Latest News

Montreal, News

QISS Innovation Seminar Series presents: Cities of the Future

by Rebecca Zhuang on

More in Montreal:

On March 29, Quartier de l’Innovation Students’ Society (QISS) held its fourth Innovation Seminar Series, titled Cities of the Future. Speakers Virinder Kudhail, Soliman Abu-Samra, and Béatrice Couture presented their views on urban development and what it may look like in the future.

Virinder Kudhail is currently a Senior Operations Manager at Uber. Since graduating from McGill University in 2009 with a Bachelor’s of Commerce in Finance, Kudhail has been a central player in helping launch Uber in Montreal and became its first Operations Manager here.

“Ultimately, the way cities are designed now actually encourages car ownership, rather than encouraging people to use public transportation options,” Kudhail said. “We’re not building cities around our own needs or the environment, we’re actually building it around vehicles.”

According to Kudhail, Uber follows the trends of affordability and accessibility that can be found in all transportation networks.

“We’re trying to get to a point where people are using multiple modes of transportation, whether it’s ridesharing or public transit,” Kudhail said. “We can use these shared modes of transportation to reduce the number of cars on the road, the CO2 emissions, give back people time, and give cities space back.”

One way Uber can use its information to collaborate with cities is through Uber Movement, Uber’s central information website that launched in January 2017. It allows the public to access Uber’s trip data and researchers or city regulators have the opportunity to consult that information when making transportation policies, construction plans, and operational decisions.

Soliman Abu-Samra is the president of the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) at Concordia University, and currently finishing his PhD in Civil Engineering. His doctoral research is primarily focused on infrastructure asset management.

According to Abu-Samra, in the past few decades, there has been a noticeable infrastructure budget deficit in Canada. This is a direct result of low investments from GDP to infrastructure between 1980 and 2000, which the Canadian government has been working to make up for in the past decade.

“Today’s decision frames the future of our city’s infrastructure,” Abu-Samra said. “[The] future of infrastructure is at risk […] It’s our responsibility as end users and taxpayers to take care of our infrastructure and inform the government whenever we see a low quality of service.”

An increasingly popular solution is to use new technological innovations to aid in infrastructure improvement. One project Abu-Samra would like to see happen is the implementation of smart real-time monitoring systems that assess buildings and pipelines at certain times and create alerts whenever repairs or improvements are needed.

Béatrice Couture is a general manager at InnoCité MTL, Canada’s first smart city accelerator. Smart city accelerators aim to turn start-ups dedicated to urban improvement into mature companies by  connecting entrepreneurs with private partners.

Couture spoke about the importance of collaboration between cities and their citizens, as municipal governments often have difficulty resolving internal issues and usually don’t have the time or skills to unilaterally improve the lives of the city’s residents.

“Cities are not good at everything,” Couture said. “In order for cities to become customer-service oriented and citizen centric […] we need young innovators that will come up with solutions that will be exactly what the citizens want.”

One example of this is “Transit,” which is a real-time app in which mobile users can track the exact location of their buses, or subway, and metro trains. This app was developed before the Société de Transport de Montréal (STM) was able to offer a similar service.

Couture emphasized the important relationship between technology and the future of urban development mobility.

“The cities of the future are gaining soft skills, which leaves [the citizens] to benefit from it,” Couture said. “It’s a huge opportunity and there’s a lot still to be done.”

McGill, News, SSMU

McGill Students’ Mental Health Working Group publishes open letter

by Cherry Ng on

More in McGill:

On March 31, the McGill Students’ Mental Health Working Group released an open letter addressed to Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Ollivier Dyens, expressing concerns about the recent restructuring of McGill Counselling and Mental Health Services (MCMHS). Counselling and Mental Health Services were separate units until they were combined into one service in Fall 2016. This integration introduced the Stepped Care Model, which by design is intended to deliver the most effective and least intensive treatment to patients appropriate to their needs, according to the Student Services website.

According to Dyens, the integration of stepped care has shortened wait times.

“We have eliminated a waitlist of more than 100 students from the Mental Health unit,” Dyens wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune. “By implementing Stepped Care, treatments start sooner because students first meet with the clinician who will follow their care.”

Though the wait list has been cut down, the changes have created new concerns. According to Erin Sobat, Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Vice-President (VP) University Affairs, one of the issues has been the implementation of the Client Care Clinician (CCC) role as part of Stepped Care. Existing psychologists and psychotherapists have been assigned as CCCs, who act as case managers for students.

“Students are randomly assigned a CCC who may be either a counselling psychologist or a clinical psychologist (psychotherapist) […] this person is expected to provide them with therapy whether or not they are actually an appropriate match,” Sobat wrote in an email to the Tribune. “Our biggest concern is that this further limits access for students with mental illness to receive specialized psychological care, and may in fact put students in crisis or borderline situations in further danger [if they see a CCC who is not adequately trained to deal with the issue].”

According to Sobat, multiple students have reported difficulties in changing their CCC.

Chloe Rourke, mental health advocate and former Mental Health Education Coordinator at McGill Mental Health Services, wrote in an email to the Tribune that some staff have found the adjustments to their role challenging.

“[Staff] are now being asked to fulfill the role of case managers for each individual student in addition to being their therapists, but this is a fundamentally different role,” Rourke wrote. “A case manager is not necessarily the same person who should be providing direct treatment.”

The open letter also states that clinicians were silenced or dismissed when they raised concerns about the changes to MCMHS. According to a MCMHS staff member, who wished to remain anonymous, it became clear in the months building up to the suspension and subsequent departure of former clinical director Dr. Nancy Low in December 2016 that staff concerns were not being heard and that the changes would be integrated.  

“Many of the issues regarding the harmonization of Counselling and Mental Health Services and the implementation of the stepped care model were apparent to staff members before the changes were implemented,” the staff member said. “[…] there is a feeling that these issues could have been avoided if clinicians and counsellors were properly consulted to begin with.

According to Associate Clinical Director Giuseppe Alfonsi, who has been the acting head of MHS, MCMHS is trying to find an interim replacement.

“Dr. Low is a dearly respected colleague of ours and certainly has been missed,” Alfonsi wrote in an email to the Tribune. “However, we are mostly looking towards the future and hoping to find a suitable interim replacement.”

The MCMHS staff member noted a shift in morale in the unit after Dr. Low’s suspension.

“For McGill to get rid of one of its own without adequate consideration of the effect on staff, and more importantly students, sends a clear message about the administration's priorities,” the staff member said.

Morgan Grobin, U3 Engineering, believes the integration is a step in the right direction, though she has encountered barriers in accessing the help she needs. Grobin waited from November 2016 to January 2017 to see a counsellor and was first referred to a psychiatric nurse before finally getting an appointment with a psychiatrist who was able to prescribe her medication.

“I wish the counsellor could have referred me directly to the psychiatrist,” Grobin said. “Once I accessed care, the outcome was always positive.”

Another student, who asked to remain anonymous, was hospitalized in second year and saw a psychiatrist, but was not set up for follow up appointments. Since then, the student has seen 10 other counsellors, psychiatrists, and therapists, several of whom left or went on leave shortly after beginning the student’s sessions. The student’s current therapist is reducing her hours.

“The feeling I’m getting is that there were a lot of promises made regarding the integration,” the student said. “I think [the doctors] are getting frustrated with the way things are getting set up. There are bound to be difficulties in putting together two offices that were working separately.”

Dyens noted that end-of year surveys have been scheduled for the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD), the Student Health Service, and MCMHS. Dyens expressed that MCMHS is open to hearing student feedback.

“We [will] continue to listen to students about their concerns and will continue to adjust our services and practices as need be in order to better serve their needs,” Dyens wrote. “We want all our students to be treated with respect and care […] We will respond [to the open letter] by making sure our services are the best they can be.”

Letters to the Editor, Opinion

Letter to McGill: ‘The student code should include a commitment to personal integrity, on and off campus’

by Kathryn Leci on

More in Letters to the Editor:

This article is in response to the Tribune's article 'It doesn't matter because it didn't happen on campus'  published on April 4, 2017.

I am acutely aware of the fact that my situation is not unique. Other students have suffered similar experiences, some far more severe than mine, and have yet to see any form of recourse. I am coming forward with this story because I trust that the facts of the case are difficult to dispute, and the lack of response is unconscionable. 

The student code should include a commitment to personal integrity, on and off campus. Therefore, being charged with a violent crime—meaning that there is enough probable cause for your arrest—should warrant concrete disciplinary action from the university. Attending a prestigious university like McGill is a privilege, we all worked hard to earn our seat here, and we are deserving of a safe campus. 

Again—my goal is to seek a change for the better for our student community. We can modify the student code as we see fit, but it will require working with, and not against, the administration.

—Kathryn Leci, U4 Chemical Engineering

Sports

2016-17 McGill Tribune Redmen Awards

by Joe Khammar, Aaron Rose on

More in Sports:

Team of the Year: Redmen Baseball

Redmen Baseball was dominant from start to finish this season, posting a 15-1 regular season record and cruising through the postseason to clinch the team’s third-straight CCBA national championship. In the first round of the CCBA playoffs, the Redmen conquered the Montreal Carabins to advance, claiming the first and third games of the best-of-three series. In round two, they swept the Concordia Stingers to win the CCBA North conference. Then, they broke out at the national championship, scoring 37 runs while allowing just 11 in the five-game tournament.

In the final game, starting pitcher Simon Brisebois was lights-out for the Montreal Carabins, but, tied 2-2 with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, first-year catcher Christopher Stanford took a 1-0 fastball over the left-centre field wall to walk-off with the championship. Head Coach Jason Starr deserves a lot of credit for the squad’s success and for never letting them rest on their laurels throughout the year.

 

(mcgillathletics.com)
(mcgillathletics.com)

 

Male Rookie of the Year: Andrew Seinet-Spaulding (Redmen Football)

This 300-pound monster established himself as not only the best rookie, but the best defensive tackle in the RSEQ. Freshmen Andre Seinet-Spaulding’s penchant for pushing the pile rewarded him with 29 total tackles and 3.5 sacks. 

Seinet-Spaulding’s space-eating presence netted him the RSEQ Defensive Rookie of the Year award. At the McGill Football Awards Gala on March 25, he was given the Students’ Society Trophy for McGill Team MVP, the Friends of McGill Football Trophy for Best Defensive Player, and the Charlie Baillie Trophy for most outstanding team player. He is only the third freshmen in McGill history to be awarded the Students’ Society Trophy.

Seinet-Spaulding’s continued dominance on the field bodes well for a McGill team that finished the season 4-4—Redmen football’s best record since 2006. Head Coach Ronald Hilaire has the team moving in the right direction and having a game-breaking young talent like Seinet-Spaulding makes his job that much simpler.

 

(mcgillathletics.ca)
(mcgillathletics.ca)

 

Redmen Athlete of the Year: Spencer Bromley (Redmen Lacrosse)

Redmen lacrosse attacker Spencer Bromley continued his streak of excellence this season.  He led the CUFLA East Division in goals scored and was third in overall points. His efforts helped secure first place for McGill going into nationals.

The senior captain was announced as a CUFLA All-Canadian, along with teammates midfielder Emile Sassone-Lawless and defender Bradley Hofmann. Bromley is no stranger to superhuman feats, scoring six goals in a game on two separate occasions. The first occurred on Oct. 16 during a 15-8 smackdown of the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees, with the second coming the following week against the Queen’s Gaels.

As a sign of his continued success, Bromley was the first McGill athlete ever drafted by the National Lacrosse League (NLL). He was selected 48th overall in the fifth round by the Saskatchewan Rush—a fitting end to the university career of the best lacrosse player in McGill history. 

(mcgillathletics.com)
(mcgillathletics.com)

 

Coach of the Year: David DeAveiro (Redmen Basketball)

In his seventh season with the Redmen, Head Coach David DeAveiro led his squad to their fifth consecutive first-place finish in the RSEQ regular season. With a roster full of veteran talent, the squad cruised through the conference playoffs, beating the Laval Rouge et Or before clinching gold with an 82-65 beatdown over the UQÀM Citadins.

Despite losing their starting point guard Kendrick Jolin to an upper-body injury late in the season, the Redmen managed to remain hot, heading into the U Sports National Tournament as the third seed. After a heartbreaking 72-69 loss last year in the first round against the University of Calgary Dinos, McGill was determined to exorcise their first-round demons and advance. Against a strong Manitoba Bison squad, the Redmen jumped ahead early and never looked back, downing the Bison 63-53. Though the squad lost in the second round to the eventual national-champion Carleton Ravens, the team’s fourth-place finish ties McGill’s best finish in 40 years.

Private, Student Life

Tackling digital clutter: Why virtual file organization matters and how you can achieve it

by Avleen K. Mokha on

More in Private:

When I started studying at McGill, I could not have anticipated the amount of digital clutter I would amass in my time here. My laptop was my go-to device; it served as my notebook, my planner, and my coursepack all at once. But by the end of my second semester, I was hardly functional. If I needed to pull up a document, I would have to wade through multiple files and folders before being able to access it.

My productivity declined because my mind, like my digital space, was cluttered. While we are quick to declutter our workspaces and our rooms, for today’s student, it’s equally important to tackle digital clutter. The following tips may help you develop a new attitude toward your digital space as you prepare for your new summer job or the coming school year.

1. Identify what matters

The most important part of tackling digital clutter is to know what is and isn’t clutter. Do you really need seven versions of the CV you made in your senior year of high school? Probably not. On the other hand, it is probably crucial to archive your term papers. A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself, “When was the last time I needed this exact file?” If you can’t come up with a clear answer, scrap the document.

2. Perfect your organizational system

A thorough organizational system will keep your digital surroundings tidy. You can arrange your schoolwork by week or organize it by course—or both. For non-school related files, simple categories should do the trick: make a folder for career-related files and organize your media into ‘music,’ ‘movies,’ ‘TV shows,’ and so on. The idea is to be aware about the reason each file occupies the space it does. Consider things such as, ‘Can this file be grouped with similar files? Is there a sub-category in my system to which it better corresponds?’ Measure this by considering how you would access the file if someone asked you to pull it up. If you intuitively think of the current location it is in, then you have found the right place for the file. If you are able to imagine another place, move the document.

A quick way to ensure that your system remains organized throughout the semester is to set a personal limit on the number of folders or files allowed in a certain location and to use the limit as an incentive to keep things organized. Remember, your system is yours alone, so don’t be afraid to tweak these suggestions until you find what works most effectively for you.

3. Develop a cleaning routine

Rachel Aust, renowned lifestyle vlogger, recommends having daily, weekly, and monthly objectives for decluttering in order to successfully break down cleaning into more manageable portions. Try it out by assigning two minutes every night to remove unimportant files from your desktop. Every week, clear out your Downloads folder and delete irrelevant emails. At the end of the month, take fifteen minutes to sort files and transfer them. By developing a clear routine, you will not only be able to tackle clutter efficiently, but also integrate decluttering into your daily habits.

4. Use cloud storage services

Minimalism is about identifying and keeping things that make you happy or are important to you and removing those that aren’t. You can upload files that aren’t of immediate importance to storage drives such as iCloud, Google Drive, or Dropbox, and subsequently delete them from your computer. Unlike external hard drives, most of these services are free up to 15 GB of storage. An additional benefit is that these services tend to have their own smartphone apps, making files in cloud storage accessible from your phone or your tablet.

5. Don’t forget about your phone or tablet

The Photos folder on your mobile device can rapidly fill up with photos, memes that your friends sent you, or screenshots of conversations. Keep this under control by deleting images from your photo collection once or twice a week. This way, you can curate the memories that matter and free up storage on your phone.

Apps are also important. Not only does an excessive number of apps slow down your device, but reducing the number of apps you have will make your user experience more purposeful. See if you can sort apps that you use for similar purposes—such as social media and photography—into folders to help you navigate your device with ease.

 

Baseball, Private, Sports

Tim Raines: An unlikely journey to Cooperstown

by Erich Rothmann on

More in Baseball:

It was a long journey for former Expos left fielder Tim Raines—from the end of his playing days in 2002 to finally walking out onto the Olympic Stadium turf on the evening of March 31 as part of the 2017 MLB Hall of Fame class. With 2,605 career hits, a .294 career batting average, and 808 career steals, Raines is undoubtably a Hall of Famer. However, his path to Cooperstown was unlike any other.

In 2008, Raines’ name first appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot. Five years after his final at-bat, Raines received 24 per cent of the vote, 51 per cent below the three-quarters he needed to be inducted. The following year, things went from bad to worse for Raines who saw his Hall of Fame stock fall to 22 per cent, leaving him with essentially no chance of ever making it into the Hall.

If Raines had 400 more hits to get him to the arbitrary 3,000 plateau, he would have been a first ballot Hall of Famer. However, making contact and being a threat on the basepaths were not Raines’ only skills. He had an eye that rivaled the best in the game and he knew how to take a walk. He managed to get on base at a prolific rate and could go from first to second with remarkable speed. To baseball geeks, Raines’ absence from baseball immortality was absurd, considering that if a third of his career 1,330 walks were bunt singles–essentially having the same effect as a walk—he would have reached 3,000 hits and easily made it to Cooperstown.

Luckily for Raines, a childhood Expos-fan-turned-sportswriter made it his life’s mission to get Raines into the Hall of Fame. Montreal’s Jonah Keri began contacting every Hall of Fame voter to make Raines’ case. The argument was simple: Raines reached base 3,977 times in his career–more than Hall of Famers Tony Gwynn, Roberto Clemente, Eddie Matthews, and Brooks Robinson–he was one of the scariest leadoff hitters of his era and, according to one advanced baseball metric, he is the sixth-greatest left fielder in baseball history. Of course, he also won two World Series with the Yankees in the mid-90s. Though his résumé might be missing those flashy multiple-of-ten milestones, to Keri, assuring his hero’s place in the Hall of Fame was paramount.

Slowly, things began to change for Raines. In 2010 he saw an uptick in his Hall of Fame votes, reaching 30 per cent and crossing the 50 per cent mark in 2013. In his penultimate year on the ballot, he received 70 per cent of the vote, still 5 marks away. The following year, his last on the ballot, Keri made his plea public, writing an open-letter to Hall of Fame voters, insisting Raines should be in the Hall. 

“I hope that this note will help nudge you toward voting for Raines,” Keri signed off the letter. “[…] Thanks for your consideration! Jonah.” 

And it worked! Of course Raines was the happiest when he got the call from the Hall of Fame after receiving 86 per cent of the vote, and Keri was certainly second, celebrating at home as he watched his childhood idol make the Hall.

Of course, Raines certainly deserves most of the credit as he was the one standing in the batter’s box making the plays, however as one Hall of Fame voter wrote, “I give Jonah Keri credit for carrying the torch. He is right. There is no good reason Raines isn’t in the Hall.” Now after nine years toiling on the Hall of Fame ballot, both Raines and Keri will head to Cooperstown for the induction ceremony in July.

Private, Student Life, The Viewpoint

My new beginning: How I transferred to McGill

by Flaminia Cooper on

More in Private:

Transferring to a new university is not a decision to make on a whim. If you are coming from outside of Canada, as I was, it can be an even bigger challenge, but I am proof that transferring is feasible, and that it can be the best decision of your life.

I applied to McGill on Dec. 1, 2015, only two months after I started studying at the University of Surrey. Surrey was my safety school, as I hadn’t been accepted to any of my top choices in the UK. It’s a smaller university of 15,000 students, located about 30 minutes southwest of London. Overall, Surrey was a great university, but from my first day there were several factors that made me question my choice to spend the next four years of my life there.

The University of Surrey states that it guarantees on-campus accommodation to all first year students; however, I wasn’t given this opportunity because I had applied to Surrey at the last minute, and all accommodation was full by then. I ended up living in a hotel for the first month of university, which caused me to miss out on a lot of opportunities to meet people and settle into this next stage of my life. I joined a few societies and the volleyball team, but felt like neither the students nor the university took either of them very seriously. My courses were interesting, but weren’t very challenging, so I found myself wasting my time more and more as the year went on.

After two months of feeling like I was on autopilot, I realized how unhappy I was, and decided I needed a new start. I reapplied to some universities in the UK, and—on a whim—branched out to McGill as well.

I’d be lying if I said that my transfer to McGill was easy once I’d applied. McGill makes it painfully obvious that transfer students are only admitted if there is space left in each faculty, and even then only if you show extremely high academic standards. When transferring, most places ask for both your high school and university grades, so maintaining a good GPA is vital to be able to be accepted elsewhere.

Another problem I faced was the timing of my application. My final exams at Surrey were in June, but by mid-May I still hadn’t heard back from McGill and needed to know whether to withdraw from Surrey or register for next year’s courses. At that point, I called Service Point, academic advisors, and any other relevant numbers I could get hold of almost every day. My persistence eventually paid off, and I believe it helped me stand out among other potential transfer students.

My parents were extremely supportive throughout the process. When I told them about my negative experience at Surrey, they were sympathetic, but wouldn’t let me drop out for the rest of the year and apply somewhere else, which was my initial plan. Instead, they suggested I apply to transfer and use my time at Surrey to boost my transfer application. Dropping out without a good reason isn’t reflected well in university applications, whether you are a transfer student or not.

Motivations for transferring vary case-to-case. Some students may thrive in a quieter environment with fewer people and less academic stress. Others may feel that they aren’t being challenged enough and are frequently bored. Social settings are also worth considering: How easy has it been to make friends or feel comfortable at your current school? The best thing to do is pinpoint why you are unhappy where you are currently, and decide whether uprooting your life to start again will be worth it. It is a huge decision to make, and you have to be confident that you have more to lose by staying at your current university than by moving to someplace new.

I’m much happier at McGill than I was at Surrey. I prefer the busy city life to the quiet British countryside, my courses are more demanding, and I am never bored with the wide variety of extracurricular activities available on campus.

If I had to give one piece of advice to students looking to transfer—either to or from McGill—it would be to follow your instincts. I knew that deciding to transfer would be the biggest decision of my life up to that point; there were plenty of obstacles in the way, such as application timing and moving to a new continent, that could have easily stopped me. Despite everything, I persevered. In the end, you are the only person who truly understands the situation you are in. If you are unhappy, you owe it to yourself to change your life.

Commentary, Opinion

Thinking before you speak in a digital age

by Gabriel Rincon on

More in Commentary:

The comment sections of online articles offer a variety of contributions, ranging from bigotry to thoughtful insights. Of course, the purpose of comment sections is to foster productive discussion on the article at hand, which, unfortunately, sometimes does not happen. Different publications are considering ways to referee discussions on their sites, which raises questions concerning freedom of speech. However, one solution–a new software by NRKbeta that administers a quiz on the subject matter of the article before users can comment–has the potential to improve existing comment section policies.

To address the issue of unruly comment sections, different publications have adopted a variety of policies. For example, Motherboard–the Science and Technology section of Vice media–has done away with their comment section entirely, and encourages readers to engage with the editorial board through letters. Politico takes a less extreme approach, and simply removes comments that are profane, abusive, or illegal, like threats or plagiarism. A fairly original method is being tested by The Seattle Times where they have private groups for paying subscribers where they can debate without interruption by Internet trolls.

Regardless of the policy pursued, publications should be committed to protecting freedom of speech, while also promoting productive conversation and discouraging echo chambers. Failing to adhere to the principles of freedom of speech would be hypocritical on behalf of the free media, and it is a publication’s responsibility to make sure the conversations it creates are productive.

 

 

Of course, respecting freedom of speech does not mean any site has to give individuals a platform to spew nonsense.

The three policies mentioned differ in the degree to which they respect these principles. Motherboard’s policy, for instance, is the most problematic. Of course, respecting freedom of speech does not mean any site has to give individuals a platform to spew nonsense. However, Motherboard’s policy of not letting anyone share their thoughts or criticism on the article page, but only through the arduous process of letter-writing, is not in the spirit of fostering conversation as it occurs in the digital age. Instead, the policy is likely to shelter the publication and its readers from differing opinions and help create echo chambers. A similar problem is found with The Seattle Times’ approach. A private comment section restricted solely to paying subscribers has the potential to generate mostly homogenous opinions, and create echo chambers rather than productive conversation. Politico’s policy is probably the most reasonable of the three. It respects free speech and diverse conversation within reasonable limits. But, the policy can be improved upon with respect to fostering productive conversation.

Useful conversation on a subject requires informed opinions, as well as enough disagreement to create a clash of ideas. On the latter point, the most Politico can do to facilitate diversity of opinion is to open up the conversation to readers on the webpage. When it comes to generating more educated opinions, NRKbeta’s software can help. Administering a brief quiz to people on the article they are commenting on ensures that those frequenting the the website have at least read the article. Thus, the software will help weed out Internet trolls and may even help mature people’s opinions before they comment. It is possible that once reading the article, the would-be commenter realizes they were wrong or refines their opinion, sparing the comment section from their nonsense. The software could also potentially take the edge off of more aggressive comments–taking the extra 30 seconds on the quiz means an extra 30 seconds to think an opinion over, and likely moderate it.

Some may argue that the software amounts to a form of censorship–however, this is unreasonable. Making sure users have read the article before they comment is not an ideological test, and presents a barrier to the exercise of free speech only insofar as it requires people to learn something about the topic at hand before they speak. Far from constituting censorship, the software has the potential to return some degree of civility and productivity to online discussions.

Comment sections can be an instrument for productive discussion and civilized discourse. If people are made to read what they are commenting on, it will create more informed discussion, which can make conversations genuinely useful. Sites can now do this, to some degree, by using NRKbeta’s software. Giving up on discussion forums or closing them off to outside opinions is against the spirit of free speech and creates echo chambers. The Internet has the potential to foster a public good through productive conversation, and publications have the potential, if not the responsibility to help that conversation flourish.

 

 

 

 

Gabriel Rincon is a columnist at The McGill Tribune.

 

@McGillTribOp |

 

 

1 … 656 657 658 659 660 … 1,363

Read the latest issue

Read the latest issue