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Science & Technology

Écotech event aims to implement eco-friendly solutions through technology

by Angelina Giordano on

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Young professionals recently took part in EnergyHack, an energy efficiency hackathon. The event, hosted by Écotech Québec on Sept. 28, prompted participants to choose and solve one of two challenges provided by the city of Varennes, an off-island suburb of Montreal, and the borough of Saint-Laurent. The winning teams from each competition will work to bring their project solutions to fruition. They will also travel to the Smart City Expo in Barcelona this November, courtesy of Air Canada.

The event started with a welcome address from various speakers in the tech industry. Throughout the day, mentors were available to answer questions from participants; they also presented a series of workshops covering topics such as business savviness, challenges that experts in the field face, and artificial intelligence (AI).

The first challenge was proposed by Alan DeSousa, the mayor of Saint-Laurent. He asked for a way to install an intelligent ventilation and window-opening control system in an existing building in Saint-Laurent. Meanwhile, Martin Damphousse, the mayor of Varennes, asked for plans that would integrate eco-efficient solutions when constructing a new municipal workshop in Varennes. Participants used data on energy consumption, carbon emissions, and architecture plans to propose AI solutions.

Seven teams took part in the event: Four were assigned to the Saint-Laurent challenge and three to the Varennes challenge. David Fauteux, an advisor at the Institut de Développement des Produits (IDP), advised the participants to stay patient while searching for solutions.

“[The] issues come from not finding the good stuff at the beginning,” Fauteux said. “If you don’t have much reflection, and you go too fast, you go [for] the quick solution, and then it’s not always a good option. With these kinds of events, […] it’s more about […] how you make sure that your reflection is good, [and] what have you done to make sure that not only your family and friends like your idea.”

Participants came from all around the Montreal area. Claude Belizare, founder of Human Level AI, heard about the event the day before and travelled from Trois-Rivières with his son. Club Poly Énergie, a group of engineers and data scientists from Polytechnique Montréal, won the Saint-Laurent challenge. Ultimately, all participants, no matter where they came from, attended the event because they were interested in using AI to help Montreal residents. 

“It’s [about] what your idea can do for people,” Amir Nosrat, a founding director of the environmental charity Climatable, said during a speech about different kinds of business pitches. 

The event also illustrated that AI can be a useful tool for solving many problems. Jean-Baptise Débordès, a mentor at the event and Founder of SEED AI, emphasized that AI is not the killer robot that it is made out to be.

“It is a tool to make better decisions, better run our lives, our businesses, our cities, do smarter thinking,” Débordès said in an interview with The McGill Tribune.

The winners of the Varennes challenge were Pierre Manach, a consultant at Solution Techso, and Guinel Garçon, an energy analyst at ENGIE. The two, who are also the founders of an energy podcast called La Patate Chaude, kept Nosrat’s advice in mind with their winning idea.

“From [La Patate Chaude], we’ve talked about different issues around the energy sector, and we’ve come [to EnergyHack] […] to help with the management of energy,” Pierre said.

Arts & Entertainment

POP Montreal spotlights local talent

by Sophie Brzozowski, Katia Innes, Kevin Vogel on

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This year, POP Montreal International Music Festival turned 18. Born in the Mile End, the festival had humble beginnings showcasing then-unknown acts Broken Social Scene and Stars. Now, the festival has grown to include over 300 acts, extending its commitment to championing independent arts across the seas: This year saw Congolese collective KOKOKO! and French experimental artist Felicia Atkinson gracing its stages. Yet, POP Montreal is still devoted to promoting local artists; The McGill Tribune reports our best findings this year. 

Ada Lea, Theatre Rialto

Sophie Brzozowski, Managing Editor

Accompanied only by an acoustic guitar and a sampler, Ada Lea’s performance style is enchanting in its sparseness. Opening for Tiny Ruins and Aldous Harding on Sept. 28 at the Rialto Theatre, Alexandra Levy performed songs from her debut album what we say in private, which she released under the moniker of Ada Lea on July 19. The album is intensely personal, such that it feels intrusive to sit amongst an audience of hundreds and watch Lea bare her soul onstage. With her silvery voice and delicate instrumentals, however, she effortlessly brought the packed auditorium to a hush.

Trapped in Elon’s Mansion, Cinema L’Amour

Kevin Vogel, Arts & Entertainment Editor

When Elon Musk got into a Twitter spat by insulting public transportation advocate Jarret Walker, Montreal writer Joe Bagel decided to clap back. With the billionaire’s wealth of completely bonkers legal fiascos, Bagel had no shortage of source material for Trapped in Elon’s Mansion. Bagel’s new Shakespearean comedy dramatizes some of these celebrity feuds—in verse. Written entirely in iambic pentameter, the surrealist play brings Azaelia Banks, Grimes, Jay-Z, Musk himself, and even the human incarnation of Siri together in an acid-fueled marathon of pop-culture lambastement. Despite its dated poetic style, Trapped in Elon’s Mansion gives a hilarious spin to Shakespearean tradition.

Hildegard, Theatre Rialto

Katia Innes, Arts & Entertainment Editor

It would be remiss not to mention the stage debut of Hildegard, an electronic music duo composed of two of Montreal’s most exciting artists, Ouri and Helena Deland. A joint project between the DJ-producer-multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter, respectively, Hildegard performed an informal medley of new mixes, and bandcamp favourites. On Sept. 26, the two found their respective places behind twin synths, launching into a mesmerizing performance shrouded in fog. Mixing their way through heavy bass and atmospheric dream pop, Hildegard kept things light, interspersing their set with goofier soundbites such as sirens and cartoony vocals. 

Markus Floats, Theatre Rialto

 Katia Innes

By his own description, Markus Floats makes “very serious bleeps and bloops.” The ambient electronic artist delivered this material, as promised, to Theatre Rialto on Sept. 27, seated comfortably behind a MacBook Pro. In contrast to the testosterone filled, over-hyped bro DJs of Piknic Electronique-lore, Markus Floats was fittingly at-ease, focused and attentive, moving through otherworldly mixes. Shifting from calm and atmospheric to dissonant and industrial, it was a delight to bask in Markus Floats’ sonic landscape. 

Yves Jarvis, Theatre Rialto

Katia Innes

Playing Rialto Hall on Sept. 28, under the name Yves Jarvis, lo-fi singer-songwriter Jean-Sebastian Audet delivered a fittingly relaxed set to a patient crowd of onlookers. Audet drew from his full-length solo debut, The Same but by Different Means, which dropped earlier this year, as well as unreleased material. Blending funk sensibilities with gauzy ballads, Audet moved through his set alone onstage. Audet is about to embark on a European tour with fellow POP Montreal performer Aldous Harding, so seeing him in such an intimate setting was a delight.

OSD Office
Commentary, Opinion

OSD note-takers are another example of undervalued labour on campus

by Sepideh Afshar on

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McGill’s Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) is responsible for facilitating wider access to learning and providing adequate resources for all students. To this end, one of the services offered by the OSD is providing notes for students who may be unable to take their own. Note-takers are tasked with taking, organizing, and uploading legible notes for students who are registered with the OSD. Compensation for the work done by note-takers has steadily decreased, and now, it is a volunteer position. By removing incentives for students to become note-takers, the OSD is extending a pattern of unpaid student labour at McGill and betraying their responsibility to those who need their services by potentially degrading the help they receive.  

On Sept. 19, all students in classes in need of note-takers received an email which stated that note-taking is now a volunteer position that offers 10 volunteer hours on student’s co-curricular record and a chance to win a $50 gift card. Students know that they are doing work worthy of compensation, because previous note-takers received payment, and by removing this, the OSD is depreciating the work that students dedicate. The main concern other than lack of participation is the quality of the notes: The same quality of notes cannot be expected for a position that is now unpaid. The OSD has maintained their screening process, but the quality anticipated should be very different now that there is no compensation. If the overall quality of notes for students with disabilities decreases due to the lack of compensation, this falls directly on the shoulders of the OSD.

“By removing incentives for students to become note-takers, the OSD is extending a pattern of unpaid student labour at McGill and betraying their responsibility to those who need their services by potentially degrading the help they receive.”

The work done by note-takers has been overlooked for years. In the 2018-2019 academic year, the OSD paid students either $100 or $50 per class per semester, depending on the class and the term. To put that into perspective, most McGill classes take three hours per week, and in a semester, there are about 36 class hours. If note-takers were paid the Quebec minimum wage of $12.50 for those class hours, not including out-of-class time spent organizing notes, they would receive $450 in compensation. Besides the already inadequate pay, Reddit users identifying as note-takers have complained of inconsistency as well as poor communication from the OSD. Reported incidents on Reddit include allegedly forgotten or incomplete payments. There have even been multiple accounts of people graduating, moving out of Montreal, but still not receiving payment. Despite all of these experiences, students be note-takers for a variety of reasons: It may have incentivized them to go to class or they wanted to help their fellow students. 

“If note-takers were paid the Quebec minimum wage of $12.50 for those class hours, not including out-of-class time spent organizing notes, they would receive $450 in compensation.”

McGill overlooking student labour is not new. In 2018, social work students participated in a strike against the required 800 hours of unpaid field placement work worth three credits per year. Other than having their protests called premature by Quebec Education Minister Jean Francois Roberge, social work students did not see any real action from McGill. Lack of funding has also been an issue for the OSD. In 2015, McGill became responsible for funding OSD as opposed to the Québec government who had previously been doing so. OSD director, Teri Philips, stated in 2017 that some services were hampered due to new financial restrictions. This funding issue could easily be a belated effect of the switch between the government and McGill. 

Students deserve compensation for the work they are doing, no matter the reason behind it By taking away any monetary incentive, the OSD is doing a disservice to those in need of note-takers by removing incentives for high-quality notes. Beyond the OSD itself, McGill needs to reallocate their resources and ensure that they are not disadvantaging students registered with the OSD. 

Executive
Editorial, Opinion

The Involuntary Leave Policy lacks foresight

by The McGill Tribune Editorial Board on

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Content warning: Mentions of mental health issues

In September, the Office for the Dean of Students, released an “Involuntary Leave Policy”, the process for which has now been suspended. An “Involuntary Leave Policy” sub-policy would allow the university to place a student who is “in crisis” on involuntary leave until the student has met the conditions for returning to the University and requests a return.

The proposal specifies that this action would be taken only in the most severe cases, such as if the administration deemed that a student is a danger to themselves or others. Additionally, the proposal stresses that people should not interpret this policy as a disciplinary measure; Instead it is meant to exist in partnership with other support resources for students. 

While these caveats show that the administration’s intentions were well-meaning, the Office of the Dean of Students must have the foresight to understand how a policy like this will situate itself into the larger dialogue regarding mental health at McGill, and therefore understand the student opposition they met regarding this proposal. Messages like this proposal should also come with a content-warning, considering the sensitive nature of mental health issues.

Following the proposal’s release, Buddle and the administration faced significant student backlash. In response, Buddle sent out a second public message saying that, in light of student opposition, he would be suspending this policy draft immediately to continue to work with the student body and find alternative solutions for aiding students in crisis. While the Office of the Dean of Students made the right decision to withdraw this policy from consideration, the policy’s mere proposal evinces some of the ways in which the McGill administration has remained oblivious to student concerns about mental health, wilfully or not. While this policy is not necessarily meant to apply only to situations which pertain to mental health, it is crucial that the administration is meticulous and careful when they enter a consultation process for a policy of this sort. 

This proposal fails most gravely in that it addresses only the most extreme situations. Regardless of how beneficial an involuntary leave policy would be to students in crisis, the reality is that, in many instances, students can be helped before reaching that point. It seems absurd that the administration would propose an involuntary leave policy when McGill lacks a voluntary leave policy to allow struggling  students to take time off after the withdrawal period in the first month of school as ended. Additionally, over the last two years, there has been a consistent and clear message from the student body that the existing mental health resources at McGill are inadequate. Specific instances include the administration’s decision to cut the eating disorder program without informing students who used it; the lack of accessible Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or long-term counselors through any McGill program; and massive wait times for many methods of counseling that are present throughout campus. Further, these resources often rely on unpaid, or at least underpaid, labour. The administration’s continued apathy and failure to provide adequate voluntary resources to aid students’ mental health makes the introduction of an involuntary policy which pertains only to crisis situations seem all the more abrupt and shortsighted. McGill’s administration should take preventative measures before addressing the most extreme scenarios. 

“Additionally, over the last two years, there has been a consistent and clear message from the student body that the existing mental health resources at McGill are inadequate.”

In addition, the language used in this policy proposal creates an issue. The proposal also states that a student may be redirected to relevant resources, which could include those pertaining to mental health. However, it is difficult to take a policy that purports to direct students in a crisis situation to the relevant resources seriously when many of those resources simply do not exist. Finally, the policy’s statements regarding a student who is “deemed to be a danger to themselves or others” sends an inappropriate message that those struggling with mental health issues may be dangerous. It is the explicit responsibility of the administration not to alienate or debase individuals who may be battling mental illness, but the language of this proposal has the potential to harm those who are already vulnerable. 

In the future, the Office of the Dean of Students and other offices need to treat proposals of this sort with scrupulous care, both in terms of the language they use to discuss mental-health issues, and in their awareness of how a given piece of dialogue will be contextualized in the larger, ongoing conversation between the administration and the student body. Ideally, the administration will strive to be attentive to the concerns of McGill students, take very seriously issues of mental health, and exercise care when it comes to the language they use when speaking about sensitive experiences. 

 

Off the Board, Opinion

Cancel political stan culture

by Katia Innes on

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I have mixed feelings about the discourse that inevitably surrounds election seasons. Though I enjoy a good Scheer-centric takedown as much as the next person, I find myself unnerved by the surface level engagement on social media where stan culture intermingles with politics. 

Stan is shorthand for ‘stalker fan’ and is named aptly after the Eminem song. To be a stan, or to stan someone, is to obsess over a celebrity and provide nearly unequivocal support, regardless of their behaviours or values. Stan culture is heightened on social media, where interactions between celebrities and their fans, as well as fan communities that arise, can create echo chambers of preoccupation. While stan culture remains mostly harmless, involving real world actors into this lore becomes morally tricky: It is fine to write erotic fanfiction involving Gilmore Girls characters, but it is invasive, inappropriate, and above all, really weird to write about Donald Trump, Vladmir Putin, and Hillary Clinton having a threesome. It is crucial to recognize that by treating politicians, and politics, as fictional characters and narratives, we remove the ability to see them as whole beings capable of failure. 

 In 2015, shortly after Justin Trudeau was elected as Prime Minister, there was no shortage of thirst articles. An unofficial calendar entitled “Justin Trudeau, My Canadian Boyfriend 2018 Wall Calendar” was sold on Amazon. In light of current criticisms against Trudeau for his lack of climate action and the resurfacing of multiple photos of him in blackface, these posts expressing undying adoration have not aged well.

This hyper-sexualization of politicians taps into another weird aspect of this “stan” culture — the infamous horny tweet about Democratic Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke for instance, shows how lusting typically reserved for Bachelor in Paradise contestants emerges in this new political discourse. This vantage point positions politicians as objects of admiration to be fawned over, not elected officials with agendas. 

Similarly, there is a concurrent trend were politicians are equated to protagonists from popular media: A uniquely bizarre tweet that photoshopped O’Rourke, along with other Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg as the main characters from Harry Potter circulated earlier this month. Framing politics within theses imaginary worlds, and placing politicians as protagonists fated to triumph over “evil” shows a stark disconnect with the realities of federal bureaucracies. 

Conceptualizing politicians as virtuous saviours is also an unsound way of expressing admiration. Because of the incredibly high standard admirers hold them to, when these public figures inevitably misstep, their error is fundamentally incompatible with the conception of forgiveness, or growth. 

People’s disengagement from the unglamorous, mundane realities of political systems is vapid, entirely self-serving, and irresponsible. Of course, popular culture offers useful vehicles for critiquing political structures: Satirization of Trudeau’s blackface scandal, Amazon’s mistreatment of workers, and the rise of the conservative right may prove to be insightful. However, it is important to accept the fact that, not every aspect of our lives exists as an item of consumption, and instead we should meaningfully engage in political discourse and hold ourselves and others accountable for the real world effects of political actions. It seems redundant to say, but a politician is not an entertainer. They are an elected official who is supposed to serve your interests. 

 

Hockey, Private, Sports

McGill Men’s Hockey drops tight affair to Ottawa

by Adam Menikefs on

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The McGill Men’s hockey team (0–1–0) opened their OUA regular season at home on Oct. 3 against the Ottawa Gee–Gees (1–0–0). Despite the enthusiastic crowd, the home team came up short, losing 3–2.

The game started at a fast pace, with good puck movement and checking from both sides. McGill took an early slashing penalty in the neutral zone one minute in; however, their solid penalty kill unit, who has given up one power play goal in their last three games, showed up to shut down Ottawa.

A few minutes into the first period, with McGill’s offence pressing, third-year forward Antoine Dufort-Plante buried his first goal of the season from just outside the crease. The momentum continued in McGill’s favour as Ottawa took two penalties in the next two minutes, giving the home side a critical five-on-three powerplay.

McGill’s powerplay unit moved the puck beautifully and took multiple shots on net. Ottawa’s goalie and defence stood strong though, and McGill was unable to increase their lead. Losing this offensive opportunity would prove costly: Minutes later, immediately after McGill killed another penalty, Ottawa outnumbered the home side in the offensive zone and capitalized on this opportunity, barely squeezing the puck past fourth-year goalie Louis-Philip Guindon to tie the game at 1–1.

In the second period, the home team struggled out of the gate. Ottawa took advantage of the opening, scoring within the first minute to take a 2–1 lead. The Gee-Gees continued to press in McGill’s end, and again, Ottawa found the back of the net, finishing a beautiful cross-crease goal to extend their lead to 3–1.

Third-year forward Michael Cramarossa, currently co-leading the team in points this year, was frustrated with this tough stretch of the game.

“We didn’t play a full 60 minutes,” Cramarossa said. “That was our game plan from the beginning, and I think we left that, after their first [goal] and in the second [period].” 

In the third period, McGill came out with a new energy, outskating the Gee-Gees and creating chances to put themselves back into the game. Five minutes into the period, second-year forward Ryan Penny buried on a rush, narrowing the goal difference to one. The home team continued to control play in the offensive end, especially as time became scarce. With Guindon pulled to give them another attacker, McGill came extremely close to tying the game, even hitting the post. Ultimately, McGill fell short by a final score of 3–2.

McGill’s season continues with a tough opening stretch, as they go on the road for five of their next six games. Penny, who scored his ninth point of the season, is focused on what the team needs to do in order to bounce back in this next stretch.

“Just play simple,” Penny said. “Just stick to our game plans and pull out some road wins to get some confidence to begin the season.” 

McGill plays The University of Windsor Lancers on Oct. 11. 

 

Moment of the Game:

Antoine Dufort-Plante scored McGill’s first goal of the game and regular season right near the crease, sending the McGill home crowd to their feet.  

Quotable:

“Statistic wise, it doesn’t really matter [to me]. I just care if we get the win.” – Third-year forward Michael Cramarossa on his current team co-lead in points.

Stat Corner:

Fourth-year goaltender Louis-Philip Guindon saved 41 shots, a season-high for the netminder.

 

Creative

Montreal Climate March | September 2019

by Sarah Ford on

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On September 27, as part of a series of worldwide climate protests, Montreal held its second march for climate justice. The McGill contingent was organised by Climate Justice Action McGill (C-JAM), garnering around 3,000 students. 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg joined the greater Montreal rally, addressing a crowd of over 500,000 people.

Video by The McGill Tribune’s Multimedia Editors, Sarah Ford and Aidan Martin.

Creative

19th Annual McGill Pow Wow

by Sarah Ford on

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On September 20, members of the McGill and Montreal community gathered on Lower Field to participate in the 19th Annual Pow Wow hosted by the First Peoples’ House. The celebration was part of the 9th Annual Indigenous Awareness Weeks which was organized by the McGill Indigenous Education Program.

Video by Sarah Ford and Aidan Martin

Artistic Swimming, Commentary, Letters to the Editor, Opinion

It’s time for equal treatment of female athletes and their sports

by Geneviève Peel on

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I joined McGill Varsity Artistic Swimming (AS) in 2018 after 11 years of practicing the sport on a national and international level. McGill AS’s 2018-19 season was one of the most successful in the team’s history. We won Nationals after an undefeated season and brought home the coveted Geraldine Dubrule Trophy, awarded to the school with the highest number of points at the end of each season. In light of these accomplishments, we were thrilled to be nominated for the Team of the Year Award at the 2019 Varsity Gala. 

To our surprise, we lost the award to another team. After more than a decade in artistic swimming, I am used to my sport not being recognized as a “real sport.” What was most disappointing, however, was to lose this award to a men’s team whose success we undoubtedly matched on paper, especially in light of the efforts McGill Athletics claims to be making to better support their women’s teams. It is time for these words to become concrete actions. 

The women I swam with during this season are strong, smart, and driven. They balance studying in demanding programs with practices finishing as late as 10:30 p.m. multiple times per week. The coaches who run McGill AS volunteer their time to train the athletes on top of their full-time jobs outside of the university. Our head coach Dr. Lindsay Duncan, is an associate professor and researcher in McGill’s Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education and has been managing the team for six consecutive years on a volunteer basis. Together, these women make McGill AS a true leader within McGill’s athletic community. They are the reason McGill Artistic Swimming has won 15 National Championships in the last 17 seasons. 

“After more than a decade in artistic swimming, I am used to my sport not being recognized as a “real sport.””

As McGill Athletics and Recreation Executive Director Marc Gélinas highlighted that the university is taking steps to level the playing field for its female athletes in his opening remarks at the 2019 Varsity Gala. In September of 2018, thanks to a generous donation by alumni Sheryl and David Kerr, McGill Athletics launched the Kerr Family Women in Sport Program with the goal of supporting female student-athletes and increasing the number of full-time female coaches. After hiring two female assistant coaches and­­ appointing a women’s sports advocate as a steward to the new program, McGill Athletics wants to know what services female athletes would benefit from and how it can better support them in their athletic pursuits. 

As a varsity athlete in an all-female sport, I offer a simple answer: Begin by supporting, promoting, and most of all recognizing traditionally women’s sports in the same way they do sports such as baseball, hockey, and football. The stronger each individual team is, the stronger we are together as athletes representing our university. Therefore, it only makes sense to provide the necessary funding to appropriately compensate coaches across all teams, give all sports the same visibility on McGill Athletics’ social media, and level the financial cost of being a varsity athlete for those competing in less well-known sports. This new school year is the ideal time to move forward with these concrete actions and bring real change within its varsity teams. I commend McGill Athletics for actively searching for ways to achieve equality for their female athletes. As a way to substantiate these efforts, I ask the committee overseeing the attribution of the annual Varsity Awards to commit to celebrating the success of under-recognized sports, particularly all-female ones. I invite them to rise to the challenge of honouring female teams and coaches who quietly but consistently collect national titles over the span of nearly two decades, despite being next to unknown in the McGill community. Only by making this commitment will McGill Athletics truly be able to offer equal opportunity for its strong women to proudly wear its colours. 

 

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