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Hockey, Men's Varsity, Private, Sports

In conversation with Winnipeg Jets’ Assistant Coach Jamie Kompon

by Cameron Cash & Zikomo Smith on

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“I have a passion for hockey,” McGill alum and 17-year veteran NHL coach Jamie Kompon said. “It consumes your life, and it has consumed my life for the past thirty years.”

However, a long Stanley Cup-winning NHL career was never a given. Kompon first pursued  a professional career, moving to Germany and competing in the ECHL. He eventually gave up his playing career to put his McGill education degree to use to teach high school mathematics at Loyola high school. He combined this with coaching the McGill Redmen hockey team–first as an assistant, then as co-head coach.

“I got the opportunity to be a teacher at Loyola school,” Kompon said. “It was the right decision for me at the time [….] I had the chance to coach hockey and teach mathematics and physical education.”

Kompon still had NHL aspirations. While he enjoyed teaching, the NHL was his calling.

“If I didn’t take that opportunity to be a coach and step out of my comfort zone, I would probably be teaching right now,” Kompon explained.

Kompon got his first NHL job with the St. Louis Blues on a friend’s recommendation to  Head Coach Joel Quenneville. Since then, he’s won two Stanley Cups and been behind the bench of multiple NHL teams.  Strong personal relationships have fuelled Kompon’s career.

“The jump to the NHL happened because you knew people,” Kompon explained. “It’s the right time and the right place, being fortunate to surround yourself with good people [….] I just happened to get an opportunity through a friend, and Joel Quenneville hired me in the NHL.”

In perhaps his biggest career move, Kompon became general manager and head coach of the Major Junior WHL’s Portland Winterhawks in 2014. His teaching experience came to the fore, coaching younger players.

“You are dealing with 16 to 20-year-olds, so the ability to relate to them and to talk to them [is important],” Kompon said. “It is their first time away from home and […] for some of them, when they are not the best player on their team.”

The WHL also required Kompon to micro-manage more than in the NHL.

“At the NHL level it is a little different, you ask someone to do something and it is done instantaneously,” Kompon said. “At the junior level […] the staff is not as large so sometimes things fall through the cracks, so you have to stay on top of them.”

Kompon’s Winterhawks compiled a 77-54-13 record over two seasons and made the Western Conference Final in 2015. He was let go in early 2016, but quickly found his way onto an NHL coaching staff after being approached by Winnipeg Jets’ Head Coach Paul Maurice.

“I still want to be a head coach,” Kompon said. “But I thought this was the right path to learn from someone different […Maurice and I] see the game in very similar ways and I am very excited to be learning from him.”

The relentlessness of the NHL forces coaches to develop strong professional bonds. Kompon is adamant that coaches must be collaborative, and not limited by labels such as ‘defensive’ or ‘offensive coaches.’

“No one is on an island,” Kompon said. “So no one says you are the power play guru [or] you are the penalty kill person. A lot of teams do not do that because it isolates one person and they do not necessarily have all the answers [….] If I am presenting the power play, I want [Assistant Coach] Charlie [Huddy]’s support [….] If he is doing the penalty kill, I want to make sure he is delegating to me also, so we get a different set of eyes [on the issue].”

Kompon now has his hands full with a young, talented Jets squad that boasts a potential superstar in 2016 No. 2 overall draft pick Patrick Laine, as well as dynamic youngsters Mark Scheifele, Nik Ehlers, and 2015 first rounder Kyle Connor.

“There are a lot of similarities between [our team] and […] the LA Kings,” Kompon said. “When I got there [the Kings] were having a changing of the guard and had a couple year gap when we were not a very good team […] All these kids were coming up through our system and we were developing them.”

Kompon’s challenge is to keep the players mentally fresh.

“Now it is about polishing [the young players] and making sure you stay on their habits,” Kompon said. “Young kids […] have ebbs and flows. The NHL is a grind [….] We have 16 games in the month of November, and with these young kids coming up it is about taking caring of themselves […and] I think it is mental more so than physical [….] We have to make sure they are progressing in the right way and staying mentally sharp.”

The Jets had six players miss the start of training camp for the NHL’s World Cup of Hockey, in addition to Head Coach Paul Maurice who served as an assistant to Ralph Krueger on the Team Europe coaching squad. Kompon, however, believes the experience will serve those players well as they prepare for the upcoming season.

“I know as a coaching staff we are watching this with our eyes wide open,” Kompon said. “It gets us excited for the season [….] I really think that as much as people say that maybe it is a detriment because you do not have that team bonding, players want to hear their experience […] and share some good experiences and stories.”

With Maurice busy with Team Europe in the World Cup, Kompon had to open up the Jets’ training camp alongside fellow Assistant  Coach Charlie Huddy. All of Kompon’s skills as a coach and mentor will be on display. Perhaps his tenure with this young Jets team could be his final step before landing an NHL head coaching job.

 

Favourite class at McGill:

I am not sure. I don’t know, there were so many good influences [….] I enjoyed any anatomy classes.”

 

Favourite study spot:

My house. Because it was quiet there.

 

Favourite restaurant:

Amilios pizza. I think it closed down now. I lived above it and I couldn’t get enough of it [….] I tell you something, it has the best Slaw I ever had.

Album Reviews, Arts & Entertainment

Album Review: Atrocity Exhibition – Danny Brown

by Dylan Adamson on

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Danny Brown doesn’t make albums for the faint-of-heart. Throughout his career, Brown has pushed the limits of what one can say on a mainstream rap release, as well as the genre’s sonic boundaries. As he shifts rapidly between coked-out rampages, stoned relaxation, explicit sexual descriptions, and bleak explorations of alienation and loneliness, one wonders how long it will be before his volatile lifestyle catches up to him. Atrocity Exhibition declares that, in his 35th year, Brown is not slowing down anytime soon.


Brown’s fourth full length album was released via Twitter on Sept. 27, three days ahead of schedule because the eccentric Detroit rapper “COULDN’T WAIT ANY LONGER.” His excitement was understandable: The rapper’s recent streak of influential LPs —2011’s XXX and 2013’s Old—as well as the four excellent singles he’s dropped in recent months have set the bar sky high.


Atrocity Exhibition shatters all expectations. The album is named after a Joy Division song—immediately hinting at major themes of addiction, alienation, and death. Brown takes full advantage of the album’s 45 minutes, in 15 short tracks, stuffing more dense wordplay, explicit imagery, and stark truths into a rap album than should be possible.


A more unified project than Old, Atrocity Exhibition  has only six features across four songs, and ten of the album’s fifteen tracks are produced by Paul White. White is best known for his work on Brown’s earlier projects, and a split LP with L.A. rapper Open Mike Eagle (Hella Personal Film Festival), but his work here should garner some serious attention across the genre.


The opener, “Downward Spiral” sets a dark tone for the album. White delivers a beat featuring a slide guitar reminiscent of the Breaking Bad theme and some fluttery drums sounding straight out of the jazzy Birdman soundtrack. White’s sample-heavy beats lack any correlatives in hip-hop, and, as a result, this album defies comparaison. As always, Brown fills this beat to the point of overflow with comically dark imagery, inviting listeners to marvel at his knack for rapid-fire wordplay, while gawking at the vivid self-portrait he paints.


On “Ain’t It Funny,” the album’s sixth track, White lays down one of the many fantastically bizarre beats on the album. With a pulsing bassline punctuated by erratic bursts of horns, the sound is a startling revelation on a mainstream hip-hop LP. Of course, Brown does lyrical somersaults over the unwieldy beat, rampaging through bars packed with double entendres and internal rhymes. The resulting chaos produces a uniquely grim vision of party-rap. Brown shifts unpredictably between moments of stark clarity (“It’s a living nightmare, that most of us might share / Inherited in our blood, that’s why we stuck in the mud”) and his trademark party-to-forget mentality (“So I’ma wash down all these problems with a bottle of Henny”). His outlook morphs from line to line, juxtaposing startlingly cold realizations with destructive tendency to self-medicate.


While these peaks and valleys can be a lot to take in for the casual listener, one is impressed by the lyrical urgency and emotional tenacity Brown brings to each of his songs. The oscillation between fear and awe characterizes the album’s narrative and the listening experience itself. Although Brown tackles many of the typical party-rap tropes—such as sex, drugs, alcohol—he howls his bars with such ferocious honesty that it makes for some uncomfortable social listening. In short, Atrocity Exhibition is party-rap for people who hate party-rap.

A highly experimental album which defies categorization, its complex portrait of a damaged individual solidifies Brown’s position as a simultaneously human and superhuman rap artist.

 

Standout tracks:

“Really Doe” (ft. Earl Sweatshirt, Ab-Soul, Kendrick Lamar) – Stacked posse-cut produced by J Dilla disciple, Black Milk

“Get Hi” (ft. B-Real) – Excellent change of pace slow jam, featuring a great hook from the guy from Cypress Hill

 

Editorial, Opinion

Broadening the scope of sustainability at McGill

by McGill Tribune Editorial Board on

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On Sept. 23, McGill hosted the first in a series of open forums to discuss sustainability with members of the McGill community. The forums were agreed to in the wake of Divest McGill’s sit-in at the James Administration Building in Winter 2016. The forums were structured to include segments on sustainability on campus, in academic research, and in investment practices, yet the majority of the conversation was focused on McGill’s investments in the fossil fuel industry.

The issue of sustainability at McGill is a complex and multifaceted one, in which the administration, faculty, and students all have a role to play. In assessing McGill’s progress in sustainability, it is necessary to examine the wide range of initiatives and policies adopted at all levels in the university community.

In an email sent to all students on Sept. 25, McGill announced that it has received a Gold rating from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE)—an upgrade from its 2012 Silver rating. The timing of the announcement stood in contrast to the other two events that took place within the same week—the Open Forum on Sustainability and Fossil Free week—both of which stemmed from dissatisfaction among certain student groups.

The university highlights developments in several key areas as the reason for its high rating. These include the maintenance of the Sustainability Projects Fund―the largest of its kind in North America―to provide funding to student and faculty sustainability initiatives; the inclusion of sustainability in the curriculum through a variety of Arts, Science, Engineering, and Management programs; as well as sustainable food sourcing, energy conservation, and procurement services. The extensive and diverse criteria in the AASHE report—including categories of academics, engagement, operations, planning and administration, and innovation and leadership—is a reminder of the numerous ways a university can strive to be sustainable.

McGill should be commended for the areas in which it has successfully implemented sustainable practices, and held accountable for those where progress is lacking.

Judging McGill’s commitment to sustainability by considering only one criteria―such as divestment―would be a mistake. Instead, members of the McGill community must take a holistic approach to sustainability. Indeed, the McGill Office of Sustainability acknowledges that sustainability is multifaceted and complex. Its vision is framed around five key concepts—research, education, connectivity, operations, and governance and administration. McGill should be commended for the areas in which it has successfully implemented sustainable practices, and held accountable for those where progress is lacking.

For example, in the AASHE report, McGill scores notably low in certain criteria—specifically, sustainable investment, water use and rainwater management, and waste minimization and diversion. These are areas in which students can demand to see an improvement from the administration and expect an active response to.

Members of the McGill community should keep in mind that sustainability is a shared responsibility. While conversations about sustainability at the university can centre heavily around the administration’s role, faculty and students are also an integral part of McGill’s sustainability efforts. As the foundation of the university community, students are in a unique position to implement grassroots initiatives to promote sustainable, environmentally-friendly practices at McGill. Successful projects such as Plate Club, Fight the Power, and the Arts Undergraduate Society’s Snax’s on-site compost were all the result of mobilization at the student level.

A sustainable university is not just the result of administrative decisions, but of the efforts of all members of the university community. Administrators can set long-term sustainability goals―like McGill’s Vision 2020 Sustainability Strategy, faculty can incorporate sustainability into their research and course content, and students can work at the grassroots level to create sustainable campus initiatives. In turn, faculty and administration should encourage students to continue pursuing such initiatives; however, at the same time, students can and should continue to lobby the administrations on its big picture decisions, whether or not it chooses to listen. All three of these pistons must be firing for McGill to make substantial progress on the road to sustainability.

On campus, conversations about sustainability must acknowledge the many ways in which it can be achieved, and the roles of all members of the university community in achieving it. A proper assessment of McGill’s progress on this issue needs to take all relevant criteria into account. Administrators, faculty, and students must be aware of the unique ways in which they can each promote sustainable practices at McGill.

 

 

 

News, SSMU

SSMU Council discusses the role of sponsorship in budget report

by Emma Avery on

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At the Sept. 29 Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Legislative Council, an initial report on the Society’s budget was presented by Vice-President (VP) Finance Niall Carolan. Additionally, executives gave reports on the formation and progress of various committees as well as upcoming plans for the year.

2016-2017 SSMU budget overview

Carolan reported on the budget, which will be finalized and presented at the Oct. 13 Council meeting after SSMU has been audited. Carolan addressed issues of sponsorship, the Student Run Cafeteria (SRC), and Gerts.

“Sponsorship is something that we’ve always used at the SSMU, and […] it has […] come into public light recently,” Carolan said. “However, I just want to provide a little context [….] There are two main allocations of sponsorship [….] A small portion of sponsorship is [for] general administration, and that’s used to pay for our sponsorship coordinators [….] The remaining portion of the sponsorship revenue goes directly to the events that it’s used to […] sponsor. And then more general sponsorship […] around the building and […] specific tabling events [….] goes directly into offsetting the costs of running this building.”

Carolan acknowledged one of the challenges with sponsorship lies in figuring out its impact on the student body. According to Carolan, the goal is to add to the student experience, not to detract from it.

“[Balancing that impact is] something we’re focusing on acutely now, after hearing input from students and […] campus media,” Carolan said. “Also, finding ways to make sponsorship more student-centred and ultimately […] ways that sponsorship can add value to students’ lives on campus[….] Some opportunities we have include getting students more involved in the reviewing of sponsors, and again, just trying find ways to add value to students’ lives through sponsorship.”

According to Carolan, SSMU has been exploring avenues to make the SRC more profitable. Although sales more than doubled in 2016 to approximately $221,000, this was accompanied by a rise in expenses, which in turn led to a deficit of $120,000 in the same year.

“A lot of [why that happened] is to do with how the SRC was set up,” Carolan said. “Advertising, for instance, as per [SSMU’s Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), the SRC is] not allowed to advertise anywhere on campus. This heavily restricts our promotional capacity to McGill students [….] Other issues are some of the mandates the SRC has [….] Things like using locally-sourced produce, sustainable produce, [and] paying workers fair wages. All of those things are good mandates, however, [they do] restrict our ability to be profitable.”

In order to regain profits in the SRC, SSMU is tracking sales on an hourly basis. Carolan emphasized that making the SRC profitable is a priority for all of the executives this year.

“I think having a student operation in this building is […] of paramount importance and I’ve always said that having a profitable student-run operation is always our […] top goal,” Carolan said. “However, we have been working through just about every executive portfolio and permanent staff member available […] on ways we can increase sales and more accurately attribute our costs to those sales.”

Other current and planned initiatives for the SRC include targeting off-campus sales, increasing catering, and introducing McGill ID card scanners to draw in first-years.

Executive Reports

VP Internal Daniel Lawrie addressed some of the positive feedback regarding this year’s Frosh. He also identified aspects of Frosh that could be improved for next year.

“We came up with a few key things that we could work on for next year. We found that [the] communication between all our faculties had improved significantly, but we could still work on that further […],” Lawrie said. “We also had a meeting with the administration about the street teams. Again, that was extremely positive.”

Lawrie also explained his upcoming projects, namely Four Floors and the McGill app. Lawrie plans to integrate SSMU services like the listserv into the app, as well as use it for event ticketing this year.

VP University Affairs Erin Sobat commented on the current state of the Draft Policy for Sexual Violence, which will be presented at the Oct. 19 Senate meeting, and voted on at the Nov. 19 meeting.

“We’re doing a wide range of consultation on this,” Sobat said. “We’ve got a whole bunch of focus groups that have been happening last week and this week until about [Oct. 3], which we are going to be compiling a report on to take to Senate.”

President Ben Ger explained a possible new initiative to increase attendance at the General Assembly (GA) by providing academic accommodations during the assemblies.

“The idea of potentially having some sort of academic amnesty, which would mean that [students] could not be graded during days in which the GA is happening,” Ger said. “That would be a McGill policy so that students could come out to attend the GA without fear of […] grades or missing class [….] The other option is having all classes cancelled or moved that day—with the exception of some […] labs.”

Ger explained that Associate Provost (Policies, Procedures, and Equity) Angela Campbell and Provost and Dean of Students Christopher Buddle both seemed receptive to the idea.

“Having more representation at the GA was something that they were behind—more engagement with debates on campus […],” Ger said. “ Moving forward, it will be brought to the Student Life and Learning team, as well as some other areas.”

 

A previous version of this article incorrectly identified that advertising on campus is against the SRC MOA. In fact, it goes against the MOA of SSMU. A previous version of this article also incorrectly identified that Associate Provost (Policies, Procedures and Equity) Angela Campbell and Vice-President (Academic) Christopher Manfredi both seemed receptive to the idea of academic amnesty during SSMU GA periods. In fact, Associate Provost (Policies, Procedures and Equity) Angela Campbell and the Dean of Students Christopher Buddle have both seemed receptive to the idea.

McGill, News

McGill launches pilot initiative for budding startups

by Raseel Ghoul on

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Over the summer, the McGill Office of Innovation began working on realizing a new McGill Startup Space, a physical place for student entrepreneur groups to come together and develop ideas and initiatives. The Office is launching the space through their partnership with the Notman House, a non-profit organization that offers office, event, and conference space to a large number of entrepreneurial startups in the Montreal community.

The motivation to establish the startup space came from research conducted by the Office of Innovation in the summer of 2016. According to Associate Vice Principal of Innovation Angelique Mannella, an important finding was the need for a startup space on or near campus; a place where McGill-based entrepreneurs could discuss ideas, work on logistics, and network within the greater Montreal community.

“The idea to launch the initiative came from feedback I received from many students and researchers that highlighted the desire for a startup space on campus […],” Mannella wrote in an email to The Tribune. “While there are some great initiatives [at McGill], such as [the McGill] Dobson Centre for Entrepreneurship, we definitely need to take things to the next level.”

Campus Director at the Notman House, Emma Williams, discussed the role of the organization in assisting entrepreneurs in the local community, particularly through the numerous services it has to offer.

“The Notman House was created to offer the startup community a physical place to assemble,” Williams said. “It houses offices, event spaces, [and] eight ‘services for startups,’ such as Investors, Accelerators, [as well as] a public café. Its goal is to remove barriers to entry to entrepreneurship by providing startups with an open and collaborative environment where everyone feels welcome.”

Williams also mentioned the value that universities such as McGill bring to the Notman House and to the greater Montreal community, outlining her appreciation for student initiatives in the area.

“We wanted to work with McGill because it’s important for us to have strong partnerships with local universities,” Williams said. “Our main mission is to help develop and promote entrepreneurship in Montreal and we recognize that the next generation of founders and builders are coming out of institutions like McGill.”

A student and entrepreneur, Zoey Li, U4 Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, applauded McGill’s efforts at creating spaces dedicated to entrepreneurs, outlining the importance of a guaranteed physical space for entrepreneurs juggling the challenges of school and running a business. Li is the founder of YUMiBOX, a startup that provides the delivery of whole grain products to customers in order to motivate consumers to base their diets on healthier carbohydrate choices. The foundation of Li’s startup came from her participation in McGill’s Dobson Cup.

“Entrepreneurial initiatives at McGill like the Dobson Cup gave my team the confidence to move forward with our startup,” Li said. “The Notman House space is an amazing idea. Ultimately, every startup needs a place to start and grow, and having a designated place for your business takes off a lot of pressure for student entrepreneurs trying to balance between their initiatives and their schoolwork.”

The McGill Startup Space initiative launched on Saturday, Oct. 1 and will support three to four entrepreneurial groups as a pilot initiative until Jan. 2017.

Legal Information Column, Student Life

How to survive in the McGill ghetto: Noise complaints and neighbourly troubles

by Legal Information Clinic at McGill on

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As the semester unfolds, problems with noise and neighbours emerge. The downstairs neighbour may be excited to have moved away from their parents’ place, and has decided to put together a band. While this in itself may not be so bad, they decide to practice during ideal study moments. To top it all off, the upstairs neighbour is hosting nightly parties. The noise is nearly as unbearable as trying to navigate construction on McTavish Street. While earplugs might work in a pinch, the following are ideas for a more long-term solution to noisy apartments based on what Quebec law says about the rights and responsibilities of tenants and landlords.

What can a tenant do when they are faced with noise problems?   

Landlords are legally obliged to provide tenants with peaceable enjoyment of the dwelling. This means that, in certain situations, the landlord may be called upon to correct disruptive situations. For example, noise that is beyond the normal level of neighbourhood annoyance may be considered a violation of the tenant’s right to the peaceable enjoyment of the apartment

According to the Régie du logement, Quebec’s rental board in charge of overseeing residential lease disputes, tenants should initially try to speak with their neighbours and request that they lower their noise levels. That said, the landlord is responsible for trying to remedy conflicts between tenants, and, as a result, may be responsible for the inconveniences and damages suffered by a tenant due to the disruptive behaviour of others. However, because landlords often live elsewhere, they won’t know about noise issues unless informed by an occupant. Therefore, if speaking with the neighbours doesn’t work, a tenant can complain to the landlord, either verbally or through a formal notice by registered mail.

This notice would lay out all the facts relevant to the dispute and formally demand that the landlord take action within a reasonable period of time. It is useful for the tenant to keep a record of when the disturbance occurs and to gather any relevant evidence, such as sound recordings or even police reports. If necessary, the landlord could ask the Régie to cancel the remaining time on the troublesome party’s lease, thereby requiring the noisy individual to move out.

If all else fails

If, after notifying the landlord, the problem persists, a tenant can ask the Régie du logement for a reduction in their rent. The tenant could even ask for their own lease to be cancelled. If the landlord fails to act with prudence and diligence, the tenant may also ask the Régie to order the landlord to pay money to compensate for any injury the tenant suffered, such as emotional stress and expenses incurred in trying to fix the problem that the landlord was ignoring. Finally, when a noisy tenant disturbs other tenants’ enjoyment of their dwelling, a court may find the troublesome tenant liable for damages that result from the disturbance created for other tenants. If a landlord or noisy tenant won’t pay under a court order, the person entitled to the money can follow legal procedures to enforce the court judgement. While taking people to court is possible, tenants must bear in mind that they are required to formally advise the landlord of the disturbance before pursuing legal action.

 

Each borough in Montreal has adopted its own regulations that define the types of noises that are forbidden and the options that are available to assert one’s rights. To inquire about these, or to ask your own legal question, contact the Legal Information Clinic at McGill (LICM) with the directions found on our website. According to the Act respecting the Barreau du Québec, only lawyers and notaries can provide legal advice or counsel. The LICM, therefore, only provides legal information. For legal advice, please contact a lawyer. 

McGill, News

#ConsentMcGill annual campaign teaches students about consent, sexual violence, and healthy relationships

by Domenic Casciato, Julia Metraux, Sara Cullen on

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The #ConsentMcGill campaign kicked off its third year with a week of speaking panels, workshops, and other activities designed to educate members of the McGill community about consent, sexual violence, and how to build healthy relationships. Events were scheduled from Sept. 26 to 30 and covered a variety of topics related to consent on the university campus. Included in the week’s programming was a workshop on how to intervene in cases of sexual assault and a symposium that covered the topic of caring for survivors of sexual violence. Other events included a pottery class that promoted therapeutic self-care and a speaking panel on the power dynamics that contribute to sexual violence at the university.

Coordinated by the Office of the Dean of Students, #ConsentMcGill has been hosting the annual week-long campaign since 2014. The initiative works with students, staff, and faculty, and seeks to promote the three key principles of consent: Ask, listen, and respect. Organized largely by Liaison Officer (Harm Reduction), Bianca Tétrault, #ConsentMcGill is run by volunteers year round.

Consent McGill Panel

The Consent McGill Panel consisted of four speakers, each with different experiences with sexual violence and power dynamics. The speakers included Adrienne Piggott, one of McGill’s harassment assessors; Jason Opal, an assistant professor from the Department of History; Nina Hermes, a floor fellow at RVC and sexual violence survivor; and Claire Michela, the president of the Association of McGill University Support Employees (AMUSE).

The panel’s topics ranged from the responsibility of faculty to create a safe space for students to the efficacy of the university’s sexual harassment policy, as well as the role of witnesses of sexual violence.

“From a professor standpoint, it should be said particularly of professors that whether they like it or not […] they are in a position of privilege,” Opal said. “That privilege therefore means that you have to generate healthy boundaries, and guard healthy boundaries and be there as a form of respect and service to your students.”

Students were invited to ask the panel questions and participate in discussions. Aside from the speakers’ prepared introductions, the conversation was spontaneous with new questions being posed by both the host, the Equity and Diversity Commissioner of PGSS, Angela Yu, and audience members. Students participated in discussions about the role of McGill’s drinking culture, the role of parents in teaching their children about healthy relationships, and the effectiveness of McGill’s policies.

One of the central topics of the night was about the ability of McGill to pursue allegations of sexual harassment. Piggott is directly involved with the investigation of harassment complaints and with redrafting the university’s sexual harassment and discrimination policy.

“[The harassment policy] was written by people, so we adjust as we go,” Piggott said. “We don’t necessarily get it right the first time we draft.”

In response to one of the final questions of the night, however, Michela pointed out that this is not a hopeless message.

“Work together,” Michela said. “Speak up. It took that straw that broke the camel’s back for people to finally get together and be like ‘alright, we’re going to work on [the policy….]’ Make enough noise and you can maybe get that.”

How to Respond to and Support Disclosures Workshops

On Sept. 28 and 29, two workshops, titled “How to Respond to and Support Disclosures,” were hosted by Tétrault.

Tétrault, who has been running this campaign for three years, said it is essential to hold workshops like these because it is important to be prepared to support a survivor of sexual violence.

“Students look to certain members of the community,” Tétrault said. “It’s important to be prepared to support a student.”

In Tétrault’s presentation, she emphasized the importance of supporting survivors, whether as an active listener or as a source to help them to find the right resources. Tétrault also highlighted information on rape kits and important legal details, such as McGill’s current process for dealing with sexual violence.

Susanne Baumann-Moroy, human resources advisor in the Department of Engineering, said that the information shared in the “How to Respond to and Support Disclosures” presentation should be more widely known among the McGill community.

“Information for people who are sexually assaulted, like [the fact that you] only [have] 72 hours to get a [rape kit], is very important and should be common knowledge,” Baumann-Moroy said.

During the workshops, Tétrault noted that she was disappointed with the gender disparity of the attendees. Around 15 people attended the Sept. 29 workshop, but only two were male.

“It really speaks to who the advocates [for] those who are assaulted are [at McGill],” Tétrault said.

Baumann-Moroy believes that presentations like “How to Respond to and Support Disclosures” should be mandatory for the McGill community.


“What we learned today was not only about sexual assault, but also about respecting each other,” Baumann-Moroy said.

Ask a Scientist, Science & Technology

Ask a Scientist: How is spider silk so strong?

by Daniel Galef on

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How is spider silk so strong? It’s so thin and light!

The properties of spider silk—also known as gossamer—can seem mysterious if we try to think of it as a kind of string; however, the strength of spider silk comes primarily from its complex structure on the microscopic scale.

Gossamer is actually so materially and structurally complex that humans have only very recently been able to—imperfectly—synthesize spider silk in the lab or engineer it inside of a goat. But spiders have been doing this without difficulty for millions of years. What’s their secret?

First of all, people don’t always mean the same thing when they say strong. For example, something that’s strong seems like it should be hard. However, eggshells are a much harder material than rope, and are simultaneously also much weaker. For the purposes of this article, we’ll take strong to refer to tensile strength, which indicates how well something can withstand being pulled apart by outside forces.

It’s no scientific distortion or misrepresentation to say that spider silk has a tensile strength about equal to that of steel—a strand of steel the same width as a thread of spider silk would break under the same pressure.

Gossamer has two main structural components that make it so impressive: Crystalline blocks of protein in a rigid molecular structure, which are connected by and suspended in a stretchy matrix of the same proteins in a looser structure. In addition to the crystalline blocks and stretchy matrix, a variety of trace substances have their own effects: Saltpetre acts as a chemical preservative, phosphoric acid keeps the pH low enough to ward off bacteria, and tetrahydropyrrole keeps the thread from drying out and snapping.

What happens inside a spider to create a substance so much better than human efforts could produce for millennia? The answer, like so many flies, lies in a spider’s gut. Spiders don’t extrude silk the way mammals extrude hair; their abdominal organs––known as spinnerets––manipulate and craft the silk from an already-prepared liquid solution created in the spider’s silk glands.

The starting ingredient of silk is a protein soup known as silk dope, a liquid crystal composed of the same biochemicals that will ultimately be spun into the super-strong thread, but not yet in the peculiar structure that will give it its remarkable properties on a larger scale.

The molecules of silk dope are in what is called a nematic arrangement, which means they naturally align themselves into a roughly parallel formation because of their electric charges. It’s because they do this that the twists in the spider’s spinnerets will be able to further order the silk dope into tougher, stronger silk.

Spiders don’t just make one kind of silk, either. By altering the rate at which they spin or intertwine silk strands in different ways, spiders can customize the strength and elasticity of their web. For example, a spider might spin a thinner silk for day-to-day web repairs, then a more rugged and bulky silk when constructing the protective shielding for their eggs. Spiderwebs are both versatile and still one of the strongest biomaterials in existence.

McGill, News

Dr. Cindy Blackstock joins McGill’s School of Social Work

by Alexia Martel-Desjardins on

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Dr. Cindy Blackstock will be joining McGill’s School of Social Work starting in Sept. 2017. Dr. Blackstock is famous for her work as an advocate for indigenous children, namely during a case brought before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal regarding equal access to child and family services for indigenous children.

Dr. Nico Trocmé, director of the School of Social Work and Philip Fisher Chair in Social Work, are pleased that Dr. Blackstock is joining the department.

“This builds on a longstanding collaboration between [Dr. Blackstock and I], from the work we have done on the overrepresentation [of] indigenous children in [the] child welfare [system, and] documented by the Canadian Incidence Study of reported Child Abuse,” Dr. Trocmé said.

As Executive Director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada (FNCFCS), Dr. Blackstock worked to end the Canadian government’s discrimination against First Nations children in the child care system.

“Going back decades, the federal government has provided less public funding for services like education, health care, and child welfare [for First Nations children] than all other Canadians receive […],” Dr. Blackstock said. “Depending on the program, 50 […] to 70 cents on the dollar for First Nations kids.”

In Jan. 2016, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal recognized the FNCFCS’s claim. The Tribunal ordered the Canadian government to end the discrimination against indigenous children in the provision of government services.

“We said that failures to act on the available solutions and the perpetuation of these inequalities for children is racial discrimination, and in January 2016 the Tribunal agreed with us and ordered Canada to stop,” Dr. Blackstock said.

Since then, the Tribunal has issued two orders concerning the lack of action to end the underfunding of child and family services for indigenous children.

“We [sent] a compliance order [in April] to Canada that [notified them that] they failed to comply with the January order […] and then we have another compliance order that was issued on [Sept. 16] again because Canada failed to comply,” Dr. Blackstock said.

If the government does not respect the order, Dr. Blackstock and the FNCFCS plan on taking the issue a step further.

“We are always hoping that Canada […] complies with these orders, but if it fails to do so, then we are within our rights to file an application for contempt in federal court […] because we simply cannot allow 163,000 children to suffer,” Dr. Blackstock said.  

“It’s been shown and sold out to audiences all over Eastern Canada, and this week is going to Calgary,” Dr. Blackstock said.

Dr. Blackstock is currently completing speaking engagements and will begin to teach at McGill next September. She will teach a course about advocacy and changing public policy in change-resistant environments.

“I don’t think very many people in academia actually have those skills because they’ve never learned how to actually create systemic change [….],” Dr. Blackstock said. “Without those skills, we can’t really expect people to be able to make those changes. So I want to be able to pass along what I do in 20, 30 years to another group of folks on how you change things in peaceful, respectful ways.”

According to Dr. Trocmé, in addition to the advocacy course, Dr. Blackstock will contribute to the development of an indigenous social work course–the first of its kind in the province of Quebec.

“We also are the first school in Quebec and one of the first in Canada to add a required Indigenous Social Work course to our [Bachelors of Social Work] program; [Dr. Blackstock] will play a major role in developing this course,” said Dr. Trocmé.

Moreover, Dr. Blackstock intends to seize every opportunity she has to pass on her knowledge in order to raise awareness and engage Canadians in the fight for the protection of indigenous children’s rights.

“I’m also blessed with the frequent opportunity of being in the media, both in written media and in broadcasting, and so I take whatever opportunities I have there to spread the word,”  Blackstock said.

Dr. Blackstock also starred in the movie We Can’t Make the Same Mistake Twice, following the story of the tribunal case. Produced by Alanis Obomsawin, the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in Sept. 2016.

Despite being one of only a few indigenous-Canadians to be hired at McGill, Dr. Blackstock remains focused on her advocacy. In her new role as a professor, she is motivated to bring the unfair treatment of indigenous children to public consciousness.

“I really do believe that our students at McGill and people in the Canadian public more generally would be appalled if they actually knew that there’s racial discrimination that is going on and would stand up against it,” Dr. Blackstock said. “But it’s been so normalized in our society that people make excuses for it or they minimize it.”

Private, Science & Technology

Quebec promises to abolish health care accessory fees by early 2017

by Clare Fogarty on

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On Sept. 14, Quebec Minister of Health Dr. Gaetan Barrette announced that as of January 2017, Quebec doctors will no longer be allowed to charge accessory fees—additional fees on services already provided by the Quebec health insurance.

Accessory fees have generally been charged for services such as eye drops, injections, and stitches. According to Barrette, these fees sum up to approximately $83 million dollars in charges per year, guaranteeing a large profit margin for physicians who pay less than one-seventh of that cost to provide these services.

Many argue that this violates the principle of “accessibility” outlined by the 1984 Canada Health Act (CHA), which states that all medically-necessary services shall remain free-of-charge for Canadian citizens. The Canadian government provides this funding in the form of Federal Health Transfers to the provinces on the condition that they respect the principles of the CHA.

Dr. Amélie Quesnel-Vallée, Canada Research Chair in Policies and Health Inequities and associate professor in the Departments of Sociology, Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, explained that since the end of the 1980s, the federal government has done little to monitor the provinces’ compliance. However, this no longer appears to be the case: Canada’s Minister of Health Dr. Jane Philpott recently stated that Quebec would be penalized for violating the CHA through deductions in transfer payments.

“The strong stance adopted by Minister Philpott [regarding] the Quebec user fees and the threat of clawbacks is thus a break from the past and signaling that the federal government really means business,” Dr. Quesnel-Vallée explained. “This could be a strategic move in anticipation of the Health Accords meetings that are to take place between the federal government and the provincial or territorial counterparts […] indicating to other provinces that the laissez-faire attitude of the past […] will no longer hold.”

The issue of excessive fees is not new to Canadian health care discourse. Extra billing—which occurs when physicians billing both patients and the government for the same services—was banned across Canada in 1987 as a violation of the CHA. Dr. David Wright, chair of the McGill Department of History who specializes in medical history, explained that unlike extra billing, accessory fees fall into a /”grey area” of Medicare regulation.

“Patients […] do not want to pay “user fees” for what are supposed to be “free” medical services covered by provincial insurance plans,” Dr. Wright said. “And governments expect that the fees that they reimburse for insurable services include the cost of related activities and medical items.”

Historically, this grey area has created opportunity for questionable additional billing practices, proving factious amongst the Quebec public.

“Sometimes, doctors have billed for specific non-insurable services, like writing a medical note for students,” Dr. Wright added. “In other instances, some doctors, or groups of doctors, have tried charging ‘registration’ or ‘annual membership’ fees for patients. The latter practice has proved to be particularly controversial in Quebec.”

This matter became increasingly more contentious with the 2015 enactment of Bill 20 in Quebec, which was proposed to regulate accessory fees that would minimize social and health inequities.

“[Bill 20] brought attention to the fact that the province was aware of user fees, and was implicitly legitimizing them by wanting to regulate them rather than abolish them,” Dr. Quesnel-Vallée said.

The distribution of power and funds between the federal and provincial governments in Canadian health care thus continues to prove an excessively complicated issue. More information on the specifics of this regulation will be made public in the coming weeks. In the meantime, policymakers in other provinces will continue to walk the tightrope between health care accessibility and affordability.

“There are always going to be differences in policy and practice between provinces,” Dr. Wright concluded. “I would expect that other provincial ministers of health will be watching closely to judge how this policy change is received, both by doctors and by the general public.”

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