the concordian - november 3rd, 2015

CSU DAYCARE

A L S O I N T H I S I S S U E

Revival of theRoaring ‘20s p. 12

OPINIONS

Stingers loseto Carabins p. 15

Wolf Paradestill potent p. 13

Church volunteersin local school p. 17

Vegan fest is coming p. 6

LIFE ARTS MUSIC SPORTS

theconcordian

Concordia University’s weekly, independent student newspaper theconcordian.comVOLUME 33, ISSUE 10 | TUESDAY, NOV. 3, 2015 � /theconcordian ¬ @theconcordian theconcordian

The CSUis expecting

News p. 5

2 theconcordian TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2015

CHLOE RANALDIStaff writer

CITY

A report from Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission recom-mended putting tolls on Mon-treal’s bridges to ease con-gestion. The study showed that congestion pricing would encourage more people to take public transit and would be environmentally beneficial for the city. According to the CBC, congestion costs Mon-treal an estimated $1.7 billion annually. The recycled rev-enue of congestion pricing would generate other eco-nomic benefits for the city.

On Monday, the Crown continued its cross-examination of psychiatrist Dominique Bourget, an expert witness for the defense of Guy Turcotte. Bourget testified that Turcotte suffered from severe adjustment disorder and should not be held criminally responsible for the first-degree murders of his two young children. According to The Canadian Press, the Crown prosecutor contended that Bourget’s first evaluation of Turcotte happened 11 months after the night of murders.

Ecofiscal Commission: use tolls, reduce traffic

The Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness (CAEH) is holding a three-day conference in Montreal to provide housing for 20,000 homeless people over the next three years. Over 800 people from across Canada are said to be attending the conference. According to a survey held by the CAEH this past year, there are 3,000 homeless people in Montreal. According to CTV Montreal, there will be 150 speakers at the conference discussing achievable plans to reduce homelessness in the city and help fully reintegrate them into society.

Montreal hosts homelessness conference

NEWS EDITORGREGORY [email protected]

@theconcordianNEWS

Expert for Turcotte defense cross-examined

Hundreds gathered outside Place des Arts on Thursday to show their support for aborigi-nal women.

The smell of candle smoke filled the space of the vigil as at-tendees lit candles and lanterns to pay their respects. The vig-il took place on the corner of Sainte-Catherine and Jeanne-Mance and was organized by Idle No More Québec, Amnesty Inter-national, the Regroupement des Centres d’Amitié Autochtones du Québec, Native Montreal, Quebec Native Women and Montreal Ab-original Network.

In response to the recent al-legations made against Surêté du Québec officers in Val d’Or, the vigil was a cry for justice and for immediate change as well as a celebration of the lives of all the missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada.

Allegations of sexual and physical abuse towards aboriginal women in Val d’Or were brought to light two weeks ago by an in-vestigative report by Radio Can-ada’s T.V. show Enquête. Since the show aired, more aboriginal women have come forward with

DANIELLE GASHERStaff writer

their experiences.The investigation has been

taken out of the hands of the SQ and into those of Montreal po-lice. However, the allegations are driving citizens, activists and organizations to put pressure on the government on the provin-cial and federal level to launch a national independent investiga-tion into the affair.

Ghislain Picard, Chief of the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador, believes it is up to citizens, officials and the government to take respon-sibility and to rectify to issue of missing and murdered aboriginal women. “Let’s stand together, indigenous peoples and non-in-digenous peoples alike, to make sure that the dust doesn’t settle too quickly,” said Picard to the crowd of supporters.

Indigenous human rights ac-tivist Ellen Gabriel said enough is enough. “This is happen-ing right across Canada, right across the United States, right across the world. We should not accept any more inquiries that are led by government,” she said to the crowd. “The inquiry should be [conducted by] an in-dependent body.”

“This is the kind of thing we saw in 1990, where the Sûreté

Hundreds gathered to speak out against the treatment of native women

At the Loyola Conference Cen-tre on Thursday, Hazel Mark-well—who worked in clinical ethics for over 20 years and is now the director of the St. Jo-seph’s Health Centre and St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto—tried to define what exactly dy-ing with dignity really means.

This was the latest confer-ence of the Loyola Public Lecture Series on Ethics in Society which covered the ethics of physician assisted suicide, euthanasia and terminal palliative sedation.

The lecture series was host-ed by Concordia’s Advance-ment and Alumni Relations and the Department of Theological Studies.

SANDRA HERCEGOVAStaff writer

Markwell said the problem is that as a society we often dis-agree when it comes to ethical issues. “Ethics is all about deci-sions, studying values and about the right and the wrong,” she said. “We have different notions of the good and our values vary great-ly. The way each person views wrong from right varies as well.”

She said it is important to recognize how interconnect-ed we are as humans before we can start rationalizing physician assisted deaths. “Conscience is an innate, universal aspect of the human being and that is why issues of conscience are im-portant in this discussion,” said Markwell.

Markwell then asked the au-dience to close their eyes and to think of only three things that they need to make life mean-ingful. Then, take one away. Would life still be meaningful? Now, take another one away. “This is what dying people in in-

tensive care are experiencing,” she said.

Markwell also spoke about the two principle goals of med-icine: caring and curing and re-lief of suffering. She believes people should change their con-cept of health and life.

In her talk, Markwell cov-ered three methods in assisted suicide for patients in intensive care. First, physician assisted suicide, which is when a phy-sician is authorized to help the

patient commit suicide. The second is euthanasia, which is when a dose of lethal injec-tion is given at request. Finally, there is terminal palliative se-dation which is when the doctor makes the patient become un-conscious in order to stop them from feeling pain.

When dignity is concerned, what is the best solution for the patient? This is a question Mark-well said the medical communi-ty is still struggling with.

Vigil in support of aboriginal women

The ethics of dying with dignityConcordia hosted a medical ethics conference

du Québec were above the law,” said Gabriel, referring to the Oka Crisis of 1990. The Oka Crisis oc-curred after a land dispute be-tween the town of Oka and the Mohawk community of Kanesa-take, and became heavily me-diated as protests began. The Mohawk people created a barri-cade to block the area they were protecting from becoming a golf course. The Sûreté du Québec responded to the barricade ag-gressively, using tear gas canis-ters and concussion grenades.

Vigil attendees bundled to-gether, holding up posters with faces and names of missing and murdered aboriginal girls and women, and re-lit their can-dles repeatedly as persistent and powerful winds blew them out. Groups such as the Buffalo Hat

Singers chanted between speak-ers, in honour of lost women.

“We are all here for one very specific reason: we want a pub-lic national and widened inquiry about the violence against ab-original women,” said Philippe Meilleur, executive director of Na-tive Montreal, to the attendees. “We are seeking truth, demanding credible and public processes that will make the truth come to light, and hopefully justice will follow.”

For Mélissa Mollen-Dupuis, co-founder of Idle No More Québec, the situation in Val d’Or has affected her on a person-al level. “It’s not a political case for me, it’s not a work case, it’s a real-life situation for me and for my baby,” the Innu activist told The Concordian. “I’m scared for her every day.”

V I G I L

L E C T U R E

Hundreds gather at Place des Arts on Thursday.Photo by Andrej Ivanov.

Clinical ethics expert Hazel Markwell at Concordia.Photo by Andrej Ivanov.

3theconcordianTUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2015

Justin Trudeau, who will be officially sworn in on Wednesday, is planning to attend four internation-al summits during his first month as Prime Minis-ter, according to The Globe and Mail, the first of which will be held in Turkey for the G20 leaders’ summit. Trudeau will also be attend-ing climate talks in Paris as well as the Asia-Pacif-ic Economic Cooperation summit along with a gath-ering of Commonwealth leaders.

After a young woman was murdered by her boyfriend in Winnipeg, the provin-cial government will be re-forming legislation so that people can obtain protec-tion orders more easily, ac-cording to Global News. The victim, Selena Rose Keeper, had a protection order re-quest against her boyfriend denied just five months be-fore she was killed. He has since been charged with second-degree murder. The government will be ask-ing for feedback from peo-ple who have applied for a protection order to reform the Domestic Violence and Stalking Act, Global News reported.

Manitoba to reform protection orders legislation

JESSICA ROMERACopy editor

NATION

A former medical student from Dalhousie Universi-ty in Halifax has pleaded not guilty to two charges of ut-tering threats with intention of causing bodily harm. Stephen Gregory Tynes also stands accused of “one count of en-gaging in threatening con-duct,” reported the CBC. He allegedly told his psychiatrist that he planned to shoot over a dozen people and then later shoot himself. He was arrest-ed in August after his apart-ment was searched and police found two rifles and almost two thousand rounds of am-munition. Tynes has been re-leased on bail but must stay at his father’s home.

Medical student pleads not guilty to uttering threats

Trudeau to attend four summits in first month as PM

LAURA MARCHANDStaff writer

@Marchand_L

change people wanted to see.”Which is why, going into the

2015 general election, Liu was confident that she would hold her seat. “We had done a lot of work over the past four years, just being on the ground and be-ing present,” she said. Over the course of her career, Liu was well-known for sounding the alarm over the muzzling of sci-entists and tabling the Intern Protection Act, which offered protections for unpaid interns, such as giving them the right to refuse dangerous work.

And while that did translate into support at the polls, it fell short of what Liu needed to re-turn to Ottawa: she lost her seat by a 1,500 votes to Liberal candi-date Linda Lapointe.

Liu believes that over the course of the federal campaign, mistakes were definitely made by the party.

“We weren’t able to properly contrast the NDP with the Con-servatives, in terms of showing how the Liberals actually sup-ported a lot of Conservative pol-icies,” said Liu, citing areas such as tax breaks for large corpora-tions and the Keystone XL pipe-line. “In terms of explaining to Canadians who we are, and what we stand for … that’s something we need to keep doing in the

next few years, to build the par-ty and regain seats in Quebec.” And while Liu says she was very proud of the campaign they ran, she doesn’t sugar coat the effect the results had on her.

“It was pretty devastating, to be honest,” said Liu, with a small laugh. “It was really tough being in the campaign office with all the volunteers who put their heart and soul into the campaign, who had gone door-knocking with me in the sweltering heat … it was really hard to accept that we had lost the riding.”

Liu spent four years, five months, and 18 days as an MP. Now, she is planning to return to McGill and finish what’s left of her undergraduate degree. When asked if she planned to return to politics, she believes it’s too soon to say anything for sure.

“I do want to continue fighting for the causes that are important to me,” said Liu. “There’s lots of opportunities available, so we’ll see what the future holds … I do love politics and I think there’s a lot of work to be done still, and I would like to continue as an ac-tivist and doing advocacy work.”

Those who were fans of her work can expect to see more of Liu in the public sphere. “I’m sure you’ll see me on the trail on some future campaign,” she said.

After four years in Parliament, Laurin Liu is going to finish her degree at McGillFormer Canadian MP back at McGillP O L I T I C S

“There were a few really hectic weeks, setting up an office, hiring staff ... my first year was really spent meeting as many constituents as possible.

— Laurin Liu,former MP

On May 2, 2011, Laurin Liu was in Outremont, watching the ballots come in.

The NDP had pooled its re-sources into ridings it thought it could win, and her own riding was not one of them. Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, nestled on Mon-treal’s north shore, had been a Bloc Québécois stronghold for years. The NDP was a distant third- or fourth-place party.

Her goal hadn’t been to run for a seat. She was still complet-ing her undergrad at McGill—a double major in history and cul-tural studies—when a party or-ganizer approached her in 2011, asking if she wanted to put her name on a ballot.

She agreed, not thinking the NDP would manage to win in Quebec. She was 20 years old.

“There was very, very little chance that we would win the seat,” explained Liu. “There was virtually no campaign.”

It was there, at the counting station, that she got a text mes-sage saying she was leading in Rivière-des-Mille-Îles.

She won with nearly 50 per cent of the popular vote.

“It was a pretty special night,” said Liu. “I remember we had a party in downtown Montreal at the Rialto, for all the volunteers and the staff who worked on the campaign. It was pretty incred-ible to be there with so many other candidates who had just learnt that they had been elected in the Orange Wave.”

Liu would later be dubbed one of the “McGill Four”—four McGill students who had been unexpectedly elected to Parlia-ment as part of the NDP’s sud-den gains in Quebec. She be-came the youngest woman elected in Canadian history.

However, Liu was suddenly thrown from student life to par-liamentary life. No one had been expecting a win in her riding, and this left her rushing to pre-pare for Parliament.

“There were a few really hectic weeks, setting up an of-fice, hiring staff,” said Liu. “My first year was really spent meet-ing as many constituents as pos-

sible, letting them know we of-fered services at the MP’s office, and that I was available and ac-cessible to them.”

As an NDP parliamentarian in 2011, Liu and the other new-ly-elected students were join-ing a diverse caucus, with over a dozen MPs under the age of 30 and 40 per cent female rep-resentatives overall. Liu said she looked forward to working with two of her role models—MPs Megan Leslie and Nicki Ash-ton—who she describes as be-ing “two parliamentarians who surely didn’t look like the status quo, who were female, and were relatively young.”

“[Going to Parliament] was re-ally something,” said Liu. “It was really exciting to be there with Jack [Layton] as well, to be in caucus as a member of the Offi-cial Opposition. I think we really did manage to change the face of Parliament, and I think we were the literal embodiment of the

Laurin Liu was the youngest woman ever elected to Parliament. Photo courtesy of Laurin Liu.


The Communist Party of China announced recently that they have repealed their one child policy. The law was established in 1979. The Chinese government estimates that this law lowered China’s population by an estimated 400 million births and it has also contributed the annual reduction of approximately 1.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide and other gases. According to Vice News, this choice is part of China’s new five-year plan, which will lead China’s economic policy until 2020.

On Sunday, a video was released by the Kurdish regional government, showing U.S. military and Kurdish forces raiding a prison in northern Iraq, reports The Guardian. The prison, located in the town of Hawija, was under control by Islamic State militants. The raid saved 70 hostages, 20 of which are members of the Iraqi security forces. This raid marks the first time the U.S. engages in direct ground combat in the Middle Eastern nation since the beginning of the war against ISIS in August of 2014.

China abolishes one child policy

SAVANNA CRAIGStaff writer

WORLD

Saudi prince charged with drug trafficking

“Outside effect” caused Sinai plane crash

Apparently even princes smuggling two tonnes of drugs onto private jets are not above the law. Saudi prince Abdel Mohsen Bin Walid Bin Abdulaziz was among five Saudis arrested in Lebanon on Oct. 27. A total of 10 people were charged with drug smuggling after being caught transporting nearly two tons of drugs—Captagon capsules, a type of amphetamine, and cocaine. The drugs were about to be loaded onto their private jet when they were discovered. This is the largest ever recorded drug seizure at Beirut’s airport, according to Al Jazeera.

Starting this semester, SARC has started holding bystander inter-ventions on consent and what constitutes sexual violence ev-ery fall exclusively to student athletes and coaches. “These workshops are important for athletes—not necessarily due to a problem of past sexual vi-olence, but due to their status within the university,” Drum-mond said. “Athletes are seen as role models representing their school, so they should receive education on the culture and awareness of sexual violence.”

Social justice activist Ju-lie Lalonde will be speaking at the workshop. Lalonde began her involvement with the Coa-lition for a Carleton Sexual As-sault Centre, which sparked in light of a notorious sexual as-sault involving a female student that was sent to the hospital due to a violent sexual assault. The sexual assault took place on campus. Lalonde said the situ-ation “really highlighted the gap in services at Carleton.” These were gaps Lalonde wanted to fill to improve the services and knowledge of sexual violence to those in the community, target-ing these university students.

“We know, statistically, that campuses have incred-ibly high rates of sexual vio-lence. Traditionally, campus-

Concordia to hold bystander intervention workshop on Nov. 4

Combating campus sexual violence

Concordia will be holding a bystander intervention work-shop on Wednesday, Nov. 4 to generate awareness of sexual violence and how those wit-nessing it can and should react. This workshop, being held from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in H-7.67 of the Hall building, will help educate those to discourage rape cul-ture and provide a safe envi-ronment to support victims.

Concordia’s Sexual Assault Resource Centre (SARC) coor-dinator, Jennifer Drummond, said these events are important to help contribute to a culture where survivors can feel safe and their stories can be tak-en seriously. She also said the bystander intervention work-shops will not only help create more awareness around the subject, but it will put the au-dience in different scenarios to help demonstrate how to deal and intervene when put in a situation of sexual violence.

In the past, SARC held work-shops in Concordia once ev-ery semester by request only.

es have been very resistant to the idea of even talking about sexual assault on their cam-pus, let alone working towards it,” said Lalonde. She added that the way many campuses have dealt with sexual violence has only made this problem worse.

Lalonde said the best thing for a bystander to do when witnessing a sexual assault is to check in with the person. You should ask if the person with them is bothering them or if they want you to wait with them until they get a cab home.

SAVANNA CRAIGStaff writer

C A M P U S

C A M P U S

What’s new with the CSUFEUQ in the rearview mirror and new fee-levy group on the horizon

GREGORY TODARO News editor

@GCTodaro

anyone can access it,” said Ve-lasco. In particular, the first and second points of the motion tied in with the CSU’s hope to get the data gathered by the FEUQ on students’ financial information.

“For the past eight years, the FEUQ has been running surveys on the campuses of all of the members,” he said. The survey asked students about topics in-cluding student financing, levels of debt and employment situation.

Velasco said having the raw data from the surveys con-ducted on campus could be useful for the CSU. “It could be really interesting to write a report on debt levels over the past eight years,” he added.

The third point of the first mo-tion was to allow the CSU to help dissolve The FEUQ. “As all of [the FEUQ’s accounts] are being paid off or settled, there’s still going to be a certain amount of mon-ey remaining in the coffers of the FEUQ,” said Velasco. “We want to make sure that the money gets evenly distributed back to mem-ber associations.”

The Concordia Student Union ap-proved the addition of several initiatives to be voted on during this month’s byelection. During their regular council meeting on Wednesday, council agreed to ask students to allow the CSU to join a new provincial student union and to vote on the creation of a new fee-levy group.

Goodbye, FEUQ...CSU V.P. external affairs and

mobilization Gabriel Velasco pre-sented two motions to council about the decline of the Fédéra-tion étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ). The first was so the CSU could advocate for the FEUQ archives to be transferred to a public archival space and to allow the CSU to be a part of the dissolution of the FEUQ.

“The idea is to give all this documentation to public archi-val space so it doesn’t get lost and

The second motion involved approving a referendum ques-tions for a fee increase to pay membership costs for the As-sociation for the Voice of Ed-ucation in Quebec (AVEC). The CSU wants to increase the $2.50 students pay per semester into FEUQ by $1 to pay $3.50 for membership into AVEC.

...and hello CURE? CSU council also approved a

referendum question for byelec-tions asking students to create a new fee-levy group . Communi-ty University Research Exchange (CURE) facilitates research col-laborations between Concordia students and grassroots com-munity groups. CURE, which is a working group of the Quebec Public Interest Research Group at Concordia and has more than 75 current projects for students, can help students work and do research for which they can re-ceive class credit.

CSU V.P. academic and ad-vocacy Marion Miller told coun-cil that the Policy Committee re-

viewed the group’s proposed bylaws and recommended that the question move forward to the by-election.

“We found that the organiza-tion seemed very well organized and their structure made sense to us,” said Miller. “We really trust this group will be able to operate as a fee levy group.”

Cassie Smith, a coordina-tor with CURE, said the group helps around five to seven stu-dents a year work on projects. “We’ve also had professors ac-tually re-organize their course outline around CURE projects,” Smith said.

CURE is requesting an eight cent fee levy to increase the number of students they can pair with grassroots groups.

Smith said that with prop-er funding, she believes CURE could help four to five times more students. “Thus far we’ve just been funded through work studies and short-term grants so it’s hard to have somebody that actually puts a lot of time and coordination [into CURE].”

Lalonde told The Concordian that if you are a witness, ap-propriate action would be to “simply [check] in with some-one and giving them the op-portunity to say, ‘no worries. I know him. It’s all good!’ … or al-ternatively, ‘He won’t leave me alone and I just want to get out of here.’”

The bystander intervention event is open to the public and will take place Nov. 4 in room H-7.67 in the Hall building.

Photo by Kelsey Litwin.


V.P. academic and advocacy Marion Miller says renovations could start next semester

The red-bricked building in the shadow of Concordia’s library on Bishop Street sits empty, waiting for

a breath of new life to fill the shell of what used to be a cafe. As early as next fall, that building will not just be filled with life again, but with the liveliness that comes from having more than 70 children spending the day at the new CSU daycare and nursery centre.

CSU V.P. academic and advocacy Marion Miller officially announced the lo-cation of the daycare at the group’s reg-ular council meeting on Wednesday. The CSU will be leasing the building at 1424 Bishop St. from Concordia University for the next decade, and Miller said renova-tions are set to begin next semester.

“We’re really lucky to have this build-ing because it’s beautiful, it has great huge windows and it’s a lot of space,” she told council.

Miller said Concordia University is working on re-zoning the building to be a daycare.

Student-parent needsThe initiative for creating a daycare for

student-parents originated from the results of a study conducted in 2011 by the Dean of Students Office and the Concordia Uni-versity Student Parents Centre. That study identified barriers to accessible daycare for student-parents. On the top of the list of things they needed was an affordable daycare option located near the downtown campus providing flexible hours.

Miller said the CSU also took a survey of 253 student-parents currently at Con-cordia. When asked where the ideal loca-tion for their daycare would be, over half of the people surveyed said they’d rather have it near the downtown campus.

In November 2014 the CSU presented

a referendum question at their byelection asking students if they were in favour of the continued prioritization of a daycare for student-parents. Concordia under-graduate students took to the polls and 87 per cent of voters were in favour.

Number of kidsThe daycare is being designed to take

in children under five years old, with the spaces for the oldest children on the third floor and the nursery—for children less than 18 months old—located on the first floor.

“Our consultants had been telling us ‘you don’t want to go over 55 or 60 [kids] to have a comfortable daycare,’” said Miller. “Any more than that and it gets crazy, especially because we’re in a building on three levels … 52 is a pretty good number for us.”

While the daycare can only hold 52 children at any given time, the tentative schedule the CSU put forward has the capability of housing 72 kids in one day. The current plan has 42 slots for children to spend the whole day at the daycare. However, there will also be three differ-ent four-hour segments of the day, each of which has room for up to 10 children.

“One of the really attractive points of our daycare will be the flexible sched-ule,” said Miller. “In our survey it seemed that the majority of folks wanted full-time care but there were some who were more interested in the flexible part-time [care].”

Miller added that the plan is not set in stone, and can change depending on the needs of student-parents once the day-care is up and running.

CostsThe upfront costs of renovations for

the CSU are upward of $200,000, not in-cluding repairs to the base building proj-ects—including a new roof, a new en-trance and third floor windows as well as a new electrical room—which will be

CSU daycare could be open within a year

covered by Concordia. A referendum question at the CSU’s byelections this month will ask students to reallocate 24 cents per credit from the fee-levy already collected from students. This realloca-tion will to go to the day-to-day costs of the daycare. As a result, if the referen-dum question is passed the CSU Student Space, Accessible Education and Legal Contingency Fund will drop from $1 per credit to 76 cents per credit.

The daycare will also employ 11 staff members, one daycare and nursery manager, four qualified educators, four educator helpers, one kitchen helper and one bookkeeper and an administra-tive assistant. All but the administrative assistant position would be full time.

C A M P U S

Daycare to be CSU subsidiaryThe CSU proposal would involve

making the daycare a non-profit subsid-iary. This will allow the daycare centre to have its own board. Otherwise, the re-sponsibility for the centre’s board would force CSU council to act as its board.

“That just gets really complicated because then all of the councillors will have to get involved in the administra-tive governmental regulation relating to the daycare,” said Miller.

The daycare board will instead be made up of seven members. The board breakdown will require it to have two student parents, a daycare employee, a community member, CSU’s president, general manager and one CSU executive.

GREGORY TODARO News editor

@GCTodaro

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The Concordia Student Union daycare cantre will be located on Bishop Street right next to Concordia’s downtown campus. Photo courtesy of the CSU.


LIFE EDITORCRISTINA [email protected]

@theconcordianLIFE

Attention foodies: the Montreal Vegan Festival is back

On Nov. 7, the doors of the Bonse-cours Market will open, inviting Montreal’s foodies into a world of

vegan yummy-ness. The second Montreal Vegan Festival will take place in the heart of Old Montreal, starting at 10 a.m., where entry is free.

The festival will feature unique guests that you won’t want to miss, from Pattrice Jones, the co-founder of VINE Sanctu-ary (an LGBTQ-led farm animal refuge), to Vegan Black Metal Chef who will be teach-ing festival-goers how to make black bean burgers. Other special guests will include doctors, dietary health specialists, food-ie moms and psychologists who will make you question why exactly so many people still eat animals.

Last year, 5,000 people attended the festival. This year’s turnout is expected to increase by 30 per cent, according to the logistics organizer, Sameer Muldeen.

Muldeen said highlights will include conferences and a special party featuring Rise Kombucha. There will also be a 6 à 9 where local restaurant Aux Vivres will be doing food demos.

The Montreal Vegan Festival is com-pletely volunteer-run, with over 150 people dedicating their time to bring Montreal an awesome gathering of vegan goodness at no cost for visitors. However, the after party, which starts at

OCEAN DeROUCHIEContributor

9:30 p.m. is $10 per ticket.Audrey Sckoropad, a naturopathy spe-

cialist and a featured speaker at the fes-tival, spoke to The Concordian about her mission to help people, especially families, transition to a vegan lifestyle.

“I have been a vegan for seven years, and I discovered veganism through The China Study when I was 17,” she said. “It just changed me, and my whole family and I became vegan within a month. The health benefits changed all of us so positively.” The China Study is an American best-sell-ing book about nutrition, particularly the vegan diet.

“I’ve never been this healthy,” she said. Although people have to educate them-selves on vegan diets, more and more people are aware that it is possible, she said. The key is balance.

Sckoropad’s presentation will feature advice for vegan families and a recipe demo for chia pudding. Her presentation is mostly geared towards vegan fami-lies and bringing up vegan children. She said she aims to demystify veganism, especially concerns about protein, calci-um and iron. “You can get those in plant foods,” Sckoropad said.

As for integrating new foods into your lifestyle, Sckoropad said the easiest stepping stone is to start with smoothies and juices. “I’ve been starting my day with smoothies for seven years,” she said.

The benefit is that you’ll get everything you need in the morning, and you can add it to whatever you’re already eating, she

said. It’s a much healthier alternative to a routine of coffee and toast, both of which will dehydrate you and lack much suste-nance, she explained.

As for the festival, Sckoropad said, “for once everybody is on the same vibe, and is there to support and inspire each other with more tips and tricks. Hopefully there

F O O D

Make black bean burgers and attend eye-opening workshops at this year’s edition

will be more people who aren’t vegans and who are looking to plant the seed—that one small step will make the difference.”

You can learn more about the festival at festivalveganedemontreal.com and Audrey Sckoropad’s work at antidotesmagazine.com

The second Montreal Vegan Festival will feature many workshops and cooking demos by chefs and health specialists. Photos by Andrej Ivanov.

CAFÉ NÉVÉBREWING STUPID SINCE 2009

NOW OPEN ‘1420 STANLEY’ 781 AVE MONT-ROYAL EST 15 KARL FRASER RD-TORONTO 160 st VIATEUR EST 151 RACHEL EST

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P R O F I L E

A degree is important, especially in the 21st century, but one Concordia journal-ism student has found that hard experi-ence can teach you more.

“Yes, school is important, but already with the experience that I have while working and from school, I am able to be-come something stronger once I get that degree,” said Concordia journalism student and CJAD 800 producer Cora MacDonald.

MacDonald knows the importance of a university degree in this day and age. However, she said the opportunities she’s gained during her internship at the CJAD radio station and her determination to do the best at her job has proven to be equally as powerful.

Now 29 years old, MacDonald’s jour-ney to find her passion has been a long one, since at 27, she was a philosophy student at Concordia.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I was in an existential crisis,” said MacDon-ald. “So I took existentialism [as a class].”

When making one of her schedules, she enrolled in a journalism class that was only accessible to students in the pro-gram. She was accidentally accepted.

A classmate in the course recommend-ed an extracurricular activity that changed her life. The student told her to join the Street Team at Astral Media—so she did.

“When I would be driving in the car

with my ex-boyfriend listening to CJAD, I would always say ‘one day I’m going to be on the radio,’” MacDonald said. “I would say it jokingly.”

Little did she know, that was exactly what she was setting herself up for. The Street Team covers promotional events for stations including CHOM, CJAD and Virgin Radio. MacDonald even covered events with her job for the Montreal Alou-ettes’ football team, and made important connections while working there.

“You are going there for the purpose of creating a name in the journalism world,” she said.

MacDonald did just that by striving to

go above and beyond expectations for three months at the street team, despite rocky circumstances in her personal life. She had suffered from a drinking problem.

“I became sober for this job and ca-reer,” she said. “I haven’t had a drink in over a year and a half, since my job has given me a purpose. I wake up every sin-gle day and I am grateful [for the station].”

After three months on the street team, she asked to be put in contact with Chris Bury, the program director and news di-rector at Bell Media, who had taken over from Astral Media. After a meeting with Bury and receiving great feedback about her performance with the Street Team,

she was given the opportunity to intern for CJAD.

MacDonald helped work on Todd van der Heyden’s Viewpoints and the Tommy Schnurmacher Show.

“I touched on research, chases and I saw a lot of things I pitched go to air with Todd van der Heyden,” said MacDonald. “I booked at least a guest per show.”

In the end, this experience made her apply, twice, to the journalism program.

“I was in the running for the opportunity to have a full-time position as a producer but I said no, purely because I want those letters at the end of my name,” MacDonald explained. “With my degree, I can become an executive producer.”

MacDonald explained that a diplo-ma shows that you are accomplished and knowledgeable in your chosen field. Work experience can disappear if a com-pany is restructuring, for example. While it was a challenge to get these positions, she knows how valuable these opportu-nities have been.

“I am relentless,” MacDonald laughed. “I never let someone say no to me. It may be terrible in my personal life, but as a journalist it’s great.”

MacDonald is in her second year at Concordia in journalism and is the weekend producer at CJAD 800. She is also Todd van der Heyden’s producer on his nationally syndicated radio show Viewpoints which airs Saturdays from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. on CJAD 800.

Meet Concordia’s mighty Engineers Without BordersE N G I N E E R I N G

Here’s the first thing you should know about Engineers Without Borders (EWB): it’s not just for engineers.

It’s about engineers and non-engineers throughout Canada coming together to tackle some of the world’s complex problems, according to Geordan Vine, president of EWB at Concordia University.

Working towards solving global poverty and creating equal opportunities may sound ambitious for Concordia’s small chapter—but that is part of their charm.

“It’s small, but it’s mighty,” said Jane Stringham, the V.P. of fundraising. “We get a lot done.”

From used electronics sales and trivia night fundraisers to facilitating trips to developing countries, members at EWB are always busy with new projects.

It doesn’t take much to become a member—just drop by for a meeting and you’re part of the team.

“I really like that it’s so flexible and that everyone is always welcome at the meet-ings,” said Samantha Sieklicki, the V.P. of member learning.

Neither Sieklicki nor Stringham are engineering students. Sieklicki recently made the switch from physics to religious studies and Stringham is working towards a master’s degree in environmental impact assessment.

As the V.P. of member learning, Sieklicki organizes discussions for EWB members on topics such as fair trade and food systems. It’s a chance for members to learn about how and why EWB is making a difference.

“[EWB] is the kind of place where you can ask the hard questions to the CEO around a campfire,” said Vine, as he de-scribed one of the EWB retreats he attend-ed last year.

The biggest project that Concordia’s chapter is working on is a certificate pro-gram as part of the Global Engineering Initiative. Vine said the program is about challenging students “to think in a global perspective, to think about their responsi-bility to society.” It is a part of EWB’s work to promote engineering leadership. Concordia aims to launch the program in January.

What sets EWB apart from other NGOs is its focus on creating systemic change. An organization can’t just build a well in a de-

veloping village and call it a day, Vine said. “It’s putting a band-aid on the problem of water distribution in small villages,” he said.

Systemic change is essentially the say-ing about teaching a man to fish so that you feed him for a lifetime, said Vine.

This past summer, Maxime Desharnais, a Concordia engineering student, spent four months in Ghana as part of EWB Can-ada’s Junior Fellowship Program. De-sharnais primarily looked at the changes that could be made to the practice of growing rice through nursing and transplanting to op-timize the yield of small farms.

“That’s the kind of thing that is going to change the way that people are liv-ing,” Vine said, referring to Maxime’s journey. “They are getting bet-ter outputs just from simple changes in technique that they might not have known or developed.”

As an individual chapter, Concordia’s EWB members focus on supporting ventures like Desharnais’ through fundraising.

“There are a lot of students that really find a passion in develop-

Students from all programs aim to make a difference in developing countries as part of EWB

ment, in leadership, in planning,” said Vine. “I think it’s something everyone should strive for.”

For more information, visit concordia.ewb.ca or stop by their samosa sales, held every Thursday at 12 p.m. on the second floor of the Hall building next to The Hive.

Concordia journalism student spends after-school hours producing a radio show at CJAD 800Getting a job in your field can happen while you’re studying

Cora MacDonald on the job at CJAD’s studio in Montreal. Photo by Andrej Ivanov.

TAYLOR YANKOWSKIStaff writer

KATYA TEAGUEContributor

Graphic by Charlotte Bracho.


Ladies and gentlemen of Concordia University,

It has come to my attention that the third floor of the J.W. McConnell Building is now newly renovated and open. This of course means there’s a new bathroom on campus and one that promises to be a pleasure to review!

After nodding in and out of consciousness through the majority of my 8:45 a.m. class, I tried to fight it, I really did. I made my way—now somewhat energized—to the third floor of the library. I couldn’t suppress a whispered “damn!” as I walked

STEPHEN HOStaff writer

Porcelain Pilgrim: the library’s renovated washroomsinto the new section. A girl gave me a reproachful look but she shouldn’t flatter herself like that.

I made my way slowly, like a big tourist, around the new area before finally making my way to the washroom. Clean white doors. Nice. Sticky to the touch already. Not nice. Still, I had hope. As the door swung inwards I was met with a sterile looking washroom, painted white with fluorescent lights and a long sink with multiple taps. Pretty badass.

“Looking good!” I said to myself since no one was in there, another plus in my books. I looked in each of the three stalls. All clean, they all had hooks on the doors and they all had toilet paper! I chose the handicapped stall cause I like my space and I’m sitting here writing this as I hear people come in and out of the washroom now. I’m listening to someone use the hand

dryer and I’m afraid to say it doesn’t sound like one of those high-powered ones. We’ll find out in a few moments.

Woah, automatically flushing toilets too! Lord knows we need it here. The hand dryers looked like the old ones and I was initially disappointed, but it actually seems like they’ve upgraded and I dried my hands pretty quickly. It ain’t those high powered ones I love, but that’ll do, pig, that’ll do.

Nine out of 10 for this sweet new water closet and I would have been disappointed with anything less since it’s completely new. Good on ya, Concordia!

Fallout 4 blends past and future into war madness

With Fallout 4 set to release on Nov. 10, there is one question gamers should be asking: although a new addition to the series is long anticipated, will it live up to the hype?

Fallout 4 is mainly set in post-apocalyptic Boston, with a retro-future style, where the 1950s culture collides with 21st century futuristic elements. The game features advanced robots and technology alongside 1950s décor because the Cold War mentality never resolved and resulted in a full-scale nuclear war. Luckily, bunkers and vaults allowed humans to be prepared for such a situation.

All of the games in this franchise take place after a nuclear war, where the pro-tagonist emerges from a vault. Gameplay unfolds in an action RPG-style, as the player navigates an irradiated world and finds horrors therein. In this installment, players can alternate between first-per-son and third-person views.

Looking at Bethesda Softworks’ recent history, it’s hard to determine whether a new project that is released will truly be a success or if it will flop. Let’s find out why.

The official announcement of Fallout 4 came with a successful response. Prior to the press conference at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2015, the announcement was heavily speculated. What was not foreseen was that the game would be released within six months.

Along with the game’s first trailer, though, Bethesda Softworks unveiled two more gamer goodies at E3. Truly, Christmas had come early for the series fans, until the truth set in.

ROBIN STANFORD Staff writer

With a few downfalls in the game publisher’s marketing plan, will the new installment be a success?

First, they had created a free-to-play app, Fallout Shelter, for iOS which was launched just after the presentations.

Fallout Shelter allowed the player to manage their own vault during the nu-clear war. If one made sure that vault dwellers were working, fed, armed, and generally happy, their vault would thrive. The app debuted at number one on the App Store charts.

After a few weeks, however, players realized that there was a simple formula to obtain optimal results. The main prob-lem with the game, as pointed out on the website of IGN, a leading games and en-tertainment media company, was that “oddly, once you succeed the fun fades away.” The game turns into a FarmVille style simulator that you visit for a few minutes here and there to check in on vault dwellers but nothing more.

Similar disappointment happened concerning the second goodie, the limit-ed Pip-Boy edition of the game.

The Pip-Boy is an iconic item with-in the franchise itself. Various versions of the Pip-Boy are worn by the play-er-controlled character throughout the

series. It functions as a game menu dis-playing the character’s status, skills, perks, items, and general data. The lim-ited-edition of the game would come with physical version of Pip-Boy, in oth-er words, a computerized wristwatch that replicates the one seen in the game. On the Bethesda Softworks official store website, it was said to function using a compatible smartphone and the accom-panying app.

Right after its press conference, Bethesda Softworks revealed that the Pip-Boy wouldn’t be compatible on phones with screens that measured 5.5 inches, or more diagonally such as the iPhone 6 Plus or Galaxy Note 4. Although not entirely unexpected, it was a disap-pointment to some consumers as they would not be able to use a Pip-Boy.

The shock came on July 1 when Bethesda Softworks announced through its official blog that limited-edition stocks had run out in North America. Later that month, Pete Hines of Bethesda Soft-works revealed on GameSpot that “the company has hit its limit on the num-ber of Pip-Boys it can manufacture.” The

H U M O U R

G A M I N G

company had simply not been ready for the large demand around its own hype.

Although Bethesda Softworks has come up with great marketing ideas surrounding its new game, none of them have panned out as well as the company expected.

Will Fallout 4 be the defining game of 2015 or fall like the Fallout Shelter app?

Only time will tell.

A meet-and-greet with the newly renovated high-tech school bathrooms

Fallout 4 will be available on Xbox One, PS4 and PC as of Nov. 10.

Fallout 4 takes place in post-apocalyptic Boston, where the past and future collide.

Graphic by Kim

Lam Shang Leen.


It’s hardly a matter of debate that Steve Jobs managed to change the world. This text is being written on an Apple device. It will be edited and laid out on other

ELIJAH BUKREEV Co-arts editor

Apple devices. I could take it on a walk and keep it in my pocket. I could have Siri read it to me. So could you.

Steve Jobs changed the world, but he may have been a bit of a jerk in the process, which made him a fitting sub-ject for screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, who previously turned his attention to Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network. Zuckerberg and Jobs have both had an enormous impact on the way our gen-eration relates to technology. They were both supremely self-confident men consumed by an idea—perfect candi-dates for Sorkin’s character studies.

The tumultuous production history of Sorkin’s new film, soberly titled Steve Jobs, is well-documented—as reported by The Guardian, David Fincher, who direct-ed The Social Network, dropped out over a salary dispute, Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale both turned down the lead role and Sony Pictures ultimately shelved the project. It was then revived by Uni-versal and Danny Boyle came on board to direct, with Michael Fassbender as Jobs.

The result may not be the masterpiece many were expecting, but it’s a superbly acted and written treat. Sorkin went out of his way to make it unlike any biopic, especially unlike Jobs, the critical failure which starred Ashton Kutcher. Instead, it is structured like a play in three acts, each one covering 40 minutes of re-al-time interactions between Steve Jobs and a group of recurring characters just before a product launch.

Sorkin draws a very human por-trait of Jobs—Time famously named him “Machine of the year” in 1982—who is caught here in all of his vain, perfec-tionistic and genial glory. There is no doubt that he is an artist on a grand-er scale—“Musicians play their instru-ments; I play the orchestra,” he says in the film. When Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen) complains to him

about the Macintosh’s lack of customi-zation, Jobs explains that he sees it not only as a commercial product but also as a personal work of art—the public, he tells Wozniak, should have no say in it.

Just like with The Social Network, Sor-kin finds a balance between reality and fiction, condensing events and amplify-ing characters’ roles in them for the sake of a self-encompassing and subtly circu-lar story. Jobs, for all of his troublesome personality traits, is given a redemptive character arc. Certainly, technology is an important theme in the film, but so is par-enthood—Jobs’ adoption is brought up, as well as his unwillingness to acknowledge his own biological daughter.

What ultimately hurts Steve Jobs is that the film does not have enough of a director’s touch. Boyle, who is known for his energetic editing and visual style, is not given much room to express himself, with Sorkin’s trademark dialogue-heavy scriptwriting stretching the viewer’s lis-tening skills to their limit. The script could eventually make a great play, but it shouldn’t be forgotten that film is first and foremost a visual medium.

Regardless, Steve Jobs is a fine com-panion piece to The Social Network in terms of mythicizing the advent of the digital age while giving it a human face.

The human face of the digital age

ARTSARTS EDITORSELIJAH BUKREEV and LYDIA [email protected]

@theconcordian

A new Montreal startup—The Flyest Shoe—is here to personally customize your sneakersTurn your next pair of kicks into a work of art

We all use fashion to express who we re-ally are—whether it signifies class, per-sonality, emotion or interests. It’s a way to speak to the world through fabric and montage, an explanation of oneself with-out words. A new Montreal startup called The Flyest Shoe—formed in January 2015—allows this process to go one step further (pun intended).

The startup was co-founded by Nicolas Gaume, a UQÀM student, and Mathieu Naillon, an HEC student. It is run by five official members accom-panied by two main artists—OneTulip and Quentin. The concept behind the company is the personal customiza-tion of sneakers—they upgrade your shoes from feet protection to works of art. Freelance or contracted artists are brought in by the crew to hand-paint your kicks, mostly with an acrylic leath-er paint called Angelus.

You can either bring in your own sneakers or the group commonly orders sneakers such as Nike Air Force One,

Nike Air Max, Adidas Superstar and Adi-das Stan Smith for their customers. These shoes are primarily ordered in black and white so that they can act as a canvas for the artists to work off of. But rather than just customizing footwear in a gener-ic way, the company offers the benefit of a conversation and an inclusion into the creative process. You can come in with a vague or a specific idea and brainstorm with the team and the artist that will be making your sneakers their canvas, their temporary sketchbook.

“You can [already] customize your sneakers but it’s not personal, so ev-

erybody can do the same as you. [Here] we are really trying to make something different for each customer,” said Gau-me. “It’s a new relationship between the artist, the customers [and] the team. We try to do something more personal,” said Anastasia Domerego, the art direc-tor of the startup. Domerego pointed out that big brands aren’t asking you “What would you like? What is your inspiration?” while this is exactly what The Flyest Shoe wants to know.

Your sneaker customization happens in five easy steps: pick a pair, choose a design, review various previews, choose

your favourite preview and give your ap-proval on the final product. Your pair of sneakers can be finished in two to four weeks and pricing starts at $200 and may vary depending on the vastness and complexity of design. “If you want to have the pair of your dreams, but not to look like everybody else, go customize your pair. Come to our shop and we will make it different, better and yours … Peo-ple want to be different and they want to be creators now,” said Gaume.

Gaume hopes that the future of the company will include 10 Montreal-based artists, international orders and two art-ists on the team who specialize in tai-loring. Furthermore, rather than only personalizing a larger brand’s product, they hope to one day produce a brand of shoes of their own.

Whether you’re an artist interested in applying to make someone’s fanta-sy sneakers a reality, a customer who wants a pair of kicks that will set you apart or someone who wishes to walk the streets wearing artwork, The Flyest Shoe is a startup to keep your eye on.

For more information visit The Flyest Shoe’s website at theflyestshoe.com.

B U S I N E S S

F I L M

Steve Jobs follows the man backstage, away from the spotlight.

Release date: Oct. 23, 2015Director: Danny BoyleCast: Michael Fassbender, Seth Rogen, Kate Winslet, Jeff DanielsRunning time: 122 minutes

Danny Boyle’s new film, Steve Jobs, reflects on the Apple founder’s fascinating legacy

LYDIA ANDERSONCo-arts editor

@LydiaAndersonn

Quentin and the team work hard on delivering unique and hand-made designs. Photo by Lydia Anderson.


Montreal’s zombie walkA look at some of the best costumes spotted at Saturday’s Montreal zombie walk

P H O T O F E A T U R E

Photo by Kelsey Litwin. Photo by Kelsey Litwin.

Photo by Andrej Ivanov. Photo by Kelsey Litwin.


Music and film as a means of resistanceF I L M

Perhaps you’ve looked at a map of Afri-ca and wondered why Western Sahara looks so different from its surrounding countries, usually with its name itali-cized and separated from Morocco with a dashed border.

Or maybe you already know about Western Sahara and have a thirst to learn more, in which case you should watch Life is Waiting: Referendum and Resistance in Western Sahara for its de-piction of the unique predicament of Western Sahara and its independence movement. Written and directed by Iara Lee, this one-hour documentary gives an introduction to the fight for self-de-termination by the Sahrawis of Western Sahara, which was once a colony of the Spanish empire and is now a territory occupied by Morocco. Through music, art, film and other peaceful means, you can learn from the different struggles experienced over the years by young and old alike as Western Saharans face war and difficult life conditions.

The documentary starts off with a short but necessary history lesson. Seemingly successful in its fight for in-dependence from Spain in 1975, Western Sahara soon found itself embroiled in a war with Morocco and Mauritania, and then just Morocco.

In 1991, peace was achieved be-tween Western Sahara and Morocco with assistance from the United Na-tions. However, according to the film, the hoped-for referendum to finally achieve full independence was unsuc-cessful, and was not pushed for hard enough by the global community. Now with Morocco occupying most of the land and coastal sea and with very little attention from outsiders, the film focus-es on those Sahrawi activists who are attempting to continue their struggle through creative means.

Some will find Life is Waiting similar to 2007’s The Devil Came on Horseback for its review of the conflict in Darfur and the struggle for media attention and global intervention. But unlike The Devil Came on Horseback, which follows one protag-onist throughout the documentary, Life is Waiting highlights the many artists and other activists who are living in occupied Western Sahara, in Spain as exiles and in Algeria as refugees. This may be both the film’s strength and one of its flaws. On one hand, the viewer gets to learn from

multiple activists who use many differ-ent methods, including rap and poet-ry, to reach a wider audience that may push governments to offer political as-sistance. On the other hand, the viewer may feel like hearing about a single ac-tivist more in depth.

One activist who stuck out, and may resonate with some of the more musi-cally inclined audience members, was Mariem Hassan, a singer-activist for the movement. “I was a young girl at [the] time [of the movement for indepen-dence from Spain]. Songs were used to motivate people to stand up against the Spanish occupation, demonstrat-ing and singing patriotic songs. Youth

KALVIN HARTWIGContributor

Cinema Politica’s latest documentary shows a fight for independence in Western Sahara

back then were no different than youth today … Youth is behind all action. In that era, songs were our source of education and our weapon. People would come rushing to listen to the verses,” she said.

Indeed, there is a lot of beauti-ful music throughout the film. If not for the activism, then at least for the mu-sic and arresting visuals of the Sahara landscape, this is a documentary worth watching.

Screenings take place every Monday at H-110 and directors are usually in attendance. Look them up on Facebook at Cinema Politica Concordia.

As these Western Saharans show, the human spirit can thrive even in a desolate and hopeless landscape.

Photo by Kelsey Litwin. Photo by Andrej Ivanov.

Photo by Andrej Ivanov.


The museum pays a glamorous tribute to artists of Montreal’s past, the Beaver Hall GroupThe Roaring ‘20s make a comeback at the MMFA

The evening started as a crowd—all clad in attire reminiscent of the ‘20s—floated into a blue-lit bar

room. The sounds of clinking glasses and the hum of echoed conversations were accompanied by the jumpy jazz coming from the musicians at the end of the room.

On Oct. 28, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts hosted a ‘20s-themed eve-ning filled with wine, music, artwork and more, which was centred around their new exhibit, 1920s Modernism in Montreal: The Beaver Hall Group.

Live music echoed through the mu-seum’s archways as guests mingled or made their way up the carpeted marble steps to the exhibit which paid tribute to Montreal’s famous and historic group of artists, the Beaver Hall Group.

Showing works spanning from 1920 to 1933, the wall panels explain that the Beaver Hall Group is an “association of some twenty artists and their closest colleagues” that existed between 1920 and 1923 and that, additionally, the Ca-nadian Group of Painters—the next chapter for some of these artists—was founded in 1933. The MMFA boasts this exhibit to be the first major study of this association. This group of Montreal art-ists represented women and men in equal parts, making them the first asso-ciation to do so in the country. Howev-er, this is only one of the many reasons why the museum is using jazz as a met-aphor for their modernity.

The majority of the artists within the group had attended the school of the Art Association of Montreal—which was written to be the precursor to the MMFA itself. This shared training background might contribute to the continuity of style and technique seen throughout most of the exhibit. There is a varied choice of media and notable traits particular to each artist, but there are clear stylis-tic similarities within the group. Howev-er, with media ranging from oil on can-vas to sculptures of patinated plaster and bronze and themes of winter landscapes, portraiture, industrial settings and more, the styles and subjects of this exhibit are as various as some of the detailed frames that surround the pieces.

The historic context provides a char-ismatic quality to the pieces and their

backstories. Among them, tales or inspi-rations drawn from World War I or the group’s “feminization” from being per-ceived as notably female-dominated at the time. Furthermore, many of the land-scapes depicted are of Montreal and oth-er areas in the province of Quebec—such as the Laurentians and Gaspé—with cap-tions containing the comfort of familiar street names—such as St. Denis Street and Sherbrooke Street. Paired with the intrigue of a portrayal of this different time period, the exhibit allows viewers to visit a familiar place in an unfamiliar time through these historic artists.

The exhibit also holds a variety of aesthetic styles to enjoy. Take for ex-ample the simple but colourful land-scapes from artists like Sarah Robertson or Prudence Heward’s skillfully execut-

ed depictions of lighting or her subjects’ noticeably more pronounced mus-culatures and skeletal structures. The collection of artwork had more than enough to offer to the perusing guests as they circulated in their feather boas and pearl necklaces. With or without the jazzy, Roaring ‘20s theme, this exhibit is worth taking the time to stroll through—and even if you missed the costume op-portunity, it may just be worth it to don the historic attire to go to the gallery any other day, even if that does mean the occasional disconcerted sidelong glance.

1920s Modernism in Montreal: The Beaver Hall Group is showing at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts until Jan. 31.

E X H I B I T

LYDIA ANDERSONCo-arts editor

@LydiaAndersonn

Visitors peruse the paintings that influenced Montreal’s art scene over the last century. Photos by Marie-Pierre Savard.

The ‘20s are known as the “Jazz age”—jazz is at the very heart of the period. A taste of the old-school dancing and nostalgia-ridden atmosphere.

This jolly museum-goer could easily pass for a 1920s belle.


Revisiting Wolf Parade’s seminal debut 10 years later

The consistency of each track find Wolf Parade sharing a commonali-ty with the fickle music listeners of to-day—“make them come to you and never let up.” The urgency of “We Built

Another World,” the buoyancy of “I’ll Believe In Anything” and the spectral saunter of “Same Ghost Every Night” comprise the album’s accessible pop ap-peal, but the sticky melodies are intricate and energetic enough to keep listeners engaged for years. In other words, Wolf Parade’s debut serves as a remarkably

fruitful listen, endless in its replay value. Though the band is sadly no more, their legacy nonetheless lives on.

Those unfamiliar with Apologies to the Queen Mary’s pivotal stature might be quick to dismiss it as tired hipster fodder but the record’s patient ascent from poised debut to cardinal indie gem is hard to ig-nore. It’s what happens when hype works in a band’s favour and what’s resulted is the gold standard exemplar for modern indie music—a lasting, anthemic, and transcen-dent work indeed.

Apologies to the Queen Mary, the stellar sub pop debut from Mon-treal’s very own Wolf Parade,

assembles grandiose pop sensibilities with punk-inflected indie rock.

This might sound like a familiar tem-plate for anyone who’s read a preten-tious music blog, but appraising the al-bum’s surface negates the mammoth ambitions found inside. Just give the record time—fixate on its influences, absorb each track, fold back the edg-es and you’ll find an all-inclusive sur-vey of every emotion you’ve ever had. Only this time, the experience is soundtracked by sheer musical ecstasy.

Before the record’s release in Sep-tember 2005, Wolf Parade fell victim to hype—a contradiction that has plagued Canadian music for years. With a name like Isaac Brock (better known as the sonic architect and brainchild of Mod-est Mouse) behind the mixing board, it’s clear that the Montreal import had a lot going for them, as well as an equally high bar to live up to.

Throughout the record, Wolf Parade roll out incendiary piano-hooks like a bat out of hell, but they retain the sub-dued confidence of such established veteran bands as label mates Dinosaur Jr. That gentle attention to detail estab-lished Wolf Parade as a formidable force against other indie-rock contenders.

Even in the face of such high expec-tations, the band prevailed with flying colors, garnering traction from post-punk purists and indie-rock teenybop-

CALVIN CASHEENContributor

pers alike. Ignoring the Pitchfork “Best New Music” seal of approval, Apolo-gies to the Queen Mary is an exceeding-ly special album that has launched Wolf Parade into a storied musical lineage. Few records, let alone debuts, exhibit such meticulously calculated and con-trolled musical prowess.

The record recently turned 10 and while the collective had been riding high up until their indefinite hiatus in 2011, it’s interesting to speculate how well Queen Mary sits with today’s digital age demographic. Stylistically, the re-cord epitomizes that early 2000 era of post-punk revivalism, flexing compo-nents of fidgety guitars, glitchy synths, and spastic vocal deliveries. In other words, Queen Mary rigidly adheres to the signature Modest Mouse formula.

It’s easy to pull comparisons, but when Wolf Parade take familiar pop tropes and contort them into a trium-phantly energetic musical pastiche, the result is hot to the touch. The invig-orating sing-song choruses, brought to you by dual vocalists Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug, are absolute bless-ings to the ears. Krug exhibits the un-hinged cadences of Lennon where-as Boeckner prefers a more bridled, McCartney-esque approach. When combined, the duality is seamless. The team’s meticulous sense of structure and attention to harmony has forged prominent solo careers for both; Krug has since released a handful of lauded albums under the Moonface moniker while Boeckner has endured success in such bands as Handsome Furs and Divine Fits. Queen Mary spotlights just how well these two can carry a tune.

Though ten years have passed since its release, Apologies to the Queen Mary remains a treat

C L A S S I C S

MUSICMUSIC EDITORSAMUEL [email protected]

@theconcordian

Montreal’s Wolf Parade recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of their debut record, originally released on Sept. 27, 2005.

Though they’ve been on hiatus since 2011, Wolf Parade’s ripples are still felt.


The Garden - Haha (Burger/Epitaph, 2015)

Majical Cloudz, the chilly synth-laden proj-ect of Devon Welsh and Matthew Otto, recently played a sold-out show for the release of their sophomore outing, Are You Alone? The performance was under-whelming, leaving the pop craftsmen at odds with spectators. This begs the ques-tion: can Majical Cloudz emulate studio trickery on stage? Radio fodder aims for communal appeal. Are You Alone? opts for the personal synergy between listener and artist. It’s a pop effort that requires the same dense concentration that went into pro-ducing it, like performance doesn’t. While the duo thrives on individual strengths, Ot-to’s skeletal production and electro-tinged flourishes fully embrace Welsh’s intimate narratives. Majical Cloudz operates well inside these confines and their latest be-comes all the more rewarding when recog-nized for what it is—an excellent album.

Shining — International Blackjazz Society(Spinefarm Records, 2015)

A marginal step up from August’s banal Depression Cherry, Thank Your Lucky Stars nonetheless showcases minimal growth from a songwriting standpoint. Beach House fails to provide a compelling case for this second full length of 2015. Beyond outfitting their sketchbook song structures with gloomier minor progressions, the duo essentially rely on the same kitchen sink of pretty clichés and mid-tempo noncha-lance that’s come to define them. Though the band have stressed Thank Your Lucky Stars isn’t a companion piece to Depres-sion Cherry, it nevertheless harbours a similarly dry feel, its skeletal instrumentals occasionally brought to life by dissonance. Though some fans may welcome the band’s return to the more gaunt arrange-ments of their self-titled debut, Thank Your Lucky Stars is simply content with providing more of the same, for better or worse.

Majical Cloudz — Are You Alone? (Matador, 2015)

From odes to objects to plastering fresh faces on creatures they’ve imagined, Haha is less of an album and more of a series of brief, impromptu sonic art pieces. In their self-described mindset called “Vada Vada,” songwriters Wyatt and Fletcher Shears experiment in their playground of creative anarchy. The duo could be described as post-punk, but that’d go against “Vada Vada” values; instead, the minimalist instruments (only a bass and drums), the pre-recorded sounds that range from creepy to corny, and the twins’ impulsive lyrics turn the sound into a vibrant potpourri. Touching on Dadaism, their lyrics balance disinterest and wild catchiness. The vocals on “This Could Build us a Home” would suit a motel’s basement rec room, but, really, Haha could make a home for itself anywhere. Under the veil of “Vada Vada”, The Garden exists everywhere.

Beach House— Thank Your Lucky Stars(Sub Pop, 2015)

As with Shining’s other albums, Interna-tional Blackjazz Society is a bewildering experience. The mix of jazz and industri-al metal hits like a ton of bricks dropped from the Empire State Building while the album’s intense tracklist grabs onto the listener and refuses to let go. Combining hints of Powerman 5000 with Phil An-selmo-like vocals, all the while throwing chaotic jazz-fusion into the mix, Shining’s latest also find them infusing some Trent Reznor into their sound for good measure. The combination makes no sense on pa-per, but works surprisingly well musical-ly. Though not without flaws, International Blackjazz Society absolutely needs to be experienced at least once for its musical prowess alone. It is living proof that con-trolled chaos exists and that it can work perfectly when created in the right envi-ronment.

8/10 CALVIN CASHEEN 5/10 SAMUEL PROVOST-WALKER 9/10 MIA PEARSON 7/10 ANDREJ IVANOV

Trial track: “Downtown” Trial track: “One Thing” Trial track: “We Be Grindin” Trial track: “Last Day”

A short guide to video game soundtracksYou don’t have to be a gamer to appreciate these wicked dance-floor burners

As video games have drastically evolved through new advancements in technol-ogy and growing production budgets, so have the ways in which music and in-teraction converge to create impactful, thrilling moments.

A video game’s soundtrack can very well be a game’s defining characteristic and essentially reshape what would oth-erwise be just another level or objective. More importantly however, a lot of these soundtracks are just plain incredible on their own merits.

It’s easy to forget just how influential and important video game music has been for a lot of popular music, namely for the development of electronic music; chiptune music was essentially born out of the lim-ited memory afforded by video game con-soles. Take the legendary work of music composer and programmer Yuzo Koshi-ro, whose soundtracks in numerous Sega Genesis titles has earned him a prestigious place in the development of the acid tech-

no movement of the early ‘90s.Koshiro is perhaps best known for the

infectious dance floor burners that bring the famed Streets of Rage series to life. To-gether with fellow composer and collabo-rator Motohiro Kawashima, Koshiro utiliz-es the Sega Genesis’ hardware to its fullest potential, squeezing an incredibly authen-tic and multi-layered take on acid techno through the most modest of sound boards. A sample of Streets of Rage 2’s high-oc-tane raver “Expander” even found its way into infamous South African group Die Antwoord’s “Happy Go Sucky Fucky.”

It’s also easy to forget just how im-portant game audio can be for a game’s emotional centre; sweeping music, like in film, is often used to elicit very specif-ic emotions from its audience. Voice act-ing is still relatively recent additions to the medium’s storytelling tools, therefore many releases had to rely on music to ef-fectively convey specific emotions.

Japanese composer Nobuo Uematsu made a name for himself by crafting gor-geously evocative orchestral pieces, all arranged through limited sound channels and MIDI sequencers, for the storied Fi-nal Fantasy franchise. As the series moved onto newer, more powerful hardware, Ue-matsu only grew more ambitious with his arrangements, though he mostly stuck

to these digitized means. This format has done little to hinder his reputation, hav-ing been deemed the “John Williams of the video game world” by numerous critics and lauded as one of the most influential modern classical composers in his field.

Some soundtracks also exhibit nu-merous bizarrely inventive quirks of their own; Katamari Fortissimo Damacy, the soundtrack to the inherently Japa-nese Playstation 2 title Katamari Dama-

cy, is one such soundtrack. Blending such disparate genres as Shibuya-kei, jazz, lounge and chiptune into one incredibly manic and colorful whole, Katamari For-tissimo Damacy transcends what video game soundtracks strive to be. Though not wholly made up of original works, an-other recent and varied example of this is the neon-drenched nightmare that is Ho-tline Miami 2: Wrong Number. Featuring a

thrilling mix of percussive electro-house synths and atmospheric, Carpenter-esque

ambiance, Wrong Number’s soundtrack stands out as one of the year’s most impressive albums.

Though video games have long been the butt end of geek culture stereotypes and jokes, their influence on surround-ing media is undeniable. Whether a wholly original collection of songs or a finely cu-rated set of licensed pieces, video game soundtracks should not be ignored sim-ply by virtue of being part of an interactive product. You don’t need to be good at vid-eo games to appreciate great music.

R E C O M M E N D A T I O N S

Q U I C K S P I N S

SAMUEL PROVOST-WALKER Music editor



The men’s football team lost to the Université de Montréal on Saturday in a tight 22-17 game

The Concordia Stingers football team marched onto the Carabins home field on Oct. 31 hoping to upset the

reigning Vanier cup champions. Despite having a lead with only one quarter to go in the game, the Stingers fell to the Carabins by a score of 22-17.

After a Stingers safety early in the game, the Carabins scored the first touchdown during their first drive of the second quarter. The Carabins started the drive on the Stingers 27-yard line. It was there that Carabins quarterback, Gabriel Cousineau connected with wide receiver, Philip Enchill for a 15-yard touchdown.

With nine minutes left in the first half, the Stingers got their offense in gear and marched themselves down the field. Af-ter reaching the Carabins eight-yard line, Stingers kicker, Keegan Treloar

came out to kick a 15-yard field goal and put it right through the uprights. As a fifth-year player, the field goal was Tre-loar’s last in his regular season career.

The key play in the scoring drive was a 44-yard pass from Stingers quarter-back Trenton Miller to slotback Jahlani Gilbert-Knorren. Gilbert-Knorren was Miller’s favourite target in the game as he ended the day with 10 catches for a total of 100 yards.

Just before half-time, the Carabins scored on a 37-yard field goal to go up by a score of 12-3.

The Stingers would then start strong in the second half with a dominant third quarter. Miller scored back to back touchdown passes in the quarter which gave his team a 17-12 lead. The first of those touchdowns would be a two-yard pass to runningback Jean-Guy Rimpel. Miller’s second touchdown was a 19-yard pass to wide receiver, Daniel Skube.

In the fourth quarter, the Carabins

Stingers lose in their season finale

SPORTS

CASEY DULSONStaff writer

SPORTS EDITORALEXANDER [email protected]

@theconcordian

M E N ’ S F O O T B A L L

turned it up a notch and came roaring back into the game. To bring the team’s deficit within two points, the Carabins scored on a 23-yard field goal early in the quarter. The Carabins defense then caused the game’s turning point when they forced Miller to thrown an inter-ception. The Carabins would then capi-talize off of the mistake and score on a two-yard rushing touchdown by run-ning back Sean-Thomas Erlington.

With just over two minutes left in the game, Miller led the Stingers down the field in a bid to retake the lead. The Sting-ers started on their own 24-yard line and picked up a total 41 yards off of several passes by Miller. The game ended when Stingers runningback, Rimpel was tack-led on third down, meaning the team had to turn the ball over to the Carabins.

“We came up short again, we made too many mistakes but at least we bat-tled till the end,” Stingers cornerback, Rashawn Perry said.

This was the Stingers second loss to the Carabins this season.

In the loss, Miller threw for 286 yards along with two touchdowns. The two touchdowns brought his season total to 20 which allowed him to break the Sting-ers single-season touchdown record.

“It doesn’t mean anything to me, it just shows that the offensive line and the re-ceivers had a great season,” Miller said.

“It was a hard game, the Stingers played really well,” Cousineau said. “De-fensively they stopped us for a majority of the game. They also have a very good offense that can drive down the field.”

The Stingers finished the season with a 4-4 record and will now head into the playoffs this weekend to play the Laval Rouge et Or in Quebec City. Despite los-ing to Laval in the playoffs last season, Stingers coach Mickey Donovan is ex-cited about the game.

”It’s going to be a dogfight for sure, but we’re up to the challenge,” Donovan said.

Slotback, Anthony Aubry gets hit before catching the ball during Saturday’s game. Photos by Andrej Ivanov. The Stingers defense trips up Carabins quarteback, Gabriel Cousineau.


CJLO to broadcast Stingers games

When the Concordia Stingers football team defeated the McGill Redmen to se-cure a playoff spot on Oct. 24, two Con-cordia students were living out their dreams in the press box. The Concord-ian’s own Samuel Obrand and The Link’s online sports editor, Julian McKenzie, could be heard over live stream, deliver-ing play-by-play for Concordia’s campus radio station, CJLO.

This broadcast was the first in a new initiative by CJLO that will see many Sting-ers games broadcasted with students at the helm. Obrand, who has his own show on the station, came up with the idea and immediately approached McKenzie.

“He was more than thrilled to see it through,” Obrand said. “I then approached my station manager Michael Sallot about the effort and he seemed really keen about it as well.”

In order to prepare for the first broad-cast, McKenzie and Obrand met five weeks before the football game just so that they could get everything perfect. For Obrand, the weeks leading up to the broadcast could not have come fast enough.

While the broadcast was in conjunc-tion with CJLO, it was not actually put on the radio. Instead, the broadcast was heard through a live stream on Mixlr. The game was not heard on the radio due to scheduling conflicts with other shows on the station. As Obrand explained, broad-casting the game through the radio would have meant asking DJ’s to give up their time slots which was not something they could do. However, they would like to have games make it to radio in the future.

For both Obrand and McKenzie, the experience was a dream come true.

“It was too surreal, very dreamlike,” Obrand said. “The whole experience gave me a lot of joy and put me in a very con-tent and confident zone, it’s definitely a place that I like to be.”

“Calling the game was such a thrill,” McKenzie said. “Our very first game will go down as one of the more memorable games of the McGill-Concordia rivalry. I don’t think you could’ve asked for more. It’s the games you dream of being a part of.”

McKenzie also went on to say that the real hero was Obrand’s brother, Rich-ard, who provided the men with statis-tics on the Stingers and Redman players throughout the course of the game.

Obrand and McKenzie also did play-by-play for the Stingers football game against the Université de Montréal this past weekend, which has given them two games worth of broadcasting experience.

While McKenzie and Obrand were the first to be play-by-play announcers in the initiative, they are not the only ones who get to participate. CJLO is open to any-body who would like to call games for the radio station and practice their commen-tating skills.

The station is hoping to cover all Con-cordia sports including hockey, basketball, rugby, baseball and soccer.

ALEXANDER COLESports editor

R U G B Y

W O M E N ’S (LO S S 25-17 )The women’s rugby team lost to the University of Ottawa in the RSEQ championship game on Saturday by a score of 25-17. The University of Ot-tawa Gee-Gees were the number one ranked team in the RSEQ division with a perfect 7-0 record. Despite the loss, the Stingers will be playing next weekend in the CIS championships at Queen’s University.

MEN’S (LO S S 19-18 )The men’s rugby team lost to the École de Technologie Supérieure in the RSEQ quarter-finals on Saturday by a score of 19-18. The week prior, the Stingers had defeated ÉTS by a 30-15 score. The loss means that the Stingers are eliminated from the RSEQ playoffs.

H O C K E Y

M E N ’S (W 6-3; L 4-1 )The team played two games at home on back to back nights this past weekend. The first game they played was against Wilfred Laurier University. Despite being down 3-0 in the game, the team man-aged to find a spark and scored six un-answered goals to win the game 6-3.

In the second game of the weekend, the team lost 4-1 to Waterloo University. Waterloo forwards, Colin Behenna and Andrew Smith each had two goals in the victory. The win and the loss means that the team is now 3-5 on the season. The women’s team had the weekend off.

S O C C E R

W O M E N ’S (L 6-1 ; L 1-0 )On Friday night, the team got blown out by Sherbrooke on the road by a score of 6-1. On Sunday, the team would play at home against Laval in a game where they would lose 1-0. The two games marked the end of the regular season. The team finished with a 4-9-1 record.

M E N ’S (W 2-1 ; L 3-1 )The team won their game against Sher-brooke on the road Friday night by a score of 2-1. Although, in their home game against Laval on Sunday, the team lost 3-1. Midfielder Roby Simard had the lone goal for the team. The season is now over with the team finishing with a record of 3-9.

B A S K E T B A L L

W O M E N ’S (W I N 63-62 )The women’s basketball team won their pre-season game this weekend against Carleton University by a score of 63-62. The score of the game was tight but the team managed to pull out the win with another big effort. The win improved the team’s pre-season record to 5-1. On Nov. 7 the team will be playing their season opener against UQÀM at the Concordia gymnasium.

C A M P U S

Concordia’s campus radio station is now covering live sports

Julian McKenzie (middle) and Sam Obrand (right) work on their set up. Photo by Andrej Ivanov.

STINGERS WEEKEND RESULTS

ALEXANDER COLESports editor

@a_cole39

The Habs goaltender contributes $10,000 to his hometown teams

Carey Price donates goalie gear

On Oct. 27, when the Montreal Canadiens fell to the Vancouver Canucks by a score of 5-1 and failed to tie the NHL record for most wins to start a season, goaltender Carey Price remained a winner.

The Anahim Lake, B.C., native recent-ly donated over $10,000 worth of CCM goalie equipment to organizations such as the Williams Lake Minor Hockey As-sociation, the Williams Lake Big Brothers and Big Sisters, as well as three aborigi-nal organizations.

Price’s donation to his old minor hockey association allows children—who

may not have the financial means—to give the sport a shot. It also allows them to meet new people, make friends, and to play a sport they love.

As a goaltender myself, I’m aware of how haunting the bills of goalie equipment can be. Decent chest protectors cost about $700. Goalie pads can range anywhere from $600 to $2,000. Blockers and gloves are at least $250 each. A plain, one-colour helmet retails for about $500. I value the entirety of my equipment at about $2,500, and I’m not using high-end gear.

For underprivileged youth, a price cannot be put on this donation.

As Price was accepting one of the four trophies that he received during the 2015 NHL awards, he gave a speech to inspire kids who were once like him. “I made it here because I wasn’t discour-aged,” he said. “I worked hard to get here, took advantage of every oppor-

tunity that I had, and I would really like to encourage First Nations youth to be leaders in their communities. Be proud of your heritage and don’t be discour-aged from the improbable.”

The equipment donation is far from the first thing that Price has done to improve both local and aboriginal communities.

Price is also involved with a program called Stick with School, which encourag-es children to stay in school and motivates them to get good grades. He sets aca-demic goals with the students, including those of the Kahnawake Survival School. He then rewards the students with tickets to a game if they meet their goals.

No matter what Price’s future may hold with the Canadiens and no matter how many Stanley Cups, Olympic gold medals, or NHL awards he receives, Carey Price will always be a winner. Something that all Habs fans can agree on.

SARAH KOSSITSStaff writer

H O C K E Y


PUBLIC PRIORITIES, NOT PRIVATE PROJECTSPhilippe Couillard promised to take

care of “les vraies affaires” during the last provincial election cam-

paign—apparently he meant taking care of private businesses, instead of the public sector. Quebecers are now facing tougher financial times than ever, with cuts to es-sential services across the board.

People heard the Premier’s song and dance, featuring his finance minister Carlos Leitão, more than once on how our province is so in debt that we need to reduce our expenses.

Couillard announced last week that Quebec will be investing an astonishing $1.32 billion of taxpayers’ money into Bombardier—which recently announced a $6.46 billion loss—to help them develop the CSeries Jet. Quebecers are right to question whether their billion dollars is being spent the right way.

This investment is especially controversial and unwelcome at a time when public-sector employees are on a rotating strike; at a time when teachers are losing money; at a time when students are being denied more and more services.

This announcement comes at the same time as a Montreal high school has been in the spotlight for needing help from a Protestant church after harsh budget cuts.

What transpires from this bailout is

that the provincial liberal government is more concerned with injecting taxpayers’ money into the private sector—money the population will likely never see again —whilst services to the population get worse and worse week after week.

Sure, there is a lot at stake; Bombardier employs more than 18,000 workers in the province. But is this investment worth the cost of not giving enough to the next generations and the ones to follow? The Quebec government is partnering with one of Bombardier’s three divisions that faces great difficulties—the CSeries Jet division is already two years behind schedule.

Did Couillard ask for the people’s opinion on investing money that will primarily benefit executives and shareholders?

Of course not.It can be argued Quebec is going to

save 18,000 jobs, but will they be saved in the long term? With such a risky investment, no one can predict whether those employees will still be working at Bombardier in five years time.

So what happens to these public funds when everything falls apart again?

It seems Quebecers have better ideas about what to do with such an amount of money.

This past week was not about our provincial government investing in some company with a long-term plan

Volunteers and values: picking and choosing helping hands

Mark Twain once called Montreal the city of a hundred steeples, but not every church has a steeple—they’re expensive.

Take the church I attend as an example. Église du Plateau Mont-Royal is a small, francophone Protestant church that meets in the Plateau-Mont-Royal neighbourhood. The church-goers don’t meet in a church building because it doesn’t own one, which is common for new churches with small congregations. In fact, Église du Plateau Mont-Royal doesn’t own a building for the same reason I don’t own a house—real estate is expensive.

In early September the church started renting the auditorium at Jeanne-Mance High School for Sunday gatherings because the previous rental space was being filled to capacity.

You may think this all sounds benign, whether you consider yourself religious or not, so why are we talking about this? A recent story by Radio-Canada and later the CBC has thrust my little church into the spotlight—even politicians are talking about it—but why?

volunteers to keep the library open when the librarian was laid off. No, the problem seems to be that a church wanted to help.

The Radio-Canada report also got a few facts wrong. The article says members of the church are already tutoring and volunteering in the library. We’re not, because we haven’t been trained by the school yet or agreed to the terms that would likely be imposed on any volunteers.

The majority of those who commented on the article seem convinced that the

plan was to put on Jesus t-shirts and hand out copies of the Bible with students’ library books.

That’s ridiculous. Regardless of what you may

have seen on T.V., that’s not Église du Plateau Mont-Royal—and that’s not me. I get it though, I’m a native Montrealer and I know the history of religion in Quebec. People just aren’t comfortable with religion in schools since the Quiet

Revolution—for good, valid reasons—and I think the de-confessionalization of school boards was a good thing.

MATTHEW CIVICOOpinions editor

@mattCivico

OPINIONSOPINIONS EDITORMATTHEW [email protected]

@theconcordian

Because Jeanne-Mance High School is a school with needs—needs compounded by austerity measures—and Église du Plateau Mont-Royal is big on community service.

From what I understand, the decision to rent space at Jeanne-Mance was motivated by a desire to serve the disadvantaged. The school is ranked third worst in Quebec, according to the Fraser Institute, and has a course failure rate of 49.9 per cent.

The problem is not that the church wanted to help by offering tutors (many congregants are university students) or

I know what it means to live in a pluralistic society. I know that in Canada, and Quebec especially, my worldview is not the dominant one. Because of this I try to live out my faith humbly, answering questions instead of offering answers.

I have a question of my own: if my church didn’t meet in Jeanne-Mance’s auditorium and I wanted to volunteer my services as an ESL teacher, would I be allowed? I’m a Christian and sometimes I talk about that fact. If someone asked me why I volunteer anywhere I’d mention something about Jesus’ command to love my neighbour.

Église du Plateau Mont-Royal isn’t planning to put on t-shirts and proselytize kids. We saw a need and asked if we could help. I’m a one service-minded individual among many at the church and yes, that service mindedness springs from my faith but that doesn’t change the nature of my service.

If all this media coverage means Église du Plateau Mont-Royal is strictly forbidden from mentioning our faith while volunteering, that’s fine, I just want to help. If the school gets much needed funds out of this, even better.

But my motivation for helping will always stay the same.

E D I T O R I A L

R E L I G I O N

A Montreal church is getting a lot of attention for offering to help struggling students

in mind. This past week saw another example of a Quebec Liberal majority government stealing money from the population—from our pockets.




S O C I E T Y

Being a woman shouldn’t mean having to say you’re sorry

Listen up ladies: you should be assertive, but you shouldn’t be bitchy. You should be talkative, but you shouldn’t take over the room either. You should be sexy, but shouldn’t be slutty. You should be sweet, but you shouldn’t be a pushover. You should act like a man, but behave la-dy-like. Right?

Bullshit. We have this misleading concept

that we should be everything and nothing all at once, so, we constantly doubt ourselves. Personally speaking, I question myself every day and overthink everything. Do men do this as much as women do?

In the workplace—or simply in daily events—us lovely human beings “blessed” to be the “weaker sex” have a lot going on in our heads. We don’t want to be labeled as the “bitch.” And you are perceived as the “bitch” if you are too assertive. However, reversing the roles, a man is being the boss, or simply a man, if he is boldly self-assured

behave the way women are “supposed to,” by being called a sissy—or worse.

This just reinforces negative gender stereotypes. This happens because of how gender is culturally constructed in our society, and it continues despite our best efforts.

Our fear of being seen as unattractive or out of the norm is perpetrated by the gender inequity in the workplace: that

is the still remaining wage inequality along

with male dominated

professions. Women are still being paid only $0.82 to every $1 earned by men and a majority of men at work encourages this ridiculous idea and vicious cycle of men

GLORIA PANCRAZIContributor

about his opinions. Negative feelings are heaped on women when they act like a man should, sure, and men experience the reverse when they

acting bigger and women acting smaller. Yes, this is what contributes to women apologizing more for their actions because of the actual fact that they are not as valued as men—according to their paycheck that is.

My mother used to be president of her company alongside my father. When they got divorced, she lost her position. My father and his colleague now have that title. Divorce comes with its own taunting quarrels and my mother didn’t want to fight relentlessly over job titles. So she let it be. I wonder if a man would have let go of that title of power that easily. That’s the thing isn’t it? Men are born into the world with a position that makes them more eligible for power than women.

I sometimes silence myself in front of issues that bother me to avoid looking stupid or overly sensitive. Overly sexualized women dominate the media in our day-to-day lives and we mindlessly accept it.

This only drags on the issue. Speak up about your thoughts and don’t apologize for sharing them. Be labeled as the ‘bitch’ for being assertive, and don’t act like a man or a woman—but as a human being.

Unequal expectations at work mean women have to work harder to be heard

The Teal Pumpkin Project: more treats, less tricks

Big, orange jack-o’-lanterns are the symbol of Halloween. No home would be complete without one on Oct. 31, but what if this year, people were swapping out the traditional orange colour for... teal?

The “Teal Pumpkin Project” is a movement that started in the U.S.A. and is now moving to Canada. Homeowners are putting out teal pumpkins to signify that the house is offering allergy-safe treats on Halloween for trick-or-treaters. For kids with allergies, this is great news; but for the back-in-my-day folks who have nothing better to do, it’s yet another thing to complain about.

Homes that are taking part in the Teal Pumpkin Project are offering kids things that won’t threaten their lives, and will give their parents peace of mind. They will be giving out non-edible treats, such as small toys or stickers, instead of potentially harmful candy for kids with allergies.

The concept of giving treats to kids for them all to enjoy safely shouldn’t be a controversial issue, but it seems to be. The comments section of an online article on CBC News website is riddled with criticism. Remarks such as “the gluten panic strikes again” or “why not just ban Halloween completely?” attack a harmless gesture, seemingly without reason. Putting out a different coloured pumpkin won’t ruin anyone’s Halloween aesthetic, and giving out seasonal stickers instead of chocolate bars won’t

to have a normal, exciting, and safe Halloween experience. If a child with a severe allergy or food intolerance gets a hold of the wrong candy, it could be dangerous, and this risk leaves children out of the fun of the holiday.

While everyone is more-or-less familiar with the common peanut allergy, things such as celiac disease, which is an extreme sensitivity to gluten, are not as well known. Kids with Type 1 diabetes, gluten sensitivities, and uncommon allergies have a tough time on Halloween. The candy they get

BRIANNA BALLARDContributor

disappoint any kids. On the contrary, allergy-free treats will make trick-or-treating way more enjoyable for all the little monsters running around on Halloween night.

But the people of the internet seem to think that kids are just being coddled these days—as if going into anaphylactic shock is character building instead of life threatening. True, no one likes helicopter parents who protect their children just short of wrapping them in bubble wrap, but no one can blame families that want their children

from trick-or-treating has to be sorted out and the majority is inedible; some kids don’t go out for Halloween at all because it’s safer for them to stay away from candy altogether.

The Teal Pumpkin Project is nothing but a good thing. Children deserve to be kept safe on the spookiest night of the year, and a cool new colour for Halloween is hardly the worst way to do it.

Every kid deserves to have fun, regardless of their differences, so here’s to hoping we see a little more teal next All Hallow’s Eve.

H E A L T H

Some candy can be deadly, so some colour and more Halloween safety isn’t going to hurt anyone


Each of these pumpkins could represent a house with allergen-filled candy. Photo by Marie-Pierre Savard.


The Concordian’s editorial teamWe tell your stories since 1983.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFMICHELLE [email protected]

PRODUCTION MANAGERPIERRE A. [email protected]

NEWS EDITORGREGORY [email protected]

LIFE EDITORCRISTINA [email protected]

ARTS EDITORSLYDIA ANDERSONELIJAH [email protected]

MUSIC EDITORSAMUEL [email protected]

MUSIC ASSISTANT ÉTIENNE LAJOIE

SPORTS EDITORALEXANDER [email protected]

OPINIONS EDITORMATTHEW [email protected]

PHOTO EDITORANDREJ [email protected]

PHOTO ASSISTANT MARIE-PIERRE SAVARD

ONLINE EDITORDORI [email protected]

GRAPHICS EDITORCHARLOTTE [email protected]

COPY EDITORSNATHALIE LAFLAMMEJESSICA ROMERASTEPH ULLMANWALID [email protected]

PRODUCTION ASSISTANTSKIM LAM SHANG LEEN JESSICA RAMIREZ-JASCHEK ROXANN VAUDRY-READ

CONTRIBUTORSLaura Marchand, Danielle Gasher, Sandra Hercegova, Savanna Craig, Katya Teague, Robin Stanford, Ocean DeRouchie, Stephen Ho, Taylor Yankowski, Kalvin Hartwig, Calvin Casheen, Casey Dulson, Sarah Kossits, Gloria Pancrazi, Brianna Ballard

Editorial office7141 Sherbrooke St. WBuilding CC-Rm 431Montreal, QC H4B 1R6(514) 848-2424 ext. 7499

BOARD OF DIRECTORSNATHALIE LAFLAMMEJACOB SEREBINRUBEN BASTIENMILOS KOVACEVIC

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BUSINESS MANAGERJAYA [email protected]

ADVERTISING MANAGERTALIBAH [email protected]

Concordia University’s weekly, independent student newspaperVOLUME 33 | ISSUE 10 | TUESDAY, NOV. 3, 2015

Cover photo by Andrej Ivanov. Photo illustration by Roxann Vaudry-Read.

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ctheETC

Tweets of the week

Everyone loves the idea of keeping our politicians accountable. We like the idea of booting people out of office so much, maybe that’s why we put fools in there in the first place. Another game we like to play is #IfIWereElected. This week Twitter played #IfIWereElectedMayor.

@fabulousraye#IfIWereElectedMayor Taco Tuesday would be mandatory

@Hollyorange8#IfIWereElectedMayor I’d forget which city I was mayor of

@MermaidintheUSA#IfIWereElectedMayor I’d force the local fast food joints to give unlimited side sauces.

@BrittanyvonDoom#IfIWereElectedMayor..... Um, I play SimCity.... So I’m already there. #nobiggie

@KennethReading#IfIWereElectedMayor I’d elect another two Mayors. Well, you know what they say, the more the Mayorier

@mentalerase#IfIWereElectedMayor shenanigans are legally permitted as long as they are committed utilizing the buddy system

#IfIWereElectedMayor

Letter to the editorWRITE TO THE [email protected]

The Arts and Science Federation of Associations de-mands that Concordia University’s faculty members and administration drop all charges against students facing expulsion, that they allow our students to pro-test in the upcoming strikes without legal or academ-ic consequences, and that article 29G of “Concordia’s Code of Rights and Responsibilities” be amended to reflect the students democratic right to strike.

In April 2015 when students of ASFA’s member associations gathered together in general assemblies to strike against austerity and its detrimental effects on their education, they were asserting the legitimacy of their political bodies. Members of faculty and the administration used this as an opportunity to silence the voices of those who were trying to defend their education by using ‘Concordia’s Code of Rights and Responsibilities’ against them. However, our member associations democratically voted to hold a hard picket line in front of every classroom in the departments that were on strike, something the faculty was made aware of. Students are now facing tribunals and the fear of expulsion, an oppressive tactic carried out to discourage future strikes.

When students are punished for carrying through a democratic mandate it is an obvious affront to their rights and political discrimination. Austerity is not an economic necessity it is a political choice. The faculty and administration are clearly making a political statement when they take legal action toward the students who are speaking out against cuts to the public sector.

Despite these injustices students are still choosing to protest against these neo-liberal attacks on our University and all academic institutions across the province. The faculty should be protesting alongside them because these cuts affect them and every other level at Concordia. Instead of support, there have been reported physical threats by faculty towards our students who have once again legitimately voted to be picketing in classrooms in the upcoming weeks.

Austerity measures have taken a toll on the

entirety of the public sector, all aspects of our educational institutions included. In light of the seriousness and depth of these attacks it is worth understanding what we stand to lose and what future generations stand never to have in the first place. Students in the humanities are facing a job market that barely allows for them to use their degrees in any way. Grad schools in Quebec and the rest of Canada have fewer seats and a lower quality of education today compared to a decade ago. Due to cuts in government subsidized services, it has become nearly impossible for self-reliant students from all walks of life to fully immerse themselves in their studies only allowing for the financially stable to have the chance to show their full potential at school and be part of academic discourse. These are just a few ways students are affected by budget cuts.

Professors are forced to take on growing classes without teaching assistants and larger workloads for the same pay or less because many teachers were pressured to leave. Those coming into the job market will also find little opportunities for employment. These are just a few ways professors are affected by budget cuts. Students all over Quebec have noticed how their education is lacking in quality due to lack of funding and it’s time the school’s faculty and administrators acknowledge this as well.

It is for all these reasons above that ASFA is calling on the faculty to drop the charges and threat of expulsion that are facing our students. ASFA stands in solidarity with its member associations and the students of FASA, one of our fellow faculty associations, as well as the students of UQAM who are also facing similar oppressive measures carried out by key players in their university. We are calling on the faculty and administration to support our member associations’ strike mandates, to act in the interest of students education and support the fight against austerity.

— JENNA COCULLOASFA PRESIDENT

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PHOTOS OF THE WEEKVIGIL AT PLACE DES ARTS FOR ABORIGINAL WOMEN

#TCBACKCOVER

S E N D U S Y O U R P H O T O S

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F O L L O W U S

theconcordian.com

The Buffalo Hat Singers performed in honour of the lost women. Photos by Andrej Ivanov.

Vigil attendees lit candles and lanterns to pay their respects.Vigil attendee holding up a poster to end silence.

Activists speaking about allegations made against officers in Val d’Or.

the concordian - november 3rd, 2015

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