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Science & Technology

Neuroscience gets even brainier with open access science

by Karl Neumann on

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The human brain is the most complex, compact system known in the universe and certainly one of the most mysterious. Researchers from McGill and the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, now known as the Neuro, have long been at the forefront of neuroscience. This includes Wilder Penfield, who discovered brain areas that control our movements and sensations, and Brenda Milner, whose work with patient H.M. founded the field of neuropsychology.

On Feb. 19, McGill and the Neuro opened another chapter of neuroscientific progress by joining the Canadian Open Neuroscience Platform or CONP, an open access network for brain data. CONP is partnered with universities across Canada, including the University of Toronto and Queen’s University, and is internationally connected with Oxford University and Johns Hopkins University. CONP will connect researchers across Canada and the world to a single, gargantuan dataset, making up to 10,000 terabytes of brain data available to members of the partnership. To put this into perspective, one terabyte is equivalent to 1,000 gigabytes of data, enough to hold about 40 days worth of video. This informational treasure trove will help investigators create a more holistic understanding of the brain and provide important context for future experiments.

CONP is not restricted to just human brain data; it also includes animal models and cellular neuroscience data that can be used translationally to understand the underlying mechanisms of neuroscience.

Open science not only increases the validity of research, it also accelerates the pace at which research can be done. Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and certain types of dementia can all be improved by treatments more rapidly developed thanks to CONP.

After joining the partnership, the Neuro promised to refrain from patenting any of their discoveries for five years in order to let others use the most recent innovations and data. This extraordinary move puts the focus away from profit, shifting it to ensuring that patients benefit, as well as researchers eager to harness the cutting edge of brain science and medicine.

Professor Maria Natasha Rajah, ​director of the​ ​Brain Imaging Center ​at Douglas Hospital Research Centre ​and ​associate ​professor of ​Psychiatry​ at McGill, told The McGill Tribune that this change will increase the efficiency of research and taxpayer dollars that go into funding grants.

“We invest up to $200,000 or more in data collection for a single experiment, and once we are finished publishing our papers it seems to be a waste of resources to just store the data in a backup system,” Rajah said. “CONP is a great opportunity for the research community to give back​ and give older data new life​.”

The platform also solves one of the biggest problems in neuroscience research: Generalizability across populations that differ genetically and geographically. Rajah elaborated that CONP could facilitate the collection of data at an international level, helping combat more complex diseases.

“[Data that] crosses borders gives us access to a more representative sample of participants​,” Rajah said. “Specific diseases, such as Alzheimer’s,​​ […] may be influenced by individual differences in genetics, diet, education, and other lifestyle and environmental factors. […Many] of these questions relating to diversity in brain aging would benefit from larger, international, and diverse samples.​ ​CONP has the potential to help us tackle these bigger questions which are​ important because different treatments might be better for different ​samples​.”

Joining CONP will foster an environment where researchers’ methodologies from across the globe can converge to create more replicable and compatible findings.

“A key thing that CONP brings is harmonization,” Rajah noted. “By having researchers from across Canada and the world collaborate, we can share and standardize our methods and make sure that once we’re finished collecting data, it can be integrated with the full dataset.”

The open science revolution is only beginning and McGill and the Neuro are joining in to reap the rewards it can bring.

“This is the future, this is where neuroscience and medical imaging is going,” Rajah said.

Soccer, Sports

Montreal should get out of the 2026 World Cup bid while it can

by Owen Gibbs on

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The FIFA World Cup is undoubtedly the most popular sporting event on Earth. The world stops and watches every four years while the best of the best compete for international glory in the world’s most popular sport: Soccer. With all that exposure, hosting the World Cup can provide a country with a treasure trove of publicity, potentially increasing a nation’s international stature. Countries and cities clamour for the opportunity to host matches—an opportunity that Montreal may soon have as part of the North American bid to host the 2026 tournament.

Earlier this month, the leaders of the joint Canada-United States-Mexico bid officially submitted a proposal to FIFA, the sport’s international governing body. Montreal, Toronto, and Edmonton are the three potential Canadian host cities, with three Mexican cities and 17 American cities rounding out the proposal. The final list will not be confirmed until 2021, one year after the host is selected between North America’s bid and the Moroccan Football Federation’s. For Canadian fans, a North American World Cup may seem like a dream come true, but fan sentiment should not be the only factor in such a decision. In fact, a closer look makes one thing clear: Montreal should pull out of the bid as soon as possible.

Hosting the World Cup could be a disastrous prospect for a city like Montreal, primarily because of the associated financial strain. Prior to submission, Vancouver, Chicago, and Minneapolis all withdrew from the North America bid due to FIFA’s financial demands. While Minneapolis is a relatively insignificant loss, the other two are major soccer hubs: Chicago hosted matches during the 1994 World Cup and is the home of U.S. national soccer, while Vancouver hosted the final of the 2015 Women’s World Cup. When asked about the decision, British Columbia Premier John Horgan explained that FIFA wanted a “blank cheque” to pay for expenses during the tournament. Chicago and Minneapolis cited similar concerns.

FIFA is not known for being kind to host cities with such blank cheques. Often, the government of the host city or region is expected to give FIFA access to an unlimited supply of taxpayer money to cover all expenses during the tournament, from athlete accommodation to security, to transportation, to stadium upgrades, or construction of a new stadium altogether. On that note, Montreal’s never fully operational Olympic Stadium has been gradually falling into disrepair, so either major renovations or a completely new venue would be necessary in order to host. Of course, the City of Montreal would be asked to foot the bill.

Furthermore, FIFA would be in charge of construction, and its human rights record is appalling. According to The Guardian, FIFA has been complicit in creating abusive conditions for temporary foreign workers, including salaries below minimum wage and unsafe work environments. Construction for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar has pushed FIFA to an appalling new low—including forced labour, worker intimidation, and media arrests. While such violations might not fly in Montreal, from a moral standpoint, it’s clearly the right choice to not get in bed with such a reprehensible organization.

Meanwhile, FIFA uses its considerable power to negotiate tax exemptions, meaning that they escape with the lion’s share of the profits, robbing host nations of hundreds of millions of dollars. FIFA’s profits from a single World Cup often exceed the billion-dollar mark. On the other hand, by some estimates, Montreal would hold no more than four competition matches, meaning that the city would receive little in return for doing FIFA’s dirty work.

Time is running out for Montreal and the province of Quebec to pull out of the bid. If government officials know what is best for their city and wish to set a good example, they will do just that before Montreal is hit with an economic disaster beyond its control.

News

Canadian tax policy: Subject to change

by Emma Slack-Jørgensen on

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To mark the 100th anniversary of Canada’s income tax, the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada (MISC) held its annual “Who Pays for Canada? Taxes & Fairness” conference on Feb. 22 and 23. A series of panels covered the philosophy of taxes, ways to fairly distribute tax revenue across society, and the evolution of Canadian tax policy.

 

Canada’s departure from distributive justice

Daniel Weinstock, a professor in the Faculty of Law and Department of Philosophy, opened the “Philosophies of Fairness” panel. The main topic was Rawls’ social science theory of distributive justice, which presents taxes as a way to give resources to those who need them the most. Weinstock finds that this concept oversimplifies the idea of taxation and fails to account for the different methods of taxation such as income tax and consumption tax.

“There are fairness issues that are at play [in] how we decide to orient institutions of taxation,” Weinstock said. “The principles theorists of distributive justice have come up with really don’t descend down to the level of giving us tools to think about those kinds of decisions.”

However, Weinstock emphasized that Rawls’ distributive justice is still constructive because it upholds the idea of reflective equilibrium, which means that a solution should reflect the different reactions to a particular situation, rather than a unilateral decision. Overall, Weinstock feels that Canada’s tax system should be adaptable to the complexities of reality, something that he feels the distributive justice theory fails to do.

Panellist Vida Panitch, the director of the Doctoral Program in Ethics and Public Affairs at Carleton University, introduced the notion of the government regularly giving every citizen a sum of money as a “basic income,” and whether this can achieve her two aims of fairness: Autonomy to choose when to work and decommodification—in other words, providing citizens with wealth that inherently belongs to them rather than being something they worked for. Thus, in practice, Panitch hopes for a high enough level of basic income to enable people’s liberty and whether it is broadly applicable enough to replace public goods, such as health coverage.

“If it is not high enough to offer a genuine alternative to labour force participation, if it is not high enough to mean that you have to work, then it looks like it is not going to be all that consistent associated with the economy and decommodification,” Panitch said.

 

One Hundred Years of Canadian Tax Policy

Robert Raizenne, a practicing tax lawyer, argued that there has been a significant continuity in how Canada’s income tax has been structured in the past one hundred years and that nothing has changed since 1917. Raizenne explained that perfecting the tax system will always be a challenge.

“After 100 years, lots has changed, in the sense that all we hear about is [reforming] the tax system,” Raizenne said. “However on the other hand, nothing has changed. If we look at the foundational principles, we see that there is a lot that has stayed the same.”

Shirley Tillotson, a professor at the University of King’s College, was more convinced that Canadian tax policy changes over time and responds to current events.

“Studying tax history has certainly convinced me that there is no golden age of Canadian tax politics,” Tillotson said. “[History] does actually provide us with a sense of the particular tendencies that take these general problems and convert them into quite normal political circumstances.”

Jack Mintz, president’s fellow of the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary, considered lessons from Canada’s history and concluded the discussion by explaining three objectives in tax policies: Minimizing economic inequalities, achieving the best use of resources, and ensuring equity.

“Fairness isn’t the only objective in looking at taxes,” Mintz said. “There are other objectives.”

News, SSMU

Tre Mansdoerfer wins SSMU Presidency by 69 vote margin

by Audrey Carleton on

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U2 Engineering student Tre Mansdoerfer was elected Students’ Society McGill University Presidenct on March 21 with 50.7 per cent of the vote. Mansdoerfer received only 69 more votes than his competitor, U2 Arts student Corinne Bulger, who garnered 49.3 per cent of votes. 32.8 per cent of the undergraduate student body voted in this year’s election, an 11 percentage point increase from last year’s voter turnout of 21.8 per cent.

Vice-President (VP) Internal Matthew McLaughlin, VP Finance Jun Wang, VP External Marina Cupido, VP University Affairs Jacob Shapiro, and VP Student Life Cody Esterle will join Mansdoerfer on the executive team.

Mansdoerfer ran on a platform focused on accountability and advocacy. His campaign promises included to improve mental health services, build relationships with faculty executives, and lobby the university for a Fall reading week. In the immediate future, he plans to focus on SSMU’s more pressing needs.

“I’m literally shaking and beyond excited to be the next SSMU president,” Mansdoerfer said. “I’m looking forward to getting to work right away […] I’m going to be focusing on making the GA online and being a part of facilitating the building closure. But for the next month and a half, I want to meet all faculty executives and create those relationships for the year.”

In a statement to The McGill Tribune, Bulger expressed gratitude for the experience she gained during her campaign.

“I think that this year’s campaign season showed support, and had a positive nature to it that I think will be reflective of the years to come,” Bulger said. “A big congratulations to Tre, Marina, Jacob, Cody, Matthew, and Jun. I wish you all the love and luck! This opportunity gave me the chance to meet new people, share ideas, and really engage with students on our campus—which at the end of the day matters most to me, and I will continue to do during my time here at McGill.”

Mansdoerfer is the only executive who ran opposed. Despite a vocal “no” campaign against her, Cupido won the election for VP External with 62.9 per cent of students voting in favour and 37.1 per cent against.

“I’m overwhelmed with gratitude for everyone who supported me through this process,” Cupido said. “I truly couldn’t have gotten through the past couple weeks without my campaign team and my friends, particularly given the toxic nature of some of the opposition to my candidacy.”

Coming into the position, Cupido plans to put more resources into the Indigenous Affairs portfolio, partner with a provincial student federation, and work with other Quebec universities to lobby against unpaid internships.

“I’m looking forward to the transition process a lot,” Cupido said. “I need to get up to speed with some of the organizing going on on campus, particularly around the indigenous affairs portfolio. I’m coming to terms with the fact that I didn’t give nearly enough space in my platform to the work indigenous student leaders are doing as we speak. Moving into the transition, I have to do a lot of listening and de-centreing of my own voice”

Currently a first-year student, McLaughlin will come into the position of VP Internal as the youngest member of the SSMU executive. Going forward, he plans to meet with representatives from faculties and the First Year Council (FYC) to ensure a smooth transition into his role.

“I’ll be hitting the ground running,” McLaughlin said. “I’ve already met with a number of executives from faculty student societies, and I’ll be meeting with many many more over the coming weeks [….] I’m excited to form a group to explore the best way to create the SSMU centralized calendar. I’ll also be focusing on working with the current FYC executives to prepare for a smooth transition to next year.”

Shapiro’s victory follows a candidacy based on ensuring continuity between SSMU executives each year and making SSMU more engaging for the average student. Noting his lack a competitor, he emphasized the importance of remaining open to students’ thoughts and concerns going forward.

“Despite the positive results of this campaign, at the end of the day, I received the votes of a mere 17 per cent of the student population, and this, crucially, is without having had a challenger,” Shapiro said. “I must continue to seek out and engage the feedback and opinions of others if I am to be successful and if I am to play a positive role in taking a step to build a stronger student union.”

 

Vote breakdown:
President Tre Mansdoerfer: 50.7 per cent

VP University Affairs Jacob Shapiro: Yes, 90.5 per cent

VP External Marina Cupido: Yes, 62.9 per cent

VP Internal Matthew McLaughlin: Yes, 87.3 per cent

VP Finance Jun Wang: Yes, 82.6 per cent

VP Student Life Cody Esterle: Yes, 88.4 per cent

News, SSMU

SSMU Council accepts recommendations from committee on anti-Semitism

by Stephen Gill on

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At its March 15 meeting, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Legislative Council passed the Motion Regarding the Policy for the Implementation of a Fall Reading Break, renewing SSMU’s mandate to lobby for the institution of a Fall break at McGill. Council also passed the Motion Regarding the Joint Board of Directors and Legislative Council Special Committee on Anti-Semitism, enacting the committee’s various recommendations to combat anti-Semitism on campus. Senior Director, Planning and Resources Diane Koen and Trenholme Dean of Libraries C. Colleen Cook also presented more information about the Fiat Lux library project.

 

McGill librarians discuss Fiat Lux project

The Fiat Lux library construction proposal, currently in its planning phase, proposes renovations to the Redpath and McLennan Libraries to fit the modern needs and desires of McGill students. The project leaders for the creation of a “library of the mid-21st century” informed Council of the project’s current status and on soliciting feedback from the student population.

“This project really is about students and your needs,” Cook said. “So we want to hear from you […and] get some of your input.”

Cook and Koen spoke about planned improvements to the library such as better lighting and air conditioning, greater selection and flexibility for individual and group study spaces, and additional seating.

“The whole thing, in the best of all possible worlds, [would be finished] within five to six [years],” Cook said.

 

Fall Reading Break motion goes to referendum

The motion resolved to continue the Society’s push for implementing a Fall break. It would renew SSMU’s stance on the issue and mandates the Vice-President (VP) External, VP University Affairs (UA), and members of the Senate Caucus to lobby the provincial government, administration, and Senate to establish a Fall Reading Week at McGill.

“[This composition] implements a three-pronged approach,” Bryan Buraga, the incoming Arts and Science senator and a representative from the motion’s “yes” campaign, said. “[As a result,] this would apply the maximum amount of pressure in order for this to be implemented.”

After acknowledging the need for special considerations for certain faculties such as Engineering—whose professors must lecture for a certain number of hours per semester as mandated by the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec—and Medicine, which doesn’t have two-semester academic years, Council passed the motion to be voted on as a referendum question during the Winter 2018 voting period.

 

Recommendations from the Special Committee on Anti-Semitism passes

After a presentation from a member of the committee, Council deliberated a motion to enact each of its recommendations. These include renewing the committee’s mandate for the 2018-2019 academic year, adopting a working definition of anti-Semitism, and having new SSMU executives undergo a mandatory training session on anti-Semitism. The committee also recommended additional mandates for the VP UA, including hiring a special researcher on anti-Semitism on campus, organizing open workshops to educating students on relevant issues, and working with the McGill administration to implement their recommendations.

The proposed definition of anti-Semitism, one of the motion’s two clauses that passed through the committee without consensus but was addressed by a footnote within the motion, drew the most attention from Council. The motion proposes adopting the European Union’s (EU) Fundamental Rights Agency’s (FRA) working definition of anti-Semitism, though no such definition currently exists. In 2013, the FRA controversially removed an unofficial working paper from its website that included a “working definition of anti-Semitism” which many had taken to be the EU’s official working definition of anti-Semitism.

“Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews,” the definition read. “Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

One councillor raised concerns about the definition potentially being too broad.

“As […] someone that is pro-[Boycott Divestment Sanctions] BDS, I’m a little worried that I will automatically be labelled as anti-Semite under this definition, without it being fully explained in the section,” Social Work representative Matthew Savage said.

Shira Mattuck, a committee member from Chabad McGill, reasoned that considering the committee’s composition and the included footnote, the proposal should not be modified.

“It’s really important to understand that these clauses were voted on by a majority of Jewish groups on campus,” Mattuck said. “It’s really important that we hear the lived experiences of Jewish students on campus and let Jewish students define anti-Semitism, and I think that [those concerns] are valid, but they are addressed in the footnote.”

After adding a friendly amendment for the committee to revisit its terms of composition during the Fall 2018 semester, Council passed the motion.

McGill, News

McGill professors debate the effectiveness of fossil fuel divestment

by Andras Nemeth on

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A panel of four McGill professors debated the merits of fossil fuel divestment at an event organized by Divest McGill on March 15. While the topic remains contentious at McGill, 133 educational institutions worldwide have already divested their endowments from the fossil fuel industry, including Laval University, the only Canadian institution to do so.

On the panel was Greg Mikkelson, associate professor in the School of Environment; Dror Etzion, associate member of the School of Environment; Ken Hastings, molecular biologist and Vice-President Finance of the McGill Association of University Teachers (MAUT); and Christopher Ragan, the newly-appointed director of the Max Bell School of Public Policy. The panel presented contrasting ideas about the merits and drawbacks of universities divesting from fossil fuel companies.

Mikkelson began the debate by citing research showing the impact that divestment campaigns can have in creating social change. Examples of successful divestment campaigns include the international boycott of South African goods during apartheid, and a global movement to divest from major tobacco companies in the 1990s.

“The research shows that [divestment] does make a difference,” Mikkelson said. “The most comprehensive study [of divestment movements] was done at Oxford, and they looked at other divestment campaigns that didn’t necessarily cripple the industries they were targeting, but what they did do is make a big public impact, and that spurred governments to take action [….] Divestment creates impact by raising awareness, stigmatizing target companies, and influencing legislation.”

Etzion further emphasized the status of divestment as a social rather than economic movement.

“I don’t really perceive [fossil fuel divestment] as a financial tactic,” Etzion said. “It’s about something much bigger than what you invest in, it’s actually a social movement. And the objective of this tactic is to de-legitimize an entire industry. [Universities] are very influential in how the world perceives issues, and [divestment] empowers people to envision a world that is not running on a path to destruction.”

Hastings gave the faculty perspective by describing the discussion that took place at the MAUT Fall General Meeting on Nov. 17, in which the association voted to divest its funds from fossil fuels.

“Some people felt that the idea of divesting is grandstanding, that it wasn’t really doing anything concrete,” Hastings said. “There were quite a few people more in favour of positive actions, like supporting alternative energy in some positive way, rather than pulling out [of fossil fuel]. Nonetheless, the motion passed by wide margins.”  

Ragan, chair of Canada’s Ecofiscal Commision, took a stance against divestment, expressing doubts about McGill’s ability to tangibly impact fuel emissions. He instead suggested alternative policies.

“The reason that divestment doesn’t actually reduce emissions is that it is trying to get at the supply of oil,” Ragan said. “Policies that are effective have to be policies that try to reduce our demand for oil. A carbon tax or a cap and trade system is aimed right at that. Regulations of various kinds are aimed at that. So let’s talk about those policies, that Canada is now doing and ought to be doing way more of.”

Audience members were also given the chance to share their opinions. Several proposed shareholder action, wherein parties retain shares of firms with the intention of influencing their behaviour, as a potential alternative to divestment. Antonina Scheer, U3 Arts and the organizer of the event, commented on the potential for this method to reduce emissions.

“As a shareholder you can say OK, let’s change what we’re doing, but overall the company is fine and we can just tweak things,” Scheer said. “In the case of fossil fuels, we have to phase it out and we have to phase it out really quickly. So as a shareholder, you’re asking them to shut down the company, which is not something a shareholder can do.”

McGill, News

ISA walk out brings movement for Indigenous justice to McGill

by Kendall McGowan on

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Protesters honoured the deaths of Tina Fontaine, Colten Boushie, and Brady Francis—three Indigenous youths who were murdered without any suspects being held criminally responsible—at a walkout on campus on March 14, National School Walkout Day. Over 3,100 walkouts took place at schools across North America that day, mostly over gun reform laws in the United States. The walkout was organized by the Indigenous Student Alliance (ISA) of McGill University in coordination with Indigenous students at Concordia University.

Dozens of students and supporters gathered at the Y-intersection with signs at the start of the demonstration. The event began with a moment of silence before a series of activists spoke about Indigenous justice and the Buffalo Hat Singers drum group led performances. In their talks, Indigenous community figures lamented the lack of justice for Fontaine, Boushie, Francis, and others, asking that the victims’ lives be honoured through continued education and action.

Talia Bellerose, a First Peoples’ Studies major at Concordia and speaker at the event, recommended that activists devote their energy toward bringing about change to the Canadian criminal justice system.

“I want this to be about forgiving,” Bellerose said. “I want Colten and Tina and every other Indigenous person that is gone to know that we’re sorry we failed them. Canada, the government, they’re not going to apologize to them. But we have to make a better future for the [next] generations.”

Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Indigenous Affairs Commissioner and speaker Carlee Kawinehta Loft affirmed that the Canadian criminal justice system is discriminatory on an institutional level, but pointed out that university students have a unique opportunity to create change.

“These injustices occur due to nationwide implementation of various Canadian systems which systematically devalue Indigenous lives,” Kawinehta Loft said. “We as university students recognize that it’s part of a system that trains courts, juries, and jurors, that trains future social workers, police officers, and influential citizens in general. We have a responsibility to be knowledgeable, to care, and to use this privilege to enact change for the better.”

Nakuset, the executive director of the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal (NWSM), shared her struggles growing up during the Sixties Scoop, a government program that removed Indigenous children from their families and isolated them from their culture.

“Because of that experience, even though I was told to be ashamed of my culture, I ended up getting my education,” Nakuset said. “I ended up working at the Native Women’s shelter and creating projects [to combat] a lack of services for Indigenous people, and injustices on many levels. So if it’s possible for someone like me to be able to do all of these projects and get funding, you can all be the answer to this, because it’s not going to change [otherwise].”

Although she praised those who attended the walkout, Kawinehta Loft emphasized the need for demonstrators to maintain the momentum of the movement for Indigenous justice.

“I’m happy you came today, but remember that your action doesn’t stop here,” Kawinehta Loft said. “It doesn’t stop today, and there are many ways you can reach out. You can go reach out to other activist organizations, you can look up where to donate, and most importantly, you can just know what’s happening around you, what’s happening in this territory and others.”

Ben Geboe, a speaker and the executive director of the American Indian Community House in New York, emphasized the importance of activism to the Indigenous community.

“Indigenous people have suffered this great oppression which continues,” Geboe said. “It’s not an ideological or a passive battle. It’s actually happening, and […] we’re surviving with the help of great activism.”

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