I know it has been a struggle at times, but I thought we came in more confident than in the past, more prepared, we knew what [the other team was] going to do, and it was just about going and getting it done.”

Martlet fourth-year guard Jessica Salanon mentioned that the team’s performance reflected what they had learned from playing UQÀM in the past.

“All the games we’ve got against them [were] tight games and we felt like we gave them the games,” Salanon explained. “We made mistakes and that led them to win. So we knew that today, if we wanted to win, we [would] win.”

The Martlets will play next on Jan. 19 against the Laval Rouge et Or for their “Shoot for the Cure” game––a USports initiative to raise money for breast cancer research. 

Moment of the Game

Midway through the third period, Daniella Mbengo intercepted a UQÀM pass and made a fastbreak play, out-running the Citadin defence and scoring a swift layup to ecstatic cheering from the crowd.

Quotable

“[We’re] just going to appreciate it [….] The athletes work so hard, and this has been a long time coming. I will never take a win for granted, so we’re just going to enjoy this one.”

–– Head coach Rikki Bowles, on how the team will celebrate their win

Stat Corner

The top-scoring players for McGill were Mbengo, with 11 points, alongside Kristy Awikeh and Tchoukuiegno, who both scored eight points.

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