At the heart of our Milky Way galaxy lies a black hole—a gravitational sink so strong that not even light, which travels at speeds of close to 300 000 km/s, can escape its pull. However, a recent study conducted by researchers at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee observed a new class of hyper-velocity stars, that have a sun-like mass and are ejected from the black hole.
Hypervelocity stars, first described in 1988 by Jack Hills, a scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, are solitary stars that move fast enough to escape the gravitational pull of the black hole at the heart of the Milky Way.
“These new hypervelocity stars are very different from the ones that have been discovered previously,” said graduate student Lauren Palladino in an interview withVanderbilt University. Palladino was the lead author of the study “Hypervelocity Star Candidates in the SEGUE G and K Dwarf Sample,” published in the Jan. 1 issue of the Astrophysical Journal and reported at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, D.C.
Palladino is currently working under the direction of Vanderbilt assistant professor of astronomy Kelly Holley-Bockelmann.
According to the study, the stars move at speeds of close to 1.5 km/hr—fast enough to escape the gravitational grasp of the Milky Way. However, what makes this discovery interesting is that although hypervelocity stars have been previously identified, these newly identified stars possess significant differences in composition. The other hypervelocity stars are blue stars—young, hot, bright bodies—which originated at the galactic core, the composition of Palladino’s hypervelocity stars does not reflect a similar birth.
“The most commonly accepted mechanism for [kicking a star out of its galaxy] involves interacting with the supermassive black hole at the galactic core,” said Holley-Bockelmann in a press release. “That means when you trace the star back to its birthplace, it comes from the centre of our galaxy. None of these hypervelocity stars come from the centre, which implies that there is an unexpected new class of hypervelocity star, one with a different ejection mechanism.”
These stars are of significant scientific value because they may help elucidate the mechanism by which stars escape the gravitational force of galaxies. Additionally, dust clouds usually obscure the area where stars originate, making it difficult for scientists to study their formation. However, since these stars are ejected from that space, they offer a window and shed some light on the process.
“The big question is ‘What boosted these stars up to such extreme velocities?’” said Holley-Bockelmann. “We are working on that now.”
Religious freedom is one of a host of rights, like freedom of speech and freedom of association, that are protected as “Fundamental Freedoms” under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Like those rights, the neat ideal of religious freedom is frequently confronted with the messy reality of its implementation. The recent controversy at York University is a perfect case in point of this tension. The basic outline is well known; a professor of an online course received a request from a student asking to be exempted from a group project, claiming that his religious beliefs did not allow him to work together with women. After initially rejecting the request, the professor was compelled by his superiors in the university to reverse course and accommodate the request, triggering a national uproar. Owing to its place as a university with a notably diverse student body, it is worth looking at the policies McGill has in place for these sorts of situations.
What made the case at York University so disconcerting to observers—including the original professor, who characterized his reluctance to accommodate the request as not wanting to be an “accessory to sexism”—was the fact that carrying out the request required acceding to the wishes of an individual student to not interact with an entire demographic of other students. While the media controversy may have been inevitable, York University’s conduct on the matter was made worse by the clear institutional failure.
For one, from the start of this situation back in September, there was a lack of a unified front on the matter as conveyed to the student. After the student made the request to not complete a group assignment for an online course, the professor, according to a report in York University’s Excalibur, wanted to decline the request and looked to superiors in the university for a more formal response. Instead, the order to grant the request was made not because of any apparent doctrinal validity to the request, but because another student in the class had received accommodation on the grounds of living too far away to commute for campus.
What makes the decision to compel the professor to comply with the request even worse is that it was simply predicated on the granting of an accommodation to another student for wholly different and arguably unrelated reasons, thus showing considerable intellectual laziness in considering the optics of the decision.
Were such a situation to arise at McGill, it is imperative that all of the institutional actors be not only informed of the situation but engage in consultation as to a unified stance before responding to any such requests. Additionally, these issues should be handled in a more timely manner than displayed by York University; outside of the most frivolous requests, taking over a month to render a decision that has yet to be settled shows a lack of respect for the time and beliefs of the student in question.
McGill’s own policies on religious accommodation vary. For final exams in the centrally scheduled exam period, students have two weeks before any listed date on the calendar of holy days to raise conflicts. Situations such as the one at York, however, are far more complex.
McGill will soon give a presentation at the Quebec government’s hearings on Bill 60, also referred to as the Quebec Charter of Values, outlining the university’s opposition to the bill and its commitment to freedom of religious expression. Whatever the future of the charter, in implementing policies and practices on religious accommodation, the university would do well to remember the lessons of this debacle; at the intersection of issues of gender equality, religious accommodation, and access to education, care should be taken to ensure that not one of those three values is disregarded in the process of formulating solutions.
What would you say if you were asked to communicate your life’s work in three minutes? On Friday Jan. 17, five researchers attempted to complete this task over lunch at the Redpath Museum, where students listened as professors gave snapshots of their research.
“I wanted to attend Soup and Science to acquaint myself with some of the ongoing research at McGill and to meet and chat with the professors who conduct the research,” said Lily Li, a U0 Science student. “Hopefully [I can] get my foot in the door.”
Soup and Science is a bi-annual event where undergraduate students are invited to see and hear a selection of professors give short presentations on their work. Within these fast three minute segments, the speakers give just a flavour of their research, leaving the audience curious, inspired—and a little out of breath.
Unlike other departmental talks and research presentations, Soup and Science is unique in the fact that it is aimed towards peaking the interest of undergraduate students in research and providing them with resources concerning how to get involved. Victor Chisholm, the undergraduate research officer at McGill, and his team ensured students had access to various links with more information on the topic.
“We want to expose students to all sorts of areas of science they may never have thought or heard of,” said Chisholm. “We want to demystify research and researchers [and for undergraduate students to] feel comfortable talking to professors about research. We want our world-class students to know that they, too, can generate world-class knowledge and discoveries.”
Although the three-minute cap makes it difficult for professors to fully explain their research, this does not seem to be the purpose of the event. Rather, presentations are organized like a scientific teaser, filled with stimulating questions and interesting data.
Anna Naoumova, whose research focuses on the interaction between genetic and epigenetic factors—the study of how our genes are affected by both DNA sequences and inheritance—began her presentation with the question of whether we could blame our grandparents for our lifestyle today; Elena Bennett, specializing in managing landscapes for multiple ecosystem services, demonstrated her approach to sustaining agriculture for the next thousand years through what she liked to call a “‘What if’ machine.”
The presentations allowed students to gauge what topics might interest them, while providing the time afterwards to ask the professors questions about their work, which, by virtue of these micro-presentations, undoubtedly sprung up. Considering most students’ interactions with professors are limited to their time in class, Soup and Science provides a forum where they can comfortably inquire about research.
“I came for the food. But also more seriously to see what different types of careers are open to me after I finish my undergrad,” said U0 Science student Vivian Lynn.
As Soup and Science runs for a week, each session consists of different professors whose work spans a variety of research areas. According to Chisholm, he sends out invitations to approximately 50 professors each semester, of which about half express interest in attending the event. Chisholm aims to feature newer members of McGill’s faculty, as many of these researchers are conducting exciting new research programs but are less well-known than McGill’s more established professors. Whether it is the soup or the science that draws students to the Redpath Museum each semester, undergraduates continue to make an effort to attend.
“I always try to make it to Soup and Science whenever I can,” said U2 science student Susan Wang. “It’s a short time commitment that’s educational, engaging and also involves free food. I think it’s harder to find a reason not to go.”
For more information on getting involved in a lab, students are invited to attend the event “Science students: Want to know how to get involved in research?” held in Leacock 232 on Wednesday Jan. 29 from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
I can’t exactly pinpoint the time I became a Green Bay Packers fan. I simply remember being fascinated by the notion that a small town in Wisconsin of only 102,000 people could support one of the original NFL franchises. That, or I subconsciously really enjoyed Brett Favre’s Wrangler jeans commercials.
Whatever the reason, it had been a life-long dream of mine to visit the historic Lambeau Field to see a Packers game. So when I discovered that Green Bay was playing my uncle and cousin’s beloved Pittsburgh Steelers this season, I wasn’t passing up the opportunity.
We were treated to an amazing view of Lambeau as we exited the highway to Lombardi Avenue. The stadium sits in the middle of the town surrounded primarily by residential housing. If it wasn’t already clear, Green Bay lives and breathes football. Heaven, for the rest of us.
We grabbed lunch at a local “Packer bar” filled with fans and memorabilia celebrating the team’s storied past. Pride oozed from all around—numerous Ray Nitschke and Bart Starr jerseys were in view; plaques and photos from championship seasons covered the walls.
After arriving at the stadium, we proceeded to our seats and watched the pre-game warm-ups. As snow began to fall, seas of green and yellow slowly inundated the stadium. A dangerous amount of cheese was also present—Cheeseheads, that is—the triangular foam cheese hat and official symbol of Packer fans.
Modeled after the Big House in Ann Arbor, Lambeau is constructed in a traditional style and its bowl shape traps the sounds of the stadium. I experienced the effect immediately as the Packers took the field to an echoed chorus of “Go Pack Go”.
Lambeau is limited in its modern features as there are no upper or lower decks; instead, the stadium contains benches that spread from the first row to the top of the stadium. As a tour guide had told us the day before, each individual is entitled to 18 inches of bench space. Bundled up and looking like the Michelin Man, I found this restriction quite difficult to follow.
Though the Packers entered the game with only slim playoff hopes, the atmosphere remained electric. Rookie running back Eddie Lacy stole the show in the first half, tiptoeing his way on the snowy field through holes in the Steeler defence.
Packer fans have adopted Lacy as a fan favourite, which is not surprising given Lambeau’s unique position as a true communal space. The Packers are the only publicly owned franchise in professional sports and have nearly 300,000 owners from all over the world. These are our players and Lambeau is our home. The strength of that bond was clear from the camaraderie of the crowd.
The snow dragged on as the teams exited the locker rooms to start the second half. Pittsburgh came out hot, and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger gashed the Green Bay secondary for some big gains.
The crowd rallied around the Packers as the team made a push to cut Pittsburgh’s 10-point lead in the final quarter. Every Matt Flynn completion and Lacy run was met with that “Go Pack Go” echo. The comeback bid culminated in a last minute drive with the Packers needing a touchdown to tie. Green Bay marched down to the 10-yard line, leaving just a few seconds for a final play.
As the crowd bustled with excitement and anxiety, I glanced around to take one final look at Lambeau, the sea of green and yellow, and the cheese. The game ended with an incompletion and Steelers win, but I didn’t care too much. I had made it to heaven.
With 200 hours scheduled for presentations from approximately 250 organizations and individuals, the consultation process is one of the largest in recent years undertaken by a provincial government, and is expected to stretch into March. This week, the McGill Tribune looks into the specifics of the bill, its major points of contention, and reactions to it from both individuals and institutions.
More commonly known as the Charter of Values, Bill 60 was tabled by the Parti Québécois’ (PQ) government at the National Assembly on Nov. 7, 2013. The bill outlines measures that would restrict public employees from wearing visible religious symbols such as hijabs, kippas, and turbans in the workplace, and would affect institutions including hospitals and universities.
“If the state is neutral, those working for the state should be equally neutral in their image,” Bernard Drainville, the minister who introduced the bill in September, said in his speech to the National Assembly.
Bill 60 provides universities, hospitals, and municipalities a transition period of five years to implement its measures. A similar bill that only applied to civil servants had been tabled at the National Assembly in 2010, but ultimately failed to pass into law.
Measures similar to Bill 60 have been passed in France, Germany, and Belgium. In France, a 2004 law bans people from wearing conspicuous religious symbols in schools.
At McGill, various decision-making boards, including the Board of Governors, the Senate, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), and the Post-Graduates’ Student Society (PGSS) have expressed their opposition to the bill.
Individuals like political science professor Catherine Lu have also acted against the bill. Lu wore a hijab to her lectures for one week in September in protest against the bill.
“The main reason I will join this protest […] is to express my solidarity with vulnerable groups—mainly minority religions—and to convey my dissent against the restrictions in Bill 60 on individual freedom of expression and religion,” Lu said.
Lu explained that she intends to raise awareness of the charter and engage her students in the issue.
“The message needs to be clear,” Lu said. “The proposed Charter does not need to be amended; it needs to be rejected by the National Assembly.”
Other institutions and groups opposing the bill include Concordia University, the Jewish General Hospital, the Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers, and the English Montreal School Board.
However, the bill has also received widespread support across Quebec. A poll run by Canadian research firm Leger Marketing has shown that there is a consistent, near-equal split between Quebecers who support the charter and those who do not, and that the majority of francophones support the Charter.
According to the poll, 48 per cent of Quebecers say the charter is a good idea, versus 28 per cent who say it is not. 52 per cent of francophones support the bill, in comparison to only 13 per cent of Anglophones.
At McGill, professor Yvan Lamonde from the department of French language and literature is among the francophone population who support Bill 60. Lamonde sees the experience of Quebecers during the premiership of Maurice Duplessis as one of the reasons that many Francophones hold this view, when prior to the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, the Catholic Church held political control over the province’s health care and education systems.
“[Quebecers] know by experience what it means to give such an importance to religious symbols in public life,” Lamonde said. “It took them decades and decades to get rid of that. They do not want such religious domination to happen again.”
Lamonde explained the charter as key to completing the secularization of the province to promote a form of unity among all Quebecers.
“The charter [will help] achieve the unfinished process of secularization of the province since the Quiet Revolution at the level of state, and not limited to education,” he said. “The charter will [also] help us to make sure that principles for living together would [be] clear to all Quebecers, including recent Quebecers.”
Francophone universities have not been as vocal as their anglophone peers in opposition to the bill. Among the 14 francophone universities in the province, only the Université de Montréal (UdeM), the Université de Sherbrooke, and the Université du Québec à Montréal have publicly addressed the Charter, while not explicitly opposing it.
“It doesn’t respond to our needs,” UdeM’s spokesman said last December, although the university did not take a stance against the bill.
Other groups who are supportive of Bill 60 include some of Quebec’s powerful labour unions; Mouvement laïque québécois, the province’s secularist movement; and the Janettes, a group of actresses and activists who believe that the charter would potentially increase gender equality.
As a minority government, the PQ requires the support of other parties to pass its bills. The opposition, however, has been highly critical of Bill 60.
The hearings take place as a method of public review on a bill, where members of the community can voice their opinions or concerns. While Members of the National Assembly (MNA) take public input into consideration, it does not necessarily have an impact on the final vote.
Furthermore, if passed into law, the bill could still be overturned by the Supreme Court of Canada.
“The prognosis is not good that [the charter] is going to pass, either because it would never come to the National Assembly or because it would be defeated,” professor Antonia Maioni from McGill’s department of political science said. “We will probably go into the next election with [the charter] as a live issue that hasn’t been resolved.”
Deluxe takes you on a wild journey through genres and styles held together by the boundlessly energetic singer Liliboy and her mustachioed musicians. As it brings together electro, hip-hop, jazz, and swing, the French band’s new album is powerful and strikingly rich. On “Indisposed,” a mostly English track, Deluxe shows the ability to retain its artistic trademark while always introducing new melodies, such as the song’s soothing classical guitar riff. Smooth and slightly somber, “Indisposed” makes it worthwhile to check out this group, which is still relatively unknown in North America.
Can’t Wait
Artist: Laura Cantrell
Album: No Way There from Here
Released: Jan. 28, 2014
Listening to “Can’t Wait” while walking back home after a long day of studying feels like drinking warm sips of comfort-in-a-can. In this new track, Laura Cantrell diverges from the nostalgic folk tone that has characterized her previous albums. She comes back with a warm romance song that combines a catchy rhythm with simple yet profound lyrics.
Youts in War
Artist: Brain Damage/Vibronics feat. M. Parvez
Album: Empire Soldier
Released: Oct. 10, 2013
Using reggae and dub to denounce historical denial: this is the task the French reggae bands Brain Damage and Vibronics have undertaken in Empire Soldier, dealing with African and Carribbean involvement in the First World War. The depth of such a political statement is particularly striking. Yet, while the density of the message saturates most of the songs of the album, “Youts in War” stands out for its ability to combine strong lyrics with an engaging melody.
Spinning Signs
Artist: Painted Palms
Album: Forever
Released: Jan. 14, 2014
Imagine a summer breeze enveloping the streets of Montreal as the bright new release of Painted Palms punctuates your day. In this second album, the two cousins from San Francisco display a clever ability to combine the heritage of classic pop with more modern electronic patterns. While some criticize Painted Palm’s unavoidable inspiration from the Beach Boys, it seems that the band rather re-actualises it. In playful fashion, they mix echoed voices, groovy tunes, and light electro for a track that has a good chance of sticking in your head all day.
As the new year rolls in, so does the prospect of glow-in-the-dark bacon and neon pork chops. Last August, two researchers at the South China Agricultural University in Guangdon Province—Zhenfang Wu and Zicong Li—successfully injected biofluorescent genetic material taken from jellyfish directly into pig embryos, resulting in the birth of 10 transgenic pigs that glow when subjected to ‘black’ or ultraviolet light. Although the idea of glowing food is more of a joke than a serious prospect, Wu and Li intend for this research to serve a very practical application. The scientists explained to CBC that the method may be used to create more efficient and less costly medicines for humans suffering from many types of ailments.
“Patients who suffer from hemophilia need blood-clotting enzymes in their blood. We can make those enzymes a lot cheaper in animals rather than a factory that will cost millions of dollars to build,” explained Stefan Moisyadi, a bioscientist at the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Biogenesis Research—home to where this technique was originally developed.
“[The green glow] is just a marker to show that we can take a gene that was not originally present in the animal [which] now exists in it,” Moisyadi said.
Wu and Li are not the only researchers to investigate transgenic animals. Scientists all over the globe are pioneering this technique. Scientists in Turkey used the same method to create the world’s first glow-in-the-dark rabbits, and they are currently working to create a glowing sheep.
A spoonful of sugar makes the migraine go down
A study published this January in Science Translational Medicine concluded that placebo pills have strong enough therapeutic effects to reduce patient symptoms—even when they know they are consuming sugar pills.
Professor of Medicine at Harvard University Ted Kaptchuk performed an experiment using the same 66 patients for each test. The patients first experienced a migraine attack without treatment. During six subsequent attacks, they were either given the migraine drug Maxalt or a placebo pill. Kaptchuk reported that patients experienced significant pain relief, compared to the untreated migraine attack, even when they knew they had swallowed nothing more than a sugar pill.
While the American Medical Association (AMA) considers the use of placebos without a patient’s consent to be “bad medicine,” Kaptchuk’s results suggest that in the future, labeled placebos could be used to treat conditions like migraines.
Kaptchuk is not the only researcher to investigate the beneficial use of placebos. Italian neuroscientist Fabrizio Benedetti demonstrated in neuroimaging studies that placebos might play a role in changing the circuitry and chemistry of the brain in a similar fashion to certain medications. Other studies have shown that placebos induce the release of opioids—a chemical produced by the brain to relieve pain.
Although Kaptchuk’s results need to be reproduced by other researchers before “open-label” placebos are put into practice, his studies show promise in the field of placebos.
After a year of living in Rez, I was overwhelmingly excited to finally find my own place. Not that I didn’t enjoy my experience in university housing—I was simply anxious to have my own furniture, decorate my own room, and cook in the kitchen I would share with my roommate.
When my roommate and I finally decided on a place, we barely glanced over the lease before signing it. Without doing any real research about Quebec leasing laws, we thought looking around the apartment and skimming through the agreement would be sufficient.
The landlord sent notice that our rent was going to increase as our first year of leasing was coming to an end, I couldn’t help but feel a bit irritated. Why was our rent going up? There weren’t any changes being made to the apartment or the building. Why did he choose to increase it now, and why by that particular amount?
Not entirely sure what to do, I followed the instructions on the notice, signing the paper to recognize that I accepted the increase. I wasn’t even too certain about what it meant to “accept”—what alternative did I have besides moving out? Out of frustration and without any real understanding of its reasoning, I complained that the increase was drawn out of thin air. I didn’t realize until much later that rent prices were a little more complicated than a haphazard decision by one person. Though increases are quite typical in the housing market, there are often other components of a lease that are decided upon by the landlord, not Quebec law. If my landlord was to add unique demands to the contract, I would not be aware that I did not have an obligation to adhere to it under provincial regulations—until I signed the lease, that is.
Luckily, there weren’t any other major stipulations attached to the contract, but my roommate and I were surprised to find that a few of the conditions on the lease were unique to our landlord, not standards established by the Régie du logement.
In fact, I didn’t even know what the Régie was. I was simply another student looking to sign a lease for the next three years until my time at McGill was over.
What is the Régie du logement?
Quebec’s Régie du logement is an institution that holds jurisdiction over residential leases in the province. It works to create the standards and procedures for leasing, serve as a resource for potential tenants and landlords, and ensure the protection of leasing rights. In ambiguous or contentious situations between lessor and lessee, the Régie would provide jurisdiction, whether through pre-established laws and regulations, or via an application for a recourse submitted by either party.
Basic Laws and Regulations
The Régie outlines a series of regulations that dictate both the tenant and the landlord’s legal allowances. For example, the Régie’s website says it is legal for landlords to ask for references for credit checks and to require co-signers for students without an income, but it is not legal for them to ask for social insurance numbers or increase the rent mid-lease. Similarly, it explains that tenants must inform their landlord of a decision not to renew a lease, usually three months before the end of the lease —otherwise, the lease is automatically renewed.
(Alexandra Allaire / McGill Tribune)
Rebecca Dawe, the executive director of the Legal Information Clinic at McGill—a non-profit and student-run service that provides legal information to McGill students and community members—explained that in general, Quebec’s laws only delineate certain expectations from landlords.
“Some conditions can vary from lease to lease; for example, sometimes heating will be included in the rent, and sometimes it will be paid by the tenant,” Dawe said. “The law in Quebec does, however, have certain obligations that are mandatory for landlords. For example, a landlord cannot opt out of the obligation to deliver a rental dwelling in good habitable condition.”
Common Misconceptions
After realizing that my confusion over rent increases could be solved by looking into the Régie’s regulations, I set out to understand the guidelines I should have researched prior to signing a lease for the first time.
The Régie does not place a fixed rate for rent increase every year. Instead, it calculates rent variation by considering “the income of the building and the municipal and school taxes, the insurance bills, the energy costs, maintenance and service costs,” according to its website.
But then I realized that my options weren’t simply limited to accepting the increase or moving out. According to a document on lease renewal created by the Régie, the tenant can also “refuse the proposed modifications” and still renew the lease. In that situation, the landlord would then be able to file an application with the Régie. A commissioner will then follow the criteria for deciding on a rent increase for the apartment—which could be even more than what the landlord initially requested. However, the landlord and the tenant can still negotiate while an application is being processed at the Régie.
Just as I was under the impression that some of the conditions listed on my lease were standard procedure, many students have also fallen prey to misconceptions involving their apartment or lease. Unfortunately, when the turnover year-to-year is so high for apartment leases, students can get caught in a trap of common assumptions. According to Pamela Chiniah, the McGill Off-Campus Housing Coordinator, one of the biggest confusions students will have is with lease transfers.
“The big mistake that students do is they don’t contact the landlord when taking a lease transfer,” Chiniah said. “Let’s say I’m transferring my lease to you; I’m paying $700 rent. When you carry over my lease, for the four months you’ll be paying $700, but as of September, your rent [might] go up. Students don’t contact landlords to get this information [or…] get a previous copy of the tenant’s lease. Sometimes there are rules of the building that they don’t know. And very often when students do a lease transfer they don’t do the paperwork as they should.”
Another issue that students often aren’t aware of is known as a “finder’s fee,” an illegal practice often advertised as “buy my used furniture” for lease transfers.
(Wendy Chen / McGill Tribune)
“Finder’s fees started close to 10 years ago,” Chiniah said. “There was a housing shortage in Montreal [at that time].”
Chiniah explained that many people use furniture as an excuse to validate a finder’s fee.
“Let’s say I have an apartment [lease] that runs until August, but I’m graduating,” Chiniah said. “I want to give up my place, so I advertise; and when a student contacts me, I show them the place. But then I say, ‘If you want this place, you have to take it with the furniture [.…] So the person asks you for money, and [he or she does] not process the lease transfer until they get the money for the furniture.”
Because many McGill students are not from Quebec, it is common for people to assume that these finder’s fees are simply part of a standard procedure in apartment leasing. However, finder’s fees are illegal, and should be reported to the landlord if they become a problem.
But sometimes it’s not just the tenants who create extra charges against Quebec law.
“We see a lot of landlords asking students for key deposits, [which] is not allowed,” Dawe said. “According to the law in Quebec, they can only ask for the first month’s rent.”
Students from out of town will also frequently be misinformed about the relevant paperwork.
“Students […often] don’t know what the application form is in Quebec,” Chiniah added. “It’s a pre-lease. If you fill it out, bring it to the landlord, and he accepts it, you are legally presponsible for the apartment. Every year we have students with [multiple] application forms. Sometimes landlords are flexible, but they [might] say that deposit you gave [them…] will not [be given] back.”
Student Resources
For those who are looking to sign a lease—or for anyone who encounters issues with their apartment or landlord—there are many resources both on campus and around the city that can be useful. McGill Off-Campus Housing not only features an online apartment listing system, but also provides a collection of legal information on its website. It also provides “Apartment Hunting Info Sessions,” held annually for students seeking more information on leasing an apartment.
The Legal Information Clinic at McGill also offers free presentations on landlord-tenant law, which can be tailored to fit the needs of any student’s requests.
If your go-to meals alternate between pasta and pizza, soups are an easy and delicious way to help you survive the Montreal winter. These basic recipes are tasty on their own, but may also act as springboards for experimental chefs to show their own flair.
Chili con carne with tomatoes Serves 4-5
Chili often seems like a daunting task for beginner cooks, but with the right spices anyone can create a great crowd-pleaser.
milk-and.blogspot.ca
Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
2 medium onions, chopped 1 cup green pepper, chopped1 can (796 mL) tomatoes
1 can (398 mL) tomato sauce
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
Pinch of cayenne red pepperPinch of paprika
1 can (460 mL) kidney beans, drained
Instructions: 1. Cook and stir beef, onions, and green pepper in a large pot until meat is brown and onion is tender.
2. Drain off fat.
3. Stir in tomatoes, tomato sauce, chili powder, salt, cayenne red pepper, and paprika.
4. Heat to a boil.
5. Reduce heat and cook uncovered for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. Stir in kidney beans and heat through.
White bean’n’ham soup Serves 4-5
The beans and ham in this soup create a thick, flavourful favourite for those cold days.
(simplyrecipes.com)
Ingredients: 2 cans (460 mL) white beans (great northern beans preferred) 2 medium carrots, diced
1 small onion, chopped
2 tbsp margarine
2¼ cups water
1½ cups cubed ham
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
1 bay leaf
Instructions: 1. Mash one can of beans and set aside.
2. Sauté carrots and onions with butter in a saucepan.
3. Stir in all other ingredients.
4. Heat through.
(seasaltwithfood.com)
Egg drop soup
Serves 4-5 Simple, yet classy.
Ingredients: 4 cups chicken bouillon1 egg
2 green onions, chopped
Instructions: 1. In a medium-sized pot, boil chicken bouillon.
2. Crack egg into bouillon, stirring constantly.
3. Add green onions.
Beef stew Serves 4-5
Stews may take longer than your average soup, but this one is totally worth the wait.
Instructions: 1. Place ingredients in a large glass baking dish.
2. Cover with foil and bake at 250°F for 5 hours.
Cheese and corn chowder Serves 4-5
Creamy and rich, the corn in this chowder adds a nice pop of colour. You can also experiment by adding a few spices for an extra kick of flavour.
onceuponacuttingboard.com
Ingredients: ½ cup water 2 cups potatoes, diced
1 cup carrots, sliced1 cup celery, chopped
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
2 cups cream-style canned corn
1½ cups milk
⅔ cup grated cheese
Instructions: 1. Combine water, potatoes, carrots, celery, salt, and pepper in saucepan.
2. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
3. Add corn and simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Add milk and cheese. Stir until cheese melts and chowder is heated through—do not boil.
Photos courtesy of simplyrecipes.com, Sea Salt with Food, Taste Food Blog, and The Curvy Carrot
NHL—The Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames engaged in a line brawl for the ages when the two rivals faced off on Saturday night. Eight players involved were issued game misconducts, and the two sides amassed a whopping 142 penalty minutes. Unsurprisingly, both squads now rank within the top five in the league for penalty minutes. Afterwards, Canucks Head Coach John Tortorella told his Flames counterpart Bob Hartley, to meet him after school near the teatherball court to settle things once and for all.
NFL—Richard Sherman wants the world to know that he is the best corner in the game. I think. I’m not sure. Actually, I’m sure. After the All-pro cornerback tipped the game-clinching interception into a teammate’s hands, he proceeded to launch into an epic post-game rant to Fox’s sideline reporter Erin Andrews. The Seattle Seahawks find themselves in the Super Bowl after dispatching hated rivals—the San Francisco 49ers. It is uncertain whether the Commissioner of the No Fun League, Roger Badell will issue a fine to Sherman for “not being boring.” The Seahawks will battle the AFC champion Denver Broncos in the big game after Peyton Manning decided to be Peyton Manning.
MLB—After a meeting with Toronto Mayor Rob Ford last week, New York Yankees third-baseman Alex Rodriguez, commented on his use of performance enhancing drugs saying, “Yes, I have used steroids. Am I an addict? No. Have I tried it? Probably in one of my drunken stupors.” With that, the league has decided to suspend A-Rod for the entire 2014 season, costing him his hefty $28 million paycheck. The notoriously thrifty Evil Empire rejoices at the thought of cutting salary and avoiding the luxury tax.
NBA—Kevin Durant’s 54-point night was overshadowed last week by the man taken one pick ahead of him, Greg Oden. The former Portland Trail Blazer had six points and two rebounds in just eight minutes, bringing his total career games played to just over one season in five years. Portland finally has a team worth supporting after being bitten repeatedly by the injury bug. The league is collectively waiting for the next time that the franchise chooses an oft-injured 7-footer over a future Hall-of-Famer, because twice isn’t enough.
Winter Olympics—Cool Runnings is back, mon! After a 12-year wait, the Jamaican bobsled team returns to the track for the 2014 Winter Olympics. While the program looks for funding to send it to Russia, the world waits, hoping to see the two-man team heat up the track as they look to take home Jamaica’s first Winter Olympics medal. A generation from now, the effects of this momentous occasion will be apparent as Jamaica will sweep bobsledding instead of Track and Field.
