Recent images of unfinished hotel rooms, broken plumbing, and other flaws noticed at the Sochi Games have been the source of much online amusement. However, these @Sochiproblems, a Twitter account started by Canadian journalist Alex Broad, might be more than just silly flaws to poke fun at.  In mocking these issues, we ignore that they are the result of widespread corruption. The Sochi Games cost over $50 billion, making them the most expensive Olympic games ever held. Yet, organizers can’t even build stalls to separate toilets. And while the pictures on Twitter of skiiers taking side-by-side bathroom breaks are admittedly funny, Russian taxpayers probably aren’t laughing.

The mis-allocation of funds in the construction industry is not a new phenomenon, especially in Russia, which continues to have a reputation of corruption in business dealings.  The Sochi Olympics, which required many massive building projects, provided a perfect opportunity for Russian construction tycoons to capitalize off of the government’s need for new infrastructure. When such corruption is present, accountability is eliminated, working conditions deteriorate, and construction work becomes erratic. Thus, the games end up with poorly built ski-jumps, broken sewage pipes, and exorbitantly-priced stadiums.

While such descriptions of construction procedures at Sochi may seem like classic “only in Russia” absurdities, the truth is that corruption in the construction industry is a much broader issue. As New Yorker financial  columnist James Surowiecki recently wrote, “Transparency International has long cited the construction industry as the world’s most corrupt, pointing to the prevalence of bribery, bid rigging, and bill padding.” Whenever large-scale infrastructure is built—even in liberal democracies with relatively transparent business practices, such as Canada—the risk for corruption and backdoor dealings is high.

Indeed, residents of Montreal are keenly aware of the crooked nature of the construction industry, which has been implicated in dealings with criminal elements, and is renowned for cronyism and corruption. Delays in construction, inflated prices, bribes, and kickbacks are all commonplace. This city’s  own preparations for the 1976 Winter Olympics were riddled with corruption. The Olympic Stadium was unfinished at the time of the Olympics, and its roof subsequently caved in twice over the years.  A piece of the tower also fell onto the field during a Montreal Expos game in 1986. To top it all off, the City of Montreal only finished paying off all of the debt from the stadium’s costs in 2006.

So the next time you come across a picture of a Sochi hotel lobby looking like a war zone, remember that the only people you’re sharing a laugh with are the Russian construction magnates who are om their way to the bank.  Maybe then we will be able to sympathize with the Russian taxpayers who are the ones shouldering the costs of our amusement.

Speaking to students beyond McGill’s tight-knit environmental community, there is one question I encounter often: “Whatever happened to sustainability at McGill?” Awareness around campus of environmental initiatives comes down to three things: space, community outreach, and education—and particularly, the lack of all three. What can be done to improve this situation? Enter the Educational Community Living Environment (ECOLE)—the perfect blend of collective student living, learning, and community building—something like “the Real World: Montreal (Green Edition).”

Set in a soon-to-be converted MORE house residence that will open its doors in September, ECOLE seeks to revitalize the concept of sustainability at McGill. The house, as a student-run space, will not only provide a hub for the sustainability enthusiasts, but also be a model for sustainable change in the eyes of the greater McGill and Milton-Parc communities. It will house up to 12 residents—or “facilitators”—who will experiment with materially and socially responsible living, and  undertake individual applied research projects based around their collective living experience. Facilitators will come from a diversity of academic, cultural, and social backgrounds to promote the awareness of sustainability as a universal concept applicable to all aspects of life—not merely environmentally-based ones.

As an accessible space, ECOLE will also be open to all members of the greater McGill student community, as well as for the residents of Milton-Parc. It will be an alternative meeting ground for various student clubs and local organizations, as well as a place to hold joint recreational activities such as film screenings or potluck dinners. Of course, all food served will be locally sourced and subsequently composted. It will also actively engage in collaborative projects with the Milton-Parc community, and attempt to mitigate the existing tension between the citizens and students who inhabit the area.

In addition to broadening community interaction, ECOLE will enlarge the academic scope of sustainability through an interdisciplinary approach. The project will foster hands-on learning that cannot be experienced in the classroom; through meetings and workshops led by the facilitators, any interested students will have the chance to experience sustainability from all different perspectives, and relate these concepts to their own lives.

Equity will also play a significant role in the education process—as not only material but also social change is vital for building a sustainable future. Facilitators will lead anti-oppression workshops in their attempt to improve the climate of social justice among the inhabitants of the McGill student environment.

From an operational viewpoint, ECOLE will be run in adherence with a concrete governance structure and an “ECOnstitution,” which will lay down the guidelines designed to enforce transparency and consensus-based decision making. While there will be other actors involved in the political processes that surround ECOLE, it will have a mandate to maintain student sovereignty in all functional matters.

Given the realities of a McGill student’s everyday life, it can be difficult to live sustainably and responsibly. Despite all good intentions, the need for efficiency often trumps environmental duties. With the introduction of ECOLE, we believe that we can work to construct a healthy alternative culminating in a material effort to reduce, reuse, and recycle, and a social structure that is both non-oppressive and vibrant.

As the project grows, we hope to see the ideal take shape more clearly: a diverse range of students from different academic faculties living ecologically and equitably sound lives in a community that truly serves as an example of positive human action within the ‘natural environment’ of downtown Montreal.

The Olympic opening ceremony is a moment of global attention and high expectations. This pressure came to a head during the ceremony for this year’s Sochi Winter Games with the event’s centrepiece—five flowers which blossomed into the Olympics’ iconic interlocking rings. However, the fifth ring failed to expand with the others. Viewers around the world witnessed the malfunction, but on Russian television, footage from a taped rehearsal was spliced in, creating the appearance of a flawless performance. This ‘fix’ spawned debate as to whether such an alteration was ethical, and highlighted the difficulty of distinguishing between entertainment and news.

Russia has had numerous issues with its hosting, with shocking charges of corruption and lack of preparation. It makes sense to want to avoid further embarrassment and disprove the claims of poor planning. But even if that is the case, is it really ethical to present a falsity as truth? While there is some value to this kind of symbolism, pure deception for the sake of appearances is something else.

Officials at the Russian network defended the splicing, claiming they were preserving the integrity of the Olympic rings and what they symbolized. In the network’s eyes, what they were doing was permissible since the opening ceremony is a performance for the world. They consider it to be entertainment, not news, and have no problem adjusting the content accordingly.

For the most part, the matter boils down to the value of authenticity in news and entertainment. If the opening ceremonies are considered entertainment, it should be fine to alter the showing for a more pleasurable viewing, and to better convey the artistic intent. If it is news, however, altering it is dishonest and unethical.

It is a slippery slope to make such modifications, however, as the opening ceremonies are presented as a factual event. Altering the presentation in the way that the Russian television station did is perpetrating a falsehood on the audience. Even though the opening ceremony is largely for entertainment, it is also reality; not treating it as such allows for other parts of reality to be altered.  Even though the Olympic rings don’t seem like a big deal unto themselves,  the willingness of a broadcaster to make such an editorial decision calls into question the integrity of any live coverage. Blurring the lines between reality and fiction may be a good narrative technique, but it does not constitute any sort of ethical journalism.