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a, Arts & Entertainment

McGill Law grad gives crime novels a hometown touch

by Max Berger on

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Inspector Luc Vanier was standing in a rainstorm at the intersection of Sherbrooke and Pie-IX, surveying the remnants of a car accident. A dark blue body bag was at his feet.

With those ominous words, McGill Law alumnus Peter Kirby kicks off his most recent crime novel, Vigilante Season. It’s the second fiction release from Kirby, who practices international law in addition to his burgeoning writing career. Although he doesn’t come across criminal law in his job, it’s something he’s always gravitated towards, and he feels the crime novel genre offers many literary possibilities beyond a straightforward narrative arc to discover who’s guilty.

“One thing is, it’s escapism,” he tells me. “Also, it can serve the purpose of talking about an awful lot of different things at the same time. In other words, what I write isn’t simply a mystery and you’ve got to solve the mystery [….] One of the things I find myself constantly drawn to explore is authority and power relations [….] Then, there’s the exploration of good people doing bad things and bad people doing good things, which is human nature.”

All of those themes are at play in Vigilante Season, which centres on a fictional struggle for authority and justice in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district of Montreal.

“It’s this issue of who moves into the vacuum of a neglected neighbourhood,” Kirby explains, “and what happens if some local group organizes itself to control that neighbourhood when the police and the politicians have abandoned it.”

Kirby grew up in the UK and settled in Montreal after stints in Boston, New York, and Toronto. Even with so much exposure to different cities, he chose to set both of his novels in Montreal, and his writing is predicated on an authentically close engagement with his environment.

“You have these fantasies of ‘Oh, wouldn’t it be great to set a book in London,’ but I don’t have the same feel for the street in London that I would have in Montreal. I once heard a writer say that he was setting his book in a particular place, and he had discovered that you actually don’t need to visit the place. You could do it on Google and street views and stuff like that, and I just don’t understand that.”

Kirby goes on to talk about the advantage of tapping into the essence of places and their evolution over periods of time—before poking some fun at a street not far from McGill.

“Just south of the Roddick Gates, there’s that street where you’ve got the back of The Bay, you’ve got parking lots, and it’s one of the ugliest streets,” says Kirby. “I’m not sure if it’s President Kennedy or the one further south, but it’s one of the ugliest streets that makes pedestrians feel bad because of the physical geography of the place. But then you can walk on certain streets in Griffintown and you feel like a human.”

When Kirby arrived in Montreal in the seventies, he was far from becoming the established lawyer he is today. He had been supporting himself through various restaurant jobs, and when he decided that it was time to give academia a shot, McGill didn’t initially take him very seriously.

“I showed up at the admissions office and said ‘I’d like to get an education.’ I thought that’s how it was done. And they looked at me and said, ‘What are you, nuts?’”

Having few academic records from high school and only being available for night classes didn’t help his cause. Eventually, as he says with a chuckle, they just told him, “‘Why don’t you just walk up the street and go see Concordia.’”

So he did, and a few years later, an honours economics degree from Concordia was his ticket to the McGill Faculty of Law. Since then, things have worked out nicely for Kirby, and he’s happily committed to continuing the Luc Vanier saga, with another novel underway.

“It becomes easier to write a book with an established character in the sense that you don’t have to create him from scratch. But he keeps changing on you, and you sometimes wonder who’s in control, the character or the writer, because things happen in a serendipitous way.”

It’ll be interesting to see where Vanier ends up next—perhaps even in the Milton-Parc district.

a, McGill, News

Student Services to begin consultations on usage of $5 million surplus

by Jessica Fu on

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The use of an approximate $5 million surplus in the Student Services Contingency Fund will be brought up for discussion this semester by McGill’s Committee on Student Services (CSS).

The surplus is the result of various factors, including conservative enrolment estimates and savings in wages from the 2012 MUNACA strike, according to Deputy Provost (Student Living and Learning) Ollivier Dyens.

“[The surplus] is a recent development,” Dyens said. “We’ve always kept a $1 million contingency fund so that we could do some upgrading of the Brown Building [….] At one point the government changed the financial year to 11 months, instead of 12. All of these things built up in the course of two to three years.”

Student Services consists of 12 individual units, including the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD), Mental Health Services, and First Peoples’ House. The CSS—composed of equal parts students and non-student staff, faculty, or admin—is the main advisory body responsible for developing suggestions with regards to expenditure of the Student Services budget among individual units. Provost Anthony Masi will approve these suggestions in determining the final budget.

At the most recent CSS meeting in November 2013, Dyens suggested potentially using the surplus on services that would fall outside of the units that Student Services encompasses.

“Personally, I would have liked if we could have considered to expand the definition to not only Student Services but services to students, which is broader,” Dyens said.

One such external usage of the fund would have been extending library space during last December’s final examinations period.

“Because of the mandated budget cuts from the government, we had to cut down on the amount of space available for students in the library, because we don’t have as much security as we used to,” Dyens said. “So I wanted to invest [the fund] into having more study space for students [….] But students showed me that they we were not ready to consider that at the moment.”

Dyens’ idea was faced with opposition from student members of the CSS, who felt that such reallocation of funds would set a precedent of similar usage of designated, student-paid fees in the future, according to Elizabeth Cawley, Member Services Officer of the Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) and member of the CSS.

“Do we want more access to libraries?” Cawley said. “Yes [….] But our problem is simply the budget line that it’s coming out of. This surplus is meant for [Student Services] and these services need money, and they didn’t even get a chance to present [to CSS] what they could use that money for.”

Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Vice-President University Affairs Joey Shea also said there were many needs within Students Services that could be addressed with the surplus.

“I’m just hoping that [the surplus] will be kept within Student Services,” Shea said. “So I’m happy that they’ve reassessed and the discussion is ongoing.”

Following a question by Shea at December’s academic senate meeting, which addressed the concerns of reallocating the fund, the surplus will now be reserved for usage within Student Services.

“I’ve asked Jana Luker—she’s the director of Student Services—to come up with a series of initiatives that she thinks would be interesting to invest in [within] Student Services,” Dyens said. “Those initiatives will be brought to the CSS for an advisory for discussion.”

Student input on the usage of the expenditure will be taken into consideration as well, according to Dyens.

As consultations have not yet begun, plans for student consultation have not yet been set, but will ideally take place in the near future, according to Shea.

“There is no structure put in place for this sort of thing, because it’s random that this surplus exists in the first place, so I think that how they’ll go about making the proposals […] will be something that will be decided in [meetings] of CSS,” she said.

a, Science & Technology, Student Research

Pioneering a new approach to immunology

by Caity Hui on

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C. elegans, more formally known as Caenorhabditis elegans, is a simple, transparent roundworm often used in genetic research. After working with the organism from a neuroscience perspective under the supervision of associate professor Joseph Dent, U2 interdepartmental honours student Daegan Sit combined his experience with the worm and his interest in immunology through his project in the Ausubel Lab at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

“My project was basically about C. elegans immunology,” Sit explained. “C. elegans is not normally known [in] immunology, and that is why I wanted to work in this lab. They are one of the first groups to try using this simple organism to study immunology.”

C. elegans is such a simplistic organism that it does not possess an adaptive immune system—one of two critical components of the overall immune response—which is why many labs have not explored research in immunology with this roundworm. However, the group at the Massachusetts General Hospital found that some pathogens that infected humans also infected these worms, leading the scientists to continue research on the organism. The main pathogen that the researchers worked with was the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacterium responsible for infections of burn injuries and of the outer ear, among other diseases.

“[The lab] decided to try using [C. elegans] in high throughput studies [where researchers quickly conduct thousands of tests], and that became very effective because you can grow so many [worms],” said Sit. “[The worms] basically just eat [the bacterium] E. coli; so it is relatively cheap to produce hundreds of thousands of these worms.”

Sit’s project dealt specifically with designing a method to perform the high throughput screening experiments that the lab was interested in conducting. He worked with a library of mutant Pseudomonas aeruginosa, each of which had a different gene that was missing from their DNA.

“My job was to design a way to infect all of the worms with the different units of bacteria and see which strains of bacteria did not kill the worms as well,” explained Sit. “Using the life of the worms as a readout, we could tell what genes are important in the Pseudomonas aeruginosa.”

Through this experiment, Sit was able to determine which bacteria were not as effective at killing the C. elegans when the worms were infected with the Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The lab could then look at what gene the Pseudomonas aeruginosa was missing to see which genes were important in its pathogenicity.

According to Sit, the greatest technical challenge in designing this screening method was getting the bacteria to grow at the same rate.

“Because they’re mutants […] some strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa tend to grow at different rates,” Sit said. “Also, sometimes the bacteria would start growing from a different concentration. To solve this problem I first troubleshooted a variety of different growing and incubation techniques to try and get all strains to grow at a comparable rate. As well, I would keep track of the final density of the bacteria right before they were used for infection. When we would find out whether or not the bacteria killed the C. elegans, we would look back to see whether the density of bacteria was extremely low. If this was the case, it could tell us that perhaps the mutant bacteria did not kill the worms because they grew poorly and not because the mutant had a defect in its pathogenesis, which is what we were looking for.”.”

Sit uses C. Elegans, a type of roundworm, to study immunology. (unews.utah.edu)
Sit uses C. Elegans, a type of roundworm, to study immunology. (unews.utah.edu)

Sit developed this technique through trouble shooting, as well as by looking into the past about how other researchers had solved problems in growing bacteria in a high throughput environment.

While Sit has worked in numerous other labs, his experience at the Oswald Lab provided him with the opportunity to gain independence in his research.

“I worked under a postdoctorate researcher, Dr. Kirienko, who taught me all the relevant techniques and gave great guidance; but she really pushed me to work on my own, which was really important for my own development,” Sit said.

Sit’s efforts paid off this past November, when he was awarded a second-place prize for his project at the Undergraduate Research Conference held at McGill. Sit plans to continue his involvement in research at McGill, where he is currently working for professor Nahum Sonenberg. He hopes to make the most of the mobility afforded to undergraduate researchers by taking advantage of the opportunity to work in a variety of labs before he graduates.

What is your favourite part of working in a lab?

“I think my favourite part about biological techniques is the moment when you get the data out—the read out—because it is always exciting to see whether it worked, or it is disappointing when you see everything failed. [To see the C. elegans mortality rate], I dyed the organism with a stain known as SYTOX orange, which selectively enters dead C. elegans worms [and makes them] glow. I would put the entire plate under a microscope and take a [picture] of a florescent image and just a regular image. There was this program called Cell Profiling, and it is able to calculate the area of the C. elegans worms both in the fluorescent image and the non-fluorescent image, [giving us] a readout of the percent dead.”

Advice for other students applying to a lab?

“The trick is to apply to labs when they’re not as busy or when they’re not filled up. I remember the first time I applied for a lab during the summer I [did so] kind of late—towards January, February, and March. By that time, some laboratories are filled up. It doesn’t mean you’re not qualified, but it may mean that the [lab] does not have space. I think that’s one big thing, trying to apply early on and trying to find work that you’re really interested in.”

If you could have any superhero power, what would it be?

“I think definitely reversing time would be the most useful; [a] time turner—that would be nice.”

a, Hockey, Sports

The big game in the Big House

by Ben Carter-Whitney and Wyatt Fine-Gagné on

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On New Years Day, staff writer Wyatt Fine-Gagné and managing editor Ben Carter-Whitney were among the 105,491 fans who packed into Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, MI to watch the 2014 NHL Winter Classic. For this edition of Cheap Seats, they compare notes on their experiences.

 

Ben Carter-Whitney (BCW): When the NHL lost the first half of its 2012-2013 season to a lockout, fans feared that the scheduled matchup between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Detroit Red Wings for the league’s annual outdoor Winter Classic game would be lost as well. Luckily the game was rescheduled and completely made up for the year-long delay. The big game in the Big House was loud, exciting, and oh-so-very cold. Did you also have to defrost yourself afterwards, Wyatt?

 

Wyatt Fine-Gagné (WFG): I think that game will go down as the coldest I’ve ever felt. So yes, I spent a good chunk of time that night trying to get some feeling in my extremities. As much as I hated the cold, however, I was happy that we got a snowy, picturesque Winter Classic, as opposed to a warm and rainy game like the one in Pittsburgh a few years ago.

 

BCW: The weather was definitely fitting for the occasion, but the scenic wintery day wasn’t exactly conducive to great hockey—snow was gathering on the ice just as fast as the grounds crew could shovel it away. This encouraged a dump-and-chase style of hockey, resulting in a somewhat unimpressive on-ice product. Skilled offensive threats such as Pavel Datsyuk and Phil Kessel just didn’t have the impact they usually do.

 

WFG: Both teams were having a hard time completing passes. It felt like the play was constantly being stopped by an offside or icing call born out of an errant pass. By the time overtime rolled around, I was just hoping someone would score so we could all head home and get warm.

 

BCW: You almost got your wish, too. Red Wings’ captain Henrik Zetterberg had a breakaway stolen from him midway through overtime when the buzzer sounded, indicating that the teams should switch ends. There was confusion from both sides; this stoppage of play is not part of regular NHL games, but then again, regular games aren’t played with one team skating into 16 km/h wind!

 

WFG: That reminds me, you were surrounded by Detroit fans who couldn’t have been too happy about that buzzer. The Big House was split in half, with Leafs fans on one side and Red Wings fans occupying the other. I quite liked being surrounded by blue and white, but you were across the stadium—behind enemy lines so to speak. How did it affect your experience?

 

BCW: Yes, a last-minute ticket swap meant that I watched the game among the Red Wings faithful. Despite the differing allegiances, however, the atmosphere was still incredible. Everybody was respectful; everybody was just happy to be there. At the end of the day, we were all hockey fans—united in our growing excitement as the game moved to overtime, and finally divided once again by our reactions to Tyler Bozak’s shootout winner for the Leafs.

 

WFG: I’d agree with that. There were Detroit fans sprinkled throughout the half I sat on, but I didn’t see anything that came close to unfriendliness. As much as I enjoyed myself, I did have a couple issues with the game. There were huge lineups for just about everything, and the Big House staff seemed a little unprepared for the volume of people.

 

BCW: I think everybody experienced some of that, whether in the stadium or while sitting in the standstill traffic going to and from the game. To a certain extent though, it comes with the territory. These are the things that people tolerate to be a part of an event of this magnitude.

 

WFG: I’ve been to a number of hockey games in my lifetime, but this is one that will stick with me. A trip to the rink is usually defined by the outcome of the game. With the Winter Classic, it was almost everything but the game that made the experience special.

a, Student Life

Savoury slow cooker recipes

by Alycia Noë on

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After braving the bitterly cold winds on the walk home from class, what could be better than a warm and hearty meal? Slow cooking recipes mean your meals can be ready and waiting for you. Simply use a slow cooker or set your oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit (or the lowest temperature possible), pop your meal in for a few hours, and forget about it as you go about your day. These recipes also make large quantities of food, so you can freeze the leftovers for a quick and easy meal later.

Peanut Chicken

Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens

Ingredients:

2 thinly sliced onions
3 sliced carrots
1 diced red pepper
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs cut into strips
1 cup chicken broth
3 tbsp creamy peanut butter
zest of 1 lime
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp ginger
2-3 tbsp curry paste or powder
5 minced garlic cloves
½ cup coconut milk
1 cup frozen peas
Optional: other frozen vegetables, peanuts, cilantro

Instructions:

1. In a slow cooker or large oven-safe pan with a cover, place onions, carrots, red pepper, and any other vegetables. Place chicken on top of vegetables.
2. In a bowl, whisk together broth, peanut butter, lime zest, soy sauce, ginger, curry, and garlic.
3. Cook for 5-6 hours in either slow cooker on high setting, or in low temperature oven.
4. Stir in coconut milk and peas.
5. Serve over rice. Top with peanuts and cilantro for extra flavour and crunch.

 

Lentil Soup

(girlcooksworld.com)
(girlcooksworld.com)

Ingredients:

2 chopped onions
6 chopped carrots
4 minced garlic cloves
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp black pepper
¼ tsp cinnamon
6 cups vegetable or chicken broth
2 cups water
3 cups cauliflower
2 cups lentils
1 can diced tomatoes
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 package frozen spinach
lemon juice to taste

Instructions:

1. Combine all ingredients except spinach and lemon juice in a slow cooker or oven-safe pan with a lid.
2. Cook for 5-6 hours (high setting).
3. Stir in spinach half an hour before serving and sprinkle lemon juice on top of soup just before eating.

Apple and Maple Pulled Pork

Ingredients:

(kitchenkonfidence.com)
(kitchenkonfidence.com)

3 pounds pork (pork butt is best)
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp ground mustard
1 tbsp paprika
1 diced large onion
1 apple (peeled, cored, diced)
½ cup maple syrup
3 tbsp brown sugar
zest of 1 orange

Instructions:

1. Place pork in center of slow cooker or oven-safe pan.
2. Pour vinegar around pork.
3. Rub mustard and paprika into pork.
4. Add onion and apple.
5. Pour maple syrup over pork.
6. Sprinkle orange zest and brown sugar over pork.
7. Cook for 6-8 hours (high setting).
8. With forks, pull apart pork and allow it to cook in juices for up to an additional 30 minutes.
9. Serve on a bun, on top of rice or salad, or with coleslaw or potatoes. 

a, Science & Technology

SciTech Calendar: Jan. 14

by Caity Hui on

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Major Depression and Suicide: Presentation by Dr. Gustavo Turecki

Contact [email protected] to RSVP

Jan 20, 6 to 8 p.m.

The Killam Prize lecture—Vaccines: Impact on Global Health and Economics

Lecture given by Dr. Lorne A. Babiuk, 2013 Killam Prize Winner in Health Sciences. Registration is free but on a first-come, first-served basis

Visit http://www.mcgill.ca/research/killam2014-rsvp to RSVP

Jan 20, 5:30-6:30 p.m.

Faculty Club; 3450 rue McTavish

Freaky Friday: Comment reagissent les mammiferes marins face aux toxiques presents dans l’Arctique et le Saint-Laurent?

In French. A discussion will be followed by the movie, Homotoxicus. For more information: http://www.mcgill.ca/redpath/whatson/freakyfridays

Jan 17, 5 to 6 p.m.

Redpath Museum

a, Hockey, Sports

10 Things: The Winter Olympics

on

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1

The first Winter Olympics was held in Chamonix, a winter resort town in the French Alps in 1924, where 285 athletes from 16 different countries competed in six different sports. Charles Jewtraw, an American speed skater, won the first gold medal in the history of the Games in 500m speed skating.

 

2

East German speed skater Christa Luding Rothenburger became the first and only athlete to earn a medal in the same year at both the Winter and Summer Olympics in 1988, the last time both Games were held in the same year. Rothenburger won gold and silver medals in Calgary in speed skating, her primary sport before switching gears and joining the track cycling team in Seoul.

 

3

The 2014 Winter Olympics taking place in Sochi, Russia will be the warmest (expected average temperatures of 8°C) and most expensive games held to date, with an estimated cost of more than $50 billion. It also represents the first time after the breakup of the former Soviet Union that Russia has hosted the Olympic Games.

 

4

The first Russian to carry the Olympic torch in this year’s relay was NHL star Alexander Ovechkin. The torch will travel over 65,000 kilometres and pass through all 83 regions of Russia, making it the longest relay in the history of the Winter Olympics.

 

5

The Winter Olympics have never been held in the southern hemisphere, but, unsurprisingly athletes from regions with frigid northern climates such as Scandinavia, North America, and Northern Europe have been historically dominant on the podium. Austria, Canada, Norway, Finland, Sweden, and the United States are the only countries to have medalled in every game since Chamonix.

 

6

Even with the influence of Cold War politics hanging over previous Olympics such as Moscow 1980 and Los Angeles 1984, the Sochi Games stand to be one of the most controversial Olympics to date. Numerous heads of state, including American President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, have refused to attend on the basis of Russia’s anti-gay laws.

 

7

Since 1992, numerous sports have been added to the Olympic palette and have increased the worldwide appeal and marketability of the Winter Games. Popular mainstays from X Games sports such as freestyle skiing and snowboarding have crossed over onto the international stage and have seen increased parity in medal standings.

 

8

The 2010 Vancouver Olympics was only the second time that Canada had hosted the Winter Games—the first being in Calgary in 1988. Canadians garnered 14 gold medals in Vancouver to lead the medal board. This total broke the previous record for most gold medals—13, held by both the Soviet Union (1976) and Norway (2002).

 

9

Sadly, the Winter Olympics have seen the deaths of multiple athletes throughout the Games. Two skiiers and two lugers have died in the 90 years since the Games were created. Nodar Kumaritashvili, a Georgian luger, is the most recent athlete to have passed away, following an accident at the Whistler Sliding Centre during the Vancouver Games.

 

10

Canada’s most successful sport at the Olympics has been ice hockey, in which the red and white have earned 11 gold medals. The women’s team has won the past three tournaments, while the men’s squad has emerged victorious in two of the past three Olympics.

a, Student Life

Staying fit without the fitness centre

by Max Berger on

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If one were to do a Family Feud-style poll of the most common New Years resolutions, getting in better shape would probably take the number one spot—and rightfully so. Especially during winter, when getting to class can feel like a burden in itself (residents of Lorne and Aylmer excused), committing to frequent physical activity can take some serious motivation.

To many people, “getting in better shape” is synonymous with “going to the gym”—hence the Monday after New Years traditionally is the most crowded day of the year at gyms. There’s nothing wrong with going to a gym, especially if building up muscle strength—or more bluntly, getting jacked—is your intended goal. But for those students who aren’t set on that particular result, McGill and the downtown Montreal area offer plenty of alternatives that will keep you fit through the winter semester—and maybe even save you some money.

Using the Fitness Centre in the McGill Sports Centre requires a $27 membership fee from undergraduate students and a $37 fee from graduate students each semester. If you’re mostly interested in a good cardio workout and don’t feel like forking over the money or potentially waiting in line for a treadmill, the track in Tomlinson Fieldhouse might be a better option for you. Certain time slots are booked for varsity team practices, but the six-lane ovular surface is available pretty frequently, even when intramural games are taking place in the centre of the track.

Another free, viable cardio option in the Sports Centre is the Memorial Pool. Although water polo season takes up some extra pool space on weekends, there’s usually a minimum of three time slots available on weekdays for recreational swimming. Slow swimmers have no need to worry about keeping up in a crowded lane, since lanes are divided and marked by pace. Other perks include the assortment of flutter boards available for use and the stream of generally good songs blasting from the speakers. I recommend swimming head-up breaststroke to take full advantage of the music.

For those who are more sports-oriented, there are a variety of free pick-up games available in the Centre. On Friday afternoons, recreational badminton and basketball are offered in the gymnasiums, and volleyball and soccer are offered in the Fieldhouse. Squash courts are available most days of the week, provided you book a court online in advance.

If you’ve also resolved to relax in the year or increase your flexibility and strength, free or inexpensive yoga classes are available around the city. Lululemon holds free yoga classes once a week at their four locations. The classes differ each week and have a different focus including a meditation class. They have mats you can borrow if you don’t have your own, but be sure to go early to grab a spot since the space fills up quickly.

Hitting the ice is a classic Montreal winter fitness activity—no, navigating the treacherous ice-capped sidewalks doesn’t count. Skates don’t necessarily come cheap if you don’t have them already, but they’re a great investment and also one of the best ways to be active and outdoors. There are small fees involved for skating and shinny (pick-up hockey) at McConnell arena, and there are also public rinks available nearby like Beaver Lake on Mount Royal or Jeanne-Mance Park. If you’re a casual skater and don’t feel like gliding around for an hour is enough of a workout, try walking over to Parc La Fontaine. It’s a scenic skate over a winding frozen pond and walking there and back from the Milton-Parc area is a workout in itself.

Staying fit until the snow starts to melt is no easy task, but at least there are lots of options available. Whether you end up running laps around a track from January to April, skating in the Plateau, or taking up an obscure sport like squash simply because it’s available, best of luck to you.

a, Arts & Entertainment, Music

James Vincent McMorrow — Post Tropical

by Morgan Alexander on

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Irish singer-songwriter James Vincent McMorrow is set to release his new album, Post Tropical, only his second full-length album since the 2011 release of Early In the Morning. The album is jam-packed with soulful folk ballads woven with delicate lyrical themes and a breezy breathlessness alluded to by its title. This is the type of music you can allow yourself to be absorbed into—slow, poetic, and undeniably beautiful.

The signature sound in this album is without a doubt McMorrow’s longing falsetto, lingering through each verse and allowing for tracks to flow smoothly from one to the next. Playing with themes of lust and longing, McMorrow’s lyrics melt out over simple instrumental tracks, allowing the listener to meld into the music without feeling suffocated by it.

While the album is relatively slow, it still exhibits some pop-like themes and maintains individuality from song to song. Some highlights of the album come from the enticing strong drum riffs of “Repeating” and the heart-wrenching hymn-like lyrics within “Outside, Digging.”

By combining strong vocals with simple yet powerful instrumentals, McMorrow has produced an ethereal soul album with a contemporary feel.

a, Features

Snowed out: a guide to Montreal in the wintertime

by Ben Pidduck on

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As Montreal becomes entombed in snow and the cold creeps deeper into our bones, many McGill students thoughtlessly write off the Quebec winter as devoid of life. While the cold may hinder our motivation to venture out, it can also unearth many fantastic winter activities, for which Quebec is renowned internationally. So before you curl up under your covers for another season of One Tree Hill on a Saturday afternoon, consider the wide assortment of winter activities around you! From discovering all that Mont Royal offers to heading out further into the surrounding area, push yourself to escape the McGill bubble and discover the winter wonderland that is Quebec.

Mont Royal and Parc Jean-Drapeau play host to the majority of winter activities within the city, dispelling the myth that such destinations can only be accessed by car. In reality, some of the best lie right at the doorstep of the McGill campus and many are accessible with public transportation.

Chris Conery, a U3 Management student and avid snowboarder, emphasized how accessible winter activities can be here in Montreal.

“We are so lucky to go to a school in a city whose winter has so much to offer,” Conery said. “It is amazing how many exciting events are downtown throughout the winter.” Parc Jean-Drapeau is only a short Metro ride on the yellow line (Stop: Jean-Drapeau; single fare: $3). Access to both parks is free of charge, with activities such as cross-country skiing or snowshoeing costing a few bucks more. Mont Royal activities will stay open until late April. However, attractions at Parc Jean-Drapeau are only open for the duration of Fête des Neiges (Snow Festival), on the four weekends starting Jan. 18.

Winter sports in the city

With the plummeting temperatures comes ice, and the Canadian pastime of skating could not find a better home than Montreal.  There are plenty of places around the downtown core to practice your skills. For beginners, Lac-Aux-Castors (Beaver Lake) on Mont Royal is the best, offering the cleanest ice surface, affordable skate rentals ($9/2hrs), and beautiful views of the city. For more advanced skaters or those looking to learn how to play hockey, Parc Jeanne-Mance and the McConnell Arena offer great shinny (pick-up hockey) games.

Humbly accepting its role as the butt of many jokes, curling has carved itself out a unique niche in the sports world. Canada has back-to-back Olympic gold medals for curling, and more and more people are trying out this curious sport often dubbed “Chess on Ice.” The game is competitive, tactical, and above all, much harder than it appears. Stewart Museum on St Helen’s Island (near Parc Jean-Drapeau) rents out curling ice rinks for $20, which can each hold a group of eight to ten people.

Mont Royal also offers unparalleled accessibility for snowshoeing and Nordic skiing, both of which are great ways to get exercise while enjoying the great outdoors. Mont Royal has 22 kilometres of groomed cross-country skiing trails. Skis and snowshoes can be rented from the McGill Recreation desk in the Sports Complex for $10/day. Alternatively, Parc Jean-Drapeau has several kilometres of trails and offers rentals for $19/2hrs.

Another popular winter activity is snow tubing, which involves riding a large inflated rubber inner-tube down a slope either solo or with friends. Mont Royal features Montreal’s best-known and most accessible park, where it costs $9 to participate. For the intrepid tuber, Parc Jean-Drapeau and Mont Avila feature more precarious slopes.

For those looking for an even more exotic adventure Fête des Neiges offers hour-long dog-sled tours around the island for $12. Aside from the experience of harnessing the power of 10 sled-dogs, the tour will also allow you to meet and spend time with the majestic dogs at their kennel before and after the ride.

Those interested in terrain-park skiing and snowboarding can seek out Parc Jean-Drapeau, which has recently installed a new cable-pulley system (télétraction) to sharpen your skills on rails, jumps, and boxes. Though not cheap, it’s a great alternative to night-skiing and will help you quickly prefect skills to later show off at the mountain.

Destinations Outside of Montreal

Those willing to move further outside Montreal are rewarded with a rich and diverse set of winter activities. Though feared by many for its brutal and biting cold, Eastern Canada is also internationally renowned for fantastic skiing and snowboarding. As residents of Montreal, we are uniquely situated near various mountains that span out to the north, south, and west. Great skiing is not only reserved for those with cars; there are many forms of public transportation from Montreal’s core to the surrounding mountains.

The popular mountain Bromont is less than 45 minutes from Montreal’s core and is large given its proximity, boasting 102 runs serviced by nine lifts. A mountain for all skill levels, it plays host to great learning facilities for skiers and snowboarders alike as well as a large terrain park and glade skiing for more advanced riders. Bromont is also one of the few hills to offer night-skiing, which runs until 10 p.m. Runs are lit with floodslights and lift tickets are cheap, making night skiing a great evening activity following work or class.  The mountain is serviced by the Students’ Society of McGill University’s Ski and Snowboard Club (SSMUSki), but can also be accessed with public transport from Transdev Limocar (limocar.ca), which drops you off in the Bromont village and offers student discounts (approximately $20 one way).

Mont Tremblant is only an hour and a half from Montreal, yet it offers some of the best skiing in the entire Northeast. It is not uncommon to find French nationals and American tourists venturing to Tremblant to discover their fantastic hills, beautiful views, and vibrant village. The Tremblant village is a staggering network of everything one could desire, from hot tubs to coffee bars, high-end shopping to microbreweries. With more than 650 acres of skiable terrain serviced by fourteen lifts, Tremblant is the crown jewel of Quebec skiing and is internationally acclaimed. New skiers will love the diversity of terrain available to hone their newfound skills, while more advanced riders will stay ever enthralled with the glade skiing, diving black diamonds, and gigantic terrain park. The mountain is serviced by SSMU Ski and Snowboard Club as well as by public buses. The Gallant Bus company services the route from Station Centrale (1717 Rue Berri), leaving at 7:30 a.m., and making stops at Mont Blanc, Mont Sainte-Sauveur, and finally at Tremblant Village at around 10:15 a.m.

If you’ve brought your passport with you to school, a gem lies just beyond the Vermont border for all of your winter sport needs. Jay Peak, renowned for skiing with its 1,200 metre mountain, also hosts a variety of other winter sports, including cross-country skiing, snowmobiling, and snowshoeing. For those looking for something a little different, Jay Peak features a massive new indoor water park with several slides, hot tubs, a lazy river, and an artificial wave pool.

Other Festivals and Attractions

If your skills have been honed at Jeanne-Mance enough for the big leagues, put your team to the test and sign up for the Montreal Pond Hockey Festival on Feb. 8 and 9. Located in the picturesque town of Old Lachine, Quebec (only a 10 minute drive from Montreal), the tournament draws over 50 teams from across the province. So whether you’re there for the glory, the “Best Bucket” competition, or the free Moosehead, there’s something beautifully Canadian about hockey that can be cherished by all.

The Barbegazi Winter Action Sports Festival is also a great option for those looking for an adrenaline-infused weekend of lumberjack, snowskate, and freestyle snowmobiling competition. Set on the backdrop of Olympic Stadium and running on Feb. 15 and 16, it’s a glimpse into the world of extreme sports for those willing to take the plunge.

For the bravest souls, the Montreal Ice Canoe Challenge is a canoe race over ice, snow, and water in the Old Port of Montreal. On Saturday, Feb. 22, competitors in groups of five will run and paddle their 25-foot canoes across the arctic waters of the St. Lawrence. This challenge is part of the “circuit québécois de canot à glace,” an intense ice canoe racing competition, and is a perennial hit amongst fans looks for thrills, spills, and revelling in others’ misery.

Getting Involved On Campus

There are a variety of resources at your disposal to help facilitate your introduction to the Quebec winter wonderland.

SSMUSki runs weekly trips on weekends to mountains throughout Northeast Canada. With your $100 membership comes free coach transportation to and from hills, reduced lift ticket fees (30-50 per cent off), as well as use of their tuning equipment.

As Sebastian Groenhuijsen, Co-President of SSMUSki points out, “SSMUSki caters to any and all skiers and snowboarders, doesn’t matter if you shred every week, or only once a year. We provide super cheap lift tickets and transportation and let you decide what you want to do at the mountain.”

For those looking to push themselves further outside their comfort zone, McGill Outdoors Club (MOC) facilitates a variety of winter trips, including snowshoeing, winter camping, ice-climbing, ski touring, ice-fishing, ice-breaker canoeing and many more. MOC runs trips on an ongoing basis and is accessible to all with a $20 membership.

Finally, the McGill International Students Network (MISN) offers overnight ski trips specifically for international students to mountains around Quebec.

Lara Bailey, Treasurer of MOC, explains why life is better in the great outdoors.

“Being in the snow, fresh air, and sun clears out the cobwebs in your brain and gets your blood pumping.” Bailey says. “A day of wading through snow sharpens the mind for a week of academic assault […it is] better battling mother nature instead of the books.”

We are constantly overwhelmed by information; tweets, texts, messages, notifications, emails, phone calls, articles, readings, essays, and group projects alike. Sometimes the best thing to do for yourself is to step away, breathe deep, and enjoy the simpler things in life.

For more information, check out:

www.mcgilloutdoorsclub.ca

www.ssmuski.com

www.misn.ca

Full disclosure: Benjamin Pidduck is the Co-President of SSMU Ski and Snowboard Club

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