Fantasia International Film Festival:
Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival is one of the largest events dedicated to genre film in Canada and the U.S… Founded in 1996 as an event dedicated to Asian films, today the festival screens genre films from all across the world. Placing pop and alternative culture side by side, the festival defines genre films as “a challenging and elegant stream of cinema.” Its audience is known to be very passionate and enthusiastic, and they seem to appreciate the so-called challenging elegance, as the festival is gaining in success every year. According to Variety magazine, “the event received a record 129,000 attendees [in 2014], up 30 per cent from the 2013 festival.” Tickets are already starting to sell out for some of the screenings, so hurry up and save your seat.

The Fantasia International Film Festival will screen shows from July 16 to August 4 at various locations. Tickets can be purchased at fantasiafestival.com

Montreal Sketchfest:
Sick of scripted theatre? Switch things up a bit this May with Sketchfest, Montreal’s annual festival dedicated to sketch comedy and improv. Featuring over forty sketch troupes from around the continent, the ten-day event includes workshops as well as performances, a perfect learning opportunity for any Montrealer seeking to tap into their funny bone. For its 2015 edition, the festival is branching out, hosting a solo character sketch evening, and partnering with Women in Comedy Montreal to celebrate “the ladies of comedy.” This year also marks the festival’s tenth anniversary – hopefully that means ten times the laughs.

Montreal Sketchfest runs May 21 to 30 at Théâtre Ste. Catherine and the Montreal Improv Theatre. Festival passes can be purchased at theatrestecatherine.com.

St. Ambroise Fringe Festival:
The sole principles of Montreal’s annual fringe festival are no artistic direction, no censorship, and no one gets left out. Because participants are selected by lottery, they have the freedom to do whatever they want. The festival strongly believes in accessibility for both performers and audiences – ticket prices are kept low, and whatever cost there is goes directly back to the artists. The result is a wild and crazy festival that brings out some of the most innovative theatre you are ever likely to see on stage, from a diverse and eclectic group of performers. Last year, the bilingual festival brought us such shows as Roller Derby Saved My Soul and Talking Cock. There is no telling what’s in store for 2015, but it won’t be a year to miss.

The St. Ambroise Fringe Festival runs June 1 to 21. Head to montrealfringe.ca for details.

Montreal Jazz Fest:
Montreal Jazz Fest is an internationally acclaimed event, jam-packed with the best of the best in the genre, and perfect for a long, hot late June evening. If you feel like some day drinks to go with the tunes, try House of Jazz, as their patio has no cover charge and a great drink menu. It doesn’t hurt that it’s also a historic jazz venue with famously beautiful decor, hosting stars on its stage since 1968. Recommended artists to check out include Jamie Cullum, a jazz vocalist/pianist with a young flair who covers Rihanna and Jimi Hendrix when he isn’t charming the crowd with his original material, as well as Valerie June, an up-and-coming bluegrass-folk artist with a dreamy voice reminiscent of a gospel choir.

The 36th Montreal Jazz Festival runs from June 26 to July 5. Presale tickets can be purchased at montrealjazzfest.com.

SUMMER SPOTS:

Kem CoBa & La Diperie:
Summer isn’t complete without the perfect ice cream cone, and Montreal provides one-of-a-kind options. If you go for a walk in the Mile End this summer, you won’t miss the line up outside Kem CoBa. A neighbourhood favorite, Kem CoBa is beloved for its homemade, soft-serve ice cream and sorbet combo, featuring an original recipe every few weeks. Combos like almond milk and sour cherry, or Quebec blueberry and honey, are inspired by the two chefs’ own rebellious natures, as they both left the traditional pastry industry in search of more creative freedom.

Less well-known, but no less delicious, is La Diperie, a pop-up ice cream shop that graces the Lower Plateau throughout the summer and early fall. La Diperie serves up soft-serve ice cream with more options for chocolate dippings than you knew existed – everything from Baileys to fleur de sel. Dip into the shop this summer and taste the goodness for yourself.

Laurier Park & Parc Belmont:
After the winter we’ve had, don’t miss any opportunity to spend time outside this summer and soak up some sun. In the Plateau, Laurier Park is a perfect picnic spot. There’s an outdoor pool, endless green grass for lounging and reading, and even ping pong tables, if that’s your thing. It’s also just a good place to sit back and take in the vibrancy of summer in the city.

If you’re looking for a quieter day in the sun, check out Parc Belmont. A buzzing amusement park from 1923 to 1983, today it’s one of the lesser-known green spots in the city. Though it’s no longer home to candy apples, a ferris wheel, or a roller skating rink, it’s still a worthwhile spot for a quiet day of reminiscing, located right on the edge of Rivière-des-prairies.

First Fridays & Farmers’ Markets:
First Fridays are the largest gatherings of food trucks in Montreal. Held on the first Friday of every month from May to October, they draws together mouth-watering street food in a festive atmosphere at the Parc Olympique with live music and DJs, so you can sway to some beats while munching down on your choice of treats.

If street food has you feeling guilty, then you can also indulge in fresh fruits, veggies, and more at the local farmers’ markets popping up around the city. In the Lower Plateau, Santropol Roulant sells baskets of urban garden-grown veggies. If you’re up for a short trip outside of the city, you can head to Arundel to pick up summer fruits from Runaway Creek Farm. Bask in 200 acres of lake, picnic areas, and hiking trails – a natural paradise if there ever was one.

Verdun Greenhouses:
Feel like busting some moves with friends and family? Venture out to Verdun for some outdoor community dancing. The Verdun Greenhouses are only open in the summer and function as the neighbourhood’s outdoor social dancing hotspot, free of charge, and equipped with 511 square meters of a rubber-coated cement dance floor. The dance schedule for 2015 has not been announced yet, but judging by last year’s schedule, the afternoons and evenings will feature many styles – ranging from the likes of tango, salsa, and Zumba to line dancing. The dancing usually goes on for three to four hours, so wear comfy shoes, and come ready to sweat.

The post Summer in the city: festivals and summer spots appeared first on The McGill Daily.

The sketches were fun, fast-paced, and in your face. There was hardly time for the audience to take a breath as the comedians unabashedly doled out punchlines with perfect timing. They were unafraid to throw a wink and a nod to pop culture – their up-and-coming boy band, “True Infinity,” should be passing One Direction on the music charts soon – but didn’t fall into any bland parodies, choosing to stay near and dear to their own creative voice.

The team jabbed at many familiar stereotypes, poking fun at the high tensions of university life. One sketch about a group of frat bros in a book club ended with the boys on the ground sobbing about the beauty of literature. Suddenly, two girls burst in to watch sports, and, upon seeing the emotional bros, they bemoaned that “this happens every month!” While satirizing McGill’s ‘bro culture,’ this sketch also made fun of those of us who place too much value on stereotypes and experience shock when a so-called ‘bro’ says something intelligent in conference.

Another sketch took these student stereotypes to the point of absurdity, cramming every typical ‘new kid at school,’ coming-of-age movie into one whirlwind scene. In the space of five minutes, the new kid was swept into the lunchroom drama (think the iconic Mean Girls cafeteria scene), faced off against the head cheerleader, won a dance battle for her crew, briefly dated the school rebel, took the final shot of the championship basketball game, and made out with the pretty-boy jock. Not too bad for a first day at school. It was hilarious to see all the tropes from movies like Grease and Ferris Bueller mashed together into one long “Save the school! Win the game! Go to prom!” narrative, pointing out just how strangely Hollywood represents young people – and how readily we accept these representations.

In an interview with The Daily, BYOJ members Harry Turner and Matt Bobkin explained that upcoming plans for the collective include becoming “an official SSMU club,” followed by world domination.

Anyone who has ever had to deal with an arrogant musician would have appreciated the sketch that featured a pretentious punk boy telling a girl that he knows all about “feminism and equality and meninism.” He then asked whether she was on “her period day,” insisting that she didn’t understand the true meaning of his songwriting artistry. After she pushed him out of her apartment, the girl, in an empowering moment, picked up his guitar and echoed the thoughts of every feminist in the audience, singing that she’s “tired of these garbage punk boys, circle-jerking to their garbage punk noise.”

In addition to scrutinizing student tropes, BYOJ also turned the lens on their own practices, doing an entire bit where the stagehands continuously came on and off stage to either quickly change the set or simply lie on the ground. The team did a superb job in this scene of twisting the awkward theatrical divide between stage and audience into a joke, using their space to its full potential without ever breaking out of their comedic role.

However, while the show was still accessible for a broader Montreal community, the themes were definitely targeted at a student audience, as much of the humour relied on parodying various aspects of university culture. Though these in-jokes made the show more enjoyable for McGill students, a few of the punchlines would have gone over the head of anyone outside the bubble.

In an interview with The Daily, BYOJ members Harry Turner and Matt Bobkin explained that upcoming plans for the collective include becoming “an official SSMU club,” followed by world domination. On a more serious note, they confided that the secret to a good sketch is “trusting your troop members.”

If that is indeed the case, then the members of BYOJ must trust each other completely. McGill doesn’t have a big comedy scene, but BYOJ filled that void with dynamic writing and hilarious actors. With the upcoming term paper and final exam season, it’s nice to relax and giggle for a few hours. BYOJ selflessly provided the opportunity to step back and laugh at the stereotypes we experience every day, giving us some perspective on our own ridiculous cultural norms. The collective reminded McGill students that it’s good to laugh at yourself every now and then.

The post Bring Your Own Juice brings all the laughs appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Like many, I’m not an active member of the SSMU community – aside from voting, I don’t take part in student governance, and I have no real stake in painting a positive or negative picture of SSMU. But I covered SSMU’s Legislative Council for The Daily for three semesters, sitting in the back of the Lev Bukhman room and hearing firsthand the conversations that later get twisted and simplified in Facebook statuses and comments on articles. With that in mind, I have a few words to say about the state of student politics at McGill.

One of the most commonly used words associated with SSMU over the past few weeks was ‘esoteric,’ especially with regard to its activism. The irony of calling SSMU ‘esoteric’ is that every time there is an online referendum to increase or create fees for ‘esoteric’ activist groups or services, they pass by overwhelming majorities. QPIRG-McGill’s recent fee increase passed with 62.9 per cent of the vote, and last year Midnight Kitchen got a huge fee increase (from $2.25 up to $3.28), with 72.5 per cent in favour. This past fall, motions to support action on climate change, solidarity against austerity, and a campus free from harmful military technology all passed by 80.79 per cent, 78.7 per cent, and 55 per cent, respectively. With such numbers, it’s hard to believe that these issues are supported by only a small minority. So if these aren’t the ‘esoteric’ issues that critics complain about, what are?

The irony of calling SSMU ‘esoteric’ is that every time there is an online referendum to increase or create fees for ‘esoteric’ activist groups or services, they pass by overwhelming majorities.

Someone might (and rightfully should) point out that most of these referendums only had between 2,000 to 4,000 of more than 20,000 undergraduate students actually vote in them. My response: why get mad at the people who show up, rather than those who don’t? Instead of getting upset that people who don’t share your opinion are more likely to vote, we should be angry with the students who are too apathetic to open an email and spend a few minutes contributing to our community.

Another accusation frequently thrown at SSMU is the insider-group conspiracy, which became much more popular with last year’s invalidation of Tariq Khan’s presidential win. Courtney Ayukawa, allegedly a member of this SSMU in-group, became president instead. This year, another member of the in-group, Kareem Ibrahim, won the presidential election over outsider Alexei Simakov. Similarly, VP Internal Lola Baraldi narrowly won over outsider Johanna Nikoletos. Elections aside, however, there is an inherent bias among SSMU representatives that favours the political opinions of this in-group.

This SSMU Council is completely dominated by a group of like-minded students who speak three times as often as the rest of the Council, are movers on practically all the motions, and often have the majority vote. Either Ibrahim or Baraldi were movers on 14 of 36 motions so far this year; the majority of the other motions were put forward by the executive team.
But this bias doesn’t exist because of the in-group of councillors and executives overpowering the other representatives. It’s because your representatives don’t speak up, and more importantly, don’t vote. In the motion to ban “Blurred Lines” from the Shatner building, there were seven votes in favour, eight against, and eleven abstentions. In a motion to support AGSEM: McGill’s Teaching Union’s attempt to unionize undergraduate teaching assistants, nine of 30 councillors abstained. While there are definitely appropriate times to abstain from a vote, e.g. in cases of personal or professional conflicts of interest, these councillors and senators are abstaining from important votes that, as representatives, they should be taking a stance on.

This SSMU Council is completely dominated by a group of like-minded students who speak three times as often as the rest of the Council, are movers on practically all the motions, and often have the majority vote.

The bias in SSMU Council exists precisely because of these apathetic councillors, who do not speak up and properly represent their constituents. Ibrahim and Baraldi represent a body of students who deserve to have their voices heard – just like anyone else. Except, unlike many on Council, Ibrahim and Baraldi actualize their representative power. Without enough voices or votes to argue against them, almost every motion they bring to council gets passed. Even if you agree with their opinions and actions, this one-sided debate isn’t fair to the rest of the campus, whose input gets overlooked.

Blaming the vocal minority for the motions that get passed at Council will not ‘fix’ SSMU. Instead, we have to stop letting a minority group have the power of a majority. If you are not okay with a motion that is being discussed, tell that to your councillors. Get mad at them when they abstain from a vote. Remind them that they should be informed on the situation, and that they should amend the motion in a way that represents your opinions. The least they can do is be prepared to pick a side.

I don’t want to paint a horribly negative picture of all the SSMU representatives who aren’t in the in-group, just as much as I don’t want to put Ibrahim and Baraldi on a pedestal they don’t deserve. Ibrahim and Baraldi, along with the rest of the new executive team, are now representing all of us. If you find them unfairly pushing personal or minority group biases at SSMU, it’s within your rights to call them out. But it’s not up to you to say that the rights of the minority should be completely ignored. Think you’re representative of a larger group of disgruntled people? Organize yourselves and bring your own motion to SSMU or your representative. They can’t and won’t shut you down.

If you are not okay with a motion that is being discussed, tell that to your councillors. Get mad at them when they abstain from a vote.

By staying within binary of ‘not caring’ and ‘complaining,’ we’re letting the vocal minority take control of every situation, because they take the initiative to do so. Complaining and calling SSMU names isn’t going to make them change their ways. Tensions will run high in the upcoming academic year as austerity measures become reality and more students begin to strike. SSMU will be the most powerful voice McGill students will have, and it’s up to us to speak out and let them know how we want to be represented.

In light of the recent circus that was the SSMU executive elections, I have to say that I respect Simakov’s campaign, because he wanted to bring students outside of the SSMU sphere into the debate. But now, it’s time to stop slandering SSMU and to start actualizing its potential. SSMU doesn’t only function during times of controversy and scandalous elections; it functions all year round as an institution you can use for your own benefit to create change on campus. At the very least, you could bother to vote.

No matter what you think of it, SSMU is an institution run by the students and for the students. Every move that SSMU makes, every scandal and flubbed decision, comes down to the students, both the ones who were there and the ones who didn’t show up. Let’s all just take a step back from our reactions on Facebook, and instead take a positive, active step toward making SSMU our ally instead of our enemy.

Lauria Galbraith is a U1 Classical and Religious Studies student. To reach her, please email lauria.joan@gmail.com.

The post End your apathy appeared first on The McGill Daily.

“You could fill it with something heavy but lady-like, perhaps tiny bricks shaped like lipstick,” Tessa Brown helpfully chimes in as her character, Emily.
“But it should be not heavier than a baby, because a lady should never carry anything heavier than a baby,” Humbert nods. Their fake posh accents veil their witty sarcasm.
Mainly shot in the back of their ‘LadyCab,’ the web series was created in response to the police reaction to a number of incidents where women were sexually assaulted in Montreal cabs, which involved telling women to “limit their alcohol consumption and stay in control” and not take cabs alone at night. While the series clearly positions itself as a reply to this incident, its purpose goes beyond the one issue.

The three main characters – Dorcas, Emily, and Florence – are old-fashioned, traditional ladies who run their LadyCab as a service for “proper ladies, who have proper lady reasons for being out.” Their proper reasons include “buying biscuits or better yet, buying things with which to make biscuits.” As Dorcas, Emily, and Florence attempt to navigate the Montreal streets in their LadyCab, they ask passengers about their experiences of harassment in public spaces or taking cabs.

Meanwhile, the satire also makes fun of outdated stereotypes about ‘proper’ women, as the three ladies are constantly astonished by the ‘modern’ ladies they drive around, and their unladylike notions about “bodily autonomy” and safety in public spaces. The hyper-posh characters are a satirical criticism of the view of women as delicate or helpless creatures.
All three creators and LadyCab hosts have a background in performance, be it stand-up, improv, or burlesque. As such, the over-the-top personas of the LadyCab characters came naturally to them. According to Brown and Humbert, their characters are the result of watching “way too much Little Britain” and Monty Python.

Discussing the characters with The Daily, Brown explains that “when it comes to satire, when it comes to what we’re responding to – which is the suggestion that we can’t go out late at night, we can’t have drinks with our friends, we can’t be out alone without protection – well they’re the sort of ladies that never dream of doing such things, oh my!”

“We don’t really think that women should have to separate themselves from society, we don’t think that women should have to not take cabs late at night – we don’t think that we should feel unsafe in public space,” – Tessa J. Brown, co-creator of LadyCab

Humbert points to the importance of satire as an alternative approach to politics, explaining that she found it refreshing to embody the character of these ‘proper ladies.’ “I personally was tired of being the shrill, angry feminist,” she says, “just shrieking at people and having that shriek be so high-pitched that it goes above most people’s hearing range.”
According to Humbert, LadyCab seeks to “raise awareness and educate people not only in the area of sexual assault, but more broadly just gender equality and respecting other people as human beings, no matter how you perceive their persona.”

“We don’t really think that women should have to separate themselves from society, we don’t think that women should have to not take cabs late at night – we don’t think that we should feel unsafe in public space,” Brown explained.

The series, which has now released 13 episodes on YouTube, features different guests in each ride. The passengers of the LadyCab are a variety of modern ladies: Seska Lee is a burlesque performer and cabaret producer; Connie Lingua is an interdisciplinary drag artist. The cab plays host to women-identified and gender-non-conforming persons. This variety allows the show to explore the views of all types of ladies, which Brown explained is only growing. “We’re really trying to get more diversity in term of the experiences, in terms of the lived experiences of the people in the cab, so we don’t want to just be getting white, cisgender, heterosexual ladies in the cab.”

Beyond the diversity of real issues and experiences that LadyCab brings to light, the web series is wonderfully funny, as Dorcas, Emily, and Florence teach their audience how to be a ‘proper lady,’ and in turn learn from their more ‘modern lady’ passengers. They scheme up impressive ideas such as “Lady-only streets,” which, in one episode, Emily excitedly explains will make us “separate but equal!”

The juxtaposition between the ‘proper ladies’ who host LadyCab and their modern passengers forces the audience to realize how laughable gender stereotypes are, especially when we try to impose a standard idea of femininity across the broad and ever-growing spectrum of what a ‘lady’ can be. As Dorcas, Emily, and Florence discuss how to be delicate and not bothersome, it brings to light the contradictory elements of safety advice given to women. Lady-only cabs and lady-only streets not only isolate and segregate women, but also reaffirm the negative idea that men are dangerous and that it’s women’s responsibility to keep themselves from getting hurt. With their tongues in their cheeks, LadyCab addresses these issues head on.

The series mixes important harassment and gender issues facing the ladies of Montreal with a comedic touch to highlight the ridiculousness of anyone who tries to deny these ongoing problems. LadyCab is driving through Montreal, running over stereotypes and discrimination with some proper laughter, tea, and biscuits.

The post Hail a LadyCab appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Fittingly, the play itself is ultimately poetic. It’s a story of the ‘might have been’ moments in the lives of two people who never realizef their loving relationship. Always apart and just briefly together, Dear Elizabeth masterfully tells a a story of falling in love without being allowed the chance to act upon it.

But this play will resound with students beyond its depiction of unfulfilled adoration. Despite their literary fame, Robert and Elizabeth were troubled souls, suffering from depression and crippling loneliness. Throughout the play, they constantly doubt themselves and their choices. This lack of confidence is perfectly encompassed in Robert’s quip about his age: “31 and nothing done.” His manic depression keeps him in constant flux between hopeful optimism and the crushing anxiety of his solitude, while Elizabeth’s depression and isolation bring her to tell Robert, “When you write my epitaph, you must say I was the loneliest person who ever lived.” This sense of loneliness and a constant anxiety about wasted potentials will likely be quite familiar to the student audience.

Julia Borsellino portrays Elizabeth beautifully and unguardedly. In the scenes that show Robert writing letters to Elizabeth, her facial expressions explain the depths of her feelings more than words ever could: the look of heartbreak when Robert writes her about meeting Elizabeth Hardwick, his future wife; her expression of despair when Robert writes her a beautiful letter about their love that “might have been.” It is painful to watch the fear in her eyes when she turns to see that her lover, Lota, has committed suicide. Borsellino adds new depth to the play with her expressive acting, silently communicating sentiments that bring new dimensions to Elizabeth’s character.

“When you write my epitaph, you must say I was the loneliest person who ever lived.”

As Robert, Max Katz also portrays the psychologically struggling poet with a quiet finesse. Katz does not portray Lowell’s bipolar disorder in an unrealistic, over-the-top manner, but instead approaches the illness with introversion and discomfiture that make his character all the more believable. Rather than using swings of rage to happiness, Katz illustrates Robert’s shifts in personality with a reserved attitude, his happiness always guarded and his sadness always isolating. This makes the climactic scene where Elizabeth and Robert fight over the ethics of his confessional poetry all the more poignant, as the rage that finally breaks out of Robert’s resigned disposition adds an unexpected aspect to the struggling character.

Katz and Borsellino have an undeniably entrancing chemistry. Despite their separation on either side of the stage, broken only in brief moments of reunion, the two actors rise to the task of portraying a deep emotional connection despite the physical distance between them. The longing looks cast across the set, and the tension of being so close onstage but so far in reality, serve to heighten the nostalgic feel of the production.

This careful attention to how the actors interact with the space points to Miller’s thoughtful direction. Divided in half, the set personifies the dichotomy that resounds throughout the play and visually echoes the theme of isolation. Each character has their half of the stage to which they are mostly confined. Elizabeth’s half is bright, airy, and feminine, while Robert’s half is decorated with dark oak and dusty books.

The set constantly reminds us of the distance between the two characters, their letters travelling across continents and oceans; this makes their moments of face-to-face interaction feel even more intimate, like physical representations of the intimacy in their letters. In the brief scenes when Elizabeth and Robert are united, the actors are silent, playing out their time together in a quiet, dreamy montage. Behind them, a screen displays typewriter font that types out their thoughts. This staging makes the letters into the true core of the interactions between Elizabeth and Robert, cleverly crafting their distance as more intimate than their moments together.

Paradoxically, it is with such emphasis on distance that TNC Theatre’s Dear Elizabeth creates an engaging relationship between Elizabeth, Robert, and the spectators. Gripping the audience with the wishful intimacy of every moment, the play provides a story to warm our hearts on these cold winter evenings.

 
Dear Elizabeth plays from February 18 to 21 at 8 p.m. at TNC. Tickets are $6 for students and $10 for adults

The post What might have been appeared first on The McGill Daily.

The play opens with God and Adam in the Garden of Eden. Adam (Alec MacMillan) is adorably naïve and utterly devoted. God (Frederic Rosenthal) creates a mate for Adam, whom Adam names Eve (Anna Queen). While they play together down in the Garden, the true conflict sets in with the introduction of Lucifer (Lucas Amato), who challenges God by advocating for Adam and Eve to find knowledge. The familiar struggle between ‘good’ and ‘evil’ results in Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden, as well as the birth of their two sons, Cain (Clay Walsh) and Abel (Adam Almeida).

“Once the characters leave Eden, it’s almost like Arthur Miller left Eden and wasn’t able to find the comedy again.”

Thematic dichotomies run through the play with clear oppositions between Adam and Eve, God and Lucifer, and Cain and Abel. “The go-to one is good versus evil, because God is questionable in his morals,” Kephalas explains in an interview with The Daily. “But the other one that stuck out to me is this idea of blame and responsibility, because the characters are all really, really bad at taking responsibility for things.”

The narrative questions who holds the responsibility for humanity’s loss of innocence. While the play has a few light-hearted scenes that poke fun at the traditional story, like Adam naming the animals based solely on his favourite letter of the day or Eve being unable to make sense of her pregnant body, the light-hearted tone disappears as soon as Adam and Eve are expelled. Kephalas explains that “once the characters leave Eden, it’s almost like Arthur Miller left Eden and wasn’t able to find the comedy again.” Kephalas, too, dumps the comedy for tragedy. The transition culminates in a jolting scene as Eve goes into labour, her painful screams grabbing and shaking the audience.

The loss of innocence turns into a family drama as the characters attempt to remain pious despite their misdeeds. While Lucifer tries to expose God as deceitful, Cain’s growing anger toward his brother Abel makes the audience feel a nervous anticipation at their every interaction. When the dreaded murder comes, it’s vivid and heartbreaking. Walsh delivers a moving performance. The genuine disbelief and sorrow in his realization after the murder is as shocking as the intensity of his anger during the crime. As the play approaches its end, his acting evokes sympathy for the most violent character. The finale features Angels singing Hallelujah, bringing the play to a powerful close. Their psalms, which they repeat throughout the play, ironically singing God’s praises even during times of doubt, leave the audience to take it all in on an eerie note of disenchantment.

For the most part, the actors mostly find their way around the intricacies of this dark comedy, moving fluidly from the lightheartedness of the initial acts to the intensity of the later scenes. However, a few scenes are not executed as seamlessly. Adam and Eve struggle in their chemistry, and their discomfort in intimate scenes disrupts the believability of their romance. Similarly, the depiction of God as an arrogant control freak never reaches its full height in commanding the stage. While believable, Rosenthal doesn’t fully realize the the character’s grandeur.

Still, it’s possible that this underwhelming acting actually matches the play’s direction, as it challenges conventional understanding of the characters: in fact, it’s Amato’s performance as Lucifer that steals the show, with Amato commanding every scene he’s in. His portrayal of the crazed and creepy Angel-Demon is undeniably captivating, featuring an over-the-top devotion to God and bursts of fury toward the humans that breathe life into the play. Even when he’s lurking wordlessly in the background, Lucifer’s plotting smirks enhance each scene with a sense of dread as he slinks around the characters.

Allowing us to delight in the devil, The Creation of the World and Other Business brings an old story into new and fresh perspective. The Players’ production artfully and painfully brings to light the faults of each character, casting a sympathetic light on even their most sinful moments. Kephalas throws the spotlight on Miller’s darker scenes, transforming the awkward comedy into a gripping tragedy that invites viewers to question their conceptions of good, evil, and guilt.

The Creation of The World and Other Business runs from January 21 to January 24 and from January 28 to January 31. The show starts at 8 p.m.. Tickets are $6 for students and seniors and $10 for adults.

The post Sympathy for the devil appeared first on The McGill Daily.

According to the record’s liner notes, “Club Meds is about sedation.” It’s hard to disagree, as Mangan’s indie-electro sound combines dreamy synth riffs with a hazed-out guitar to gently put you into a happy daze. The album begins idealistically, with the groovy drum patterns in “Vessel” jumping right into the rapid snare that rips through “Mouthpiece.”

The record then descends into drawn out, looping songs with instrumentals, nostalgic of quiet days spent alone in mid-album tracks like “XVII” and “War Spoils.” Mangan’s lyrics speak to the regrets of our millennial generation, the fear in our loneliness, while still keeping a sincere optimism in tone – helping his music stand out from the cynicism prominent in indie-rock bands.

Club Meds jolts out of its dreamy state with the crashing orchestra finale in the closing track, “New Skies.” The album’s instrumentals, courtesy of Blacksmith, play a major role in the grounded folk sound. The impressive harmony of the string and brass musicians has the creative flair of sidewalk buskers and the professional talent of an orchestra.

Dan Mangan + Blacksmith break down the barriers between instrumental folk and experimental indie-synth, a beautiful combination. The bleak tone of some songs is overpowered by the album’s total bliss attitude, lyrics of our millennial frustration overpowered by upbeat music. So maybe the album is less about sedation than the proceeding awakening. It leaves you in anticipation of happier days as Mangan sings, “new skies are upon us, seems the worst is behind us” – an important thing to remember during these dreary winter days.

 
Club Meds was released January 13 by Arts and Crafts Productions.

The post Dan Mangan + Blacksmith – Club Meds appeared first on The McGill Daily.

The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Legislative Council convened for its final meeting of the year on December 4. Council granted ECOLE independent group status, discussed ways to engage constituents with SSMU, and passed a motion against police brutality and racialized law enforcement in solidarity with the protests in Ferguson.

Independent Student Group status for ECOLE

Council passed a motion giving the ECOLE project Independent Student Group status, and thus an official tie to SSMU. ECOLE is a community and research centre that aims to promote sustainability and to be a model for sustainable living, according to ECOLE facilitator Emily Boytinck.

SSMU helped to set the project in motion last year, and ECOLE’s new status will help solidify its relationship with SSMU, Boytinck told Council.

“Institutionalizing ECOLE’s relationship with SSMU was crucial to the long-term sustainability of the project,” said Arts Senator Kareem Ibrahim, a member of ECOLE’s board of directors, in an email to The Daily. Ibrahim, along with two other councillors, abstained from the vote due to involvement with the ECOLE project.

Ibrahim also noted that this new status would allow ECOLE to secure funding through a fee levy when its current funding, provided by the Sustainability Projects Fund (SPF), ceases at the end of the academic year.

Inviting constituents to Council

Several councillors brought forth a motion to ask that representatives invite their constituents to certain Council meetings, so that students could take part in discussions and engage with SSMU.

“Most students don’t know what SSMU Council is or what it does,” said Ibrahim, one of the movers. “[Students] should come to SSMU Council in a proactive way, rather than a reactive way.”

However, other councillors were critical of the motion. “I don’t see how students sitting and watching us talk for four hours is really an active, engaging, two-way communication relationship,” said Arts and Science Senator Chloe Rourke.

“If most of the public doesn’t know what SSMU Council is or how to access it, we’re far from fulfilling our roles as representatives and informants.”

President Courtney Ayukawa argued that the motion was unnecessary, as encouraging students to attend Council meetings was already in councillors’ mandates.

Medicine Senator David Benrimoh contested, “There is value in reminding people, look: this is your legislative body, we are here for you, if you would like to see our deliberations, how we work and how we make decisions that affect your daily lives, you’re welcome [here].”

The motion failed. “If most of the public doesn’t know what SSMU Council is or how to access it, we’re far from fulfilling our roles as representatives and informants,” Ibrahim told The Daily, expressing disappointment with the outcome.

Police brutality and racialized law enforcement

In the context of the grand jury decisions not to indict officers for the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson and of Eric Garner in New York, and the growing number of black deaths at the hands of the police, Council voted to condemn the decisions, as well as police brutality and racialized law enforcement, and to work with the Black Students’ Network (BSN) to release a statement on the issue.

“This is something that does affect our student body,” said VP University Affairs Claire Stewart-Kanigan. “It is not a neutral act to remain silent.”

Ayukawa took issue with the fact that BSN had not been consulted in the drafting of the motion. “I’m uncomfortable with a room full of people that do not seem visibly black passing this motion,” she said.

“[It would have been] ideal to consult the BSN in writing this motion, but given the time constraint, consultation was only had with the SSMU Equity Commissioners,” Ibrahim, one of the movers, told The Daily in an email.

Halfway through the discussion, BSN representative Élie Lubendo came to the meeting, having being informed of the motion by a councillor. After consulting other BSN members, he voiced support for the motion despite the lack of consultation, and proposed an amendment to include the deaths of other black civilians, to show that this was an issue “all across ages, all across genders.”

The motion passed.

The post Council takes stance against police brutality appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Dyens on food services

In his presentation, Dyens discussed his role as Deputy Provost, and spoke to the necessity of “finding a way to work together” with SSMU. A lot of the discussion surrounded the current food services on campus and student dissatisfaction about what is provided.

Arts and Science Senator Chloe Rourke asked Dyens about the lack of affordable food options on campus. “I know that’s a big issue for students,” said Dyens, going on to emphasize that McGill’s concern is directed toward “health and better food options.”

“We have fair-trade food now,” said Dyens, referring to the recent replacement of the Tim Hortons in the Redpath Library with a Première Moisson outlet. “Tim Hortons is a large corporation; it has no fair trade.”

VP External Amina Moustaqim-Barrette and VP Finance and Operations Kathleen Bradley both questioned Dyens on his support for student-run services. Dyens denied having ever claimed to support student-run services and told Council that the McGill administration is “not for these things.”

Moustaqim-Barrette asked Dyens whether his duty in a position representing students to the administration wasn’t “to represent the interest of students who are overwhelmingly in favour of student-run food services.”

“I represent the students, but we also have a business relationship,” Dyens responded.

Bradley was not satisfied with Dyens’ answers to the questions posed at Council.

“I think he is still new in his role and has a lot to grow,” she told The Daily. “Regardless of administrative difficulties, he is supposed to be the person who advocates on the behalf of students […] he has not demonstrated that in any capacity that I have worked with him.”

Creation of a student engagement committee

A motion was brought forth for the creation of an ad-hoc committee for student engagement, to be charged with identifying areas of miscommunication and improve SSMU’s communications strategy.

“It’s super important to create this committee because there’s a lot of rampant misinformation going about campus, and I think it’s our duty to address that and explore as many communication channels as possible,” Arts Representative Lola Baraldi, one of the movers, told The Daily.

Science Representative Omar El-Sharawy spoke strongly against the motion. “I have six hours of office hours per week and not a single member tries to come to me,” he said. “If [the constituents] want to be represented right, they need to put in the effort.”

“This committee is not for the purpose of re-identifying how SSMU communicates, but rather looking at a vision for how things can work in the future,” argued VP Internal J. Daniel Chaim.

Rourke expressed hope that the committee would improve SSMU’s response to “controversy on campus.”

“That is one thing we’ve failed to do,” said Rourke. “We communicate the least when we need to communicate the most.”
The motion passed.

Reopening the Redpath Library doors

Council also passed a motion calling on VP University Affairs Claire Stewart-Kanigan to “prioritize the reopening of the Redpath doors in her negotiations with the McLennan-Redpath Library.”

Moustaqim-Barrette, one of the movers, told The Daily that the issue had been brought to her attention by a student, Alexander Elias, who started a petition and a Facebook group to gather student support for reopening the doors, which currently only function as an emergency exit.

“[This motion is] something that is a direct response from student needs and wants and motivations, [and] a great demonstration of SSMU being open, responsive, and efficient in addressing student needs,” Bradley said during the discussion.

The post Deputy Provost shows no support for student-run food services appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Budget presentation

Bradley was optimistic about the budget, saying that SSMU is “doing well as far as long-term financial sustainability.” She also announced that Frosh ran a $950 deficit, which she called “a really awesome number.”

A glaring hole in the budget was the student-run café, The Nest, which is projected to operate at a $76,000 deficit. Bradley cited this loss as a consequence of the “disconnect between the low food costs that students want and the original mandate of The Nest,” which specifies that The Nest must be “local and sustainably oriented.”

“This year we’re waiting to see how [The Nest] operates over a full year because last year, we didn’t have very much data to go on,” said Bradley in an interview with The Daily. “And if it’s still facing the same high-cost, high-labour, low-price problems, then we’ll have to address [these issues].”

The Club Fund has been set to $86,000, up from $30,000 the previous year. The VP External portfolio budget has been substantially increased to $16,100 to fund a yearly speaker series. Additional funding was also allocated to equity and mental health, the latter being an addition to the University Affairs portfolio this year. The full $50,000 annual transfer to the Capital Expenditures Reserve Fund has also been made for the first time in three years.

The budget presentation and the line-by-line breakdown are available on SSMU’s website.

Fee bundling

SSMU President Courtney Ayakawa brought forward a discussion on fee bundling, which would group all of the small student fees payable to SSMU on Minerva into sections such as “service fees” instead of listing each fee individually. Ayukawa said that Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Ollivier Dyens told her that McGill “really wants this [fee bundling] to happen.”

Arts Representative Lola Baraldi spoke against fee bundling, citing “the easiness of seeing this big fee and having someone just click to opt out of all of those services” as her concern.

Echoing Baraldi’s point, Medicine Senator David Benrimoh also stated that he was “very worried that people may opt out of all the fees, even the fees that they may benefit from.”

“Having a big bundle of fees is completely counter to the sense of transparency in government,” added Benrimoh.
Ayukawa also expressed her dissatisfaction with fee bundling. “A lot of these fees are things that students run […] which arguably the University should probably be doing,” she said. “I fear that bundling, with the limited information on the bill itself, may not give credit enough to all the students that are doing work that the University should be doing.”

A straw poll was taken to gauge Council’s position on fee bundling; the councillors were unanimously against it.

Communication with constituents

Arts Senator Kareem Ibrahim brought the problem of communication with constituents to the floor, citing a Facebook event supporting a facetious motion to “turn SSMU into a giant Chuck E. Cheese,” created after the October 22 General Assembly, as a concern. The name of the event page has been changed since its creation.

Ibrahim asked councillors for their opinion on creating a Facebook group to “poll constituents about issues.” Arts and Science Senator Chloe Rourke spoke in favour of the suggestion.

“Using online forums such as Facebook is worth considering, because really the communication channels we have right now are inadequate,” she said. “There is a huge disconnect between SSMU and its constituents, a lot of the time there is misinformation about what SSMU does.”

Ayukawa was a bit more hesitant about the idea. “This often devolves into personal attacks and I don’t think that it’s fair to put […] any of us into a situation where we are going to be personally attacked,” she said. She suggested that instead, each set of faculty councillors create their own Facebook pages that “could be passed down from year to year.”

Extended library hours

VP University Affairs Claire Stewart-Kanigan brought up the discussion of extended library hours, which she had previously brought forward at the last Council meeting.

Engineering Representative Anikke Rioux reported her constituents’ feelings to Council. “A lot of people care more about having the hours than who pays for it,” she said.

Arts and Science Representative Saurin Shah echoed this sentiment, saying that his constituents “would very much like McGill to fund extended hours, [but] if it came down to it they would rather SSMU fund it than not have it at all.”

Publications fee

VP Internal J. Daniel Chaim brought to discussion the funding problems of the Old McGill Yearbook that SSMU publishes every year. “It’s very important that we figure out a sustainable way to fund [the yearbook] for the future, because as it stands right now the SSMU loses over $23,000 a year in the publication of the yearbook,” he said.

Chaim said that nothing could be changed this year, but suggested the implementation of a publications fee which would also cover “the handbook, the website, and other improvements that we’d like to make in the future in terms of technological publications.” He estimated that the fee would be around $2.50 per semester.

Baraldi spoke in favour of this approach. “Creating a fee opens up possibilities for students for what they want to see in the yearbook, and I definitely also think it should be opt-outable.”

Changes to clubs and services

A motion to amend the Clubs and Services Portfolio By-law Book to allow services to use leftover fees to fund projects was criticized by councillors due to its restrictive nature. The motion stated that services could not use discretionary funding for capital expenditures “whose use and value exceed the timeframe in which the project or event takes place.”

Bradley defended this provision. “I don’t think it’s fair to ask students of today to be funding services that donate to projects of tomorrow,” she said.

The motion passed, along with a motion to create an Ad-hoc Club Hub Committee. The committee is to review the current club structure and make recommendations to Council on changes to this structure by the end of the academic year.

The post SSMU finances back on track after adoption of revised budget appeared first on The McGill Daily.

The book club was the idea of associate publisher Peggy Burns, said Devlin. “Because we have the comics identity here, she wanted to bring that to the floor,” he explained. Drawn & Quarterly specializes in comics, known throughout the city for their artistry. Devlin added that “comics are not often ‘book-clubbed,’ so we wanted to explore that a bit.” Each month the club picks a new book to discuss, with every gathering led by a different employee.

In literary circles, graphic novels have typically had a bad reputation, often falsely equated to superhero comics or newspaper cartoons. Their visual elements, however, add a level of analytical sophistication that simply can’t be achieved in prose or poetry. Unlike serialized comics and cartoons, they are full-length novels with mesmerizing art that takes the place of a hefty word count. However, illustrations are associated with simplified reads and children’s literature, readers often overlook graphic novels.

Devlin came back to the store with a case of St. Ambroise Pale Ale and slowly, other people started trickling in. There was no obvious common characteristic between all the participants; one attendee was a high school teacher, another a university student. A middle-aged francophone woman arrived late, while a younger woman came in carrying groceries. Everyone nursed a beer, timidly. Our group numbered a total of nine.

According to Devlin, the club “tends to be different crowds for each book, instead of the same handful of people every time. It’s anywhere from six to fifteen people, depending on the difficulty or popularity of the book.”

Devlin chose Chris Ware’s graphic novel Lint to read for this book club. Little handouts on the table described the comic as “one of the chapters of Ware’s ongoing Rusty Brown saga (ACME Novelty Library), Lint [is] a stand alone graphic novel focusing on Rusty’s bully, Jordan Wellington Lint. Each spread of the book is a year of Jordan’s life, from birth to death.”

A projector was set up so that the group could examine the pages together. Devlin began the discussion, giving background on the ACME Novelty Library series, pointing out stylistic choices by Ware and commenting on the disorder of the panels and how they draw a reader’s eye, unlike the conventional paneling style of Archie or Batman. Tentatively, other members of the group offered opinions. By the third page spread, everyone was commenting on the colour scheme, the emotions of the design, and the story that Ware was trying to express. I was shy at first. My first comment, pointing out the way the colours and layout of one spread mimicked a previous spread, received an appreciative response, with some members remarking that they hadn’t noticed this themselves. Awkward at first, the atmosphere became gradually warm and encouraging as thoughts were shared and beer was consumed.

Devlin mentioned to me that he does his “own personal book club with just cartoonists, so we can talk really hardcore, nerdy stuff.” But the details and interpretations that our haphazard group discovered were already astounding, allowing for an understanding of the novel that would be hard to reach independently. The novel’s narrative is introspective but unreliable; it follows the altogether mundane and rather pathetic life of Jordan Lint, a bully, through his own memories, which ultimately prove to be untrustworthy and subjective. Devlin saw the story as a way for Ware to get back at his own bullies by giving them a story so boring and morally reprehensible that even pity could not be felt for them. Another member of the group saw Lint as a story about the “big moments” in our lives and how they become warped in our memories, sometimes changed to omit our own misgivings. Someone else pointed out that the cycle of abuse shown in the story could easily be false memories, fabricated to create a sense of victimization. Nine strangers in the back of a bookshop fleshed out more insight from a graphic novel than I’d seen discussed in university lectures on The Aeneid.

The literary world could probably benefit from a few more back-shop graphic novel book clubs like Drawn & Quarterly’s. With graphic novels, you get to interpret a story not just through plot and dialogue, but also visual imagery and colour palette. Interested in art? This club will show you a unique narrative style of art. Interested in literature? This club will expand your knowledge in an up-and-coming genre. Even for those who already spend all their time talking about books, it’s important to step off campus every once in awhile and have an in-depth discussion that doesn’t affect your GPA.

Drawn & Quarterly’s next graphic novel book club will be discussing Lynda Barry’s One Hundred Demons. The club starts at 7:00 p.m. on November 12 at their Mile End shop.

The post Getting graphic appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Recognition of traditional territory and referendum questions

VP University Affairs Claire Stewart-Kanigan brought forward a motion for Council to recognize that SSMU operates on the traditional territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) nation, and to acknowledge this fact with a statement before every Council meeting and major SSMU event. The Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) Council passed a similar motion a few weeks ago, which Stewart-Kanigan co-drafted.

“The AUS motion and this motion are part of a broader movement of increasing accountability to Indigenous communities on campus,” Stewart-Kanigan told The Daily. “By saying it every council, it’s acknowledging that decolonization is an ongoing process that requires ongoing commitment and ongoing recognition of the situation as settlers on the territory that we’re on.”

The motion passed.

Stewart-Kanigan, VP External Amina Moustaqim-Barrette, and VP Clubs & Services Stefan Fong motioned to include a plebiscite question on cycling in the second Fall referendum, asking whether cycling should be allowed on campus and whether SSMU should lobby the administration to allow it. A plebiscite question differs from a referendum question in that its purpose is to consult students rather than to take action on an issue.

“[When McGill put in the dismounting policy] there was no consultation done with students,” said Moustaqim-Barrette, arguing for the motion. “It was an administrative decision done by McGill higher-up administration, just as there was no consultation when the bike gates were installed.”

“[The current policy] is really hard to enforce, and McGill has hired extra security to enforce it and it ended up being really expensive […] bikes just kind of go by anyway,” added Moustaqim-Barrette in an interview with The Daily.

Council also approved a referendum question seeking to modify the structure of the TVM: Student Television at McGill’s fee levy from $0.10 per credit per student per semester – up to a maximum of $1.50 – to $1.50 and $0.90 per student per semester for full-time and part-time students respectively.

Councillors employed at SSMU

Motions were put forth for Science Representative Zacheriah Houston and Arts Representative Alexander Kpeglo-Hennessy to be allowed to be employed at The Nest and Gerts respectively. SSMU’s bylaws prohibit councillors from being SSMU employees, unless explicitly allowed by a vote at Council.

General Manager Pauline Gervais, a non-voting member of Council, opposed Houston and Kpeglo-Hennessy’s employment. “There could be potential situations where […] you place me into a position where I have to reprimand, fire, talk to – whatever the reason is – to an employee who is also above me and has authority over my position,” said Gervais.

When asked whether they knew they would be seeking employment at SSMU at the time of their candidacy, Kpeglo-Hennessy said he did not, and Houston said he had been told “it would not be a problem.”

“If people feel that there are issues with councillors working these positions […] it might be worth examining whether or not that bylaw should exist that allows us to grant councillors special permission to work for SSMU,” said Houston.

Council approved Houston and Kpeglo-Hennessy’s request, but they will be required to “abstain from voting on matters with material impact or connections” to The Nest and Gerts respectively, as per the SSMU Conflict of Interest Policy.

Support for AGSEM’s union drive

Moustaqim-Barrette introduced a motion to support the AGSEM unionization campaign, which was presented to Council at the previous meeting and seeks to unionize undergraduate teaching support staff, including notetakers, graders, tutors, and teaching assistants (TAs).

Engineering Representative Anikke Rioux spoke against the motion, arguing that a survey conducted among members of the McGill Engineering Facebook group found that 60 to 70 per cent of students were against it.

Services Representative Rachel Weaver also argued against the motion.

“In [the Science] faculty, many benefit just from the experience,” said Weaver. “In the science courses, there aren’t a lot of TAs to go around and this would cut it down even further.”

Stewart-Kanigan spoke in favour of the motion. “We need to realize the implications of this structure for financial accessibility of these TA positions; not everyone can afford to work that many hours as volunteers or work at half-pay,” she said.

The motion passed, with Arts, Education, and Music representatives voting in favour. Engineering and Arts and Science representatives voted against it, while Management, Science, and Nursing representatives abstained from the vote.

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Ritchie, a Concordia-affiliated Montrealer and the editor-in-chief of The Void magazine, combines comedy and poignancy in this collection of stories with which many young people can easily identify. Ritchie explores the frustration of young musicians trying to reach fame through a lens that Ritchie claims is “more about being a person with creative urges, so being a person in general.” One story follows the existential crisis of a first–year university student faced with the task of introducing herself to a new world. Another depicts a teenager’s struggle to find his place when he realizes he is the most uninteresting person at a party. Some stories are about established musicians trying to maintain a career, but most stories feature characters just trying to write a song, with their identity crisis at odds with their creativity. The tale of a budding musician who works at a call centre may strike a chord for readers about to enter the workforce, alluding to that eternal struggle between doing what you love and earning enough to live. All of Ritchie’s stories bring up these sorts of important questions, subtly bringing the fears of a generation to light.

For a young student living in Montreal, Ritchie’s Something You Were, Might Have Been, or Have Come to Represent may invoke feelings of belonging, but also of nostalgia. Ritchie’s stories are mainly set within the familiar streets of Montreal, creating a rich but recognizable setting. From the perspective of a musician seeking fame, Ritchie describes Montreal as “unique since there seems to be so many different places to play shows. Like no matter what sort of music you want to make you can probably find a place that would be receptive to hearing it.” There’s a sense of intimacy with the Montreal that Ritchie describes, his sprawling murals and graffitied depanneurs all too familiar to a local reader. Reading his rendition of Montreal and being able to acutely visualize his scenery allows a surreal immersion into the stories.

Not only do the experiences and settings in Ritchie’s stories resonate, but the broader world he creates for them rings true as well. Ritchie doesn’t try to isolate his stories from modern society; instead, he embraces this generation’s obsession with pop culture and social media, and explores how this affects musicians searching for fame. This choice serves to strengthen his characters and their struggles, grounding them in a world that readers can easily sympathize with and understand. Twitter and Instagram pop up throughout the narratives; Pitchfork and Vice also get the occasional name drop. One story even ends with a surprisingly touching Mean Girls reference. Social media has a reputation for creating a disconnect from the world around us, but Ritchie doesn’t try to push any sort of agenda with his representation of social media. This lack of judgement from the author is a refreshing change from the ever-present pro- or anti–social media debate. Ritchie simply portrays how these digital networks have become intertwined with our social networks as unavoidable facts of a young person’s life (whether they like it or not).

Ritchie’s writing itself uses intimacy and immersion to make these stories a lovely read. The prose draws his characters into a languid state by using long, hazy descriptions of parties or leisurely narratives that span across days, but then abruptly speeding into a sharp, and often harsh, look into his characters’ subconsciouses. These sudden switches in tempo mix dream-like states with stark reality. The effect is stunning.

This deft prose allows the characters in Something You Were, Might Have Been, or Have Come to Represent to unfold and transform, to lose parts of themselves and regain something different. Ritchie uses music as a medium for expressing this transformative experience. “I can identify who I was or what I was thinking…” he says. “I hear a song or an album that changes my life and I think I’ll never have an experience so profound or life-altering again, but of course I do. There’s always something else to discover. “

As the new school year begins and many students try to transform themselves (or find themselves), this book might be a helpful resource for reaching that formative epiphany. Or perhaps simply as a comforting reminder that you are not alone in the confusion.

The post Fame, fortune, and first year appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Council affirms support for climate justice

The only motion brought to Council this week was a motion regarding climate justice at McGill. The motion asked for SSMU to “reaffirm their support for Divest McGill,” an on-campus student group that calls on McGill to divest from tar sands and fossil fuel companies, and to take actions to support climate justice through various means, like working to create clean energy internships, having climate justice campaigns, and bringing the issue to the Board of Governors.

Vincent-Pierre Fullerton, VP External Relations of the Law Student Association (LSA), said that the LSA took issue with Article 1 of this motion, which stated that “the VP [External] shall, in association with other student unions and student federations across Quebec, create a student coalition demanding that pipeline projects in Quebec be blocked.”

Fullerton stated that “while [the LSA believes] that it is Council’s place to take stances on things of principle, it’s not necessarily Council’s place to oppose specific projects.” He suggested taking the motion to the next SSMU General Assembly to get “more representation from the constituents.” He argued that “the pipeline is really outside of McGill and does not affect us personally as an institution.”

Engineering Representative Anikke Rioux also noted that “a lot of [Engineering students] get their internships [and] get their future jobs from these companies.”

Ultimately, Article 1 was struck from the motion and tabled until the General Assembly for the student body to vote on it.

Arts Senator Kareem Ibrahim expressed his disappointment in the motion’s outcome. “We have been elected by our constituents to make these choices,” he said.

Plan to unionize teaching support workers

Benjamin Elgie, the Teaching Assistant (TA) Grievance Officer for AGSEM and former Daily Publications Society Chair, gave a presentation before Council on the association’s plans to unionize teaching support workers at McGill, including markers, graders, tutors, note-takers, undergraduate TAs, and course assistants.

Elgie stated that while graduate TAs are already unionized, these other workers are not, and they are receiving “$12 an hour to do a job that I [a grad student] get $26.83 to do.” He also stated that working conditions and getting paid on time were problems for these teaching support workers.

Elgie approached Council to ask for its support and help with outreach and distributing information about the campaign. He stated that AGSEM needs to get workers to sign memberships and if they reach a majority, they’ll have the legal means to unionize.

So far, the only response the campaign has received from McGill is that “[McGill Employee and Labour Relations Director] Robert Comeau told us not to put our poster on the AGSEM bulletin boards,” said Elgie.

“[McGill] has also suggested that it is improper for us to contact students and members using their McGill emails, or McGill listservs, because those are McGill resources and they claim we are soliciting people at work. Of course, the dual role of student workers as both students and workers means these email accounts are used outside of teaching support work, and in many cases these are students’ primary email accounts,” said Elgie in an email to The Daily. According to Elgie, AGSEM is confident that the objections are invalid.

VP University Affairs Claire Stewart-Kanigan also briefly spoke on the arrest of a McGill football player late Wednesday night, and said that she has been speaking to various media outlets about “student response and how it ties into the progress we’re making on the sexual assault policy.”

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Review of electoral bylaws

SSMU’s returning Chief Electoral Officer Ben Fung spoke before Council to present recommended changes to SSMU’s electoral bylaws, which he has been researching throughout the summer since last year’s electoral outcome. Among Fung’s suggestions were the introduction of a new demerit system, a shortening of the polling period, a switch to a preferential ballot voting system, and the creation of an elections review board.

The demerit system would create more transparency in judging campaigns for infractions – such as the exceeding of candidates’ campaign budgets and the hanging posters in prohibited locations – and imposing sanctions.

A change in the polling period from five to three days, Fung said, would “decrease the amount of overlap between campaigning and polling, as voters at the beginning of the voting period [wouldn’t] have less information about the candidates compared to voters who are voting at the end of the voting period.”

Fung also hopes to implement a preferential ballot voting system for future SSMU elections, which would allow for the transfer of a vote for a losing candidate to the voter’s second choice. Fung claimed this would be a better system than the current first-past-the-post system, which he called “not the most democratic or representative way of voting.” The change would have to be approved at a SSMU General Assembly, the first of which will be on October 22.

Motivated by feedback from students, Fung also stated that he wished to implement an elections review committee, to be convened “in very difficult judgement decisions in elections.” Fung indicated that he is unsure if the committee should be made up of councillors or of a pool of “unbiased members-at-large” of SSMU’s constituency.

In consideration of Fung’s investigation into the proposed bylaw changes, Council approved a motion for the creation of an ad hoc bylaw review committee to formalize the proposed changes.

“A number of changes need to be made,” said SSMU President Courtney Ayukawa.

Following last year’s loss of the Sustainability Coordinator position, Council also created an ad hoc Sustainability Committee, with the permanent institutionalization of the committee to be explored by the end of Winter 2015.

Building fee and changes to food provision

Council passed a motion for the creation of a ‘yes’ campaign committee for the Shatner building fee question on the first Fall referendum, to be held starting September 24. The referendum question will propose the creation of a fee levy of $5.78 per semester for full-time students to pay for the increased rent and utilities cost in the recently signed lease agreement between SSMU and the administration. The fee was previously rejected by students in the Winter 2014 referendum, and last year’s executive has been criticized for not having campaigned for the fee.

In her report to Council, VP University Affairs Claire Stewart-Kanigan shared her plans to act regarding the diminishing amount of accessible food options on campus. “I’m aware that people are mad about the Tim Hortons,” Stewart-Kanigan said, referring to the replacement of the Tim Hortons in the Redpath library basement with the more expensive Première Moisson.

Stewart-Kanigan indicated that she will continue to meet with the Libraries in order to express student discontent with the changes. She cited the lack of student consultation as unacceptable, since the library is a space that is “virtually exclusively used by students.” While the Tim Hortons outlet is not likely to return to the basement of the Redpath Library, “cheaper options are a future possibility,” she said.

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