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McGill, News

Swim team members allege an unhealthy athletic atmosphere

by Audrey Carleton on

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Four former swimmers on McGill’s Varsity Swim Team have come forward with reports of allegedly experiencing a ‘toxic’ environment on the team. The former athletes, who departed from the team between 2014 and 2018, claimed that they were treated unethically by one of their coaches, who they claim divulged their confidential personal information to other teammates and encouraged unsafe weight loss. They found McGill’s frameworks and policies for resolving complainants to be unwieldy.

 

Disclosures on athletics staff

The athletes claim that their coach created an unwelcoming environment that fostered unethical treatment and animosity among the swimmers. Jane*, who left the team after two years, alleges that she was specifically singled out for her performance in the pool and for her social life.

Jane says that her relationship with her coach became unhealthy. At one point, he instructed her to lose 25 pounds, put her on a regulated diet, and told her to record her food intake and provide him with a diary of it. Their interactions fostered unhealthy eating habits and poor self-esteem.

“He had me weighed once a week,” Jane said. “I lost a whole bunch of weight, but it wasn’t healthy, like I just stopped eating [….] He commented, ‘good job losing nine pounds this week,’ and it doesn’t take a medical doctor to realize that no one at my weight should lose nine pounds in a week.”

To Jane’s knowledge, at least three other swimmers she competed with developed eating disorders while swimming for McGill. This is reflective of research indicating that young adult athletes, especially female athletes, are at greater risk for developing eating disorders than non-athletes in the same age group.

According to Kate*, a former swimmer who quit the team after her second year, eating disorders have been a pervasive issue across all the teams she has been a part of, including McGill. She says that the coaches lacked sensitivity to the issue.

“[Eating disorders are] a sensitive subject, now more than ever, and people really need to be careful with what they say to young women,” Kate said.

Kate explained that simply putting players on diet plans is an inadequate way to improve their swimming.

“[When professional swimmers are put on diets], it’s not like [they] just [need] to lose weight, it was like you need more muscle in these areas,” Kate said. “But, like, if you look at someone and tell them, ‘you need to lose 20 pounds,’ that’s not going to make you a better swimmer.”

Coaching guides published by the Coaching Association of Canada (CAC) recommend that coaches handle eating disorders by helping them find professional help, assuring them that their role on the team is not in jeopardy, and doing so in a confidential manner. According to Jane, the coach did not respect the confidentiality of two of the three athletes with eating disorders.

“Swimming is a performance sport that requires significant fitness to be performed at the highest level,” the coach facing the allegations wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune. “To this end, I preach the value of fitness, not weight control. I have, on several occasions, had discussions with both men and women about making changes in lifestyle habits, [which] go well beyond eating, to help them achieve their goals in the pool. These conversations are always handled with great care and support and are always in private.”

But both Jane and Adrian* claim that, on other occasions, the coach divulged information about their personal and academic lives to the team.

“He told a first year that she shouldn’t associate herself with me because my GPA is really low and I failed a course,” Jane said. “His access to my transcript isn’t meant to be shared, especially when it’s used to attack my character.”  

Disseminating private information about athletes to their teammates violates the CAC’s Code of Conduct, which asserts that coaches must “maintain confidentiality and privacy of personal information and use it appropriately.” The Code also states that the authority of coaches is derived, in part, from upholding their responsibility to maintain confidentiality.

However, the coach claims to have never shared personal information about swimmers with their teammates.

“I have never shared personal or confidential information without an athlete’s prior consent,” the coach wrote. “When swimmers report that they can’t attend practice because of an illness, the team is informed, though no details regarding the illness are provided—except when the illness could be contagious and thus could put teammates at risk of contracting it.”

 

Inadequate resolution channels

While grappling with these issues, the former swimmers lacked adequate channels for disclosing or reporting them. The only McGill staff member who oversees varsity coaches is Varsity Sports Manager, Lisen Moore. When athletes have issues that they feel they cannot take to their captains or coaches, she is the designated person to handles their concerns. However, the responsibility of oversight for every varsity sport leaves this position overburdened. Moreover, the process for reporting is untransparent to both athletes and the public.

Both Jane and Abigail* say they attempted to bring complaints about the coach to Moore but were placed at the bottom of a priority list and were unsure about how to properly file a complaint.

“[Moore…] didn’t ask any questions, didn’t follow up, didn’t validate feelings,” Abigail said. “She just did nothing, and [coaches are] not going to be punished.”

The Tribune reached out to Moore for comment on multiple occasions but did not hear back over the course of four months.

In comparison to McGill, University of Toronto (U of T) has a clear four-step appeals process for appealing any matter relating to a varsity sport, including a coach’s decisions about players and their disciplinary procedures, whereas McGill has none. U of T also has external confidential support and referral services for players for when the team cannot find solutions. Moreover, McGill lacks any sort of oversight body or board akin to what high-school-aged swim teams have, leaving athletes to suffer in silence. Many current and past swimmers who spoke with the Tribune asserted that it would be helpful to have an unbiased third-party to hear problems.

“At university, there’s no board,” Jane said. “The coach doesn’t have a boss, so it’s really, really hard to have [them] face consequences when there’s no one to talk to and there’s no one to go to about it.”

McGill lacks adequate mental health resources set aside specifically for student athletes. In comparison, the University of British Columbia (UBC) has an online mental health hub for varsity athletes, while U of T has one counsellor tasked with meeting with varsity student-athletes once per week.

“When I’ve talked with [other] sports psychologists [we talk about] how to [holistically] improve your performance,” Jane said. “The sports psychologist I saw at McGill never asked about any part of my life outside of how I could perform better in the pool.”

The McGill’s Guide to Varsity Sports for Student‐Athletes reflects a similar results-oriented rhetoric, stating that the varsity program is based on the “pursuit of academic and athletic excellence” and “establishing practices that foster positive learning and competitive environments for student-athletes.” Meanwhile, U of T’s guide to student-athlete services states that the university’s varsity program is devoted to “whole person development” and acknowledges that “students are at a crucial stage of their intellectual, physical and social development.”

For Kate, it wasn’t until she quit the team that she truly felt healthy and balanced in all areas of her life.

“The sad thing is that [the coach] will tell you time and time again [that] school comes first, family comes second, swimming comes third, but, in reality, that’s not the way it is,” Kate said. “I had no idea how bad it really was until I was like, ‘wow I’m getting As in school; I’m living my life; I’m going to bed on time; I’m seeing my friends; I’m a healthy person; I might not be working out every day of my life, but I feel healthy.’”

Science & Technology

Nuclear power: The lesser evil

by Farida Rahman on

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Environmentalists and politicians alike hotly debate the usage of nuclear power. While it may be a source of relatively clean energy, it has also gained a reputation for being a catalyst for catastrophic accidents.

Nuclear power plants create energy by breaking uranium atoms into smaller parts. This process, known as nuclear fission, heats up the water surrounding a reactor core and turns it into steam.  The rising steam then turns turbines attached to generators, producing electricity.

Despite nuclear fission being relatively more efficient at converting raw materials into energy than burning fossil fuels, it also presents unique operational and practical challenges. Nuclear waste, the leftover material from a used-up reactor core, is radioactive and can cause serious diseases, particularly increasing the risk of developing cancer. In Canada, the popular treatment method is to dispose waste by dunking it in water to reduce the levels of radioactivity and then storing it in facilities around the power plant itself. There is, however, little consensus on what to do with nuclear waste in the long term. While nuclear waste can be repurposed by extracting and reusing its uranium and plutonium, this technique is extremely costly, and both uranium and plutonium are still dangerous materials on their own. The most popular suggestion, and likely the future course of action in Canada, is to bury the radioactive material in geological repositories deep underground; however the long-term effects of this are still under research.

Beyond disposal issues, mining, purifying, and transporting uranium and nuclear fuel can emit pollution. However, nuclear pollution is practically insignificant when compared to the pollution from fossil fuels like coal and natural gas. A 2013 paper from NASA claimed that using nuclear power instead of burning fossil fuels has saved, on average, 64 gigatons of carbon dioxide globally.

Despite the benefits of reduced pollution, accidents in the news have given nuclear power a bad reputation. Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima Daiichi are well-known nuclear power plant disasters, each of which had a different cause. In Chernobyl, inadequately-trained personnel operated a factory with a flawed design. On Three Mile Island, the coolant to stop the reactor core from overheating escaped. In Fukushima Daiichi, a tsunami caused the coolant to malfunction in three different reactors. In response to these tragedies, nuclear power plant safety today has been improved through increased training for employees, better construction materials, and backup coolant systems.

“[Nuclear power is] not that dangerous if you normalize it to the rest of the world,” Jean Barette, a professor in McGill’s Department of Physics, said. “If you normalize the number of car accidents every day, there is no comparison [….The difference is that nuclear] accidents are a mess and it’s expensive [….] A lot more people die from radioactive poisoning from smoke on coal plants than from nuclear reactors.”

The future of nuclear power remains unclear. Researchers are currently looking into how nuclear power can produce hydrogen through electrolysis, the process of splitting water molecules using an electric current to produce hydrogen. Hydrogen presents an environmentally-efficient source of fuel for the future because it emits water vapour, rather than carbon dioxide, during combustion. Presently, natural gas and coal are used to produce hydrogen, but nuclear power plants are the ideal candidate for this job since they create both steam and electricity with little pollution. Sustainable hydrogen production could improve a wealth of other technologies, such as reliable hydrogen-fuel cars. Ultimately, nuclear power might be a better investment than fossil fuels, even if it feels like picking a mild environmental harm over a greater one.

Campus Spotlight, Student Life

Taking a S.T.A.N.D. for prison justice

by Alaana Kumar on

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Individuals passionate about criminal justice and prison reform now have a platform to effect change. Founded in 2017, Students Taking a New Direction (S.T.A.N.D.) for Prison Justice is a newly-developed McGill organization, founded and run entirely by members of the student body. The first McGill group to focus specifically on criminal justice, S.T.A.N.D. hopes to encourage productive criticism of the North American prison systems on campus.

Since its founding, S.T.A.N.D. has attempted to facilitate campus conversations about the hardships faced by Canadian and American prisoners. In Fall 2018, the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) granted S.T.A.N.D. seed money, which allowed the group to recruit members and plan events. Sarah Petrick (U1 Arts) and current leader of the McGill chapter of S.T.A.N.D., wants to see the organization grow outside of the McGill bubble and spark or contribute to a national conversation about how the Canadian criminal justice system can be improved.

“It would be amazing to get involved in the Montreal community or pair with different NGOs,” Petrick said. “Ultimately, we really just want to provide a safe space to facilitate discussions.”

In North America, mass incarceration rates, overcrowding in penitentiaries, overrepresentation of minority groups, lack of rehabilitation, vast expenses, and unjust processes are often ignored due to a lack of public knowledge. Canada spends over $2 billion a year on its 53 penitentiaries, which board more than 1 out of every 1,000 Canadian adults. Grace Sarabia (U1 Arts), communications director for S.T.A.N.D., hopes that the organization will become help to expose the cracks in the current judicial system.

“Now is when we need to question everything and really look at how our system is failing us,” Sarabia said.

S.T.A.N.D. executives are passionate about educating society on the overrepresentation of minority communities in prison. Currently, black and indigenous communities make up a high percentage of incarcerated individuals in the Canadian prison systems; indigenous women are the fastest growing demographic in Canadian prisons, making up 36 per cent of the population of females in federal prison in 2011. Similarly, there is a disproportionate number of LGBTQ+ individuals incarcerated in American prisons: members of the community make of seven per cent of the general population, but 20 per cent of the prison population.

Advocates for reform argue that prisons should be rehabilitative, and they seek to replace the traditional prison model with alternative forms of justice, which they believe will be more effective and cost-efficient. For example, indigenous healing lodges use a holistic and spiritual approach to provide guidance and support while preparing individuals for reintegration into the community. S.T.A.N.D. founders believe their organization provides the perfect forum to brainstorm these new approaches.

“We could consider different forms of justice, like healing [lodges] which are growing in popularity within indigenous communities.” Sarabia said.

S.T.A.N.D. members hope that, by the end of their university careers, they will have gained experience in contributing to legal reform. Julia Volpe, U2 Arts, and member of S.T.A.N.D., joined to get involved in a unique organization that provides insight into Canada’s justice system.

“There are so few courses offered at McGill related to prison reform,” Volpe said. “I’m thankful for the opportunity [S.T.A.N.D. has] given me to learn more about the issue.”

Moving forward, S.T.A.N.D. is working to hold events, such as film screenings and panel discussions, that will raise their public profile on campus. For members of S.T.A.N.D., the organization serves as a great way to take back the power stripped for incarcerated individuals and a step towards reforming a system that needs adjustment

Hockey, Martlets, Sports

Know Your Athlete: Tricia Deguire

by Owen Gibbs on

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Goaltenders have one of the most important roles in hockey: They are the last line of defence against the opposing onslaught. They need a level head and quick feet—two traits which McGill Martlets goalie Tricia Deguire has in spades.

Deguire, a native of Sherbrooke, Quebec, is in her third season backstopping the McGill Martlets. Growing up in the seemingly-eternal Quebec winter, Deguire started playing hockey at a young age and found success after putting in persistent work.

“I started skating when I was about three or four years old,” Deguire said. “I was really bad at skating at first […], but I was still getting back up and trying hard, so, as I grew up, my skating improved way faster than we thought [….] They put me into hockey with boys, and I just wanted to be one of the best and have fun.”

Deguire’s hockey career did not start in front of the net. As a child, she played forward, putting the puck on net in hopes of scoring as many goals as possible. However, her ambitions changed, and she shifted her game from offence to defence.

“At one point, I thought the goalie was the coolest with the pads, so I decided to cry to my mom every night, and they started to give me my chance,” Deguire said.

Deguire’s love for the position has translated into success. In her rookie season at McGill, she was named both the USports and RSEQ rookie of the year. In May of her sophomore year, Deguire was invited to attend a strength and conditioning camp with the Canadian women’s national development program, followed by an invitation to Hockey Canada’s Summer Showcase in August. Ultimately, she was selected for the national women’s development team for the 2018 Nations Cup in Germany, making her the third McGill player to ever attend.

“I never thought I would be invited by Team Canada before coming to McGill,” Deguire said. “Hockey Canada is a big thing for a lot of hockey players. We all want to be there; we all dream of it. I just think that being invited by them and having the chance to try out […] was a dream come true.”

Despite the success, Deguire isn’t counting on playing in the next Olympics.

“There’s a lot of good goalies and a lot [of time] to go before 2022,” she said. “I can’t say if I’ll play there. It’s a dream for sure, and, if it happens in 2022, I would be one of the happiest for sure.”

Unlike many players, Deguire does not wear her number 33 because of any sort of superstition.

“When I got to McGill, the only options for numbers were 1 and 33, and I knew that I didn’t want to be the first one on the ice,” Deguire said. “It’s not superstition, I think. It’s about stress when you get on the ice. I didn’t want to take all the attention, just to be there and be that player.”

Superstitious or not, Deguire is one of the best goalies that Canada has to offer, and, at this rate, she should have a long and illustrious career ahead of her.

Art, Arts & Entertainment

‘Hyper Real’ thoughtfully reflects race relations

by Keira Seidenberg on

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Hyper Real, which showed at Concordia University’s student art gallery, VAV (Visual Arts Visuels,) until Nov. 30, showcased the work of nine black artists, juxtaposing themes like masculinity and femininity, isolation and connection, in a series of video art works, graphic prints, and eerily arranged baby-doll sculptures. The exhibition functioned as a mirror, reflecting the identities and personal narratives of the artists, but also provided viewers with a space to examine their own perceptions of black identity and race relations. While the works varied in form, each deconstructed stereotypical beliefs in an exhibition that was at once introspective and expressive.

One of the works in Hyper Real by Karl Obakeng Ndebele, a multidisciplinary South African artist based in Montreal, is entitled “Siyalima,” which translates roughly to “the cultivation stage of farming” in Ndebele. The work portrays South African history through video art, juxtaposing the past and present in a way that re-envisions storytelling methods through technology. The two-minute clip recounts a moment in colonial history in which early European settlers in South Africa often gave mirrors to local leaders as payment for their lands after convincing them that the mirrors could grant longevity or a second life.

The film depicts two individuals dressed in contemporary streetwear in a nondescript forest setting, holding mirrors that reflect their persons and their environment to the sound of hip-hop beats. “Siyalima” functions as a commentary on colonialist discourse, shedding light on historical racism and systems of oppression that continue to influence the lives of black South Africans today. While the mirrors bear literal meaning given their role in local and colonial relations, they also demand symbolic reflection from viewers. Ndebele’s work prompts consideration of current race relations in South Africa and allows the audience to question their own privilege.

Daniel Itiose, another artist included in the exhibition, works with oil paint, rendering large-scale, hyper-realistic paintings of human subjects. Itiose’s portraiture dissects perceptions of traditional masculinity and gendered norms by showing male subjects experiencing emotions that are otherwise perceived as ‘feminine.’ His work also challenges conformity that racialized individuals must undergo, addressing the audience’s autonomy and the privileges that come with that liberty. From afar, Itiose’s paintings look like photographs, capturing vulnerability and personal strife in close-up shots of male subjects. Upon closer examination, the works are composed of delicate brushstrokes, lending the work detail which could not be created with the click of a shutter.

Student artist nafleri also uses video art portraying a black individual slowly undressing as their body becomes a virtual canvas for ‘bootleg resources’, including radicalized comics, news segments, and a looped sound-bite of Eric Garner. Garner, a black man murdered by the New York Police for selling bootleg cigarettes, repeats “I can’t breathe” as the police choke him. Artist Theran Sativa, works with dolls found in Salvation Army donation centers. The dolls comment on identity construction through materiality the appropriation of the black body.

Hyper Real dissects tensions surrounding acceptance and personal narratives. The exhibition encourages viewers to reflect on their physical presence within the gallery, where acceptance is contingent upon the artists’ invitation. There is a confessional quality to the work in which oil paint and commercialized plastic toys convey the artist’s relationship to the past and present, their cultural histories, and racial discourse. While patrons experiences in the gallery may only be temporary, the artists and their works encourage lasting reflection on racial identity in a supposedly ‘post-racial’ world.

Arts & Entertainment, Theatre

Yvette Nolan’s ‘The Birds’ places indigeneity in the spotlight

by Kevin Vogel on

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Yvette Nolan’s adaptation of Aristophanes’s classic Greek comedy The Birds, which ran Nov. 21-23 and 28-30 at Moyse Hall Theatre, focuses on the history of colonization, and the future of truth and reconciliation for indigenous peoples in Canada. Produced as a part of the English department’s Drama & Theatre Program, The Birds features student actors and crew members who tell the story of Jack (Luke Horton, U3 Arts) and Gulliver (Arielle Shiri, U3 Arts) as they leave their city lives behind to seek a new life in a land inhabited by talking birds.

While the pair originally sought to flee the hustle and bustle of city life, Jack quickly proves unwilling to leave his old profiteering ways behind. Working with man-turned-bird Hoopoe (Alexander Czedledy-Nagy, U3 Management), he pays off a leader in the bird community, Raven (Caroline Portante, U3 Arts), to profit off the land and build a new city modelled after the one he left behind. His plans inadvertently bring a host of other invaders from the city—bureaucrats, missionaries, and the like—who give no credence to the birds’ concerns and work to exploit their society.

Nolan artfully weaves the plot together by making each character’s personality traits and actions double as a commentary on contemporary indigenous-settler relations. Jack serves as a prototypical colonizer, only showing surface-level concern for the birds when he loses control of his dream city’s development or when his own life is at stake. Nightingale (Grace Bokenfohr, U2 Music) Hoopoe’s wife, acts as a storyteller who sings of the creation of Turtle Island. She integrates the Greek tragedy of Philomela, the story of a princess who transforms into a nightingale after her brother-in-law mutilates her, to construct a broader narrative about colonial violence.

Recently invited to join the Mordechai Richler Writer-in-Residence program, Nolan has been writing since 1990. Her first production Blade premiered at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival. Born in Saskatchewan and raised in Winnipeg, Nolan was the managing artistic director of the Toronto based company Native Earth Performing Arts. The Mordechai Richler program aims to offer emerging artists valuable experience and guidance writing for different media, such as television, film and radio.

Where dialogue is sparse, the actors’ body language fills in the gaps to further flesh out the relationships that unfold onstage. Inès Vieux Francoeur (U2 Arts) is particularly strong in her portrayal of Hoopoe’s assistant, Sandpiper –she aggressively pokes her beak out at Jack and Gulliver during their tense first encounter, and gracefully fluffs her feathers during calmer moments. The birds’ chief authority figure, Eagle (Yves Abanda, U3 Science) projects a similarly-strong stage presence by extending his enormous wings to silence the crowd in various scenes. His posture throughout the performance solidifies his role as a powerful and decisive leader in the decolonization process.

The Birds is an entertaining and intellectually-engaging adaptation of the classical Greek comedy. Vibrant and colourful costumes, coupled with well-designed forest props, add a sense of realism in what would otherwise be a purely fantastical world. Each performer and crew member played their roles exceptionally, showcasing the dedication that went into the work. At the end of the performance, the audience left the theatre pondering the nature of reconciliation in the present day.

Science & Technology

The power of effective studying

by Morgan Sweeney on

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Productivity and procrastination: The notorious p-words of finals season. As students pack into libraries like sardines to cram a semester’s worth of information into a few days, final exams seem like the only thing on anyone’s mind. Fortunately, there are ways to make the studying process more effective and less strenuous.

In an email to The McGill Tribune, Signy Sheldon, assistant professor in McGill’s Department of Psychology and Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory, explained that, perhaps counterintuitively, taking some time away from the books can actually help to maximize time spent studying.

“One theory [about] memory is that information is remembered better when it is repeated at certain intervals,” Sheldon wrote. “So, when studying for an exam, take breaks before coming back to review information. This will help information become less resistant to forgetting.”

While the research is inconclusive as to exactly how long the ideal studying interval is, anywhere between 25 and 52 minutes seems commonplace, with breaks ranging from three to 15 minutes. Timing aside, there is also research on the best strategies to use when learning material. The levels of processing theory posits that one can learn at a surface level by focusing on simple details, like the words or diagrams from lectures, or at the deeper level by considering the underlying meaning of the material.

“Deep processing leads to memories that are stronger and last longer,” Sheldon wrote. “For something to be learned deeply, you can try linking new information to familiar and meaningful information. One tool would be to link what you’re learning to what you already know.”

Thomas Shultz, professor of computational psychology at McGill, also supports this approach to learning. Shultz is a firm believer in the crib sheet, a double-sided piece of A4 paper on which students can fit a semester’s worth of information to bring into the exam.

“[Students] universally say they like it because they are relearning the course material by organizing it at increasingly-higher levels of abstraction,” Shultz wrote in an email to the Tribune. “They also like it because they are no longer anxious about memorizing.”

This re-organization and summarization of course material fosters deep learning. Further research suggests that writing notes by hand leads to greater retention of information than typing them; thus, a handwritten crib sheet would be the most useful tool for learning.

While studying is crucial, the all-important ‘hygiène de vie’ is just as necessary for good grades as mental health.

“I think the most toxic habit students engage in is not sleeping,” Sheldon said. “Sleep really is essential to creating memories, which is essentially what you are doing when you are studying.”

While people sleep, their short-term memories are consolidated into long-term memories, which allows for better recollection of information. This process is critical for forming new memories, making it ideal for retaining information.

Ultimately, what most students struggle with during finals is staying motivated despite a workload that feels overwhelming at times. One way to overcome negative inertia is to reconfigure the looming pile of work in original ways by planning a study date in a new place or holding a game show-style review session for example. By framing studying as something exciting, it becomes something to look forward to, which makes it all the more likely that the memorization will be productive.

Science & Technology

The microscopic powers in food

by Morgan Sweeney on

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Locally-brewed kombucha is all the rage in Montreal; a new brand seems to line the shelves of hipster cafés every week. Kombucha, along with blue cheese, aged meats, and alcohol, are just a fraction of the foods dependent on fermentation. Fermentation occurs when microorganisms break down glucose to make energy without the presence of oxygen. The process produces a number of by-products that change the flavour and consistency of food.

‘Probiotic’ is the umbrella term used to refer to beneficial bacteria that contributes to gut health. According to Lawrence Goodridge, director of the Food Safety and Quality Program, lactic acid bacteria are responsible for the probiotic benefits of substances such as yogurt.

“Lactic acid bacteria […] are useful because they produce a lot of compounds that make our gastrointestinal tract healthy,” Goodridge said.

While these microorganisms are essential for creating certain delicious products, there also exists a variety of miniscule life forms that infiltrate the body through food to wreak havoc. Goodridge explained that these microorganisms are the major culprits for food poisoning. Parasites, like cryptosporidium, cause miserable living conditions for the host. Viruses like norovirus can be so prolific that they actually force cruise ships back to shore. Bacterial infections such as E.coli and salmonella are also responsible for a significant proportion of foodborne illnesses. They are often found in the intestinal tract of animals and can contaminate any produce that comes in contact with animal excrement.

“It’s a common myth that [salmonella] can only be found in chicken and eggs,” Goodridge said. “Certainly, it is found in chicken and eggs a lot, but salmonella can cause outbreaks in virtually every food. There have been outbreaks in chocolate.”’

Recently, the Government of Canada issued a warning against washing poultry prior to cooking it because the splashing water may spread salmonella onto other surfaces. Even more pressingly, on Nov. 26, the Center for Disease Control released a food safety alert linked to E.coli-contaminated romaine lettuce grown on the central coast of California, which produces 75 per cent of the U.S.’s leafy greens. The same strain of E.coli has also been found in romaine lettuce grown in Ontario and Quebec.

When left unchecked, these pathogenic microorganisms can grow inside of people and make them sick for varying periods of time. However, low levels of heat are usually sufficient in killing the more common bacteria, which is why it is so critical to fully cook food before eating it. This is especially true when visiting new places; new bacteria can be dangerous when one is exposed for the first time without prior immunity.

Exotic microbes aside, the majority of people encounter the byproducts of bacterial metabolism in the form of food that has been left in the fridge for too long. Any change in colour or odour indicates that the pseudomonas bacteria has started to digest the food. While a healthy person will not necessarily become ill by eating spoiled food, bacteria will cause food to lose its nutritional value. In addition, its digestive by-products often make the food look and smell unappealing, which is usually reason enough to deter someone from eating it.

Despite their size, microorganisms have a huge impact on human beings, influencing everyday life to a degree most people are never aware of.

While it may seem logical that cutting off the mould on bread would leave the rest of the product salvageable, new research reveals that moulds release spores which burrow into the product. Once there are visible signs of growth, then, the entire loaf of bread is probably compromised. However, harder foods such as meats and cheeses with a little bit of mould can still be eaten so long as all the visible mould is removed, as the denser makeup of the food prevents mould from growing too far.

Science & Technology

Protecting the powerless

by Ronny Litvack-Katzman on

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Whales, dolphins, and other members of the cetacean family are now one fin-stroke closer to freedom thanks to the new Ending the Captivity of Whales and Dolphins Act, Bill S-203. The act, which passed in the Senate on Oct 23 and is currently undergoing its second reading in the House of Commons, looks to amend Canada’s Criminal Code to ban the capture of cetaceans and enable protections for marine mammals. It further stipulates an end to the breeding of cetaceans in captivity and prohibits the movement of live whales or dolphins across Canadian borders.

Many politicians and animal rights activists vehemently condemn the captivity of cetaceans and continue to fight for their release. In an interview with iPolitics, Senator Mary Jane MacCallum of Manitoba stated that housing animals outside of their natural habitat is amoral.

“This concern is compounded by my personal belief, shared by many, that having these majestic and intelligent animals in captivity is simply unnatural,” MacCallum said. “It is against the very nature, biology and physiology of these animals to be swimming around in tanks when they are wired and built for the vastness of an ocean.”

In 2014, prominent anthropologist Jane Goodall wrote an open letter to the Vancouver Aquarium demanding that the aquarium put an end to their beluga breeding program. Goodall cited high mortality rates and the complex social and sensory lives of the animals as reasons to end the program.

While the bill has been widely praised as a humane initiative, Andrew Trites of the University of British Columbia’s Institute for Oceans and Fisheries questions some aspects of Bill S-203, such as the ban on importing and exporting reproductive materials from Canada.

“Imagine we had an endangered species where the only female left is in Canada and the only male left is in the United States,” Trites said. “We might want to allow them to artificially inseminate.”

Having access to domesticated cetaceans is highly advantageous for research studies. As of 2018, Marineland of Canada in Ontario is the only facility in the country that still houses live cetaceans.

“There are lots of questions [that] we, as scientists, ask, such as ‘does the noise ships make affect killer whales?,’” Trites said. “To answer these sorts of questions a hearing test needs to be completed on the whales and you’re not going to do that on a wild animal.”

The majority of the research done on cetaceans is done in aquariums. Behavioural questions related to topics like food intake, physiology of sight, and cognitive abilities all require close observation and extended periods of data collection, which is only possible in controlled settings.

The ongoing debate now centres around whether or not research practices can take precedent over animal welfare. Trites argues that they aren’t necessarily contradictory.

“There is a lot more focus on providing the animals with stimulus and challenges so [that] they do not develop psychological problems.” Trites said.

According to Trites, a popular way to assess the stress levels of whales in captivity is by analyzing their ability to breed. Whales with reduced levels of stress are more likely to get pregnant and carry offspring full term. Marineland’s success in mating beluga whales may therefore be an indication of their low stress levels.

In the meantime, the language of Bill S-203 remains unclear with regard to the many exceptions it allows at the discretion of provincial legislatures. The act will only prevent the capture of future marine mammals; it exempts facilities which currently hold cetaceans. This fact leaves marine biologists and animal rights activists alike wondering how Bill S-203 will affect the wellbeing of cetaceans still in captivity.

News, SSMU

SSMU supports motion for gun control in Canada

by Helen Wu on

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The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Legislative Council convened on Nov. 29 for their last meeting of 2018. They debated a new motion to support Bill C-71, which was introduced by Canada’s Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale to reduce gun violence across Canada. Chip Smith, a member of the Accountability Committee, also presented evaluations of the SSMU Executives and Councillors’ performances for the Fall 2018 semester.

Motion Regarding SSMU’s Position on Gun Control in Canada

The Liberal party of Canada is poised to pass Bill C-71, which is currently under review at the Canadian Senate. The bill will tighten laws on firearms by improving background checks and implementing mandatory record-keeping by firearms retailers. SSMU Vice-President (VP) Student Life Cody Esterle had drafted a motion to endorse the bill and lobby Canadian Senators, Members of Parliament, and the Minister of Public Safety of Canada for better gun control. As Esterle was not present, however, Arts Representative Ana Paula Sánchez explained the motion to council.

“Essentially, what the motion is trying to do is have SSMU endorse [Bill C-71] and help in a letter-writing campaign to advocate for a national ban on civilian ownership of handguns,” Sánchez said.

Arts Representative Andrew Figueiredo argued during the debate period that banning handguns will not be the solution to gun violence.

“First of all, hand guns can be used for hunting […and], moreover, for self-protection,” Figueiredo said. “In rural areas, it takes up to 45 minutes for RCMP to actually get to your door [….] In the city of Toronto, 50 per cent of guns used illegally […] are imported from the United States. Maybe invest in border security, because, clearly, banning guns is not the solution in this case.”

Management Representative Brooke Callaghan was critical of Figueiredo’s argument.

“Any measures should […] be taken to prevent the use of guns in in any way, shape, or form in this country and in all countries,” Callaghan said. “Guns are used for violence, period. They are a killing machine […] Whether you are killing an animal or person, [guns are] meant to cause harm [to] another being.”

The motion was passed with 26 in favour, 2 opposed, and no abstentions.

Fall 2018 Accountability Committee Report

The Accountability Committee is mandated to ensure that Officers, Senators, Directors, and Councillors fulfill their obligations and responsibilities. In this semester’s assessment, the SSMU Executives collectively received a grade of ‘A’ or ‘A-’ on each criteria. Each executive also received a specific evaluation to which they had the opportunity to respond. Among the most heavily criticized for delays in their work were VP Finance Jun Wang and VP Internal Matthew McLaughlin.

Wang admitted that the effort of transitioning club banking has taken a toll on his mental health.

“My predecessors never had to deal with this many constituents at once,” Wang said. “And it [becomes] a mental pressure point when I have to deal with not just departmental executives […] but also SSMU club members as well [….The club bank transition is] probably [my] biggest project, and it [has] been very difficult to keep [under control] without impacting the other executives.”

McLaughlin explained that the two-and-a-half-month delay in hiring a Francophone Affairs Commissioner was due to its impromptu addition to his portfolio as a result of VP External Marina Cupido’s resignation. He reported to council that a commissioner was found on Nov. 29.

“This was under the External portfolio until Marina’s resignation, and then it was under my portfolio,” McLaughlin said. “As soon as I got this part of my portfolio [assigned], I launched the job application for the Francophone Affairs Commissioner and the application for the Francophone Affairs Committee. We [have found a commissioner but] only received one application to the committee so far, so I reopened that today to get more applicants.”

Legislative Council will reconvene on Jan. 10.

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