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a, Student Life

Five last-minute things to do this Reading Week

by Laura Hanrahan on

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Just because it’s called “Reading Week” doesn’t mean you should be spending seven days straight sitting in the library or finishing your term paper. If you weren’t able to make plans for the week and are looking for some entertaining ways to pass the time, look no further—here are five last-minute ideas for how to spend your week of freedom.

1) Delve into the Montreal music scene

There is never a shortage of musicians and concerts in Montreal. Reading Week is the perfect time to make the rounds and check them out. For those into alternative music, Under the Snow Music Festival runs from March 4-9 and showcases emerging Quebec musicians and bands. Alternatively, Imagine Dragons are performing at the Bell Centre on March 3, in addition to various musical performances that take place throughout the week for Montréal en Lumière. For all other Montreal concert listings, check out blueskiesturnblack.com.

(cbc.ca)
(cbc.ca)

2) Embrace Canadian stereotypes

March is Maple Month in Quebec, which means there will be no shortage of tire d’erable, maple syrup, and other maple-based foods. Sugar shacks are the perfect places to not only try these maple treats, but also to see how they’re made.

Cap Saint Jaques, on the west side of the island, offers the traditional sugar shack experience. Located in one of Montreal’s largest nature parks, it will actually make you feel as if you are in the middle of a forest. If the rustic charm of a sugar shack doesn’t appeal to you, many local Montreal restaurants are offering maple-themed menus. For instance, Les 400 Coups, located in Old Port, offers maple menus every Tuesday and Wednesday of March.

3) Visit another university

The upside to having reading week two weeks later than almost every other Canadian university is that during our break, you can visit your friends from home at their own schools. Getting to experience how different—or similar—student life is at another school is always interesting and can be a welcome change from routine Montreal living. Megabus and Via Rail both offer reasonably priced tickets to most major university cities in Ontario.

4) Plan a Mount Tremblant ski trip

(clubprivilegetremblant.ca)
(clubprivilegetremblant.ca)

Despite everyone’s hopes and wishes, the weather on our ‘spring break’ usually isn’t all that spring-like. While that leaves a nice bike ride in the park out of the question, it means that we can continue enjoying our winter sports. Mount Tremblant is currently offering 50 per cent off five-day ski passes until March 16, which is ideal for those on a student budget. Located only an hour and a half out of the city, it is the perfect place for a last minute getaway.

5) Explore Old Montreal 

Old Montreal, located a fairly short walk away from campus, is one of the most interesting parts of the city, with buildings dating back to the age of New France. Reading week is the perfect opportunity to explore this historical area and see all that it has to offer. The Notre-Dame Basilica puts on a light show, Tuesdays to Saturdays, that highlights the Basilica’s cultural and archeological history. If history presentations aren’t your thing, the Montreal Science Center in Old Port is featuring the “Truth or Lie?” exhibit until March 9, which delves into the world of magic, illusions, and pseudoscience.

a, Arts & Entertainment, Music

Sam Roberts Band–Lo-Fantasy

by Jack Neal on

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Having released a relatively successful string of EPs and full-length studio efforts, Quebec-based rocker Sam Roberts recently dropped Lo-Fantasy, his  fifth album overall, and second since adopting the moniker Sam Roberts Band in 2011. With catchy hooks, brilliant guitar riffs, and sing-along choruses, this album doesn’t stray far from his previous works; there is certainly plenty to enjoy.

However, as the album progresses, the music does not. The formula for the songs is generic; musically, it is limited, and there is no striking vocal performance on any of the tracks.

While fitting with his artistic and musical style, this album grows old—and it does so quickly. Opening songs “Shapeshifters” and “We’re All In This Together” put everything on the table right away and essentially preview the entire album: catchy, predicatble, and enjoyable. It is a well-made album, with the well-refined production on each track; but there is nothing that vies for attention—nothing that stands out. Think of a muted Edward Sharpe with more guitar and not nearly as many crowd-pleasers.

This album is not a bad one; still, it’s so nondescript and middle-of-the-road that it comes across as more disappointing than it actually is. There is nothing wrong with it…there’s just nothing great about it—and that’s a shame, because the last song, “Golden Hour,” hints at a more powerful and interesting sound that could have been.

Lo-Fantasy isn’t necessarily worth listening to, nor is it an album to be avoided; it is just so remarkably unremarkable that it really won’t alter anyone’s perception of the artist, the music, or anything else for that matter.

a, Arts & Entertainment, Music

B’s Bees cordially invites you to Sunday Night Jazz Party

by Natalie Wong on

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With a dulled night scene in downtown Montreal on Sundays, students are usually directed towards a slow dreary evening, wishing that the exhilaration of their weekend could continue. Luckily, Brandon Goodwin, the drummer of Montreal’s very own six-piece jazz band, B’s Bees, brings us the opportunity to abandon our homework—or Netflix plans—by introducing the Sunday Night Jazz Party.

The Sunday Night Jazz Party brings an atmosphere of swingin’ live jazz and social mingling in the Mile End’s Cabaret Playhouse. Goodwin created the event to fill the social abyss that most Sunday nights bring with live music.

“On Sunday nights, there’s really not much going on,” says Goodwin. “But there [are] so many people who live around the Mile-End…because they want to experience the Plateau and everything that the city has to offer.”

The party was in full-swing when I arrived last Sunday night, featuring musical guests as well as local DJs spinning jazz tracks. Goodwin uses this unusual pairing to place emphasis on the event as a party.

“I wanted it to be that anybody could come here for any reason…[The band] is just a part of it… [we’re] just trying to bring in good vibes so when you walk in, you feel comfortable and you can meet people.”

Cabaret Playhouse is the perfect venue for this particular shindig. It features a decent-sized main room and includes space near the back where conversation can occur without being overpowered by the music. The stage effortlessly fits Goodwin’s 6-piece band near the front, and its proximity to the crowd makes it easy to become fully immersed in the music. Sitting and dancing areas are closely intertwined, accentuating the event’s soiree nature.

Jazz saxophonist Al McLean, a McGill graduate and current instructor in the music program, joined the B’s Bees on stage and laid down some impressive solos. During musical breaks, DJ Father Zinger held things down with some eclectic jazz tracks while members of B’s Bees got off stage to join the audience in conversation and laughter.

To pull this all together, Goodwin looks to the glorious era of jazz in the 1950’s as his inspiration for B’s Bees.

“The group that I originally think about is The Jazz Messengers,” Goodwin recalls, referring to the classic hard-bop group of the 1950’s. “Hard-bop featured artists like Charlie Parker and Miles Davis…they brought in more horns and simplified the music so it was more grooving.”

“I mean we can get crazy too,” Goodwin was quick to assure. “But [our music] is more just swinging.”

The band did exactly that—conducting the flow of its set with swinging rhythms that had the audience constantly swaying back and forth.

B’s Bees play a fusion of jazz covers and originals, and their performance last week included a soulful original entitled “Who You Are” by Christopher Vincent, trombone player and U3 McGill music student.

“It’s music that’s not as abrasive as something you’d find on other nights of the week,” explains Vincent. “So it makes for a great evening experience, especially on a Sunday.”

For students struggling with upcoming midterms or unable to brave the freeze of Montreal winter and venture to the Mile End, the shows are also live-streamed every week.

Future prospects for the Jazz Party includes showcasing guest jazz ensembles once a month and a possible collaboration with a local swing dancing school—that Goodwin coyly refrained from revealing.

“[The school] is really well known. That’s a hint,” Goodwin offers. “We’ll do it probably once a month…it will start in March.”

Sunday Night Jazz Party isn’t your archetypal concert rave that makes meaningful conversation next to impossible and leaves you with a crippling hangover the next day; it’s memorable in its groove, quality beer, and relaxed social environment amid high-quality live jazz.

The party is also free of admission, in the spirit of perpetuating live music.

“If people love live music in any way, they can support it by just coming out and show that they want it to keep going,” Goodwin tells me. “Support local live musicians.”

a, Features

Canada’s Final Frontier: Understanding Arctic Sovereignty

by Sam Pinto on

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The Arctic is a place of unfound possibilities and potential opportunities, to the point that five countries have laid claim to much of the region. In fact, these disputes are serious enough that politicians have advocated for increased military presence to enforce their sovereignty in the Arctic.

Whether or not this military advocacy is legitimate or just political rhetoric is debatable, but the wealth of the Arctic and the ambitious intentions of these countries are far from fictional.

In December 2013, Canada made preliminary plans to redefine its borders in the Arctic region. However, the drive toward making claims in the Arctic has not always been at the forefront of Canada’s initiatives.

Canada’s Arctic represents 40 per cent of all the nation’s landmass, an area of 3,921,739 square kilometres—large enough for France to fit inside it six times. It is a vast region comprised of tundra, large mountains, and very little vegetation. Across all this land, however, there are just slightly more than 100,000 inhabitants. To the unobservant eye, the Arctic is a cold, barren place with minimal potential.

Other nations, on the other hand, have been relatively successful in using the Arctic to their advantage. Russia and Norway, for example, produce 20 per cent of their respective GDPs from their Arctic regions.

While opportunities in the Arctic exist, the Canadian government has so far failed to capitalize on them.

Michael Byers, a professor of political science at University of British Columbia and a McGill alum, noted the difference in development in the Arctic by various countries.

“Relatively speaking, the Canadian Arctic is the least developed of all the Arctic regions,” Byers said.

In recent years, the arctic has become a hot topic for politicians and the media.  Prior to his election as prime minister in 2006, Stephen Harper made the Arctic one of his top campaign priorities—considering specifically the issue of Canada’s arctic sovereignty.

“The single most important duty of the federal government is to protect and defend our national sovereignty,” Harper said in a speech in 2005.

Harper argued for the need for increased military presence to uphold Canada’s claim—meaning more troops and a larger navy. While the idea appears favourable and patriotic, few Canadians actually know about arctic sovereignty, what the government is doing in the North, or why it even matters. In fact, arctic sovereignty stretches far beyond the idea of security, delving into even more controversial issues of economic development, the environment, and Indigenous matters. Upon closer inspection, the opportunities and challenges within these areas are massive, and has the potential to be highly rewarding.

What is Arctic sovereignty? 

The term Arctic sovereignty describes claims made by Arctic states on waters beyond the state’s land borders as being their own. The Arctic region contains seven countries—Canada, Russia, Denmark (Greenland), Sweden, Iceland, Norway, and the United States. While no country has sole possession over the North Pole or the Arctic Ocean, each one—except for Iceland and Sweden—asserts that parts of the waters and islands are within their borders. In order to lay claim to an extended continental shelf, which ranges past a country’s exclusive economic zone 200 nautical miles beyond the country’s land borders,  a country must ratify the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which defines the rights and responsibilities of nations in their use of the world’s oceans. In addition, the law also establishes guidelines for scientific research in the ocean, the environment and the management of natural resources. Once ratified, a nation has 10 years to file its submission.

In 2003, Canada ratified UNCLOS, and on Dec. 9, 2013, Canada submitted its preliminary information that defined where the continental shelf lies. However, Canada must continue extensive scientific research to accurately determine where these boundaries extend. Once this has been settled, the UN will review the analysis further to make the final call, and country-to-country negotiations will be required. This could take several decades.

Sovereignty realities

Within its claim, Canada estimates that its extended shelf area spans 1.2 million square kilometres in the Northern Atlantic Ocean—a survey of the Arctic Ocean has not yet been completed. The fact that not all of Canada’s scientific data has been completed could create problems for its  extended shelf claims by potentially conflicting with those made by the United States and Denmark. These situations are resolved primarily through diplomatic negotiations between foreign affairs ministries. For instance, in 2012 Canada settled an agreement with Denmark regarding a dispute north of Ellesmere Island and Greenland.

However, according to Byers, who has written extensively on arctic sovereignty, the reality is that Canada’s sovereignty disputes are minimal.

“Canada only has three arctic sovereignty disputes,” Byers explained. “One over a tiny island that is only 1.3 square kilometres; one over an area of seabed over the Beaufort Sea; and a third over the extent of Canada’s regulatory powers in the Northwest Passage—waters that [almost] every other country accepts [to be] Canadian.”

The only other country to dispute Canada’s control over the Northwest Passage is the United States, which claims that the body is an international strait. This disagreement will continue until either a diplomatic agreement is made, or an international court settles the matter. So far, neither has taken place.

In addition, politicians and the media often predict an essential arms race taking place between the Arctic states in order to enforce their military presence. According to Byers, Canada has done almost nothing to increase its Arctic security.

“There are only 200 Canadian forces personnel based in the Arctic on ongoing basis at Yellowknife,” Byers said. “The prime minister has promised to build Arctic patrol ships for the navy, but no construction contract has been signed seven years after the promise was made. He also, seven years ago, promised a naval port in the Arctic, but again, nothing has happened there.”

However, Byers noted that military presence does not equate to being involved with the challenges and opportunities of the Arctic.

Economic Potentials

Part of why claiming vast amounts of cold, barren land has become a major priority is because of the huge economic potentials that exist within the north. According to the United States Geological Survey, the Arctic contains over 20 per cent of the world’s undiscovered petroleum resources, including oil, natural gas, and natural gas resources. 84 per cent of these resources are offshore, and potentially in disputed regions.

According to Byers, investing in large infrastructure projects, such as ports, roads, and alternative energy are other significant ways to extract the economic potential of the Arctic.

“We need to recognize that there are economic opportunities that don’t simply involve digging things out of the ground,” Byers said. “There are vast opportunities in terms of alternative energy. Most people don’t realize this, but the highest [cliffs] in the world are on Baffin Island, [Nunavut. There is] enormous potential for tidal power, for wind power in Canada’s north.”

According to Leona Aglukkaq, minister of the environment, minister of the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency and minister for the Arctic Council, the current federal government has taken drastic steps to increase economic activity in the North.

“Our government introduced in 2006 a Northern Strategy,” Aglukkaq said. “For the very first time, there [are] policy initiatives of the federal government focused on developing the North in four pillars, and that is around responsible resource development, devolving governance, sovereignty, [and] economic development.”

The Northern Strategy, which is designed to meet the challenges and opportunities of the north, according to the program’s website, has led to the development of two mines in Nunavut alone since 2007.

Aglukkaq also explained how sustainable economic policies have been developed through the Arctic Council—an intergovernmental organization with members from each of the Arctic states with the intention of addressing issues facing the Arctic through shared knowledge. In one example, Norway shared information with Canada on how to construct windmills that could sustain cold temperatures of the Arctic climate. Canada is the current chair of the council. During its chairmanship, Canada implemented the Arctic Economic Council, which seeks to promote sustainable business development in the Arctic and encourage cooperation with the people living there.

Environmental issues

While the economic potential may be tempting, increased development of the Arctic could possibly lead to future environmental issues. Currently, the Arctic is affected by climate change more than almost any other region on the planet.  The Arctic Ocean, for example, once completely frozen solid, now sees ice-free summers.

“I think that in the late summer, an ice-free Arctic Ocean is now inevitable, just because of the momentum that climate change has in terms of emissions that have already occurred,” Byers said.

Climate change, as well as increased economic development, has had dramatic effects on biodiversity within the Arctic—including damage to fish, vegetation, and mammals. This could have a dramatic effect on the Indigenous peoples in the Arctic, many of whom rely on the wildlife in their livelihoods.

Finally, as the mining of natural resources increases, the threat of potential toxic chemical spills becomes more pertinent. These spills could have negative impacts on the health of both wildlife and people.

According to Aglukkaq, the Arctic Council recently implemented policy to address the threat of chemical spills. The Agreement on Cooperation on Maritime Oil Polution Preparedness and Response in the Arctic—which was adopted in 2013—seeks to increase cooperation and coordination of the Arctic states on oil pollution preparedness and response in the Arctic in order to protect the marine environment from oil pollution.

However, critics have questioned the effectiveness of the proposal. According to Christy Ferguson, Arctic project leader for Greenpeace Canada, the agreement is far too vague, and would do little to prevent an oil disaster.

“The agreement does nothing to protect the Arctic environment and nothing to protect the peoples of the Arctic … It is effectively useless,” Ferguson told the Globe and Mail.

Indigenous relations

Various Indigenous peoples of Canada’s North, primarily the Inuit, comprise over 50 per cent of Canada’s Arctic region’s population. Therefore, cooperation between the Indigenous peoples and the federal government is vital to endorse Arctic sovereignty and regional development.

In 2008, the Inuit living in four of the Arctic states signed a Circumpolar Inuit Declaration on Sovereignty in the Arctic, which defines the parameters of sovereignty and its potential effects on the Inuit.

“The actions of Arctic peoples and states, the interactions between them, and the conduct of international relations must give primary respect to the need for global environmental security, the need for peaceful resolution of disputes, and the inextricable linkages between issues of sovereignty and sovereign rights in the Arctic and issues of self-determination,” the declaration reads.

According to Chester Reimer, a senior policy analyst for the Inuit Circumpolar Council, the Inuit are supportive of the sovereignty claims put forward by the Arctic states. However, they want to ensure that they receive benefits of their exploits of the Arctic, since it is their home and has been so for centuries.

The Inuit live in four different regions within Canada, called land-claim settlement regions. Within each region, the Inuit have laid out their own interests in sovereignty and economic development.

“[For example,] The Nunavut [Land Claims] Agreement gives Inuit [peoples] a certain amount of control over offshore resources, offshore matters,” Reimer explained. “So Inuit [peoples] would argue to the extent that Canada is extending its boundaries, then the Inuit of that area should also claim their rights and responsibilities as stipulated in their land claim settlement agreements.”

However, the Inuit have yet to experience many of the benefits that the Arctic could bring. According to Byers, the government has failed to give the Inuit an opportunity to thrive.

“The Inuit have been let down badly by successive federal governments in terms of health and education and housing,” Byers said. “The blame for that rests with successive federal governments. It will cost many billions of dollars to turn that situation around. I think that’s necessary and important, but I don’t see the political will.”

Canada‘s Arctic future

According to Byers, it seems impossible for any future Canadian government to avoid addressing Canada’s claims in the Arctic due to the potential economic and environmental issues that have so far been left unacknowledged.

“Whether a different future government would do more, I think [the answer] is yes, only because the very rapid changes in the Arctic caused by climate change—the melting of the sea ice, the melting of the permafrost, the increase in shipping—all demand more action by government,” Byers said. “So I don’t think future governments will really have a choice. I think that the Harper government may be the last government that can get away with doing almost nothing.”

According to Aglukkaq, the Arctic is ready to meet its full potential and increase its economic activity. All the region needs is the interest and curiosity of Canadians in the south.

“The Arctic is the last frontier of Canada,” Aglukkaq said. “It is a region that has been ignored for far too long, and up here, we want development; we want development on our terms and conditions, [and] we have the processes in place [to do so.]”

a, McGill, News

Indigenous studies minor approved for Fall 2014

by Natalie Wong on

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Students will be able to enroll in a new Indigenous Studies minor in the Faculty of Arts starting in Fall 2014, following the program’s approval by Senate last Wednesday.

The program, which has been the goal of ongoing initiatives by students and faculty for approximately 10 years, will be administered by the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada (MISC).

According to MISC Director William Straw, groups such as KANATA and First Peoples’ House researched existing programs in other universities and courses in Indigenous studies already available at McGill. MISC then began to put together a proposal over the Summer and Fall of 2013.

“We were able to base our proposal on the incredible research the various student groups had done,” Straw said. “The dean of arts indicated that he supported the actual proposal coming from MISC.”

According to Arts Senator and KANATA Vice-President External Claire Stewart-Kanigan, McGill’s previous lack of an Indigenous Studies program set it behind most Canadian universities.

“It is a bit of a trend in Quebec that Indigenous issues don’t have as much currency as they do in the west,” she said. “I think this is a really important step in making sure that people from Quebec can study this.”

The minor concentration seeks to provide students with a diverse, interdisciplinary outlook on the social, cultural, and historical elements of Indigenous life in Canada, according to Senate documents.

“Core courses offered within the program will provide interdisciplinary treatments of Indigenous life,” the documents read. “The program of the course will focus on the history of Indigenous populations in Canada, Aboriginal art and culture, and legacies of Indigenous resistance to the Canadian state.”

According to Straw, the minor will consist of two new courses—an introductory course and an upper level seminar in Indigenous studies. Students fulfill the remaining 12 credits for the program through course options cross-listed from other programs such as English, history, anthropology, and sociology.

The university will hire two new professors for the core courses, with recruitment beginning in March or April.

The proposal required approval from the Subcommittee on Courses and Teaching Programs and the Academic Policy Committee, prior to Senate approval.

However, the new minor could still face challenges such as financial difficulties, according to Stewart-Kanigan.

“There were a lot of problems getting faculty support [and] finding a faculty that would house this new minor,” she said. “For the program to really flourish and become its own autonomous unit, you will need a department chair and that takes funding.”

Stewart-Kanigan said costs could be as high as $2-3 million.

Straw added that soliciting greater involvement with the community is an additional goal for those involved in creating the program.

“Another challenge will be finding ways to involve […] the community of students invested in Indigenous studies and local Indigenous communities themselves,” he said. “We want to set up an advisory structure that conforms to McGill’s governance structure while acknowledging that an Indigenous Studies program needs to involve communities in a way that other programs may not.”

Jacob Greenspon, vice-president academic of the Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS), said many arts students have shown enthusiasm for the new minor.

“Students have been really excited about this,” he said. “A lot of them did seem to think we had a program like this but now they’re finding out it’s offered […] I think a lot of people are really excited to go into this topic.”

a, Student Life

Montréal en Lumière lights up the world like no city else

by Alessandra Hechanova on

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Cop lights, flash lights, spot lights, strobe lights, street lights: as if straight out of a Kanye West song, all save for one of these lights illuminated my experience at Montréal en Lumière. The annual winter festival converts the city’s Quartier des Spectacles into a free urban playground featuring a gigantic ice slide, a digitally-lit Ferris wheel, gourmet gastronomy, outdoor games, and live performances.

Fireworks crackled in the February sky and quite literally started my night off with a bang as dazzling pyrotechnics left the festival grounds singing with energy and excitement in celebration of Montréal en Lumière’s 15th anniversary.

Feeling like a guest at one of Jay Gatsby’s parties, I watched French-Canadian rock musician Xavier Cafeïne take centre stage at Place des Arts and inaugurate his set with an aptly titled ballad called ‘Electric.’ The remainder of the concert pulsed with neo-New Wave vigour as I bobbed my head alongside my coat-clad comrades while admiring the projection art that illuminated the sides of edifices around the district. Several other artists are scheduled to perform free shows throughout the festival, among them Juno award nominee Poirier.

Montréal en Lumière is as much a pleasure for the taste buds as it is for the eyes and ears. Its outdoor site brims with food kiosks serving everything from buttery Belgian waffles to massive Philly cheesesteak sandwiches. As I departed from the concert crowd, I gratefully accepted a skewered marshmallow from festival personnel, slightly burning the gelatinous confection’s edges with uneven contours of bruléed sugar, before grabbing real food at the wooden kiosk of Old-Montreal hotspot l’Atelier d’Argentine.

Confronted with a smorgasbord of affordable Argentinian cuisine, I settled on a smoky beef empanada that heated my taste buds with a spot of warmth from Buenos Aires. For my second dessert, I savoured the Quebec staple tire sur la neige—a taffy lollipop made by pouring hot maple syrup onto a bed of ice. Besides Place des Arts, Montréal en Lumière showcases the talents of over 450 chefs in tasting events and workshops held in various locations around the city.

(Alessandra Hechanova / McGill Tribune)
(Alessandra Hechanova / McGill Tribune)

Not far from the Nucléus is the festival’s popular ice slide, which boasts a 110-metre track that propels passengers through Montreal’s sharp winter air on an exhilarating journey with sound effects and colourful lights.

Slightly eclipsed by the veneer of the festival’s more ostentatious attractions are activities that provide understated pleasure. After disembarking the ice slide, I spotted three people wearing rectangular goggles that made them look like Cyclops from X-Men. Always inclined to try the gimmicky gadgets eulogized by Canada’s resident tech expert Marc Saltzman, I discovered that the goggles were Oculus Rifts—virtual reality headsets developed for immersive gaming. The device allows viewers to experience one of five digital scenarios and had me spellbound and startled by a rollercoaster simulation. My night culminated in a short match of Snakes and Ladders, one of several giant parlour games at the festival’s Espace des Familles.

As one of world’s largest winter festivals, Montréal en Lumière gives good reason for the city to glimmer under the international spotlight.

Montréal en Lumière’s outdoor site is open to the public at Place des Arts every evening between Feb. 20 and March 2.

a, Arts & Entertainment, Music

Back to basics: Intimacies of the MontréaLive approach

by Natalie Wong on

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When watching the perfectly engineered music videos of our generation, I can’t help but feel a sense of detachment from the actual music. To me, music represents an inherent connection to the raw emotion of the musician(s) who create it. MontréaLive serves to bridge the gap that plagues viewers like myself. A collaboration between TVM and CKUT, MontréaLive is an enriching web series of live music sessions that showcases the plethora of talented bands and musicians in the aesthetic city of Montreal.

“MontréaLive grew out of McGill Music, a similar project that I worked on last year with Sarah Leitner,” says Sasha Crawford-Holland, co-founder of MontréaLive. “In launching MontréaLive, we [TVM and CKUT] wanted to create a series that was a little more curated and less McGill-centric.”

For many people, there is nothing more fulfilling then getting centre seats to a live concert and basking in the adrenaline and passion of the musicians on stage.

“MontréaLive is all about celebrating the power of live performances,” Crawford-Holland says. “We love to showcase bands in arrangements or contexts in which people may never have seen or heard of before, while also exposing Montreal’s diverse music scene to people who may not be as familiar with it.”

“Excellent music from your local scene, delivered right to your screen,” Dorian Scheidt, sound engineer of MontréaLive, explains. “[It gives you] strange new sounds in strange new places.”

The settings where the live sessions are filmed reflects the band’s music as well as the vibrant artistry of Montreal.

“[The] spaces are always different,” says Schedit. “We often shoot in musician’s rehearsal spaces, which I think gives an added level of intimacy to the performances. Seeing music performed in the place that it was written can be extra exciting.”

Past acts have included the Loose Strife, Archery Guild, Femmaggots, She Divides, and participants in POP Montreal’s Fall festival, Look Vibrant. The live sessions that feature these artists cater to the band’s distinctive musical style. From Look Vibrant’s live session in Citizen Vintage, a bright and colourful vintage clothing store; to Loose Strife’s live session in a dark and enigmatic room; each video is different in its sound and aesthetics, capturing the essence of the band’s music.

Other locations where these live sessions have been shot include Midnight Kitchen, RVC’s cafeteria, Solin Hall, and a McGill physics lab.

“Generally, we think of what are really cool spaces that look vibrant,” Tatyana Olal, managing editor of MontréaLive, says. “We’re looking into doing an upcoming shoot in a hair salon, Salon Metropolar, which has a really cool aesthetic to it.”

Analogous to the artistic and down-to-earth attitudes of MontréaLive’s crew, the filming process reflects a unique collaboration between the local musicians and MontréaLive.

“We’ll go through a number of takes,” Olal explains. “The band will usually have a vibe for which take they felt was the tightest and we’ll all put in our input [….] the take which we’ve all decided on will be the master take that I’ll edit.”

As the sound-mixing guru, Scheidt describes himself as “the resident audio nerd” of MontréaLive.

“Since January 2013, I’ve been recording and mixing all of the live performance videos released under the ‘McGill Music’ and now ‘MontreaLive’ labels,” Scheidt explains. “Going forward, I’ll be training new volunteers in the art and magic of sound recording in uncommon spaces.”

That prompted Scheidt to discuss the future prospects for MontréaLive.

“The project will continue, bringing in more volunteers and working with more excellent artists. We hope to make it an institution that allows for music discovery, as well as training and collaboration between volunteers, students and community members,” Scheidt says.

Given the zeal and artistry delineated in these live sessions, it’s not hard to understand the desire to showcase the intimacy of live performances.

a, Arts & Entertainment, Film and TV

Spoiler alert: Breaking down House of Cards Season 2

by Max Berger on

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Given the straightforward in-season narrative structure that House of Cards introduced in its first installment, the question for Season 2 wasn’t What are they going to do?, but rather,  How are they going to do it? We knew that Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) would almost certainly be making the jump from Vice President to POTUS by the end of Chapter 26, but there were any number of scenarios that could have dictated the season’s events and built towards that conclusion. When Frank’s “Watergate” finally broke and President Walker’s (Michel Gill) fallout with the public forced him to resign, it was a solid but unspectacular resolution to a season that could be described in much the same way.

In fact, the best thing about Season 2 was the way that it began. Zoe Barnes (Kate Mara) was a strong character who had a huge part in making the show’s first season the juggernaut that it was, but the move to kill her off right away was an unexpected stroke of genius. Getting rid of Barnes was the first step towards diffusing the trio that came together at the end of Season 1 to make sense of the discrepancies in the Peter Russo case, which inevitably pointed to Frank. As long as any of those three remained in the fray, they could only detract from the newly unfolding plotlines—which Lucas (Sebastian Arcelus), the weakest of the journalist characters, did by wearing out his welcome. But the murder, as Frank alluded to several times before pushing Barnes into the subway tracks, gave both him and the show “a clean slate.”

Unfortunately, the aforementioned unfolding plotlines were largely underwhelming. The ongoing chess match between Raymond Tusk (Gerald McRaney) and Frank over Tusk’s Chinese money laundering had its moments, but it lacked the intrigue that the Russo arc had last season. Only in Chapter 17, when Claire (Robin Wright) publicly revealed that she had been sexually assaulted in college, did one of the season’s larger themes really grip me for the first time. Without Barnes around, we almost forgot what it was like to have a major media story break; but this was a game-changing moment that worked well with the bottle episode scenario that was simultaneously unfolding as Frank watched the interview on TV from the quarantined White House.

Since the aftermath of Claire’s sexual assault revelation stayed relevant for most of the season, it was puzzling to see her history with Adam (Ben Daniels) get dragged into the media as well. Although it made sense as a way for Remy (Mahershala Ali) to publicly shame the Underwoods—and for Claire to once again demonstrate how gutty she can be—it felt like overkill to have two scandalous stories about her personal life within a few episodes of each other.

It also felt like overkill to Ayla Sayyad (Mozhan Marnò), the no-nonsense journalist who tracked down Tusk instead of jumping on the media frenzy created by the Adam allegations. Sayyad slipped into the journalist void left by Barnes, but she obviously fell well short of having the same impact. However, she has the same professional drive that Barnes possessed—sexual ethics likely notwithstanding—and could be a recurring character to watch out for in Season 3.

The prominent female character that should have stepped up more was Jackie Sharp (Molly Parker), but she fell short of crossing the threshold between being important to the show and becoming one of its iconic figures. Sharp was an ambiguous character, and her relationship with Remy quickly lost its novelty. Between Sharp, Sayyad, and the unexpectedly vital Rachel (Rachel Brosnahan), once got the sense that the show was trying to experiment with various female characters in hopes that a ten and two fives might add up to the $20 bill that Barnes represented—but it’s better to have one impactful character than multiple average ones.

 One of the inherent problems with Season 2 was that the biggest obstacle between Frank and the presidency doubled as one of the show’s least interesting characters: President Walker. Ideally he could have functioned as more of a foil to Frank, but Walker just continued his pattern of putting up a minor resistance to Frank and eventually being swayed by him. Even when Walker comes to the realization that Frank has been pulling strings, we don’t have enough faith in the president as a force to be reckoned with that Frank’s final act of manipulation against him doesn’t come as a surprise.

 Now that Frank is confirmed as the figure we thought he’d be by season’s end, I’m excited for what House of Cards might offer next. In the short-term, the absence of Doug (Michael Kelly) and the recklessness of Rachel—not to mention the challenge of beginning an administration mid-term—pose crucial problems for Frank; in the long-term, he still runs the risk of being exposed for the murder of Russo, which faded to the background as the season moved along, but still seems like the loose end most likely to bring Frank down.

It was far from perfect, but Season 2 moved things along for Frank (God help the free world!) in entertaining enough fashion and set the stage for a third season that has the 46th President bringing plenty of baggage with him to the White House.

a, News, SSMU

Potential SSMU mental health policy will fund coordinator, create student resource website

by Natalie Wong on

More in a:

A new mental health website and hiring a Mental Health Coordinator are top priorities for the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), according to a new mental health policy to be approved at the Feb. 20 SSMU Council.

Other goals of the policy are to be implemented in the next five years, and include the implementation of a Mental Health Fee, the coordination of various events such as Mental Health Awareness Week, and the organization of space and support for mental health groups.

In addition, the policy plans to establish a permanent space in the SSMU building, for student inquiries and events related to mental health.

The new mental health policy is the result of an ad-hoc committee SSMU created at the beginning of the academic year. Joey Shea, SSMU Vice-President University Affairs, cited SSMU’s lack of a current policy promoting student mental wellness as the reason for the committee’s work.

“We realized that SSMU doesn’t have any institutionalized mental health policy to help mental health groups and facilitate their interaction,” she said.

According to Shea, the policy aims to provide a network of resources and increase awareness for the improvement of both mental health services and the overall mental wellness of students on campus.

“It’s a comprehensive, diverse mental health network that is aimed at getting services together to work collaboratively to meet the diversity of mental health needs that students have on campus in a respectful way,” said David Benrimoh, SSMU Medicine representative and member of the Mental Health Committee.

Much of the policy will be supported through a fee, which SSMU will seek to implement through a question in the Winter 2015 referendum. In the meantime, tasks will include creating the website, as well as hiring a coordinator, creating a listserv, planning events, and continuing research.

“It [will be] used to fund a Mental Health Coordinator and possibly the mental health website and the administrator,” Benrimoh said. “Remaining funds will be allocated by the SSMU funding committee to the student-run mental health initiatives.”

According to Shea, the website aspect of the project has already received funding through a grant from Bell Canada.

According to Benrimoh, the website will list available mental health services in one central location.

“On the website, you ideally would have mental health ‘service of the week,’ categories of services, like education, peer support, mental health services, etc.,” he said. “Once we have our policy implemented, we need a way for it to be accessible to people, so this website is our way to do it.”

Shea emphasized that the policy would be open to revision if passed at Council.

“[The SSMU mental health policy] is meant to be a living document, updated year to year,” she said. “Our statement of values is meant to be a framework, to be built on and added to through the years.”

Charlotte Cailliarec, U0 Arts, praised the policy, saying that it responded to a definite need for McGill.

“It’s great that there will be a developed mental health network at McGill to coordinate all the different student-run mental health initiatives and provide a network that stands in solidarity,” she said. “As there’s still a present stigma against mental health, it’s important that […] there’s a network to raise awareness and provide support for anyone who needs it.”

If approved at the Feb. 20 Council, the policy will be implemented and the five-year plan will begin.

“Our main emphasis was on the fact that a healthy campus isn’t a campus that doesn’t have mental health issues […] but [one that] has a focus on wellness and a holistic approach to these issues,” Shea said.

Benrimoh expressed similar sentiments, noting its positive effects of it for students.

“We all bring something new to the table,” Benrimoh said “I truly believe that we are going to help individuals, groups, and the whole community.”

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