Latest News

Features

To shred or not to shred

by Sophia Gorbounov on

More in Features:

When I reached the ripe age of three, my dad plopped me into my first pair of skis. As I slipped and slid down the bunny hills, there was no way of knowing that skiing, and later snowboarding, would become my only hobby.

Growing up in Ontario, winters were an unavoidable yearly occurrence. Even bundled in snow pants and three different scarves, I dreaded the cold. I greatly preferred summer to winter and counted the weeks until the temperature reached double digits. But, when I was eight years old, I made the switch from skiing to snowboarding. Suddenly, my enjoyment of winter increased, and I had something to look forward to during the cold months.

Every year, my family went on ski trips to New England. The mountains were big, and the snow was plentiful, allowing my younger self to learn and perfect her snowboarding. After many falls and a few near-death experiences, I became surer on my feet (or rather, one long foot). My standing-to-falling ratio steadily increased while my passion for the sport grew. I was finally on par with my older brother’s skiing speed and I started looking forward to the weeks spent on the mountain surrounded by snow.

With everyone in my family skiing in different comfort zones, I was often left to face the slopes alone. However, snowboarding on my own did not hinder the times I spent carving down hills. The current pandemic has put a long pause on many sports, especially team sports, but snowboarding has remained a source of solace and consistent bliss, even as the rest of my world continues to change every day.

Winter sports are a privilege I was lucky enough to have. Moving to Montreal, I learned about the numerous skiing and snowboarding communities at McGill and throughout Quebec. Student groups, like the McGill Outdoors Club and the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Ski and Snowboard Club, also offer discounts to offset the costs of these activities. Even if skill levels vary between every person, the love and enjoyment of winter sports is something we can all share.

News, SSMU

Divest McGill presents progress on Metro Inc. boycott at SSMU Legislative Council

by Margaret Askey on

More in News:

Three student groups presented the missions of their respective organizations at the Jan. 14 Students’ Society of McGill University’s (SSMU) Legislative Council meeting. Divest McGill shared their ongoing boycott campaign to pressure McGill’s Board of Governors (BoG) to divest from the top 200 fossil fuel companies, McGill Students for Peace and Disarmament (SPD) presented a new research policy, and McGill Student Transport (MUST) put forward an application to become an official Independent Student Group (ISG).   

Samuel Helguero, 2L Law and representative of Divest McGill, explained the organization’s boycott of Metro Inc. and its various affiliated chains in Montreal. He clarified the relationship between McGill University, Metro Inc., and divestment.

“Divest is engaging in a boycott of Metro over its dissatisfaction [with] the McGill Board of Governors’ inability to pass a motion to [divest from] the fossil fuel industry,” Helguero said. “On the Board of Governors sits Vice-Chair Maryse Bertrand, who also earns a retainer of $120,000 and $500,000 in shares on the corporate board of Metro Inc. We are attempting to target […] her financial and professional interests in order to pressure her into supporting divestment.” 

Helguero was optimistic about the boycott’s effectiveness.

“We have two possible [results in mind],” Helguero said. “[Bertrand] can either reconsider her stance on McGill’s investments, or she can step down from the Board of Governors. I think both would be very fruitful in terms of promoting divestment at the university, as both would show members of the BoG that there are consequences to [fossil fuel investments].”

Divest McGill will present a motion to the SSMU Legislative Council later in January to encourage the student body to participate in boycott efforts.

SPD then presented a policy proposal that would require professors and departments at McGill to declare the potential applications of research to military weapons technology. Lia Holla, U2 Arts and Science and SPD representative, explained the policy’s potential impact and its goals.

“The SPD is developing this policy so that the McGill community can continue to make strides towards ethical research, not away from it,” Holla said. “[It is our goal] to advocate for transparent and ethical research on campus, in addition to creating a space for educational discussion about peace and disarmament.”

Alexis Zhou, U3 Arts and Coordinator for MUST, shared the organization’s proposal and their application to become an official SSMU ISG. This status would grant them financial resources toward their mandate of providing regional student transport that is cost-effective and environmentally friendly.

“After the pandemic, we hope to have direct bus routes to Toronto, New York, Boston, and [other areas of] Quebec,” Zhou said. “This service […] is a valuable tool for our students to be able to attend job interviews, search for job opportunities and internships, [and] empower our students to reach their potential.”

Zhou acknowledged that MUST would require student fees, and cited their plan’s 85.7 per cent approval rating in the Fall 2020 Referendum as evidence of student support.

“What we are proposing is a $3.50 student fee levy,” Zhou said. “That is the same amount as a single trip metro or bus pass with the STM [Société de transport de Montréal], and what we can get in exchange is unlimited weekend travel to surrounding regions for as little as $19 dollars each way for our students.”

Pending approval, MUST will become an official student body organization and provide regional transport services at low prices to the McGill student body.

Soundbite: “The [proposed] student fee levy will be opt-outable. We believe that every student at McGill should have the freedom to choose, and they should be able to decide whether to pay for this service or not. Everyone has the right to do so, and we respect the right of students to opt out.”—Alexis Zhou regarding MUST’s student fee, 

Moment of the Meeting: A motion for the renewal of the previous term’s Indigenous Solidarity Policy was unanimously approved by the Legislative Council.

McGill, News

Muslim Students Association hosts panel discussing Uyghur Crisis

by Ella Milloy, Joseph Pappas, Charlotte Power on

More in McGill:

The McGill Muslim Students Association (MSA), McGill Thaqalayn Muslim Association (TMA), and the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) held a virtual panel on Jan. 15 to discuss the Uyghur genocide. Omar Khamissa, NCCM community engagement manager, moderated the panel, which was composed of Member of Parliament (MP) Garnett Genuis, MP Sameer Zuberi, and former McGill student Zapaer Alip, B.Eng ‘13. The three panelists discussed the ongoing persecution of Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang autonomous region in northwest China, and described potential actions that Canadians can take to mitigate the crisis. 

Zapaer Alip, who is a Uyghur-Canadian coordinator at the advocacy group International Support for Uyghurs, detailed the lives of Uyghurs living both in and outside of modern concentration camps, noting the Chinese government’s effort to erase the customs, language, and livelihoods of their people.

“It wasn’t easy being a Uyghur in East Turkestan,” Alip said. “The oppression started to amplify gradually [….] First, you had to learn Mandarin. You couldn’t speak Uyghur, you couldn’t attend a Uyghur school, you couldn’t get ahead in life, if you didn’t speak Mandarin [….] It was impossible to teach or practice religion. People could report you for practicing religion [….] You were encouraged to become a member of the Communist Party.”

After moving to Germany to escape the conditions back home, Alip’s family eventually moved to Canada for fear of being deported to China as he did not have German citizenship. But even after becoming permanent residents of Canada, Alip’s family faced issues contacting their family in Xinjiang.

“People might ask, ‘why aren’t you reaching out to [your family]’?” Alip said. “Why wouldn’t you call them everyday? Why wouldn’t [you] do whatever it takes to get a hold of them? Well, the issue is, as we later found out, that one of the reasons why you could end up in a concentration camp is actually having somebody live abroad.”

Genuis, the MP for Sherwood Park–Fort Saskatchewan in Alberta, said that ever since his election in 2015, he has been an outspoken advocate for human rights and religious freedom. Genuis is pushing for accountability mechanisms that will pressure the Canadian federal government to designate the persecution as a genocide and impose sanctions on China. He encouraged Canadians to voice their concerns and contact their elected officials.

“[Elected representatives] need to champion these issues and speak out clearly on them and seek policy changes,” Genuis said. “There needs to be real sanctions targeting individuals responsible, recognition of the crimes that are taking place, and meaningful trade measures.”

The panel then described what students could do on campus and within their communities to raise awareness about the Uyghur genocide. All three speakers encouraged students to educate themselves and others about the crisis, challenge professors to use their platforms to educate students and peers, get involved in student government, and host events on campus to bring attention to the crisis. 

As a member of the parliamentary committee on the Uyghur genocide, Zuberi gave insight into China’s misuse of Canadian research and surveillance technologies. Several Canadian universities, including McGill University, University of Toronto, and University of Waterloo, collaborated with Chinese researchers, who later developed technologies that have been used to surveil Uyghur people. Academic exchange between scholars occurred largely in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and engineering. Zuberi encouraged students to think more critically about research practices on their respective campuses.

“Create spaces on campus where you can speak about these issues,” Zuberi said. “There is a real concern here. We know that Canadian technology is being used to surveil Uyghur people in the region. There are cameras on every corner and monitoring is happening constantly. Canadian technology in part is furthering that, alongside technologies from many other countries. There needs to be [more] awareness around that.”

Creative, Podcasts

The T: Know Your Tenant Rights, Jan. 22

by Sequoia Kim on

More in Creative:

News Editor Sequoia Kim provides a weekly roundup of McGill news. Listen here through SoundCloud, or search for the title on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

This week on the show:

An Investigative feature brought to you by Nina Russell, Managing Editor: Floor fellows speak out on their experiences from Fall 2020

Divest McGill responds to McGill’s new Sustainability Strategy

Student governance meetings: SSMU Legislative Council & PGSS Council

Webinar of the Week: “How to not get screwed over by your landlord”

Episode links:

Floor fellows cite lack of support during Fall 2020 semester, by Nina Russell,
Managing Editor

McGill’s new Climate and Sustainability Strategy receives mixed reactions, by
Respina Rostamifar, Staff Writer

SSMU hosts presentation on tenant rights and gentrification, by Ella Fitzhugh,
Staff Writer

PGSS Legislative Council votes to restructure Health and Wellness
Committee, by Leyla Moy, Student Life Editor

Host: Sequoia Kim, News Editor
Podcast Producers: Multimedia Editors Sarah Ford & Alexandre Hinton, Creative Director Aidan Martin, Editor-in-Chief Helen Wu
Artwork: Design Editor Chloe Rodriguez

Extra thanks to Nina Russell, for helping script part of the podcast.

Science & Technology

2020 Rewind: SciTech discoveries of the year

by Shirley Xu on

More in Science & Technology:

2020 was a year characterized by uncertainty, despair, and drastic change. However, several scientific and technological achievements provide hope for the future.

Google stakes its claim on quantum supremacy

Google’s quantum computer, Sycamore, is the first instance of such a device outcompeting a classical computer. While a classical computer reads information as ‘bits’ valued at 0 or 1, a quantum computer’s “qubits” can exist as both 0 and 1 at the same time, allowing for more data processing. Google announced that Sycamore performed a calculation in three minutes and 20 seconds that would otherwise have taken the most advanced classical computer 10,000 years. The applications of quantum computing are limitless, ranging from drug development to accurate weather forecasts to identifying which exoplanets likely harbour life. Although we may be five to 10 years away from having quantum computers that are useful for applications like these, Google’s achievement is proof that such a future is possible. 

Cave excavations push back arrival of first humans in the Americas by 15,000 years

New research published in Nature shows that humans may have arrived in the Americas as early as 30,000 years ago—15,000 years earlier than current estimates. After painstaking excavations of the Chiquihuite Cave in Mexico, archaeologists uncovered nearly 2,000 stone tools and charcoal bits dating back 30,000 years. Further DNA analysis of the cave sediment, composed of plant and animal remains, corroborates these findings. The discovery challenges the commonly held theory that the Clovis people were the first inhabitants of the Americas 15,000 years ago. However, identifying factors of these mysterious early inhabitants, such as human DNA, were not found, suggesting they did not stay in the cave for long. 

CRISPR-Cas9 edits genes in the human body

Doctors performed the first gene editing project in the human body using CRISPR-Cas9, a genome editing tool that can remove, add, or change parts of an organism’s DNA sequence. The CRISPR method is based on a natural mechanism bacteria use to protect themselves from viral infections. Previous methods involved editing the genome after extracting DNA from the body. The treatment was administered to a patient with Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis, an inherited form of blindness caused by a genetic mutation. Scientists deleted the harmful mutation by making two cuts on either side of the gene and allowing the ends of the DNA to reconnect. Although the patient’s vision showed some improvement, scientists are hopeful that further research into gene editing technologies will allow a permanent fix. This is one of many development efforts to use CRISPR-Cas9 technology to treat different diseases.

Anti-aging drugs: Senolytics

Growing old is a fight that many of us resist, but cannot win. Anti-aging drugs called senolytics could potentially delay aging and treat a number of associated diseases, although they do not prolong one’s life. In the body, cells that are damaged beyond repair enter a senescence phase in which they stop dividing and begin programmed death. However, sometimes senescent cells resist their fate, build up in our bodies as we age, and seriously harm surrounding cells. Scientists believe that they are linked to diseases caused by aging and that targeting these cells using senolytics could be the solution. Anti-aging drugs entered human trials in 2020 and are predicted to become available in less than five years.

Virti: Training surgeons and front-line workers using virtual reality

Virti is an immersive video platform that allows users to visualize a high-stress situation in virtual reality in order to train one’s decision-making skills under pressure and access real-time feedback. As part of efforts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 this year and help train clinicians while avoiding in-person contact, Vitri designed an AI-powered “virtual patient” that can role play life-like scenarios. Their COVID-19 modules also teach frontline workers how to put on personal protective equipment, administer treatments, and ventilate patients. A company study by Virti found that their approaches increase knowledge retention by 230 per cent compared to training in person.

Features

Making the ‘right’ choices

by Jonathan Giammaria on

More in Features:

Ten years ago, Robin Marantz Henig published an article in The New York Times Magazine whose opening header read, “Why are so many people in their 20s taking so long to grow up?” The question referred to those who had entered adulthood in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis and failed to meet the societal milestones of a generation prior. In 2010, the question echoed the vocal concerns of a nation of worried parents inasmuch as it commented on and empathized with the realities of a new cohort of emerging adults—informally called the boomerang generation. 

While this moniker may have fallen out of fashion in the decade since Marantz Henig’s article (and with it, its implicit air of contempt), the harsh realities of adulthood that plague millennials and older Gen Zers have nevertheless persisted. In Canada, fewer young people are getting married than baby boomers did in the 1980s, with Quebec’s rates being the lowest in the country. Likewise, there is a widening age-range for those completing university degrees and more students are extending their studies with graduate work rather than launching into careers straightaway. It is clear that millennials are intensely reluctant to commit to lifelong jobs as their parents and grandparents once did.

Although they help to capture current trends, a statistics-based focus privileges those normative milestones as the constants against which such young people are “deviating.” In the public-private divide, the expectations of the whole are the default; they override the desires of the individual and take for granted such reasons behind developmental difference as a rebellion against or disillusionment with “the system.” But the blind spot in that logic lies in its holistic top-down rhetoric—if the actions of millenials are automatically tied to their context and judged by it, then an investigation into the crucially personal nature of goals and choice-making falls to the wayside.

Science & Technology

A long road ahead: The obstacles facing COVID-19 vaccine distribution

by Karim Wadjih, Salma Hakim on

More in Science & Technology:

As the second wave of COVID-19 intensifies and many countries around the world enter another lockdown, scientists and pharmaceutical companies have raced to produce the most effective vaccine. Moderna and Pfizer have emerged as clear winners, with many countries already beginning to administer their products.

With the successful development of these vaccines comes many political and logistical challenges, such as deciding which citizens and locations to prioritize. In particular, government officials must ensure vaccines are distributed fairly and in a timely manner to all citizens.

The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, both of which are currently being rolled out in Quebec, are 92 per cent efficient two weeks after the initial dose. Both vaccines require a second shot within 90 days of the first, which increases the efficiency to between 94 and 95 per cent. Otherwise, a single shot does not provide complete, long-lasting immunity. 

In Canada, each province is developing its own regulations regarding vaccine distribution. However, the Quebec government decided to delay the second shot of the vaccine to maximize the number of people who can be protected by an initial dose between now and April 2021. This strategy was met with backlash and provincial leaders suggested that Pfizer could withdraw their supply if the two-dose vaccination schedule is not followed.  

Both Moderna and Pfizer have created mRNA vaccines, containing genetic material that codes for only a small portion of the virus: The spike protein, which allows viral particles to replicate. The vaccine equips the body’s immune system with antibodies against this spike protein, the lack of which renders the whole virus impotent. 

Given the vast spread of misinformation online regarding vaccines, government officials must also gain  citizens’ trust that the inoculation is safe. Despite promising results, some are concerned with the fast-tracked process of vaccine development and clinical testing.

Jasmin Chahal, a faculty lecturer in McGill’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology, explains the importance of effective communication between  scientists and policymakers about the vaccines. 

“[We need to keep] trying to spread accurate information that comes from the clinical trials,” Chahal wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune. “That’s the most that we can do [….]  There are podcasts, blogs, and interviews that scientists are doing to explain the virus and vaccines without scientific jargon.”

Another challenge is the transportation of the doses, particularly Pfizer’s vaccine, as it requires storage at a temperature of -70 degrees Celsius. Such a requirement can be met only with powerful freezers, which are not feasible for storage in pharmacies due to limited space and high cost. Only large medical centres, universities, and some public health departments currently have access to such deep freezers.

“RNA is very unstable,” Chahal wrote. “For instance, DNA is still stable and intact at room temperature after a few days. RNA, however, must be kept cold. If it’s not kept at the proper temperature, it does not remain intact and thus, would be ineffective.”

Pfizer has managed to circumvent this issue by developing a reusable, suitcase-sized shipping container where doses of the vaccine are kept on dry ice and can remain stable for 10 to 15 days. However, dry ice is an extremely dangerous material and cannot be shipped by air or sea, resulting in time-consuming, ground-only transport.

Nevertheless, Pfizer is working on a powdered version of the vaccine in hope of avoiding the cold storage requirements. In contrast, the Moderna vaccine requires a temperature between two to eight degrees Celsius, making it much easier to transport. 

Quebec received a delivery of 34,000 doses of Moderna and 46,800 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines on Jan. 17, with similar shipments of Pfizer scheduled to arrive weekly for the rest of the month. 

Off the Board, Opinion

Looking to history for the future

by Kevin Vogel on

More in Off the Board:

After finishing a B.A. in history last year, I made the terrible life choice of staying at McGill for graduate school. Tuition hikes and dismal job prospects for prospective historians give me plenty reason to regret my decision for years to come, and the continual weaponization of academic history—be it in the service of whitewashed musicals or of reactionary politics—only adds to my doubts. Despite the pretensions associated with this field, I still find hope that history can help agitate for positive changes in the world. Writing in the months prior to his flight from the Wehrmacht in 1940, German Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin explained that invoking the past means seizing the ephemeral memory of history as it is needed in times of danger. 

With socioeconomic inequities only worsening throughout the pandemic and the far-right mobilizing throughout North America, the present moment certainly appears to be a dangerous one. To use Benjamin’s reasoning, searching for guidance in history entails sparking contemporary hope in the ambitions of past struggles to imagine a better future. Many historians, professional or otherwise, have attempted to do just this. To find solutions to the chronic health issues that plague many Southern communities, Michael Twitty uses his work on the history of African American foodways to revive interest in sustainable agricultural practices. Robert Lee and Tristan Ahtone dug through millions of records to accurately illustrate how the modern American university system developed, and continues to profit from, speculation on stolen Indigenous lands. There are too many other examples to give. Studying the past in each of these cases is not a matter of simply collecting trivia facts for the sake of nostalgia, but rather a reflection upon the historical struggles that continue to persist in the present day.

As McGill enters its bicentennial year, it has the power to reflect on its own blemished history in a similarly meaningful way. The university could interrogate its links to transatlantic slavery, tear down the statue memorializing James McGill, repatriate stolen artifacts housed in the Redpath Museum, and bring about meaningful action on its own prior commitments to truth and reconciliation. But even if the bicentennial commemorations turn into little more than a fundraising gimmick, history will always be a contested field. McGill students have found ways to cut through the obtuseness of the university’s PR stunts in creative ways before. This coming year should not be any different.

Indeed, the past summer shows that grassroots movements can take the interpretation of history into their own hands. While governments and public institutions continually failed to address their roles in historical oppression—and the contemporary memorialization of those wrongdoings—activists took it upon themselves to topple and provide context to racist commemorations. The decapitated, spray-painted statue of Sir John A. Macdonald on the streets of downtown Montreal is as much a history lesson as any plaque or government platitude. 

Looking back to Benjamin’s thesis, it is also prudent to think of the future-oriented nature of historical thinking. By taking control of historical “memories,” we can then examine and interrogate them to advocate for positive change in the world. As many of us think critically about McGill’s bicentennial in the coming months, let this also be a time where we can imagine a future beyond the constraints of academic bureaucracy—a future in which we can work towards a truly inclusive and equitable society. Regardless of what shape it takes, the fact remains that a better world is possible. 

Science & Technology, Student Research

Methods of quantitative modeling revolutionize drug development

by Ana Vitorino on

More in Science & Technology:

Mathematics and computer science are revolutionizing the way new drugs and treatments are tested and implemented. A new paper published in Chaos and written by U4 McGill Physiology and Math major Sofia Alfonso, postdoctoral researcher Adrianne L. Jenner, and Dr. Morgan Craig from the University of Montreal’s department of Math and Statistics, explores new alternatives to the challenges of using quantitative tools.

In the pharmaceutical industry, pre-clinical and clinical trials are challenging, time-consuming, and costly. Virtual drug trials allow researchers to better understand and treat complex diseases such as cancer, diabetes and depression. Conducted faster than conventional clinical trials, virtual drug trials also allow more efficient and affordable distribution of treatments to the public due to high recruitment rates, better compliance, and lower drop-out rates. The paper presents multiple case studies that test experimental medications using mathematical modelling. 

Such studies are considered in silico, as they are conducted by a computer program and do not involve live patients, as an in vivo trial would. These simulations can predict the effect of a medication on virtual patients, leading to important insights about a drug’s efficacy before investing time and money into human subject testing. 

Alfonso and Craig say that the pharmaceutical industry is already using in silico models for research and emphasize the need for collaboration between experimentalists and clinicians in order to develop more accurate and effective models.

“In drug development, for example, study of a novel drug delivery device for anti-HIV therapy contributed to its continued development and ongoing clinical trials of similar devices,” Craig wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune.

One case study explored the potential of mathematical modeling in the development of treatments for infectious diseases, such as the Herpes Simplex virus (HSV) or the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Based on data of viral shedding collected from real patients, an experimental drug was administered to a virtual patient infected with HSV. Researchers then optimized the drug’s dose for clinical trials, paving the way for future studies of similar drugs for the antiviral treatment of HIV and HSV. 

“A big challenge is finding adequate parameters in the literature such that the model can be accurately calibrated,” Alfonso wrote in an email to the Tribune, referring to the need for data from clinicians to construct accurate models. “Thus, collaborative efforts that bridge quantitative approaches with experimental work can be integral to developing useful models.”

The researchers are optimistic about the potential of virtual trials in the development of treatments more quickly and less invasively during public health crises such as COVID-19. Transitioning to remote trials could limit the risks of in-person contact, especially in medical settings. 

“Currently, we have been working with an interdisciplinary team on modelling COVID-19 in virtual patients, allowing us to simulate the mechanisms resulting in severe SARS-CoV-2 infection,” Alfonso wrote. “I am hopeful that as we gain more data, our model will provide further clinically relevant findings.”

Given the importance of quantitative methods in physiology, Alfonso emphasizes the opportunities for future physiology students willing to delve into mathematics, physics, and computer science. 

Craig also calls upon physiology students to maintain an open mind on these disciplines, noting that quantitative methods are already being implemented by the industry.

“Many researchers have summer positions for undergraduates that provide hands-on training,” Craig wrote. “In fact, Sofia [Alfonso] started in my lab as a PHGY 461 student and has continued as a research assistant since.”

1 … 363 364 365 366 367 … 1,364

Read the latest issue

Read the latest issue