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a, Off the Board, Opinion

Social activism not enough to break down structures of success

by Shrinkhala Dawadi on

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According to philosopher-writer Albert Camus, “the only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”

It is harder for a woman of colour to achieve the same metrics of success as a white man. The very definition of success is built around capitalist and patriarchal ideals: You’re successful if you have a prestigious career, earn a certain amount of money, and command the respect of people who are equally as successful. Women of colour face additional pressures when striving for ‘success,’ to be successful by traditional standards while advocating for social justice. Unfortunately, the two worlds don’t always mix. To be successful, sometimes I feel that I cannot stand up for the things that I believe in.

Injustices are both institutionally sanctioned and perpetuated by people who, though they may not intend to, perpetuate harmful ideas. Institutional inequalities are evident by the disproportionate amount of black men and people of colour incarcerated in the United States and Canada, the fact that people of colour have lower wages and socioeconomic outcomes compared to white people, and in the appalling truth that indigenous women have a homicide rate 4.5 times higher than other women in Canada. These inequalities take place day-to-day, in the workplace, and on university campuses.

The pressure to embody mainstream success while also being an activist often comes from like-minded people who care about righting the structural inequalities of society. But oftentimes activism is, by default, the responsibility of the individual who would most benefit from change. There have been many times where I’ve had to swallow my pride and laugh when mentor figures, friends, and work associates have made comments about my name, or tried to greet me with namaste-esque gestures, or said that the rice and chicken I’m having for lunch is exotic.

To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with striving for success; however, as long as that success is externally defined, achieving a certain career entails participation in a society that is resistant to social activism.

I used to be the type of person that would point out every time a movie had an all-white cast, or every time a person used a racial slur in a casual conversation. Initially, I thought that the people I spoke to would stop what they were doing, become suddenly enlightened, and go henceforth as a paragon of social justice. It rarely worked that way: Most people’s reactions ranged from confused, to defensive, to angry. On top of that, I don’t have an infinite amount of energy to patiently explain my point of view and educate every person who says something slightly offensive. Keeping my silence was, I thought, the best way for me to be liked and progress in school or at work. Yet it takes a huge toll to remain silent in these situations because I feel like I am betraying a part of myself. As wonderful as it would be, it’s unrealistic to expect every single woman of colour to act as an activist in their everyday lives. Some women may only care for mainstream success, some only for activism, and some for neither, or for both.

To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with striving for success; however, as long as that success is externally defined, achieving a certain career entails participation in a society that is resistant to social activism. This is apparent by the fact that most prestigious organizations—whether they are universities, governmental institutions, major media outlets, or Fortune 500 companies—are mostly run and staffed by white men, who, consciously or not, benefit from societal inequalities.

Succeeding in society doesn’t necessarily mean working as an activist to combat such inequities. One does not necessarily need to be a grassroots activist; one need only consider the discussion that followed Beyonce’s “Formation” video to realize the various forms that activism can take. But not everyone has the means, energy, or mental health to be a full-time activist while also achieving mainstream success.

The way in which society is structured means that achieving mainstream success often comes at the cost of working to erase the barriers that prevent other women from achieving the same. While that is a bitter pill to swallow, it’s also the reality of society. We must not demonize the women who choose to work within the system, or do not have the resources or ability to work outside it. Instead, we should work as much as we can to erase these structural inequalities so no one will need to make a choice between mainstream success and social activism.

The tragedy of this situation is that change rarely comes from working within the system, and so activism is the crucial piece in bringing about any societal transformation. I suspect that this is why the pace of change is so slow: In an ideal world, we’d all stop subscribing to notions of mainstream success and build a new, egalitarian system from scratch. But in an imperfect world, one must understand that underprivileged groups are in a unique position: They face pressure to achieve mainstream success within a system that works against them. Their other option is to work towards dismantling the system, but this process is slow, laborious, and is not likely to garner respect within mainstream society.

Shrinkhala Dawadi is a writer and managing editor at the McGill Tribune.

 

@McGillTribOp | [email protected]

a, Science & Technology

Game design thinking and the realm of possibility

by Tiffany Le on

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Founded in 1992 by current CEO Remi Racine, Behaviour Interactive is one of the largest and most successful independent game developers in Canada. Their team is made up of  over 300 employees and is headquartered here in Montreal. 

In the last year, Behaviour has worked on games like the award-winning iOS game Fallout Shelter, which the organization made in partnership with Bethesda Game Solutions. The team also worked on $92 million Kickstarter project, Star Citizen—the biggest crowdfunded video game ever developed for Microsoft Windows and Linux. Their success has been tied to their ability to make their games interactive, artistic, and above all, fun.

“Fun is very complicated,” Creative Director Peter Hammer explained. “The only thing you know is when you’re having it and when you’re not having it.”

With this in mind, Behaviour has curated a series of key universal ingredients to creating fun in video games. This is what Senior Vice-President Dominique Lebel calls “game design thinking.” 

A study conducted by Microsoft revealed that humans’ attention span has dropped from 12 to eight seconds due to smartphone usage. This means that a game must be designed as a first time experience. Its virtual world must contain a set of rules that remain persistent, unchanging, and therefore learnable to the user. There needs to be easily identifiable goals to reach and a motivating reason as to why those goals should be reached. The game must be simple and include engagement and re-engagement tools. There must be visible progress, a tangible feeling of moving forwards. Social involvement, competitiveness, and cooperation are also key. Finally, a fun game requires the idea of winning.

(forbes.com)
(forbes.com)

What Behaviour Business Solutions found, however, was that these exact same ingredients—this game design thinking—can be applied outside of videogames, and be just as effective. Although the idea of using game mechanics in business, specifically marketing, has existed for a long time, it hasn’t evolved much. Known as ‘gameification,’ the process of using games in business never evolved beyond simple tactics such as a game of spin-the-wheel to win a cup of coffee. Now, however, most people carry smartphones, which Behaviour Business Solutions aims to target to revolutionize experiences through game mechanics.

“Imagine if I was coming into work every single day [and] it was a fair world where the rules were incredibly simple; I had clear goals, there was an engagement mechanism, and I knew what I had to do to win,” Hammer stated. “[That] would be a perfect world. These mechanics exist in a game but they don’t exist in our everyday world, [which] makes it imperfect.”

Behaviour believes the problem with the real world is a lack of immediate validation. When short term results are not visible, motivation goes down. Behaviour is utilizing game design thinking to fill that gap. One of the first ways they have begun doing this is by revolutionizing the work experience. The goal is to engage employees, increase motivation, and transform learning.

“[Behaviour] is not only taking the old way of teaching and doing it digitally, but we are creating a new way of teaching,” Lebel stated.

To test their theory, Behaviour has been working with large firms such as Air Canada and Sobeys to transform their employee training processes. Infusing game mechanics into training is the distinction between a dreary test and a fun trivia game. Behaviour has also been working to employ virtual reality technology in training. This means effective use of the same technology that develops first person shooter games to create highly realistic first person training simulations. Although they are currently working largely with private corporations, this development is heading towards the public sector, specifically in education.

“Students are actually used to engaging with everything they’re doing, they’ve got all these two-way communication channels,” Hammer said. “They’re playing games; they’re completely connected at all times. Then, they go to school and the mechanics are ancient.”

Somewhere between elementary and middle school, education changes from a reward orientation to a punitive orientation. Whereas younger children are rewarded for good behaviour, older kids are being punished for bad behaviour. This extends into university and eventually the workforce. This system encourages students to prioritize grades over acquiring knowledge, which means they retain very little of the information that is important. Game design thinking will be able to make education engaging.

“It’s not a very fair system today,” Hammer said. “[The education system] values a [specific] form of academia. Some people are used to taking tests and they know how to get through the system. Are they the best? They’re the best at something. With game mechanics through design, [education] can value the best of many things.”

“Fun is very complicated,” Creative Director Peter Hammer explained. “The only thing you know is when you’re having it and when you’re not having it.”

The US government has already begun funding initiatives to change the way people are educated. This process will begin with the younger groups who are more adaptive to new technology but will expand into more serious fields that require a long and theoretical education such as medicine.

“[Behaviour] is not only taking the old way of teaching and doing it digitally, but we are creating a new way of teaching,” Lebel stated. 

Healthcare is the next public sector where game design thinking hopes to change. To do this, they want to shift the focus from treatment during illnesses to preventative care. In order to accomplish this, Behaviour aims to use the concept of immediate validation. 

“The only reward in staying healthy […] is ‘I won’t get sick,’” Hammer said. “That’s a very obscure reward compared to [a] vice, which feels good.”

For example, a person may go out for drinks with friends or eat a bag of salty chips because it feels good immediately, whereas the long term health benefits of not doing those things feels bad.

Game design thinking can add immediate validation for someone who is trying to make healthy life choices when there are no visible, physical forms of immediate validation. To do this, Behaviour Interactive hopes to link users with health insurance premiums. Insurance companies can reward its users for good behaviour, such as eating healthy and quitting smoking.

The last sector that game design thinking will be able to tackle is environment. The idea of process is key here; through game mechanics, people will become more motivated to recycle if their garbage is able to tell them exactly how much carbon emission they eliminated. Game design thinking is filling the gap that is limiting rational decisions because the payoff is not evident.

These projects take a long time to complete and perhaps longer to become fully integrated. However, they are big steps towards a dramatic change in human behaviour. The idea of game design thinking is relatively new but packed with potential. Companies like Behaviour  Interactive are paving the way towards a bold paradigm shift. 

(bhvr.com)
(bhvr.com)
a, Recipes, Student Life

Recipe: Red Lentil Soup

by Natalie Vineberg on

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Now that midterms season has graced McGill students, any prior New Year’s resolutions to cook fancy, elaborate meals have gone out the window. Enter this red lentil soup recipe, which is fast and simple; it only has three steps, and the last one is opt-outable if you’re tight for time. It’s affordable for students since the main ingredient is lentils, and the rest of the ingredients can probably be found around the house already. For those looking for a vegetarian option, the chicken broth can be swapped out for vegetable broth. Lastly, students can cook up a jumbo batch to eat at the library throughout the week; the soup freezes well, and can be warmed up for a quick snack between stints in the library. 

Ingredients

2 tbsp of olive oil

2 carrots, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 onion, diced

½ tsp of salt

1 tbsp of tomato paste

2 cups of red lentils

8 cups of chicken broth 

2 bay leaves 

Black pepper

Cayenne pepper

DIRECTIONS

1. Cook olive oil, carrots, garlic, onion, salt, for 5 minutes, covered, over medium heat.

2. Add the rest of the ingredients to the pot and bring to a boil. Turn down to heat to low and simmer covered until lentils fall apart. This should take approximately 20 minutes.

3. For a thicker consistency, purée half the soup. 

a, Science & Technology

Police interrogations can be impacted by TASER shocks

by Sihara Wickremasinghe  on

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The Thomas A. Swift Electric Rifle, known more commonly as a TASER, has historically been seen as the less deadly hand-held alternative to the gun. The device works by dispatching an average of 50,000 volts of shock through two wires that can shoot from up to 10.6 metres away. This jolt has the ability to generate involuntary constrictions of muscle tissue, rendering the recipient immobilized. According to Amnesty International, between 2001 and 2008, 334 Americans died after being shocked by a TASER. 

Various studies have been done to evaluate the physical impact of being tased, most of these have focused on evaluating disturbances to cardiac rhythm, breathing, metabolism and stress. The outcome of these tests have shown that TASERs don’t present an increased risk of injury or death to adults in healthy physical shape. The majority of deaths that have occurred because of tasers have been due to a combination of variables such as drug or alcohol abuse and pre-existing medical conditions.

While the physiological aspect of TASER shocks has been evaluated, the impact of TASERs on neurological health has not yet been thoroughly explored. This information is especially relevant for the time period immediately after a TASER shock because this is usually the time frame during which many suspects are interviewed. If the claim that suspects enter a state of significant disorientation after being tased, as the new study by Drexel University and Arizona State University titled, TASER Exposure and Cognitive Impairment: Implications for Valid Miranda Waivers and the Timing of Police Custodial Interrogations, suggests, then the legitimacy of statements taken during this time is brought into question.

A bewildered suspect may not be aware of the fact that they are waiving their rights of protection from self-incrimination. The study, conducted by Robert Kane, professor of the Drexel’s Criminology and Justice Studies Department and Michael White, a professor at Arizona State University’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, involved 142 participants who were screened for substance issues, and cardiac and psychological problems. There was a control group to which nothing was done, a group that was made to mirror the adrenaline rush of a police encounter by repeatedly pummeling a punching bag, a third group that was tased in five-second bursts and a final group that underwent a five-second TASER burst after hitting the punching bag.

The tests for cognitive ability were conducted at four different intervals: Before the test, right after, an hour later and after a week had passed. One of the tests, the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test, which assesses verbal learning and short-term memory recall ability, showed the greatest fluctuations. A quarter of the participants experienced a reduction of about four words recalled correctly (from 26.68 to 22.53 with a perfect score being 36) 

“[This] represents the mean level cognitive functioning for 79-year-old adults, placing participants within the range of mild cognitive impairment,” read a press-release posted by Drexel University.

This effect generally wore off before one hour had passed.

“The findings from this study suggest that people who have been shocked with a TASER may be unable to understand and rationally act upon his or her legal rights,” Kane stated in the press release. 

Innocent people are at risk of unintentionally implicating themselves, whereas guilty parties might not be in a state to give accurate information. This first-of-its-kind study opens up a conversation about how to conduct the most effective interrogations. Even the slight possibility that an investigation could be compromised due to a TASER’s unforeseen mental side effects is reason enough to revisit policy regarding interrogation procedure for a victim of a TASER shock. 

TASER shocks can derail the decision-making process of an individual and these researchers propose that waiting an hour after someone has been shocked to interrogate them might be all that is needed to avoid miscommunication. And when trying to prove whether someone is guilty or not guilty, a miscommunication can mean life or death.

a, McGill, News, SSMU

New McGill Sexual Assault Policy draft released

by Shrinkhala Dawadi on

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On Feb. 16, McGill’s Sexual Assault Policy Working Group released its final version of the proposed Sexual Assault Policy (SAP) to the public. The working group formed in 2012, after allegations of sexual assault against against three former Redmen football players brought greater awareness to the fact that McGill has no university-wide sexual assault policy.
According to Cecilia MacArthur, a member of the working group, the SAP institutionalizes a lot of the informal practices that McGill had previously adopted, while additionally creating the new position of the sexual assault resource coordinator (SARC).
“The bulk of [the SARC’s] role will be just helping people navigate the policy, showing them the resources that exist,” she said. “The idea would be [that the Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society (SACCOMS) and the SARC] would work together and supplement each other, but that the SARC would be less of an immediate support person, understanding that sometimes, if you have an office of the SARC, people who are in crisis might go there, so […] ultimately, they’re probably going to have […] some crisis support training.”
According to Andre Costopoulos, dean of students, the potential hiring of a SARC is an implementation matter rather than a policy one.
“Some of the elements in the [SAP] [are] clearly implementation, and some of them are policy, and you have to separate the two,” he said. “The policy says [that] when unacceptable conduct happens we have to intervene. The administration decides how we intervene. How do we make sure that the spirit of this policy is respected in this community [….] That’s completely different to the policy conversation. Implementation is […] the university administration in partnership with the student associations.”
Talia Gruber, another member of the SAP working group, explained that the benefit of writing procedures into a policy was the policy’s permanence.
“Right now, we have a lot of things in the policy that [the McGill administration] would like to see in the implementation guide,” she said. “The reason that we want so many things in the policy is that policies are institutionalized and once they’re passed you can’t change what’s in them. We’ve come up with some really good compromises […] like putting things in the implementation guide, but having a caveat in the policy that says, ‘There is this guide, and it’s going to be used.’”
Costopoulos explained that other avenues of discussion between the working group and the McGill administration include the interpretation of a McGill Context, as outlined in Article 8 of the Code of Student Conduct. The current interpretation of the Article is that events held by student associations off-campus do not fall within the McGill context. Consequently, McGill will be unable to conduct a disciplinary investigation into any alleged sexual assaults that occur during such an event.
“It’s one of the points that we’ve been discussing and I think we’re going to continue to be discussing,” he said. “It’s a matter of how we’ve interpreted it over the years, and interpretations are always subject to revision because the context in which we live changes all the time.”
MacArthur explained that many individuals have been involved in shaping the SAP in the two years since its inception, include students, administration, faculty members, as well as campus groups.
“At a certain point last year, about March, we were considering […] bringing [the SAP] to Senate,” she said. “But […] stakeholders were feeling like we could do more consultation with regards to the anti-oppression aspect of the policy [….] At that point, we stopped the trajectory we had set out and started doing more consultation. [This February,] I think we felt like we had done as good of a job as we could of incorporating different experiences, [and] different approaches [into the SAP].”
Going forward, the SAP will be reviewed by members of the administration, including the dean of students and the office of the deputy provost (Student Life and Learning). Following any revisions to the SAP, the group hopes to tentatively present the policy to Senate this March.

a, News, PGSS

PGSS Council discusses $40,000 membership fee surplus

by Aislinn Kalob on

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The Post-Graduate Students’ Society of McGill University (PGSS) learned of a $40,000 surplus in general membership fees from the latest budget fact sheet presented at its Feb. 17 council meeting. Council also heard two presentations from representatives of new student federations: The Association for the Voice of Education in Quebec (AVEQ), and the Quebec Student Union (QSU).

Budget surplus

Due in part to the PGSS Special Projects Fund deficit, mainly from legal fees incurred after their disaffiliation from the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) in 2009, PGSS as a whole runs a current deficit of over $600,000.  In contrast, the most recent budget fact sheet made available to PGSS membership highlighted a $40,000 surplus in the society activities fund.

“The $40,000 that's projected for next year, that means money that we had budgeted for this year to spend, and we will not,”  PGSS Member Services Officer Brighita Lungu said. “The $40,000 comes from these budget lines that I have picked that could have been much better spent.”

This surplus is from the pool of money coming directly from student fees, paid into by all PGSS members. Lungu expressed urgency to spend this money soon, despite PGSS running deficits in other areas of its budget.

"My personal opinion is that we've been hearing bankruptcy all year, and that does not encourage anybody to spend anything," Lungu said. "This is money we have to use, that we have to spend. We cannot end the year and not have your money spent, because this is your fee."

These funds do not alleviate deficits in other areas of the PGSS budget, which will be worked out in the coming semester.

“We have to make what we have in hand work for the next year,” Financial Affairs Officer Behrang Sharif explained.  “Definitely, we are going to have discussions about how we are proposing the budget that next year we will not have this deficit increase more and more. It's currently $611,000, [and] by the end of the year we are hoping to be in the same place.”

AVEQ and QSU

Representatives from AVEQ and QSU gave presentations on the structure of their respective student federations, and how they differ from one another in terms of membership and voting.  Sofia Guerrieri, an internal relations coordinator for AVEQ, explained how the federation’s financial and institutional structure will serve PGSS, by virtue of a separate commission, funded separately, for graduate studies students.  

“In student organizing, especially at the provincial level, there's often an overrepresentation of undergraduate students,” Guerrieri said. “By giving graduate students a commission […] with its own budget, it’s recognizing that graduate students have different priorities, different rights, and [that] those need to be addressed at a different level [….] By having its own budget, the graduate studies body is granted relative autonomy within the association.”

QSU set itself apart from AVEQ in terms of its voting system. While AVEQ uses a one association, one vote method, QSU requires a motion to go through two different rounds of voting.  

“For a motion to pass…it has to go through two votes,” explained Caroline Aubry, General Coordinator of QSU.  “First […] a majority of associations has to be in favor of a motion for it to pass to the next level, and the next level is a semi-proportional system. This level aims to make sure we have at least 40 per cent of individual members that are in favor.”

PGSS Equity and Diversity Commissioner, Régine Debrosse, highlighted this difference as fundamental to PGSS’s decision on which federation to ultimately decide to affiliate with.

The way [AVEQ’s] voting system works is one association has one vote,” Debrosse said. “[This] means that the biggest student unions in Quebec— the biggest universities— will not go with them.  If you have 60,000 members and you’re being told you’re going to have as much power as a student union that has 2,000 […] these people are not going to jump in that boat [….] It means that AVEQ is going to be small […] and QSU will be the bigger boat. PGSS's decision is the following: Are we jumping as big player in a small boat, or as a small player in a big boat?”

Black Power and Beyonce
a, Arts & Entertainment, Music

Black lights over America: How Black Power is transforming pop culture

by Weiyu Dang on

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Between Beyoncé’s Super Bowl show, Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy performance, and Kanye West’s assault on reason, Black Power is igniting every pop culture barricade in sight in defiance of convention.

When Beyoncé released “Formation,” fans expecting another version of the club-ready recycled trap hit “7/11” were left distraught. Gone was the gif-ready, pointlessly sexualized Bey. Instead, they heard Beyoncé, the “Texas bama” representation of Southern blackness. In the video, the only white people shown are police raising hands in defeat to a breakdancing black boy as Louisiana bounce artist Big Freedia say “I like cornbread and collard greens, bitch.” Among images of ravaged Louisiana, Creole culture, and police brutality, Beyoncé intensifies her already ferocious self-strengthening aura by going deeper inside her blackness.

Set in contrast to a canned Coldplay performance at the Super Bowl, “Formation” showed why Coldplay needs to play songs from over a decade ago and Beyoncé can release a song at random and have the world eating Red Lobster with her. Her Blank Panther uniform only stressed that “BELIEVE IN LOVE” only works when thousands are forced to hold up placards on TV.

A week later at the Grammys, as other artists were playing tribute songs and pop hits, Lamar came in, no compromises, guns blazing with a medley of the self-loathing, dystopian “The Blacker the Berry,” the determined anthem “Alright,” and a searing unreleased verse on the black abuse and white brutality.

On “Blacker the Berry,” Lamar reclaimed black culture: “Vandalize my perception but can’t take style from me.” He then throttled his audience, shoving self-determination down their throats, “As we proceed to give you what you need.” With the subsequent “trap our bodies but can’t lock our minds” then “lock our bodies but can’t trap our minds” chants, Kendrick shattered the traps and locks of institutionalized racism. On the call to arms of “Alright,” Lamar sermonized the audience on perseverance on a stage of fire. For the final song, he flew into a frenzied verse on the destruction caused by the Trayvon Martin murder, accelerating into a final defiant Compton-inscribed image of Africa as the lights went out.

Throughout his performance, Lamar conjured up and fused together Nat Turner, Bobby Seale, the Watts Riots, the Rodney King Riots, and Trayvon Martin. While Taylor Swift won the Album of the Year over him and brought the Grammys back to 1989, Kendrick brought the world back to 2012, 1992, 1965, 1831, then finally into the time-transcending reminder that modern Black Power is a “conversation for the entire nation. This is bigger than us.”

If Kendrick is the polemicist, Kanye is the paragon and impresario of new black power. On his new, densely-cluttered, densely-combative (unfinished?) album, The Life of Pablo (TLOP), Kanye fires at everything from Nike to Taylor Swift to greed to himself. TLOP, as a self-proclaimed gospel “album of life,” features a heavy dose of iconic samples ranging from Nina Simone to Ghostface Killa to a new protégé Desiigner to the most self-reflexive of all, himself. Climbing to fame through his production skills, Kanye will however always have a stronger musical ear than a musical voice. And he knows it. As such, Kanye takes it upon himself to make music for and by his community. On TLOP, a slew of notable and rising rappers are featured: Chance the Rapper, Travi$ Scott, Young Thug, and Ty Dolla $ign. Yet, affirming the power and scope that Kanye holds, he also features the youngest ever Pulitzer prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw on a track with Frank Ocean.

In the most unconventional of album rollouts, Kanye captivated the world with a series of legal-pad tracklists, an otherworldly—perhaps totalitarian—fashion show, a Saturday Night Live-esauqe tour de force, all buttressed by Twitter rants ranging from “Don’t tell me Lebron had a bad game. What yo jump shot look like???” to “There is so much positive energy right now … Let’s stay on this Ultra Light Beam…” That Kanye can take the world hostage over an unfinished album and mildly crazy twitter musings marks the cultural territory gained by the new Black Power Movement.

It is then no surprise then that all these artists have royal epithets. A new, black, cultural power is deriving from Queen Bey, King Kendrick, and Yeezus. We’re just here to bear witness.

Martlet volleyball
a, Martlets

Volleyball: Martlets advance to RSEQ Finals and clinch CIS Championship berth

by Nicole Spadotto on

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Despite dropping a 3-0 loss to the Sherbrooke Vert et Or (15-7) in their first game in the RSEQ semifinals on Friday, the Martlet volleyball team (15-7) rebounded on Saturday and Sunday to not only advance to the RSEQ Finals, but to clinch a berth at the CIS Championships. Though statistically, Sherbrooke came away with a rather commanding win, the Martlets steadily found their groove throughout the game, losing the respective sets by scores of 25-19, 25-18, and 25-23, with the most exciting game play coming in the last stanza, when the Martlets nearly stole the win in the set. The momentum generated towards the end of Friday’s game helped translated into two consecutive wins on Saturday and Sunday by scores of 3-2 and 3-0 respectively.

“Sherbrooke served really well today, and very aggressive,” Martlets Head Coach Rachele Beliveau said after the loss on Friday. “We couldn’t play our offence like we usually play.”On Saturday and Sunday, McGill improved their offence game by game to overwhelm Sherbrooke. On Friday, Sherbrooke bested McGill offensively in hitting proficiency, kills, aces, and blocked shots. Defensively for the Martlets, miscommunication led to rogue balls being missed on more than a few occasions. Similarly, on Saturday, McGill once again dominated Sherbrooke in digs, but fell short in kills, blocks, and aces; however, enhanced defence and aggressiveness allowed the Martlets to cling to the win. The weekend saga culminated full circle in the deciding match on Sunday, with the Martlets displaying more confidence, poise, and tenacity than they had all weekend–besting Sherbrooke in digs, aces, and kills to dominate the game. Beliveau credits the comeback to increased aggression on the ball and enhanced execution of the game plan.

“We need the ball to be at the net, and then we’ll become very good offensively,” Beliveau elaborated. “And the ball wasn’t there [on Friday]. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t there on the net.”

Despite the disappointing loss, McGill progressively improved their game throughout the match. At the beginning of the second set, McGill and Sherbrooke traded points, with McGill hanging onto the lead up until midway through the set. In the second half, key missed blocks led to a ommanding lead lead for Sherbrooke, which they managed to hang onto despite a late-set surge by the Martlets, led by energizing blocks by Robitaille and powerful shots by junior power-hitter Marie-Eve Dorion.

In Friday’s third set, the Sherbrooke defence looked sharp, saving what looked like sure points for McGill. The end of the set was the high point of the game for the Martlets, with McGill back coming from a deficit to tie the game 23-23. Sherbrooke would ultimately pull ahead after an aptly placed spike, and then win the game off the technicality of a Martlet player accidentally touching the net. The last set on Friday would set the tone for the Martlets for the rest of the weekend, giving them indispensible momentum and positivity that contributed to the series win, even in the face of a rowdy crowd at Sherbrooke on Saturday and a fervent Sherbrooke comeback attempt after McGill put them down 2-0.

“At the beginning, I think [our players] were nervous,” Beliveau said. “And then at some point they just started to get it together but it just gave the momentum to Sherbrooke, and if you do that with Sherbrooke, they’re going to go up.”

Though Sherbrooke commanded the win on Friday, the Martlets shook their nerves and wrestled back the momentum. Sherbrooke notably ended the Martlets Championship hopes last year by beating them out of a playoff berth, but this season, the Martlets bested Sherbrooke 4-3 through seven matches. With the strong response in a tightly contested game on Saturday at Sherbrooke, followed by a dominant performance on Sunday, the Martlets have finally solidified their superiority over their cross-provincial foes. The Martlets look forward to their next series, the RSEQ Finals against Université de Montreal, coming up this weekend.

“Our programs have been working really hard to be in the top two of our league, and this is what we’ve reached this year,” Beliveau concluded. “Now, we have to make it concrete with the playoffs.”

a, McGill, Montreal, News, SSMU

McGill Against Austerity hosts panel, “Protesting, Police, and Knowing Your Rights”

by Calvin Trottier-Chi on

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McGill Against Austerity continued its series of workshops on Feb. 17 with a presentation entitled “Protesting, Police, and Knowing Your Rights,” given by civil lawyer Max Silverman. A former McGill student, Silverman currently practices with law firm Avocat Montreal and teaches at Concordia University. He talked about the history of law enforcement in Montreal and gave advice for interacting with the police.

A history of cycles

Silverman spoke critically of Montreal’s police force, which he characterized as having cycles of escalation in brutality. 

“The history of the Montreal police is basically a history of violence and corruption building up to the point where the public doesn’t take it anymore,” Silverman said. “The city intervenes, restructures the police force, says all the problems are solved and so begins the forty to fifty year cycle.”

Although Silverman applauded  the Quebec Superior Court’s decision to remove Highway Safety Code 500.1 and bylaw P-6, laws which had been used against protesters, he stated that the swift police response to the protests held in Spring 2015 was evidence of the cycle of escalation.

“[In Spring 2015] instead of the mass arrests and focusing on giving out as many tickets as possible, the focus was really on violence and weapons,” Silverman said. “The net result of these tactics was that hardly any protests lasted more than an hour and no protests lasted more than two hours.”

Interacting with police

Silverman sought to advise student activists by giving an account of a citizen’s civil rights.

“The police do not have the right to stop and identify people for no reason in this country, despite what they think and how they act,” Silverman said.

In advising the distinction between being questioned and being arrested, Silverman emphasized that the only obligation an individual has when being questioned is identifying yourself if you’ve been pulled over driving, are in a an age-restricted area, in certain parts of the city at night, or are using a reduced fare transit card.

“The general advice that we give in such a situation is that if the police stop you and try to talk to you, you ask them calmly and clearly if you’re under arrest,” Silverman said. “If they say no, then you absolutely have the right to say I’m not going to talk to you and leave.”

The need for protesting

With the increasing use of force in 2015, Silverman suggested that social movements might need to re-evaluate how they approach protesting.

“There was a time when getting arrested was the point, when getting arrested served a purpose,” Silverman said. “In our modern times with nastier police tactics, with nastier fines, with mandatory minimums in jail, there are many reasons why people have moved away from that.”

Silverman upheld that society has a need for the right to protest.

“I think that things change when people make them change,” Silverman said. “In particular, [for] people concerned about political oppression and [barriers to] protesting […] I do think the best way to counter [these issues] is to just get out and protest more.”

McGill Against Austerity organizer Christian Scott stated that he found the workshop informative.

“Protesting is our right, it’s always good to know what our rights and obligations are,” Scott said. “Keep protesting, there’s always something to change.” 

Although students largely agreed that police brutality is a concern, many did not feel convinced about the merits of protesting as a method.

“These protests generally lack clearly defined goals, so they are not likely to do much,” Griffin Smith, U0 Arts, said. “Frankly, I have more important things to do.”

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SUS Council looks to address low attendence at equity-related events

by Cahal McCabe on

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The Science Undergraduate Society (SUS) council addressed issues of low attendance at equity events during its Feb. 17 Council meeting. Council also heard updates regarding the budget of the Special Projects Fund, and on the most recent Senate hearing.

 

Equity events question

 

SUS Vice-President (VP) External Mary Helmer-Smith, brought up the lack of attendance at events hosted by the SUS Equity Committee, specifically the ‘CommuniTea Series’ which is intended to function as a safe discussion space. 

“The event series was aimed towards different marginalized groups,” Helmer-Smith said. “[It] would open a space for people to come and discuss their experiences, drink tea, and hang out.”

Participation at these events has been low in the past—there have been zero attendees on some occasions. These low levels of attendance are thought to be attributed to a lack of interest within the student body, and minimal promotion and communication from the SUS; Helmer-Smith explained potential solutions to the problem. 

“The Equity Committee is not really well known, […as] it doesn’t necessarily reach a lot of people,” Helmer-Smith said. “We’re not targeting people […] well enough.” 

Helmer-Smith attributed this problem to the off-campus location for events, such as the Educational Community Living Environment (ECOLE). 

“For some reason students seem to be apprehensive to go off campus,” Helmer-Smith said. “[ECOLE] is an unknown space for a lot of people, so they might be less willing to go to that space.”

Council approved a motion to include questions regarding the continuation of events for different marginalized groups for the upcoming referendum. These questions would determine whether students see a general importance with the continuation of such events, and if marginalized students are themselves interested in attending future events. 

“The Equity committee thought it would be appropriate to ask the student body if this is something that interests them,” said Helmer-Smith. “Because if not, then there is no point in putting our time into it. But if so, then we just need to promote it better so that more people could come to it.” 

 

Fall Reading Week

 

Science Senator Marina Smailes gave a report on the response of the Senate regarding a potential Fall Reading Week. 

“There is a huge pushback from the Faculty of Science in particular,” Smailes said.  “[The faculty believes] there are issues with making up labs, and in general […] issues that [the Faculty of] Science sees as something that they just don’t think the cost of that is worth giving students less stress.” 

Smailes explained that the position of the Faculty poses problems, because nearly all other faculties have endorsed this initiative.  

“We are going to be working with specifically the Science faculty and administrators to try to figure out a way to resolve this, as students really want it.”

 

Special Projects Fund

 

VP Finance Sibat Anam addressed the lack of money in the Special Projects Fund, as a result of the events hosted this year and events planned for later this semester. 

“At this point, the original funding amount for the special projects fund has been used up,” Anam said. “We have plans to see if we can replenish that fund somehow. If that does not work out then congrats, this is the first year in the three years I’ve been on this committee that the fund has been used up completely.”

Anam added that in the future, more finite guidelines are planned to be put in place so that future funds can also be used up completely and efficiently.

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