Latest News

McGill, News

McGill African Students’ Society hosts ‘Africa Speaks’ conference

by Abeer Almahdi on

More in McGill:

Deputy High Commissioner of the Kenya Mission in Ottawa Jane Kerubo, entrepreneur Idil Essa, and McGill professor Khaled Medani spoke at the McGill African Students Society’s (MASS) first “Africa Speaks” conference, held from Feb. 8 to Feb. 9. Previously known as “The African Development Convention,” MASS decided to rename their conference this year to better reflect their goals and to challenge mainstream conceptions of development.

“This conference was started in 2013 […] to create a space for African-centred discourse [where] Africans are controlling their own narrative,” Andreann Asibey, U4 Arts and president of MASS, said. “We changed the name to ‘Africa Speaks’ to move away from development [discourse, which] is a bit archaic at this point.”  

Past MASS conference themes include “Prisms: Africa in the 21st Century – Reclaiming Reality in all its Forms” in 2015 and “‘Africa’ Interrupted Switching the Channels of Development Discourse” in 2016. Morenike Fashola, U4 Arts and vice-president of MASS, explained how, in contrast to previous themes, this year’s conference looks to the future.

“This year, we wanted to move away from that development idea of always looking to the past, not really focusing on the [present], and what we can bring to the future,” Fashola said.

The two-day conference consisted of three panels, each focusing on a different aspect of modern African society: Living as an African woman, the importance and influence of diaspora, and the effects of neoliberalism.

The first panel was titled “Living as an African Woman in the 21st-century.” For Asibey, it is valuable to highlight the role that African women play in society as well as shed light on the challenges to pre-existing stereotypes in African society.

“We wanted to show that […] women are standing strong in their own truths,” Asibey said. “They are doing what they want to do and disregarding […] how society has pressured them [into] fitting a mold of [the] perfect African woman.”

The second panel, “The Afropolitan: Coming Full Circle,” showcased African identity as the lived experiences of Africans in and outside of the continent. This panel focused on the increasingly-important role of the diaspora to enact positive change on the continent and to discover and engage with African roots. Speakers also discussed the problematic and elitist implications of the term ‘Afropolitan,’ as it only implies the seemingly ‘rich’ diasporic communities.

“Afropolitan means different things to different people, but, to me, [… it means] a citizen of Africa,” Asibey said. “We talked about diaspora and what that means for Africans and Afro-descendants living here [….] I thought it was important to discover how […] identity plays out and how we’re viewed by others and ourselves depending on status […as well as] how people’s ties back to their continent impact themselves, and how [their ties] impact the continent.”

The third and final panel, “After development: Africa in the Neoliberal Age,” centred around neoliberalism and its effects on African society. The panellists defined neoliberalism as an economic ideology based on unregulated capitalism and boundless economic growth, which gained prominence during the late 1980s and still has lasting effects including environmental degradation, insufficient labour laws, and exploitation of resources. For Asibey, the purpose of this panel was to be an informative and historical discussion of the ways that neoliberalism has hurt Africa.

“Africa has been [tricked] into subscribing to an order that is meant to benefit and help them, but […] it’s actually, in my opinion, caused more problems than it’s solved,” Asibey said. “It’s brought about [environmental degradation], and it’s brought a new line of poverty [….] We just wanted to talk about that and see what the solution is in terms of moving forward [….] We are the solution, we need to look inwards rather than seeking [outside help].”

Favour Daka, U1 Arts and first-year representative for MASS, explained that the panels provided holistic and varied discussions on African scholarship, making dense, informative panels accessible for him and many others.

“They were really diverse,” Daka said. “The first [discussion] was very personal, the second was more [diaspora-centric], and [the last] one was the future. I think there are layers to [the panels] that [helped me] relate to most of them.”

Martlets, Men's Varsity, Sports

McGill hosts RSEQ Track and Field Championship

by Adam Burton on

More in Martlets:

On Feb. 22 and 23, McGill Athletics hosted the RSEQ track and field championships in the Tomlinson Fieldhouse. The meet crowned provincial champions and determined which athletes will advance to Nationals in Winnipeg in March. With over 50 events, the two-day competition provided plenty of thrilling moments. Out of the eight schools in competition, McGill came in third place behind Laval and Sherbrooke. The men won three gold, four silver, and one bronze medal, and the Martlets earned one gold, three silver and two bronze medals.

First-year sprinter Jorden Savoury won the first McGill medal of the competition with a silver in the 60m dash.

At the tail end of three years of accumulated injuries, Savoury came into the meet with modest expectations. She attributed her turnaround victory to her loose and relaxed attitude heading into the race and cited her role model Allyson Felix, an American track star, as a source of inspiration.

“I didn’t think I would be able to get back to my old speed, but, honestly, it just goes to show [that], through determination and persistence, you can get back to what you want to do, and that’s why I’m super, super happy,” Savoury said.

On the men’s side, first-year Jack Crosby, who broke a McGill record in the 600m last week, did not disappoint in his follow-up race. He won two medals this weekend: A gold in the 600m and silver in the 1000m. After coming into the final 600m lap in third place, Crosby ultimately overtook a Sherbrooke University runner in the final five metres to clock in at 1:19:93, good for the gold and recognition as rookie of the year.

After his victory, the crowd and his team erupted into cheers, running in from all directions to congratulate him.

“That was the first time that something like that’s happened,” Crosby said. “I felt euphoric, that’s how I would say it. It was incredible.”

Crosby credited the coaching staff with unlocking his high-level performance.

“Some people think they can half-ass workouts and can get away with it, but the only way to achieve your goals it to go as hard as possible whenever you can,” Crosby said. “I’ve just started to tap into my potential [.…] I used to be undertrained, but the coaching staff here has really helped me.”

McGill’s coaching staff is led by Head Coach Dennis Barrett, who has been with the program for 35 years. In that time, he has always focused on putting together a team of hard-working athletes.  

“We want people that are going to come in and work hard day-in and day-out and stay consistent,” Barrett said.

His team’s performance exemplified their work ethic: Aside from Crosby and Savoury’s finishes, the team earned medals in men’s and women’s triple jump, men’s shot put, men’s 60m hurdles, women’s 4x800m, and women’s 3000m. Half of McGill’s medal winners were first or second years and put forward strong efforts this weekend in their last chance to qualify for the national championships.

“Heading into Nationals, I’m hoping we can have some solid performances, and if we can’t medal, at least get some points on the board for McGill,” Barrett said. “If we can build on this young talent next year, I’m optimistic.”

 

Moment of the Meet

McGill led the way in the men’s 60m hurdles event. Second-year Matthew Daly topped the podium with a gold-medal time of 8.35 seconds, and first-year Ismail Francillon earned the silver medal with a time of 8.82.   

Quotable

“Winning is something that’s always been ingrained in me. Even as a toddler, I’ve always liked to win. I don’t like settling, I just want to beat people. ” – Jack Crosby on his race mentality.

Stat Corner

First-year heptathlete Alexander Stathis set a new school record in the event, earning 4,555 points to top the previous record of 4,379.

 

A previous version of this article stated that Jorden Savoury was a thrower. In fact she is a sprinter. The Tribune regrets this error. 

 

McGill, News

EUS executive candidates debate departmental issues as elections begin

by Helen Wu on

More in McGill:

The Engineering Undergraduate Society (EUS) Elections hosted a debate for their upcoming election on Feb. 19 during which candidates running for 2019-20 positions shared their platforms and answered questions. Two candidates are running for the position of president while the rest are uncontested.

Both Jeremy Garneau, candidate for EUS Senator, and Mustafa Fakih, candidate for EUS representative to the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), emphasized the importance of bridging the gap between the EUS and SSMU. Garneau described plans to rekindle the institutions’ relationship by facilitating communication between the two student societies. Fakih explained that a better relationship with SSMU could benefit the EUS.

“You have to keep in mind [that] SSMU isn’t the society for another department,” Fakih said. “It’s the society for all of students at McGill. SSMU has a lot of power and a lot of money. If we just keep staying in the back seat and not wanting to do anything with [SSMU, then] we are not really going to benefit from them at all. So, I do feel if we keep good relations and [engage with] them, we will benefit from them.”

Attendees asked Vice-President Internal candidate Spencer Handfield about allegations that the volunteering positions at Blues Pub, a student-run bar under the EUS, are too stressful for students. Handfield responded that the severity of this issue still needs to be assessed based on the feedback of individual volunteers. He assured that he has plans to work with the Blues Pub managers to address the volunteers’ grievances.

“There is a certain kind of adjustment we should make so Blues Pub is something viewed not as something for a profit, but something we do as a passion and […] care about,” Handfield said. “That is also a solution I cannot do alone. That comes from working strongly with the Blues Pub managers who know the logistics of how it works and how best to implement the solutions the [questioner] brings up in terms of volunteering not being fun.”

Presidential candidates Marion Olivier and Nilou Seraj were asked to address the exclusivity of the Plumbers’ Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO), a group of McGill engineering students who raise money for charity organizations. Both candidates were asked to address the PPO’s place in the EUS.

“I think, as a spirit and charity group, the PPO does have its place in the EUS, and they contribute a lot to the engineering culture, so long as it is inclusive,” Olivier said. “I think, moving forward, a partly application-based model is the only way the PPO can exist in a healthy way in the engineering community.”

Seraj echoed Olivier’s desire to implement an application system, but further emphasized the importance of the PPO’s role in creating a sense of community for engineering students.

“Instead of heaving this image of an exclusive group that you cannot be a part of and is secretive, [the PPO should] focus more on the charity part and more on [being] a group of people who are working on increasing the sense of being part of a community,” Seraj said. “This is one of the reasons [that] the engineering faculty students are very close to each other, because we have a sense of community.”

Members of the EUS will be able to cast their votes online Feb. 24–Mar. 1.

Basketball, Martlets, Sports

McGill Martlet basketball upsets Rouge et Or in regular-season finale

by Kaja Surborg on

More in Basketball:

McGill Martlet basketball (10-6) ended regular season play on a high note, defeating the RSEQ no. 1 seed Laval Rouge et Or (15-1) 53-52 on Feb. 23. Despite a strong defensive effort from Laval, McGill took the win in front of the 212-member crowd. The Martlets had already secured their spot in the RSEQ championship semi-finals, but the victory kept them even in the standings with the Concordia Stingers.

McGill led 18-17 at the end of the first quarter, and the score remained close throughout the game with the Rouge et Or never holding more than a two-point lead. Both teams were strong defensively throughout the game, repeatedly forcing the offence to run down the shot clock.

“We played good defence,” first-year guard Trishia Villedrouin said. “We were helping each other out. That’s what we’ve got to do. We’re playing Concordia next week which will be a tough game, too. We’ll have to stick together again.”

A combination of strong teamwork and individual performances made the win possible for the Martlets. Fourth-year guard Gladys Hakizimana led McGill in scoring, going 4-6 from three with 24 of the Martlets’ 53 total points for the game. Meanwhile, Laval capitalized on free throws and turnovers: They did not miss a single free throw and added 23 points from turnovers. Despite Laval’s success on fast breaks and from the free-throw line, McGill still emerged victorious with a score of 53-52. Laval currently sits at the top of the U Sports national rankings and had not lost a game all season, making this win especially significant for the Martlets.

“I’m so proud of my team,” Villedrouin said. “We’ve never stuck together like this. We beat the number one team in Canada. That says a lot about our team.”

Building team chemistry and improving communication have been important factors in the Martlets’ recent success.

“We’ve had a tough season so far but, through team activities […], we’ve built a chemistry, and we’ve been having lots of discussions as a team which I think has helped a lot,” Villedrouin said. “Now, we’re starting to trust each other. It’s important from quarter one to the last quarter.”

This game also celebrated Black History Month. In a post-game speech, Head Coach Ryan Thorne praised the role of basketball in allowing him to continue his own education. He also used the moment to make a donation for a scholarship to the local organization Montreal United, which provides mentoring through sports.

“We are making new black history because of new opportunities,” Thorne said. “This is my chance to give back to the community and create more opportunities.”

McGill has won six of its last 10 matches. To earn their spot in the U Sports national championships, the Martlets must win the RSEQ championship tournament. They will face the Concordia Stingers (10-6) on Feb. 27 at John Dore Court in the semi-final round of the RSEQ playoffs.

 

Moment of the Game

At the end of the third quarter, second-year transfer guard Delphine Robitaille sunk a buzzer-beating three-point shot, giving the Martlets the lead heading into the final quarter.

Quotable

“We’ve got to stick together again and play hard. We gave it our all today, and we’ve got to do the same thing next week.” – First-year guard Trishia Villedrouin on the upcoming RSEQ championship semi-finals against Concordia.

Stats Corner

McGill made a total of seven three-point shots throughout the game. Three-pointers accounted for 40 per cent of McGill’s total points scored.

Science & Technology

Survival of the mutated

by Stephanie Deng on

More in Science & Technology:

In his theory of evolution, which dates back to the 1800s, Darwin argues that living organisms evolve over time to promote survival and to produce the fittest offspring. This evolutionary model is based on two concepts: That all life on Earth is interconnected and that its diversity results from certain traits predominating over generations. Usually, these changes take place over thousands, if not millions, of years.

Given the right conditions, evolutionary change can be approximated on much shorter timescales. In a recent study, McGill researchers collaborated with an international team to model natural selection by observing wild mice for 14 months in the Nebraskan desert. Mice with light and dark coloured fur were captured and placed in enclosures with light and dark-coloured soil to investigate their evolution over time.

“My objective was to provide a complete story of adaptation, from mutation to phenotype to fitness, in a single study,” Rowan Barrett, an associate member of McGill’s Department of Biology and lead author on the study, said.

The goal of the study was to succinctly illustrate the process of adaptation, or changes at the genetic level that lead to better survival rates. Adaptations can manifest themselves as behaviours, which may allow for better evasion from predators, or as physically anatomical changes. Such adaptations are the outcome of mutations, or changes in DNA, which are demonstrated by environmentally-sensitive characteristics observable with the naked eye.

While there is a growing number of gene-focused studies that identify the role of  DNA in changing characteristics, Barrett explained that the scientific community knows little about the ecological or genetic factors that prompt the evolutionary changes to begin with. In contrast, his research combined a large-scale field study with laboratory-based tests in order to examine both the ecological and genetic factors that drive adaptation in wild mice.

Throughout the study, both light and dark mice were found to adapt to their new enclosure regardless of whether or not they were originally captured from light or dark regions. Mice placed in darker enclosures overall had a greater survival rate, as did mice placed in enclosures matching their original habitat. Mice placed in light enclosures evolved to have lighter-coloured fur than their ancestors while mice placed in dark enclosures evolved to have fur almost twice as dark.

Researchers found a mutation that deletes part of the Agouti gene decreases pigment molecules, changing fur colour. While the frequency of the deletion seemed to be the same between light and dark mice at the beginning of the experiment, the rate increased for mice in light enclosures and decreased for those in dark enclosures by the end of the study. These findings demonstrate a strong propensity for genetic selection.

Ultimately, the study is an example of evolution in an accelerated time frame. Although the mice are similar, there are variations among them that ensure longevity in a world dictated by the rule that the fittest survive.

The study implemented an experimental setup that effectively imitated the complexities of the evolutionary environment.

“Working outside the lab is difficult because you lose control of a lot of factors,” Barrett said. “You have to adapt to changing circumstances and unexpected problems.”

Science & Technology

The brain in higher resolution

by Farida Rahman on

More in Science & Technology:

McGill’s new 7T Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine, located at the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) or ‘the Neuro,’ is the first of its kind in Canada. The T refers to ‘Tesla’, the unit of measurement for the magnetic strength of the machine. At 7T, it outperforms the 3T MRI machine that is the current standard in neuroimaging technology.

“This [7T] scanner has a higher magnetic field than conventional scanners,” Amir Shmuel, an assistant professor in McGill’s Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery and researcher at the MNI, said. “What this allows [is] better resolution […] and improved contrast [….] We cannot see brain columns and layers at 3 Tesla, [which] are small structural and functional units [of the brain]. They are in the range of 0.4 to one mm. In order to be able to observe them and also detect functional signals, we need 7 Tesla.”

Shmuel and his team obtained $18.8M in funding to cover the new machine and various other projects at the Neuro. The 7T MRI project alone reportedly cost approximately $10M in construction and equipment, although it was covered under a research grant from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation.

“At the Neuro, we’ve got a long history of doing what’s called ‘functional MRI’,” Richard Hoge, associate professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery and the director of the MRI program at the MNI, said. “In functional MRI, psychology and basic neuroscience researchers will have subjects inside the scanner while they are doing different tasks [….] Specific types of imaging techniques can help to localize the brain areas that are involved in performing those tasks. So, the motivation for getting the higher yield, the 7T MRI, as opposed to the 3T MRI that we currently have, is that the system [can detect] much smaller functional changes, and it can also localize brain responses much more precisely.”

Researchers at the MNI are interested in using this new technology to uncover previously-elusive structures in daily functions, such as those associated with vision, as well as to studying neurological diseases with greater clarity. While a 7T MRI was installed in the Robarts Research Institute at the University of Western Ontario in 2009, McGill’s new machine is capable of scanning the full body instead of just the head. This opens the door to studying the role of the spine as part of the central nervous system and its implications in neurological diseases.

“[With this research], we very much hope to significantly improve our capacity to detect and to observe early changes in the brain that are associated with multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, Parkinson’s, and dementia,” Shmuel said. “The scanner will allow us to detect subtle changes in the structure and function in the brain, [which is] part of what we expect with neurological disease.”

The MNI is developing its backend computational capabilities to store and analyze the large sets of data from the 7T MRI, in addition to pushing to better define the ethical standards around how data is collected. In terms of accessibility, the MNI intends to make the data collected from the machine available to the public as part of its commitment to open science.

“The Neuro has been a pioneer in institutionalizing the notion that data collected should be shared on open databases that are accessible to other researchers,’ Hoge said. “[This is] to avoid duplication of human experiments and also allow more researchers access to the data, and, hopefully, have a bigger impact on public health and on basic research.”

Equipped with this brand-new technology, the MNI will be focusing on training researchers in how to best use the machinery and interpret the results, as operating it can be a technical challenge. In the future, researchers hope to train students and continue to purchase the latest imaging technology so as to be on the leading edge of neuroscience research.

Art, Arts & Entertainment

Concordia Art History Undergraduate Journal hosts conference on art in a mobile age

by Nicholas Raffoul on

More in Art:

On Feb. 16 and 17, Concordia’s Art History Undergraduate Journal (CUJAH) hosted their eighth annual conference, Dislocation: Art in a Mobile Age. The discussions focused on locality in art, drawing on issues of representation and mobility. The conference explored how artists claim spaces for production and exhibition. Guest speakers included Concordia students, artists, academics, workshop facilitators, and McGill Professor Charmaine A. Nelson, whose research focuses on black Canadian Studies in the Department of Art History.

In collaboration with CUJAH, The Fine Arts Students Alliance at Concordia (FASA) hosted a panel about redefining and creating spaces for artistic expression in the digital age. Guests discussed pushing the boundaries of a physical gallery space, and how they plan to move toward virtual mediums to present art.

The panel included speakers whose expertise extends beyond the confines of traditional institutions, including digital content creators and dance workshop facilitators. The FASA talk epitomized a new age in art and technology, bringing in creators who use a range of forms, including Google Maps, wearable computing, tech education, and sound and space research.

Lucas LaRochelle, founder of Queering the Map, discussed their storytelling platform and how it acts as a living archive of queer experience and collective memory. Queering the Map is a community-generated mapping project that geolocates queer moments and memories in physical, public spaces, offering queer people the opportunity to document their own experiences. LaRochelle’s mapping project, which started in early 2017, has over 15,000 documented moments in Canada, the U.S., and Australia, and is expanding globally. LaRochelle started the project to examine the relationship between space and memory.

“I was thinking about the multiplicity of feeling that is held in particular locations and what it means for me in relation to that place and what it would feel like to move in a world that was animated by the multiplicity of how people experience space,” LaRochelle said.

Florence Yee, a queer Toronto and Montreal-based artist, also spoke on the panel. Yee’s textile projects use text to reflect their experiences as a diasporic Cantonese person living in Montreal and the tensions that come with trying to express their culture and sexuality within the confines of white institutions. Drawing inspiration from their Cantonese-Canadian history, Yee examines the daily life of individuals in the diaspora through the lens of gender, race, and language. Yee noted the inclusion of their art in galleries as a reclamation of traditionally white, male-dominated spaces.

Nelson was the keynote speaker for CUJAH’s conference, where she presented her research on fugitive slave advertisements in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Her talk focused on newspaper advertisements for slaves mainly in Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Jamaica and aimed to shed light on slavery in Canada.

“Found throughout the transatlantic world, fugitive slave advertisements demonstrate the ubiquity of African resistance to slavery,” Nelson writes. “Recalling fugitive slave advertisements as a form of visual culture, this presentation positions them as one part of the colonial infrastructure and network, including slave owners, printers, and jailers, that sustained the racialized distinction between free and unfree populations.”

CUJAH’s weekend-long conference reaffirmed why space matters when discussing the production and display of art. Although the artists, creators, and academics who attended came from diverse professional backgrounds, all of the speakers were keen to pave the way for the future of art.

Arts & Entertainment, Music, Pop Rhetoric

Vampire Weekend’s misplaced nostalgia trip

by Katia Innes on

More in Arts & Entertainment:

Though latte art has long been a staple for the caffeine-addicted and financially-irresponsible youth, it’s becoming a little passé—perhaps pancake art will be the next trend in breakfast-themed artistry. Or at least that’s what Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig thinks. In the music video for “Harmony Hall,” the band’s latest track, Koenig spends a jaunty five-minutes making pancake art with a spirograph, doling out flapjacks for bandmates and celebrity pals including Jonah Hill, Dev Hynes, Danielle Haim and a snake. The video was supposed to build anticipation for Vampire Weekend’s long awaited fourth album Father of the Bride, but its reliance on metatextual references through recycled lyrics and vapid celebrity cameos makes for a hollow and disappointing return.

It’s been a long time since anyone has heard anything from Vampire Weekend. The band’s last album, 2013’s Modern Vampires of the City, was met with widespread praise from finicky music journalists and precocious teens alike. The album was a clean, deliberate evolution from their previous Ralph Lauren tennis-chic indie pop works. Then, as mysteriously as they had appeared, Vampire Weekend retreated from the pinnacle of alternative, Urban Outfitters-friendly pop that they had created.

Nearly six years after Modern Vampires of the City, Vampire Weekend has returned a little older and, questionably, wiser. They are no longer the adorably smug recent Ivy-League graduates who played tennis with Jake Gyllenhaal and sang about New England girls who wear Louis Vuitton. Koenig, joined by bassist Chris Baio and drummer Chris Tomson, have swapped their boat shoes and polos for Chakos and fleece quarter-zips.

“Harmony Hall,” the teaser track for Father of the Bride, attempts to establish a new folk-groove. The song feels hesitant, uncertain whether or not to reuse old tricks to please fans. The inability to invest in either tradition or progress makes the reliance on self-reference all the more obvious. Koenig has inserted the line “I don’t wanna live like this, but I don’t want to die” from “Finger Back,” a track from Modern Vampires of the City, directly into “Harmony Hall.” It’s almost as if Koenig lazily copied and pasted a throwaway, Instagram-popular line into this track simply to please fans.

The choice to open the album with “Harmony Hall” feels cloying—Koenig seems to be begging fans to make the connection with “Finger Back.” The line is little more than a fun Easter Egg for longtime fans, and doesn’t adds anything to their canon. The reliance on using past works to make the current tracks more relevant is rooted in contrived nostalgia.

The video also alludes heavily to past work. The recurring shot of Koenig flipping pancakes as his bandmates, and his famous friends chow down is reminiscent of the video for 2013’s “Diane Young,” which itself parodied The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci. This image of the band flexing with other celebrities may have worked alongside the lyrics of “Diane Young” about nihilism and bourgeois culture, but it is disconnected from the new single’s focus on 21st century political uncertainty.

There’s a certain pressure for Father of the Bride to live up to fan’s expectations, the majority of whom were in their teens during Vampire Weekend’s heyday. For many, Vampire Weekend’s past albums conjure up a certain wistfulness for anxious adolescence. It’s not surprising, then, that Koenig and crew chose to tread the well-worn and easy path of appealing to fans through forced nostalgia. However, what once made their music special for fans—lyrics that managed to capture universalities through their obscurity and a worldbeat melding of genres—are simply regurgitated, losing their sheen with each reiteration.

 

Edit: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Rostam Batmanglij did not contribute to the production of ‘Harmony Hall’. The Tribune regrets this error. 

Science & Technology

Measles resurgence spells trouble for Canadians

by Ronny Litvack-Katzman on

More in Science & Technology:

In the first two months of 2019, Canada has seen an increase in the number of active measles cases compared to the same period last year. There are currently ten confirmed cases in British Columbia, enough for the Provincial Health Services Authority to declare an outbreak, and one in Quebec and Ontario, each. For a country like Canada, which declared itself free of measles in 1998, the slow, but steady increase in the number of measles cases per year is a disturbing trend.

The highly infectious and contagious illness is contracted when a person makes contact with the measles virus. Spread via the respiratory tract, the measles virus can remain infectious in the air for up to two hours, making the possibility of contraction very high in densely-populated regions. Measles, like other respiratory viruses, presents a standard set of symptoms including a high fever in excess of 40 degrees celsius and a dry cough, but is punctuated by a characteristic skin rash covering a large area of the body.

“It is probably one of, if not the, most infectious virus[es] known,” Brian Ward, an associate professor at the Centre for the Study of Host Resistance, said.  “Before HIV, [measles] was considered to be the most immunocompromising virus around.”

Measles replicates in host cells via a single-stranded ribonucleic acid (RNA) pathway, a method of replication in which the virus harnesses multiple sets of proteins to survive. According to the modern classification system of viruses, this places measles in the same viral replication category as rubella and the mumps viruses, all of which spread quickly from host to host.

Virologists quantify the infectiousness of a disease based on its reproduction number (R number), which is the average number of people that every person with the disease will secondarily infect. The reproduction number for seasonal influenza, the common flu, is two. By contrast, the reproduction number for measles is 18.

Since the disease has scarcely appeared in Canada over the last two decades, public health workers have scrambled to identify and isolate cases of measles over the last week. Most recently, Vancouver reported ten related cases of measles thought to have been transferred through the public school system.

According to the federal government, the best defence against measles is vaccination, which is covered free-of-charge by provincial health care. For a disease with such a high R number, greater immunization coverage is required to achieve herd immunity.

“A highly-vaccinated population, where over 85 per cent, and, ideally, greater than 95 per cent of the population is vaccinated, can truncate [the] spread [of measles] dramatically,” Ward said. “Any imported case will only spread to a small number of secondary cases. As vaccine coverage drops, the outbreaks caused by each imported case become larger.”

A 2018 study in the PLOS Medicine journal confirmed reports of dropping vaccination rates across the United States.

“Since 2009, the number of philosophical-belief vaccine nonmedical exemptions (NMEs) has risen in 12 of the 18 states that currently allow this policy,” the study reads.

Commonly referred to as the ‘anti-vaxxer’ movement, many American cities are currently witnessing the repercussions of parents exempting their children from medically-advised vaccinations. Even though medical science has conclusively proven that vaccinations are overwhelmingly safe, the rate of children who are receiving optional vaccinations continues to decrease.

The Seattle, Washington region, one of the many ‘metropolitan hotspots’ for unvaccinated populations as outlined by the 2018 study, has become the epicentre of the current measles outbreak in the United States. In Washington, the majority of measles cases identified have occurred in individuals under the age of ten who had never received the vaccine.

In order for Canada to avoid falling victim to large gaps in the immunization record and to protect at-risk populations such as the immunocompromised and elderly, children need to remain up to date with all types of vaccinations.

“The worst outcome of measles in Canada would be [the] hospitalization of patients with pneumonia or [another] secondary bacterial infection,” Ward said.

The fateful consequences of having an unvaccinated population would have the greatest negative effects on those Canadians most vulnerable in the first place.

Arts & Entertainment, Books

Anti-reading week reading list

by Sophie Brzozowski, Jonathan Giammaria, Tess Buckley, Katia Innes on

More in Arts & Entertainment:

Two months into the semester, reading for pleasure seems like a long-forgotten pastime. To some, the thought of willingly digesting more information feels like a cruel joke, but we here in the Art & Entertainment section are firm believers in intellectual procrastination. Here are some books you can read to avoid reading.  

Milkman by Anna Burns

Sophie Brzozowski

Set in 1970s Belfast, where rumours spread as easily as mould on a piece of soda bread, Burns’ protagonist, known to readers only as ‘middle sister,’ is the victim of a stalking by a dangerous paramilitary with an insidious agenda. As gossip circulates, middle sister quickly becomes the subject of public scrutiny and intimidation. In a time when flying the wrong flag or reading the wrong book is enough to betray your loyalties, middle sister finds herself the unwitting ally to a dangerous man from the wrong side of the tracks. Written in cryptic, circular, first-person prose, Milkman is a chilling portrait of the political paranoia that accompanied the Troubles as seen through the eyes of a teenage girl.

The Library Book  by Susan Orlean

Jonathan Giammaria

Susan Orlean’s The Library Book hooks its readers with an investigation of the 1986 Los Angeles Public Library fire, prompting her comprehensive examination of the often overlooked institution. Orlean has a knack for weaving multiple narratives together. Throughout the book, the author explores a slew of disparate topics: The settlement of the Wild West, women’s rights modern America, and even the AIDS crisis are all united by their ties to the L.A. Central Library. At times, Orlean’s multiple narratives come across as filler needed to distract readers from the fact that the reason behind the fire remains unknown. Ultimately, however, what begins with the library’s greatest catastrophe becomes emblematic of its enduring status as one of L.A.’s most valuable resources.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

Tess Buckley

Those looking for a challenging and canonical read should consider The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Milan Kundera’s 1984 novel tells the story of four people whose lives are intertwined during the 1968 Soviet invasion of Prague. Set against a backdrop of never-ending political upheaval, the characters struggle to navigate the chaos of their lives and maintain a shared lack of control. Although violence shapes and threatens each of the characters’ lives, The Unbearable Lightness of Being is ultimately about love. It is love that distracts and entertains the characters, allowing them to stay sane as violence pervades all aspects of their lives. In the wake of political turbulence, the characters grapple with the frustrating reality that there is no dress rehearsal for life. In just 393 pages, The Unbearable Lightness of Being delves into the philosophy of love, art and politics.  

Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee

Katia Innes

Equal parts domestic thriller and family drama, Native Speaker follows Henry Park, the first-generation son of Korean immigrants, who happens to be a spy. Working for an unnamed independent contracting firm, Henry must tail John Kwang, Queens councilman and fellow Korean-American. Meanwhile, Henry grapples with an earth-shattering tragedy, and tries to reconcile with his wife Leila in the wake. Spanning entire lifetimes, Lee’s narrative seamlessly traverses the rain-soaked streets of Flushing, and the sterile, suburban hell of upstate New York. Though it was released over two decades ago, Native Speaker is increasingly relevant in an era of identity politics and virtue signalling. The novel questions the assumptions upon which relationships are built, and the paradoxical importance and un-importance of race.

 

1 … 496 497 498 499 500 … 1,363

Read the latest issue

Read the latest issue