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Martlets, Sports

Martlets badminton goes 1-4 in season opener

by Chiso Ufondu on

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On Sept. 28 and 29, the McGill women’s badminton team kicked off its season at Currie Gymnasium, hosting the first RSEQ competition of the year. The Martlets’ doubles and singles teams won one matchup and lost four against the five visiting Quebec universities: Université Laval, Université de Montréal (UdeM), Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Université de Sherbrooke, and Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR).

Matches ran simultaneously throughout the two-day competition, with six courts set up across the gym to handle all of the action. Every school played each other team once, selecting three doubles pairs and two singles to represent them. The singles and pairs then played one match each. Total scores were decided by the number of matches each team won out of five.

During their games, McGill focused on where they placed the birdie on the court and their general shot quality.

“[We wanted to] drive [our opponents] down the court, so they [would have to] both reach to their left then cross to the other side,” first-year doubles player Linda Zhu said. “They’re both on their left side [of the court], so they can’t reach their right [….] You aim for the corners, and [then] you drive [the birdie] down hard and fast.”

On Friday night, Sept. 28, McGill fell to Laval and UQAM, both by a 5-0 score. They found more success on Saturday, however, with their first victory, taking down UQTR by a score of 3-2. Unfortunately, the win was bookended by two more losses: The Martlets dropped matchups against Sherbrooke and UdeM and finished in fifth place out of six teams with a 1-4 record. Still, second-year Team Captain Julia Tian remained optimistic for the rest of their season.

“I feel like we’re doing pretty well,” Tian said between matches on Sept. 29. “This is our first tournament of the year, so it’s always really tough starting out.”

One Martlet who made her mark on the tournament was Angcy Xiao. After Xiao sat out during Friday’s matchups, Tian put her in for Saturday’s singles games. Xiao had to transfer her support and energy from the bench to the court, and it was clear that she stepped up to the opportunity.

“[Xiao was] able to fill in her role as [the third singles player], and she’s doing a really good job,” Tian said. “I’m proud of her. She came in, she was prepared to play, and [she] was still able to do her best.”

Meanwhile, the McGill men’s badminton team also competed this weekend, Sept. 28-29, at École de Technologie Supérieure (ÉTS) in Montreal. They went 3-3 and finished fourth out of seven teams.

With the season’s first tournament now concluded, the Martlets will head back into the gym in preparation for their next tournament, hosted by UQTR on Oct. 27 and 28.

 

McGill, News

Special Investigator appointed to combat sexual violence

by Sydney King on

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In an email addressed to members of the McGill community on Sept. 11, Provost Christopher Manfredi announced the appointment of Maître Caroline Lemay, an experienced lawyer, mediator, and ombudsperson, to the role of Special Investigator of sexual violence. In her role, Lemay will be responsible for investigating all reports of sexual violence on McGill’s campus and will be the single point of entry for all such reports. The appointment came in response to a student walkout and a Student Society of McGill University (SSMU) open letter in April 2018 that accused the McGill administration of mishandling sexual violence allegations.

 

Lemay will act independently of the McGill administration and any other disciplinary authority. The creation of her role is intended to alleviate student concerns that McGill’s internal review system is skewed against survivors.

 

Starting on Oct. 9, Lemay will lead investigations into reports of sexual violence against members of the McGill community. However, her mandate may not include reports filed before her term begins.

 

Connor Spencer, former vice-president external of SSMU, organizer of the May demonstrations, and member of Our Turn, a national organization addressing sexual violence on college and university campuses, expressed doubt about the scope of the investigation.

 

“The special investigator was a win for us, even if the role isn’t fully defined,” Spencer said. “[But] we’ve still got absolutely nothing about claims in the past.”

 

The second prong of McGill’s response to allegations of mishandled sexual violence reports is the Ad Hoc Senate Committee on Teaching Staff-Student Intimate Relationships, that will review McGill’s policy regarding relations between teaching staff and student relationships. The administration hopes that the working groups will create a comprehensive policy that will reconcile differences between the 2017 Policy on Harassment, Sexual Harassment and Discrimination Prohibited by Law and the 2016 Policy against Sexual Violence while ensuring that the policy is in accordance with Quebec’s 2017 law regarding sexual violence on university campuses, Bill 151.

 

Manfredi emphasized that the ad hoc committee would have strong student representation in his May 10 email to the McGill community. Lemay herself was appointed by recommendation from a committee containing representatives of SSMU and other members of the McGill community.

 

Associate Provost (Equity and Academic Policies) Angela Campbell stated that students from various associations and the Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society (SACOMSS) would be part of the working groups. These students would represent the interests and input of their respective constituencies.

 

“We will also be looking at other ways to ensure wide and meaningful input and consultation from multiple stakeholders on campus,” Campbell said.

 

The Senate ad hoc committee on Teaching Staff-Student Intimate Relationships, held a town hall on Sept. 18 open to all McGill students. Participants were invited to provide suggestions for changes to McGill’s current policy on intimate relationships between staff and students.

 

In an opinion article published by The McGill Daily, David Collins, a PhD philosophy student, along with several anonymous members of the Philosophy Students’ Association and Philosophy Graduates’ Student Association, called on the administration to outright ban any relations between staff and students. This contrasts with the current policy, which only bans relations between teachers and their own students.

 

“By banning student-teacher relationships, McGill would join a number of universities with similar bans such as Harvard, Yale, and MIT, and would bring itself in line with policies governing professionals in other fields, such as healthcare providers,” the authors wrote.

 

The review of McGill’s sexual violence policy is intended to last through the fall semester.

Album Reviews, Arts & Entertainment, Music

Cher’s ‘Dancing Queen’ divides fans

by Ariella Garmaise, Matthew Hawkins, Katia Innes, Kevin Vogel on

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As if her lacklustre performance in this summer’s Mamma Mia 2! Here We Go Again, wasn’t enough, Cher has released an album of ABBA covers. The A&E team is here to deliver the verdict: Does Dancing Queen redeem the Goddess of Pop? Does the diva do justice to her ‘70s-disco Swedish counterparts? Take a chance on us and read on.

Kevin Vogel

Contributor

When I first started to listen, Dancing Queen seemed like an album with some fun bops that I could really get into, even if the original ABBA vocals were missing. But, the longer I listened, the wackier the album got. From robot auto tuning in “Mama Mia” to weepy opera-like singing in “Fernando,” I just couldn’t support the album’s creative decisions. Not only were the songs missing ABBA’s classic harmonies, but they failed to properly showcase Cher’s powerful voice. Sorry, Cher. You’re awesome, but I’m not impressed.

Matthew Hawkins

Contributor

Cher’s Dancing Queen is everything that Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again should have been. Despite being a diehard Cher fan, I found myself extremely disappointed by her performance in the summer sequel. Cher singing ABBA seemed like a dream come true, but  Here We Go Again does both Cher and ABBA an injustice. With Dancing Queen, however, Cher makes up for it. She takes the classic ABBA tracks, “Waterloo,” “Mamma Mia,” and of course, the titular anthem, “Dancing Queen”, and pays homage to their legacy, all while adding her own electrifying energy, iconic auto-tune, and synth beats. While the introduction to the Cher/ABBA fusion was disappointing, this album showcases the best of the hybrid.

Katia Innes

Arts & Entertainment Editor

After watching “Cher: The Unauthorized Rusical” episode of Season 10 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, I assumed that it would be the one and only time Cher would cross my mind this year. Boy, was I wrong. Her dubious appearance in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, the premiere of biographical musical The Cher Showin Chicago, and the release of Dancing Queen have further solidified my theory that we have reached peak Cher. Dancing Queen is the cherry on top of this Cher-shaped sundae. Give this woman a Kennedy Center Honours Prize—oh wait! They already have!

Ariella Garmaise

Managing Editor

Unlike most fans, I discovered Cher neither through her music, nor from her prolific stint as a variety show host. Rather, I stumbled across the Goddess of Pop on Twitter, where her experimental work with emojis, capitalization, and punctuation far outshines any movie or album she’s ever made. I enjoyed Dancing Queen just fine, but not nearly as much as I liked her promotional tweeting for the occasion. In less than 280 characters, she says more than “Waterloo” ever could.

 

Arts & Entertainment, Books

NYRB publishes ‘Moderan,’ a delight of poetic science fiction

by Charlie Mascia on

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In the far-future conceptual world of Moderan, master of literary science fiction David R. Bunch forces readers to consider what it would be like to leave mortality behind. Originally published in 1971, and recently reissued by New York Review Books with 11 previously unread tales, Moderan is a refreshing departure from stylistically-dull science fiction. Bunch writes with a strange poetic momentum, based on a choppy rhythm that pulls the reader into clinical descriptions of gory trauma and emptiness. His science fiction combines the creativity of Philip K. Dick and the stylistic grotesqueness of Nabokov.

Moderan depicts a twisted society. On the eponymous planet, pollution has reached apocalyptic proportions and the oceans have frozen over. The elite have replaced their bodies with “new-metal” exteriors and occupy themselves with constant war. There are state-sponsored meanness competitions. Affection is shown only for made-to-order robots delivered in ships by eunuchs.

Bunch crafts his stories with none of the world-building or sci-fi exposition to which fans of the genre might be accustomed. Instead, Moderan is more of a concept for the reader to visualize. An ersatz utopia that is almost wholly metaphorical, Moderan draws from the literary tradition of the Beats, thematically exploring the horrors of the Vietnam War and the consumer culture of post-war America.  

Despite their publication date, the stories are  prescient. The parallels to today are as plentiful as they are disturbing: The immortal warrior men of metal are recognizable as the objects of a pervasive toxic masculinity. The ravages of nuclear war could easily be substituted with climate change and pollution. The characters’ addiction to augmenting their metal image read as a cautionary tale of the danger of our social fuelled image obsession.

Of all of the stories, exploring how to find meaning in eternity, “One False Step” stands out. Tunneled beneath the plastic crust, a crew repairs flower petals so that they will  be ready to bloom at the push of a button. The leader was formerly the captain of a mysterious kill squad which slaughtered unproductive individuals. He tells his comrades about his demotion from captain to worker—the consequence of waiting too long before killing the unprofitable citizens. The story ends with the former Captain brutally beating his own crew, as if to prove to himself that he is no less merciless than he was when he still held the title.

“He wrote […] on each man’s proper form, the reason due for punishment at Central Whip—careless and excessive bleeding on uniform without cause,” Bunch writes. “He had the hang of it again!…if only he could get them to believe him up there!”

The captain in “One False Step” may be a critique of the aggressive male ego, or perhaps of arbitrary power, but regardless, the story is as haunting as the eeriest of Black Mirror episodes.

In “One False Step” and many of the other stories in the collection, the characters fear that their lives of battle and prestige are empty. Many of them, including the captain, enjoy comical moments of self-doubt and reflection. In Bunch’s hypothesis of immortality, people are so shackled to things, like fortresses and armour, that they themselves have lost their identities outside of material possessions.

“I’m not in this business primarily to describe or explain or entertain,” Bunch said in a 1965 interview with Amazing Stories. “I’m here to make the reader think, even if I have to bash his teeth out, break his legs, grind him up, beat him down, and totally chastise him for the terrible and tinsel and almost wholly bad world we allow.”

Science fiction forces its reader to take stock of their surroundings. In a time of unhindered fossil fuel emissions, populism, and social media domination, our world is beginning to seem more and more dystopian. Moderan’s timely reissue might just be the wake up call we need  

(Kathryn Leci / The McGill Tribune)
Science & Technology

Behind the invisible brain-print of obesity

by Farida Rahman on

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Most obesity interventions focus on restricting calorie intake through diet or increasing energy expenditure through exercise. For this reason, obesity is often perceived as an individual’s lack of self-control to eat a healthy, well-portioned diet and follow exercise regimes. However, there may be some invisible factors pressing the scale. According to a recent study conducted by Uku Vainik from McGill’s Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, the brain changes associated with obesity might have genetic roots.

In a comparative study of cognition and body mass index (BMI), Vainik’s team saw individuals with higher BMIs rank lower in cognitive ability when challenged with delayed gratification and visual deduction tasks. Additionally, Vainik’s study determined that brain tissue in subjects with higher BMIs was found in higher quantities in regions associated with emotional responses to food cues and decreased in areas used in understanding context and episodic memory. Taken together, a brain profile emerges in which obesity arises from a cycle of being hypersensitive to food stimuli and then being unable to adequately inhibit an emotional or appetitive response.

With a deeper understanding of how underlying cognitive differences may affect an individual’s BMI,  Vainik asked whether these observable differences were a result of environmental or genetic factors. Distinguishing between the environmental and genetic influences of a particular characteristic like obesity is important when designing models to improve health outcomes.

“We were interested in the behavioural and neurological correlates of obesity [and how they overlap],” Vainik wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune.

By examining the brain structures and cognitive profiles of twins and siblings no longer sharing the same living environment, Vainik was able to test genetic heritability due to genetic factors.

Given their different living conditions, any similarity in the siblings’ neurological impulses would be due to their shared genetics and not environmental factors. Based on this presumption, Vainik found evidence for the genetic heritability of obesity, with similarities of 77 to 89 per cent in obesity-associated brain areas between pairs of siblings or twins.

The growing body of research connecting irregularities in brain structure and functioning to obesity means that current interventions should not focus solely on calorie restriction. Oftentimes, diet-focused weight loss schemes only result in an increased craving for food and a resurgence of any weight lost. A better strategy to reduce overeating is to stock up on healthy foods and to eat fewer calorie dense foods.

“The obesity epidemic of the last few decades has been enabled by the oversupply of cheap and nutrient-dense food,” Vainik wrote. “This creates multiple opportunities for people to overeat […] because, ultimately, [obesity] is acquired through behaviour, [or] by eating too much food.”

Calorie-dense foods tend to be items containing refined sugars and carbohydrates, while healthier options are usually vegetables or other natural foods. Eating more natural and nutritional foods often gives the feeling of satiety faster since the brain thinks it ate a lot, when in fact the true number of calories is quite low.

While the world may be filled with the tempting aromas of samosas and churros, these food cues can be removed in the controlled environments of the home where one spends a significant portion of their day.

Science & Technology

A new smile in the face of defeat

by Sophia Gorbounov on

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Seven years ago, a hunting accident left Maurice Desjardins severely scarred and unable to eat, drink, speak, or breathe on his own. His former life ruined, Desjardins saw no way for things to return to how they had once been. But, given modern medicine, new hope has arisen. Earlier this September, Montreal’s Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital announced that, at the age of 65, Desjardins became the first successful recipient of a facial transplant in Canadian history.

The process began in 2013, with a doctor and a dream. Before he became a superstar in the medical world, Dr. Daniel Borsuk was a student at McGill. From 1997 to 2006, he studied Physiology as an undergraduate and then pursued a joint MBA-Medical program as a graduate student.

Borsuk feels that the management aspect of his education still applies to his practice as a plastic surgeon.

“[It’s] beyond medicine, beyond science,” Borsuk said. “It’s teamwork. It’s skillsets management that we focus on during management training that clearly played [a role].”

In the complex process of Desjardins’ face transplant, teamwork was key. The procedure required the collaboration of more than 100 other medical, nursing, support, and technical staff including nine surgeons.

Among the medical staff were several psychiatric teams. For a surgery of this magnitude, Desjardins had to receive psychological preparation for several years.

“It’s symbolic in a lot of ways, people are worried about their identity [and he needed] the ability, the understanding to reconcile having someone else’s face transplanted on him,” Borsuk said. “The patient has to be able to take his anti-rejection medication for the rest of his life. This is a potentially fatal procedure.”

After seeing a limb reattachment surgery as a graduate student and reflecting on his lifelong fascination with the face, Borsuk knew that he wanted to undertake a facial transplant.

In the beginning, there was much preliminary work and practice to be done. Borsuk and his team operated on cadavers to understand the mechanisms of the surgery and determine how to best find a donor. Nonetheless, as time progressed, Borsuk began to see there were certain criteria his future patient had to meet.

“[We needed] someone who doesn’t have any other options, who’s suffering, who could benefit from this type of procedure,” Borsuk said.

Desjardins met the necessary standards. When asked what he wanted most, Desjardins replied that he just wanted a normal life: To go outside with his granddaughter without having to wear a mask and to sleep peacefully next to his wife.

After the final preparations were complete—including acquiring a donor face, securing funding, and satisfying both legal and ethical concerns—the procedure began.

Borsuk started with the 12-hour-long removal of the donor face and the 17-hour-long preparation of Desjardins’ face. By the end, most of his old face was removed, save for the upper eyelids, eyes and forehead. He was ready for the transplant.

Time was a key factor. The risk of failure increases the longer the donor face spends without blood. When cutting through bone, skin, scar tissue, and arteries, blood loss must also be minimised.

After the donor’s face was brought in, it was placed onto Desjardins’ skull. Borsuk and his team adjusted the plates and screws, fitting the new and the old together. The medical team worked their way down Desjardins’ face; first working on the nose and then the cheekbones. By the time they had reattached the arteries, they could slow down. Everything went according to plan. The face was transferred successfully.

The recovery process continues to be slow.

“We can’t rush these things,” Borsuk said to The National Post. “But does he like his face? Oh my God, he loves it. Yeah, he’s enjoying his face right now.”

Desjardins’ breathing tube has been removed and he is slowly learning to eat and drink. Borsuk says his nerve endings will reconnect at his lips within six months and he will be able to smile.

Out on the Town, Student Life

Tribune Tries: The best of YUL EAT

by Tali Zuckerman and Emma Carr on

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Every year, Montreal’s YUL EAT food festival, which ran from Sept. 10 to 16 this year, imports restaurateurs and culinary talent from around Quebec. Place YUL EAT serves as the main hub for the festival, where visitors can sample local products and attend culinary presentations. The McGill Tribune tasted the best of what this year’s pavilion had to offer; these were some of our favourites.

Savoury

The festival showcased a wide variety of small, savoury bites for visitors to sample. One stand-out station was Super Dips, a company that specializes in dehydrated dip powders which can be blended with traditional bases, like mayonnaise and sour cream, to create quick, delicious dips. At the stand, a vendor handed each taster a packet of pretzel sticks, to be dipped into as many of the thirty-plus savoury dips as desired. Unique flavours like asparagus, maple garlic, and curry cocoa were a few of the most noteworthy selections. Each and every dip was delicious, creamy, and perfectly salted. At the stand, Super Dips sold packages for five dollars apiece—which is not cheap for only a small appetizer, but still suitable for special occasions.

Equally popular were the tacos from the Avocados from Mexico setup. At the counter, festival-goers had two options: A vegetarian taco topped with roasted butternut squash, sliced avocado, and crumbled cheese, and a seafood taco with spicy salmon poke, a seaweed shell, and avocado. Simple and easy to replicate at home, these tacos packed a punch and made for a filling meal.

Sweet

Among the neatly-placed tents in Quartier des Spectacles, only a handful contained the best kind of food—sweets. There were offerings of fresh, traditional madeleine cookies prepared by festival staff, samplings of raw honey from Le Miel de Bonneau, tastings of fun overnight oats flavoured with chocolate and matcha from YUMi Organics, and ice cream from Les Givrés. Among these tasty options, Les Givrés’ ice cream stood out above the rest. Maybe it was the unusual September heat that made their generous samples especially delicious. The flavours on offer ranged from classics like chocolate and maple, to more original combinations, such as a cinnamon-apple sorbet and a vegan, coconut-based chai ice cream. Every bite tasted like a perfectly-sweet, creamy cloud.

Refreshing

At the centre of the festival ground stood the Creemore Springs’ Biergarten, where several Canadian beers, wines, and whiskeys were available on tap and for purchase. Additionally, grocery-store giant Gold Peak Beverages gave out samples of its new, refreshing, low-sugar fruit teas. The most unique offerings were the non-alcoholic cocktails concocted by La Ferme d’Achille, a small farm in St. Ubalde, Quebec dedicated to small batches of Argouille, a beverage made from sea buckthorn berries. “Cocktail Momentum,” an Argouille-based cocktail infused with mango nectar, cucumber, and picante sauce, harnessed the berries’ tart flavour. The result was a thirst-quenching and dynamic way to refuel after an afternoon of sampling new food.

 

 

News, SSMU

SSMU motion on far-right postponed

by Emma Carr on

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The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Legislative Council convened on Sept. 27, during which councillors Bryan Buraga, Mu Rong Yang, Garima Karia, and Andrew Figueiredo were nominated to the Board of Directors (BoD). The Legislative Council also approved a motion to prohibit the Vice-President (VP) Internal from becoming intoxicated at events and event organizers from spending SSMU funds on personal drinks.

 

In more routine matters, the Council renewed the motion designating affiliated clubs as SSMU’s highest priority and confirmed the membership of the health and dental care review committee. It also discussed a policy defining SSMU’s stance toward far-right groups and a motion addressing the lack of student participation in SSMU politics.

Motion regarding far-right groups postponed indefinitely

Council members voted to indefinitely postpone the Motion to Adopt a Policy Against Affiliation with Far Right Groups, which would forbid individuals or clubs affiliated with far-right groups from being directly involved with SSMU. During the discussion period, VP External Marina Cupido defended this move, stating that the policy in its current form was not yet ready to be submitted to the Legislative Council. Cupido will submit a revised motion in the near future.

 

“This is a very nuanced issue, and I think that there are a lot of concerns that need to be taken into account when trying to fight the far-right on our university campus, or anywhere really,” Cupido said. “I think that the […] draft that was brought up last year is a good start, but […] I don’t think it is adequate, frankly [….] I would like to see something better and more thorough, and I would like to have the time to put that together.”

 

The vote was initially proposed by the outgoing 2017-18 SSMU Legislative Council at the Apr. 5 council meeting, during which councillors voted to postpone discussion to the second meeting of the 2018-19 council. Despite this delay, Cupido expressed their commitment to preparing a policy in the coming months to address the presence of far-right groups on campus.

 

“I want to get this done by the end of October, so I really don’t want to drag [it] out,” Cupido said.

Council unanimously passes motion regarding student governance

 

Council members unanimously voted in favour of the Motion for Special Emphasis to be Placed on Greater Engagement with Student Governance. The policy, which will establish an ad hoc committee to undertake a comprehensive governance review, is an attempt to address student apathy toward and subsequent distrust of SSMU. These feelings have resulted in low voter participation in SSMU elections, including in the 2018 Winter Election, where only 32.8 per cent of the student body voted. This was the highest voter turnout in 14 years.

 

“The terms of reference engage in a serious attempt to address a longstanding problem,” VP University Affairs Jacob Shapiro said. “It’s a problem that traditionally has been addressed in ad hoc manners. I hope that this indicates a more sustained effort. Ultimately, we’ll be judged by the actions of this committee and not by words or bad raps.”

 

During the discussion period, Senate Caucus Representative Bryan Buraga expressed optimism that the policy would improve student perceptions of SSMU.

 

“I think this is a fantastic step in the right direction for reforming our society and making sure we re-engage our members, and [making] sure that they have faith in this institution that can do so much great work,” Buraga said.

News

McGill celebrates first-ever Queer History Month

by Kyle Dewsnap on

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The Office of the Provost, Queer McGill, and the Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies (IGSF) are a few of the many groups that have collaborated to plan McGill’s first Queer History Month. Officially known as Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, Queer, Two-Spirited, and Intersex (LGBTQ2I+) History Month, the planned celebrations are a first for any university in Canada.

Meryem Benslimane, equity education advisor to the Provost, has been planning the events for the past two months. In an email to The McGill Tribune, she summarized the breadth of events included in the effort.

“The goal of LGBTQ2I+ History Month is to celebrate and highlight the history and achievements of LGBTQ+ communities at McGill University and, more broadly, in Montreal, Quebec, and Canada,” Benslimane wrote. “Through a series of screenings, panels, workshops, and community events, LGBTQ2I+ History Month aims [to raise] awareness, [advance] education, and [increase] the visibility of LGBTQ+ communities [at McGill].”

Quebec’s queer history is particularly complicated when compared to the rest of Canada. In July 1990, police conducted a raid of the Sex Garage, an LGBTQ2I+ party that was held in a warehouse in Old Montreal. According to witness testimony, police blocked partygoers from exiting while yelling homophobic insults—some even removed their badges and started to beat participants.

According to Benslimane, events like the Sex Garage raid have left their mark on Quebec’s queer community.

“[Quebec has] pioneered certain rights […] for instance, they legalized same-sex civil partnership earlier than other provinces,” Benslimane wrote. “But they’ve also been late in regards to other things—Quebec is the only province that forbids non-citizens from changing their gender on their ID and documents, and citizenship may take five to ten years.”

Benslimane and her committee have planned a mix of academic and cultural events in hopes of attracting as many McGill community members as possible. This week, Black Students’ Network (BSN) will be screening Ouvrir La Voix [Speak Up], a film about the experiences of francophone European black women. The ISGF held a love poem workshop with Indigenous academic Smokii Sumac, who also spoke during McGill’s Indigenous Awareness Week. Sumac hopes to teach interested McGill community members about using love poems to express both romantic and aromantic forms of love. Interested students and staff can visit Queer History Month’s Facebook page for a full schedule.

From the perspective of Alanna Thain, director of the IGSF and associate professor in the Department of English, knowing queer history can enhance the university’s ability to understand the present struggles of its LGBTQ+ members. She believes it is important to recognize that Quebec’s queer community continues to face evolving struggles.

“The struggles that occupy a lot of activism today are not always the same ones that were fought in the past,” Thain said. “The Sex Garage riots of the ‘90s are really different from the fight for marriage equality, for example. If you don’t know your history, you might not understand why, for many queer people, marriage equality is not the be all and end all of what we want and dream about.”

While Queer History Month marks a significant milestone in McGill’s commitment to the queer community, students like Bei Evely, U5 Anthropology and Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies, hope that McGill’s administration will continue to advocate for queer students and faculty beyond October. Evely hopes that this year’s event will have a lasting impact on McGill culture.

“I think it’s important for McGill to figure out what they want to stand for and then to stand strongly for it,” Evely said. “If we’re having a history month, which was mostly led by people who really feel passionate about having a history month around this community, I want this passion to be reflected in the stance that we take the entire year.”

Soccer, Sports

Four teams to watch in Women’s World Cup qualifiers

by Kaja Surborg on

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Starting this week, the Confederation of North, Central American, and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) will host its qualifying tournament for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup that is to take place in France. The McGill Tribune has compiled a list of four teams to keep an eye on as the tournament begins on Oct. 4 in Cary, North Carolina.

Trinidad and Tobago

One of the best women’s soccer teams in the Caribbean region, Trinidad and Tobago is looking to qualify for its first-ever Women’s World Cup. Ahead of the qualifying tournament for the 2015 World Cup, the team arrived in Dallas, Texas for their opening match with $500 and no transportation, practice equipment, or food, prompting Head Coach Randy Waldrum to call for support via Twitter. These tweets momentarily drew attention to the unreasonable expectations heaped upon many women’s soccer teams around the world. Namely, they perform at the highest level without the sufficient resources to do so. Trinidad and Tobago received some support from businesses in the Dallas area, individuals, and even the Clinton Foundation, but ultimately failed to qualify for the World Cup that year.

Mexico

If they qualify, the Mexican women’s national team, or El Tri, would secure its fourth appearance at the Women’s World Cup, although they have yet to move beyond the group stage. Mexico, currently ranked 24th in the world, is led by midfielder and captain Nayeli Rangel of Monterrey. Last year, Rangel returned to play professional club soccer in her hometown for Tigres UANL in the new Mexican women’s professional soccer league, Liga MX Femenil. By establishing a platform to showcase elite, homegrown talent like Rangel, the league provides an opportunity for the further development of women’s soccer in Mexico.

Jamaica

The Jamaican women’s national team, also known as the Reggae Girlz, finished first in the Caribbean zone’s preliminary qualifying round on home soil, ahead of Trinidad and Tobago. This success came after the team disbanded between 2008 and 2014 after failing to make it out of the qualifying group stages for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Funding from the Bob Marley Foundation has allowed the Reggae Girlz to return to the world stage, and they currently rank 64th in the FIFA World Rankings. While Marley’s backing provided them with financial support, an appearance at the Women’s World Cup would help raise the team’s profile on the pitch and bring in even more resources to improve their training and development programs.

Canada

Canada, currently ranked fifth in the FIFA World Rankings, has appeared in every FIFA Women’s World Cup—even hosting it in 2015—except the inaugural tournament in 1991. They have brought home two Olympic bronze medals (2012, 2016), two CONCACAF championships (1998, 2010), and one Pan American Games gold medal (2011). This time around, a strong mix of veterans and young talent will take the field. Among the veterans is captain and star forward Christine Sinclair. The Burnaby, BC native is the second-highest international goal-scorer in women’s history, with 173 goals in 268 national team appearances over her 18-year career. She has also been named the Canada Soccer Player of the Year 13 times. France 2019 could be Sinclair’s final chance to win the World Cup and also a chance at redemption for the entire Canadian team, who were eliminated by eventual bronze medalists England in the last World Cup.

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