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McGill, News

McGill closed for two weeks following provincial COVID-19 update

by Tasmin Chu and Keating Kenna Reid on

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Quebec Premier announces closure of all schools

Following a directive from the Quebec government on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, McGill has cancelled classes and exams for the next two weeks. On March 13, Premier François Legault announced the two-week closure of CEGEPs, secondary schools, universities, and daycares province-wide.

The McGill administration also announced via an email sent to students on exchange that those in Italy, China, Iran, and the Daegu and Cheongdu regions of South Korea would be immediately recalled. All other students abroad were encouraged to return to Canada if they felt unsafe.

McGill’s athletic facilities and libraries will be closed until Sunday.

Exchange students flying home

Only study-abroad students in areas covered by a Level 3 travel notice from the Public Health Agency of Canada, denoting a “large-scale outbreak in a large geographic area,” have been called home. However, some frustrated exchange students have already booked flights home.

Nina Russell, U2 Arts, is on exchange in Copenhagen, Denmark, where over 800 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed. She waited for communication from McGill after her host university cancelled classes, but after hearing nothing for days, she ultimately decided to book tickets back to her hometown.

“[The email sent March 13 stated] ‘you’ll receive more information in the coming days,’ which is annoying because [we have already] waited a few days and heard nothing,” Russell said. “I was the last to receive an email out of all my friends from [universities] literally around the world, including in Canada. It’s just frustrating to be kept in the dark so long, especially when travel restrictions are going up and I’m not sure [for] how much longer [I can fly home].”

SSMU cancels services and events

The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) has cancelled a number of services, including DriveSafe, WalkSafe, and the Eating Disorder Resource & Support Centre. All SSMU-affiliated events occurring after March 15 will be cancelled. Events scheduled for the weekend are being suspended on a case-by-case basis. The academic conference hosted by SSMU Indigenous Affairs has been cancelled, however the keynote address by Cindy Blackstock may be rescheduled. Prospective attendees are urged to check the event’s Facebook page.

For those who are emotionally affected by the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, SSMU is directing students to Keep.meSAFE, a service that connects students with in-person licensed counsellors in Montreal. It is currently available at no cost.

SSMU President Bryan Buraga stated that it was critical that McGill students rally together as a community in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis.

“Of course the student body is very worried about the health situation that’s going on,” Buraga said. “I ask the student body to be patient, to trust in our expert health professionals, [and] also for students over the next couple of weeks to check in on their other fellow students, friends and family to make sure they’re doing okay.”

Ban on student travel and new international students

On March 13, Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Fabrice Labeau announced a moratorium on student travel abroad. In addition, no new international students will be accepted to McGill until further notice.

“Following the directive issued yesterday by the Quebec government and the director of public health, all student travel outside Canada for internships, student exchanges, international mobility programs, competitions or conferences, is suspended until further notice,” the email read. “Additionally, effective March 12, all education institutions are required to suspend intake of new international students until further notice.”

Wellness Hub closed Friday

On March 13, the Wellness Hub was closed to students seeking healthcare, a statement confirmed by SSMU President Bryan Buraga. In addition, the Hub has cancelled all appointments taking place between March 15 to 21.

“Unfortunately, the Wellness Hub [is] closed today for the time being, to [allow McGill to] essentially figure out what to do next about the whole COVID-19 situation,” Buraga said.

17 cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Quebec

Four more cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Quebec since March 11, bringing the total to 17 cases in the province. All of the four new cases were linked to travel abroad. Over 250 cases are currently under investigation in Quebec.

McGill, News

Friday classes cancelled following coronavirus update

by Tasmin Chu and Keating Kenna Reid on

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This article has been updated.

University cancels classes and exams scheduled for March 13

Confirming reports from CTV Montreal, Deputy Provost (Student Life & Learning) Fabrice Labeau announced that McGill would be cancelling classes and exams March 13 in an email sent to staff and students. Conferences for graduate students are also cancelled.

“In order to evaluate how today’s coronavirus (COVID-19) announcement from the Quebec government will impact campus operations and academic activities, the University is suspending classes and exams on Friday, March 13,” the email read.

Shortly after McGill’s announcement, Concordia University followed suit and announced that all classes would be suspended until the 16th, with courses with over 250 enrolments being moved online next week. The Université de Montréal announced its plans to undertake similar measures earlier that afternoon.

Ban on public gatherings

The decision comes after Quebec Premier François Legault’s announcement of a ban on all indoor events with more than 250 people. Anyone with flu-like symptoms and anyone returning from abroad, regardless of where they came from, was also advised to self-quarantine. Schools remain open, although multiple private schools, such as Academie Louis-Pasteur, have cancelled classes.

Libraries, arenas, and pools in Quebec will also close, as well as any spaces where more than 250 people can gather.

13 confirmed cases; one in McGill hospital

There are currently 13 confirmed cases in Quebec, with two people currently hospitalized. All of the cases so far have been linked to travel abroad.

One of the cases, a young adult who recently returned from Europe, was identified at the McGill University Health Centre. The staff members who came into contact with the patient will not be staying home.

McGill’s Faculty Olympics cancelled

All remaining Faculty Olympics (FACo) events were called following Legault’s announcement. The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Vice-President Internal Sanchi Bhalla ultimately decided to hold exclusively online closing ceremonies.

“We’ve cancelled all of tomorrow’s events, as well as the power hour tonight,” Bhalla wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune. “[We are] all sort of frazzled right now.”

SSMU meetings moved to online platform

A press release from Lauren Hill, SSMU Legislative Council’s Speaker, announced to campus media that the council meeting scheduled for March 12 would be taking place via teleconference.

“We apologize for the inconvenience, and we note that a recording of the public session will be available shortly after,” Hill wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune.

Petition to suspend in-person classes

Thus far, over 8,000 students have signed a petition demanding that McGill suspend all in-person classes for the duration of the semester. The petition, started by a Facebook group titled Ready McGill, demands that McGill cancel classes indefinitely, a measure already taken by Ontario’s Laurentian University.

Ready McGill also issued a ‘counter-statement’ to Labeau’s March 11 coronavirus update, criticizing his decision not to cancel classes at that time.

“While we welcome McGill University ‘exploring’ the possibility of transferring to distance-learning options and ‘proactively’ developing plans, we’d like to remind you that we are running out of time,” the counter-statement read. “Exposing your students and faculty to a highly contagious virus that has been exploding in cases in New York State, which is only 45 minutes away from Montreal, is not what many of us generally consider proactive.”

Features

Putting pen to paper

by Lucas Bird on

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The New York Times headline glared out on my screen. The words reflected a phenomenon all too common on many progressive, university communities across North America.

“News or ‘Trauma Porn’?,” it began. “Student Journalists Face Blowback on Campus.” 

The Nov. 14, 2019 article by Julie Bosman, Mitch Smith, and Kate Taylor highlighted a controversy on Northwestern University and Harvard University campuses after student-run publications at both schools received criticism from students alleging a lack of sensitivity in their reporting practices. These conflicts represent a growing tension between ‘traditional’ objectivity-focussed journalism practices and the increasing demand for empathetic approaches. These demands are becoming more pervasive as standards of best journalistic practice and cultural awareness of sensitivity continue to evolve. Such sentiments underpinned many of the events surrounding the Northwestern incident.

Science & Technology

Geoengineering is a band-aid solution to the climate crisis

by Gwenyth Wren on

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The conversation around geoengineering, otherwise known as climate intervention or climate engineering, is gaining traction as climate projections remain dire. Offering many salient yet controversial ways to mitigate Earth’s rising temperatures, geoengineering methods include spraying sulphate particulates into the atmosphere to block out solar radiation, fertilizing the ocean with iron to capture more carbon, and injecting atmospheric carbon dioxide into rock deep beneath the Earth’s surface. 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has increasingly warned that countries must reduce emissions to avoid a two degrees Celsius jump in temperature, which would result in widespread social inequality and environmental degradation. Despite these warnings, emissions continue to rise, pushing scientists like Nigel Roulet, the Chair of the Department of Geography at McGill, to consider emissions-curbing experimental methods. 

“There are two areas of geoengineering, and the distinction is important,” Roulet said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “Soft geoengineering [includes methods] that we can do that could enhance processes that are already going on to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, such as increasing forest growth or having white roofs. Hard geoengineering [includes] methods that involve trying to intervene in the climate system.” 

Most techniques that people associate with geoengineering fall into the hard geoengineering category, a form that Roulet considered quite dangerous for two reasons.

“[First of all], we are not equipped with such an advanced understanding of the climate systems to forecast the possible consequences and externalities of hard geoengineering techniques,” Roulet said. “The second [worry] is the possible geopolitical consequences [….] If one state had access to geoengineering technology […], what would that mean for the global system and global effects?”

Geoengineering is often not discussed in a way that differentiates between pure climate intervention and techniques that simply enhance processes that are already occurring. Roulet believes that geoengineering merits closer examination and cannot be accepted as a quick fix to the climate crisis.

However, it is possible that as soon as geoengineering takes off, it could drain attention from examining human overconsumption.

“We have massive problems in our society that are associated with overconsumption,” Roulet said. “Thinking that technology is going to fix our problems is delusional. We need to reduce our consumption [by] a tremendous amount and ask ourselves questions like ‘How many people can the planet support with reasonable wellbeing?” 

According to Roulet, geoengineering cannot possibly address the fundamental problems of climate change, such as social inequality, exploitation of people and resources, and overconsumption. Geoengineering simply masks the symptoms. Roulet compared the danger of relying on geoengineering to taking a Tylenol when you have a cold. The difference is that Tylenol does not generally result in significant negative side effects, whereas geoengineering could have harmful consequences like altering the oxygen levels in oceans, decreasing biodiversity, and changing rainfall patterns. Scientists simply do not know enough—and might never know enough—about large-scale atmospheric processes to predict what sequestering carbon dioxide or trying to reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth would do at the global scale. 

“Some methods of geoengineering are like jumping out of a frying pan into the fire, such as spraying sulphate particulars in the air,” Roulet said.

Technology will be part of the climate solution, but it cannot be the only fix. Geoengineering targets large sources of carbon dioxide like transportation and animal agriculture but does not address the smaller ones that humans emit every day.

“Humans are not well enough evolved to handle overwhelming questions,” Roulet said. “If there are readily available geoengineering solutions, we will not be forced to sit down and look at ourselves.”

Geoengineering suggestions are as diverse as they are fanciful. If humans have such a big imagination when it comes to technology, then the same could be possible for our ability to conceive different ways of implementing social and institutional changes. 

Artistic Swimming, Martlets, Men's Varsity, Sports, Varsity Round UP

Winter 2020 season recaps

by Théo Farineau, Adam Burton, Sarah Farnand, Ender McDuff, Kaja Surborg on

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Artistic Swimming

The McGill Women’s Artistic Swim team started their season off strong, finishing first out of 11 teams at the McGill Invitational in November. Strong performances from sisters third-year Ioana Gheta and second-year Maria Gheta earned them first place in the duet/trio category. First-year Katherine Demond also performed well, placing fifth for her solo routine. The Martlets continued their dominance with a first place at the Eastern Canadian Championship meet in Ottawa at the end of January. Second-year graduate student Michely Chen earned two gold medals and the Gheta sisters shined once again to come in second for their duet. Maria Gheta also earned both a solo gold and silver for her experienced solo, missing a second gold by less than 0.3 points. 

After an impressive send-off performance at Memorial Pool on Feb. 11, the Martlets headed to the University of British Columbia for the National Championship on Feb. 14. For the second year in a row, Maria Gheta was named All-Around Champion, claiming gold in the duet routine with her sister. McGill captured their 16th National Championship title at the meet. In the novice category, the Martlets dominated with the duet pairing of third-year Christina Wang and first-year Mathilde Lotz capturing gold. Chen went on to earn a silver medal for her solo routine and the individual All-Around title in the novice category. 

Men’s Hockey

Despite a wave of early-season injuries, the McGill Men’s Hockey team finished the regular season strong, with a 16–10–2 record. This performance earned them the fourth seed in the OUA Eastern conference.

Their success did not continue into the postseason, however, which ended unceremoniously in a three-game first-round loss to the Concordia Stingers. Despite this early exit, this season had plenty to celebrate, with standout players being recognized at the OUA awards. McGill claimed three awards: Third-year Nikolas Brouillard earned the Defenceman of the Year, fourth-year Louis-Philip Guindon was named the Goaltender of the Year, and fifth-year defenceman Dominic Talbot-Tassi secured a spot on the First-Team All-Star roster. This was the first time since 2011 that McGill collected three OUA awards. 

Going into next season, McGill Men’s Hockey is set for a new chapter. With the loss of five seniors, McGill is ready to start anew under the guidance of a rookie coach and a roster full of new talent.

Men’s Basketball

The McGill Men’s Basketball team had an unfortunate end to their season, achieving a dominant 12–4 record in league play before losing in the first round of the playoffs. The season started with several tough losses to NCAA teams in preseason play before the team notched their first wins against the Bermuda National Team and the University of Toronto. League play began on Nov. 7 with a decisive 101–78 win over Laval; however, a 94–71 loss to UQÀM in the following game foretold the struggles to come. 

Third-year guard Jamal Mayali led the team, averaging 15.7 points and 4.6 rebounds per game. Second- and third-year guards Quarry Whyne and Sam Jenkins added 13.5 and 12.6 points per game, respectively. Behind this scoring, McGill found their groove, winning seven games in a row. A three-game skid briefly halted their momentum, but they bounced back to finish the season on a four-game winning streak that included a 70–65 victory over UQÀM in their final game. They finished the regular season as the top seed going into the RSEQ playoffs.

McGill hosted fourth-place UQÀM in single-elimination play on Feb. 26 to begin the playoffs. Mayali missed the game due to the flu, however, and McGill’s season ultimately ended early after losing 70–61.  

Women’s Basketball

Martlet Basketball’s 2019-20 season was a rollercoaster. Their preseason opened in October with a loss to the Queen’s Gaels at an exhibition game celebrating the centennial of women’s university basketball in Canada. They bounced back from a four-game losing streak between November and January with a three-game winning streak, largely due to the efforts of fifth-year guard Gladys Hakizimana who scored 20 points for the Martlets in the first of those three wins. This put McGill back in the running for a playoff berth, and the Martlets sealed their spot in the playoffs on Feb. 15 in a home game against the Concordia Stingers. Fifth-year transfer centre Sirah Diarra and fourth-year transfer forward Nadege Pluviose each recorded a double-double in that decisive game. Their season came to an end for McGill women’s basketball on Feb. 26 with an away loss to the Laval Rouge et Or in the RSEQ playoff semi-finals. 

Pluviose earned Second-Team All-Star honours, while first-year guard Jessica Salanon was named a rookie All-Star at the RSEQ awards. Next year will see significant roster changes for the Martlets, with five graduating seniors leaving the squad. 

Men’s Track and Field

The McGill Men’s Track team had an equally successful winter season. They qualified seven athletes for the National Championship in Edmonton, after finishing third in the Provincial Championship. Second-year Alex Stathis distinguished himself by breaking his own school record in the heptathlon on his way to earning a provincial gold medal in Quebec City. The St-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec native finished in a remarkable fifth place at Nationals. 

Third-years Jose Guerra and Matthew Daly also dominated the RSEQ Championship, striking gold in the shot put and the 60m hurdles, respectively. The 4x400m relay, staffed by Nicolas Bernard, Jack Crosby, Sebastian Danson and Jasper Ross, reached the finals at Nationals after dominating the event in Quebec City.

Women’s Track and Field 

The standout of the Martlets’ 2020 winter track season was Jorden Savoury. The second-year psychology student started her campaign by breaking a school record on the 60 metre dash in Sherbrooke. Savoury went on to beat the record again, twice, at the 25th McGill Team Challenge on Jan. 25. The LaSalle, Quebec native praised her teammates for their support and work ethic. 

“Team spirit is what led us to succeed,” Savoury said. “I have never been a part of such an amazing group of athletes that work hard for what they want.”

As a collective, the Martlets track team had a productive season. They finished second at the RSEQ provincial championship, tallying two gold medals by fourth-year Abby Woods on the triple jump and graduate transfer Allison Frantz in the heptathlon. Both athletes earned a spot at the National Championship in Edmonton. The Martlets also dominated the long jump event: Savoury and Woods earned silver and bronze, respectively, separated by only eight centimeters. 

The Martlets’ relays fared well too, earning bronze in the 4×200 metre and silver in the 4×800 metre at the RSEQ championships. The team consisted of Savoury, Woods, Frantz, and third-year Stephanie Susinski. The Martlets did not win any medals in throwing events at the provincial championships; however, first-year thrower Marika Shafonsky had a strong rookie season, consistently finishing in the weight throw top 10.

The McGill Track Team hopes to build on this success as the outdoor season starts. Savoury, however, refused to set any ceiling for their performance. 

“I don’t believe in limits,” Savoury said.

Science & Technology

The social consequences of AI

by Shafaq Nami on

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Upon hearing the words “artificial intelligence” (AI), people tend to have mixed reactions. Science fiction’s favourite trope is AI taking over the world, and literature has been portraying such ideas since at least 1921, when Karel Čapek introduced the word ‘robot’ in his famous play R.U.R. The powerful applications of AI today often invoke thoughts of a utopian world where humans can do anything at the press of the button. As this narrative moves closer to reality, academics, computer scientists, and the general public are forced to ponder AI’s societal implications.

McGill’s Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist studies hosted a research talk on Feb. 20 as part of their Feminist and Accessible Publishing and Communications Technologies Speaker and Workshop series. The talk entitled ‘Why AI needs Collective Action’ was presented by Meredith Whittaker, the Co-Director of New York University’s AI NOW Institute and founder of Google’s Open Research Group.

Many are right to think that AI taking over the world is a far-fetched idea. As Whittaker pointed out, this is because AI isn’t a self-conscious machine; rather, it is an assembly of knowledge and skills in the hands of those in power.

“[AI] is a set of technical capabilities that are being recklessly integrated in social domains such as healthcare, education, criminal justice, and almost everything we can think of,” Whittaker said.

According to Whittaker, when we talk about AI, we must also confront issues of power imbalances. AI has become popular in recent years largely because modern hardware has the massive computational power necessary to handle large amounts of data.

“Major tech companies happen to have all of the necessary equipment [and] a lot of social data alongside a power structure designed to collect and record [these] data,” Whittaker said. “Current AI, the one touching our lives, is more or less from corporate companies, and only five companies in the West have these resources to develop and deploy AI [.…] If you ask any AI start-up, they will tell you that they are renting their computational power from one of the three major tech companies, […] Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, [who] resort to shady techniques to get [the] data.”

Whittaker explained how current AI data collection practices can violate privacy. For example, HireVue uses an algorithm to predict the best potential hire, a shoplifter prediction software used by stores in Japan analyzes people’s behaviours to predict whether they will commit a crime, and Amazon Ring has partnered with police to essentially make a privatized surveillance system. As there are no current checks on this power, Amazon can push new features without regulation.

“Because [these technologies are] primarily developed by private companies, socially significant decisions are made behind a veil of corporate secrecy,” Whittaker said. “Most of what the world does know about AI is through corporate marketing and PR departments [.…] The truth is hidden from the public and even the workers, [and] in a lot of cases, what we know is through investigative journalists and whistleblowers.” 

Whittaker, who previously worked at Google, was one of the organizers of the 2018 Google walkouts.

“As workers, we didn’t have access to a lot of information, and there was a whole network we had to set up,” Whittaker said. “Problems of bias and justice are fundamental issues and require us to examine structures of power and look at who is benefitting and who is harmed.”

Whittaker explained that AI can be used by people in power to isolate or discriminate against certain groups of people in situations ranging from hiring employees to being labelled a criminal. 

“No one is [being asked] to stop doing science, but the system requires change,” Whittaker said. “We need to add starting collective addition at the front of our AI […], a kind of system able to check the power of a tech before it’s too late.”

Science & Technology

The science behind back injuries

by Sophia Gorbounov on

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Canadian health organizations are increasingly pushing people to become more active. Groups such as the Canadian Paediatric Society are promoting programs like Active Kids, Healthy Kids, while the Canadian government is implementing programs that encourage activities such as dance and running.

As sports and fitness become more popular, the risk of injury grows as well. In the US alone, more than 3.5 million children injure themselves every year from sports-related activities. Though not the most common, back injuries are still a cause of frustration for many athletes, young and old.

Richard Preuss, an assistant professor for the McGill School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, explained that it is difficult to establish a pathoanatomic diagnosis—a diagnosis based on studying a specific tissue, joint, bone—for most back injuries.

“Current clinical practice guidelines for back pain indicate three triage categories: […] Specific pathology, radicular syndrome, and non-specific back pain,” Preuss said. 

According to Preuss, non-specific back pain accounts for 90–95 per cent of all back injuries. In sports, specific pathology usually means a fracture, and radicular syndrome refers to injuries affecting the nerves. 

When it comes to back injuries, there is an important distinction between the spinal column and the spinal cord. The spinal column is the vertebrae: 33 bones stacked up and attached by the intervertebral disks and ligaments, allowing it to bend and move while protecting the nerves. The spinal cord is the neural tissue that runs from the brainstem to the bottom of the spinal column and branches out to relay messages between the brain and the muscles.

Preuss emphasized that injury to the spinal column is like any other broken bone. 

“Fractured vertebrae will heal very well but will be treated with great caution to ensure that the spinal cord remains protected,” Preuss said. “In the back, most fractures are associated with low bone mineral density. In healthy athletes, it would take a very high-energy impact to cause a fracture, and acute fractures of the vertebrae are rare.”

On the other hand, spinal cord injuries, while rare, are very serious and can lead to partial or complete paralysis of the region below the injury, with limited potential for recovery. Spinal cord injuries in the neck can be fatal, while injuries to other spinal nerves often lead to radicular syndrome. Spinal cord injuries most commonly occur in sports where forces to the top of the head can compress the spine, such as football, ice hockey, skiing, and snowboarding.

The most prevalent back injuries in athletes are sprains and strains. Usually, these are caused by muscle or ligament overuse, improper body motion or technique, or lack of proper stretching or conditioning. These are diagnosed when the athlete experiences pain while exercising and relief while resting. 

In sports that require a lot of extension and twisting like gymnastics or diving, spondylolisthesis is common. This is a condition where the vertebra at the bottom of the spinal column slips forward onto the one beneath it. Though the symptoms are similar to those of a sprain or strain, medical imaging can be used to confirm the source of the pain. Nonsurgical treatments include wearing a back brace, physiotherapy, or using epidural steroid injections. For more severe cases, or if the vertebrae are pressing on the nerves, treatment requires spinal fusion surgery that joins two vertebrae together into one bone. 

For less serious back injuries, the main treatment is rest. Ice and pain medications, particularly nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories, can also be used to ease the pain but should be used sparingly. In the case of muscle spasms, heat can be applied. 

Although they are not as common as other sports injuries, back injuries have a wide range of severity and still pose a risk in all areas of physical activity. According to Preuss, it is most important to practice proper sports techniques, take breaks to prevent overexertion, and seek help if any injury occurs. Virtually all back injuries are treatable, and with proper care, complete recovery is possible.

Commentary, Opinion

Postgraduate education in Canada poses financial barriers for students

by Makena Anderson on

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With Reading Week over, many students are in the midst of sending out CVs and graduate school applications. While the students who desire to pursue postgraduate education come from all backgrounds, many Canadian universities continuously fail to accommodate low-income students in their admissions processes. 

In recent years, many postgraduate programs have shifted their focuses toward increasing diversity in admissions, yet despite this, significant financial barriers remain. Beyond the high price of tuition, which can reach up to $35,000 per year for law school in Canada, students from lower socioeconomic groups are often limited due to steep application fees, the high price of studying materials for standardized tests, and expensive interview processes.

 It can be very expensive to write required standardized tests like the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT), Law School Admissions Test (LSAT), and General Management Admissions Test (GMAT). With a price point hovering around $200 per test, many students can only afford to take the test once, further increasing the pressure to score well on them. Many online forums suggest setting aside at least three months to prepare for these tests, but some students find this unmanageable while balancing jobs and heavy course loads. In fact, many on-campus groups advertise prep classes and implicitly suggest that, in order to succeed, students must purchase the books and courses, like the Princeton Review, which starts at $599 USD. As a result, standardized tests advantage students who can afford to take time away from work and who have the funds to enroll in prep courses and purchase pricey prep books.

Certain Canadian schools, including McGill, are beginning to recognize the weaknesses of standardized tests. As a result, many Canadian postgraduate admissions councils have started to give extracurricular activities, volunteer work, and past experience the same weight as Grade Point Averages (GPA) and standardized tests to diversify the applicant pool. Some have even omitted portions of these tests altogether, like McGill which does not require LSAT or MCAT to apply for law or medical faculties, respectively. However, not all schools follow suit. Some Canadian law schools, such as University of Victoria, weigh LSAT results nearly as heavily as students’ grade point averages. As such, some admissions boards essentially equate four years’ worth of undergraduate education with a three-hour test. The pressure to perform is immense and enough to dishearten some students.

Even with admissions initiatives to consider applicants more holistically, experience on one’s CV often comes at a steep price, and unfortunately, part-time jobs often do not bear as much weight on an application as unpaid experience might. Similarly, extracurricular activities and volunteer work often require significant time away from school and work, which can affect students both financially and academically. Furthermore, for some postgraduate programs such as medical school, students are expected to travel from coast to coast to participate in interviews. For many applicants, this venture is a significant time constraint, but for others it represents an insurmountable financial obstacle.

 Issues with diversity are far from being solved. For example, medical schools in Canada feature more minority groups than the Canadian population. However, the distribution remains skewed: Some minority groups are drastically underrepresented, while others are overrepresented. Canadian students of higher socioeconomic status are overrepresented as well.

Canadian postgraduate programs, including those at McGill, have a long way to go in terms of prioritizing both socioeconomic and racial diversity in their classrooms. University of Calgary shows merits in its Pathways to Medicine Scholarship, which is geared toward low-income applicants and provides $21,000 of financial assistance and a paid internship. Similarly, both McGill and the University of Toronto offer bursaries and targeted application processes for Indigenous students. Yet more work needs to be done to ensure that distribution of races and socioeconomic statuses remain representative of the country and demonstrate that all students are welcome in Canadian postgraduate programs. Instituting more holistic admissions processes that are more considerate of socio-economic privilege and disadvantage is crucial for achieving equity.

 

Arts & Entertainment, Music

Michael Haze confronts love and loss in his debut EP

by Jonathan Giammaria on

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“CANCER,” Michael Haze’s second track on his debut EP MICKEY, opens with the crackle of a vinyl record followed by a spare guitar riff. The melody is simple, a two note progression whose deeper half is echoed by a soft and higher strum. Subdued and sparse beats accompany the low tempo intro to create an understated ambience which welcomes Haze’s equally soft vocals. Though he maintains a higher register through most of the track, he, at times, dips into his lower range, melding his voice with the instrumentation that supports him. Haze’s singing, which recedes with each repetition of the guitar riff, holds an effortless transience that echoes the track’s subject: Haze’s resurgent memories of his ex-girlfriend. 

MICKEY is a sombre meditation on a breakup’s fallout, a study in a relationship’s fleeting moments, whose reverberations haunt the psyche long after the moment of their occurrence. Despite the fact that Haze produced the EP in his basement, all five tracks’ cohesive sound and poetic lyricism mark his reach and potential for the heights of professional, contemporary R&B music.

Currently studying at McGill University, Haze, U3 Arts, showed an interest in music from a young age. During his early education, he took up the guitar and joined his school’s choir, as well as performing in talent shows. Before he produced his own music, Haze would often gravitate to pop and indie rock musicians’ work. Artists such as XXXTentacion informed Haze’s early attempts at songwriting, though he remarked how he had to rely less on other artists’ voices if he was to come into his own. 

“When you first start making music […] I think the best way to go about it is to make music that sounds like people that inspire you already,” Haze said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “But then a lot of it just sounds faux. It sounds copied until you find your own sound. I guess that’s where I’m at right now.”

Haze starts making his tracks either by writing a few verses or developing a beat. Whichever comes first, he frames its counterpart so that it resembles the atmosphere and theme of the initial creation. Though MICKEY excels because of its meditative production, Haze expressed how he’s looking to produce more varied music in the future.

“I go to concerts a lot and I love down tempo. But I also love a mosh pit, like in up tempo concerts. So I’m really trying to incorporate a lot more of that in the [next] project, but still have the same ethos as the EP,” Haze said. 

MICKEY’s last track, “PHONEY” best encapsulates Haze’s aim at a balance between lively and moody music. Its opening is a percussive assemblage of deep synth vibrations that lead into a kinetic trap beat. Haze contrasts the track’s heightened energy with his signature smooth vocals, though his lyrics’ about his ex coalesce with the background’s bold audio. The track’s forcefulness dissipates midway, though, when artist Shenny delivers a spoken word poem. With a subdued musical accompaniment, Shenny’s words conclude MICKEY in a moment of stark vulnerability. His poetry, reflective of the EP in its entirety, both celebrates the trust that love cultivates between two people as well as its subsequent betrayal as a result of the aftermath of a separation. The EP’s bittersweet ending, an attempt at reconciliation of that which inspired the EP, is a marker of Haze’s hopes to take his music elsewhere.

“I grow weary of making the same type of music, or about the same type of things,” Haze said. “The next project may still be about love, but a different aspect of it. Love that isn’t intimate.”

MICKEY is available on all streaming services.

McGill, News

AUS rejects Motion to Acknowledge Role of Blood Collection Services on Campus

by Kate Addison on

More in McGill:

The Arts Undergraduate Society of McGill (AUS) held its fourth legislative council meeting of the semester on Feb. 27. Concillors debated the concerns presented by Héma-Québec’s blood drives on campus and policies restricting donations from men who have sex with men through a three-month deferral period.

Several members of the council expressed dissent following the introduction of a motion on Feb. 27 to Acknowledge the Role of Blood Collection Services on Campus and to Encourage the Continued Advancement of Non-Discriminatory Policies. In response to a motion presented during the AUS’s last general assembly condemning the presence of Héma-Québec on campus, this new motion regarding Héma-Québec sought to condemn only the organization’s discriminatory policies while continuing to make them feel welcome at McGill. Many AUS representatives believe that this new motion was not in the best interests of McGill students and feared the repercussions of creating spaces on campus for an organization that possesses discriminatory policies toward 2SLGBTQIA+ people. 

The motion brought forth by the Society of Linguistics Undergraduates at McGill Vice-President (VP) External Mathieu Hergett-Rozier, and seconded by The Canadian Studies Association of Undergraduate Students (CSAUS) VP External Brent Jamsa, was intended to recognize the importance of student blood donations for life-saving services and create a comfortable atmosphere for those facilitating collections on campus. 

“I think it is important to also recognize the contributions made by these organizations and make them feel welcome because they do save people’s lives,” Hergett-Rozier said. “I don’t want to foster an environment in which these groups feel threatened because that ultimately correlates to people’s loss of lives [….] Every drop of blood counts.” 

Deferral times for blood donations made by gay men have decreased in previous years from an outright ban to five years in 2013 and one year in 2016. These changes have been implimented in an effort to refute homophobic fears surrounding gay men and HIV/AIDS. Gender, Sexuality, Feminist and Social Justie Studies Students Association External Coordinator Alexandra Smith Taylor discussed how the motion could be perceived as prioritizing blood collection services that continue to uphold these discriminatory policies over McGill’s 2SLGBTQIA+ population who may feel ostracized by the collection service.  

“I feel like [this] motion suggests that it is more important for us to create a safe space for Héma-Québec [on campus] than a safe space for our students,” Smith Taylor said. “I don’t want to vote in favour of this motion because of the way that it has been written.” 

This sentiment was echoed by HSA VP external Dalton Liggett, who stated that failing to adequately condemn Héma-Québec does not adhere to the AUS equity policy. 

“While I would like to recognize that the motion is in good faith, […] the AUS equity policy […] mandates us to be proactive in condemning processes of marginalization which affect the safety and well-being of disadvantaged groups of McGill,’” Liggit said. “Following consultations with numerous groups, including Queer McGill and the Union for Gender Empowerment, [there has been a] consistent take away and that is that the presence of these blood drives on campus, occupying public space [and] loudly playing music, […] is explicitly and inherently exclusionary to the vast majority of the queer community on campus.”

Following the debate, the motion was voted on by the council and failed to pass. 


Moment of the Meeting: 

Councilors voted yes to a motion which resolved that the VP Communications send out emails in the coming months regarding upcoming climate justice demonstrations as part of the Arts Undergraduate Societies declaration of a state of Climate Emergency. The emails will include a “Has McGill Divested Yet?” segment to maintain engagement with the issue. 

Sound Bite: 

“I don’t feel like I was ‘made by McGill’. I feel like I was made in spite of it. I hope that, going forward, in all the years that follow the first 200, students don’t have to feel like that anymore and that we feel properly supported by the services here [….] I think that [what] I would like to see come out of the bicentennial is actual conversations with students and not just forms.” – RSUS VP external Mo Rajji Courtney in response to a presentation about upcoming bicentennial celebrations.

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