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Science & Technology

SciTech 101: Getting involved at McGill

by Oceane Marescal on

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With over 230 clubs at McGill, finding the perfect match may seem like a daunting task. Luckily for the burgeoning scientist or technology buff, there are plenty of opportunities at McGill to foster one’s enthusiasm for research, technology, medicine, and so much more.

 

For the star-struck space cadet: Astro McGill

A student-led organization whose main goal is to make astronomy accessible to the public, Astro McGill provides various opportunities for those interested in astrophysics and astronomy to cultivate their love for space.

Notably, the organization hosts“AstroNights”—public events that include talks given by professional astronomers or McGill professors—followed by night-sky observations using portable telescopes. “AstroNights” occur on the third Thursday of every month, and those interested can attend the next one on Sept. 21 at 7 p.m. in the McIntyre Medical Building, room 522.

Besides these family-friendly talks, AstroMcGill also hosts “Astronomy on Tap” events, inviting students to grab a beer with professional astronomers. These monthly gatherings at various Montreal bars feature a short astronomy presentation followed by trivia, games, and prizes.

 

For the super-coding feminist: McGill Women in Computer Science

Making up only 27 per cent of the students in their major, women in computer science have to stick together, and McGill’s WiCS club offers a chance to do just that.

Notably, McWiCS hosts a mentorship program they call “CSter,” which pairs incoming first-year women in computer science with older students or PhD mentors. Mentors provide guidance and advice, and are matched based on interests, personality, and goals.

In addition, the club holds introductory workshops exploring applications of computer science in gaming and cryptography, as well as interview preparation for job applications.

Recently, McGill Women in Computer Science ran a successful crowdfunding campaign that raised enough money to send two women to the Grace Hopper Celebration, the largest tech gathering for females in the world.

McWiCS will be hosting a hackathon next semester and is looking for new members to join their team.

 

For the adventure-seeking pilot: McGill Students’ Flying Club

Those dreaming of taking flight need look no further than the McGill Students’ Flying Club. With varying levels of dedication, the club is perfect for everyone: From those seeking a one-time thrill, to those who wish to get their pilot’s license.

The Flying Club’s “Pilot for a Day” events are hosted twice a semester and allow students to soar over Montreal for discounted prices. The next Pilot for a Day will take place at the beginning of October, and those interested should attend the club’s info session on Sept. 19 in the McConnell Engineering Building.

People who catch the ‘flying bug’ can further explore piloting through Ground School. These on-campus classes are geared towards making aviation education more accessible to the Montreal community and allow interested students to aquire their piloting license. Currently, the club offers courses for the Private and Glider Pilot Licenses, which would allow one to fly single-engine prop planes and gliders respectively.

The Flying Club also offers its members the opportunity to skydive, either outdoors from heights up to 13,500 feet, or indoors using a wind tunnel during the winter.

These three clubs are only a small sample of what McGill has to offer sci-tech-crazed students. The only way to find out which organizations are right for you is to get out there, get involved, and get excited about what McGill has to offer.

Arts & Entertainment, Film and TV

‘American Horror Story: Cult’ falls flat

by Morgan Davis on

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Shock value has always been a specialty of American Horror Story (AHS) creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk. Continuously pushing the limits of cable television censorship, FX’s AHS has been a cult favourite for six seasons. Structured as an anthology, the series takes a different horror premise with each iteration, casting the same actors in different roles from season to season. Now entering its seventh installment, the show is taking that cult mentality literally. Using the United States’ severe political divide as a provocative starting point, the season begins on the night of Nov. 8, 2016—the date of the most recent American election. Unfortunately, rather than achieving poignancy, this effort to remain relevant and scandalous comes across as exploiting Americans’ political anxiety for profit.

The difference between Cult and its preceding seasons is that few have taken place in modern times or incorporated real-life events. Season three’s the Axeman of New Orleans  and the first season’s Black Dahlia of Los Angeles come to mind, but most of these “real world” events are often ghost stories or urban legends that have never been confirmed truths. This season, however, is taking AHS into unexplored territory by placing their characters and plot lines within fresh memories for its viewers. 

Finding an entertaining yet accurate depiction of the 2016 election is a challenge, and one that Murphy and Falchuk were unable to meet. By taking the radical personas from both ends of the American bipartisan system, AHS parodies a  political environment that is becoming increasingly threatening and overwhelming. While villainizing many Donald Trump supporters, AHS also manages to  awkwardly polarize liberal voters. 

When learning of Trump’s victory, Winter (Billie Lourd) blasts CNN for not issuing a trigger warning before announcing the election results and then asks herself with a somber urgency, “What happens if I get pregnant? Where do I get an abortion?” Satirizing extreme liberal sensitivity while simultaneously voicing legitimate fears in Trump’s America, the tonal balancing act strove for poignancy but fell somewhere in a decidedly cringey middle ground.

While I’m always one to enjoy horror movies and shows, the current state of American politics is arguably scarier than the witches, ghosts, and mutants that have previously been the focus of AHS. When we reduce television to its most basic form, it often serves as a sort of escapism for its viewers. By focusing on such a controversial topic AHS no longer fulfills this purpose. The show appears to go on a tangent to entice viewers and portray more relevant plots, but after experiencing such success in previous seasons, the unnecessary change serves to confuse rather than intrigue. 

Looking deeper into the origin of the horror genre, it’s understandable why AHS’s new theme drastically missed the mark. People love fear  because after the initial shock or scream, viewers have the privilege of reminding themselves that they’re safe and it’s just entertainment. The ideologies that are currently crawling out of the shadows due to the Trump’s encouragement; real-life horror rather than Hollywood entertainment. 

Mixing horror and social issues can be a delicate balance, but poignant when executed properly. David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows’s allusion to STIs or the compelling take on feminism in Robert Eggers’ The Witch are examples of how a nuanced approach to deeper social discussions can be highlighted through horror. Murphy and Falchuk refuse to be silenced on their opinions of Trump and his administration. While admirable, the platform for which they’ve chosen to display their commentary leaves no room for interpretation. It’s also important to acknowledge that the American election took place nine months before the AHS: Cult premiere date. By exhibiting polarizing reactions to Trump’s victory months later, the show delivers zero fresh insight to the issues that it so desperately wants to address. 

The real American horror story is that we are only less than one year into Trump’s term and the administration has been continuously working to invalidate the freedoms of its citizens. By spending millions of dollars to produce entertainment based on fictional characters living in Trump’s America, the seriousness of current issues and the people they affect are being diminished. The show’s viewers tune in every Tuesday to entertain themselves with fears of fictitious ghosts, demons, and killers. Trump’s America, unfortunately, is just too real and scary to be used as entertainment. 

Commentary, Opinion

Is Hydro-Quebec a criminal organization? The Pessamit problem

by Chloe Grant on

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Quebec’s tenacious energy provider, Hydro-Quebec, has been a disease to the Pessamit Innu people, who are native to the Betsiamites river basin in Eastern Quebec. Since 1952, these people have been forced to sacrifice their way and quality of life when Hydro-Quebec began installing two massive hydroelectric generating stations upstream of the Pessamit’s ancestral homeland.

More recently, in August 2016, a Massachusetts energy company called EverSource partnered with Hydro-Quebec and proposed the Northern Pass project in response to a new Massachusetts clean energy act. The hydropower transmission line would run from the Canadian Betsiamites dam, through New Hampshire, to power Massachusetts’ residents and businesses.

The Northern Pass is a destructive, imposter project that camouflages behind the namesakes of “clean” and “renewable” energy. It breaches a whole mess of national and international conservation treaties. By boycotting Hydro-Quebec, pressuring the university to divest relations, and lobbying the federal government to take action, McGill students have the power to prevent the Northern Pass project from progressing.

As it stands, depending on how many of the five available turbines are running to meet demand, the existing Betsiamites dam causes rapid water level fluctuations in the river. This has submerged the vital natural ecosystem that exists between the tributary and the forest, forcibly displacing the Pessamit people from their land and killing off many bankside species. The Pessamit liken these rivers to their travel routes or “highways”—they are now unsafe to travel due to debris and strong currents. The Betsiamites salmon are also at serious risk of complete extinction as a result of Hydro-Quebec’s heinous and imprudently implemented infrastructure that suffocates spawning grounds and prevents migration.

There are other proposed projects, including less crippling forms like wind and solar power, that could still meet Massachusetts’ energy requirements. Meanwhile, if the Northern Pass proposal succeeds, all five turbines in the Betsiamites dam will likely need to run constantly, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The surviving salmon populations will become completely extinct, the Betsiamites ancestral homeland and rivershore ecotone entirely devastated, the people wholly displaced, and thousands of years of harmonious living and natural beauty eradicated.

The Northern Pass project is merely the latest episode in the continuously exploitative relationship between Hydro-Quebec and the Pessamit Innu people. In Hydro-Quebec’s typical steamroller fashion, the original dams were not built with consent from or compensation to the Pessamit Innu people in the 1950s. In fact, Hydro-Quebec explicitly breached constitutional obligations by building the Betsiamites dam without conducting any impact assessment studies. To this day, the Pessamit People are still waiting for their fact check and their fat cheque.

However, as their elders fail to achieve public recognition of this social and environmental injustice and its decimation of their nation’s traditional means of subsistence, unemployment in Pessamit communities has skyrocketed, and Pessamit youths betray defeat. The suicide rate for Pessamit young adults is five times higher than for Canadians of the same demographic.

There are hundreds of thousands of Hydro-Quebec customers who have equal boycott power. By stifling this story with distorted broadcasting, Hydro-Quebec is effectively pulling the wool over customers’ eyes while it warms them with its exploitative energy. Instead of thanking them by lining their pockets, Quebec residents and McGill students need to stand alongside the Pessamit people and Massachusetts supporters in their fight, and risk a little frostbite.

Further, the federal government has the power to penalize the environmental and social crimes that Hydro-Quebec and the Quebec government are committing. Most importantly, the Northern Pass violates the Convention for the Conservation of Salmon in the North Atlantic, which mandates that Canada apply the “Precautionary Approach” to salmon management––if any potential public or environmental harm is suspected, even if lacking scientific consensus, protective action must be taken.

With enough public outcry, especially from the younger generation that got him elected, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his administration will be obliged to hold the Quebec provincial government accountable for their offences by taking litigation against them to the Supreme Court.

In a recent viral video, the Prime Minister famously told the tale of his great-grandfather who emigrated to Canada. At the time, there were strict fishing rules imposed by local constables and Trudeau’s ancestor ostensibly proclaimed in a thick Scottish accent, “if you cannae fish you cannae live!”

A cute anecdote, no doubt, but the Pessamit Innu people are facing the same issue today. They cannot fish and they cannot live. Trudeau should respect the parallel he so neatly pointed out between his own origins and the injustices that the Pessamit Innu people are suffering.

McGill, News

Governance 101

by Calvin Trottier-Chi on

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  STUDENTS' SOCIETY OF MCGILL UNIVERSITY

Who They Are

The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) is the representative and governing body for all students pursuing undergraduate and professional degrees at McGill. Its base of operations is the University Centre—also known as the Shatner Building, named after a particularly famous graduate. From there, it organizes student events, oversees close to 300 clubs, and negotiates with other governance bodies—like the Senate and Board of Governors—on behalf of its constituents. 

What They Do

SSMU is led by seven student executives who are elected at the end of each academic year. The SSMU Executive 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, including Frosh. SSMU’s policies are decided at the Legislative Council, where 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 law. Additionally, several 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 Referendums, both of which are held once every semester. 

Recent Events

Last academic year, SSMU enacted policies to provide cost-free birth control coverage and menstrual products for students. It also supported Floor Fellows in successfully bargaining with McGill for a wage, in addition to the room and board they had received previously. At the end of the Winter 2017 semester there were a number of resignations within SSMU. In April, SSMU announced the permanent closure of its student-run cafeteria, Sadie’s, for financial reasons. Currently, SSMU is drafting a Gendered and Sexualized Violence Policy. 

  POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS' SOCIETY

Who They Are

The Postgraduate Students’ Society (PGSS) is an association that represents graduate students and postdoctoral fellows at McGill. The Society is led by six executive officers, six supporting administrative staff members, and five commissioners who assist officers with coordinating activities and implementing policies. PGSS Council is the Society’s highest governing body, and consists of elected students from each postgraduate student association (PGSA). Each PGSA has a number of seats on Council proportional to the size of its student population. To reach quorum, one third of the councillors must be present at Council. PGSS Council is responsible for ensuring that policies reflect the values of constituents, approving and amending the PGSS budget, and holding officers accountable for their actions. 

What They Do

PGSS representatives speak on behalf of postgraduates, meeting once a month to debate and vote on policies related to the Society’s long-term vision. Additionally, it liaisons with other governance 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 cocktails, meditation hours, and workshops, most of which take place at its headquarters, the Thomson House. 

Recent Events

In an April 2017 referendum, PGSS renewed its Health and Dental Plan to increase the services available for students such as dental preventative services and physiotherapy coverage. Over the past few years, PGSS has prioritized the development of an Orientation Week for its students. This year, the third annual PGSS Orientation will conclude on Sept. 13, the programming for which includes pub and food crawls, a movie night, a barbecue, a Macdonald Campus Activity Day, and a bike tour. 

BOARD OF GOVERNORS

Who They Are

The McGill Board of Governors (BoG) is the university’s governing body, comprised of 25 voting members and two non-voting student observers. The voting members include two administrative staff—Principal and Vice-Chancellor Suzanne Fortier and Chancellor Michael Meighen—two professors, two Senate representatives, three Alumni Association representatives, two professors, and two administrative and support staff representatives. Two students are voting members of the BoG: SSMU President Muna Tojiboeva and PGSS President Jacob Lavigne. Student observers from the McGill Association of Continuing Education Students (MACES) and the Macdonald Campus Students’ Society (MCSS) sit on the BoG as non-voting members. 

What They Do

The BoG serves as the final authority over all of the university’s academic, business, and financial affairs, and is responsible for the maintenance and administration of daily activities at McGill. The BoG is comprised of eight standing committees, including the Building and Property committee, the Finance committee, and the Committee to Advise on Matters of Social Responsibility. The BoG is scheduled to meet five times over this upcoming school year.

Recent Events

Over the course of 2016, the BoG held several open forums during which students were invited to voice their concerns over administrative decisions. Most notably, the Open Forum on Sustainability was held in September 2016 to address student concerns over the campus’ carbon footprint after the BoG’s vote against divesting from fossil fuel companies. The BoG also held a closed session on May 25 of this year, during which they voted to reappoint Principal and Vice-Chancellor Suzanne Fortier for a second five-year term, set to begin July 1, 2018.

SENATE

Who They Are

The Senate governs all academic policy at McGill, and includes representatives from all of McGill’s constituent groups, including students, faculty, staff, administrators, members of the Board of Governors, and alumni. Members of the Senate, called “Fellows,” are either elected, appointed, or given membership based on their office. Of the 21 student senators, 13 are elected by SSMU, including the SSMU President and Vice-President University Affairs. The remaining eight include two members of MACES, one member of MCSS, and five members of the PGSS, including a single postdoctoral scholar. 

What They Do

The Senate is mandated to govern academic policies, such as the development of curricula, regulations for admissions, and requirements for degrees, diplomas, and certificates. It additionally takes on a much broader role at McGill, including managing the university's libraries, developing its infrastructure, and administering Student Services. The Senate is comprised of nine standing committees, which include the Senate Steering Committee, the Committee on Libraries, and the Honorary Degrees and Convocations Committee. The Senate meets on a monthly basis, with its first session in September and its last in May. During Senate meetings, standing committees deliver reports, senators hold Question and Response sessions, and senators vote on policies and nominations.

Recent Events

On Nov 23, 2016, the Senate unanimously approved a Policy Against Sexual Violence, the first policy of its kind in McGill’s history. The policy defines sexual violence and creates university infrastructure for disclosing, reporting, and responding to such incidents at McGill. In May 2017, the Senate delivered a number of revisions and expansions to the Policy on Harassment, Sexual Harassment and Discrimination Prohibited by Law and approved appointments to many staffed positions created by the Policy, most notably eight Assessors tasked with the intake and management of reports of sexual harassment.

Out on the Town, Student Life

Montreal’s Italian Week recognizes cannoli’s place in Italian culture

by Calvin Trottier-Chi on

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From Aug. 4 to 13, Montreal’s Little Italy bustled with a variety of Italian cultural activities as the city celebrated the annual Italian Week. Along Saint-Laurent Boulevard, stretching from Rue Saint Zotique to Rue Jean-Talon East, the streets were dotted with stands from local eateries, many of which were giving out free samples and recipe tips.

Food is well-known to be an important part of Italian culture. Italian cuisine is internationally favoured for its simplicity while simultaneously being indulgent. Pasta and bread, for example, are two staples of the Italian cuisine, and are both easy-to-make comfort foods. Yet, many Italian recipes, especially those made from scratch, require a painstaking amount of work.

Arguably, Italy also has one of the oldest examples of a respect for food culture, with Marcus Apicius’s Roman cookbook, The Art of Cooking, dating back to the first century A.D. Italian food has only continued to diversify; individual regions of Italy have unique culinary methods, and there is heated debate over technique, like whether to include eggs when making pasta, or whether to use butter or olive oil when cooking. This is part of the beauty of Italian cooking, where the exact steps do not matter so much as the fresh ingredients, taste, and lively discussions that come with every meal.

Most Italians would say that their ‘nonna’—the Italian word for grandmother—makes the best food. Matteo Agostinelli, a recent Concordia graduate, felt as much when he collaborated with his close friend to make his double best-seller cookbook, From Nonna With Love. He was selling autographed copies of his cookbook during Italian Week and was preparing to travel to Toronto after it was nominated for a prestigious cooking award, Taste Canada. Inspired by his own grandmother’s cooking, Agostinelli emphasized that the heart of his work comes from his bond with his family, something he feels other Italians can relate to.

“When it comes to the Italian community, everything happens around the dinner table,” Agostinelli said. “Arguments, positive things, nice family experiences, all of my memories are related to a certain dish or something we’d prepare for a particular holiday [.…] It’s also because we’re generally large families that stay in contact, whether we’re forced to or not, but it still happens and it always happens over a plate of food.”

One of the most significant plates in Italian cuisine is the cannoli. Cannolo—plural for cannoli—are fried pastries with cylindrical shells of dough that have a sweet filling—often made from ricotta or custard—and include additions such as chocolate chips or cherries. They make for light, tasty snacks, and the skills of Italian bakers are often judged based on their ability to craft this traditional treat. The origins of cannolo can be traced back to the Arab occupation of Italy’s region of Sicily.

During Italian Week, the cannoli was the center of attention dessert-wise. The festival concluded with a cannoli-making competition in which seven Montreal-based bakeries submitted their cannolo. After tasting and deliberating, the four judges—including the famous puppet, Nonna Maria—eventually agreed that Patisserie Saint Martin makes the best cannoli in town. They felt that it had the perfect texture and taste.

“Every aspect and ingredient of our cannoli come from a homemade recipe,” A Patisserie Saint Martin representative wrote to The McGill Tribune. “From the ingredients in the shell to the fluff of our ricotta cream, our cannoli are 100% homemade. This recipe, apart from its freshness and homemade process, has a deep Sicilian background, which surely adds to its overall splendour. The true secret to an amazing cannolo is that it must be fresh of the day, otherwise the texture and consequently the taste, will be compromised.”

To learn how to make cannoli yourself, visit The McGill Tribune’s demonstration here.

Sports

10 Things: The best ways to enjoy athletics and recreation at McGill

by Emma Avery on

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1. McGill might not be your traditional sports school, but it does have its own set of customs and traditions. The homecoming football game, one of the year’s first major sporting events, takes place on Oct. 14 against the Concordia Stingers and is worth attending at least once in your McGill career.

2. Ever wanted to thump pots and pans while cheering on McGill? On Nov. 24, Pots and Pans Basketball will see the Martlets and Redmen face off against local rivals Concordia in what are sure to be a couple of bangers. In case you need another reason to go, both McGill teams were RSEQ champions last year, with the Martlets crowned national champions as well.

3. If you’re looking for more McGill pride and eccentrics, you can celebrate the new year on Jan. 19 at the annual Carnival hockey game along with hundreds of fully-grown students dressed in furry onesies. The Carleton Ravens are the unfortunate visitors that day—probably the worst day all year to be a visiting team at McGill.

4. For those looking to enhance their experience during regular season games, Red Thunder is a SSMU club formed in 2009 “with the goal of creating passion towards varsity sports and increasing the level of school spirit on campus.” Members enjoy perks such as a T-shirt and tickets for all varsity games, as well as tailgates, fan buses to local games, and much more.

5. If you’re more into playing sports than watching sports, take advantage of the McGill Sports Complex. Several facilities are accessible to all full-time students via a fee paid with tuition, including the swimming pool, gymnasium, squash courts, and indoor and outdoor tracks. Students can purchase access to the fitness centre at a discounted rate ($40 per semester for undergraduate students, $50 per semester for graduate students).

6. Take the shuttle bus to MacDonald Campus to take advantage of the brand new Mac Paddle Shack, where you can rent kayaks, canoes, and paddle boards as long as the weather stays tolerable.

7. Take one or more of the many weekly exercise classes available at the McGill gym, including everything from swimming, kickboxing, yoga, and zumba to “Abs, back, and bootie.” If you can’t commit to a weekly class, pay-as-you-go classes cost as low as $3.48 each. Try out classes like “Body design,” hot yoga, or high intensity training without committing to a full semester.

8. If you prefer team sports, create an intramural team with friends or sign up as a free agent. McGill offers all the classics, such as soccer, basketball, and ultimate, but it also boasts some sports that you might not have tried before—take a shot at inner-tube water polo in the Winter semester for some real entertainment and surprisingly gritty competition.

9. On Jan. 27, make the trek out to Mac campus to support the Woodsmen. They will be hosting the 58th annual Woodsmen Competition—one of four yearly competitions held by the Canadian Intercollegiate Lumberjacking Association. Events include “Underhand Chop," “Water Boil,” and “Pulp Throwing.”

10. Adopt the Québecois way of life and rent cross-country skis or snowshoes in the winter from the McGill Sports Complex. Take them up Mount Royal or on a road trip if you’re feeling ambitious.

Off the Board, Opinion

The allegory of Trump in Canada

by Domenic Casciato on

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As an American student at McGill, many of the things I’ve heard some Canadians say about the United States—particularly its politics—have been false, absurd, and, on occasion, hypocritical. More concerning, however, is the apparent failure of many Canadians to understand American politics and learn from our mistakes. In my experience, Canadians distance themselves from the wave of populism that swept the U.S. during the 2016 election, but this isn’t indicative of Canada’s moral superiority—it's suggestive of unpreparedness. To understand the challenges they might face in this era of post-truth politics, Canadians need to step outside of their ivory tower and treat Trump as a lesson, not a punchline.

I first noticed the trend of condescension toward Americans during my orientation week in 2014. A girl I had met at Frosh complained to me about how she wanted to visit Vermont, but was seriously concerned about the risk of being shot in the United States. She was worried about Vermont, the state that has consistently scored the lowest per capita violent crime rate in the entire country.

It only became worse as classes began. As an aspiring political science major, I enrolled in a number of introductory courses, excited to learn about Canadian government and politics. Yet it seemed not a day went by without my professors disparaging, satirizing, or criticizing the United States. Quips about climate change denial, American jingoism, and worsening race relations in the United States became regular. It wasn’t that I hadn’t heard these criticisms before, nor that I disagreed with most of them. But, they were recycled and uninsightful, and hearing them from Canadians forced me into a defensive position.

Then, along came Trump.

 

I was asked on numerous occasions by Canadian peers to “explain Trump,” as if Canada were a stranger to populism and xenophobia.

It felt as if my political science courses had been moved into an actual echo chamber. I heard the same stale remarks about Trump’s spray tan, hair, unusual cadence and speaking style, and Twitter infatuation on a daily basis. The aspiring comedians of the department were everywhere. Sometimes they were funny. More often, they were aggravating and condescending. I was asked on numerous occasions by Canadian peers to “explain Trump,” as if Canada were a stranger to populism and xenophobia.

It’s easy to mock something, but it’s much harder to actually explain it. It’s important to note that only approximately 27 per cent of eligible American voters voted for Trump. If you include the entire U.S. population, that number drops to less than 20 per cent. Although talking heads and political columnists alike have offered their theories, none have stuck. Several months later, the majority of Americans are still grasping at straws to explain Trump’s election.

This isn’t a #NotAllAmericanVoters plea, nor is this a call to stop criticizing Trump. Trump is beyond worthy of criticism. But, while Canada’s politics haven’t become quite as vitriolic, symptoms of the same kind of populism that elected Trump are present north of the border.

A June 2017 poll of 5,568 Canadians by The Canadian Press found that 71 per cent believed that populist ideology was on the rise in Canada. The nationalist, anti-immigration tones of Kellie Leitch’s short-lived Conservative leadership candidacy are a case in point. Moreover, 20 per cent of the poll respondents saw this trend as a good thing; that’s the same portion as the fraction of Americans who voted for Donald Trump.

The smug condescension I’ve experienced while discussing U.S. politics with many of my McGill peers is reminiscent of the tone journalists took in the early days of Trump’s bid for president. Trump was almost welcomed with open arms to the race by liberals, if for no other reason than the comic fodder he provided. Envisioning a Trump presidency, many Americans thought, “That could never happen here.” Then he started moving closer to the centre of the platform in the Republican debates. Then he won the nomination. Then he won the election.

I’ve found that many Canadians view U.S. politics as a similar kind of comic fodder: Alarming, but distant and absurd. The only difference is that Americans are no longer laughing. Canadians ought to take note.

 

 

 

Domenic is a U3 Political Science Major and a News Editor at the Tribune. He is very excited as he can now drive.

 

@mcgilltribop | [email protected]

 

 

 

 

 
Commentary, Opinion

Rethinking the “Harvard of Canada:” McGill must be appreciated on its own terms

by Anthony Kuan on

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Amid the throngs of Frosh shirts and the oceans of newly-purchased McGill merchandise that mark Orientation Week, there is another sight that stands out on campus during the last week of August: A white T-shirt emblazoned with the Harvard University crest and captioned, “Harvard: America’s McGill.” Virtually every McGill student by now has heard its various nicknames, such as the “Harvard of Canada,” the “Harvard of the North,” and “Canada’s Ivy League.” Regardless of when these terms were born, they risk creating a gratifying air of prestige for McGill students and alumni. Equating McGill with Harvard, an elite American college, can hardly be substantiated in facts. This comparison is not merely misleading, but it bases McGill’s reputation on the fame of another university. Praising McGill in terms of anything but itself undermines its independent merits, and how they are appreciated.

Referring to McGill as the “Harvard of Canada” is fundamentally disingenuous for the simple reason that it is untrue. While a distinguished and reputable research university, McGill is simply not on par financially with private, elite American universities. McGill only received C$477.8 million in research funding in 2013-2014—the fourth highest among all Canadian universities. In contrast, Harvard had over US$800 million for research in the same year. Additionally, McGill does not possess the same admissions selectivity that identifies schools like Harvard. McGill’s undergraduate admissions acceptance rate was 46.3 per cent for Fall 2016, which is almost eight times the numbers estimated for Harvard, Stanford, and Columbia for the same year. Furthermore, McGill has fallen in international university rankings for three years consecutively to number 32, according to Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), whereas Harvard and similar schools have comfortably remained in the top 10 in virtually every notable ranking. What is more tragic, though, is that McGill does its own reputation a disservice by framing it solely in comparison to elite American schools.

Representing McGill’s strengths only by international rankings or comparing it to another elite school suggests that it is either not recognizable, or not capable of being appreciated on its own. Yale University has never claimed the seat of the “Oxford of America,” and I have never heard a Stanford student boast about attending the “Harvard of the West.” The prestige of such universities, in areas like recognition, wealth, and research, is so enormously self-evident that analogies are totally unnecessary; these schools exist and are renowned for themselves.

Students must realize that a university’s reputation is based on more than shallow analogies and pretenses of prestige.

McGill has extensive merits that qualify it for its own deserved reputation. To name a few achievements, McGill has produced the most Nobel laureates and Rhodes Scholars out of any Canadian school, it has hosted academics who have made seminal discoveries in the medical sciences, and it currently has the highest admissions grade averages out of any Canadian university. It has renowned researchers engaged in partnerships all over the world, and it is home to an exceedingly intelligent, driven, and diverse student body. McGill is an exceptionally accomplished university, and its students should acknowledge this in and of itself, rather than using Harvard’s name to prove this point.

Moreover, there are advantages in McGill’s not being a Harvard or Princeton. As Stephen Gordon wrote for the National Post, the absence of elite institutions in Canada allows universities like McGill to provide good, accessible education to many capable students, while avoiding the rigid sense of hierarchy prevalent among many American colleges. It also doesn’t hurt that McGill’s tuition is a 10th of Harvard’s.

The sincerest way to appreciate and promote McGill is to accept the university for what it really is—not as Harvard, but as McGill. Learning what makes McGill a great university in itself will not only allow McGill students to foster more pride for their own school, but it naturally leads them to appreciate their place in its community.

McGill University is a first-class research university with the faculty, students, connections, and accomplishments to strongly distinguish it in Canada and on the global stage. Students must realize that a university’s reputation is based on more than shallow analogies and pretenses of prestige. Evaluating McGill on its own terms, with all its strengths and shortcomings considered, is the most meaningful tribute that can be given to the university’s legacy and its unflagging dedication to greatness. So, forget Harvard.

 

 

Anthony is a U1 Political Science student. He only reads dead authors.

 

@mcgilltribop |

 

 
McGill, News

Higher Education Minister announces $23 million investment in “zero-tolerance” campus sexual assault policies

by Ryan Canon on

More in McGill:

At a press conference on Aug. 21, Higher Education Minister Helene David announced that Quebec will invest $23 million into a new five-year sexual assault prevention strategy for university campuses across the province. In the announcement, David also expressed her plans to draft provincial legislation  pushing universities that currently lack sexual violence policies to create them.

How this legislation will affect McGill, which passed its Policy against Sexual Violence less than one year ago, remains unclear. Dean of Students Christopher Buddle and Associate Provost Angela Campbell provided a joint statement on the announcement in an email to The McGill Tribune.

“Minister David’s announcement of a new Intervention Strategy for Preventing and Countering Sexual Violence in Higher Education is an important and welcome step forward for all universities in the province as we strive to address the significant challenge of campus sexual violence,” Buddle and Campbell wrote. “McGill’s Policy against Sexual Violence, as well as our Office for Sexual Violence Response, Support and Education, both established in 2016, have been critical to McGill’s own developments on this front.” 

Buddle and Campbell confirmed that the current McGill policy will be subject to further review by the Committee for the Implementation of the Policy against Sexual Violence. The Committee will hold an open panel to elicit feedback on the policy from the McGill community this fall. 

Buddle and Campbell also expressed their plans to review the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures, the set of rules and punitive processes that apply to McGill students who commit academic offences, such as plagiarism and cheating, and non-academic offences, such as theft of university property and assault. The reviewal process could lead to amendments to the Code of Conduct that ensure that it best serves students’ needs.

SSMU President Muna Tojiboeva and SSMU VP External Connor Spencer also shared a joint statement with the Tribune about the Quebec government’s new initiative. While Tojiboeva and Spencer welcomed the action, they also made it clear that they take issue with the process that led to this investment. 

“Our reservations stem from the consultation process that lacked accountability, intersectionality, and the centralization of voices of persons who have experienced sexual assault (PWESA) within the consultation processes,” Tojiboeva and Spencer wrote. “We want to acknowledge that the policy is well-intentioned, but that until we see the promised bill, we are wary of the efficacy of the provincial strategy.”

The issue of sexual and gendered violence at McGill became prominent in Winter 2017 after the resignations of the then SSMU VP External David Aird and President Ben Ger in response to allegations of sexual and gendered violence. Additionally, the off-campus assault of former McGill student Kathryn Leci raised question about the limitations of existing McGill policies for handling cases of gendered violence within the student body.  

The Community Disclosure Network (CDN), an anonymous group of survivors and allies that provides a space for disclosures about acts of sexual violence, has been a vocal advocate for reform of McGill’s Sexual Violence Policy, and were the first to call for former SSMU VP external David Aird’s resignation. In an interview with the Tribune, an anonymous representative of the CDN echoed Tojiboeva’s and Spencer’s concerns about the lack of inclusivity in the consultation process.

 “Until we see what the actual bill is, we don’t actually know what they’re going to release, and until that time we remain very wary,” the CDN representative said. “[Included in consultation] was mostly mid-level educators and ministers deciding what to do about [the sexual violence policy]. The same thing happened with McGill’s policy, which was very well intentioned, but the voices who were making the decisions were not those who are affected by sexual violence on campus.”

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