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Science & Technology

Searching the stars for supermassive black holes

by Jonathan Giammaria on

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Until 2019, no one had ever seen a black hole outside of artistic renditions and theoretical simulations dating back to the 18th century. On Apr. 10, 2019, after years of collaborative work, over 200 researchers from 60 institutions around the globe unveiled the first image of the supermassive blackhole Messier 87 (M87), taken by the Event Horizon Telescope. Daryl Haggard, a professor in the Department of Physics at McGill, is an expert in the study of supermassive black holes and contributed to the global initiative behind capturing M87’s photo. On Sept. 10, Haggard gave a virtual talk, “Observing Black Holes Large and Small,” discussing the science of black holes and the techniques that the group used to capture their groundbreaking photograph.

A black hole is a mass in space that has a gravity so strong that nothing can escape its pull—not even light. The gravitational force of a black hole is so powerful that it extends to the region of space which surrounds the black hole itself, an area called the “event horizon.” Supermassive black holes often form as a result of stellar explosions. Haggard explained, however, that the largest black holes can form through other means, such as when neutron stars—collapsed cores of much larger stars—merge together or join with smaller black holes. A black hole’s extreme gravitational pull results from the drastic disparity between the mass and volume that these explosions and mergers create.

“[M87] has 6.5 billion times the mass of our sun, packed into something that is the size of our solar system, and that’s what makes it a supermassive black hole,” Haggard said during her talk. “The volume that [planet Earth] would be packed into to make [it] into a black hole is something like the size of a sugar cube.”

In order to capture M87’s photo, the team behind the Event Horizon Telescope employed a technique called very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI). In this process, scientists connect radio telescopes positioned over long stretches of land––referred to as a baseline––allowing each installation to work as though it were a single pane of glass in the lens of a broader telescope. In an interview with The McGill Tribune, Haggard explained that VLBI had previously been set up along the West Coast of the United States to capture images of the interstellar areas around black holes. To focus on the event horizon itself, researchers had to expand their baseline.

“This amazing discovery was […] all made possible by this truly international suite of observatories,” Haggard said in her talk. “It requires a network of telescopes that span the entire globe to get a kind of a quasi-dish that has the diameter of our whole Earth.” 

Given black holes’ preclusion of light itself, the question remains as to how researchers can image them while using light-sensitive instruments. Even new methods for observing black holes, such as VLBI, record only photons, the elementary particles of light that surround the black hole’s event horizon, and not the black hole itself.

In M87’s photo, the stable orbit of photons surrounding the black hole, or accretion disk, appears as a blurry ring of orange light with a bottom half that is brighter than the top. This variance in brightness is due to a Doppler effect-like phenomenon. When photons in orbit of a black hole move towards Earth’s telescopes, their frequency is at its highest, and the light appears more vibrant. 

At the end of her talk, Haggard explained that in future experiments, researchers hope to take images of M87 with greater visual acuity, which has so far been limited by Earth’s baseline. 

“We really want better resolutions, we really want to see all those pretty little photons in data, not just in our simulations, we need a longer baseline,” Haggard said. “If we want a really long baseline, […] going to space might allow [us] to extend that baseline and actually get a more high-resolution image [….] There’s a lot of great food for thought in thinking about next-generation instruments.”

Commentary, Opinion

SSMU’s partnership with Amazon disregards student concerns

by Sepideh Afshar on

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The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) recently announced a partnership deal with Amazon, which included a promotional code for students, in a now-deleted post on their Instagram. The student union faced backlash from students, with many questioning the ethics of a collaboration with a corporation known for exploiting its workers and contributing to the climate crisis. Though SSMU has since issued an apology, their actions highlight the importance of properly vetting all decisions made within their organization, especially when its mandate is to represent students.

Amazon is becoming increasingly known for its problematic unethical practices. One of the company’s most prominent problems is its terrible working conditions. In February 2019, workers at a New York warehouse were given two 15-minute breaks, despite that length of time constituting the walk from the warehouse to the break room. Additionally, many have claimed that managers often ignore workers’ disabilities and accessibility issues, upholding an unsafe work environment. The brutal work conditions can also include 60-hour weeks due to mandatory overtime.

Beyond its shameful treatment of its employees, Amazon has a disastrous environmental record. While other major tech companies such as Google manage to use 100 per cent renewable energy sources, Amazon powers 50 per cent of their servers with fossil fuels, demonstrating blatant neglect and indifference on their part in climate change. Even worse, the company’s lack of concern for the environment is sometimes more explicit: Amazon advertises its AWS machine learning as a tool for expediting oil drilling and production. As the third-richest company in the world, Amazon has the means to pay its employees better and to commit to more environmentally safe practices, but chooses instead to ignore valid concerns in favour of pursuing profit.

As the backlash facing Amazon is widespread, it is unlikely that SSMU simply did not know about it. This mistake appears to be a case of SSMU seeking monetary gain from a sponsorship with a major company and hoping that nobody would notice the problematic nature of the agreement. Even if they truly did not understand the implications of working with a company facing calls for boycott, SSMU is clearly missing a vetting process for their social media posts. Clearly, SSMU can benefit from somebody tasked with researching the implications of their decision to avoid another blunder. As representatives of McGill students, SSMU should be doing the bare minimum of vetting their partnerships. 

SSMU should advocate for and represent the interests of McGill students. While the society holds progressive values, they need to be consistent in doing so. Their sponsorship with Amazon was not representative of the values of the student body. It is ironic that SSMU has tried to partner with Amazon while preaching accountability and sustainability on their website. This is not the first time SSMU has been in trouble for the lack of research going into their decisions. Just last year, inaccurate French translations were noticed in their newsletters, creating difficulties for Francophone students. The similarity between the two instances is that both cases are mistakes that are easy to catch and should never have been made in the first place. In a bilingual province there is no reason to have improper French translations the same way somebody within SSMU should have caught the ethical implications of partnering with Amazon.

Sharing the promotional code was a complete failure by SSMU and violates many of the values that they claim to hold. It should not be up to students to remind SSMU to do the right thing, as the Society should be the ones holding themselves accountable. SSMU has said that they will be coming out with formalized steps to combat this, but this should have been done long ago. An apology is meaningless when Amazon’s issues are so widespread. While they have acknowledged their mistake, we still await the concrete steps SSMU will take to ensure that this does not happen again. 

Off the Board, Opinion

Life as an atheist liberal feminist in the American South

by Caroline Shelton on

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For as long as I can remember, I have been described with juxtapositions: Short yet bold; quiet yet opinionated; Southern yet Democrat; young yet informed; petite yet strong. Once you add feminist and atheist to the list, I become even more of an enigma. Growing up in the southern United States, I had been told either explicitly by family or implicitly through societal standards that I was too outspoken in my differences. My words and beliefs do not match my petite, 5’0 appearance, but to the closed-minded, they are supposed to. “You should be seen and not heard.” “Just humour him,” or “put your private school pride in your pocket,” were common as well. Little did the naysayers know, putting me down only strengthened my views and my confidence in myself. Not everyone is motivated by the rude words of others, and I understand why. It hurts when people expect you to fall into line at the cost of expressing yourself. Sometimes, it can be easier to keep the peace. Most people choose not to rock the boat with family. That’s where I have to disagree.

I remember a simpler time, back in 2010, when I created my Facebook account. One of the first things I posted was a meme about why a blank Bible is better than a written one. I quickly learned the typical response from my family members that was to come every time I posted about one of my radical beliefs: “HOW DARE SHE?!” An atheist does not simply joke about the Bible in a family full of Catholics—what heresy! God forbid I go to Hell for a sense of humor, but I digress. This was just the beginning, and the mildest, of my family’s reactions to my burgeoning, atypical beliefs, and my identity as what I deem myself to be now: An “atheist socialist liberal feminist”—the most dangerous combination to any southern Republican. 

Then came the 2016 election. I was five days shy of being able to cast a vote, but nothing at the time was more important to me than electing our first female President, who could have been Hillary Clinton. I was informed on policy, current events, and what I wanted for our country: Inclusion, tolerance, racial justice, and female representation in government. But none of that mattered. To my family, I was a teenager unqualified to vote and therefore unqualified to have such opinions. Discussions about politics devolved into personal attacks. I was now not just an atheist, but an unpatriotic anti-American as well. Those close to me told me to move to Canada if I was unhappy at home, and I told them to watch me.  

It’s been three years since I moved to Montreal, and here I am again facing the same dilemma. It’s groundhog day: I can hold my tongue for the sake of family, or I can voice my opinions, disregarding the consequences. Though it may be difficult, I will always choose the latter. Coming to McGill has helped me find my voice, without being afraid to use it out of fear of familial strife. It took me 18 years and immigration to Canada, but I am now finally able to surround myself with like-minded people. McGill and Montreal’s international and diverse community has taught me that I need to speak up not only for myself, but also for our futures, whether on a local, national, or global level. I will take whatever comes my way; I can handle it. That’s because the current issues of racial justice, climate change, sexual harassment, misogyny, and unequal pay, to name a few, are no longer issues we can watch from the sidelines. So from here on out, I’ll be at every march, every rally, and every demonstration. 

Sports

McGill kicks off intramural lawn games tournament

by Zoe Babad-Palmer on

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It’s time for McGill sports fans to prepare for a new season. It’s not U SPORTS, it’s not the RSEQ, it’s McGill’s Intramural Lawn Games.

While U SPORTS and the RSEQ have cancelled their fall championships and seasons respectively due to COVID-19, McGill Athletics has organized new intramural events to offer students safe recreational activities.

“Originally, we wanted to run a one-day tournament in April, but, given the pandemic, that wasn’t possible,” Ryne Bondy, assistant manager of Intramural Sports, said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “Instead, we realized that lawn games would be a great alternative for some of our programming this semester, as many of these games have natural social distancing built into them.”

McGill’s intramural leagues have four levels of competition: PLAY-COMP Tiers 1-3 and PLAY-FUN, which does not hold playoffs. Games are played weekly, with the season running from Sept. 21 to Oct. 30. Sixteen teams will compete for the championship mugs in the two lower PLAY-COMP levels, with 10 teams in Tier 2 and six in Tier 3. All teams can have a maximum of six players.

The athletes will compete in cornhole, Kan Jam, Mölkky, and roundnet (Spikeball), with teams playing a different game every week.

Cornhole, a classic outdoor game across Canada and the U.S., tests a player’s precision. Players toss beanbags onto a board with a hole in the center and are awarded three points if they successfully get the beanbag into the hole. Landing the beanbag on the board counts for one point. Play continues with bated breath until one team reaches 21 points.

Kan Jam incorporates Frisbee-throwing skills with an element of risk. Each team has a thrower and a deflector; the thrower tosses their Frisbee, and the deflector knocks it out of the air and into the Kan. A redirected bounce off of the Kan is worth one point, a direct hit off of the Kan is worth two points, and a successful deflection into the Kan is worth three points. Twenty-one is, once again, the magic number, unless a particularly skilled player throws their Frisbee into the slot in the front of the Kan, resulting in a coveted, yet elusive instant win. 

Roundnet, also called Spikeball, is a volleyball-style game played around a circular net. Much like volleyball, each team has three touches, analogous to a bump, set, and spike. Players can rotate around the net to keep the ball in play, with the rally ending when a team cannot return the ball. Twenty-one points is the goal.

Mölkky, a Finnish throwing game, combines skill and strategy. Players throw a wooden pin into a bowling-like array of 12 numbered pins, or skittles. If one pin is knocked over, the player scores the number of points labeled on the pin. If multiple skittles are knocked over, they score the total amount of points labeled on the pins knocked over. However, unlike the other games, players must be exact with their scoring: Play ends when one team reaches exactly 50 points. If they go over 50 points, their score is reset to 25 and they must climb the Mölkky mountain again.

McGill Athletics is striving to keep players safe as they compete, with numerous protocols in place. The games themselves are played in six separate areas of the 19,800-square-foot Forbes Field. Each team is allowed two players per night, with no players on the bench, substitutions, or spectators. Staff members in full PPE sanitize all equipment between matches, and players must wear masks for every game except Roundnet. Everyone must also wear a mask in between matches. Finally, contact tracing is facilitated through rigorous tracking of which team members are in attendance each night.

With the precautions in place and players ready, let the games begin!

Fact or Fiction, Science & Technology

Fact or Fiction: The truth behind multivitamins

by Cassia Attard on

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Most people are familiar with the satisfying feeling of taking a multivitamin gummy. It’s a guilt-free treat that many assume to be beneficial to their overall health. Yet, from marketing schemes to conflicting scientific studies, there is no shortage of controversy surrounding the health benefits of multivitamin supplements.

Vitamins are micronutrients, essential chemical compounds to human health obtained primarily through food. Most micronutrients are acquired through diet, with the exception of vitamin D, which can only be obtained through exposure to sunlight.

Deficiency of essential vitamins can cause numerous health complications. Long-term vitamin B-12 deficiency can lead to vision loss, anemia, and dementia, while inadequate levels of vitamin A, C, or D can lead to heart disease, frail bones, and a weakened immune system. 

Despite knowing the vital importance of these micronutrients, many still question whether multivitamin supplements have a positive impact on overall human health. In short, multivitamins do not have any known health benefits and amount to little more than a snack in a fun gummy form.

The McGill Tribune spoke with Dr. Joe Schwarcz, professor of Chemistry at McGill and Director of the Office for Science and Society, on the effectiveness of multivitamins, where he shared suggestions on which daily supplements people should be taking.

“[Multivitamins] are unlikely to do any harm, but they are unlikely to do any good either,” Schwarcz said in an interview with the Tribune. “People take multivitamins as nutritional insurance in case they don’t have a healthy diet, but micronutrient gaps in the diet can’t be filled  [by multivitamins].”

There are seemingly infinite conflicting studies on the benefits of vitamin supplements—or lack thereof. In one study, men taking supplements were found to be eight per cent less likely to be diagnosed with cancer. However, the overwhelming majority of research demonstrates that taking vitamin supplements daily does not decrease users’ risk of developing cancer in the long-term.

Today, most research findings show that supplements have zero impact on lifespan or health. The limited number of studies which suggest otherwise speak broadly to the benefits of supplements, providing evidence relating multivitamins to decreases in heart disease and improved brain function, immune health, and vision. 

“The problem with nutritional research is that you can find a study that backs up anything you want to push,” Schwarcz said. “It’s very important to know who has done the research.”

Companies such as Centrum, One a Day, and Vitafusion have leveraged the scarce number of studies that show that vitamins are beneficial to fuel this $123 billion industry.

These corporations have found a clever way to sell two packs of their nutrient cocktails to the average family, instead of one, through the marketing of gender-based multivitamins. One A Day and Centrum both sell ‘his’ and ‘her’ multivitamin varieties, although there is little that makes these gendered variations different aside from their packaging. Multivitamins supplements marketed to women simply contain slightly more vitamin D, calcium, and iron. 

“That’s a marketing move,” Schwarcz said in reference to the branding strategies used by vitamin manufacturers. “There’s no documented evidence that women and men need different amounts of vitamins. The only difference is body weight, and they already have children’s vitamins for that.”

Schwarcz noted a paradox in the fact that those who can afford multivitamin supplements are unlikely to be the ones who need them most.

“The situation here in North America is different than in the developing world,” Schwarcz said. “In some countries, people could be benefiting a lot from vitamin A, [but] in North America, we don’t have vitamin A deficiency.”

Schwarcz argues that there’s one exception to this no-supplement rule: Vitamin D.

“Some specific [supplements] make sense, like vitamin D, especially [in Montreal] where it’s cold,” Schwarcz said. “Also, we now see evidence that vitamin D deficiency can increase your risk of COVID-19.” 

With the exception of those who tan in the winter, taking a 1000 IU daily vitamin D supplement might be worth considering.

Ultimately, to maintain a healthy lifestyle and proper micronutrient intake, the cash spent on multivitamins is likely better spent in the produce aisle of the grocery store.

Basketball, Martlets, Sports

In Conversation with Rikki Bowles

by Shaun Lalani on

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In July 2020, McGill Athletics appointed Rikki Bowles as the new interim head coach for the women’s basketball team, ushering in a new era following the departure of long-time coach Ryan Thorne. An alumna of the Martlet basketball program, Bowles will be leading this transition with the knowledge and insight she has gained from over 13 years at McGill.

“It’s the institution I played for, where I developed as an assistant coach,” Bowles said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “Now to be the head coach of that institution is [definitely] a dream job. I care so much for the program, the players, everybody I’ve had an opportunity to develop relationships with [….] It was a goal of mine to be the head coach of a university basketball program one day and I really appreciate this new challenge.”

Bowles’s appointment comes through the McGill Women in Sports Initiative. The program aims to address the underrepresentation of female leadership figures in university athletics and promotes women to leadership positions in McGill athletic programs. 

“There may have been a time when [the underrepresentation of women in leadership] wasn’t even on the radar, but now it’s becoming each university’s question: Who’s leading our programs? Who’s inspiring our students?” Bowles said. “It’s one of the reasons McGill started its Women in Sports program. They put in real resources to fund the pathway. I started the program as a full-time assistant coach and am now being appointed head coach. It’s a great consequence of this program and it is working.”

Bowles’s journey into coaching began after her graduation from McGill in 2010. She has worked as an assistant coach to the Martlets, and as head coach at Vanier College. 

“I came into the McGill coaching program right after graduation, so it was interesting at the start, [coaching] players I used to play with,” Bowles said. “[Back then] I really took under my wing the new, incoming players and […] learned a lot from the experience. The one year at Vanier, the CEGEP system was very similar to U SPORTS. That experience as a head coach really taught me the [work], and the added pressure […] that goes into this job.”

As she settles into her new role, Bowles has stressed the importance of caring for athletes as people and students, not just basketball players.

“I think the lessons I’ve learned [from Thorne] are that he’s extremely passionate about basketball, his job, [and] he’s passionate about the student-athlete experience,” Bowles said. “He cares about the student academically. [That has] rubbed off on me and have been my key takeaways from him.”

This year, Bowles will take over a McGill team looking to rebuild after a season cut short by the pandemic.

“Any team in any sport across the professional down to university level has its ebbs and flows,” Bowles said. “We’ve got a great group of players, so I think the challenge for this season is the challenge of the unknown. Keeping the players motivated [through the pandemic] is essential [….] We began [meeting on zoom for workouts] months ago. We’ve done sessions with our mental performance coach. We’ve done video learning sessions. We’ve tried to do what we can and are excited to return.” 

Bowles already has an idea of the style of basketball she wants her team to play when they return.  

“I want them to play free basketball where they can play loose, with confidence,” Bowles said. “No team is perfect and you have to be able to play through [mistakes]. I’m hoping to play an up-tempo style of game, get out in transition, and run the flow.”

Having ascended the university athletics system and achieved her goal of coaching the Martlets, Bowles has some words for athletes looking to take a similar route. 

“I think if they know early on, if they know this is what they want to do, just let them know that there is a way,” Bowles said. “It definitely comes with a lot of work and sacrifice, but there is always a way.”

Arts & Entertainment, Film and TV, Pop Rhetoric

Dancing with the starring suspect

by Deana Korsunsky on

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“Dancing the Paso Doble with her partner, Pasha, it’s Carole Baskin!” boomed the faceless announcer of Dancing With The Stars.

Cheers and literal roars erupt as the camera pans to a man in a cage, then, to a woman opening it. As the opening chords of Survivor’s “Eye Of The Tiger” play, big-cat activist Carole Baskin begins to dance. This occurs only moments after the commercial break, when an ad aired that implicated Baskin in the disappearance of her then-husband, Don Lewis. The ad, paid by Lewis’s family, asked the public for any information they could provide to confirm Baskin’s guilt.

Propelled to infamy this past March, Baskin is best known as the main antagonist of the Netflix docu-series, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness. Centered around Joe Exotic, former zoo operator and “Tiger King,” the show anchors its narrative on his feud with Baskin. When Baskin accuses Exotic of animal abuse, he retaliates, accusing her of murdering her husband, Don Lewis, in 1997. Although Baskin was never convicted, the arguably biased docu-series offers evidence framing her as a murderer. 

Insidiously, it is likely due to an apparent public consensus that Baskin murdered her husband that the controversial animal rights activist secured a spot on Dancing With The Stars. During her debut on the show, Baskin overtly capitalized on her big-cat-enthusiast persona by dressing in tiger print and dancing to the aptly titled “Eye Of The Tiger.” Judge Derek Hough even referenced her position in pop culture to compliment her dance moves.

“Carole Baskin: Ya danced that paso, ya smashed it,” Hough applauded. 

This was in reference to an online trend that perpetuated the image of Baskin as a murderer. The original words, as written by TikTok user @calebjaxin, are “Carole Baskin: Killed her husband, whacked him.” Hough acknowledged that Baskin is a suspected murderer, yet made light of this supposition. This calls into question why a major television network such as ABC would allow an informally suspected—albeit, not formally convicted—murderer to have such a prominent platform.

One could argue that the evidence presented in Tiger King is not enough to merit a conviction. Yet, it is important to consider a key perspective in the informal case of Baskin v. Lewis: That of Don Lewis’s family, who continue to grieve Lewis’s disappearance. In the advert, Lewis’s three daughters, former assistant, and family attorney plead for closure. 

“We are a real family,” Gale Lewis said, looking straight at the camera. 

This statement shatters pop culture’s macabre vision of Carole Baskin as merely a comedic villain residing in our television screen, revealing the decades-long grief of a real family. 

“[Don Lewis’s] family deserves answers. They deserve justice. Do you know who did this, or if Carole Baskin was involved?” asks family attorney John M. Phillips.

Ultimately, it is not the job of television networks, video apps, or their consumers to pass judgement on this case. It is important, however, to remain mindful of whether a network should drive viewership by giving a reality TV show spot to an individual with Baskin’s notorious reputation—especially at the expense of a distressed family. Offering a platform to someone whose public persona is almost entirely based upon a suspected murder dismisses the gravity of a missing persons case. 

Viewers must consider all perspectives in a story and challenge the mediums allotted to individuals. It is imperative, for instance, to examine whether Baskin would be on Dancing With The Stars if she were a man meme-ed for murdering a woman, or if it is ever ethical to profit off of someone’s grief.  

Regardless of which answers resonate the most, one must remember: We can laugh at the absurdity of big-cat drama, but not at the disappearance of a real person. 

 

Editorial, Opinion

PEQ reforms highlight the CAQ’s xenophobia

by The McGill Tribune Editorial Board on

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On Sept. 12, activist group Le Quebec c’est nous aussi held a protest against proposed reforms to the Programme experience Quebecoise (PEQ), a fast-track immigration program for international students who wish to permanently reside in Quebec after graduation. While similar reforms proposed (and later suspended) last November sought to impose new French language requirements, these new changes target employment: Those seeking the certification must now have at least 12 months of work experience of a suitable “skill level.” This caveat creates significant barriers to eligibility, especially during a pandemic that makes it difficult to find stable employment. At their core, the changes are yet another example of the Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ)’s disgracefully xenophobic anti-immigrant sentiment. The burden should not fall solely on international students to oppose this policy. Rather, McGill’s administration must do better to protect them, and other students must meaningfully oppose these changes. 

Immigration reform was one of the CAQ’s core campaign promises in 2018. At the time, now-premier Francois Legault vowed to reduce the number of immigrants allowed into Quebec from 50,000 to 40,000 per year and impose a French-language test and a xenophobic “values test” after three years of living in the province. These policies play into anti-immigrant attitudes in Quebec, which have grown substantially in recent years. The current PEQ reforms are not the first example of the party attempting to limit newcomers, and there is little chance they will be the last. Even beyond immigration, other legislation such as Bill 21, which prohibits public workers from wearing religious garments on the job, propagates xenophobia and hate. 

Under the new PEQ guidelines, students would have to work for 12 months in a type 0 (managerial), A (professional) or B (technical) job upon graduation. A student who is unable to find this kind of employment and ends up working as a restaurant server, for example, will be ineligible for the program. Students who have spent years studying in the province while completing internships and volunteer work will nevertheless be considered ‘unskilled’ by the CAQ’s standards. These classist changes undermine the value of this equally valuable labour and favour those with the privilege often necessary to solidify a “professional” job after graduation. 

While finding stable employment in a field the CAQ government deems desirable is difficult at the best of times, the pandemic has made it even more challenging. As many companies have not even rehired furloughed employees who were laid off earlier this year, they are less likely to consider new candidates until the economic situation improves. Even more shameful is that these changes come after the province spent months touting the importance of essential workers, including grocery store cashiers and restaurant workers, who would not be eligible for immigration under the revisions to the PEQ. The CAQ considers it acceptable to jeopardize these workers’ safety, yet refuses to see them as valuable enough to remain here permanently. In this context, an emphasis on skill and experience is all the more dehumanizing. 

As in November 2019, when the last reform package was proposed, McGill has taken a relatively quiet stance against the reforms compared to other Montreal universities. After all, such programs are not nearly as stringent in provinces like Ontario, and the university wants to retain its international student base. McGill relies heavily on funding from international student tuition; the very least they can do is stand up for them. However, a statement in opposition does little to change the situation in a tangible way. McGill has a responsibility to use its influence to fight against these reforms and provide sufficient funding for services like the Legal Information Clinic and International Student Services, which help international students navigating information and seeking guidance on these issues. Simultaneously, it must avoid implementing changes, like its recent international tuition hike, that serve as additional barriers to students’ ability to study and live in Quebec. 

Students also have a role to play in opposing the reforms. As a result of public outcry and student activism following the changes proposed to the PEQ last November, the CAQ eventually abandoned the revisions. The same must happen now. Those currently in Montreal need to use their voices and attend demonstrations in support of international students who may not be able to show up physically due to COVID-19 and support organizations like Le Quebec c’est nous aussi. The student body would be nothing without its international population, and it is vital that they get the support they deserve. 

Arts & Entertainment, Film and TV

‘Tenet’ is an emotionally hollow puzzle

by Signy Harnad on

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Leave it to Christopher Nolan to galvanize moviegoers into returning to multiplexes after months of living-room movie nights—only this time, at a limited capacity, donning masks and safely distancing from one another. Released in Canada on Aug. 26, Tenet has been tasked with the responsibility of carrying an ailing theatre industry on its back. Despite all the hype building up to Tenet’s release, the thriller punches below its weight. However, it is neither the technical nor the conceptual elements that hold the blockbuster back; rather, Tenet’s ultimate disappointment is its emotional elusiveness. 

Without delving into the specifics of the film’s intricate plot, Tenet follows a CIA operative, known only as The Protagonist (John David Washington—in a confident and cool performance), who works for a clandestine international organization called Tenet. The palindromic name underscores the film’s theme of reversal. His mission is to prevent Russian oligarch Andrei Sator (Kenneth Branagh) from raining destruction on the world with a device called The Algorithm. In doing so, the Protagonist acquaints himself with “inversion,” a process by which the entropy of both people and of objects can be reversed, resulting in the appearance of time running backwards. 

“Don’t try to understand it. Feel it,” a scientist (Clémence Poésy) advises The Protagonist early in the thriller. This is sound advice for viewers trying to work out its dizzying plot. Between the time-inversion and paradoxes, Tenet emerges as a visually arresting, but a rationally inaccessible spectacle. By the time the audience figures out what is going on, another logical knot pops up, and the cycle restarts. Worse still, Richard King’s grinding sound design often overpowers the film’s expository dialogue, adding another unwelcome chore in addition to understanding the already confusing plot.

What is most disappointing about the film is that it may signal the end of an era, a drifting-away from Nolan’s earlier films and the pathos that made them so enjoyable. Indeed, Nolan’s best films can each be stripped down to their rich emotional core: 2010’s Inception portrayed a father’s resolve to reunite with his children; 2006’s The Prestige examined the cost of obsession; 2000’s Memento depicted an amnesiac’s relentless pursuit of vengeance. These heart-wrenching films highlight just how unfeeling Tenet is in comparison.

The sole emotional resonance of the film is conveyed through Kat (Elizabeth Debicki), a mother trapped in an abusive relationship, who wants nothing more than to rescue her son from the onslaught of nuclear war. But this plot line remains underdeveloped, and Tenet withholds the brutal emotional arc that makes viewing Nolan films worth all of their brain-racking.

However, what the film lacks in heart, it makes up for in technique. The sheer massiveness of Tenet strikes the viewer every step of the way, from the terrorist siege of a grand Kievan opera house to the hijacked jumbo jet crash. The film is packed with exciting action sequences, including a kitchen fight that features a well-placed cheese grater, and a reverse highway chase sure to keep viewers on edge. Hoyte van Hoytema’s dazzling widescreen cinematography and Ludwig Goransson’s score, which harbours a reversed quality paralleling the film’s plot, are what make Tenet worth the watch.

Tenet gets lost in its own labyrinthine plot, sacrificing its emotional core in the process. The blockbuster is visually and technically striking, plunging its viewers into the world of quantum physics, paradoxes, and parallel realities. But this only eclipses the humanity of the film—and ultimately, Tenet offers little more than a hollow spectacle.  

McGill, News

Canadian Biotech start-up to begin Phase 3 COVID-19 oral treatment trials

by Michelle Marcus on

More in McGill:

On Sept. 2, Pulmonem Inc., a Canadian biotechnology start-up, received Health Canada’s approval to begin Phase 3 clinical trials to test an oral medication to treat COVID-19. The treatment does not eliminate the need for a vaccine, but can potentially reduce the number of COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization by diminishing the severity of their immune responses to the virus. 

 To raise funds and find assistance to conduct trials, the start-up has partnered with the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC). Pulmonem Inc. announced that, if the trial is successful, the medication can be ready for distribution by the end of 2020.

Pulmonem Inc. was founded in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Pulmonem is only the second Canadian drug trial to receive approval from Health Canada to begin Phase 3 trials, which involves testing the drug against the current standard of care in a limited number of patients. Dr. Houfar Sekhavat, founder and CEO of Pulmonem Inc., sees the approval as progress for those most vulnerable to the virus. 

 The new oral medication was developed by repurposing Dapsone, an existing anti-inflammatory drug used to treat malaria, lupus, and long-term infection in HIV patients. The Phase 3 trial, sponsored by the RI-MUHC, will test the medication on 2,000 patients located across Canada and the United States. The randomized trial process was designed by Dr. Jean Bourbeau, professor and a member of the Transnational Research in Respiratory Diseases Program at McGill University. 

For patients, the reformulation of the pre-existing drug Dapsone could mean reduced costs and greater accessibility to treatment. Pulmonem Inc.’s contract with one of the biggest Dapsone producers means that the entire course of treatment with the drug would cost patients $52. When clinical trials begin, the safety risks of prescribing Pulmonem will also potentially be minimal, as it is a reformulation of a well-known drug. 

“When you start with a new medicine, […] it takes millions of patients to find out about the adverse effects,” Bourbeau said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “But when we already know the safety profile, we know which patients are safe to use the medication.”

While Pulmonem has approval to begin Phase 3 testing, organizing a clinical trial amidst a pandemic remains challenging. Conducting the study remotely to minimize contact with patients requires advanced technology, peer reviewers, and additional funding. 

“It’s important that the ideas are not always coming from big pharmaceutical companies, […] especially when we […] have [start-up] projects […] led by experts such as Dr. Bourbeau,” Sekhavat said. 

The opportunity for pharmaceutical companies to invest in COVID-19 treatments and vaccine research for profit has raised concerns regarding the quality of their findings and discoveries. Bourbeau, however, sees the partnership with academic institutions as one way of ensuring that the research conducted retains its rigorous standards. 

“The quality of research has been a problem before in emergency situations,” Bourbeau said. “But I think [that] the academic centre being separate from the industry can bring this quality to ensure that people do not compromise the safety and the efficacy of new treatments.” 

For students like McGill Medical Direction member Lintao Hu, U3 Science, the RI-MUHC’s commitment to high quality COVID-19 research is both encouraging and necessary. 

“It’s important to know that McGill is taking steps to support the development of treatments, especially because there’s a lot of misinformation in the community around the coronavirus,” Hu said. 

Although additional funding is still needed before trials can begin, Sakhavat explained that McGill’s support for the Pulmonem Inc. start-up will have significant implications for McGill and Canadian healthcare research as a whole, regardless of the trial’s outcomes.

“RI-MUHC and Dr. Bourbeau were visionary to support a small Canadian startup,” Sakhavat said. “Being associated with one of the most prestigious universities in the world is a big starter for our company, but it also puts RI-MUHC as top leaders in the industry.”

A previous version of this article stated that the treatment was called Pulmonem, after the start-up. In fact, the treatment is a repurposed version of Dapsone. The Tribune regrets this error.
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