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Campus Spotlight, Student Life

Mapping McGill’s campus

by Leyla Moy on

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On Feb. 20, McGill’s student-run Open Mapping Group (OMG) partnered with Right to Campus to enjoy some mapping and hot chocolate. Participants at the event amassed data for what will become the Interactive Accessibility Network (IAN), a navigation service that serves students with disabilities on McGill’s Downtown and MacDonald campuses. Last month’s event marked OMG’s third gathering of the semester and caps off the group’s first year of collaborating with the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) to create the IAN. The club, which was founded by a group of geography students focuses on bringing people together to map in a relaxed environment.

“OMG, in general, is interested in promoting the use of open-source mapping software,” President Max Noiseux said.

Currently, the group is making use of open-mapping software by working on the IAN at the OSD’s request; however, last year, the group’s focus was on mapping in support of international humanitarian causes, which, Noiseux called its ‘essence.’ An earlier mapathon event enlisted students to update the map of Khaipur, Pakistan in an effort to empower local students and community members to petition their government for infrastructure improvements. At the club’s launch on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Day 2017, OMG emphasized the need for open mapping and its vital role in humanitarian work. Their aim of contributing to publicly sourced and available geographic information served to empower international political movements and has evolved to support local accessibility advocacy as well. Early events also contributed to the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOTOSM), an international open mapping group that aggregates user-generated data on OpenStreetMap, an editable public world map, that contributes to humanitarian response and economic development.

“[HOTOSM focuses on] essentially mapping areas where data is going to be used for natural disaster aid or projects that […] governments have been working on to increase data availability in their countries,” Noiseux said.

In the past year, OMG has stepped into a supporting role to Chris Liang, the project coordinator of the IAN who is tasked with mapping out accessibility points on campus. This year’s events have focused on mobilizing the student population to help acquire geographic data and raising awareness on campus about the existence of the IAN project. The focus on the IAN has put OMG’s international humanitarian roots on the back burner; however, their core drive to empower disadvantaged communities with free geographic knowledge has remained a constant throughout the group’s existence.

“We’re still committed to finding opportunities to promote open geospatial data in all spheres,” Noiseux said.

The distinction of publically collected data is an important one. OMG contributes to OpenStreetMap (OSM), which resembles Google Maps but is open-sourced—similar to Wikipedia in that anyone can contribute to the collaborative, editable world map. OSM can provide more detailed geographical information through the input of a wider range of contributors representing diverse interests, making it a richer resource for users to research an area’s accessibility. Additionally, it contributes to the democratization of map data: OSM is both available to the public and rooted in volunteer-generated information. While Google Maps provides information at the discretion of their parent company, OSM provides a platform for user-sourced data that benefits the community more broadly.  

Enlisting McGill students to help develop routes on campus was a natural progression from a focus on open-source mapping. Now in its fourth semester of existence, OMG aims to  diversify events, expand, and get the word out to students from departments and faculties outside of geography. This academic year, they have also held a mapping party and a map crawl—a bar crawl where participants mapped features  along the way.

“We try [to make mapping] a bit more fun [to] attract people who might not [usually] be interested in mapping but might want to see it in a more casual way,” Noiseux said.

OMG McGill currently operates as a small group, but hopes to raise greater awareness about their various collaborative, open-source mapping projects through both typical and out-of-the-box events. Weekly meetings, usually held on Friday from 4 to 5 p.m. in Burnside Hall 512, are open to anyone on campus interested in learning about mapping, and the group welcomes students from outside geography. Through its collaborative work, OMG’s ongoing project contributes more than geographic knowledge; it connects with issues of democracy and accessibility that resonate on campus and beyond.

A previous version of the article incorrectly stated that OMG holds weekly meetings on Wednesdays. In fact, their weekly meetings are held on Mondays. The Tribune regrets this error. 

Private, Science & Technology

Blunting your mental resilience

by Andras Nemeth on

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Legalized in October 2018, cannabis is becoming an accepted part of mainstream society. However, researchers from McGill and the University of Oxford suggest that its effects may not be as well-understood as commonly believed. Their analysis has garnered international attention for linking cannabis use to depression and suicide risk in adolescents and young adults. According to Gabriella Gobbi, an associate professor in McGill’s Department of Psychiatry and lead author of the paper, the study’s widespread reception is partially out of concern for how marijuana usage is affecting the young demographic.

“Cannabis is mostly a drug used by adolescents and young people,” Gobbi said. “In each country we have this same trend. Everybody is very curious about Canada. A lot of countries are looking at Canada as it moves [toward legalization to see] its consequences.”

A team of 11 researchers worked on the study, which consisted of a meta-analysis of other studies looking at the effects of cannabis on depression in youth. They hand-picked 3,000 papers on the topic, covering a total of over 23,000 human subjects.  The investigation, which controlled for individuals suffering from depression before having used cannabis, concluded that young adults between the ages of 18 and 32 who had smoked cannabis regularly before the age of 18 had a 40 per cent increase in risk for depression, a 50 per cent increase in risk for suicidal ideation, and a 300 per cent increase in risk for attempting suicide.

Gobbi’s lab previously researched the specific neurological effects of cannabis on developing brains in rats in 2010. Even so, Gobbi was particularly surprised at the new results showing a link between cannabis use and suicidality.

“The [link with] depression didn’t surprise me […since] some studies had already found this association,” Gobbi said. “What surprised me was the suicidality because [the link between] suicidality and cannabis was not so known. Actually, we found that, even in people not at risk of suicide before consuming cannabis, there was an increased risk.”

Following the publication of the study, Gobbi was invited to testify as an expert before the Quebec National Assembly in connection to the current Quebec government’s proposed Bill 2, which would raise the legal age to purchase and consume cannabis from 18 to 21. While not particularly in support of resorting to raising the legal age, Gobbi hopes the dangers of cannabis will be taken seriously.

“The problem is that right now, a guy who is 18 can, in one day, buy 30 grams at 30 per cent [tetrahydrocannabinol],” Gobbi said. “That is enormous. So if at least we can limit the quantity of cannabis available at this age, that would [be] substantial [….] People ask me whether I am for prohibition or legalization, but this is a bad question because, between prohibition and legalization, there are a lot of steps.”

Rather than raising the legal age, a recent proposal from the Institut National de Santé Publique du Québec (INSPQ) recommends a policy of ‘gradual access’ in which increasing amounts and different products would be made available incrementally after the age of 18.

“The omnipresence of underground marijuana sales networks and already high levels of cannabis consumption among those aged 18 and over prompt one to ask themselves if other options permit us to send a clear message without the risk of punishing or criminalizing young adults,” the report reads, translated from the original French. “The examples of Quebec’s Programme d’accès graduel à la conduite (PAGC) and certain Scandinavian countries’ graduated access to alcohol offer promising possibilities.”

According to Gobbi, misinformation about the nature and effects of cannabis continues to be widespread.

“There is a lot of ignorance about cannabis,” Gobbi said. “Cannabis stays in your brain for one week or more, so [some] people believe they are not addicted [because] they can stay away for one week [….However] the withdrawal symptoms start one week or ten days later, and sometimes people don’t perceive them [or] link them to cannabis.”

McGill, News

McGill receives $1.8 million to reduce its carbon footprint

by Helen Wu on

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McGill has received $1.8 million in funding from the Canadian federal government’s Low Carbon Economy Fund (LCEF) for three projects aimed at lowering the university’s carbon footprint. Catherine McKenna, Canada’s minister of Environment and Climate Change, visited McGill on Feb. 22 to announce the decision.

“The federal government is partnering with McGill University, where McGill will receive up to $1.8 million under our Low Carbon Economy Challenge,” McKenna said. “We challenge businesses, universities, hospitals, and schools around Canada to come up [with] solutions that will reduce emissions, and McGill came up with a very practical solution.”

According to Interim Director of Utilities and Energy Management Jerome Conraud, McGill’s greenhouse gas emissions totalled 56,004 tonnes in 2017. With the LCEF funding the decarbonization of McGill’s energy systems, that number is expected to be reduced by 18 per cent. The first project, which will take place during summer 2019 at the Gault Nature Reserve, will convert all remaining oil heating boilers on the site to electric ones. Once the conversion is complete, Gault’s only source of greenhouse gas emissions will be its fleet of vehicles.

The second project, set to take place during summer 2020, consists of replacing one of the four natural gas boilers in the downtown campus powerhouse with an electric one. The space freed up through this change will accommodate the third project, the installation of a heat recovery system, during summer 2021.

Conraud explained that carbon dioxide and methane, by-products from burning natural gases, contribute to global warming by trapping heat in the atmosphere. Since electricity in Quebec is not generated by burning natural gases, converting McGill’s energy systems to electric will significantly reduce the institution’s carbon emissions.

“In the United States and Alberta, for instance, the electricity they consume comes mainly from coal or natural gas,” Conraud said. “Instead of using dams, as they do in Quebec and [British Columbia], or instead of using windmills, they burn coal or oil or natural gas, and that generates a lot of carbon dioxide.”

McGill’s high energy consumption is a product of its research capacity. Conraud pointed out that most of the power is dedicated to ventilating the university’s labs.

“What consumes [the] most energy at McGill is research labs,” Conraud said. “We do have a lot of research labs. We have fume hoods, and because we need to constantly evacuate contaminants in the air so that people can work safely in labs, we have high ventilation rates.”

McGill Climate Officer Ali Rivers believes that the LCEF will play a key role in helping McGill realize its Vision 2020 sustainability strategy, particularly its long-term goal of carbon neutrality by 2040.

“We would’ve converted one of those boilers at some point down the line, but it would have been more on the long-term goals,” Rivers said. “This is so great because the sooner we do these conversions, the sooner we are reducing our legacy footprint. Once that electric boiler is installed, 8,600 tons of CO2 will be reduced every year.”

Rivers referred to McGill’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory 2017, which includes comparisons between McGill and other Quebec and American universities. McGill’s level of 1.02 tons of carbon dioxide emitted per student in 2017 might appear modest compared to Harvard University’s 9.20 tons per student; however, the University of Montreal proves to be even more carbon friendly with carbon dioxide emitted per student at only 0.59 tons.

“Generally speaking, McGill has a higher relative footprint per student and per square foot than other Quebec universities mainly due to size and research intensity,” Rivers said. “But, we have a lower footprint than all of our American peers, and that is a result of our electricity grid, which is renewable.”

Rivers suggested that McGill staff and students can make choices everyday such as carpooling, taking public transit, and turning off electronics that are not in use to help reduce their personal carbon footprint.

News, SSMU

SSMU sanctions over 100 clubs

by Jacqueline Yao on

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Since the start of Winter 2019, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) has been enforcing stricter regulations on its member clubs, sanctioning around 100 according to SSMU VP Finance Jun Wang. Although SSMU sent an email to member clubs on Feb. 18 with a reminder of regulations governing student groups, several clubs and services allege that they were not given sufficient warning or were sanctioned before the email was sent.

To remain in good standing, SSMU clubs must fulfill criteria by submitting audited financial reports, attending training workshops, adhering to SSMU and McGill policies, and informing SSMU of off-campus events 20 days prior to their start date. Clubs and services must list SSMU as the legal entity when signing contracts with parties external to McGill and must request insurance for any events held outside the SSMU building. Since the SSMU building is currently closed for renovations, all events are held elsewhere and, therefore, require insurance through SSMU.

Around 100 clubs have reportedly failed to abide by SSMU policies and were denied access to their bank accounts, barred from booking venues, and subjected to status revision. Wang contends that SSMU did not have the capacity to enforce many of these regulations before transitioning to a centralized bank account in fall 2018, which has allowed it to view clubs’ financial statements and keep track of all their activities.

“Over the summer, the Club Auditor [Richie Youm] and the Comptroller [Desmond Rodrigues] created a comprehensive auditing process to make sure that [clubs undergo] a real audit rather than just [SSMU] checking [clubs’] number of receipts,” Wang said. “Prior to [the bank centralization], we did not have the information or structure to say if clubs did something wrong [….] This year, because we have the resources, we found a lot of [club financial] activities to be very much sanctionable.”

The McGill Polish Students’ Association (MPSA) is one of several SSMU clubs whose members hold that they were unfairly sanctioned. In August 2018, MPSA signed for a food permit from the Montreal government to sell food at Polski Piknik Montréal, a Polish festival. After receiving a payment demand from Régie des marchés agricoles et alimentaires du Québec, SSMU froze the club’s bank account until the end of the semester for signing the contract. MPSA President Ryszard Kubinski expressed frustration over MPSA being sanctioned without warning and believes that, due to high turnover among club executives, SSMU should devote more resources toward making enforceable regulations clear.

“When I was handed down the club, I knew that we had to attend finance workshops, but there was no mention of [regulations about entering into] contracts,” Kubinski said. “We are not running around trying to break all these regulations, we are just trying to have a small Polish community at McGill.  If you are going to have a sustainability workshop, you should have a workshop for the rules that you are going to enforce.”

Another SSMU club, which wished to remain anonymous, was sanctioned for signing a contract and not submitting insurance information for its event in February. The co-presidents of the club believe that the regulations were applied inconsistently and that SSMU’s tightened controls will present logistical obstacles for the club’s operations.

“It’s […] not fair because a lot of clubs that were planning events at the same time and didn’t launch yet were able to get SSMU to sign the contracts,” one of the club’s co-presidents said. “But, for us, since we had already publicized our event, SSMU said that we got sanctioned. It is really not advantageous to us if every single event we do, and we have events every month, requires one to two months in advance of notifying SSMU.”

Wang maintains that SSMU’s inability to enforce regulations in the past does not excuse clubs who have recently violated SSMU policies.

“When I sit down with [club executives] and explain the situation, I feel that most understand why [I can’t waive their sanctions],” Wang said. “I have yet to waive a sanction I deemed was appropriate because I don’t want to set a dangerous precedent.”

Album Reviews, Arts & Entertainment, Music

Chai’s ‘PUNK’ is the much-needed antidote to the drudgery of our daily lives

by Katia Innes on

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There is a tragically narrow vision of what contemporary East Asian music should sound like. Often lumped into vague, generalized categories such as ‘J-Pop’ or ‘K-Pop,’ Western critics have a tendency to consider the ethnic groupings of Asian musical production first and foremost, often obscuring the lyrical and technical aspects that make up the specificities of genre. Thankfully, Chai has emerged, the self-proclaimed “new-exciting onna band,” also known as “new exciting women band” or NEO, for short. Chai has taken it upon themselves to helm a new style dubbed ‘neo-kawaii’ that boldly proclaims that everything and everybody can be cute. On Chai’s second album, the wonderfully joyous PUNK, the band proudly embraces Japanese music, and the album’s musical diversity and merit resist tokenization by Western audiences and critics.

PUNK stands apart from this year’s releases, largely due to its blending of diverse inspirations into a brand new concoction. Chai’s sound borrows from British electronica, Japanese pop, and American rap, making for a unique hybrid that results in an energized, retro-futurist aesthetic best heard on the album’s opener “CHOOSE GO!” Lyrics, written in both Japanese and English, are punctuated with exclamation points, and sound as though they were written in all-caps, creating a singular listening experience.

These bubble-gum sweet affirmations of self-worth match Chai’s eclectic musical sensibilities and proudly redefine normative conceptions of Japanese kawaii culture and femininity.

“Curly Adventure” humorously addresses Japanese beauty standards, and features twin sisters and lead vocalists Mana and Kana embracing their frizzy hair and proclaiming “CURLY HAIR / It is GREAT.” By rejecting the expectations propagated by a massively influential national beauty industry, Chai boldly reassures listeners that no matter how they choose to present, there is room for them in neo-kawaii culture. Chai just wants to dance with their friends, have fun, and tell each other that they look cute. Is that too much to ask?

“We have dreams! / We have a lot of friends!” the four-piece band chants on “Future,” which, given a less enthusiastic delivery, could easily sound insincere, but Chai’s relentless positivity cracks even the most reluctant of smiles. Perhaps PUNK is exactly what pop music needs right now: Pure, unashamed enthusiasm and positivity.

 

Basketball, Martlets, Men's Varsity, Sports

McGill basketball 2018-19 season recap

by Miya Keilin on

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On Feb. 27, the 2018-19 McGill basketball season drew to a close. The men (9-7) lost at home to the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) Citadins (8-8) 79-69 in the RSEQ semifinals, and, in their semifinal game, the Martlets (10-6), who travelled across town to Concordia’s (10-6) home court, were defeated 62-55. Despite the first-round exits for both teams, McGill basketball had plenty to be proud of this season.  

Martlets

Fourth-year transfer centre Sirah Diarra and fourth-year guard Gladys Hakizimana led Martlet basketball to a respectable third-place finish in the RSEQ. Six-foot-one Diarra averaged 10.5 points and 10.3 rebounds per game, while Hakizimana put up 11.2 points and 2.7 assists per game, and both were named RSEQ second-team all-stars for their efforts. Other RSEQ award winners include first-year forward Shayann Laguerre and first-year guard Trishia Villedrouin, who both received all-rookie honours.

In the last game of the regular season, the Martlets took down a talented and, at the time, undefeated Laval side for their 12th victory of the season. With a few lopsided losses against the Rouge et Or throughout the season, the Martlets’ momentous win was an exciting way to end the regular season. Unfortunately, the momentum did not carry them past Concordia in the opening round of the RSEQ playoffs and they did not qualify to return to the U Sports National Championships.

In addition to strong campaigns from their veterans this season, Martlet Head Coach Ryan Thorne saw plenty of promising play from many of the team’s younger players: Second-year guard Charlotte Clayton made a team-best 42 three-pointers in her 25 games; fellow second-year forward Kamsi Ogbudibe trailed only Diarra in rebounds and blocks per game; and second-year transfer guard Delphine Robitaille put up strong offensive numbers as well. Along with award-winners Laguerre and Villedrouin, the young Martlet players gave fans good reason to be optimistic for the next season.

Men’s Varsity

The men’s season kicked off in early August with a series of games against American schools, including Duke University. McGill did not come away with any wins in these opening matches, but they scored the most points of any opponent on Duke’s Canada tour. It looked like an encouraging sign for the season to come.  

McGill won their regular season home-opener against UQAM and went on to split the season series with the Citadins 2-2. Unfortunately, they lost fifth-year point guard Alex Paquin and fourth-year point guard Isaiah Cummins, two consistently dominant offensive threats, to injuries for most of the season. However, McGill still managed a 9-7 conference record, which earned them second place in the RSEQ standings behind Concordia (11-5) and home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs against UQAM. In their fifth matchup of the season, the Citadins came out victorious and McGill failed to return to the U Sports National Championships.

Four McGill players earned RSEQ honours. Fifth-year guard Avery Cadogan, who averaged 9.8 points per game, was named a first-team all-star, while fifth-year forward Noah Daoust, a strong two-way presence for McGill all season, was selected as a second team all-star. Fourth-year transfer forward Levi Londole averaged a team-high 5.2 rebounds per game and 19 total blocks en route to the Defensive Player of the Year award. First-year guard Anthony Fisiru was named to the all-rookie team.

Without veteran players Paquin and Cummins, Head Coach David DeAveiro had the opportunity to develop some of his team’s younger talent. Second-year guard Sam Jenkins and second-year transfer point guard J.J. Hamel-Carey, as well as Fisiru, showed potential for the years to come. Though the early playoff exit was disappointing, McGill has a bright future ahead.

Arts & Entertainment, Music

Anderson .Paak’s masterful balancing act

by Liam Chung on

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It feels like just yesterday that Anderson .Paak released his long-anticipated Oxnard, a decidedly summery album for the middle of November. The album received mostly positive reviews, although some critics bemoaned its eclectic and aimless nature. Still, .Paak has always had a gift for straddling the line between hip hop and R&B. His breakout album Malibu properly fits the R&B genre, though the work featured verses from prominent rappers like ScHoolboy Q and Rapsody, and .Paak’s hip-hop sensibilities were apparent throughout. Oxnard’s tracks are unmistakably rap songs. In his sophomore album, .Paak returned to the tightly-orchestrated ballads that had previously earned him acclaim, adding more heavily-produced bangers to repertoire. The artist is adept at both styles, but their juxtaposition in the album is jarring to say the least. Oxnard’s lack of direction is the reason that Malibu, while less commercially successful, received more critical acclaim and is still touted as the definitive Anderson .Paak experience.

The wait for a new .Paak album is almost over. On March 14, he tweeted, “Three years between Malibu and Oxnard… you know I couldn’t do that to y’all again.” Attached was an album cover, and the album’s Apr. 12 release date. .Paak also included a handwritten tracklist, which features André 3000, Jazmine Sullivan, and Nate Dogg, the late King of G-Funk. Postmortem features haven’t been well executed by other artists—Michael Jackson’s presence on Drake’s 2018 “Don’t Matter to Me,” for instance, was poorly received to say the least—so fans and critics are on edge to see if .Paak can do something worthwhile with what he’s pulled from Dr. Dre’s vault.

The album cover features a black and white photo of .Paak and a child laying on a bed. Compared to the album covers of Malibu and Oxnard, both cluttered, abstract artworks, Ventura is simpler and much more personal. The album cover hints that Ventura will provide a more intimate listening experience than its predecessors.

In the same tweet, .Paak announced the single “King James.” The song is dedicated to Lebron James, paying respect to the basketball player for his social activism. In the song, he addresses notable social and political issues, such as gun violence. “We couldn’t stand to see our children shot dead in the streets,” he sings. However, he is insistently optimistic, later singing, “Everything they tried to hide, we’re taking back, for yours and mine.”

Though .Paak is no stranger to exploring heavy subject matter with his lyrics, his songs have always maintained a joyful quality. In Malibu’s “The Season / Carry Me” .Paak recalls his childhood spent in poverty and the difficulty he faced in young adulthood trying to make it as a musician while keeping his wife from getting deported. Despite its serious themes, the song is upbeat and accessible. No matter how tragic his words become, the steady beat provides stable support while he gently weaves hope out of sorrow.

With Malibu, .Paak showcased his undeniable charisma in a dreamy album, dedicated to pleasure and love. When Malibu comes on, an hour seems to slide away. Oxnard achieved a different effect entirely: It still oozes charisma, but in a more hedonistic and gaudy way. Despite being weaker than its predecessor, Oxnard remains an accomplished album and melds a variety of influences from hip-hop to R&B to funk. Likewise, in Malibu, .Paak combines lyrical skill and slick beats. Ventura will hopefully meet the high bar set by .Paak’s previous work. Ventura has the potential to be one of the best albums of 2019 now that .Paak has already solidified himself as one of the standout artists of this decade.

 

Art, Arts & Entertainment

Feminist bookstores and social change: A discussion

by Catherine Morrison on

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On Mar. 15, Kristen Hogan, author of The Feminist Bookstore Movement: Lesbian Antiracism and Feminist Accountability, visited McGill to discuss her work as a writer and feminist activist. Part of the Feminist and Accessible Publishing / Communications Technologies Series, Hogan’s discussion focused on the importance of intersectionality, the history of feminist bookstores, and their role in creating space for social change.

Hogan’s talk revolved around three key themes: Power, memory, and strategies of feminist consciousness. These tenets, according to Hogan, are central to understanding the history of feminist bookstores, the ways in which we come to conceive of and respect these institutions, and how communities are shaped by such stores.

Hogan first discussed the theme of power, highlighting how feminist bookstores combat multiple forms of oppression, particularly that of large literary corporations including mainstream bookstores and publishing companies. Describing lesbian anti-racism as a practice, Hogan explained that as a community hub and organization, feminist bookstores strive to understand feminism as a coalition of people struggling under different forms of oppression.

Through an intersectional understanding of oppression as rooted in racism, feminist collectives strive to create a space of support and inclusivity. Hogan also described lesbian anti-racism’s ability to impact literature, as feminist bookstores bring attention to literary content that is too often neglected in mainstream and capitalist distribution of literature.

“Feminist bookstores [stock] their shelves with books that are vital to social justice,” Hogan said. “We all need feminist bookstores’ support for the future of feminist authors, specifically women of colour.”

With regard to memory, Hogan suggested that remembering feminist acts improves one’s ability to understand and participate in social justice initiatives in the future. Most importantly, Hogan explained that the pervasiveness of a feminism that ignores intersectionality affects which stories are shared and which are excluded, resulting in the misremembering of history.

“When people are searching [on search engines] to find out about feminism and to look for resources in their communities, our histories are misremembered by algorithms,” Hogan said. “So, when we think about feminist history, I want us to re-imagine and ask ‘What’s not in this search?’ and really think about who is practicing feminism in our communities.”

Hogan articulated that although we often only think about bookstores as retail spaces, we should instead understand them as spaces that can shape the feminist memory of a community. In describing her concept of “the feminist shelf,” Hogan described how feminist bookstores as the centre of social change.

“The feminist shelf […] is about relationships,” Hogan said. “The idea that the way we gather feminist books together […] changes how we understand each of those books individually, and that changes how we relate to each other. Then, that shapes how we relate with and change the world, change our institutions, change our communities.”

Hogan’s powerful discussion reminded attendees of the importance of feminist bookstores in shaping our environment and our actions. These establishments help engage us with feminism. Hogan’s words allowed for a motivating discussion of the importance of anti-racist feminist action.

Science & Technology

Rare Disease Day at McGill is a rare celebration

by Stephanie Deng on

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Held on the last day of February every year, Rare Disease Day recognizes the impact of over 6,000 rare diseases worldwide. Started in 2008, its advocates celebrate Rare Diseases Day in over 90 countries by raising awareness among health practitioners, policy makers, researchers, and the general public.

Diseases or disorders are considered rare if they affect fewer than one in 2,000 individuals in Europe or fewer than 200,000 individuals at a given time in the USA. One of the challenges healthcare professionals face when diagnosing rare diseases is the fact that different diseases can display similar symptoms. Healthcare professionals start by treating the disease the patient is most likely to have, but that can lead to misdiagnosis and a delay in treatment. As such, Rare Disease Day serves as an intersection between health and social care and promotes the common goal of developing new diagnostic procedures.

“Rare diseases are not spoken about that much in [the McGill Medicine] curriculum,” Cyril Boulila, second-year medical student and cofounder of the rare disease interest group rareDIG, said. “I think it’s a shame because [we need to take the rare disease community] into consideration [….] I have a rare disease. I have severe hemophilia and it really saddened me that we didn’t talk about it during our circulation block in medicine, so it really pushed me even more to being a patient advocate as well as a medical student who has a voice for [the rare disease community].”

In recognition of Rare Disease Day, rareDIG McGill hosted a gathering for rare disease patients as well as those advocating for and treating them. Guest speakers included individuals with uniquely different perspectives and experiences in the realm of rare diseases. Among them were Ian Stedman, a rare disease patient and advocate, and Nada Jabado, a professor in McGill’s Department of Pediatrics and a pediatric hemato-oncologist at the Montreal Children’s Hospital.

“There’s just this massive gap that [rare disease patients] fall into and then they just fall out of the system,” Stedman said.

Diagnosed at age 32 with Muckle-Wells Syndrome, Stedman described his first-hand experience with the difficulties of obtaining a diagnosis. He critiqued the healthcare system for failing to integrate patient data between provinces, which would make it easier to identify rare diseases. Focusing on the importance of data in rare disease diagnostics, Stedman highlighted the promise for machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to be used for online healthcare, as both have the ability to aid scientists in identifying diseases and tracking trends in hospital reports. Large data sets can then be cross-referenced with individual patient symptoms, showcasing the promising role of AI in the future of personal medicine.  

Jabado, known for her work on pediatric brain tumours, presented a physician’s point of view. Her research concentrates on epigenomes—the chemical compounds that turn genes on and off—and led to the discovery of a mutation that is associated with brain development and tumour growth. Her talk illustrated targeted therapies for patients as well as the considerable financial challenges involved.

“It’s true that, oftentimes, we are taught about the most common diseases and we get very little teaching about rare illnesses,” Amanda Try, third-year medical student, said. “I like how [rareDIG is] trying to reach [out to the] community and [recognize how rare disease patients’] experiences can be affected by the way we treat them.”

Science & Technology

Real phones have curves

by Margaret Wdowiak on

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Imagine never having to worry about small pockets again, instead you can just fold your phone over and over until it is a quarter of its original size. New technological advances and insights into graphene could make that future a reality.

Recently, tech giant Samsung unveiled its new foldable phone, the Samsung Galaxy Fold. It features two modes: A folded phone mode with a 4.6-inch screen and an unfolded mode where the device is laid out into a larger 7.3-inch tablet screen. This innovative design will cost consumers $1,980 USD ($2,607 CAD). Meanwhile, the Chinese tech leviathan Huawei, following Samsung’s lead, recently unveiled the Huawei Mate X, which features a 6.6-inch screen on the front as well as a 6.38-inch screen on the back; when unfolded, the two screens form an eight-inch tablet display. This phone has an even more exorbitant price of $2,600 USD ($3,469 CAD).

These new devices have many advantages; most significantly, their flexibility enables customers to double their screen size on a whim and makes the phones less prone to breaking because they are able to bend. The fact that these cellphones double as tablets also increases multitasking and productivity. Unfortunately, there are also many potential limitations associated with this new generation of cellphones.

“Longevity and reliability are among the biggest challenges: how many times can a phone be folded before it begins to fail?” Thomas Szkopek, a professor in McGill’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune. “It is a difficult engineering challenge to create a reliable device.”

As a standard rule, first generation devices and foldable devices are particularly unreliable because they incorporate new, untested software and hardware. Manufacturing is another issue with these products, as mass productions of bendable phones requires new supply chains and manufacturing techniques.

However, if these associated challenges can be overcome, bendable screens have the potential to transform the entire tech industry. A whole new breed of products will be available thanks to this flexible technology, like foldable TVs.

Another new innovation with the same revolutionary potential as bendable phones are graphene phones. Discovered in 2004, graphene is a carbon material constructed by laying out graphite, the same compound used in pencils, into sheets with a thickness of one atom.

Graphene has several advantages over any metal currently used in the phone industry: It conducts electricity better than copper, it is stronger than steel, and it is incredibly elastic. Graphene touch screens printed on plastic could replace screens made of indium tin oxide, making cell phones extremely thin and foldable. Graphene could also make the lithium-ion batteries currently in use longer-lasting, faster-charging, and more bendable. Furthermore, graphene could serve to create cheaper and more sensitive photo sensors.

Unfortunately, despite the incredible potential of the material, graphene also has several important defects, such as susceptibility to oxidative environments. Also, it exhibits some toxic qualities and its electrical conductivity cannot be switched off.

Nonetheless, various fields continue to conduct a great amount of research on this versatile material.

“This invention is now being applied in headphones and mobile electronics’ micro speakers [since] they are more energy efficient and give improved acoustic fidelity,” Szkopek wrote. “Beyond providing us with better acoustics, graphene could also deliver us faster internet, smaller as well as faster transistors, new types of solar panels, and even thinner and stronger condoms.”

Both foldable and graphene phones, despite their great potential, remain relatively untested technologies with an uncertain market base.

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