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a, Arts & Entertainment, Music

Dale Boyle finds musical success by sticking to his roots

by Max Berger on

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After enough predictable PowerPoint slides and monotonous note-taking, it’s easy to find yourself wishing for a teacher like Jack Black in School of Rock to come and shake up your lecture with an unconventional musical component. If that’s the case, then you should try taking a class with McGill’s homegrown version: Faculty of Education lecturer—and professional roots musician—Dale Boyle.

“It’s a little less blatant than that,” laughs Boyle when I ask how his classes compare to Black’s. “A little more naturally integrated than he does it [….] But I always get to perform in my classes.”

Boyle lectures specifically in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education (DISE), leading courses based in educational research and theory.

“In a theory course—at least for a class or two—I’ll look at arts-based research, a big part of that being music,” explains Boyle. “It’s just kind of questioning what constitutes academic knowledge.”

“In Research Methods, we actually explore something I created called ‘musical memo-ing,’ which is turning data into musical form.”

Essentially, the memos represent a means of transforming key phrases that emerge from analysis of qualitative data into succinct lyrical and musical form.

Unlike Black, Boyle’s teaching methods are very structured. After completing undergraduate and master’s degrees at McGill—the former of which he began in 1998—Boyle stuck around campus to pursue a PhD in Education that studied the use of music as a classroom tool, which he completed in 2011.

“The official title [of the thesis], which I sadly have memorized,” says Boyle, “is ‘Exploring a University Teacher’s Approach to Incorporating Music in a Cognition Psychology Course.’”

For many students, working towards a PhD would be enough of a time strain, but Boyle kept himself constantly busy with other musical side projects throughout the doctorate.

“I recorded at least two [albums] while doing my PhD,” says Boyle. “And recording an album means strapping yourself in for a serious ride.”

Luckily, Boyle was already well versed in recording by the time he was a PhD candidate. In 2004, he released his first full-length album, In My Rearview Mirror: A Story From a Small Gaspé Town. That was also when he realized he wanted to perform and record roots music, which is a stylistic hybrid of folk, Americana, and some blues.

“Despite the fact that I grew up often listening to country and folk music—and at times rejecting it and listening to metal—I just found that when I went to perform, I kind of went back to my roots and played a more traditional country-folk type of sound,” says Boyle.

Boyle released another full-length album of self-composed songs in 2007 and spent the next few years mostly sitting in on other artists’ projects. His most recent effort, Throwback (2012), has garnered both local and international acclaim.

Although he performs regularly in Montreal and has graced stages elsewhere in Canada and the United States, Boyle admits that his main focus is songwriting. This passion led him to discover the International Songwriting Competition, an open-submission contest that has recently featured well-known judges such as Tom Waits, Jeff Beck, and Martina McBride; it would also become a crucial stepping-stone for Boyle on his musical journey.

“I’ve applied [to the competition] over the years,” says Boyle. “But there was one particular song [called “You Might Come Around”] that I did believe pretty strongly in, and it turns out that it did win second place in the Americana category.”

The third place finisher? Josh Ritter, a prominent American singer-songwriter whose albums have cracked the top 10 of Billboard charts.

It meant a lot to Boyle to be recognized among so many who share his love of the craft.

“It’s just fairly cool to throw a song out there and just have people select it and appreciate it for what I thought it was,” he says. “I thought it was a pretty good song, and it’s encouraging when others think the same.”

Since Boyle’s second-place finish in 2013, he hasn’t made any definite plans for another full-length album, but he’s excited about the studio time he’s been putting in recently with bassist James Blennerhassett—who has worked with Steve Earle and Paul Brady—and drummer Kenny Aronoff—who has worked with John Mellencamp and John Fogerty—musicians that he’s long admired. He’s also content to continue the balance he’s struck between McGill and his music.

“The good thing about teaching a bit, at least to the degree I have been, is that I’m essentially able to pay the bills,” Boyle says. “Now, I just play when I want to, when it suits me; and I focus a lot of attention on my songwriting, it’s a pretty nice balance right now.”

It’s a system that has served the McGill mainstay well. A couple of years from now, he’ll be teaching an incoming freshman class born in 1998, the same year he arrived on campus.

a, News

Students propose new sexual assault policy at Forum on Consent

by Eman Jeddy on

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Student groups proposed plans to introduce a new sexual assault policy at McGill’s Forum on Consent on Feb. 26.

Attended by students, faculty, staff, and other members of the McGill community, the forum included speakers from groups such as the Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society (SACOMSS), Queer McGill, and the Union for Gender Empowerment (UGE).

During a panel discussion, SACOMSS announced a plan to bring forward a clearly defined policy regarding sexual assault for university-wide implementation. The document was created in collaboration with Queer McGill, UGE, and other student groups.

“We will be putting forward a list of recommendations regarding a new administrative position […] as well demands for the creation for an official and clear university sexual assault policy,” SACOMSS Representative Kelly Schieder said. “We feel that this is long overdue at McGill.’’

McGill currently does not have a policy regarding sexual assault. Instead, measures dealing with sexual assault are located in the Student Code of Conduct.

Kai O’Doherty, one of the co-presenters of the policy and a representative of UGE, explained that the policy would include the hiring of a sexual assault coordinator who would be the main reference point for all matters regarding sexual assault at the university. Additionally, the policy would be tailored towards the needs of survivors of sexual assault.

While McGill is already in the process of hiring a coordinator for programming on the topic of sexual assault, O’Doherty said the policy aims to outline the position portfolio.

“[We need] someone who is well trained in matters ranging from sexual assault to anti-racism to anti-homophobia, but also […] someone who is trained in the immediate process of guiding a supporter through the process,” O’Doherty said. “[It should be] someone who would also be in charge of helping awareness campaigns on rape culture and victim blaming, and someone who is aware of the safety measure for survivors and the policy itself.”

The policy also outlines plans to introduce mandatory training in matters regarding sexual assault for all new professors, incoming students, and student groups that have been identified as high risk such as frosh groups. It would also encourage training among current students and professors.

According to Dean of Students André Costopoulos, the focus on creating a new policy is positive because it would bring greater visibility to the already existing, but disorganized, sexual assualt measures and unite the policies under one general banner.

“Almost everything that they proposed in their policy is already in place somewhere in the university, so let’s get them all together and let’s give better visibility and let’s get them known,” he said. “Once we’ve done that, we can see where the holes are and what we can do [to] fill them.”

Vice-President University Affairs of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Joey Shea has been working in collaboration with the student groups to draft the new policy. She said the proposal requires endorsement by all student groups involved before it can be presented to SSMU Council on March 12.

After SSMU Council, the policy would have to go through a number of channels including Senate to become official university policy.

Shea, one of the forum’s hosts, said she was hopeful about the event’s impact on campus dialogue on consent.

“The point of the forum was to start a conversation about sexual assault on campus,” Shea said. “To start a conversation about what is consent […] what is rape culture and to define that is really important and for [This was] a launching point for McGill doing its due diligence in terms of where we are with this issue.’’

(Alexandra Allaire / McGill Tribune)
a, News, SSMU

SSMU lease signed following three-year negotiation

by Shrinkhala Dawadi and Cece Zhang on

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The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) has signed the lease for the SSMU Building, following nearly three years of negotiations with the administration.

The Board of Governors (BoG) approved the decision at their Feb. 27 meeting. SSMU had previously been operating in the building without a legal agreement since its previous lease expired on May 31, 2011.

According to Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) (DPSLL) Ollivier Dyens, the new lease is for 10 years, covering the two previous years, the current year, and seven more years until May 2021. The new lease stipulates that SSMU share utility costs of the building with McGill, as they previously were not paying the energy costs.

The current lease is $126,900 per year for 2011-2013 and increases by $5,000 every year to a maximum of $165,000 in 2020-2021. SSMU will also contribute $100,000 to the energy costs of the building every year, allowing for adjustment for inflation.

Dyens said SSMU owes outstanding payments to the university for the previous three years.

“[It is the] same as with collective action with unions—you work with the previous agreement until a new one is reached, and then work out retroaction that needs to be done,” he said.

Dyens added that the long term of the new lease could have positive results for the society.

“SSMU can focus energies less on legal issues and more on student services,” he said. “It will also allow SSMU to plan forward for a long time, with their budget [and] fees.”

However, students will face a potential fee increase to account for the lease in the upcoming Winter Referendum, according to SSMU Vice-President Finance and Operations Tyler Hofmeister. The fee would be $6.08 for full-time students and $3.04 for part-time students, and would be indexed to increase at a rate of 5.6 per cent each year.

SSMU President Katie Larson said the negotiations were improved this year due to SSMU’s requirement that the DPSLL be present at the negotiations, rather than a proxy.

“Having a more clear line of communication definitely made it easier to come to agreements,” Larson said. “It is clear to me that being able to talk to the DPSLL directly made it easier to get SSMU’s concerns and points across, since they were not going through a third party.”

Hofmeister commended the ability of the SSMU executives to conclude the negotiations.

“[This is the result of] the diligent work of the SSMU executives—not just from this year but from the previous years as well,” he said. “We have built on the work of the previous executives to complete this agreement.”

Federal budget

The meeting also included a discussion of the 2014 federal budget, which was announced on Feb. 11 by Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.

Principle Suzanne Fortier praised the budget.

“[It is a] very good budget for the university sector,” she said.

The budget created the Canadian First Research Excellence Fund, which would invest $50 million in university research in 2015-2016, an amount which will eventually increase to $200 million during its 20 year schedule.

Additionally, the budget allocates $15 million for the Natural Sciences Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and $15 million for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

Fortier said the allocation of funds to increase the number of opportunities for student and postdoc internships was “greatly appreciated.”

International and out-of-province student tuition

Fortier also explained the federal government’s proposal to reduce its investment for grants for international and out-of-province student tuition, although the details of the proposal have not yet been revealed.

As plans are in preliminary stages, board members only briefly discussed possible responses to proposed changes.

Jonathan Mooney, Secretary-General of McGill’s Post-Graduate Student’s Society (PGSS), highlighted the legal challenges involved in modifying the tuition for international students.

“Changing the tuition that students from francophone countries pay would involve changing the bilateral agreement Quebec has with these countries,” he said.

McGill Vice-Principal (Communications and External Relations) Olivier Marcil, said the Quebec government’s response to the issue had not been finalised.

“It’s not clear under which ministry this reflection will take part, [but] I suspect it will be under the authority of [the ministries of] finance, international relations and higher education,” he said. “McGill has already said that [it] wants to be a part of this discussion because we have a lot of expertise on [this issue].”

Building and Property Committee approval policy

Peter Coughlin, the new chair of the Building and Property Committee, presented the committee’s new method of approving building projects to the BoG.

“Before, we approved projects on a one-on-one basis [.…] projects often came in too early, in the stage before appropriate planning was done and adequate funds were calculated,” Coughlin said. “We want to ensure that the projects are done as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. We’ve provided admin the seed money to hire consultants for projects so we have a firm number on what they’ll cost.”

The new schedule for project approval includes the implementation of high priority projects that had undergone prior consultation, most of which involve deferred maintenance work. Coughlin said $120 million would be allocated for 10-12 projects, which would be carried out over 18 months.

One such project is the renovation of a service tunnel that runs under the Montreal Neurological Institute, the Duff Medical Building, residence buildings, and the athletic complex.

“The tunnels are really old and would not be serviceable if we had a steam leak,” Coughlin said. “Replacing the tunnels is a high priority.”

The BoG passed the Building and Property Committee’s proposal to carry out the deferred maintenance projects.

a, Men's Varsity, Sports

Basketball: Redmen disappoint at Nationals

by Mayaz Alam on

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After two straight losses in the CIS National Championships at Carleton University on Friday and Saturday—63-54 to the Victoria Vikes, and 75-59 to the Saskatchewan Huskies, respectively—the McGill Redmen finished seventh in the eight-team competition.

The game on Friday was a matchup between two of the toughest defences in the nation. Prior to Nationals, McGill had allowed an average 62.3 points per game—good for third-best in the country—while Victoria set the pace with a mere 60.2 points per game during the regular season. In a battle of defensive wills, it was the Vikes who held to the standard, holding the Redmen to just 27.6 per cent shooting from the field. McGill did not help itself at the charity stripe, getting to the line a mere seven times compared to the Vikes’ 27 free throw attempts.

“Their philosophy was to pack the paint, making it difficult to drive to the basket,” Redmen Head Coach David DeAveiro explained. “Our inability to make shots from the perimeter and attack the basket led to our inability to score.”

Freshman forward Francois Bourque led the way for McGill with 14 points and eight rebounds, while co-captain Simon Bibeau chipped in with 12 points en route to being named McGill’s game MVP.

On Saturday, the team’s shooting woes continued. The Redmen were once again held significantly below their season average of 74.1 points per game, finishing with 59 on just 27 per cent from the field. It didn’t help that the Redmen were fighting an uphill battle, after a dismal first quarter in which they dug themselves into a 19-point hole.

“Our team was disappointed in our play against Victoria in the first game,” DeAveiro said. “I felt we might have left our emotion and passion in the game before playing Saskatchewan. We just couldn’t make open shots [and …] I was little disappointed that we gave up 27 points in the first quarter.

If it weren’t for the emergence of freshman guard Regis Ivaniukas, who exploded off the bench for a career-high 17 points, the score might have been even more lopsided. Friday night’s contest was Bibeau’s last collegiate game. The senior guard posted 14 points on four-of-10 shooting.

Bibeau is the only player not slated to return to a team that had 10 rookies, three of whom were starters. Although the mood is dour given the expectations for the no. 5 ranked Redmen, the future is bright for the McGill Redmen only four years after DeAveiro has taken control of the program.

During this time, DeAveiro has created a blueprint for success in the RSEQ, one that preaches the importance of a collective team effort both defensively and offensively. This season, the Redmen led the conference in every significant defensive statistical category, except for blocks. The squad had no problem scoring either, leading the league in points, assists, field goal percentage, and three point percentage. However, now that McGill has established its dominance in the RSEQ, the program must take the next step and learn to compete on the national stage.

“I feel we need to continue to recruit the best basketball players in the country,” DeAveiro said. “We have a good nucleus of young players who received an education on what it’s like to play the best at Nationals. It’s a mind set, a focus, a determination that we are not satisfied with being labeled a very good young team.”

a, News, PGSS

PGSS disputes fee creation for Rutherford Park, Midnight Kitchen

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Graduate students will be able to vote on seven questions in the Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) Winter referendum period from  March 13 to 21.

Fund for Rutherford Park

One question seeks to levy a non-opt-outable fee of $3 per semester for PGSS members, up to and including the Winter 2019 semester. The fund would raise a total of $230,000 to $250,000 and will go towards updating Rutherford Park (Reservoir Field).

PGSS members have not previously paid such a fee, according to PGSS Academic Affairs Officer Adam Bouchard, as they traditionally use the athletics facilities less than undergraduate students.

Rutherford Park renovations, which would be coordinated by McGill Athletics, would include an artificial turf, a full sized soccer pitch, and lighting for evening events, which could be used by PGSS members.

“PGSS and its members will benefit greatly from this improvement in infrastructure right next to our building,” Bouchard said.

“Recently PGSS has been working with Drew Love, the director of athletics, to adjust the user fees and propose this project,” said Bouchard, who is also the chair of the “Yes” campaign for the question.

Elizabeth Cawley, PGSS members services officer and chair of the “No” campaign against the question, cited the $116.42 fee PGSS members already pay to McGill Athletics.

“Graduate students pay this high fee every semester and yet almost every service within athletics is pay-per-use—you have to pay an additional fee to take classes, for intramural sports, for access to the fitness centre etc,” she said. “I think that this fee should be voted down and athletics should be forced to re-evaluate their use of student money before asking us for a fee increase again.”

—Cece Zhang

Midnight Kitchen fee

This question proposes an opt-outable $0.50 per semester fee to fund Midnight Kitchen (MK), an organization that provides by-donation lunches to students throughout the week. It is currently financed solely by members of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU).

Lorenzo Daieff, PGSS councillor and chair of the “Yes” campaign for the question, said Midnight Kitchen provides a valuable service to the entire student body.

“It seems fair and desirable for graduates, who currently do not support the MK in such a way, to make a similar—if not equal—contribution to a service that is, has, and always will be accessible to graduates,” Daieff said.

However, Jonathan Mooney, PGSS secretary-general and chair of the “No” committee, said the PGSS currently already pays over $4,000 annually to SSMU for access to its services, and the proposed fee would be an overlap.

“When you pay a personal fee to a service—rather than just through PGSS—you should be guaranteed the legal right to oversee how it is spent,” Mooney said. “Since Midnight Kitchen is a service of the SSMU, PGSS members would gain no legal right to determine how Midnight Kitchen is operated by paying this fee [….] We would simply be giving away money with no added accountability in return.”

Daieff noted that MK does not receive any funding from SSMU, so the new fee would not constitute a “double-pay.”

“[We] stress that grads are not “buying their way in” into the MK via the levy; they’ve always had access to the MK, and will continue to, even if the referendum fails,” Daieff said.

—Cece Zhang

uApply fee

Another question addresses the uApply application service fee charged to all graduate students. Currently $102.60, the question would increase the fee to $120.00 gradually over five years, starting this June. Mooney explained that the fee increase would benefit future graduate students.

“McGill made a big investment in the UApply system; graduate students can […] pay one fee for two graduate programs in two different departments, [whereas] before you would have to pay two fees for two applications to different programs,” he said. “[Changes have] made it a simpler process.”

According to Mooney, McGill spent more money than originally budgeted to create these changes, so the application fee increase is a way to balance out the costs.

There is no “No” campaign against this question.

—Chelsey Ju

Needs-Based Bursary fee

Another referendum question deals with a decrease in the Needs-Based Bursary Fee from the current amount of $4.01 to $1.01.

The Needs-Based Bursary fee was originally increased to $4.01 with the purpose of providing financial aid to students who demonstrated need. Priority for receiving this fund was given to students who were caring for dependents, or experienced specific hardships.

PGSS Financial Affairs Officer Erik Larson explained that the purpose of modifying this fee originally was to generate more revenue than would be required during a fiscal year. Now, the target amount of $150,000 has been reached for the fund.

“This additional revenue was to be used to create an endowment fund, which would be matched by the university,” Larson said. “At this point, we have the money ready to be endowed, and are negotiating the terms of endowment with the University.”

After creating this endowment, the idea is to use interest generated by the fund itself to meet the financial needs of the program.

“The new levy will be used to grow the endowment fund annually, which will allow the program to expand while reducing the current financial burden on students,” Larson said.

There is no “No” campaign against this question.

—Chelsey Ju

Increase to the PGSS membership fee

This question seeks to increase the PGSS regular membership fee from its current amount of $31.82 per semester to $33.33 starting in Fall 2014.

According to Larson, the additional money will go toward an increase in rent for Thomson House and the Coach House following ongoing negotiations with McGill.

“At this point just in our preliminary negotiations we realized that their increase in our rent is going to jack-up our rent prices a significant amount,” he said.

The increase has been calculated based on the expected worst-case scenario for the rent increase. Larson said any surplus would go toward new PGSS initiatives such as a free daycare service for members’.

There is no “No” campaign against this question.

—Sam Pinto

Increase in fee for PGSS Grants Program

This question seeks to increase the PGSS Grants Program fee from $1.26 per semester to $2.07 as of Fall 2014.

The program allows student groups to apply for grants in order to host either social or academic events.

Initially, the Grants Program was partially funded by PGSS, with the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (GPS) matching contributions. However, last year the GPS withdrew their pledge due to financial issues, according to Larson.

Larson said the Grants Program has received more applications so far this school year than it has ever received before.

“What we’re hoping to do is to be able to get back to somewhat of the level that we were last year with this,” Larson said. “Unfortunately, it’s not going to cover nearly as much as the program needs, so in conjunction with [the fee increase], we’re also looking to revamp how the grants are being allocated.”

There is no “No” campaign against this question.

—Sam Pinto

PGSS Health and Dental Plan

The question seeks to renew the current PGSS Health and Dental Plan fee for three years, from September 2014 to August 2017. The proposed opt-outablefee would be at an annually adjusted rate not exceeding $242.04 for health insurance, and not exceeding $176.74 for dental insurance.

Callan Davey, a project manager for PGSS from the Alliance pour la santé étudiant de Québéc (ASEQ), said the plan is well-used by graduate students.

“It’s a very robust and well-used service, and currently we have over 7,000 PGSS members involved in the plan,” Davey explained. “Prescription drugs take up the most proportion of healthcare claims, and drives up the cost a lot. We want to make sure the financial side of the plan is balanced with the benefits, and make sure it’s meeting the need of students.”

There is no “No” campaign against this question.

—Cece Zhang

a, Student Life

Understanding unpaid internships

by Erica Friesen on

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Considering working for free this summer? In a grim labour market, unpaid internships seem to be a bizarre trend that has made life after graduation more even difficult. As internships are part of a grey zone often undefined and unregulated by legal frameworks, it’s important for students to be aware of the potential problems they may encounter in their search for an internship this summer.

Although internships have swiftly become the norm for young people entering the labour force, there is surprisingly little research conducted on the topic; for example, neither Statistics Canada nor Human Resources and Skills Development track statistics for interns, according to a recent article in the Toronto Star.

Andrew Langille, labour lawyer and founder of Youth and Work, a website aiming to spread information to young people about workplace law, said unpaid internships are most common in urban centres that have post-secondary institutions, a mature service sector, and an abundance of young people.

“Montreal has a huge problem with unpaid internships; tens of thousands of young workers are working for free every year,” he said. “The government is doing nothing.”

In much of the legal literature, in fact, internships don’t even share a common definition. A company can call a position an internship whether the employee is paid, unpaid, or receives academic credit for their work.

Unpaid internships, however, are usually the most troublesome for students.

“[An unpaid internship is] an experiential opportunity integrating knowledge gained in the classroom to an employment setting,” a statement from the Canadian Association of Career Educators and Employers reads. “The student’s work is supervised by a qualified professional and feedback is shared with the student on a regular or ongoing basis.”

Darlene Hnatchuk, director of McGill’s Career Planning Service (CaPS), said unpaid internships are supposed to provide more opportunities for learning than a typical position.

“Employment law varies by province and by territory, but typically any type of work where you are producing for the benefit of the employer or the organization should be paid work,” she said. “It’s about the amount of time you spend learning versus doing.”

If you’re not receiving adequate training or are stuck doing mindless busywork without pay, your internship may not even be legal. Additionally, you may not gain any valuable experience from the position—we’ve all heard the horror stories about interns stuck buying coffee and running errands for their employers.

According to Langille, many problems with unpaid internships stem from the failure of laws to address unpaid work.

“These laws were often written 20 to 30 years ago, when intern culture wasn’t a very big part of the labour market,” he said. “It’s an issue of regulatory failure on the part of the government insofar as they’re not properly regulating the youth labour market [….] This [is a] grey area that isn’t well understood, and the employers have been making full use of it.”

In addition, Langille said the regulatory systems in Canada fail to actively hold employers responsible for their adherence to laws.

“Historically the regulation of employment standards has been voluntary to clients or people having to report their employer, so there hasn’t been a lot of proactive enforcement of employment standards laws across Canada,” Langille said.

Because laws dealing with internships are often unclear, Hnatchuk recommends that students assess potential opportunities before proceeding with the applications. In some fields, such as publishing and advertising, unpaid internships are far more common than in others.

“If you are in a field where it’s critically important to get an internship but they tend to be unpaid, then it’s going to be very important for you to evaluate whether or not the objectives for that internship match your own,” she said. “[You need to] be asking some questions: what kind of training will I be receiving? What type of evaluation supervision will I be receiving? [….] Is there an opportunity later on to be employed?”

If an internship looks like it could be illegal, or you’re unsure whether it matches your career goals, Hnatchuk said students can book an appointment at CaPS to discuss the opportunity.

Langille also emphasized the need for students to educate themselves about their rights before accepting a position.

“If you know your rights going into a situation, you can avoid situations where you’re going to be exploited altogether,” he said. “It’s a way to defend yourself proactively without getting into a big legal fight down the road.”

For improving rights for young workers in the future, Langille said much of the power to create change lies in the hands of the government.

“The federal and provincial governments need to really step up and take a look at this problem, and look at the exclusions that often deny critical protections to young workers,” he said. “Young people really have to put pressure on the government to address the situation of the labour market and to come up with a regulatory model that defends the rights of young people in the workplace.”

a, Arts & Entertainment

Giller nominee aims high but can’t hit all targets

by Zoe Hoskin on

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“Most of the people who knew my mother either slept with her or wished they had, including me.”

Thus, Wayne Johnston opens his ninth novel, The Son of a Certain Woman, long listed for the 2013 Giller Prize. With this tale, Newfoundland-born Johnston attempts his long-held goal to “one day do for St. John’s, Newfoundland, what Joyce had done for Dublin,” as he states in an essay published in the Random House Canada online magazine, Hazlitt.

Johnston indeed makes the setting a fictional force in itself, yet his desire to paint a detailed portrait of St. John’s Newfoundland leads him towards such consistency that it bordered on redundancy. He creates an interesting premise filled with tensions and the potential for a myriad of wild events, yet he releases the pressure in a slow and predictable way. Johnston is successful in capturing the essence of St. John’s in the 1960s, but he does so at the cost of narrative creativity.

The story is told through the perspective of Percy Joyce, a boy born with unfavourable—at least in the eyes of his community—characteristics. He has dark red birthmarks all over his face and a condition wherein his hands, feet, and lower lip are oversized. All this, the townspeople think, is because Percy was sinfully conceived out of wedlock to a whorish mother and a father who didn’t stick around.

From the first chapter, Percy’s experiences are filtered through his mother Penelope’s protection and reasoning. As the most open-minded, autodidactic and secular of the town, she shelters Percy from the area’s Catholic oppression and tendency to sort and assimilate people. As he grows, Percy begins to independently organize his world with a questioning disposition and lips as loose as his mother’s mind is open. Approaching his age of reason and sexual development, Percy begins to cultivate his world as a series of binaries that provoke an ever-building tension in his perception between religion and secularity; judgement and tolerance; public affairs and secrets; intelligence and ignorance. Meanwhile, he becomes aware of his mother’s place in the town as the wanted, beautiful woman to strive for, a body and face to be admired by all. Out of all of Penelope’s suitors, her son Percy falls the hardest for her.

Johnston retains unity within his setting, characters, theme, and style throughout this long work. Thus, he creates an immersive experience in the bigoted town of St. John’s circa 1960, and in the troubled mind of a mother-lusting protagonist. However, the novel lacks dynamics, as Johnston tells the predictable path of Percy’s ever-intensifying sexual desire for his mother.

Nevertheless, Johnston’s style is a form of inventiveness in itself. He manages to portray intimate human relations by focusing on the rawness of their words while rarely using indicators such as “she said.” The resulting prose is translucent and tinted, like the beach glass of Newfoundland. Johnston also uses a unique listing technique, often through Penelope’s educated, allusive, spontaneous, and dramatic speech. In Penelope’s eyes, for example, St. John’s is “The City of the Sane, the Half Cracked, and the Unmistakably Demented. The City of the Open-Hearted, the Broken-Hearted, the Half-Hearted.”

Johnston’s verbal creativity is fitting as words hold great importance in the novel’s town. Johnston describes the small-town, closed-minded nature of his conception of St. John’s in the 1960s. The characters’ interactions centre on gossip, nosy speculation, teasing, and spilling secrets.

All in all, Wayne Johnston’s story starts with an exciting opening and closes off nicely; however, it sags significantly between these points. Johnston knows how to introduce and excuse his realistic, if static, painting of a unique boy born in a close-minded community.

a, Opinion

An & in the wilderness

by Esther Vinarov on

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Last year, I transferred from the Faculty of Arts into Arts & Science after falling in love with the Cognitive Science program. Having entered McGill from the U.S., I had actually expected Arts & Science to be the default––at most universities in the United States, it is the largest faculty, not one of the smallest. My fellow ArtSci peers have deemed this degree to be the best option for us, but we still worry a lot about our post-graduation plans—perhaps more so than most other students.

The McGill Bachelor of Arts & Science (BA&Sc) website cautions, “The breadth that is characteristic of the BA&Sc programs necessarily comes at the expense of depth in the Arts and the Science components viewed separately.” That’s all. Thanks for the warning, but McGill should do more to help assuage our fears. In an increasingly competitive job market, why are BA&Sc students content with spreading ourselves so thin? As one of many students unsure of the future, I am both comforted and terrified in my decision to choose an interdisciplinary academic program. I’m excited to be graduating with credits in philosophy, computer science, linguistics, neuroscience, and psychology, but I won’t be trained enough in any of these fields to stand out to a prospective employer in any specialized area. All I can hope for is that knowing the fundamentals in all of these disciplines will give me a unique edge, enough to propel me in my yet-to-be-declared future.

Recently, I came across a quote by science fiction writer Robert Heinlein, which captured the BA&Sc mentality: “A human being should be able to […] design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem […] cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, [and] die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

All ArtSci students will have to struggle with the benefits and drawbacks of our broad academic program. On the one hand, we are limiting ourselves from several higher-level courses and highly-specialized career opportunities, but on the other, we are striving for well-roundedness, holding on to the faith that a degree in Arts & Science will open more doors than it closes. We all have a conviction that dabbling in various fields is a better fit for us––personally, academically, or professionally.

Still, we need more exposure to interdisciplinary career opportunities, and we need encouragement to be creative and entrepreneurial. We need mentors and role models, and we need more integrative courses. The ampersand symbol is a source of anxiety as well as inspiration––it represents our rewarding multidisciplinary curriculum, but it also reminds us that we are caught between two faculties, without a real home. More often than not, we are swallowed up by the umbrella that is the Faculty of Science for issues related to advising and exchanges.

The ampersand thus serves as the perfect emblem for the Bachelor of Arts & Science Integrative Council (BASiC), which does what it can to relieve the anxiety and harness the creativity of Arts & Science students. While the university should be doing more to support its students, BASiC provides two initiatives through which students support each other: a conference and a journal, both entitled Ampersand, that serve as resources and outlets for the Arts & Science community.

This month, the conference will be bringing together students and leaders from all disciplines to network and engage with one another in order to generate dialogue and creativity. BA&Sc students stand at the intersection of potential cultural, technological, and artistic innovation, but McGill needs to do more to mediate discussion and engagement among its small population of Arts & Science students, and to give us the support we need to finish our degrees and do something useful with them.

Esther Vinarov is involved in organizing Ampersand: the Conference, which will take place on March 21 and 22. To learn more, join the Ampersand McGill Facebook group and follow the link to buy tickets ($7 for two days, $5 for one day).

a, Arts & Entertainment, Music

Run River North—Run River North

by Morgan Alexander on

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California based indie-pop group Run River North’s self-titled debut album exudes youthful passion and creativity that flows over kempt beats and calming lyrics. The six-member ensemble hailing from the San Fernando Valley area has perfected their unique brand of orchestral pop, trotting out one whimsical ballad after the another.

The opening track “Monsters Calling Home” introduces the band’s vocal harmonies, which are infused into every track and make for an interesting acoustic choral sound. Looking to “Growing Up” and “Banner,” the band’s true talent is evident in these ethereal group choruses. Beyond these lyrical nuances lies the band’s knack for exuding West Coast calm, even in their more ominous, soul-searching tracks.

The band faltered slightly in its unwillingness to take any musical risks. While they’ve solidified their skills in graceful folk beats and expansive lyrical themes, they remained reserved in their more rock-fueled tracks, such as “Fight to Keep” and “Somewhere.” Understandably, this is only their first full album; but if the band wants to establish itself in the music world, it needs to be willing to leap out of its narrow musical box.

Undeniably cool, calm, and collected, Run River North is precisely as it presents itself to be: a folky collective enhanced by waves of electric hooks and chamber pop vocal backings, and creators of a very promising debut.

a, Martlets, Sports

Track and field: Men’s 4x400m relay team captures silver at Nationals

by Wyatt Fine-Gagné on

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After a long season, the McGill track and field team made its final trip of the year last weekend to Edmonton to compete in the CIS championships. McGill broke several records at the recently renovated Butterdome as the nation’s best competed in one of the country’s premier track and field facilities. McGill’s lone trip to the podium came from the men’s 4x400m relay, which captured silver on the meet’s final day, breaking a team record in the process.

This silver lining came on the heels of a frustrating weekend for the program. McGill’s women finished near the bottom of the pool, placing 20th of 22 teams. The men, on the other hand, managed a 12th-place finish thanks to the late medal.

“The men’s [4x400m team] winning a silver was definitely [a highlight of the day,]” McGill Head Coach Dennis Barrett said. “[We were] missing one runner who couldn’t make it out for personal reasons, which didn’t help our [4x200m] relay. But the guys who were there did well.”

The weekend was dominated by the York Lions and Guelph Gryphons, who captured the men’s and women’s championships, respectively.

For York—the winners of the McGill Team Challenge in January—this championship is its first in 30 years. The Lions’ score of 103 points was just good enough to top the defending men’s champions from Guelph, who finished with 97 points. The Gryphons’ women’s squad scored a point fewer than its male counterpart, but still came out on top for the second title in their program’s history.

The three-day event capped off what was a difficult year for the squad. The team battled injuries throughout the season and never fully hit its stride. Fortunately for McGill, a number of its key competitors should be returning in the Fall. Of the silver-medal winning group, Vincent Parent-Pinchette and anchor Javier Montaivo will be returning, with Alexander Steinbrenner and Eric Ellemo graduating after this year. The foursome earned a time of 3:17.86—barely a second back of the gold medal-winning group from York.

McGill’s sophomore high jump star Caroline Tanguay put in a solid performance with one of her best jumps of the season measured at 1.73m. The jump, however, left Tanguay short of medal territory as she placed fourth, just 0.03m back of third-place Rachel Machin of Calgary. Still, the fourth-place finish was an improvement from the 2013 Championships in which she placed seventh. With plenty of time left in her university career, Tanguay still has room to improve and will have her sights set on a podium finish come next season.

Another of McGill’s rising stars, Dylan Golow, also managed to come within striking distance. The junior from Barrie, Ontario placed fifth in the Pentathlon, scoring 3637 points, 45 points fewer than the bronze medal-winner. This is a big step in the right direction for Golow, considering he failed to crack the top 10 last year. Barring any surprises, Golow—like Tanguay—will be back in the Fall and could be a favourite to medal this time next year.

Barrett has high hopes for next season’s team­­—especially if McGill is able to land the top recruits that it is after.

“We try and recruit as best we can,” he said. “We need a lot of athletes for our track program, unless we get 10 blue-chip athletes for both the men’s and women’s side.  Some of the recruits on our list right now […] first [have] to get into McGill and then we go from there.”

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