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Science & Technology, Student Research

The cognitive mechanisms behind depression

by Evan Kashton on

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One in five Canadians will experience some form of mental illness in a given year. By the age of 40, 50 per cent of the population will have had a mental illness as the result of a complex interaction between personality, biological, and environmental factors.

Bipolar disorder has a clear, established relationship with genetics. Though this is less true for Major Depressive Disorder, there is still a clear biological component. Specifically, scientists have linked depression to the hippocampus, a structure in the brain responsible for creating and storing memories. Stress causes this region to become smaller and also results in hyperactivity in the amygdala, a region associated with emotion. 

Researchers like Pascale Bockelmann, a Master’s student in the Department of Psychiatry at McGill, are still working to develop a full picture of the condition. Bockelmann believes that depression is, in part, due to a lack of cognitive flexibility, which can be described as the ability to change mindsets.

“The better your cognitive flexibility is, the faster you’ll be able to recover from depression, because a lot of the therapeutic techniques that are used to treat depression also use the same ability or skillset that relies on cognitive flexibility,” Bockelmann said.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one such therapeutic technique for mild to moderate depression that, according to the McGill University Health Centre, focuses on restoring a healthy and productive balance to the interaction between thoughts, actions, and feelings. CBT is meant to be short-term (12-20 sessions), a departure from older psychoanalytic methods.

However, cognitive flexibility offers more than therapeutic value.

“There’s been research to show that cognitive flexibility is predictive of depression, so if you have high cognitive flexibility, you’re less likely to [develop] depression,” Bockelmann said. 

Bockelmann would also like to research how developing cognitive flexibility at a young age can be used as a preventative measure. 

“If you’re able to include tasks in elementary school education that promote cognitive flexibility, it can have a lot of benefits […] for problem solving and creativity but maybe also benefits in terms of being able to overcome mental illnesses like depression,” Bockelmann said.

She chose individuals from multicultural backgrounds—defined as being bilingual and having lived in three countries before turning 18—as the study population for her research on depression, since moving around has been linked to higher rates of depression. Bockelmann explained that this is because those who move around a lot often do not have a solid community that they are part of.

“It’s almost the cleanest group,” Bockelmann said. “There are not as many variables to consider, and you can look at culture in a more isolated way.” 

Bockelmann believes that studying multicultural populations can offer an interesting perspective in depression research.

A study that Bockelmann conducted found a possible link between multicultural background and creative problem solving, but it did not show a positive association with cognitive flexibility. She intends to replicate the study with a larger sample size to obtain clearer results.

As is the case with many scientists, Bockelmann became interested in the field of cognitive flexibility and in her study population as a result of personal experience. 

“I grew up as a third-culture kid and lived in many different countries […] and always wondered if it really made me see or think about the world differently than other people,” Bockelmann said.

As her research progresses, she may soon be able to confidently answer that question.

Sports

Instant replay holds officials to a better standard

by Adam Bell on

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The future of video review in the NFL changed at 8:59 p.m. on Jan. 20, 2019. The New Orleans Saints held the ball on the 13-yard line with 1:48 left in the game and a chance to book their ticket to the Super Bowl. Veteran quarterback Drew Brees, the all-time passing yard leader, dropped back and threw a dart toward Tommylee Lewis. Before the ball got to him, Lewis was hit by Nickell Robey-Coleman, an obvious penalty. New Orleans was awarded an automatic first down and ran out the clock to kick the game-winning field goal as time expired. Or, at least that is what should have happened. Instead, the officials did not call a foul, and the Saints were robbed of their 2019 Super Bowl dreams. This single play exposed a glaring weakness in NFL officiating: The need for video assistance in interpretive penalties.

In March 2019, instant replay began to cover pass interference on a one-year trial basis. In theory, fouls should now be called correctly as a result, but this has not proven to be the case. Fans and coaches alike are more frustrated and confused about what constitutes a “clear and obvious” foul. In fact, only 17.5 per cent of coaches’ challenges, with regards to pass interferences, have actually resulted in a decision being overturned.

This is not a problem unique to the NFL. The NBA is now allowing coaches to challenge some of the officials’ decisions once per game. Again, these challenges have a low success rate and have left coaches frustrated. While it was amusing to watch Doc Rivers lose his mind when referees upheld a ridiculous offensive foul on Lou Williams in the Nov. 6, 2019 matchup against the Bucks, he expressed an exasperation that many people are also experiencing. 

Rivers brought up an important point: Nobody, including officials, wants to be wrong. This is especially true when it comes to judgement calls. When a judgment call is checked, the officials usually stick with their original decisions because each incident could be interpreted in multiple ways.

This leaves us asking whether leagues should still offer video assistance to their officials. The short answer is yes. The problem does not lie with the technology itself, but rather the lack of transparency in its use. While the flow of the game and, sometimes, celebrations are interrupted, spectators and athletes are often left in the dark as the officials deliberate. As a result, when the decision is unexpected, the crowd, teams, and social media blow up. This is a frequent occurrence with video-assisted refereeing in European soccer as well, especially in the Premier League.

Leagues around the world could learn from television match officials in rugby, which has been a tremendous success. Viewers at home and spectators who have purchased the ref link technology can listen to the discussions between the head official and the television match official. Fans and referees get to watch the exact same replays, and there is no lengthy process because officials do not waste time overanalyzing the incident on a screen off-field, but rather observe the big screen visible to all in attendance. In effect, the public is guided through the officials’ thought process, which humanizes these often-vilified individuals and minimizes the impact of interruptions by keeping everyone engaged.

Officials are people, and people make mistakes. Professional leagues across sports can, and should, use technological assistance to their benefit. If leagues make the communication between officials available for everyone to listen to, not only will the public be kept informed, but it could also prevent officials from being berated publicly after an unpopular decision. They should embrace the technology and maximize the audience’s experience. 

Commentary, Opinion

McGill should prioritize affordable housing

by Yuecheng Huang on

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For the past two decades, housing prices in Montreal have risen consistently by around five percent per year. While students from other Canadian universities, such as the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia, have benefited from large scale affordable housing projects sponsored by their universities, McGill students are still waiting for theirs. This past October, the Students Society of McGill University (SSMU) took its first step towards providing affordable housing by approving a motion for the creation of an Affordable Housing Committee. This newly created group, however, has been hesitant in implementing concrete measures to address housing concerns. As students of a major Canadian university, McGill students deserve better than an indecisive housing committee.

The Montreal historically known to Canadians as relatively affordable is rapidly changing. Indeed, average rent has risen approximately $250 since 2008. Even more troubling, the city’s vacancy rate has just hit its lowest point in over 15 years, meaning that merely finding a place to rent can be difficult. Faced with higher prices and fewer housing options, students looking for a place to stay during the semester are confronted with a strenuous process. Due to high demand and low vacancy rates, more than 5,000 students in Montreal found themselves unable to secure a room in a university residence in 2016. While many cities comfortably provide school residences to more than half the students within the city, Montreal struggles to accommodate even three per cent of its student population. 

“The Montreal historically known to Canadians as relatively affordable is rapidly changing. Indeed, average rent has risen approximately $250 since 2008.”

Students living off-campus also face distinct challenges. Those choosing to reside downtown must deal with some of the highest rents in the city, while those living further away from campus deal with longer commutes and decreased access to campus activities. Moreover, as a result of the inflated rent of certain neighbourhoods such as the Plateau Mont-Royal, many McGill students feel compelled to work more than 20 hours per week. Of these students, a significant portion feel overwhelmed by the necessity of juggling both working and studying. Research suggests that there is a clear link between the quality of a student’s mental health and their perceived financial stress. McGill could improve students’ mental wellbeing by providing them with accessible housing.

While the city’s government has recognized the problem of unaffordable housing and promised to build thousands of new rent-controlled living spaces by 2021, it is apparent that McGill is not following suit. The scope of the newly formed Affordable Housing Committee within SSMU pales when compared to the efforts put in by the city and by other universities. The committee aims to provide students with around 150 new units of rent-controlled apartments, though they remain unsure about how these units are to be funded, and seem to still be in the process of discussing whether temporary housing should be offered alongside apartments. 

L’Unité de travail pour l’implantation de logement étudiant (UTILE), the organization in charge of carrying out the construction of affordable units for SSMU, has estimated that a student fee of around five dollars per semester for 10 semesters would be enough to cover a significant portion of the cost of providing more affordable housing to students. Despite such a streamlined and straightforward way of acquiring funding, SSMU seems hesitant to implement this fee. 

“While the city’s government has recognized the problem of unaffordable housing and promised to build thousands of new rent-controlled living spaces by 2021, it is apparent that McGill is not following suit.”

Even in Montreal, however, McGill lags behind its peers. The Concordia Student Union’s housing project is similar to that of SSMU, but has been well under way since 2014 and is set to be completed next year, while The Université de Montréal’s newly constructed campus in Outremont comes with 225 units of affordable housing. 

In the face of increasingly expensive housing,  SSMU seems uncertain about how to react. Considering that McGill is already behind when it comes to affordable housing, the union’s Affordable Housing Committee would benefit greatly from a healthy dose of urgency. Students have been waiting long enough. 

Commentary, Opinion

Embrace the McGill lifestyle

by Jonah Fried on

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McGill is a quintessential ‘take it or leave it’ school. Far from fully supporting its students, many of the institution’s realities make it unnecessarily difficult for students to succeed. Most emblematic, academic advisors are overworked because the need to serve as many students as possible in the shortest amount of time supersedes the quality of the services being provided. As a result, students have expressed that advisors are frequently underinformed about the issues most relevant to them because advisors do not have the time to research them. Similarly, student health services are notoriously deficient and inaccessible—a complex issue that has had consequences like McGill’s decision to cut funding for services such as its Eating Disorders program. Especially where mental health services or student disabilities are concerned, McGill simply does not have enough resources to serve its extensive student body. However, despite the challenges it poses, McGill’s laissez-faire approach fosters a particularly independent student body, something which the administration recognizes and for which it affords students certain privileges.

Government budget cuts are to blame for the university’s financial troubles, but this does not absolve the administration of responsibility. Not only do students have to deal with the various academic and health service issues stemming from McGill’s funding problems, students are forced to search for off-campus housing starting in their second year. Consequently, amid dealing with their academic pursuits while simultaneously grappling with the various issues plaguing McGill services, students also have to manage their own living circumstances earlier than students at some other Canadian and American schools. Being a student at McGill requires a high tolerance for bureaucratic impediments, administrative controversy, subpar services, and the ability to make do without any handholding from educational and administrative staff. However, these kinds of issues are ones that students will be forced to face after graduation. In addition to the difficulties that McGill’s hands-off style presents, it also benefits students by building their independence and resourcefulness.

One example of the extensive independence experienced by the student population is the scale of student government at McGill. The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) and its affiliated societies—such as the Science or Arts Undergraduate societies—comprise a complicated bureaucratic web that is as sophisticated as the administration itself. By way of representation within SSMU, students devise their own constitution, internal regulations, and policies. SSMU oversees a budget of over $3 million, a significant financial responsibility considering that SSMU is student-run. The rights that the laws of Quebec afford SSMU and other student unions in the province are relatively unique compared to other universities. Moreover, the extent to which SSMU exercises these privileges has tremendous consequences for the university as a whole, as exemplified by their recent passage of a moratorium on auxiliary funding until the Board of Governors commits to divesting from fossil fuels. 

“However, despite the challenges it poses, McGill’s laissez-faire approach fosters a particularly independent student body, something which the administration recognizes and for which it affords students certain privileges.”

The ability of student organizations to orchestrate events like the Open Air Pub (OAP), the Arts Undergraduate Society Bar (BDA) and Blues Pub also reflects the autonomy of McGill students in the same way that SSMU does. Such operations require immense logistical planning and force students to be mature organizers of large-scale events. The fact that the administration allows undergraduate societies to manage such events on campus, even allowing first-year residence councils and the Inter-Residence Council (IRC) to plan events with alcoholic beverages is telling. The administration expects McGill students to be mature and capable of managing their own affairs because they leave students with no other option. 

McGill is imperfect, but perhaps it should be. This dynamic, and sometimes even contentious relationship between the administration and the student body, is educational for students. After all, the world is imperfect, and ideally, McGill prepares students to live in it. Ultimately, students often have only themselves and their fellow students to rely on for support. For better or worse, this ‘trial-by-fire’ approach is how students have and continue to endure the McGill experience. It is a reality responsible for the distinctive character of McGill’s student body, bringing it to life, and it is sustained by successive generations of students who continue to gravitate towards a lifestyle built on independence.

 

Off the Board, Opinion

TikTok is unexpectedly revolutionary

by Leyla Moy on

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In 2010, I wrote my first ever social media post: “What is this Buzz thing?” I typed it out on the family computer, posted it to the now-defunct Google Buzz, and immediately clicked the like button on my own post. Looking back on it now, it’s difficult to believe it was ever new, since everything about the website seems comically antique—the plain-text posts could be “re-shared,” a phrase which itself seems immediately outdated, and the flat interface prominently features email among its sharing options. Still, on the hulking PCs in my school’s basement computer lab, Buzz felt fresh and immediate. Our blinking cursors became launchpads to shoot truncated words and emoticons across the room, like passing virtual notes. This is the same sort of feeling that apps like TikTok invoke today.

Comparing Buzz to the social media of today is a dizzying testament to how much has changed in the last nine years. Walls of text have been replaced by shorter, punchier tweets. YouTube videos have gone from advertisements to earnest diaries and back again, and apps have become the preferred way to socially connect, as our laptops have become places to work, or at least to pretend to.

“Our blinking cursors became launchpads to shoot truncated words and emoticons across the room, like passing virtual notes. This is the same sort of feeling that apps like TikTok invoke today.”

In 2018, the Chinese tech startup ByteDance revived the shell of the lip-syncing app Musical.ly into TikTok, which is now the world’s most downloaded app. On a cursory scroll-through, TikTok is both jarring and immersive as it pelts the viewer with a rapid-fire stream of looping clips. Unlike the rest of social media, TikTok is on the results of an algorithm rather than a user’s friends. The pedigree of ByteDance’s machine learning ventures shows in the ‘For You’ page, which uses artificial intelligence to tailor its content to your tastes over time and present a continual stream of user-targeted content, like a smarter Instagram Explore page.

The frenetic quality of the TikTok user experience is also partially due to the complex way memes proliferate through it. As social media evolved, the definition of a meme became increasingly difficult to pin down. Gone are the LOLcats days of image macros with blaring Impact font, visually alerting the viewer that what they are seeing is meant to make them laugh. Since videos are capped one minute, there is no exposition on TikTok, and therefore, hidden meaning needs to be condensed into sound. Breaking down the meme format to its bare essentials makes way for subtler forms of humour. TikTok, though initially targeted at the lucrative tween demographic, is an accidentally perfect vessel for sarcastic and absurd millennial humour. 

Memes aside, TikTok is a gem for burgeoning creatives. It uniquely breaks down barriers to content creation with its intuitive filming process, and the way memes propagate through the platform invites imitation and enables unknown accounts to go viral overnight. While the tag #shortfilms highlights the most artistic examples, viewers will be impressed by stylistic skill even in the simplest clips. In order to tell an effective story on TikTok, users need both an understanding of the app’s shared language and the basics of lighting, composition, and editing.

However, some of this creative appeal turns to cavities upon further inspection. In a culture becoming increasingly cautious about technology and privacy, TikTok is unashamed about mining your data. The looming corporate presence on TikTok surely stands to benefit from this, as the platform has been monetized through both ads interspersed in your scrolling and more subtle product placement. ELF Cosmetics recently commissioned the song behind the #eyeslipsface trend, and this encroachment of branding into what appears to be organic trends feels uncomfortable, if not surprising. 

:Memes aside, TikTok is a gem for burgeoning creatives. It uniquely breaks down barriers to content creation with its intuitive filming process, and the way memes propagate through the platform invites imitation and enables unknown accounts to go viral overnight.”

Privacy concerns are compounded for younger users. Over its lifespan, TikTok has managed to attract a broad user base whose sheer demographic diversity is at times uncanny—it is odd to see cops, teachers, priests, and The Washington Post interspersed with high-schoolers. There’s an uncomfortable history of pedophiles on TikTok, and if it was difficult to talk to your kids about the net in 2010 it seems doubly so now.  

For an app best known for popularizing a Mia Khalifa diss track, TikTok is already remarkably culturally significant. The same structural mechanisms that produce viral content break down barriers to getting creative work seen. At the same time, it is a hallmark of the issues that mar the ever evolving internet, and the tradeoffs we have made to keep our entertainment free and constant.

 

Editorial, Opinion

Anti-immigrant sentiments hurt Quebec

by The McGill Tribune Editorial Board on

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Following through on campaign promises made by premier François Legault, the Quebec government proposed long touted changes to the Quebec Experience Program (PEQ) on Nov. 1. The PEQ is a provincial program that offers immigrants to Quebec who are studying at an educational institution fast track to permanent residency following the completion of their degree; the program also applies to immigrants working in Quebec. The changes that the government sought to put into law would have decreased the number of programs and degrees considered valid for entering the PEQ process. Specifically, Legault stated that the government wanted to focus on limiting the PEQ to accepting jobs which focus on “serving” Quebec’s labour market: This means that degrees in engineering, nursing, and information technology sectors would continue to be considered valid for the PEQ, degrees in the liberal arts, sciences, and other areas would not. On Nov. 5, a group of students went to the National Assembly in Québec to ask government officials to abandon the changes, speaking about the debasing effects it could have on immigrant students. Since then, after waves of public criticism, the government has suspended the changes.

The changes proposed to the PEQ are clear examples of racism and xenophobia, sentiments that have characteristic of the CAQ’s leadership thus far. The proposal of such a policy, as well as any similarly structured restrictive immigration policy that the government may attempt to pass in the future, are condemnable. Further, Premier Legault’s worth-based rationale for the PEQ policy changes are troubling and problematic. Evaluating the worth of immigrant residents in the province by a metric which attempts to quantify their contribution to the economy is both destructive and dehumanizing.

It would be incorrect to view the CAQ’s most recent policy proposal in a vacuum. In conjunction with other actions this administration has taken thus far in its tenure, the proposed changes to the PEQ unmistakably manifest from exclusionary nationalist sentiments. For example, the proposed provincial ‘values test’ that the government has proposed for immigrants hoping to settle in Quebec contains questions designed to identify and discriminate against test takers based on their individual and religious beliefs. Additionally, the government has already reduced the total number of immigrant residents in the province by over 25 per cent since assuming power.

30 per cent of McGill’s student body is made up of international students, making many of them potential immigrants to Quebec post-graduation. For many international students, the PEQ presents not only a valuable resource as a possible path to citizenship, but a crucial pillar of stability for their life in Canada and Quebec. A parochial shift in the PEQ with regards to which programs are eligible would be devastating for McGill’s international student population. This policy would leave current students, scrambling to figure out how they are going to operate following their graduation. In addition, such a policy would certainly deter future students from coming to McGill to pursue higher education.

McGill could support international students by sending out a message of support and solidarity, and directing students to resources which could help them prepare for the worst if the CAQ decides to attempt to pass a racist policy again. In addition, the financial resources which McGill offers to non-refugee immigrant students in terms of aid, stipends, or bursaries are lacking at both the graduate and undergraduate level. The university should expand these resources to all international students in the future. People should not have to be escaping unlivable, crisis situations to qualify for financial aid.

The International Student Services (ISS) office has a variety of resources on their website that students can use to assess their post-graduation options. In addition, while the Legal Information Clinic (LIC) cannot offer specific legal advice, they can offer information about immigration law. Canadian students have a role to play in this process as well, which includes remaining informed and knowledgeable about provincial politics and the ways it affects their peers and classmates, and providing emotional support to those students who might suffer the consequences of the CAQ’s future policies. The McGill community is made up of both future and current Canadians, and we have a responsibility to support each other in times of need.

 

climate
Commentary, Opinion

A case against divestment

by Yuecheng Huang on

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On Oct. 10, McGill’s administration held a soirée in celebration of the McGill Sustainability Projects Fund’s (SPF) 10th anniversary. Since its creation, the fund has sponsored a variety of projects related to campus sustainability, ranging from mental health campaigns to climate change sensibilisation. The existence of the SPF, however, does not prevent student activists on campus from drawing attention to the university’s more deep-seated problems, such as its continued financial investment in the fossil-fuel industry. Indeed, climate activists on campus argue that, despite McGill’s claims to support sustainability, the university is not doing enough as an institution toward accomplishing that goal. While it might be true that McGill’s administration could improve upon its sustainability efforts, one must keep in mind that it is the students, and not the institution, who possess the power and bear the responsibility to exert change. 

Student activists on campus, including environmental groups such as Divest McGill, advocate for the university to adopt more aggressive measures of ensuring social and environmental sustainability, such as removing fossil fuel investments from McGill’s $1.68 billion endowment. These activist groups point out that the university exists as a public institution. As such, the public can reasonably demand the university to tackle issues of public interest rather than simply concerning itself with academic matters. 

Presently, however, McGill’s publicly-funded budget can barely cover its expenses. In 2018, the institution accumulated an operational deficit of $24 million, even with larger-than-anticipated provincial and federal grants. Importantly, this deficit was achieved by doing nothing more than paying the salaries of workers and maintaining the university’s crumbling infrastructure. The school is not expected to have a budget surplus until 2023. When an institution of higher learning runs out of money to finance the teaching of its students and the maintenance of its buildings, addressing environmental issues becomes a luxury.

Despite McGill’s clear budget limitations, Divest McGill asserts that there are investment opportunities other than fossil fuel companies that are both lucrative and environmentally friendly. Their claim is weakened, however, by their admission that they are by no means specialists in investment, and thus would be unable to predict the exact financial repercussions of divestment. While activist groups such as Divest McGill raise important points about sustainability and climate change, their advocacy may lead to unforeseen, but concrete, damages to the university’s finances, and by extension harm the already lacking budget of McGill. 

It is the students, and not the administration, who bear the responsibility of tackling sustainability. Environmental activists at McGill seem to think that actions are worthless without institutional support; yet in countless cases, institutional change follows individual actions. 

The SPF was founded in November 2009 by the school’s three student associations: The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), the Macdonald Campus Student Society (MCSS) and McGill’s Post Graduate Student’s Society (PGSS). A referendum was held, and the vast majority of students voted, individually, for the creation of a fund for sustainability funded by students. Today, it distributes around $1 million per year, half of which comes from students, in an effort to create a more sustainable campus. 

While it is often easy to point out the McGill administration’s apparent apathy towards sustainability issues, one must remember that the university’s primary mandate is to provide quality education. Students, on the other hand, possess ample means to tackle the issue of sustainability, and should be careful not to underestimate the impact of their individual actions.

McGill Lacrosse
Men's Varsity, Sports

In Conversation with Tim Murdoch

by Sarah Farnand on

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After 17 years and 290 wins, Tim Murdoch is stepping down as McGill’s men’s lacrosse coach, leaving an impressive legacy behind him. He led the team from its first ever win to an undefeated regular season in 2019, four national championship appearances, and two championship titles. 

When Murdoch first came to McGill in 2003, the men’s lacrosse team had never won a single regular-season game. This changed in the opening game of his first season at McGill, when they beat the Carleton University Ravens 8–6. 

“Changing your mindset from losing all the time to actually being able to win is huge,” Murdoch said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “It was a really important moment for our team.” 

Less than 10 years later, in 2012, McGill won their first Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association (CUFLA) Championship. To achieve this, the team had to win two games in 24 hours against two of the top teams in Canada: The University of Guelph and The University of Western Ontario (UWO). In the championship game against Western, they won in double overtime. McGill would go on to win the championship again in 2015.

Murdoch has learned a lot about being a leader in his time at McGill. 

“I’m not, by nature, a calm person, so that has been my biggest personal challenge,” Murdoch said. “[To] just stay calm and believe in your team.” 

Murdoch also feels that it is important to be open and honest about your weaknesses as a leader and to surround yourself with other leaders who complement your own style. 

“Assistant coaches are hugely important to your success as a team, especially as the size of our roster has expanded from 17 players to 47 players,” Murdoch said. “In my case, I’ve been fortunate to have attracted very talented assistant coaches.” 

Murdoch’s son Max has been on the team for the past five years. Max, who was elected team captain in 2018, has been involved with McGill’s lacrosse program since he was seven years old.

“It has been a neat connection that he and I [have] enjoyed for the past five seasons,” Murdoch said. “I’m really happy to have gone through the experience with him. That’s another reason why I think the timing of my departure is appropriate. He is graduating, we have strong coaches in place, and we are stable financially.”

After retirement, Murdoch is planning a four-month trip to Asia and the South Pacific with his wife Pascale (B.Sc. ‘87). Being away from her many nights and almost every weekend in the Fall for the past 17 years has been difficult.

“My wife has been incredibly supportive,” Murdoch said.  “I’m really excited about having more flexibility and free time for my own family and my wife and my kids.” 

As for his ‘day job’ as a marketing consultant and partner in a real estate firm, Murdoch has no plans of retiring. He is ready for a well-deserved rest from coaching, however, and he remains uncertain about his future involvement with the lacrosse team. 

“The new head coach will take charge in 2020,” Murdoch said. “If he thinks that I may be able to support the program in 2020 in non-coaching roles […], I may be able to stay involved on a limited basis. [Either way,] I will definitely be McGill Lacrosse’s number one fan.”

McGill’s undefeated season ended on Nov. 9 at Molson Stadium with a 6–5 loss to UWO in the semifinal stage of the national championship tournament. Next season, they look to avenge their loss and become national champions once again.

Research Briefs, Science & Technology

Drug testing sewage systems

by Madison McLauchlan on

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Substance use is a global issue, affecting more than 235 million people annually. As public awareness of the opioid epidemic grows, up-to-date information on drug use remains critical in addressing these health concerns. The importance of such data led to a study that was published in the journal Addiction in October, which sought to better understand worldwide drug consumption habits in major urban areas. But instead of making citizens pee in a cup, researchers focussed on the sewage systems of cities.

Before reaching the water treatment plant, effluent samples were collected and analyzed for four drugs: Cocaine, methamphetamine, amphetamine, and ecstasy (MDMA). When excreted in urine, these drugs leave biochemical markers that are easy to identify after purification. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) acts as an intermediate technique to connect raw data to proportions of drug use in urban populations. 

The drug-mapping project was initially founded by the Sewage Analysis CORe group Europe (SCORE group), who wished to expand their established datasets to other continents. Collected over seven years, the final results spanned 120 cities from 37 different countries. 

Professor Viviane Yargeau, chair of McGill’s Department of Chemical Engineering, led the research team’s Canadian chapter, which focused their analysis on Montreal and Granby in Quebec.

“Samples that we collected were 24-hour composite samples,” Yargeau said in an interview with The McGill Tribune.  “Pumping subsamples of water at regular time intervals over 24 hours […] allows a representation of a whole day [of sewage] going into the wastewater treatment plant.”

After recovering the sewage samples, several filtration steps were required to determine the concentration of different drugs in a given system. The scientists used analytical chemistry techniques, like liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry, to separate particles by their size and chemistry. This allowed the narcotics to be filtered out from the wastewater and accumulate on a solid phase. 

Subsequent testing revealed distinct patterns of drug usage that varied over time and across international lines. The results were also compared to preexisting drug use surveys from the same urban areas. 

“Conventional drug usage surveys can show who is using drugs, but the wastewater-based epidemiology tool allows us to promptly monitor patterns and trends of drug abuse in local communities,” Yargeau said. 

Indeed, the research findings presented varying substance preferences. Antwerp, Belgium scored the highest on general drug use of any city involved in the study. Cocaine was the most popular drug in Western and Southern European countries such as the UK, Switzerland, and France. Globally, South American cities showed the highest proportion of cocaine use per capita. Methamphetamines, however, were most prevalent in Australasian, American, and Canadian cities, including Montreal. In Montreal, meth use was three times higher than the international average. 

Ecstasy was found in consistently lower quantities than cocaine or methamphetamine, possibly due to its less severe rates of addiction. However, the study clearly shows a steady increase in global consumption since 2012. 

The study drew the attention of Statistics Canada, who asked Yargeau’s team to study the consumption of cannabis before and after its national legalization. 

“We worked closely with [Statistics Canada] in the design and implementation of the pilot study, as well as with the managers of the wastewater treatment plants for the collection of the samples, which were then sent to my lab every month,” Yargeau said. 

Although the work will not lead to a typical scientific publication, it entailed a full year of monthly analysis to capture the effect of this policy on the composition of Canadian wastewater. The results will likely be published next month on Statistics Canada’s website, lending insight to legislation shaping cannabis consumption in Canada.

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