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Baseball, Men's Varsity, Private, Sports

McGill Redmen baseball mercy UdeM Carabins in one sided match-up

by Hana O’Neill on

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The Université de Montréal (UdeM) Carabins (3-10) committed six errors and walked seven batters before begging McGill for leniency. The Redmen (13-1) coasted to a 10-0 mercy-shortened victory this past Wednesday at Gary Carter Field in Cote St. Luc, Quebec.

Redmen starting pitcher Henry Dennis, a sophomore history major, held the Carabins to no runs on two hits in five innings, striking out five and walking none.

“I felt loose [and] good to go. The only difference from last week is I was throwing strikes,” Dennis said, referring to his last start, in which he allowed one hit and walked five. “My team was making plays as usual. I had more energy, my arm felt loose and live.”

The Redmen got on the board in the second inning, when third baseman Jared Kersh singled home designated hitter Camden Lawhead. Right fielder Jack Pantalena came home on centre fielder Rocky Hroch’s groundout to extend the lead to 2-0. From that point on, the Redmen dominated the Carabins offensively, scoring eight more runs on eight hits and four errors over the next three innings. The game was called in the bottom of the fifth inning when shortstop Louis-Xavier Labrosse singled home left fielder Jonathan Duforest for the tenth run, bringing the Mercy Rule into effect.

After clinching first place in the CCBA’s Northern Division with a win over the rival Concordia Stingers on Monday, the Redmen are looking ahead to the playoffs.

“We have a good group of guys, we work hard every game, and the scoreboard usually shows it,” Dennis said. “I’m excited. It’s my second year, I think we have a better team than last year, and if there’s a team that can three-peat it’s this one.”

Despite playing five games in five days, the Redmen haven’t looked tired. Head Coach Jason Starr is confident about his team’s performance heading into the postseason.

“We came out strong, we’ve played a lot of baseball in the last few days,” Starr said. “We just want to keep getting better into October.”

The semifinals will take place the weekend of Oct. 15-16. On Saturday, Oct. 15, the Redmen will host the eventual fourth-place finishers in their division for the first two games of the best-of-three series. If necessary, game three will be played at their opponent’s on Sunday.

The Redmen head to Vermont to play in a non-conference tournament this weekend. McGill will host Carleton for a double-header next Saturday in the last games of the conference regular-season.

 

Quotable: “This is the level we expect out of [Henry….] We like to hold our guys to high standards. He was good tonight, didn’t walk, and was in control.” – Head Coach Jason Starr on starting pitcher Henry Dennis’ performance.

Stats Corner: UdeM pitchers Marc-André Towner and Pascal Desjardins faced a total of 33 McGill batters over five innings.

Moment of the Game: With two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth inning and McGill leading 8-0, UdeM reliever Pascal Desjardins walked pinch-hitter Jake Guggenheimer, driving in the first run of the inning. Lacrosse then singled to right, scoring Duforest and ending the game.

Arts & Entertainment, Music

Gold Panda electrifies audience at Newspeak

by Saif Cheval on

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British producer, composer, and electronic artist Gold Panda walked up to an unassuming little table supporting his DJ mixer and turntable at Newspeak on Sunday, Sept. 11. Gold Panda released his third studio album, Good Luck and Do Your Best earlier this year, and has been touring about the world since, which brought him to Montreal that night.

With very little ceremony, he threw up some visuals—four panels featuring a variety of plants—and got to it. His casual attitude offered listeners  two paths: One could get completely lost in the visuals of Newspeak, with its pulsing, needle-like lights scattered across the ceiling in an introspective daze, or they could simply rage. Most ended up trying out both.

The opening act was MC Open Mike Eagle (who happens to be the once-college RA of comedian Hannibal Buress). Open Mike Eagle started the night on the introspective note. His incredibly intimate set, with toned down vocals and crisp production, offered a calm start to the night. The rapper crooned about his friends’ financial woes and dropped sensitive and honest bars, with nothing more on stage than some MIDI equipment, a laptop, and an action figure. The performance showed range, skill, and serious emotional appeal as he travelled from heavy-handed beats with amusing lyrics (“The Advice Show”) to softer, thoughtful ruminations on life and success (“Very Much Money”).

The choice in lineup was perplexing: There is not much of a link between Open Mike Eagle and Gold Panda, besides their collaboration on a single song. But the juxtaposition of the two artists at Newspeak was an effective choice. Open Mike Eagle  served as a voice for Gold Panda’s lyric-less performance. Gold Panda himself agreed, saying, in conversation with fans after the show, that he let Mike handle the talking part.

It was easy to feel at once disarmed and at ease when Gold Panda floated up to his equipment. The serene nature visuals featured behind him flowed into his crisp electronic beats as he moved about his turntables. And thus, for the initial 45 minutes of his nearly two-hour long show, the audience was entranced, swaying slightly to upbeat tempos.

Just as the audience seemed to be lulled, Gold Panda immediately amped up his tunes, playing one of his older and most popular tracks, “You.” The energies in the room shifted, the fluorescent tube lights above began flashing erratically, and the visuals transformed into digital spikes and swirls. Pushed on solely by the music itself, the room partied as hard as anyone could on a Sunday night, and time began to collapse into itself.

Newspeak’s low ceilings, eccentric lighting, and condensed space created the perfect atmosphere for Gold Panda’s show. Rather than the cavernous cathedrals of most electronic music venues, this show was as intimate as it was distant. Sudden beat switch-ups or breakdowns would crash through the soundscape as reminders of the DJ’s sway over the audience. If a listener got too caught up within themselves, rising tempos and erratic visual changes would soon push them to dance with the people around them.


The night had to come to an end, and Gold Panda finished with a flurry of beats as “Good Luck and Do Your Best” flashed on the screen. Newspeak provided the optimal space, lighting, and sound to allow Gold Panda and Open Mike Eagle put on a performance was as intimate as it was exhilarating. Instead of running off backstage after the show, Gold Panda chose to stand by the speakers, taking time out to talk to fans and followers. Not too far behind the gushing fans, Open Mike Eagle was chatting up a few showgoers at the bar. Though Gold Panda was of the view that talking might disrupt the flow of his music, being able to interact with him after the concert only solidified how personal the show was for its audience.

Album Reviews, Arts & Entertainment

Album Review: The Sun’s Tirade – Isaiah Rashad

by Dylan Adamson on

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Tennessean rapper Isaiah Rashad has some destructive tendencies. They were the subject of much of his deceptively laidback flows on his eye-opening 2014 debut, Cilvia Demo. The two years since have not been easy for Rashad: An addiction to Xanax, alcoholism, and the pressures of being his label’s prospective ‘next big thing’ have defined a silent period in which the company, Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE), almost dropped Rashad. After this tumultuous time, the 25-year-old returns to the scene with The Sun’s Tirade, released Sept. 1. The sprawling 66 minute release finds Rashad confronting his demons head-on, while earning his place among the TDE elite.

Transplanted from Tennessee into the heart of the US’s west coast scene, Rashad has had a lot of influences to juggle in his music. The Sun’s Tirade uses a lot of standout, funky beats that have defined recent TDE releases, such as Kendrick’s To Pimp a Butterfly and Jay Rock’s 90059. From a production standpoint, this sound is compatible with Rashad’s roots as an Outkast fanboy. There is a lot going on in these tracks, especially in comparison with the beats on Rashad’s debut Cilvia Demo, which featured a lot of synth-heavy, chilled out beats. On The Sun’s Tirade’s best moments, the boom-bap bass, paired with some really groovy, slowed down hooks, almost recall Outkast’s seminal 1998 album, Aquemini. The Sun Tirade’s standout track, “Silkk da Shocka (ft. Syd),” is a clear descendent of the Andre 3000 school of nostalgic rap ballads. Named after a southern rapper of Rashad’s youth, this song couples Rashad’s easy flows with a fantastically soft feature from Odd Future alum Syd (tha Dude) to concoct one of the year’s sweetest hooks.

A particularly sentimental track is “Rope (ft. SiR) // rosegold,” a song in which Rashad expresses his gratitude for still being afforded the opportunity to make music. Rapid fire hi-hats and multiple basslines add urgency to Rashad’s southern drawl, giving credence to stirring bars: “Like nowadays / I barely might know myself / but thank God I found this rope.” He is now able to rise above the chaos that has defined his last two years, and look around with a new lease on life and fame.   The lead single, “Free Lunch,”; “Brenda,” an ode to his deceased grandmother, and “Dressed Like Rappers,” a sobering critique of the so-called rap image, are clear standouts. Despite the record’s heavy emotional subject matter, Rashad’s presence brings a much needed dose of vitality into the often monotonous southern rap scene of 2016.

 

The first side of the album tends toward songs which look back at Rashad’s life through a meditative lens. The second side, however, finds Rashad expending his energy outwards rather than inwards. He spits heavy bars about the people he loves, and the way that modern hip hop has affected predominantly black neighbourhoods such as his own in hometown Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Despite the twist and turns of the album, it never comes off as meandering; in fact, the immersive world of the seemingly reborn protagonist is nothing short of mesmerizing. The album’s title, The Sun’s Tirade, refers to how long the days—and, to extrapolate, the months and years—have felt since Rashad’s move to L.A. in 2014. It hasn’t been an easy journey, but Isaiah has finally emerged to greet the world around him; fans old and new will certainly be glad to see the results.

Sounds like: To Pimp a Butterfly-era Kendrick Lamar (think bass-heavy funk beats coupled with heady introspection); Aquemini-era Outkast (deep South nostalgia)

Opinion

Language of McGill’s Draft Policy for Sexual Violence allows perpetrators too much leeway

by Leila Mathy on

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McGill University is one of the safest spaces I’ve ever been in. Never in my life have I ever been made so aware of issues of race, sexuality, consent, and gender. This university opened my eyes to topics I had rarely thought about in-depth and made me a far more open-minded and socially-aware person. I know for a fact that I’m not the only person to have felt the impact of this experience, so I was disappointed and angry when I was informed that McGill does not yet have a sexual assault policy. I, and many others, feel betrayed. The university may encourage awareness around consent and implement mandatory workshops for students living in residence about consensual sex, but it needs a formal sexual violence policy—with clear repercussions for perpetrators—in order to live up to these supposed commitments.

McGill is not the only university with this problem: Fewer than 20 per cent of Canadian universities have official sexual violence policies. McGill released its Draft Policy for Sexual Violence on Sept. 12; however, the draft is severely lacking in its punitive measures. The point of this policy should be to ensure that no survivor ever has to see, interact with, or feel threatened by the presence of their attacker on campus. In the case of a confirmed case of sexual violence, the policy must validate the survivor’s importance and worth by employing strict punitive measures. In short, the policy must send a clear message that sexual assault is not tolerated at this institution.

The biggest problem with this policy isn’t how long it’s taken to come together, or how many times it was previously rejected. The biggest problem, by far, is the message this sends to students on campus: This policy is more careful about wrongfully convicting someone than it is about the survivor’s well-being. While it should be concerned with both, false accusations are very, very rare—only 2 to 4 per cent in Canada. This draft tells survivors that they would have to live with their attacker on campus and that the perpetrator’s freedoms, comfort, and educational experience are valued at the expense of their own.

 

 

 

 

There is too much wiggle room for perpetrators to slip through the cracks, because the draft in its current state doesn’t hold McGill to any concrete action.

Instead, McGill University, in the vaguest terms possible, only asserts in clause 9 of the draft that the survivor will have access to support systems. In addition, clause 12 states that “the appropriate University authority may initiate an investigation or disciplinary process.” The policy draft fails to quantify resources and assert concrete measures. The repeated use of the word “may” makes it vague and noncommittal. This weak attempt at addressing the problem of sexual assault on campus does nothing to eliminate rape culture—the dangerous culture that normalizes and excuses sexual violence instead of condemning it. This policy would be so much more significant if McGill specified exactly what resources it will devote and what actions it will take to respond accordingly.

The draft’s harshest punitive measure, in clause 18c, is “temporarily excluding the alleged perpetrator from campus or limiting that person’s role, privileges or duties, in accordance with applicable University policies, regulations and collective agreements.” No suspension, no expulsion, and a lot of leeway. Without the threat of expulsion, perpetrators can get away with sexual violence and know that they will still get a second chance. There is too much wiggle room for perpetrators to slip through the cracks, because the draft in its current state doesn’t hold McGill to any concrete action. This creates a risk of not holding all perpetrators and cases to the same standards. With a justice system that doesn’t seem invested in helping rape survivors, universities need to create as safe a space as possible for members of their community. In fact, survivors of sexual violence in Canada have received so little help in their cases that many would rather stay silent altogether.

Failing to include real, concrete, and harsh punitive measures is what makes this policy severely lacking. McGill’s job isn’t to only educate its students—it’s to create a safe space for the educating to take place in. This is even something the university acknowledges that it is obligated to do in clauses 7 and 8 of the Charter of Student Rights, yet, so far, it seems to be failing in this instance. Given that so few universities in Canada have policies for sexual violence, McGill’s policy has the opportunity be extremely precedent-setting. The campus I thought was a safe space is one where many feel at risk. An administration that isn’t willing to take definitive punitive measures in dealing with perpetrators of sexual violence is not one that is creating a safe space.

 

 

 

Leila Mathy is a U2 double major in Political Science and English Drama and Theatre. Leila is Belgian and was born and raised abroad as a third culture kid her whole life, and has learned to appreciate global affairs, whether social or political. Outside of school, she enjoys playing volleyball and her job as a writer and for thethings.com.

 

@ | [email protected]

 

 

Features

Swiped Connections

by Wendy Tran on

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When I created my Tinder account, I never expected that I would end up finding a long-term relationship through it. I still remember the shocked look on my friends’ faces when I told them about how my relationship began. They congratulated me in confusion; most of them use the app for different purposes. Some of them use it to track down attractive people in their vicinity for a fling, while others look forward to networking with people outside their circles. They post the best pictures of themselves on their profile, along with a quirky introduction that can quickly grab one’s attention. Amidst the popularity of the app, and the abundance of choices I was given, I consider myself lucky to have found what I was looking for.

Art, Arts & Entertainment, Film and TV

Sketching on pins and needles

by Morgan Davis on

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Walking into The Whole and its Parts (in French, Le Tout et la Partie) is entering Michèle Lemieux’s grayscale dream world of sketches and animations. Earlier this year, her film, Here and The Great Elsewhere (2012), was shown at the Canadian Culture Centre in Paris. Her exhibit, now at the Université de Québec à Montréal (UQÀM) Centre de Design, allows visitors to explore the film’s preliminary sketches and visual experiments. The exhibition is accompanied by a publication as well as a soundscape of 25 musicians created by New York composer Melissa Grey. 

(Christopher Li / The McGill Tribune)
(Christopher Li / The McGill Tribune)

The short film exhibits the comforts of individual routines and living spaces, as well as the effects of leaving them. The film was created entirely through a pinscreen and the story shows not only Lemieux’s technical mastery, but also her creative dialogue with the audience.

The pinscreen is a remarkable feature of the animated film community. Developed in 1931 by Alexander Alexeïeff and Claire Parker, the machine is installed within a dark studio for animation purposes. Lemieux used her own pinscreen to create her film, a method that is both efficient and precise. The metal frame holds 240,000 tubes merely by pressure. When one presses against the back with their hand or an object, the pins stick out of the tube and create a shadow. Lighting from the side illuminates the pinscreen so that the pins create a shadow onto the board. The camera placed in front of the screen is unable to see the pins, only the array of grey shadows created. Using everyday household items, such as light bulbs, the artist is able to project silhouettes onto the pinscreen—ideal for animation.

An illustrator, filmmaker, and professor at the UQÀM, Michèle Lemieux has taught illustration for over 20 years. Previously, Lemieux worked with children’s illustrations before transitioning to animated film. Working exclusively in black and white, many of Lemieux’s drawings are similar to those of Tim Burton. Her style is a cluttered collection inspired by various children’s illustrators such as Shel Silverstein. The mixture of these influences creates a mysterious, yet youthful, atmosphere. 

Lemieux’s sketchbook work for animated films from 2003 to 2012 is displayed on one lightened wall. Directly across the room are iPads showcasing various pages of her books. With this, the viewer is able to observe the development of her style—from grotesque mutant figures to nature scenes drawn in only a few crude lines. Behind a hidden corner, a dimly lit wall shows Lemieux on three consecutive screens; each displays real-time footage of her working on the film. Her patience, frustration, and meticulousness are apparent as she works on a pinscreen. Lemieux’s presence within the exhibit is emphasized with another footage piece—a recording of her interacting with students during a lecture. 

For two-and-a-half years, Lemieux was devoted to this pinscreen project. Informational excerpts explain that the exhibit—in addition to serving as an introduction to Lemieux’s creative process—is an attempt to heighten viewer’s understanding of drawing in the animation world. By focusing on the pinscreen, viewers can learn the process of using dated tools in what is commonly seen as a ‘modern’ art form. 

On display from Sept. 23 until Nov. 6 The Whole and its Parts: Michèle Lemieux, from Drawing to Animation can be viewed at 1440 Rue Sanguinet Wednesdays to Sundays from 12-6 p.m.

 

Arts & Entertainment, Books, Film and TV

Pop Rhetoric: Harry Potter and the burden of diversity

by Shandika Indrarajah on

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Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has been in the news regularly for her steadfast refusal to let her series fade from public consciousness. These efforts range from small pieces uploaded to the website, pottermore.com, to the addition of an entirely new instalment in the form of a play script. In the past few weeks, she has once again set critics aflame on social media, this time with an added tidbit about how her character Remus Lupin’s affliction of werewolfism—also known as lycanthropy—is really a metaphor for HIV. 

The main criticisms come at the issue from two different angles, although one is angle is more compelling than the other. One side sees the lycanthropy metaphor as a lazy, unimaginative, and quite problematic way to represent HIV. The other, more intriguing, argument is that her reveals are not genuine, and are simply a retrospective re-writing of her works in order to make them more inclusive to today’s more progressive audience. 

Lycanthropy as a metaphor for HIV is poorly thought out. It is problematic in that it helps reaffirm a couple of the most harmful stigmas against those with HIV—that they wilfully spread the illness, and that the general public should be wary of those with HIV. 

The claims made by the second group of critics are a bit more interesting. It is undeniable that Harry Potter is not a progressive story. It is not regressive, per se, but it certainly makes no effort to be diverse. It is, overall, a series that deals mainly with the issues of straight, white, able-bodied, and middle-class people, with the occasional outlier thrown in. Given that the first installment was published almost two decades ago, it is certainly at odds with a more modern readership who, as time goes on, want more and more representative literature.

Considering the economic and cultural posterity of the canon, it’s easy to see why Rowling would intentionally change the meaning of her works in order to make them more relevant to a contemporary audience. However, her motivation to be inclusive in her writing is questionable and inconsistent. For example, she is willing to accept interpretations that Hermione is black, but is adamant that Draco Malfoy was and is completely straight.  

Rowling appears to believe it necessary that the general public considers her works as wholly inclusive of minority characters, although the work in question does not actually deal with being a minority. Writing a story about a white character, and going back to change all of the physical characteristics to fit those of a black character, does not do enough to make the story inclusive of black narratives; it comes across as disingenuous. 

Inclusive works and the visibility of minorities within art is crucial. Being able to identify with characters in books is a wonderful feeling, and works that acknowledge their minorities without using them as token characters are most important. The more audiences praise inclusive media without being critical of its execution, the more diversity is used for the sake of diversity, and the further audiences get from art for art’s sake. 

Football, Know Your Athlete, Sports

In conversation with NFL Director of Football Development Samantha Rapoport

by Sydney Page & Aaron Rose on

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“I’ve always known I wanted to work for the NFL,” Samantha Rapoport said. “It was a dream of mine since I was young.”

Rapoport, a McGill alumni, is the NFL Director of Football Development, a position tasked with developing the game in order to connect qualified people with NFL jobs. Born in Vancouver, Rapoport isn’t a typical candidate for a high ranking position within the league. Her position was previously occupied by former Baltimore Raven Matt Birk.

In her second year studying kinesiology at McGill, Rapoport tried to get a job in the NFL. After getting rejected, she decided to get creative and re-apply.

“[I] thought about how to stand out as a female from Canada with no connections to the NFL, other than that I just loved playing,” Rapoport said. “I kind of came up with a creative way to apply, [I literally] wrote something on a football and that’s how I obtained my first internship and then I went up from there.”

Rapoport’s father sparked her interest in Football. He was a die hard Dolphins fan and a quarterback on the McGill Redmen.

“My dad […] had two girls so he didn’t think we would become interested in football,” Rapoport said. “But he always says there’s a football gene and it must have gotten passed down to me.”

From a young age Rapoport played girls flag football before playing tackle football in her later years. Her successful sporting career eventually led to national honours.

“I played for the Montreal Blitz–the female tackle football team in Montreal,” Rapoport said. “I also played a flag football team since I was 12 years old. I played as quarterback for Team Canada and have just been so heavily involved in football […] so I wanted to stay on the football side of the business if I could.”

Over the years, Rapoport has worked extensively in developing youth and girls flag football programs. Between 2010 and 2016 she worked for USA Football where she oversaw youth engagement programs as well as the creation of the USAF-NFL Girls Football Program. In 2009, she won the NFL Commissioner’s Award for Innovation for developing a leadership program that enabled girls to start flag football programs at their schools.

Now, as the Director of Football Development, Rapoport has a mandate to connect qualified women with NFL jobs. She has had a positive experience with the NFL and wants to extend that experience to other women.

“This is my 14th NFL season and I honestly mean this, I have never experienced any feeling of not feeling welcome,” Rapoport said.

She is determined to break down perceptions of football as an exclusively male sport.

“The first step is to show them visually that females can fill these positions and that they have power in sport,” Rapoport said. “The second step is changing the culture of the hiring managers within the organization to show them that females can be very successful and explain to the them the benefits of having gender diversity within your organization.”

According to Rapoport, the NFL wants to encourage gender diversity.

“We are going to identify, train, develop and connect qualified women to the NFL so people stop thinking it’s an ‘old boys network,’” Rapoport commented. “Men in the industry are generally very open to the idea, it’s just that a lot of our head coaches are very busy guys and they just don’t know where to find these females.”

Rapoport believes the central issue with the lack of female representation in the industry stems from a shortage of interested and eligible women in close contact with leading NFL figures.

“We recognize that a lot of jobs across the board are all procured from informal social networks,” Rapoport explained. “A lot of the time it’s who you know […] it’s easy to just pick someone who looks like you.”

Alongside her mission to promote gender equality in the NFL, Rapoport will also be working to ensure equitable minority hiring practices in the NFL. The NFL implemented the Rooney Rule in 2002, which required that all NFL teams have to interview at least one minority candidate for head coaching positions. Recently, the policy has been criticized for producing modest increases in non-white head coaches since its inception.

“I think we’ve made waves,” Rapoport said. “There’s a debate about whether or not the Rooney Rule has been successful and I would say it has been successful [.…] I think our numbers can be better and that’s why we are dedicating this much programming to helping achieve higher numbers as far as minorities are concerned at the head coach, general manager, and other coach levels.”

Rapoport believes she is well positioned to give back to a game that has given her so much.

“I’ve always been in love with the sport and still am,” Rapoport stated. “I just knew that it’s what I was put on this planet to do. I was put here to help make the game better and stronger, so I’m really lucky to be in the position I find myself in now.”

If Rapoport’s mission is successful and more women join the NFL ranks, the future is bright for the sport. While it may seem unlikely today, having a woman calling the shots from the sideline might soon become a reality.

“I will be very excited to celebrate the first female head coach,” Rapoport said. “I believe we can achieve that in our lifetime.”

 

Favourite NFL team: “I grew up with a father who was a Dolphins’ fan and I was a Cowboys’ fan.

Favourite quarterback: “Troy Aikman. I got to work with him on an event […] and I had to pinch myself pretty hard.”

Favourite McGill professor: “Donald Taylor. He was a Social-psychology professor and always referenced so many interesting studies. So many of his theories stuck with me and I constantly find myself referencing them.”

Favourite study spot: “Second Cup on Parc, the library was too quiet for me.”

Montreal deli fan or New York deli fan: “100% Montreal deli, Montreal bagels [too.] I’ve been [in New York] for 14 years or so but I will never get used to New York bagels. Montreal is the best to me!”

 

 

A former version of this article incorrectly stated that Sam Rapoport had worked for USA Football between 2010 and 2013. She worked for USA Football from 2010 to 2016. The Tribune regrets this error.

Science & Technology

Federal government to impose contentious national carbon pricing: Pan-Canada climate plan provokes debate

by Miguel Principe on

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“We [are] all united in our commitment to stepping up in the fight against climate change, to ensuring that we have a Canadian approach to climate change,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a press conference last November.

While Liberal government has made many statements on climate change, until now, there had been very few concrete strategies proposed.

To limit the private sector’s dependency on fossil fuels, Canada’s federal government plans to implement a minimum carbon price for provinces that do not have adequate carbon pricing schemes. The Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna, said on Sept. 18th to CTV’s podcast Question Period that the federal government will present these plans to Parliament in early fall.

The Globe and Mail explained that the minimum carbon price that will be enacted would try to reach the United Nations’ 2030 goal of lowering greenhouse gas emissions to 30 per cent below 2005 levels.

According to the CBC, there are currently only four provinces that either have or plan to have a carbon pricing scheme. British Columbia and Alberta have a carbon tax scheme while Quebec and Ontario have a plan to implement a cap-and-trade system.

“Any system that puts its price on carbon is going to have the same exact effect,” Assistant Professor Christopher Barrington-Leigh of McGill’s School of Environment said. “So, the mechanics of whether it’s just a tax where everybody knows what the price is or it’s a cap where everybody knows what the amount of emissions is, […] in the end, they have a lot of similarity and to the extent that you can guess the price and what the price [is going to be] in the future, then they have the same incentive for businesses.”

The plan to have a minimum carbon price attracts criticism from all sides. Environmentalists believe that the Liberal Party’s carbon pricing plan is unambitious and that the federal government should set a higher target.

“To pick a target in 2016 that is the same one left behind by [former Conservative Prime Minister] Stephen Harper, that doesn’t fall due until 2030, is irresponsible and is an abandonment of leadership,” Green Party Leader Elizabeth May told The National Post.

The Liberals have responded that Harper’s government created the targets with no accompanying plan to reach their goals. The new carbon pricing scheme, by contrast, presents specific actions to reach the carbon level target.

Conservatives, on the other hand, believe that the government enacting a minimum carbon price shows that they have completely abandoned coordinating with provinces on carbon policy. The fiercest opposition comes from Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, who not only believes that the Liberals have abandoned their cooperation with provincial governments, but also are antagonizing the already struggling energy sector.

Meanwhile, Barrington-Leigh believes that imposing a clear federal pricing scheme would increase the transparency and clarity of incentives for private companies. The federal pricing scheme would make it easier for companies to look to more renewable energy sources while still reaching their emissions-reduction targets.

“You have huge amounts of capital [to] invest in […] multi-billion dollar projects,” Barrington-Leigh said. “Energy companies are diversifying, so if the incentives were clearer and stronger to invest in renewables, then that capital and the labour forces would be shifting smoothly and more gradually in the way they should. The less smooth and gradual it is the more […] the public will have to bear the cost of retraining [….] Then you would have more waste, layoffs, and capital doing the wrong thing.”

Despite the controversy surrounding a minimum carbon price, the Liberals plan to implement the policy before COP22, the United Nations summit in Morocco, in early November.

 

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Christopher Barrington-Leigh is an Associate Professor. In fact, he is an Assistant Professor. The Tribune regrets this error. 

Baseball, Behind the Bench, Sports

The end of an era: A tribute to the great Vin Scully

by Weiyu Dang on

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When Vin Scully first started broadcasting Dodgers games in 1950, baseball had just desegregated. Mickey Mantle and Hank Aaron were the league’s MVPs and New York had three baseball teams. Dodgers games took place in Brooklyn, far from the current swashbuckling, free-spending Los Angeles iteration of the team. In those days, Vinnie’s voice was the city’s summer soundtrack, filling a city that buzzed during the peak of the American Dream.

Scully’s six-decade tenure, which comes to an end on Oct 2, seemed to knit baseball’s various epochs together. The red-haired, Bronx-Irish tenor’s perfectly-inflected words transformed each baseball game into a gripping, unfurling narrative. 

During his Brooklyn Dodgers days, in the heyday of radio, Scully voiced the hopes of a whole borough with an eloquence surpassing his years. The young Scully was a recent Fordham graduate who had been in centrefield for the school team, while singing in a barbershop quartet and announcing football and basketball games. As soon as his voice rang out from the radio, Scully assumed the role of a familiar poet, an uncle-like figure to all those casually listening to a baseball game. 

Scully’s simple, descriptive storytelling captured listeners’ attention as though he were sitting in the bleachers and chatting with them. Scully’s commentary—unlike conventional colour-commentary broadcasters who stay silent during plays and then evaluate after the fact—ranged from player anecdotes to historical events. Some commentators build walls of jargon in front of the listener, barring them from appreciating the raw beauty of the game. Scully, however, speaks as though he’s shooting the breeze with an old friend. His ability to see the humanity in baseball elevated him above most commentators stuck in a uniquely baseball frame of mind.

With the Dodgers’ move to California, Scully shifted from the working-class bustle of Brooklyn to the glitzy stage of Los Angeles. His move westward connected a nation by spreading baseball from the eastern seaboard to the Californian beaches. Scully wasn’t so much a commentator as a frontiersman spreading the story of baseball. 

Scully’s timelessness rests in his extraordinary narrative ability. Of his repertoire, many incontrovertible touchstones of baseball history stand out: The Brooklyn Dodgers’ last championship in 1955, Sandy Koufax’s perfect game in 1965, Hank Aaron’s then record breaking 715th home run, to Fernando-mania, and of course, the “she is gone” Kirk Gibson home run in the 1988 World Series. He wears the laurel as baseball’s bard for a reason. He’s recorded baseball and American cultural history for generations of baseball fans. Grandparents are now telling their grandchildren about Vinnie from the Bronx, Vinnie from Brooklyn, and The Voice of the Dodgers. 

On Sunday Sept. 25, Scully’s last home game entered the ninth with the Dodgers down 3-2 to the Rockies. On their last out, presumable NL Rookie of the Year Corey Seager ripped a homer to right field to tie the game and give Scully a chance at a storybook ending. In a game where Dodger stars all tipped their helmets to the retiring legend, the dramatic ending came courtesy of career backup Charlie Culberson hitting a walk-off tenth inning home run—his first in two years—to clinch the NL West title.

It was inevitable, the Baseball Gods wanted to give Scully a chance to commentate one last memorable moment. 

When generations of young broadcasters look back for inspiration, there’s no doubt they’ll listen and learn from the greatest.

 

Check out what Jonah Keri had to say about Vin Scully in a Tribune exclusive podcast on mcgilltribune.com/sports

 

A former version of this article incorrectly stated that Brooklyn Dodgers's last World Series championship was in 1959. However, they moved to Los Angeles in 1957. Their last championship in Brooklyn was actually in 1955. The Tribune regrets this error.

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