Author: Elise Martin

Female speakers discuss the goals of their equality and diversity-driven projects

 

Last Tuesday, the Phi Centre hosted 120 people who came to listen to three women: Emily Laliberté, founder of Coup d’éclats, Claire Gaillard, co-editor-in-chief for Lez Spread the Word magazine and Amélie Duranleau, active member of the association Prêts, disponibles et capables (Ready, Willing and Able).

What do these women have in common, other than the fact they are from Montreal? They want to improve human rights in society, specifically concerning those who are vulnerable to marginalization. Laliberté, Gaillard and Duranleau hosted a TED Talk focused on human rights and freedom, and shared projects that enable innovation to surpass discussions and take action.

Each speaker had fifteen minutes to explain the work they are doing to advance human rights and freedom with three focal points: art as a way of expression, magazine-writing as a way of supporting diversity and communication as key to integration.

The first speaker, Laliberté, is an artist who said she believes art can change the world. She began working with marginalized individuals while using art as a tool of expression. Laliberté described her virtual reality project, 310, which immerses spectators into a temporary home. As viewers navigate the dorms and common areas of the youth centre, they listen to voice overs from actual residents of the Laval Child and Youth Protection Centre, reflecting on what their future might hold and whether it can change. These testimonies demonstrate the problematic conditions that young girls living in youth centres face. The project inspired a committee that is working to improve conditions at the centre.

Gaillard spoke next. “I can’t fight for a problem that I am not concerned with directly. So I found journalism to share stories,” said Gaillard. As co-editor-in-chief, Gaillard takes intersectional minorities into consideration while making the Lez Spread the Word. “We have a lot of facets in our personality which form the whole, you don’t have to choose a special fight. The magazine also gives a voice to the lesbian community and the issues and challenges they face. Gaillard said that it’s important to be aware of one’s privilege and not wait to be personally affected to be concerned with fighting these challenges.

Duranleau focused on the idea of increasing the participation of people with intellectual disabilities or Autism Spectrum Disorder with the program Ready, Willing and Able. She fights for people with disabilities because she believes “they deserve to have a job like everyone else.” Ready, Willing and Able has helped employers see the benefits of having people with disabilities in their companies. Duranleau explained it’s necessary to build bridges and connections with people with disabilities.

The speakers brought attention to the injustices that affect those who deviate from what society considers to be the norm. The speakers highlighted that differences and deviances are created through an inherently heteronormative society. They showed that the average person can contribute to change. The conference proved that Montrealers can get behind inspirational projects with the goal of changing the world in their own way.

 

About TED:

TED Conferences were created in 1984 in New York City with the goal of spreading ideas around the world. In 2009, Richard Saul Wurman and Harry Marks, its founders, decided to extend the concept to anyone interested in organizing conferences. TEDxMontreal was created in 2012 by volunteers. The ‘x’ means the conference was independently organized.

Photo by Elise Martin.

A new study by two Concordia researchers has uncovered some important findings about musical learning and cognitive functions.

Lucía Vaquero and Virginia Penhune, researchers in Concordia’s Department of Psychology, recently published a study in NeuroImage that reveals the link between the structure and size of white matter in the brain and the learning of melody and rhythm.

“We wanted to explore music learning in non-musicians, because there had been previous investigations linking structural connectivity to music learning and music practice, but [only] in musicians compared to non-musicians,” said Vaquero.

To do this, the researchers recruited non-musicians aged 18 to 35 years old in the Barcelona area. Participants completed a brain scanning session using an MRI scanner, then performed a series of musical tasks.

After the tests, Vaquero used software to “virtually dissect” the brain of each participant. In particular, she analysed the structure of the arcuate fasciculus, which connects the frontal, temporal, and parietal regions of the brain and is thought to play a role in the learning and production of language and music.

Vaquero and Penhune found “the right arcuate fasciculus as being in charge of both melodic and rhythmic learning, which is important because this seems to indicate that the basic networks and wiring for learning music are present in everybody.”

Penhune directs the Penhune Laboratory for Motor Learning and Neural Plasticity. She is also affiliated with the International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), also known as the Centre for Research in Brain, Language and Music (CRBLM).  As for Vaquero, she arrived in Montreal four years ago from Barcelona on exchange while completing her PhD.

The experiment was performed in Spain because that’s where Vaquero was studying at the time. She said musical culture differs greatly from one place to another and thus in different countries, learning musical tasks could have been easier or more difficult for non-musicians. This does not invalidate the results of the experiment, since the participants’s musical experience was taken into account.

Currently, the researchers are focusing on another study comparing bilingual people with and without musical training. They want to explore the brain’s ability to adapt to change by forming new connections. The idea is “to study if the brain can change even after two specific trainings, or if there’s some kind of limit for those plastic changes,” said Vaquero.

Graphic by @spooky_soda

Montreal researchers look at how the pill harms freshwater fish.

According to the Canadian Cancer Society, the 10,000 women who take contraceptive pills risk getting cancer one to two times in their lifetimes. For girls entering puberty, it has become the norm to use the contraceptive pill. Not only have studies shown that the pill can have harmful effects on the body, but it also impacts the environment.

“We found endocrine disruptors in the Saint Lawrence River,” said Daniel Cyr, in French, a professor in the Canada Research Chair in Reproductive Toxicology. “They come from an oestrogenic pill. People swallow a contraceptive pill, then they use the toilet. That waste water is then picked up and processed by water treatment plants. One part ends up back in the Saint Lawrence River, the other goes to a factory to become drinking water,” he explained.

Residue can be found in the river because estrogen goes through the filter. “We sent our study to the city and to the water treatment plant in 2002,” said Cyr. However, no changes have been implemented so far.

The major problem lies in what the pill is made of, and the consequences that follow once it’s been ingested. “This means that fish can gulp down the leftover residue. It causes their reproductive system to malfunction,” said Cyr.

Cyr and his team analyzed fish caught by fishermen in the Saint Lawrence River. “Eventually, male fish turn into female fish,” said Cyr. Knowing these results, researchers fed the fish to suckling rats. “These young male rats had lower spermatozoa counts due to the presence of this residue in the fat content of their breastfeeding mothers,” said Cyr.

These studies were completed between 2002 and 2004. Currently, the Institut national de la recherche scientifique’s (INRS) Institut Armand-Frappier, are not working on any other studies, due to a lack of contributors and funds. “There are still systematic studies,” said Cyr. “They found what we already found, but with other species and in other places. For example, they recently reported a high level of estrogen in fish. The same levels that are found in a girl going through puberty.”

On Oct. 19, The Concordian joined a group of environmental studies students visiting the Jean-R. Marcotte Wastewater Treatment Plant to learn about the process of cleaning water from Marc Girard, a former employee who now volunteers and leads tours of the plant. The amount of water the plant receives daily makes it the third biggest in the world, explained Girard.

Before taking the students on a tour of the plant, Girard explained how polluted water is processed. “The product injected into the water forms flakes from the particles that are present in the water. This makes them heavier and they fall to the bottom of the tank, where they are later collected and incinerated,” said Girard. “With this system, we have 95 per cent clean water. Before, we used to put chlorine in the water to disinfect it at 100 per cent, but this damaged fauna and flora in the river. We found a solution with INRS to use ozonation (oxygen O3).” Ozonation not only eliminates pollutants from contraceptives, but from other pharmaceuticals as well.

The Jean-R. Marcotte plant is aware of the dangers of ecological imbalance. During the visit, Girard explained that three years ago, the plant launched a $400 million project. “We could be the first water treatment plant to use this technique. We are still looking for someone to pick up our construction bid,” added Girard. The project will be ready to use in three years.

The Concordian contacted the person in charge of the project, but they refused to comment.

One of the biggest rivers in the world continues to hold a lot of residue from contraceptive pills. According to Cyr, the impacts of contraceptive residue consumed by fish, which are then consumed by animals, could be similar for humans. As humans consume fish from the Saint Lawrence river, just like with rats, “the first signs may be lower counts of spermatozoa and malfunctioning reproductive systems in men.”

Graphic by Eleni Probonas.

Photo by Elise Martin.

Montrealers walked the city’s streets to fight racism.

More than two thousand people walked in the streets of Montreal to protest against racism, on Sunday afternoon. The demonstration was focused on François Legault’s new government.

Thirty minutes before the demonstration, Émilie-Gamelin Square was already full. La Riposte socialiste, one of the demonstration’s coordinators, was among the organizations who already installed their stands. “We are a socialist group, based in Montreal founded ten years ago, that sells a socialist magazine. Today, we are here to defend our values and fight against the Coalition Avenir Quebec [CAQ] and its racist measures,” said one of the group’s leaders. “We are standing up to show we are united and not divided,” he added.

Toutes Unies, a feminist association, was also present. “It’s necessary to build a mass movement,” said one of its members.

Many people, both men and women, came to the march with their children. Some of them prepared banners, posters and, once finished, the kids marched at the front of the crowd.

Before making their way through the city, some representatives of the 60 associations in attendance spoke. “We are still struggling to end systemic racism,” said Marlihan Lopez, vice-president and spokesperson of the Fédération des femmes du Québec.

“We are fighting against immigration politics. Last year, we were here to resist Law 62. Today, we are here to resist the secular law. It’s unacceptable to use the struggle of women for racists’ purposes,” said Lopez.

Alongside Lopez was Safa Chebbi, co-founder and secretary of the Table de concertation contre le racisme systémique (TCRS). Chebbi spoke about her worries concerning the new government’s announcements, only a week after the elections. “Legault wants to reduce immigration, to deport people who fail French tests, and even dismiss government institutions’ employees who show any kind of religious symbol. The government is playing with our identity in order to oppress us,” said Chebbi.

For demonstrators Laëtitia and Léa, who walked amongst the crowd, Legault is not their Québec Premier. “It’s unfair. I will be 18 years old in a few days. I could not vote and I ended up under this government without my consent,” said Léa.

“We are here because we think seeing racist people nowadays is just unbelievable. We don’t have to face this problem, but a lot of our friends have to face it,” said Léa.  “We think it’s important to keep talking about it, for them, at least. We have to teach, to educate and to denounce.”

“More united, not divided,” was one of the phrases chanted at the top of the crowd’s lungs.

The crowd also chanted the slogans “François, François, my veil is my choice,” and “François, François, I will not leave my job.”

Although the demonstration was planned before Oct. 1, the election results put CAQ’s incoming legislations at the forefront of the march. However, the core focus of the demonstration remained against racism, with chants such as “Everybody hates racists,” “Quebec, the racism is not correct,” or “United people will never be defeated.”

Among the protestors were Marlène and her 13-year-old daughter Yasmine, holding a banner that said “Yes to secularism. No to the exclusion laws.”  “We are here to stand up against the bill, because racism touches and damages our religion,” said Marlène. “Even before the elections, we were planning on coming today. To be honest, it was my daughter’s idea,” she added.

“I experience racism daily,” continued Yasmine. “For example, at school, we are learning ethics and religion, and Islam is denigrated. For me, it’s easy. The only reason to separate colours is when you want to wash your clothes!”

Thousands of people walked and chanted throughout Montreal well into the evening, before stopping at St. Laurent Blvd. The demonstration ended with half an hour of speeches from the organizations present.

Photos by Elise Martin.