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Commentary, Opinion

Getting a seat: The struggle of course registration at McGill

by Johanna Cline on

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For McGill students, getting into a crowded course often takes more ambition and artistry than the class itself. Securing a spot might require skipping one class to head to another professor’s office hours, refreshing Minerva every two minutes, or carving hours out of a busy schedule to sit in line for a meeting with an advisor. As a result of these intricacies, only students with hours of extra time or consistent access to technology get a shot at crafting their ideal schedule. McGill fails to recognize this reality and should create procedures to make courses more accessible for students.

Even once students master Minerva’s far-from-user-friendly interface, there’s no way to get around the all-consuming, round-the-clock task of web-page refreshing that comes with getting into an in-demand course. Get a Seat, an app that notifies students when there is an opening in a class at the price of $1 per course, can help ease this burden. However, the app only helps those who have continuous access to the internet. Students with jobs or classes that uphold strict no-technology policies may miss out on opportunities to enroll in the classes they want.

The McGill course-selection assistance web page specifies that if a student needs a class to meet a degree requirement, they must email the instructor to explain their situation and request a code for Minerva. Because certain classes are reserved exclusively for students from specific faculties, students in multi-faculty programs like Urban Systems—which includes courses in management and architecture, among others—often face difficulties getting into courses. Moreover, issues arise when multiple students pursue reserved seats in the same class, burdening already-busy professors with floods of emails and lowering students’ chances of getting a reply, much less a spot in the class.   

On top of diligently refreshing Minerva and emailing professors, getting into classes may require attending office hours and meeting with advisors. Students often try to bolster their chances of registering for a popular course by building a relationship with a professor during their office hours and being overly keen in class. Sometimes meeting with professors outside of class can mean other classes get neglected, setting students back at the end of add/drop, regardless of whether or not they got into their intended class. Meeting with an advisor may also be necessary, but lengthy waits for advising waste time in students’ busy schedules. These time-consuming meetings may give students competing for registration in a course a serious advantage, but for individuals with commitments such as part-time jobs, these surplus steps to secure a seat may not be realistic and can cause them to miss out on a class. This system ends up putting students who support themselves, as compared to students with financial assistance, at a disadvantage

McGill promotes course registration as a simple, step-by-step process, when, in reality, it requires more emotional labour, time, and knowledge than the school accounts for. Other universities also fall short in offering students an accessible registration process. At Concordia, for example, the excessive traffic on the school’s registration website makes getting a seat so difficult during regular hours of the day that students stay up late, refreshing the website in hopes of landing a seat in their prospective class. At the University of Toronto, students turn a profit by selling spots in crowded courses to their desperate classmates.

Being upfront about the process of getting into classes would be a helpful first step for McGill in making student registration less overwhelming. Additionally, McGill administration should be more considerate of students in programs like Urban Systems, for whom a significant proportion of classes come from other faculties. Minerva could improve by accommodating higher levels of student traffic. Creating more and larger classes to meet the trend in student demand would also be a helpful long-term goal for the university. In the meantime, students can help themselves by being realistic about how much time they’re willing to commit to getting into their dream classes and having a couple of backup courses lined up in case their attempts fall short.

McGill, News

McGill’s Forgotten Freshmen: forgotten no more

by Laura Oprescu on

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The Facebook error that has plagued McGill students for over a year has been fixed. The error prevented McGill students from accessing the McGill Facebook community, which is supposed to be open to anyone with an “@mail.mcgill.ca” email. Access to the community is necessary to view and create posts in faculty groups, McGill Free and For Sale, Textbook Exchange, and various club groups. As a result, students unable to access the online community found it difficult to communicate with extracurriculars and stay up-to-date on events.

While some clubs have open groups, many choose to keep group membership limited to the McGill community as this protects from spam posting and irrelevant content. For groups involving personal information such as McGill Housing, a closed group that connects McGill students looking for roommates and apartments, it is also important that only McGill students have the ability to post in the group. As a result, some groups were reluctant to make their groups open to the public, which ultimately barred many McGill students from popular forums.

The solution came from exchange student Paul Estephan. When he heard about the glitch, he contacted a friend who worked at Facebook to see if they could fix the error.

“Essentially[,] the domain ‘mail.mcgill.ca’ wasn’t listed as a valid domain for the group,” Estephan wrote to The McGill Tribune. “[My Facebook contact] added ‘mail.mcgill.ca’ as a domain, so everyone who had ‘mail.mcgill.ca’ on their email linked to Facebook could join [the McGill community].”

It is unclear whether the error is now entirely resolved, or how it originated. It has affected students across Canada, including at Bishop’s University, Concordia University, McMaster University, University of British Columbia, and University of Toronto. At McGill, students had tried contacting Facebook as well as McGill’s IT services to fix the issue. In an email to the Tribune, McGill IT wrote that they were unable to offer any assistance to the affected students as Facebook’s McGill community is neither affiliated with nor endorsed by McGill. Danah Al Megbel, one of the affected students, was dissatisfied with McGill’s lack of proactivity on the issue.

“It was very frustrating because I knew that the [McGill Facebook community] had so many different opportunities that I was technically allowed to use, but couldn’t,” Al Megbel said. “McGill didn’t help in making the situation better or solving the problem.”

First years and other incoming McGill students were among those primarily affected, prompting Keating Kenna Reid, U1 Arts, to create a Facebook group in protest. The group, titled “McGill’s Forgotten Freshmen”, currently has 896 members. Although the error is now solved for the majority of students, including Reid, a few are still having trouble accessing the community.

“I feel like it’d only be right to pass the torch to the still-forgotten freshmen,” Reid said. “I hope they keep being a pain to whomever they need to [in order] to get the issue fixed.”

Although the group started out as a place for affected students to share ways they had tried to fix the error and their frustrations about the problem, it evolved far beyond its original mandate—more recent posts show clubs promoting events, students sharing lease opportunities, and student society candidates campaigning. Although Reid is glad to finally be part of McGill’s Facebook community, he has mixed feelings about the error’s resolution.

“It’s kind of bittersweet,” Reid said. “I think the real McGill community was the friends we made along the way.”

Science & Technology

Exercising your right to a better brain

by Grace Hu on

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While it might be difficult to consciously visualize how to balance on a bike or catch a ball, a recent study at McGill sheds light on the role of exercise in motor memory, or learning how to perform a skill instinctively. Individuals normally pick up motor memory through repetition, but exercise can reportedly speed up this process, with possible implications for future physical therapy regimens.

Using a visuo-motor video game in which participants tracked a moving target by adjusting grip force, researchers found that those who had exercised immediately after learning a new skill performed better in a skill level assessment than those who had not. Study co-author Marie-Hélène Boudrias, assistant professor at the McGill School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, believes that exercise consolidates motor skill memories by stimulating circulation.

“[Improved motor skill retention after exercise] is due to an increase in metabolism,” Boudrias said. “You can also think about it as increased blood flow, increased  glycolysis, possibly bringing fresh blood to parts of the brain. The exercise change[s] the way your brain consolidates the memory of what you’ve just learned.”

Although exercise decreased the brain activity of participants overall, brain signals were more concentrated in areas of the brain dedicated to learning the motor task, which meant that the brain was more efficient in delegating tasks to relevant neural circuits.

“It seems that exercise maximizes the resources you’re dedicating into something you’ve just learned,” Boudrias said.

Boudrias mentioned that her co-author, Assistant Professor Marc Roig, is currently delving further into the medical applications of their research. The results of the study suggest that, for people who have suffered a stroke,  incorporating exercise into therapy sessions could help them regain lost motor skills. Strokes can severely damage brain function and quality of life, and patients are in need of motor memory, as they may have trouble grasping objects or walking. It often takes around six months of physical therapy to regain these capabilities.

“Let’s say there’s an exercise program or rehabilitation program where you’re relearning how to do things such as walking, or keeping your balance,” Boudrias said. “If [patients] could do a short bout of exercise after their session, they could potentially retain better what they have just learned.”

In addition to implications for stroke rehabilitation specifically, the study also highlighted an important link between sleep and memory. Regardless of whether or not they exercised, participants best performed the newly-learned motor skill after a good night’s sleep.

“The motor skill retention was not better eight hours after the exercise, unlike [after] 24 hours [where participants had the chance to sleep],” Boudrias said. “Sleep helps consolidate this memory [so that], 24 hours later, you’re better at extracting this memory.”

For students, this means that getting a good night’s sleep is actually better than pulling an all-nighter to study for finals. Bennet Desormeau, co-author of the study and Master’s student at Université de Montréal, noted that  students can easily incorporate cardiovascular exercise such as running, swimming, or biking into their lives to help nurture a healthy memory.

“Drawing from first-hand experience, it was always clear to me that exercise promoted physical and mental wellness,” Desormeau said. “Acute cardiovascular exercise can be a useful tool in the retention of motor skills, which each of us makes use of daily.”

While the importance of a healthy lifestyle might be obvious, it is often easy to overlook these habits when academic and social responsibilities take their toll.

“You can put your brain in a state that is optimized to learn,” Boudrias said. “What you put in your body, the amount you sleep, the food you eat, […] there’s an ensemble of variables that might contribute to [learning].”

Student Life

Stand-in bars to help McGillians ‘Gerts ‘till it hurts’ this year

by Mary Keith on

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It was most McGill students’ worst nightmare: Aug. 14, the Student’s Society of McGill University (SSMU) announced that Gerts would be closed for the rest of the 2018-19 academic year due to prolonged construction on the Shatner building. Now, some McGill students are at a loss for where to get that cheap sangria and those tasty mac n’ cheese bites. With students’ weekday, late-night hub out of service, The McGill Tribune has a few alternative suggestions.

 

If you are in need of a good sangria

Sangria is a fruity beverage to have on warm evenings; it was also a Gerts staple. Near or far from the McGill bubble, sangria is a staple cocktail that can be found at most joints. If you are looking to stay close to campus, try out the sangria at Lola Rosa. The restaurant has three locations within walking distance: The closest to campus is on Rue Milton, while the other two are in the Mile End and in Old Port, respectively. For your late-night sangria fix, another option is  Terrasse Bonsecours in Old Port. While it is a bit of a trek from McGill’s downtown campus, the view is great and the venue stays open well past midnight. The bar’s best feature is the 11 different types of sangria on the menu. While on the pricier side, it’s a great spot to visit with a few friends and split a pitcher to satisfy the craving.

If you have an appetite for some greasy pub food

The closest pub for a burger or mouth-watering, beer-battered french fries is Les 3 Brasseurs. Just take a short walk out of Roddick Gates and down Avenue McGill College, and you will be surrounded by the luscious smell of grease and beer. If in search of something cheaper, stop by Le Warehouse for your fill of onion rings, potato skins, or wings. All of the food served at this budget-friendly spot is under six dollars. With locations in the Plateau and Ville-Marie, this bar has long been an essential spot for the skaters around McGill. With extreme sport documentaries playing non-stop, think of Warehouse as the ultimate pre for TRH-Bar just a couple blocks away.  

If you are looking for a weekly activity

We will all miss Gerts’ themed nights, but there are plenty of bars nearby to satisfy that yearning. Replace Gerts’ Wednesday sangria nights with Ye Old Orchard’s Wednesday trivia nights. Trivia starts at 8 p.m. and is on the corner of Prince-Arthur and St. Laurent. If school is hard enough to make your brain work, then try unwinding on the weekends at Les Trois Minots on St. Laurent. This spot is a karaoke bar, so grab some liquid courage and belt out you favourite tunes to your heart’s content. The venue is always packed on weekends and the beer is cheap, making it the perfect place to either start the night out or simply to unwind after a long day of school or work.

If you want to stay on campus

For those students who love the McGill vibes and just don’t want to leave, look no further than the campus—there are plenty of student-run bars to go around. On Thursdays, the Faculty of Management hosts 4à7 in the basement of Bronfman and the Faculty of Arts hosts Bar des Arts (BdA) in the basement of Leacock. Both provide affordable beverages and high spirits, along with BdA’s gooey grilled cheeses for one dollar. On Fridays, the Engineering Undergraduate Society hosts Blues Pub in the basement of the McConnell Engineering Building and lasts 4-9 p.m. All of these bars offer themed nights, so be ready to hear a lot of Nicki Minaj vs. Beyonce and celebrate the anniversary of McGill’s beloved Flood Girl.

Science & Technology

World Cup sees injuries increase among young Montreal soccer players

by Emma Gillies on

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Whether you celebrated France’s win or are recovering from Germany’s early exit, there’s no denying that the 2018 FIFA World Cup had its fair share of momentous upsets, brilliant goals, and stirring controversies. For young soccer enthusiasts, the global tournament that comes around only once every four years is an exciting time. Yet, while it inspires adolescents to get out and exercise—a phenomenon known as the ‘trickle-down effect’—it may also negatively impact their health.

A new study co-authored by McGill researcher and clinician scientist Isabelle Gagnon examined injuries sustained by boys and girls from the ages of 13 to 16 between 1999 and 2014. Using patient data from May and June, Gagnon found that the Montreal Children’s Hospital and Hôpital Sainte-Justine saw an increase in the number and severity of soccer-related injuries during World Cup years.

Interestingly, this trend was greatest for boys playing non-organised soccer, with 17.2 per cent more injuries during World Cup years; comparatively, boys playing organised soccer had no significantly greater risk of injury. It is unclear whether the increased danger lies in rowdier pick-up games or an increased number of casual matches.

“Organised soccer is something that’s already fixed in time, such as practices or games,” Gagnon said.

Participation in organised soccer is thus less severely affected by the World Cup because the times for practices and games are pre-determined. Unlike organised soccer, pick-up soccer has no referees to ensure the players are abiding by the rules and not making reckless plays. Pick-up games in the park are more likely to occur during soccer-crazy World Cup years when game participation can increase without the restraints of an organised system.

Adolescent girls, on the other hand, are not nearly as affected by soccer-related injuries as their male counterparts. Not only do they sustain fewer injuries while playing, but the increase in injuries during World Cup years among girls was too slight to be statistically significant.

“Perhaps girls are not engaging in pickup soccer as much as boys [are],” Gagnon said.

Still, both girls and boys have a high risk of experiencing concussions and other contact injuries in soccer. Non-contact injuries to the knees and ankles are also common as a result  of twisting and changing direction.

“Soccer is a big knee-injury generator,” Gagnon said. “There are lots of ligaments and muscles around the knee, and that means lots of sprains and strains.”

Remarkably, while the rate of concussions and other contact injuries increased during World Cup years, the frequency of many non-contact incidents decreased. In boys’ non-organised soccer, injuries to the head and neck increased by roughly seven per cent while fractures increased by over 10 per cent. However, strains and sprains, which are common non-contact injuries, decreased by almost 20 per cent. The researchers suspected that this could be due to bolder play in pick-up games during the World Cup. Coupled with likely emboldenment from watching the World Cup, this might explain why contact injuries increased.

While Gagnon would like for children to continue playing non-organised soccer, she insists that it is important to have injury prevention and education programs in place.

Although female soccer players weren’t at an increased risk of injury during the World Cup,  they always face a particularly high chance of knee and ankle injury due to factors such as structural alignment and hormone fluctuations. While there are more injuries in male soccer overall, individual female soccer players have a higher chance of being seriously injured. It is therefore important to focus on injury prevention strategies, such as education, balance, and strength training for both male and female soccer players.

Science & Technology

Eager volunteers take to the web in search of spiders

by Ronny Litvack-Katzman on

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A recent McGill study following the distribution patterns of the northern black widow and black purse-web spider populations hints at what the future of biodiversity research may look like in the digital age. Using previously collected observations from public online databases, McGill researchers have joined the increasing number of academics who harness the power of ‘citizen science.’

Comprised of an ever-growing class of novice researchers and biology enthusiasts, citizen scientists are helping researchers surmount a common obstacle: The deficiency of data. For a biodiversity study such as McGill’s, a large variety of data is required.

“Our study required species presence records and environmental data, [like] climate and land cover data, to predict the species distribution range,” Yifu Wang, a recent McGill graduate and senior author of the study, said.

In the past, researchers have relied primarily on their own observations or esteemed sources such as museum collections and historical literature when mapping distribution patterns. For species such as the black purse-web spider, on which minimal research exists, citizen science has proven a valuable tool for researchers who lack the resources to compile the data themselves.   

To gather information, Wang and her colleagues turned to citizen scientists on wildlife observation sites like iNaturalist and BugGuide. Using these citizen-informed databases, the study found that the territory of the northern black widow spider has expanded northward while the black purse-web spider’s domain has stretched to the south. When comparing the study’s findings with historical species-distribution maps, it is evident that both species have experienced significant shifts from their native habitats over the last three decades.

“We determined what environmental factors best explain distributions and, for both species, temperature was the key driver,” Christopher Buddle, a professor in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences and researcher on the study, said to the The McGill Tribune.

Other factors, such as annual precipitation rate and seasonal variations of the climate, also contributed to changes in the spiders’ distribution.

“While our paper did not specifically address climate change, we can now use the current maps of these species and see how things change as the planet warms,” Buddle said.

While Buddle is pleased with the findings indicating a change in species distribution, equally revelatory was the study’s successful utilization of citizen science.

“A very high percentage of the data we had for both species came from [public databases], so the value of citizen science is immense,” Buddle said.

Although the researchers feel confident that the information gathered from online databases is factual, Buddle acknowledged that the risk of error is always present when using citizen science data. Fortunately, there are preventative measures in place, which preserve the value of citizen scientists accumulating data.

“Incorrect identifications on online platforms such as these are quickly and effectively handled by experts,”  Buddle said.

The observer community regulates the quality of identifications by vetting all posted information, employing a peer-review approach similar to that which is standard in scientific research.

The new study is an encouraging example of how the scientific community at large may begin to take citizen science seriously, employing online data in all facets of ecological and epidemiological research.

“There is immense value to leveraging the passion of citizens in contributing to meaningful science,” Buddle said. “The scientific community will benefit from all citizens who engage with and participate directly in science, and, in turn, the science will better serve the public.”

McGill, News

Diplomatic dispute forces Saudi students out of McGill

by Isabella Lyons on

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Saudi Arabian students studying at Canadian universities were given until Aug. 31 to leave Canada after an announcement terminated all state-sponsored scholarships allowing Saudi students to study in the country. The dispute began in early August, when Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland called for Saudi Arabia to release civil-rights activist Samar Badawi in a tweet, leading to a political feud resulting in the withdrawal of Saudi students. This follows a problematic history of Saudi Arabia’s human rights affairs, including its harsh stances on feminist advocacy, migrant workers, and labour laws.

Following the Aug. 31 deadline, at least 20 Saudi students remaining in Canada filed asylum claims in order to stay in the country. 327 Saudi students were registered at McGill in the past academic year, out of a total of more than 15,000 across Canada. It is not known how many have departed Canada, or how many will attempt to continue their education at McGill.

According to Siddak Ahuja, a U2 Arts student from the United Arab Emirates, disagreements between Saudi Arabia and Canada may affect other students from the Middle east as well.

“There is a glaring inequality and abuse of peoples in both countries. It’s racism, and on a socio-economic scale,” Ahuja said. “The UAE was given a pro-Saudi account of the issue as both countries are part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), so their foreign policies are very similar. When rifts occur, all GCC countries show solidarity with Saudi.”

Professor Malek Abisaab, a professor in Modern History in the Middle East, believes that the sudden feud with Canada is an attempt by Saudi Arabia to keep a grip on domestic support and curry favour with the United States.

“Saudi Arabia is in a position of pressure,” Abisaab said. “More than 30 per cent of people are unemployed, inflation is hitting hard, and there are no political rights. Opposition is treated harshly with violence in some cases. The Crown Prince is trying to do anything he can to please Trump so that the Yemen war can continue to be covered by America. I think we need more pressure on Saudi Arabia to stop the war on Yemen and to open up political life in Saudi Arabia for Saudis to prosper and gain political rights.”

McGill has released two updates on the departure of Saudi Arabian students. In an email to The McGill Tribune, Interim Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Fabrice Labeau stated that the university has yet to determine the full impact of the Saudi government’s decision.

“Our Saudi students and medical trainees are an important part of our community,” Labeau said. “McGill is actively investigating the impact of this decision on them, as well as on our programs, and is working with partner institutions and Universities Canada to stay abreast of any developments.”

Ahuja further expressed frustration with the Saudi government’s actions, and sympathy for those affected by it.

“I feel like Saudi Arabia grossly overreacted.” Ahuja said. “They not only made a fool of their reputation around the world by doing this, they also left their future generation dissatisfied. Pulling students out of a foreign university ruins their opportunities and careers.”

Abeer Almahdi, U2 Arts student from Syria, is equally concerned for the Saudi Arabian students and the difficult decisions they have been forced to make, even if they find a way to remain in Canada.

“Most of these students either grew up in Saudi Arabia […] have family there, or have some sort of cultural tie to the country, so this is a very hard time for them regardless of whether they want to stay here or not,” Almahdi said. “They’re torn in the sense that here is opportunity, but there is family, heritage, and culture. So I don’t think we should reduce the situation to be as polar as we might think it is.”

In terms of supporting her peers, Almahdi also calls for the McGill community to be mindful of the diverse backgrounds of its students.

“One of the things we have to do as students is not just make sure their transition to whatever decision they choose is as smooth as possible, but also to make sure that we use these things as a catalyst for increasing minority representation,” Almahdi said.

governance
News

McGill governance 101

by Caitlin Kindig on

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STUDENTS’ SOCIETY OF MCGILL UNIVERSITY (SSMU)

The governing body for undergraduate and professional students.

What They Do

SSMU’s mandate includes supervising undergraduate clubs and extracurricular activities, managing and ensuring the sustainability of Gerts and other long-term operations, advocating for student interests in the Senate, and planning social events such as Frosh. SSMU’s policies are decided by the Legislative Council, for which the executives sit with 30 councillors who represent both faculties and extracurricular clubs. Any councillor can propose a motion, which is then voted on at Council and may become legislation. Additionally, several of the 30 councillors deliberate McGill policies at the McGill Senate. The Judicial Board, which ensures that SSMU adheres to its constitution, is comprised of seven students, predominantly from the Faculty of Law. Undergraduate students can directly influence SSMU by attending its General Assemblies and voting in online Referenda, both of which are held once every semester. Referenda and elections use easily-accessible online voting.

Recent Events

Last year, SSMU held a press conference to discuss the open letter drafted to McGill administration regarding sexual violence on campus. The open letter accused the McGill administration of failing to students from faculty-initiated violence, and it received ample attention from university groups.

POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS’ SOCIETY (PGSS)

The governing body for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows

What They Do

PGSS representatives speak on behalf of postgraduates, meeting once a month to debate and vote on policies. Additionally, it liaises with other governing bodies at McGill and beyond. Part of PGSS’ mandate is to provide an accessible social environment and improve the quality of student life for postgraduate students. In doing so, the executive plans events for students, including cocktail parties, meditation hours, and workshops, most of which take place at the Thomson House, its headquarters.

Recent Events

In March 2018, PGSS held a meeting to discuss an accessibility audit of Thomson House, which evaluated the accessibility of the building and identified ways to improve it. They also discussed amending the roles, duties, and pay of PGSS Commissioners, which was “necessary to accommodate the commissioners’ expanding portfolios and to provide them with sufficient support to achieve their goals.”

BOARD OF GOVERNORS (BOG)

McGill University’s governing body.

What They Do:

The BoG serves as the final authority over all of the university’s academic and financial affairs, and it is responsible for the maintenance of daily activities at McGill. The BoG is comprised of eight standing committees including the Finance Committee and the Committee to Advise on Matters of Social Responsibility (CAMSR). The BoG is scheduled to meet five times this upcoming school year. BoG meetings involve a private portion followed by a public session open to members of the university.

Recent Events

The Open Forum on Sustainability, held in September 2016, addressed student concerns over the campus’ carbon footprint after the BoG’s vote against divesting from fossil fuel companies. The BoG held a closed session on May 25 last year, during which they voted to reappoint Principal and Vice-Chancellor Suzanne Fortier for a second five-year term, which began on July 1, 2018. Additionally, the BoG addressed the allegations of anti-semitism at SSMU’s General Assembly, concluding that the allegations were unfounded but understandable due to campus debate surrounding the Israel-Palestine conflict.

 

SENATE

The university’s governing body for academic policies.

What They Do

The Senate is mandated to govern academic policies such as the development of curricula and requirements for degrees and diplomas. Additionally, it takes on a broader role at McGill, including managing the university’s libraries and administering Student Services. The Senate is comprised of nine standing committees, which include the Senate Steering Committee and the Committee on Libraries. The Senate meets on a monthly basis, during which standing committees deliver reports and senators vote on policies and nominations.

Recent Events

This past March, the Senate discussed academic integrity at McGill, specifically plagiarism-detection software on the basis of privacy in a scholastic environment. They also addressed the issue of distractions during lectures due to the presence of laptops and other electronic devices and debated the merits of encouraging discussion in the classroom as a means to combat the problem.

Arts & Entertainment

My search for the best joke at Just for Laughs

by Gabe Nisker on

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On my third day at this year’s Just for Laughs festival, Irish comedian Dylan Moran said something that piqued my interest. Moran had just told a joke about time—comparing it to a French waiter, since it’s never around until it comes and cleans up—and tagged it with a proclamation that it was the best joke at the festival. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t.

Moran had me thinking: What was the best joke? And more importantly, how could I find it? With so many comedians and shows, and such a short amount of time, finding the best joke was no easy task. The plan: Go to as many shows as possible to identify a champion—not necessarily the best comedian at the festival, but the single best joke.

This task threw me into a lurch, an existential crisis of sorts, and I began questioning everything I knew about comedy. What even is a joke? Could bits with more elaborate setups compete on the same stage as Moran’s one-liner?

For instance, Chappelle Show co-creator Neal Brennan’s bits became an early favourite in the funniest joke race. In Brennan’s calm, assured hour, he mused on political attack ads, expressing gratitude that no such creations exists in the dating world. As he continued on, he invented one of these ads himself—doing the voices for a campaign that an ex might make to hurt Brennan’s chances with a new love interest (“Neal Brennan doesn’t like brunch”).

As the jokes piled up, tracking the competition became more difficult. One-liners and funny stories meshed together, like Chris Gethard’s comparison of Disney World to the nearby—and in Gethard’s opinion, far superior—Gatorland. I even got my fair share of musical comedy. Duo Garfunkel and Oates poked fun at bipartisanship with their song “Both Sides Can Laugh”. Todd Glass used the TG Band that accompanies his shows to mark jokes with an old-timey cymbal clash or a piano note, Will Forte performed revised renditions of 12 Days of Christmas and Green Day’s Time of Your Life with his trademark absurdity.

As my journey continued, I discovered it was easier to find a favourite new comedian than it was to find the best joke. For me, it was a highlight to learn about Australian comedian Nath Valvo, whose jokes about his boyfriend’s triathlon training were clever and charming (“I’m proud of you, let’s go home and do my favourite Sunday activity: Sleep.”).  Valvo’s energetic set, which rightfully earned its place among the top tier in my festival.

The quest ended a week after it began, on the biggest stage offered at the festival. On Jul. 28, the Bell Centre hosted Controlled Danger, a headlining show with Dave Chappelle and his good friend John Mayer. Mayer played some music, and then Chappelle did some comedy. But the real treat was their candid display of friendship. Chappelle is a quick-witted comic, but he was funniest with Mayer, the two telling stories and making fun of each other. The camaraderie of their friendship made for a hilarious and excellent night, one that helped define my journey altogether.

With no shortage of excellent comedians at the festival, I found myself wondering, could I even find a funniest joke at the festival, or was that a fool’s errand? And after 21 shows and 75 artists over seven nights at the festival, it turned out to be a little bit of both. There’s no such thing as the funniest joke—given the nature of standup, no two shows are exactly the same.

That being said, my favourite one-liner was probably from Colin Quinn about debate and discourse. “Social media is part of the problem,” Quinn said. “When I was growing up, you couldn’t boycott things in your underwear.”

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