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Creative

Word on the Y – Should we change the “Redmen” name?

by Sofia Mikton & Bilal Virji on

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The McGill Tribune asks students whether they feel we should change the “Redmen” name.

Video by Sofia Mikton and Bilal Virji

McGill, News

Open letter calls for immediate renaming of men’s varsity teams

by Laura Oprescu & Isabella Lyons on

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The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Legislative Council overwhelmingly passed the Motion Regarding Renaming of McGill’s Men’s Varsity Teams at their Oct. 11 session, approving the question ‘Do you endorse the immediate renaming of the ‘Redmen’ name and mandate the SSMU to work toward immediate renaming of the Varsity Men’s Team?’ for the Fall 2018 referendum period. This motion follows the 2015 final report of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which, among other recommendations, calls for increased support for indigenous students from post-secondary institutions and anti-racism awareness in sports. High schools in Arnprior, Saskatoon, Saint Catherine’s, and the Greater Toronto Area, among other institutions, have already changed their team names.

The TRC’s final report led to the formation of the McGill Provost’s Task Force on Indigenous Studies and Indigenous Education, which called for consultation on the renaming of university teams, buildings, and scholarships. McGill’s Working Group on Principles of Commemoration and Renaming released their draft report in August and continues to engage in community consultations in preparation for the release of their final report on Dec. 6. Ultimately, the decision to rename McGill’s varsity teams rests on the Board of Governors (BoG).

SSMU Indigenous Affairs Commissioner Tomas Jirousek, member of the Kainai First Nation in southern Alberta and varsity rowing team athlete, has been vocal about the need to change the name of the varsity teams. In addition to starting a Change.org petition and writing an open letter to the McGill administration, Jirousek will lead a demonstration against the continued use of the name on Oct. 31. For him, the name is associated with prejudice against the indigenous community, and its continued usage is harmful.

“There is a painful history of colonialism in the history,” Jirousek said. “When thinking of the name, stereotypical images come to mind. We have been known as the McGill Squaws and Indians in the past. There [have] been stereotypical representations on helmets and jerseys in the past, representative of a hurtful connection between indigenous people and the University.”

For other McGill athletes, and according to Montreal Gazette columnist Martin Patriquin, the name Redmen is associated with the school colours. Varsity soccer player Médéric Gervais does not believe the name is related to negative stereotypes and so should not be changed.

“Without outside influence, I would not think that the ‘Redmen’ name means anything racial,” Gervais said.  “Université Laval’s team is named the ‘Rouge et Or’ [red and gold], and with that logic it would make sense for us to be named the Redmen. The team is named after its colours and should therefore keep its name.”

Robert Hu, First Year Council representative for SSMU Council, voted against the Oct. 11 motion, although not out of disagreement about whether the name should be changed. Hu argued that the motion is only prefixed with evidence of the racist connotations of the name’s origins, problematically presenting only one side of the debate.

“I would like to say that I, personally, do not really like the name either,” Hu said. “The reason I voted against the motion is […] because the motion was one sided. There should just be the questions ‘yes or no’– let the rest of the debate decide the outcome.”

Hu believes that voters should consider the different voices and perspectives in the debate before casting their votes.

“Before such a decision is taken, you have to consider if it is inherently used to oppress indigenous people, or [if it is] a misunderstanding,” Hu said. “[The name] affects the whole McGill community. Because the varsity players are ambassadors to McGill, everyone should have a say in it. It has huge implications.”

A demonstration against the continued use of the Redmen name will take place outside the James Administration building on Oct. 31 at 2:00 p.m.

#ChangeTheName
Editorial, Opinion

#ChangeTheName, and change the norms, too

by The McGill Tribune Editorial Board on

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Thousands of students, allies, and Montrealers have been calling on McGill to change the name of their varsity men’s sports teams. A petition on Change.org has garnered over 8,000 signatures as of press time, and a demonstration is taking place on Oct. 31, due in large part to the work of Students’ Society of McGIll University’s (SSMU) Indigenous Affairs Commissioner Tomas Jirousek. With coverage from CBC News and the Montreal Gazette, all of Montreal is watching McGill’s next steps. It’s time that McGill acknowledges that holding on to a racist team name disenfranchises its indigenous students. Changing it is only one step of many that the University must take in order to create a more inclusive campus.

McGill claims that the name originated in reference to the red jerseys worn by athletes, and in honour of McGill’s Scottish heritage due to the celts’ reputation for having red hair. Regardless of its supposed origins, the name has been used throughout the university’s history in association with stereotypes about indigenous peoples. For example, the word ‘Indians’ historically referred to the men’s sports teams, while women’s teams were referred to as the ‘Squaws.’ From 1982 to 1992, the team’s logo was a silhouette of an indigenous person wearing a headdress.

Other schools that once used the same name, such as Denis Morris and Arnprior high schools in Ontario, have adopted other team names, in 2016 and 2017 respectively. In 2017, then Ontario education minister Mitzie Hunter asked Toronto school boards to review their sports teams’ logos and names, and consider changing any that could be considered derogatory. Despite this momentum, McGill has been hesitant to change the name due to claims of tradition and athletic pride. These concerns, however, do not outweigh the arguments to rebrand. Changing the name will only benefit McGill, creating an identity that the entire student body can be proud of.

In an email to the McGill student body on Oct. 23, Provost and Vice-Principal Academic Christopher Manfredi announced that the administration would not make a decision regarding the name change until the Working Group on Principles of Commemoration and Renaming submits their final report. However, none of the members or chairs of the working group are indigenous, although they did consult with an indigenous professor when constructing their draft report. Regardless of the working group’s stated intentions, it is important that indigenous students be better represented in institutional decisions like these, especially when those decisions ultimately influence their future on this campus.

A racist team name is only one of countless barriers that indigenous students face at McGill. For example, there are only two courses under the Indigenous Studies course code; the minor’s other course requirements are in other fields. McGill does not currently offer any undergraduate major programs in Indigenous Studies, or any indigenous language, except in the Faculty of Education. McGill is situated on Haudenosaunee and Anishinabeg territory, and the university’s educational programs should reflect and honour the history of this land and the traditions of these nations.

Beyond diversifying academia, McGill must continue diversifying its student services. The First People’s House, which offers housing, events, student support, and other services for indigenous students, is an example of such a resource. McGill should continue and expand on services like the First People’s House, and offer more funding and educational opportunities for indigenous and low-income students.

Moreover, creating inclusive spaces is not a mandate reserved for the upper echelons of administration. All student groups on campus should seek to increase indigenous representation, and our own editorial board shares these disappointing gaps. It is crucial that student groups, clubs, and services take active steps in involving indigenous voices beyond just land acknowledgements.

The most important role students can play is that of an ally. The #ChangeTheName campaign and its positive reception are a result of student-led activism, including that of Jirousek and the Indigenous Student Alliance, and SSMU Indigenous Affairs. To ensure the campaign’s success, it is imperative that students demonstrate their support and allyship by signing the open letter, signing the Change.org petition, and most importantly, physically showing up to the demonstration on Oct. 31. Moreover, student involvement should not be limited to a single protest: Indigenous exclusion persists far beyond the name of the men’s varsity teams. Students must continue holding McGill accountable after the protest—whether that’s by attending working group meetings, or getting involved with SSMU’s Indigenous Affairs Committee—to ensure that McGill takes substantive steps toward fostering a more representative institution.  Changing the name should be the first of many developments regarding McGill’s indigenous community, and the first step toward a more inclusive campus.

 

The #ChangeTheName demonstration will take place on Oct. 31 in front of the Milton Gates from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

McGill, News

Divest McGill’s efforts spurred by United Nations report

by Abeer Almahdi on

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Divest McGill held a rally outside the James Administration Building on Oct. 22 during a meeting of the Committee to Advise on Matters of Social Responsibility (CAMSR), protesting McGill’s ongoing investment in companies involved with the fossil fuel industry. The demonstration comes after the McGill Senate approved a motion endorsing divestment from fossil fuels on Sept. 12, an institutional response several years in the making.

“This campaign has been going on for six years, and every year there are new faces, new interest,”

Morgen Bertheussen, U3 Arts, said. “The campaign isn’t dying down, so it’s nice to see that every new school year there’s a lot of new […] people that are excited about change and the divestment campaign as a whole.”

However, Divest’s campaign isn’t over yet. McGill’s Board of Governors (BoG), the university’s highest authority, decided not to implement the Senate’s endorsement and to leave the divestment decision to CAMSR instead.

“We’re having [the protest] because CAMSR is meeting,” Annabelle Couture-Guillet, U3 Arts & Science, said. “We’re here today to remind them that, despite the bureaucratic barriers that they’re using, we still care, and we are not going away,”

Ehab Lotayef, a member of the BoG, also attended the rally. He stressed the importance of divestment.

“We don’t have time to debate and discuss,” Lotayef said. “The environmental situation is really critical, and I think that McGill should take a leading position in practical steps.”

McGill has aimed to promote sustainability through its commitment to carbon neutrality by 2040 and numerous other initiatives on campus such as the Sustainability Projects Fund (SPF). Nonetheless, Jacqueline Lee-Tam, U1 Arts, explained to the protesters how McGill’s investments in the fossil fuel industry negate these initiatives.

“All of McGill’s [sustainability] initiatives are nullified by the fact that [the university has money] invested in the fossil fuel industry,” Lee-Tam said. “If McGill really wants to be a sustainable and carbon-neutral campus then [we must] divest.”

Christina Lau, U1 Sustainability, referenced the growing support for divestment on campus. Besides the Senate, the Student’s Society of McGill University (SSMU) endorsed divestment in 2012, the Faculty of Arts’ endorsed divestment in 2015, and, on Nov. 8, 2017, the McGill Association of University Teachers (MAUT) Council voted to divest from fossil fuels. MAUT council reorganized $500,000 of its investment portfolios, which included fossil fuel companies.

“A lot of people support the divestment movement so I don’t understand why we haven’t gotten to it yet,” Lau said. “The MAUT council [and] the Senate ruled in favor of [divestment]. There’s a lot of reasons to [divest], and there aren’t a lot of reasons not to.”

Lau explained that the new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report motivated her to attend the Divest McGill rally. The IPCC’s report states that only 12 years remain to prevent irreversible, devastating climate change and it recommends staying below a 1.5°C increase from pre-industrial temperature levels. It also outlines several solutions, including cutting fossil fuel use in half in less than 15 years. Currently, a total of 985 countries, associations, universities, foundations, and religious organizations have committed to divestment from fossil fuels.

“The IPCC report that came out on [Oct. 6] outlined a future that is more dire than any of us are prepared for,” Lee-Tam said. “We are going to see small island nations sink. We are going to see increases in climate catastrophes such as hurricanes, typhoons, and floods [….] We need to act. We need to be bold and fearless in the face of climate change.”

Lee-Tam called on CAMSR to consider the findings of the IPCC report.

“We invite CAMSR to think about all these things. We invite CAMSR to consider that we are living in a day and age where fossil fuels are no longer going to be sustaining us.”

Arts & Entertainment, Books

Drawn & Quarterly celebrates two of its groundbreaking writers

by Leo Stilinger on

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On Oct. 26, a crowd packed into La Petite Librairie Drawn & Quarterly for the launch of two world-class comic books: Julie Doucet’s Dirty Plotte and Jason Lutes’ Berlin.

Beyond its title as the Mile End’s hippest bookstore, Drawn & Quarterly is one of North America’s most influential publishing houses for comic books and graphic novels. Doucet and Lutes are two of Drawn & Quarterly’s earliest authors, and the size and enthusiasm of the audience at the launch was evidence of the success of their collaboration.

A native Montrealer, Doucet was the first cartoonist Drawn & Quarterly ever published; her first comic was released 28 years ago this month. While she has long been retired from cartooning to pursue different artistic mediums, such as silk-screen prints, the publication of the retrospective collection Dirty Plotte: The Complete Julie Doucet is a celebration of both Doucet’s work and her influence.

“It all goes back to Julie,” Chris Oliveros, Drawn & Quarterly’s founder said. “She set the tone for everything at Drawn & Quarterly.”

The Dirty Plotte series, published throughout the ‘90s, was edgy, feminist, and ahead of its time. In an interview at the launch with feminist scholar Martine Delvaux, whose essay “My Secret Julie Doucet” is included in the newly-published collection, Doucet described the joy of re-reading her earliest works.

“It was complete freedom,” Doucet said. “It was so fresh and so energetic.”

When Doucet first began publishing, she was one of the first women to break into the  comic book world’s boys’ club. Her frank and feminist depictions of graphic sexual content only magnified the division between Doucet and her male peers.

“I guess it surprised them,” Doucet said, laughing.

Her male counterparts may have been surprised at the time, but Doucet paved the way for the next generations of female cartoonists.

 Jason Lutes’ Berlin strikes a stark contrast in tone and content to Dirty Plotte: It is a 22-chapter historical epic retelling the story of the Weimar Republic.         

In an engaging presentation, Lutes traced his own personal history, beginning with a childhood spent hunched over comics in the corner of a magazine shop in Missoula, Montana. His early obsession with superheroes and Westerns was augmented by a love for Tintin, encouraged by his father, a French professor at the University of Montana. After attending the Rhode Island School of Design to study ‘real art,’ specifically drawing, he came to realize that comic books, rather than a childhood triviality, were an equally valid vehicle for expression. Comic books could be relevant to eager children and thoughtful adults alike.

“Comics [are] an art form for anyone, no matter what kind of story you want to tell,” said Lutes.

After graduating in 1991, Lutes got a job creating a serialized comic strip for the Seattle-based indie magazine The Stranger. Recalling that Tintin had also begun as a serialized strip in Belgium, Lutes turned the job into his own “self-education in comics.” This work was eventually collected into his first book, Jar of Fools.

 Berlin, Lutes’ most ambitious endeavour, was born from a chance encounter with a collection of Bertolt Brecht’s paintings. Envisioning a historical work, Lutes plunged into the history of the Weimar Republic.

Starting when he was just 26, Lutes planned a six-hundred-page work and estimated that he would finish it by the time he turned forty. As it happened, he was fifty by the time he completed Berlin’s 22nd and final chapter this year.

“I missed some deadlines,” Lutes quipped.

The result of nearly twenty-five years of work, Berlin is a comic magnum opus on an unprecedented scale, tracing the lives of more than a dozen characters during the rise of Nazism. It is one of the fullest expressions yet of the narrative and artistic potential latent in the comic book form.

The same can be said for Doucet’s Dirty Plotte, which, in its collected, newly-republished entirety, rivals Berlin in length. Thursday’s book launch was a celebration of the growth of the comic book as an art form, and of two of its greatest and most artful exemplars. It was also a celebration of the seminal role that Drawn & Quarterly has played in this growth of the form, the results of which are already echoing far beyond the island of Montreal.

Arts & Entertainment, Books

Interpreting Shakespeare’s sonnets

by Eva Julia van Dam on

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David Schalkwyk, a professor of Shakespeare Studies at Queen Mary University of London, delivered a lecture on Oct. 23 on William Shakespeare’s sonnets, focusing on the development of Shakespeare’s dramatic voice. The dramaturge is best known for his plays, meaning that his poetry is sometimes overlooked in popular culture.

Schalkwyk’s lecture was organized by McGill English Professor Paul Yachnin and funded by the Lang family, which awards a scholarship to one Arts student each year to encourage interest in plays and theatrical texts. In his lecture, Schalkwyk argued that Shakespeare’s use of pronouns effaces his voice as a poet in his sonnets. Schalkwyk highlighted that contemporary scholars and actors have used the absence of an obvious speaker, as an opportunity for finding different approaches to Shakespeare’s sonnets.

“The actors are remedially trying on the sonnet,” Yachnin said. “‘How does it fit me? Does it look ok?’ That’s their job. Whereas we, scholars, sort of dig into the language and see what’s going on in the language.”

The contrast between the scholarly analysis of voice and an actor’s interpretation illustrates how complicated it is to approach Shakespeare’s sonnets, but also exemplifies a different method for literary examination.

“What we found when we put our heads together is that the students brought this really interesting degree of attention to the language that was very helpful for the actors, and the actors brought a kind of immediacy and investment in the sonnet that was very helpful for the students,” Yachnin said.

Schalkwyk argued that Shakespeare’s use of language in his sonnets doesn’t evoke one particular perspective, but rather brings to life the voices of various characters.

“Shakespeare shadows [the narrative voice in his sonnets],” Schalkwyk said. “[Those personas include] a servant, poet, dramatist, actor, father, husband, lover, ambitious member of the upcoming middling sort, ageing man overwhelmed by the fragility of human things and the inexorability of time.”

Elsasoa Jousse, U2 Arts, wants to write her honours research paper on Shakespeare and went to the event to try to find inspiration.

“I try to go to everything related to Shakespeare really,” Jousse said. “[The lecture] was interesting, something that I’m not completely unfamiliar with, so I could follow, but there were a lot of ideas I hadn’t considered before.”

Chloe Holmquist, U2 Arts, reached a similar conclusion and appreciated the lecture’s new approach to the study of Shakespeare.

“Last semester, I read all of Shakespeare’s sonnets so I was very intrigued by the concept of coming up with a voice by analysing all these sonnets,” Holmquist said. “I thought [the] subsection on pronouns was really interesting, and I never considered analysing the sonnets that way before.”

Kateryna Fylypchuk, U2 Arts, is studying Drama and Theatre and believes it is important to study other facets of Shakespeare’s art.

“It’s very eye-opening to see the fact that different voices can be heard,” Fylypchuk said. “When we think of Shakespeare as having a very male-dominated outlook, especially in terms of drama [as] actors were all male, it’s very interesting to think that there is no particular voice attributed to the actors, the texts, and Shakespeare himself.”

In addition to the lecture, Yachnin was also involved in the planning of an Infinitheatre production entitled Shakespeare’s Sonnets: Transforming the Voices of Montréal from Oct. 22 to 27.

“[Film and theatre director] Guy Sprung and I started talking about two years ago about doing the sonnet show at McGill,” Yachnin said. “I direct the Early Modern Conversions Project here, and […] then the English department came into it as well. So the Infinitheatre, the English Department and the Conversions Project are partners with what Guy and the actors are doing at the Moyse Hall.”

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