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Know Your Athlete, Sports

Know Your Olympic Athletes

by Sarah Farnand, Sophia Gorbounov on

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Liam Gill

Among the many talented athletes at the 2022 Olympics is 18-year-old snowboarder Liam Gill. Gill represents the Dehcho Dene as a member of the Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ First Nation and is the only First Nations athlete on the Canadian Olympic team. 

Gill, who was originally an alternate for the snowboarding team, will be replacing Derek Livingston who was injured during training. Gill feels the weight of responsibility associated with competing in the place of an athlete for whom he has so much respect.

“Derek has been my mentor and idol in my journey of training in halfpipe this past year, and replacing him makes me want to make him proud,” Gill wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune. “I really want to land a run for him, [because] I know he will be cheering me on.” 

Livingston’s injury came just two days before the team was set to leave for Beijing. Gill remembers the moment he received the news—he immediately had to start packing and preparing to leave given the quick turnaround. 

“It was late morning the day before the snowboarding team had to leave. My mom woke me up and told me the news that Derek had been injured and I was going to replace him,” Gill wrote. “My first reaction was honestly being sad for Derek. I said, ‘No no no no.’ I knew how much Derek wanted to go and was hurting for him. I called Derek right away and talked to him while packing.”

The next day, Gill was on his way to his first Olympics, set to be the second-youngest member of the snowboarding team. Although he has never competed at the Olympic level, Gill has had other experience on the international stage.

In 2020, Gill represented Canada at the Winter Youth Olympic Games, where he finished eighth in the big air category, 11th in slopestyle, and 13th in halfpipe. During the 2020-2021 season, Gill was selected for both the slopestyle and halfpipe junior national teams, and this season, he moved up to be on the senior national halfpipe team. While he enjoys both events, he found his groove on the halfpipe.

“I always competed in both [halfpipe and slopestyle], but I was progressing very quickly in pipe and was motivated to catch up in my halfpipe skills compared to my slopestyle and big air skills,” Gill wrote. 

Ever since he shifted his focus to the halfpipe, his skills developed rapidly.

“Learning new tricks was motivating and progression came quickly,” Gill shared. “Halfpipe is a challenge, doing runs is terrifying and you really respect the riders that do it for that reason.” 

This year’s snowboard halfpipe event will run from Feb. 9 to Feb. 11 and will consist of two qualifying rounds and three finals rounds. Gill hopes to use this opportunity to try to land more advanced tricks. 
“I want to land a clean run, and then I also have a couple bigger tricks that I would like to put down, maybe one or a couple double 1260s,” Gill wrote. “[But] I don’t feel like I have to look out for any specific athlete, as we all try to cheer for each other and want each other to put the best runs we can down.”

(Liam Gill / Instagram)

Even with the strict COVID-19 restrictions put in place, Gill’s time at the Olympics has been both busy and rewarding so far. Though he enjoys going to the Olympic village to participate in the games or activities, nothing compares to the feeling of competing alongside his teammates.  

“My favourite part overall has to be being on snow with the rest of the Canadian team,” Gill wrote.

As the only Indigenous athlete on the snowboarding team, Gill hopes his performance will serve as a source of inspiration and pride for his community.

“I’m honoured to represent First Nations and Indigenous people in sport and hope to make them proud,” Gill wrote. “Hopefully I can inspire the youth up north in Liidlii Kue and all the Dene and other Indigenous communities to follow their passions and do what they love.”

Lilah Fear

London-raised Lilah Fear took up skating the moment she could walk. Currently a U3 Arts student at McGill, Fear will be representing Great Britain in ice dancing at this year’s 2022 Winter Olympics, competing with her partner, Scottish ice dancer Lewis Gibson. 

Speaking with The McGill Tribune, Fear looked back on the upbringing that steered her toward the ice rink. 

“Both of my parents are Canadian and there is a history of figure skating and ice hockey in my family,” Fear said. “I started group lessons in primary school, going to Queens Ice Rink in London weekly with my friends.”

Quickly, Fear turned her focus to ice dancing, where skaters dance on ice with a partner, and no jumps or throws are allowed. In contrast to figure skating, ice dancing pairs emphasize fluid, ballroom dancing-like motions, without the adrenaline overload of flying through the air on skates. 

“I did both free skate and ice dance, but always gravitated toward ice dance,” Fear said. “I didn’t love jumping and really didn’t love falling!”

Living in London afforded her a wealth of opportunities to pursue her talents

“Great Britain has an amazing solo ice dance circuit which allowed me to work on the technique and performance side on my own until I was lucky enough to find a partner,” Fear said. “I had one partner before teaming up with Lewis.”

A powerful and dedicated dancer, Fear also brings her work ethic to her studies. A part-time student studying psychology and social entrepreneurship at McGill, Fear believes that with good time management, it is possible to be both a world-class athlete and a university student.

“I have really enjoyed my studies and learning, and feel that having both aspects in my life is really enriching,” Fear said. “Sometimes [my studies feel] like a heavy load, especially during the competitive season, but […] I have also met some wonderful friends through McGill and am so thankful for these connections.”

Spending time in Montreal has allowed Fear to further hone her skills. She explained that her group training at the Ice Academy fosters unconditional support rather than rivalry.

“Within the realm of ice dance, we are lucky to train at the Ice Academy of Montreal, where we are surrounded by many of the top teams in the world,” Fear explained. “Not only are we inspired by them, we have an incredible coaching team that works to bring the best out of all the skaters.”

(Jonathan Nackstrand / AFP)

Like many athletes, making it to the Olympics had been a lifelong dream for Fear. She will be joining McGill alumna Tina Garabedian in the ice dancing category, who is competing for Armenia with her partner Simon Proulx-Sénécal. In the competition, each pair of dancers must execute several elements, including a lift, spin, step sequence, and turn sequence. There are also time limits, and dancers lose points if they exceed them. 

Every athlete, Fear explained, is going into this year’s Olympics with their own unique goals in mind. Many have been working toward these aspirations for months, and even years. Team spirit and morale has remained high across all events, and Fear plans to cheer for Great Britain in competitions like bobsled, speed skating, and curling.

Reflecting on her own goals, Fear hopes to highlight the spark between her and Gibson, and to deliver an emotional performance as ice dancing partners. 

“At these Olympics, we are aiming to deliver two performances that reflect how hard we have worked and the training that is in place,” Fear said. “We want to soak up the electric atmosphere, to share in this journey with athletes from around the world.”

Commentary, Opinion

Anti-Black racism has no place in Nowruz celebrations

by Ghazal Azizi on

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Every year, Persians meticulously celebrate the exact second that the sun passes the celestial equator, as the spring equinox marks the start of a new year, Nowruz. Nowruz, and most of the traditions that accompany it, have direct roots in Zoroastrianism, one of the oldest religions in the world. Yet, there is one practice with a backstory that remains disputed within the Persian community.  

Haji Firuz is a folklore character who heralds the holidays, wearing a red minstrel costume and most notably, a blackened face. Now, ahead of the coming Nowruz and especially in honour of Black History Month, Persians must admit that Haji Firuz is a racist caricature and must finally acknowledge the forgotten history of slavery in Iran. 

On the eve of the last Wednesday of the year, Persians celebrate a Zoroastrian practice called Chaharshanbe Suri by jumping over fire to cleanse themselves of sickness and evil. Traditionally, Haji Firuz is believed to have dark skin from the soot of this fire. Yet, this superficial explanation ignores the nuances of his persona that have direct links to slavery. 

The man dressed as Haji Firuz carries a tambourine and sings a popular jingle: 

“My Master, greetings!

My Master, hold your head up!

My Master, why don’t you laugh?

It’s Nowruz, it’s one day a year!”

Not only does this rhyme reflect his status as an enslaved jester, but Haji Firuz hails from Siah-bazi theatre, which is itself a racist form of entertainment. Siah-bazi, which translates to “playing  black,”  is no different than the minstrel shows in the United States. Much like how stock characters in those shows mocked enslaved people, characters in Siah-bazi perpetuate a lewd and clownish caricature of Black people.

Those who deny this anti-Blackness continue to excuse Haji Firuz as a centuries old beloved icon who spreads joy during the festivities. Some defenders of Haji Firuz reference misreadings of the famous Persian epic, Shahnameh, as the literary source of the character. Not only do these claims lack factual and historical backing, but they are also tired attempts at erasing Iran’s involvement in slave trade during the Qajar dynasty. 

Throughout the late Qajar period, historians estimate that one to two million people from East Africa were enslaved and brought to Iran, where slavery remained legal until Reza Shah of the Pahlavi dynasty finally abolished it in 1929. There exists a temptation to repaint slavery in Iran as a form of mild domestic servitude that was not based on race, especially in comparison to the United States. Yet, even if it may threaten the national pride of some Persians, racialized forced labour existed in Iran in multiple forms, including eunuchism and concubinage. It would be an absurd irony to talk of Iran’s history devoid of any reference to slavery. Haji Firuz is a product of Siah-bazi, which itself is the aftermath to years of racialized slavery. Appreciating Iran’s rich history and criticizing its wrongs are not and should not be mutually exclusive.  

Along with the erasure of slavery, the Black Iranian community has often been overlooked. The media’s lack of Afro-Iranian representation has led to an illusion of racial homogeneity in Iran. In 2015, German-Iranian photographer Mahdi Ehsaei created a series featuring photographs of Black Iranians in the Hormozgan province. The name of the collection, Afro-Iran: The Unknown Minority, is enough to demonstrate the neglect experienced by this community. Even so, while the Afro-Iranian community continues to be perceived as less Iranian, their cultural contributions are often viewed as Iranian products. Bandari music and dances, for example, are repeatedly stripped of their Afro-Iranian origins. If Persians enjoy Afro-Iranian art, they must also recognize the presence of Afro-Iranians; they must stand up against anti-Black racism, and they must denounce Haji Firuz and other forms of blackface like Siah-bazi. 

So, as you prepare your Haft-Seen arrangements this year, celebrate Chaharshanbe Suri, and play Bandari music during Sizdah-be-dar, remember and remind others that anti-Black racism has no place in our Nowruz festivities or anywhere else in our culture. 

Football, Sports

The legacy of Tom Brady: His impact on the past, present, and future of football

by Jake Wagman on

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Amidst the excitement of the National Football League (NFL) playoffs, rumours began to circulate about the retirement of one of the most talented players to ever step foot on the field: Tom Brady. To the shock of many fans, the announcement was made official on Feb. 1, when the quarterback confirmed his retirement from the NFL via Instagram. 

Brady wrote a heartfelt message to his fans, teammates, and anyone else who had an impact on his career in an eight-page post.

“I’ve done a lot of reflecting this past week and have asked myself difficult questions,” Brady wrote in his announcement. “And I am so proud of what we have achieved. My teammates, coaches, fellow competitors, and fans deserve 100 [per cent] of me, but right now, it’s best I leave the field of play to the next generation of dedicated and committed athletes.” 

Anybody who knows anything about sports knows Tom Brady. The debate over the greatest athlete of all time is always a heavily contested one; however, most football fans staunchly believe it to be Brady. Being held to such a high standard is both a blessing and a curse: Brady has shown up year after year dominating the NFL, but this level of success does not come easy. Any sport, especially at a professional level, is gruelling on both the body and the mind, and his accomplishments only add extra pressure to maintain his stellar record. Perhaps, after 22 years, Brady wanted to end on a strong note with the most passing yards in the league this regular season—a whopping 5316—or perhaps he just wanted that monumental pressure lifted off his shoulders. 

Since being drafted by the New England Patriots in 2000, Brady has never given less than his absolute best for the teams and organizations he’s played for. With his countless accolades, it is difficult to make a valid argument denying Tom Brady as the greatest athlete to ever play the sport of football. The statistics are there to see: 15-time pro bowl competitor, three-time all pro team member, three-time MVP, and perhaps most notably, seven-time Super Bowl champion. Adding on, over the span of the 20-year Brady-Belichick era, when the Patriots were playing at home in the regular season and leading at halftime, their record was 106-1. 

Brady’s impact extended past the football world, bringing the athlete up to role model status. Patrick Domsa, U1 Management, felt that though Brady’s initial entry into the NFL was met with many doubts, his perseverance and dedication to his craft propelled him forward. 

“He came into the league not really having anything going for him besides the underdog mentality and his drive to succeed,” Domsa said. “He wasn’t an insane arm talent, [and] he couldn’t run like Steve Young or Randall Cunningham, but he still ended up proving everyone wrong, […] which is a pretty great message for kids.”

Nobody has dominated the game like Brady, especially at his age, with his last Super Bowl win at 43 years old. Winning the same number of Super Bowl titles in his twenties as he did in his forties, he’s demonstrated that skill does not necessarily decline with age. 

Brady has been met with nothing but support from the world of football after his decision to retire. Fans like Luke Dawick, U1 Education, continue to celebrate the talented player’s accomplishments. 

“When thinking of Tom Brady, you think of a winner, a leader,” Dawick wrote to the Tribune. “Someone that not just athletes but anyone can look up to. He broke almost every record that a quarterback can have. There will never be another Tom Brady to play in the NFL.”

With his passion for the sport, it is likely that Brady will continue to be involved with the industry in other respects. Whether it be in analytics, management, or another position, many doors remain open for the football veteran. 

Tom Brady is not only the most decorated athlete in football, but one of the most decorated athletes in the history of sports. His retirement is well earned, and his legacy will continue to make an impact on both football and sports as a whole for many years to come. 

Off the Board, Opinion

Back to the tailor

by Taneeshaa Pradhan on

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No matter where I live or how old I get, I never escape that one ill-fated afternoon every two weeks when my family declares that we are going to the tailor shop. As a toddler, a trip to this seemingly mundane part of town was an uphill battle––one where I turned into the poster child for restlessness. I fidgeted near the head tailor’s standing desk, which was always covered in a coarse beige cloth. While my mother discussed her latest fashion fixation with the head tailor, I always found the sights frustratingly boring and whined about wanting food or water. 

Childhood irritation fed by five-hour wait times and custom-made pieces soon came to an end as I gave in to the grandeur of the Indian tailor shop. With my toddler days behind me, my clothing preferences developed from multi-coloured ghagras with mirrors sewn into them to lavender blouses embroidered with flowers. For every new phase, my friendly neighbourhood tailor and his team of artists were ready to embrace change and create a new masterpiece.

Growing up, my local tailor shop had two floors, with the second hidden away from the customer’s gaze. Influenced by years of reading fantasy novels, I imagined a large sewing machine at the centre of the room surrounded by the desks of tailoring wizards who lorded over their personal projects. 

While they may not harness magical powers, or own abnormally large machines, tailors have been a vital presence in Indian communities due to a commonly held belief that ready-to-stitch fabrics are better than fully stitched garments. Tailors were a staple in Indian neighbourhoods because they served every social class and religion, exempting their profession from the rigid hierarchies of Indian society. Unlike the gradual disappearance of independent tailors in Western countries, India has a rich network of small-scale tailor shops that serve the local clientele.

Local tailor shops create special bonds that blossom when two people are inside the establishment. I found a friend in every little girl who stood behind her mother while she haggled over the price of stitching a new sari or fixing an old outfit. Meanwhile, mothers shared quick looks of exasperation at their cranky children and the increased tailoring costs. Although I never spoke to my younger companions, their presence was enough to remind me that this is a communal experience. 

Across South Asia, bespoke tailoring has made its way into the closets of millions of wedding-goers. In India, for example, the tailoring industry boomed, courtesy of a decentralized garment industry with no universal sizing chart. While the clothing industry has experienced a rapid increase in production, tailoring still remains at the heart of creating unique Indian traditional clothing for marriages and milestones alike. 

With its origins in making clothes accessible to different body types, the tailoring industry encourages customers to alter and customize their clothes instead of seeking out weight loss programs and diets. As South Asia continues to grapple with the aftermath of colonization, media representation constantly works against this message and prioritizes thin and fair-skinned bodies in its conception of beauty.

Tailoring is a refreshing escape from the cultural obsession with imagining an ‘ideal’ body type. When the restrictive nature of the fashion industry caught up with me, my admiration for the beautiful patterns on the shelves of a tailor shop became distorted. I felt an overwhelming sense of dread toward stuffy dressing rooms, measuring tapes, and my reflection. 

Luckily, fixing my relationship with my body is a life-long journey, and it began as soon as I stopped attaching moral judgment to the fact that my body will never mirror the sizing chart of stores with “ready-made” traditional clothing. It might have gone underlooked in the past, but tailoring is more than just a commercial venture or a hub for social connection—it stitches together a better reality where clothes fit the body, and not the other way around.

McGill, News

Black students and organizations reflect on Black History Month ahead of the annual programming

by Elena Lee on

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February 2022 marks the sixth official celebration of Black History Month at McGill, though members of Montreal’s Black community, including student groups at McGill and Concordia University, have been leading the occasion for more than two decades. This year’s celebrations were organized by the Office of the Provost and Vice-Principal Academic (OPVPA) in partnership with the Faculty of Science and will include four main OPVPA events and more than 10 general events spearheaded by students, staff, and faculty. 

Since 2020, McGill’s Equity Office has partnered with a different faculty each year to organize Black History Month events. This year, the Faculty of Science teamed up with student groups such as the Black Students’ Network (BSN), Black Students Financial Society, and the African Studies Students’ Association.

In addition to events organized by the McGill administration, the McGill African Students’ Society (MASS) hosts their annual Africa Speaks Conference, which covers a variety of contemporary Afrocentric issues, and aims to expand discussions about African society and culture beyond the oft-discussed topic of “development.”

According to Joy Sebera, U2 Arts, this year’s theme is “Africa in the Media.” As MASS vice-resident Education, Sebera is the lead organizer of the Africa Speaks Conference 2022, which will explore the evolution of Africa’s creative industries.

“‘Africa in the Media’ aims to engage content creators, authors, entrepreneurs, and more in conversation about African media and art as well as the African presence, or lack thereof, in Western media,” said Sebera. 

Hassanatou Koulibaly, MASS president and U2 Arts & Science, appreciated the administration’s inclusion of student groups in the planning process of Black History Month 2022 was welcomed, but says that more needs to be done to spread the word to the wider McGill community.

“I think generally we appreciate the efforts made and the events planned and the consideration for student groups and the activities we may have individually planned,” Koulibaly said. “But we feel that visibility and awareness of these events definitely need to be worked on so that students and faculty at McGill are aware.”

Beulah Omo-Idowu, U3 Science, however, believes the problem extends beyond a simple lack of awareness about Black History Month. Omo-Idowu told the Tribune she had attempted to organize a Black History Month movie night for La Citadelle residence, where she is a floor fellow, but that it never came to fruition.

“People don’t like to be confronted with conversations about race, because, especially in spaces like McGill where it emphasises how diverse it is and how diverse we are, no one ever wants to examine where maybe they’re not being exactly inclusive,” Omo-Idowu said. 

When it comes to McGill as an institution, James McGill’s racist and colonial history, alongside the administration’s efforts to downplay it, have been well–documented and protested. While McGill’s Action Plan to Address Anti-Black Racism 2020-2025 discusses the university’s problematic glorification of James McGill, the Strategic Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Plan 2020-2025 makes no direct mention of his connection to the enslavement of Black people.

“[McGill is] lacking in terms of actually doing things outside of February,” Omo-Idowu said. “[Black History Month] celebrations are nice but [in regards to] the policies in this school, […] at least in my program, I have not seen any Black staff or professors.”

There remain few Black faculty and students at McGill. As of September 2020, only 14 of approximately 1,750 tenure-track and tenured professors—0.8 per cent—were Black, and during the Spring 2019 convocation ceremony, a total of 40 Black students accepted diplomas on stage. Black students and staff, who often report feelings of isolation and lack of representation, would benefit from a designated space in which they could bond and interact, suggested Koulibaly. 

“I think also creating a space for discussion with non-Black persons at McGill in a less formal setting than a town hall, for example, would also help bridge a gap at McGill,” Koulibaly added. “Beyond just the month of February, it would be nice to still see some of the excellence that exists in the Black community recognized.”

Arts & Entertainment, Pop Rhetoric

The renaissance of Andrew Garfield

by Dana Prather on

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2022 is, without question, an excellent time to be Andrew Garfield. At 38 years old, the British-American actor is having a remarkable resurgence in his career: In the past 12 months alone, he’s starred as real-life televangelist Jim Bakker in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, reprised his role as Peter Parker in the Marvel/Sony blockbuster movie Spider-Man: No Way Home, and is garnering Oscar Buzz for his turn as Jonathan Larson in the film adaptation of the late Rent-creator’s semi-autobiographical musical tick…tick…boom!.

So what’s responsible for sending this fan-favourite actor back into Hollywood’s stratosphere? The answer is simple: A perfect combination of vulnerability, a wealth of critically acclaimed performances, and an unexpected boost from the TikTok algorithm.

Garfield’s breakout role came in 2010’s The Social Network, the fast-paced origin story of the world’s largest social media company. He played the ousted Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, an embittered but likeable counterpart to Jesse Eisenberg’s cerebral, arrogant Mark Zuckerberg. Though the story necessitates that he play second-fiddle to Eisenberg, Garfield’s acting steals the show, and his now-famous, “Sorry my Prada’s at the cleaners, along with my hoodie and my fuck-you flip flops” outburst remains one of the movie’s best-loved scenes 12 years on. 

While The Social Network earned Garfield critical acclaim, The Amazing Spider-Man made him a household name. Stepping into the iconic dual role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man meant filling some big shoes, especially considering that original Spider-Man, Tobey Maguire, had only hung up his Spidey suit five years earlier. Full of witty one-liners and palpable chemistry with co-star-turned-girlfriend Emma Stone, Garfield’s Peter Parker proved a more suave version than Maguire’s. Still, reactions to the first two instalments were lukewarm from fans and critics alike, and plans for The Amazing Spider-Man 3 were ultimately cancelled. Between fan loyalty to the original and the immense popularity of the latest reboot starring Tom Holland, Garfield was left as the mostly forgotten middle child of the live-action Spider-Man lineage. However, his reappearance as Peter Parker in No Way Home sparked renewed interest in both The Amazing Spider-Man franchise and Garfield’s acting career as a whole.

Recently, TikTok’s “For You Page” has become inundated with scenes from his time as Spider-Man, videos of people lip synching to his Eduardo Saverin outburst, and clips emulating the frenetic energy of his tick…tick..boom! musical numbers. As a result, both his recent work and his formerly overlooked career years populated with gems like his Oscar-nominated role in Hacksaw Ridge and Tony award-winning performance in the revival of Angels in America have received renewed widespread attention. On a platform that feeds on our increasingly short attention spans, the fact that these longer, Garfield-inspired clips garner so much attention speaks volumes about the actor’s engaging performances.

Garfield’s performances aren’t the only thing grabbing his ever-growing fanbase’s attention; his vulnerability is equal parts endearing and compelling. Compared to the banter and charming anecdote-filled talk-show interviews common of most Hollywood actors, Garfield is unflinchingly honest and unexpectedly sincere. In a recent interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, he opened up about how playing mortality-obsessed Jonathan Larson helped him reckon with the recent passing of his mother.

“I hope this grief stays with me,” he said, tearing up. “Because it’s all the unexpressed love I didn’t get to tell her.” 

This earnest admission has been viewed over 1.3 million times, demonstrating just how far his vulnerability goes.

After such a whirlwind of a year, some might question where Andrew Garfield’s career will go next. If this powerful mix of dedicated performances, loyal fanbase, and penchant for vulnerability keeps up, there’s nowhere to go but up. 

McGill, News

Reddit posts show student restlessness and deliberations about dropping out of McGill

by Sabrina Nelson on

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On Jan. 30, Chloe Legault, U1 Arts, made a reddit post asking whether it was too late to request a leave of absence due to her mental health. Subsequent discussion threads posted to the McGill subreddit have revealed that a number of students are considering dropping out, deferring, or taking a leave of absence due to mental health issues. 

Simon Kidd, U4 Arts and a moderator for the Reddit thread, has noticed the number of posts related to mental health issues steadily increase over the pandemic—though he says they have recently decreased since the return to in-person teaching. Posts from students contemplating dropping out were nothing new, however: Kidd says they were only frequent during stressful academic periods of the semester prior to the pandemic, whereas now they trend throughout the year. 

“Often mental health, physical health, or loss in the family is the driving force behind dropping out,” Kidd wrote in a message to The McGill Tribune. “The pandemic has led to an uptick of posts with users expressing their desire to drop out of McGill.”

Though most of her classes are currently delivered in a hybrid format, Legault says she is experiencing burnout, and that taking a break from school would be beneficial for her mental health. She says that McGill has not been very accommodating throughout her struggles with depression and anxiety, citing a lack of accessibility to the Wellness Hub.   

“I wish I could say the university is accommodating,” Legault said. “They offer the idea, ‘Here are some mental health resources on the Hub,’ but usually the counselors or psychiatrists are too busy.”

Olivia Bornyi, U2 Arts and the mental health outreach coordinator for the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), told the Tribune in an email that she, too, has noticed an increase in burnout and hopelessness due to the unique circumstances of the pandemic. 

“I think everyone is tired of feeling uncertain and having to constantly adapt,” Bornyi wrote. “I definitely believe that students feel overwhelmed during online classes with an ever-growing workload, not to mention other responsibilities such as clubs or part-time jobs.”

Bornyi noted that difficulty accessing mental health services has only compounded the struggle.

“Accessing student mental health services has been hard, with both the Wellness Hub having long wait times and provincial services lacking in accommodation for students that need immediate assistance,” Bornyi wrote. “Throughout Mental Health Action Week, the general sentiment seemed to be that people were feeling lonely and missing social interaction.”

Frédérique Mazerolle, a McGill media relations officer, stated in an email to the Tribune that the university had not observed a rise in university withdrawals throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“Fall 2021 enrollment (39,267 students) is comparable to Fall 2020 (39,736 students) and Fall 2019 (39,664 students),” Mazerolle wrote. “In fact, withdrawal numbers are, since the first semester impacted by the pandemic (Winter 2020), down compared to the terms preceding the pandemic.”

Legault has, however, abandoned the idea of taking a leave of absence. Since the Arts OASIS notes that the request must be made before the withdrawal with a full refund deadline, she assumed that it was too late. 

“There is no definitive statement from McGill that I can find, but what I gathered is that you can probably get a leave of absence for mental health issues provided that you get the proper documentation,” Legault wrote. “If McGill wants to be more progressive about mental health issues, they must be more forward and transparent about [leaves of absence].”Students seeking support can contact the SSMU Mental Health team, and Keep.meSAFE. Students can also consult the McGill mental health webpage.

Science & Technology

Projecting global temperatures more accurately

by Sonja Soo on

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Estimating global climate change with any degree of accuracy is no easy feat. Although climate models all agree that global temperatures are increasing, the rate and extent to which predictions differ leaves us with uncertainty. For example, it is unclear when the Earth will surpass key temperature thresholds, such as the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit set out by the Paris Agreement, past which a slew of negative climate impacts will become inevitable. 

A group of scientists at McGill found a new way to project climate change more accurately using new mathematical equations that incorporate the Earth’s energy balance. These results were recently published in the journal Earth System Dynamics in a study led by former graduate student Roman Procyk and professor Shaun Lovejoy from the Department of Physics. 

“It is common in geophysics to start with a mathematical result or model and then try to find an application,” Lovejoy said in an interview with the McGill Tribune. “I proceeded in the opposite manner.” 

Early in his career, Lovejoy focussed on discovering scaling relationships between large and small structures, such as weather systems and clouds. This symmetry principle can be seen in objects such as “fractals,” which have patterns that, when zoomed in, repeat exactly the same pattern ad infinitum. For example, a tree has branches that also have smaller branches, and those branches have even smaller branches, all of which resemble trees at different scales. Understanding these scaling relationships in the atmosphere helped Lovejoy discover the macroweather regime—an intermediate period that is distinct from short-term weather, or atmospheric conditions in periods of less than 10 days, and long-term climate, or atmospheric conditions over decades. 

While other models projected climate by simulating weather in the long term, Lovejoy and his group projected their climate model based on this macroweather regime. To simulate weather, researchers must take many details into account, such as the shapes of clouds, altogether resulting in a huge computational burden. But by making the model directly in the macroweather regime, these details become irrelevant because variations in these details will average out over a long period of time.

Additionally, this new model incorporates equations for the Earth’s energy balance—an energy exchange between the solar energy input from the sun and thermal energy output to outer space. However, because of greenhouse gases which trap heat due to their molecular structures, there is less energy leaving than coming in, disrupting this balance and contributing to global warming. The key aspect of this new model is that it takes into account this extra energy stored on Earth by applying principles of scaling. Adding in the collective behaviour of other atmospheric structures such as clouds and weather, Lovejoy and his group were able to project climate temperatures to 2100.

 “Our projections overlap a huge amount with the IPCC projections,” Lovejoy said, referring to the projections used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “They fundamentally agree with each other, but our uncertainty range is quite smaller.”

This means that there is a narrower timeframe for reaching the 1.5 C limit. To date, human activity has caused global warming to reach 1 C above pre-industrial times. Many people have witnessed and suffered the effects of climate change in the last few years, with wildfires in California and severe floods in Europe. Lower-income countries have experienced food insecurity, increased poverty, and climate migration as a result of these extreme weather changes. Exceeding the 1.5 C threshold would mean that heatwaves, storms, and floods will become more and more frequent.

Climate projections have important implications for individuals’ everyday decision making, from planning what crops to grow to choosing where to live. At the infrastructure level, climate predictions guide mitigation policies, such as for managing floods or building seawalls. With the smaller uncertainty range projected by this new model, Lovejoy says that this means less “wiggle room” for politicians when it comes to reaching their targets—policies will have to be more stringent about reaching their goals.

With these promising results, his group hopes to extend this model to make regional climate projections. But first, they aim to further understand and improve the model by trying techniques such as testing its accuracy against satellite data. 

“This [model] is the beginning of something that will be going on for a long time,” Lovejoy said. “It’s going to be really interesting times.” 

Art, Arts & Entertainment

‘Landscapes, Colour and a Portrait’ exhibit adds colour and vitality to winter days

by Anna Berglas on

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Landscapes, Colour and a Portrait is a one-room exhibit currently hosted by Bradley Ertaskiran, a gallery nestled in the Saint-Henri area. Featuring pieces painted by Toronto-based Canadian artist Kim Dorland, the exhibit portrays 13 forests and a single portrait. As traditional depictions of winter landscapes are often seas of grays, the brightly coloured oil paintings of foliage and sky are an especially compelling collection. 

Dorland employs three-dimensional aspects of visual art to create a diverse array of texture-based effects, which add dimensionality—literally—to the viewing experience. Many of the artworks invite viewers into a dense, deep forest.  For instance, his large painting Black depicts a forest in monochrome black, with brush strokes creating tree-like shapes amongst what is otherwise a homogeneous canvas. Additional techniques are featured in Orange and Pink, which has globs of thick paint that curl downwards to resemble shrubbery. In The Fence, the paint is a translucent wash which reveals the canvas underneath.

Contrasting colours are also a focal point of Dorland’s work. In Pink and White, for instance, a neon pink background affronts the eyes, and the whiteness of the trees contrasts with a psychedelic sky behind it. The landscapes aren’t realistic, nor can they be tied to specific locations, but they nevertheless possess an air of nostalgia for a viewer familiar with the Canadian winterscape. The depth of paint strokes, as well as their wild direction, is reminiscent of thick foliage. The absolute white emerging from harsh colour is similar to the blinding reflectivity of freshly fallen snow. 

Viewers can then turn their attention to the uneasiness present in many paintings, which surfaces through the tangles of brushstrokes and unnatural neons. As written in the exhibit description, Dorland’s landscape follows the stakes of the climate emergency from vague concern to approaching palpable reality. In light of this helpful interpretive guide, one can see an undercurrent of climate crisis-related panic running through many of Dorland’s pieces. A particularly striking example is Smoke, which depicts the sky above a burning forest. At the bottom of the painting, the top of a black treeline lies beneath a red sky with trails of white smoke. Rather than drawing the viewer’s eyes to the forest below, the smoke situates the viewer’s perspective into the atmosphere, where the smoke from forest fires, which are ironically also often exacerbated by climate change, further contribute to the greenhouse effect. In Smoke, Dorland makes subtle, but poignant, social commentary: Just as a fire rages beyond the painting’s frame, the forces propelling climate change, such as the emission of greenhouse gases and building of pipelines, are invisible to many. 

The final photo, if viewers circle the room, is a portrait of a girl called Lori. She is bisected by different colours, and her face is demolished with thick paint smears. The brushstrokes leave traces of the canvas underneath, and there is a troubling sense of incompleteness as the featureless face confronts viewers at eye level. 

The masses of oil pants Dorland works with artfully impress depth and chaos to the forests and Lori. The journey from deep pink to pure black to olive green is a reflection of the turbulence witnessed in the environment today. The more time spent in Landscapes, Colour and a Portrait, the more the paintings reveal themselves to be a dreamlike meditation on the tensions of our relationship with the outside world. It is a thought-provoking and moving experience.

The art gallery is free and open to the public without reservation and can be visited during 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, and 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays, until Feb. 26.

Album Reviews, Arts & Entertainment, Music

Saba’s ‘Few Good Things’ is a musical scrapbook

by Isabella González on

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Four years after the release of his second studio album, the pain-ridden CARE FOR ME, Chicago-based rapper Saba has returned with Few Good Things, released on Feb. 4. This new project takes a refreshing step away from the despair of its predecessor, with Saba reflecting upon what he loves and appreciates in his life through his lyrical storytelling. Although the songs lack musical cohesiveness, Saba’s exploration of new themes and emotions makes up for it, creating a stunning album packed with stories of his life.

For most of the 48-minute project, Saba remains in his comfort zone of melodic beats and rhythmic flow. In “Still,” guest features Smino and 6LACK flow well with Saba as he explains his fast-paced life, over airy percussion and a mellow bass line. However, Saba does occasionally venture into uncharted territory. Unlike his more mellow tracks in past albums, Saba successfully creates a joyful tone in “Fearmonger.” Here, he juxtaposes the bright beat of the song with an amusing monotone flow, a perfect addition to the playful character of the track. While Saba’s mix of style is generally pleasant, his experiments with rhythm and percussion in “A Simpler Time” are sloppy at best. Saba’s verses provide some stability in the song, but overall, the beat feels disjointed, with just a few ad libs, drum beats, and sound effects thrown around randomly.

The lack of sonic consistency in Few Good Things ideally paints Saba’s changing emotions and perspectives, despite the new musical endeavours not always succeeding. Saba contrasts hard-hitting, drill inspired songs like “Survivor’s Guilt,” which vividly details his adolescence in disadvantaged, marginalized Black communities, with ambient pieces like “2012,” where he candidly reflects on his meaningful and affectionate childhood. Thematically, the album is very consistent, exploring the topics of money, gratitude, and fame. On “Make Believe,” one of the most stunning songs off the album, Saba raps solemnly over fluttering synths about making it in the music industry: “Cause Black boys on this side of town not supposed to be on / the front page of the newspaper / For doing greater.”

Few Good Things feels like a scrapbook. Saba experiments with new sounds and instrumentation, sometimes succeeding and other times falling short. Although the album is slightly disjointed, overall it is an honest reflection of Saba’s emotions, capturing him doing what feels right musically. 

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