Author: Savanna Craig

Loyola Sustainability Research Centre is hosting an event on how to better resolve crises compared to efforts seen in the Ebola crisis

The Loyola Sustainability Research Centre is hosting a two day event to discuss how past resolutions to national disasters have failed and how many disasters are a result of combined drawn-out militarized conflict, environmental degradation and poor public health care infrastructures.

The event, titled “Avoiding Catastrophe: Linking Armed Conflict, Harm to Ecosystems and Public Health,” is funded by the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Connections Program. The event will take place on May 4 from 6 to 9 p.m. and May 5 from 9 to noon in room LB-125 at Concordia’s downtown campus.

“Often, governments base their decision-making processes on separate analytical frameworks for conflict, environmental degradation and public health, leaving their mutual interdependence understudied,” said Adan Suazo, Concordia’s Associate Member of the Loyola Sustainability Research Centre and Doctoral Researcher for the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago.

Peter Stoett, the Director of the Loyola Sustainability Research Centre, said there is a lot of research being conducted now on how to respond to crises through strengthening support for public health, conservation of biodiversity and conflict resolution. “A lot of [research is] spurred from thinking about the Ebola crisis that we had a couple years ago and how dreadfully unprepared we really were to respond to that,” said Stoett. “Eventually we got it right, but it really took an awfully long time.” Suazo said the event will raise awareness and generate a discussion about these issues.

Stoett said when a nation faces a combined crises to public health, war and environmental degradation, there is amplified misery and chaos. The Haiti Earthquake, for example, was not properly managed, he said. “The effects [in Haiti] were much worse than they had to be because there was inadequate health infrastructure in place and it was [aggravated] by years of armed violence and environmental degradation,” he said, adding that there was an issue of deforestation in Haiti.

Suazo and Stoett were inspired to organize the event after reading an article discussing the connection between the Ebola outbreak and deforestation in Africa, said Suazo. “It really made us realize that we should perhaps expand our analytical focus a little bit more to include environmental degradation and public health within the purview of conflict—conflict being the glue for both fields,” he said. Suazo said he and Stoett have come to the conclusion the countries most affected by the Ebola outbreak are often post-conflict societies. “That cannot be a coincidence,” he said.

Speakers at the event will include a representative from Doctors Without Borders, the UN Secretariat for the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, EcoHealth Alliance, the Consortium of Universities for Public Health and Future Earth. Professors from Concordia, McGill and the University of Toronto will also be speaking at the event.

“Avoiding Catastrophe: Linking Armed Conflict, Harm to Ecosystems and Public Health” will be hosted on Concordia’s Sir George Williams campus on May 4 from 6 to 9 p.m. and May 5 from 9 to noon in room LB-125.

The CSU and QPIRG are coming together to teach students how to address the police and legal complications

The Concordia Student Union and Quebec Public Interest Research Group are collaborating to educate students and the community on how to properly react when dealing with authorities and to generate awareness for civilian rights.

Gabriel Velasco, CSU external affairs and mobilization coordinator, said the CSU has teamed up with QPIRG to teach individuals what their rights are as civilians on the streets, in regards to prompts for identification by police, searches and seizures, arrests and advice for some of the most effective legal resources.

The event, titled Solidarity in the Street, will take place on Apr. 16 from 12:00 to 5:30 p.m. in room 767 in the Hall building.

“[Know your rights] events have always existed, but we wanted to try and make it a little bit more interactive … and have the classic 101 know your rights, but also practice some role-play,” said Velasco, out of breath—he had run to the CSU office from the Atwater Dollarama in order to buy fake police props for a more creative demonstration.

Velasco said the first role-playing demonstration would put participants in the situation of being stopped by a police officer. Participants will learn how to properly talk to the the officer to resolve the situation. “There’s all these scenarios, how do you react, but it’s more of a workshop format, so there’s going to be two people facilitating it and giving the information,” said Velasco.

He said one of the demonstrations would include one of the event organizers portraying an officer and asking a civilian for an ID. “In Canada there’s a law saying you don’t [have to give the cops your ID], you have the right to your own personal privacy when it comes to your identification until you get arrested.” Velasco said a lot of people are not aware of this, so they comply with police officers.

“A lot of times in that situation you’re really stressed, you don’t know what’s going on,” he said. “That’s where the second part comes in. The role-play aspect is to actually split up the group and practice some role-play exercises about what we just learned.”

Velasco said often he’s been in situations where the police have outright lied to civilians—such as telling civilians to provide ID or not allowing them to film the officers. He said in the last workshop the organizers will tackle how to contest tickets or file a formal complaint within the police system when confronted with harassment or police brutality.

“We’ll end it off with okay you got charged, you have tickets … how do you work inside the court system to contest those tickets, prepare your case, file complaints against the police, stuff like that.”

 

Solidarity in the Street will be held at Concordia’s Sir George Williams Campus in H-767 on Apr. 16 from 12:00 to 5:30 p.m.

Students push for greater representation and diversity in the English department

Concordia held an event on how to better support diversity among staff and faculty Monday afternoon. The “Racialization, Indigeneity, Racism and the University” event took place in the LB building. The lecture was introduced by Graduate Program Director Danielle Bobker, who presented the speakers—Queen’s University professor Audrey Kobayashi and York University professor Enakshi Dua.

The event was sponsored by the Subcommittee on Representation and Visibility in the Academy, the English department, the Faculty of Arts and Science and the Simone de Beauvoir Institute. Organizer and English Literature MA student Mona’a Malik said she and Bobker knew there were concerns amongst English students concerning the lack of representation of people of colour and LGBTQ+ communities in faculty and curriculum, especially in terms of authors and theorists on syllabi, said Malik.

Creative Representative for the Student Association for Graduate Students in English and Creative Writing Graduate student Liam LaChance said it’s vital for the community to acknowledge the limitations inherent to an all-white faculty. “We should accept our limits in speaking on behalf of people whose experiences we will never fully share,” said LaChance. “Having more voices in a conversation seems like a higher quality of discussion and education.”

Kobayashi said one of the reasons everyday racism occurs is due to the persistent white culture. Kobayashi said, “overall, what we see in virtually every campus across Canada is … entrenchment of [white] culture.” She said many administrations ignore this white culture by implementing some programs with diversity, but which ultimately do not lead to enough change.

Presently, many students at Concordia are not only feeling the effect of racism from white culture, but are noticing the great lack of diversity within their education and at the university. “I’ve had my own issues with the art history department,” said Shaun Contant, an art history student. “Mostly the fact that it tends to be a very Euro-centric curriculum.” He said that being a person of colour in a Euro-centric classroom causes him to feel that “your art and your culture is not as important.”

He and his classmates from his elective African-American literature found the lack of diversity within the faculty has affected professors’ analysis of topics like racism.

“As the black students we had to point out things that she wasn’t bringing up in the class,” said Contant.
Melissa Murphy, an English Literature student and Contant’s classmate, said the teacher did not analyze the literature in the way she felt a black professor would.

“There wasn’t enough cultural context … [The professor] was kind of giving us a very formal understanding [of African-American literature].”

Murphy said it’s hard for teachers to relate to issues associated to racism when their perspective is outside the realm of those experiencing racism first-hand.

The students collectively said it’s not the professor’s fault that she didn’t bring a personal understanding to the analysis as a white female, however they feel this can be aided by a greater minority representation within the staff.

“I want to be able to see myself in the things I read, I want to be able to go and learn about my history,” said Shannon Gittens, an English literature student that participated in the African-American literature class. “The problem is when you only give one avenue of education, or education from one perspective all the time, then it kind of leaves a certain glare on the other side of the story.”

The Concordian sat down with the head of the English department, professor Andre Furlani. He said that during the hiring process the department aims to be blind in terms of race and sexual orientation.

“The department is currently in negotiations to secure a second full-time faculty member who belongs to a visible minority,” said Furlani. “In terms of larger issues of diversity, the department’s cadre of 27 full-time members includes 10 women and five gay/lesbian members.”

Furlani said the last seven hires were white males, however he said there was no bias within these hires. “One of the hires was Alan Shepard,” said Furlani, adding that Shepard will begin teaching in the Fall 2016 term. Furlani said that while this does not fill their racial minority category, he is proud the English department has LGBTQ+ representation.

In terms of greater diversity within the classes offered by the English department, Furlani said you’re not going to see the diversity of a course in the title or the description online, however students should look at the details of each syllabus to recognize the different ethnic authors and literary works studied.

“We’re black students, we’re advocating for our history, we want our stories told, we want our representation and that’s something that we should be able to demand freely without it feeling offensive or aggressive or out of place,” said Shannon.

University president was reportedly not in the building

Concordia Against Tribunals (CATs) gathered in the lobby of the mezzanine in the Hall building Thursday afternoon to deliver a letter of reprimand to Concordia president Alan Shepard. This is in response to the administration co-signing a complaint which charged students for political strikes, causing them to undergo months of preparation for tribunals, ultimately resulting in students having to write an apology letter to the university for protesting.

When participants arrived to Shepard’s office, he was not in. After CATs read their letter of reprimand out to the locked doors of the administration office, deputy provost Lisa Ostiguy arrived as participants were leaving to say Shepard was not in the building. When The Concordian asked for a comment, Ostiguy said, “I’ll make sure that Alan gets the letter.”

Nora Fabre, a political science student charged in the tribunals, expressed CATs’ main ambition for this event “is to bring a sort of closure to wrap up the whole tribunals process, to give students the last word,” she said.  “It’s another way to say enough to the administration for pushing us around and oppressing students for the past 11 months.”

Participants read their letter of reprimand out loud in the mezzanine, brandishing the sign “no justice, no peace, no tribunals for students.” Dean of Students Andrew Woodall stood close by, accepting a letter of reprimand from the students.

Fabre said delivering this letter collectively is a way to hold the university accountable for their actions and behaviour this past year. When asked if CATs expect to notice changes to be made by the university in regards to treatment of students undergoing political charges after the delivery of the letter, Fabre said “Perhaps not.” Fabre and CATs hope the university can reflect on their previous actions and think differently in future situations of student protests, instead of students going through months of preparation for tribunals that were a waste of “time, money and resources,” said Fabre.

After reading the letter out in the mezzanine, the students marched through the underground tunnels to Shepard’s office in the GM building, which was unoccupied. CATs once again read their letter, in which they ask for an apology from the university, over a megaphone for the administration to hear.

Although Shepard remained unseen, CATs left their mark with stickers on the door and letters of reprimand scattered on the administrative office floor.

Lydia Belhimeur, who is studying Community, Public Affairs and Policy Studies, said the main purpose of this march was for students to express their democratic rights. Belhimeur was not charged, but joined CATs to support the students who have undergone tribunals. “There would be no university without students, we have the right [to stand up for ourselves],” she said.

As for the future plans of CATs, Fabre said, “we’re in the process of thinking of pushing for [compensation] for students, because the tribunals process took a toll on the mental health and even academic careers of students who faced tribunals.” CATs have not yet figured out the details, but would like to see some compensation such as counseling for students who have struggled.

JMSB professors research TransCanada’s tactics to market themselves green

As a result of great concern for the future of our environment, many companies that sell unsustainable products or propose projects that are harmful to the environment have changed the way in which they market their products. A tactic companies use is greenwashing—a term Ronald Ferguson, a professor of management at John Molson School of Business (JMSB), defines as companies repairing public perception of their brand by marketing their products or proposals as green.

Ferguson, alongside marketing professor Michèle Paulin at JMSB, discussed the greenwashing trend during a joint presentation called “Millennials’ Perception of Greenwashing: Social Media and the Energy East Pipeline” at the MB building on March 18. This was organized by the David O’Brien Centre for Sustainable Enterprise.

Research by Ferguson and Paulin found that a large proportion of millennials are better at noticing greenwashing used by companies, compared to other generations.

“Millennials are more educated than other generations,” Paulin said. She said that millennials face problems that previous generations did not face, therefore they are more aware of issues of social and environmental concern.

Paulin said previous generations were more corporate-minded, however she doesn’t want to generalize over entire generations. She said that although many millennials are able to resist greenwashing and are more environmentally conscious than others, there are still cases where members of other generations prove better at this than some millennials themselves.

A prime example of a company creating worry for Canada’s environment is TransCanada, according to Paulin and Ferguson. The company proposed multiple pipeline projects, which would connect oil from Alberta and distribute it to the East Coast and West Coast of Canada, as well as the United States. The Energy East pipeline was planned to run through Montreal—which Mayor Denis Coderre spoke out against in January. The Keystone XL pipeline, planned to run across the border to distribute to the oil to the U.S., was rejected by President Barack Obama.

On their website, TransCanada insists that in the event of a spill, diluted bitumen, a type of oil, would not sink to the bottom of a body of water. However, Ferguson said in the case of the Kalamazoo River oil spill, diluted bitumen did just that and sunk to the bottom of the river. Five years later, the clean-up is still not complete.

Currently, the Alberta tar sands are visible from space, which is not the only unappealing result of the oil sands. According to TransCanada’s website in 2011, the company was responsible for 38 oil spills, with a total of 497 litres being released into the environment. In 2013, TransCanada was also responsible for 27 more oil spills—lower than 2011, but spilling an alarming amount of oil, a total of 3,104 litres. In addition, in 2013, TransCanada was responsible for 8 oil spills in the U.S., accumulating to a total of 65,753 litres.

TransCanada has released advertisements that present the company as environmentally friendly, which Ferguson and Paulin say is a way to market themselves positively to the public. The company has done so by adding visuals of natural landscapes and greenery to implement an environmental aspect to their marketing scheme. TransCanada has tried to appease those with environmental concerns by stating they care for the environment and are planning to work with First Nations, environmentalists and governments on their website. Along with this, the company said they plan to work with these groups to create strategies to use during construction in order to protect the land and animals. However, in recent media reports, TransCanada has run into issues with First Nations communities by wanting to build pipelines through their land. TransCanada has also upset environmentalists due to neglect following oil spills, continuing to contaminate and destroy the land where the pipes have burst, according to Ferguson and Paulin’s research.

TransCanada is somewhat successful in greenwashing the pipelines, according to Paulin and Ferguson. However, they found that many millennials are aware of greenwashing attempted through advertisements.

TransCanada markets itself as being environmentally responsible, explaining on their website that they plan to lower greenhouse gas emissions, however stating that “most of these emissions result from the combustion of natural gas used as a fuel source by our natural gas pipeline system.”

Paulin said that if a company has a long-term view of things, it cannot be moved by short-term considerations of corporate measures and profitability. Paulin said that if business schools had a more balanced education, as opposed to focusing on corporate benefit, businesses would have a better range of values and would not need to greenwash. “We’ve got to clean our mindset,” Paulin said. “At the moment, we’re all junkies. Technology has revolutionized the way we do things, but we have not changed our mindset.”

Volunteers sleep in Concordia’s downtown campus to raise donations and awareness for the homeless

This week you may have noticed people camping outside of the Hall building collecting donations. The initiative, 5 Days for the Homeless has been raising awareness and funds for homeless people by having community members experience homelessness first-hand.

For Elias Lolei, a Concordia Masters of Information Systems Security graduate, this is the fourth year he will be participating in Concordia’s 5 Days for the Homeless.

Lolei said this started as a student initiative. “The concept is that we live as homeless people for five days and we try to raise as much money and as much awareness as we can,” he said. For Lolei, he notices how being homeless can make you feel as rejected from society.  “You see how bad it is when your friends walk by and don’t even notice you,” Lolei said.

Josh Redler, a graduated marketing student from Concordia brought the initiative to Concordia in 2008, leading the national campaign. This initiative began for business students at the University of Alberta in 2005 to show that business students are socially aware and active.. Since 2008, he has been present for each 5 Days for the Homeless at Concordia.

Lolei said initially many people react to homeless people as people who should get a job. “Unfortunately it’s not that simple,” Lolei added. “Some of them have mental illness problems, some of them have many other problems—it’s not just getting a job.”

While some people may feel uneasy about handing donations to homeless people directly, 5 Days for the Homeless assures donors their money will be spent benefiting people living on the street.

Redler describes the significance of having the initiative take place in mid-March due to the weather being unpredictable. “We’ve had four seasons in one week before,” Redler said. “So you really get the experience of what it’s like all year round.” He said his first year participating as horrible. “We had a 20 cm blizzard the night before … we pretty much froze,” Redler said. “But the generosity and support of everyone was so heartwarming that it brought me and some other friends back the year after as alumni to organize the event again.”

Redler said the goal for donations this year at Concordia is $15,000. He said the largest donations 5 Days for the Homeless raised at Concordia was $42,000 in the first year. “That’s what was really what was amazing to me—seeing the community coming together for three kids sleeping outside,” Redler said. “Now we’ve grown to 15 to 20 people on a given night.”

To make donations visit the fundraisers 5 Days for the Homeless outside the Hall building at the corner of Maisonneuve Blvd W & Mackay St.

With medicine and harm-reduction techniques, the virus may soon be a thing of the past

The last recorded national statistics for those living with HIV/AIDS in Canada reported 2,570 new cases, according to the Aids Committee of Toronto. As found by national HIV estimates, by the end of 2014 an estimated 75,500 were living with HIV in Canada according to the Community AIDS Treatment Information Exchange website. The province with the highest rates of new reported cases was Ontario with 39.6 per cent; Quebec followed close behind with 21.7 per cent.

M.J. Milloy is a research scientist and infectious disease epidemiologist from the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and an assistant professor of medicine in the AIDS division at University of British Columbia. On March 10, he spoke at the Leacock building on McGill campus to discuss ending HIV/AIDS, organized by the Concordia University Community Lecture Series. Milloy spoke to The Concordian to share his knowledge on Vancouver’s approach of harm reduction techniques.

Milloy said rates of HIV in Vancouver decreased due to changes in the way the virus is being addressed. “Vancouver decided to treat [drug use] as a public health problem and not a public order problem,” said Milloy. “Not a problem for police, but a problem for doctors and nurses in the healthcare system.” Milloy said this lead to a number of programs being created to address issues surrounding drug use. This includes educating users on the risks and consequences associated to unsafe drug use, such as contracting HIV/AIDS, rather than focusing on how drug use itself is bad.

To Milloy, abstinence is often seen as the first step—a view which often gets in the way of addressing the issue. Instead, people have suggested harm reduction. “Harm reduction is really the [central] idea behind Vancouver’s fight against HIV,” said Milloy. “Because of the commitment to harm reduction, what we’ve seen in Vancouver are a number of programs that have lowered the [transmission] of HIV.”

One of the strategies used in Canada to battle the spread of HIV is needle exchange, but this wasn’t making a sufficient enough impact said Milloy. Instead of needle exchange, which is where users can give their used needles in exchange for sterile needles, Vancouver now practices needle distribution.

According to a study found by the American Journal of Public Health in 2010, needle sharing has decreased in Vancouver by 40 per cent.

Another program tackling harm reduction is supervised injection facilities. “That’s a way of not only reducing the [transmission] of HIV, but trying to get people [who are] using injection drugs into the healthcare system,” said Milloy. There are currently no supervised injection centres in Montreal, while Toronto is moving forward to be the second city in Canada to open supervised injection centres.

According to Toronto Sun journalist Jenny Yuen reporting via Twitter, Dr. David McKeown has announced at Toronto Public Health, on Monday, that supervised injection sites will be placed in the “[Toronto Public Health], South Riverdale Health Clinic and Queen West.”

According to CBC News, Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre said last September that he would open supervised injection centres in Montreal—regardless of if the federal government approves or not. Justin Trudeau—who was the liberal party leader at the time—agreed with Coderre’s efforts to implement supervised injection sites in Quebec.

Matthew Halse from the AIDS Community Care Montreal (ACCM) said “there are some great community advocates pushing for supervised injection sites in Montreal, but we aren’t quite there yet in terms of finance and legislation.” This is supported through organizations offering support to those with blood-borne infections, including ACCM, Dopamine and Cactus.

A third contributor to harm reduction is HIV medication. “We’ve learned that over the past 10 years or so, if someone is living with HIV but they are on HIV medications, they not only are going through remission … but they also won’t pass along the virus to other people,” said Milloy. He said that by getting more drug users carrying the virus on HIV medication, the virus will no longer be contagious, reducing the spread of the virus by preventing its reproduction.

Montreal, along with Vancouver, has adopted needle distribution aimed at reducing rates of HIV and AIDS among drug users. “There are bins all around [the Gay Village and Downtown Montreal] where you can deposit used needles, it’s not an exchange,” said Halse.

Halse said organizations such as ACCM are financially struggling to maintain programs and services.

The Concordian spoke with Daniel Jonathan Laroche, who is living in Montreal with HIV and also works as outreach for the ACCM. When discussing the issues of government support to those living with HIV, Laroche said, “I find personally they don’t have [many] services.” He said the government lacks emotional support towards those living with HIV in Quebec. However, organizations such as the ACCM, which is funded by the government, provides these services. Laroche said that the support could be more beneficial with greater financial aid.

Treating drug use as a medical problem, rather than a criminal problem, has resulted in a number of substantial benefits. “The lesson of Vancouver is that the best response to the health dangers of injection drug use [and] addiction … is a public health response,” said Milloy. “What I hope people take away from my talk is that good harm reduction is always a product of its local environment.”

The Concordian reached out to the City of Montreal for an update on the status of supervised injection sites but received no response by this article’s deadline.

 

Online users should take precaution of the information they share

In our electronically dependant society, the majority of people carry a smartphone in their hand.  This has created a greater opportunity for some to intertwine their lives with social media and self-tracking apps, such as Facebook or Fitbit. The production and distribution of these new technological advances makes the near future a bit of a mystery. Can we ensure the private information we share with apps and social media accounts will remain secure?

On March 1, two journalists and a teaching assistant from Concordia’s Institute for Information Systems Engineering took to the stage of D.B. Clarke Theatre to answer that question. The talk “Connecting to Your Tech Future: A Conversation About What’s Next” is the third discussion in the Thinking Out Loud series, presented by Concordia and moderated by The Globe and Mail’s Jared Bland.

Graham Carr, vice president of Research and Graduate Studies at Concordia University, opened the conversion. “As individuals, we’re poised to become walking, talking, big data sets,” Carr said. The talk was then taken over by two panelists: journalist Nora Young, host of CBC radio’s technology talkshow Spark and author of The Virtual Self: How Our Digital Lives Are Altering the World Around Us, and assistant professor Jeremy Clark from the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering also participated in the talk.

Young described the difference in present day society and past to be that technology is now everywhere around us. “Data and information now is ubiquitous,” Young said.

Take ads that track your browser history and personalize advertisements towards you. Young and Clark explain this as a result of algorithms monitored by computer programs.

“What we’re seeing is shaped so much by algorithms,” said Young. “We don’t know what the biases are, baked into the algorithms. We don’t know [how] it is determining what we see in our newsfeeds.”

The Concordian talked to Young prior to the event to discuss how algorithms can determine what advertising makes it on our screens. “So, in the Facebook newsfeeds case, an algorithm is figuring out what news stories and posts to show you, based on a number of factors,” said Young. She mentioned that it is not known what the factors are, but it is assumed that they are stories you have read in the past, shared or commented on. “As far as ads go, sometimes the ads you see are just following you around online based on what you searched for last,” she said.

The ads you frequently notice after you search a product, such as a book on Amazon, is an example. The longer you are online, the more you are being tracked by algorithms, she said.

Young also mentioned that users of self-tracking apps should take precautions, as these apps may record possibly sensitive information , such as the details of your health. “That might include personally identifying information, so it makes sense to consider what kind of data trails we’re leaving,” Young said. “You might not care about that data being used for the purposes of targeted ads, but you might care about it being used for other reasons.”

According to an article from Lifehacker, a weblog that discusses technology and personal productivity, health apps we are using may be selling the data we submit to private companies. As Lifehacker points out, the buyers include advertising companies . Ad Age, a magazine about marketing and media, reported that a 2014 Federal Trade Commision (FTC) study of 12 health and fitness apps found that the apps had distributed information submitted by users to 76 other parties. Ad age wrote that “the FTC did not reveal which apps or wearable devices it analyzed in its study; however it said it analyzed data sharing by free apps for pregnancy, smoking cessation and exercise.” Jah-Jiun Ho, an attorney from the FTC, told Ad Age that of the 12 apps studied, four apps sent data to one company specifically. Ho also said the study found the names and emails of the apps’ users. Ad Age claimed that due to this, companies have the potential to connect data on customers from each app to find out more personal information.

The Concordian asked Young what discretion we should take while online. “In many ways, the problem is a lack of plain language transparency on the part of these companies as to what exactly is being done with the data,” said Young. “It can therefore be difficult to know what’s being collected, and therefore what precautions you ought to take.” She said the best way to avoid this is choosing not to sign up for social media, though Young calls that an “imperfect” way of not having your personal information sold.

What other forms of security should we be worried about? Clark said that, currently, online security is terrible. “There was a search engine that someone created where you could look at all sorts of cameras of people online or people who, in their homes, have nanny cams set up pointed at their crib,” said Clark.

Clark said this is not hacking, as people have set up these cameras to be publicly accessible by a URL. While you have to actively search for sites like these, they are easily available online. However, he notes that in the early days of computers and networks there were problems with security; it has since improved tremendously, and people still use networks today. “The sad security state of the internet … is sort of a phase,” Clark said. “[People will] get better and we’ll stop worrying about those early concerns, then we’ll turn to the longer-term concerns, which are the privacy implications of these things.”

The Concordian also asked Clark what precautions social media and apps users should take, to which he said we should question these apps and what types of data they are collecting. If they are collecting data, we should ask if this data will be given or sold to other companies. “The answers might be buried in terms of service or a privacy policy, but it can be hard to find it and parse out exactly what the legalese means,” said Clark. “Ultimately we all take calculated risks. It is good to assume the worst and decide if the utility we get from tracking is worth it.”

The trouble may lie in our willingness to accept the safety of apps and social media sites, as Young suggests. She describes our ease of acceptance as a cultural issue. “We have a lot of blind faith in data and we have a lot of blind faith that algorithms are neutral,” Young said.

Transforming the party into a feminist eco-socialist party and using homework to change the province

While politicians typically spend their workdays in government offices or press conferences, the leader of the Quebec Green Party can be found attending classes at Concordia University.

Alex Tyrrell, at age 25 is currently the youngest leader in Quebec politics, and was elected to leadership on Sept. 21, 2013. He began his studies at Concordia University as a part-time student in environmental science in 2011, and is planning to graduate next year.

Tyrrell described balancing being a student and the leader of the Quebec Green Party as being a unique challenge. “Not that many people have the opportunity to be in my position,” Tyrrell said. “It’s a really fun experience.”

Some students have told Tyrell they are impressed he was voted into office, other students are more curious about the relevance of the green party and its platform.

“Those are questions I get a lot and the answer is that the green party can contribute things to the debate that are otherwise absent,” Tyrrell said.

Tyrrell’s first involvement with the Quebec Green Party began when he ran in the 2012 election. Prior to this, Tyrrell was involved with the federal New Democratic Party (NDP) before the Orange Wave, during the era of Jack Layton.

“I decided to switch to provincial politics, because the NDP had kind of taken a turn for the right under the leadership of Thomas Mulcair,” Tyrrell said. “At that point I became interested in provincial politics, especially with everything that was happening with the student movement around then.” At the time, students were taking to the streets to protest against the provincial government’s proposal to increase tuition fees, which would later be dubbed the Maple Spring.

What led Tyrrell to the green party over others was the party’s values, which corresponds most to his. “The fact that they were for free education and wanting carbon tax measures and had a very aggressive program … that’s what lead me to choose the green party of Quebec,” he said.

Tyrrell said the recent changes within the party, such as free education and keeping the healthcare sector public, constitutes the Quebec Green Party as an eco-socialist party, as it used to be more centrist. “I’ve been able to build on [the party’s platform] and define the party on more issues than just environment,” Tyrrell said. He faced the Quebec general election only five months after becoming the party leader. “Within five months we were able to completely redefine the ideology of the party around eco-socialism and also start with almost a brand new set of candidates,” he said.

Along with the change to be an eco-socialist party, the Quebec Green Party has progressed in other elements. Tyrrell said the party has become a youth-led movement. He added, previously the party was male dominated, but now there are a lot more women involved. Tyrrell said that in the 2012 election, of all of the provincial party candidates, only 20 per cent were women, being the lowest percentage of all the parties said Tyrrell. “We’ve managed to change that—it’s now written in our constitution that it’s a feminist party.”

The female candidacy is now at 35 per cent, but Tyrrell said the party wants to further strengthen female involvement. “We’re actually hoping to present a team of candidates in the 2018 provincial election [with a] majority of women candidates, which has never been done in Quebec or in Canadian politics at this point,” Tyrrell said.

Tyrell said one of the biggest improvements under his leadership is the party’s willingness to directly address controversial matters. “[Voters] want a party that’s going to stand up to protect public health care and access to education and a number of other things,” he said, adding the party is building a more balanced platform. “We’re not scared to get into controversy and speak out on things,” he said.

Tyrrell said being younger than most politicians requires him to prove himself. Most people however are positive towards the young politician.

“People want to see youth in politics,” Tyrrell said. “They want our generation to start coming up and start taking power.”

Much of Tyrrell’s education at Concordia ties in well to issues the Quebec Green Party wants to address. “For one of my courses I [did] a project on a landfill biogas facility,” Tyrrell said. “They’re recuperating the gas from the decomposing organic material and burning it for electricity.” This process can be used to power vehicles using natural gas, he said.

Tyrrell touched on how his first-hand learning experiences and excursions have given him added perspective. His excursions have included visiting various peatlands, which are wetlands that accumulate dead moss and plants over time. He also had the opportunity to meet with environmental groups that protect these wetlands

“I’m able to learn things in school about the environment and then apply them directly to issues that are actually happening in Quebec,” Tyrrell said.

Tyrrell said he frequently discusses Quebec Green Party policy and what issues the party should address with classmates and professors. He added that while people are becoming more concerned with climate change, Concordia is a great environment to become in tune with new approaches and resolutions to environmental issues as there are many ways to become educated and involved in sustainability.

In terms of Concordia making changes to be more environmentally friendly, Tyrrell is a strong advocate for ending investment in fossil fuels. “If Concordia were to become the first university to completely divest from fossil fuels, it would say a lot about the direction that the institution is going in and would attract a lot of people who are interested in doing research in terms of the environment,” he said.

Tyrrell believes sustainability is not the only factor Concordia could improve on. “[The Quebec Green Party] thinks that universities should be run primarily by students and professors,” Tyrrell said. Tyrrell feels that community members should be able to have more input towards future decisions at Concordia.

“We think that across Quebec, students and professors between them should hold the majority of seats on both the senate and board of governors rather than the system we have now where students and professors are marginalized while institutional and corporate representatives make up the majority of both the board of governors and the university’s senate,” he said.

While discussing the current issue at Concordia in regards to the recent $235,000 severance package given to former chief financial officer, Tyrrell believes ground rules should be implemented to prevent similar circumstances in the future. “What happened at Concordia is one example, but things like that happen in many different places in the public services,” Tyrrell said.

After graduation, Tyrrell will be gearing up for the provincial election on Oct. 1, 2018. “I definitely very much like being the leader of the Quebec Green Party and would like to continue building on what we’ve started here for some time,” he said.  

He hopes the party can have a full team of 125 candidates for the first time. “With the environmental problems getting worse and worse as time goes on, naturally people will tend to support parties that have a very aggressive environmental program,” Tyrrell said. “For us, it’s about presenting [a sustainable platform] in the hopes that people will look to us and choose to support us.”

The most recent departure from the university’s administration is one of many over the past decade

Concordia’s former chief financial officer received a $235,000 severance package after only working at the university for three months. The university announced the departure of Sonia Trudel in mid-November last year, but an article from La Presse published on Feb. 10 revealed the cost of Trudel’s payout.

This isn’t the first time a Concordia employee was given a severance of at least six-figures: the university was fined $2 million in 2012 by the Quebec education ministry for excessive severance packages and mismanaging funds.

The Concordian has compiled a timeline from our archives of severance deals given to former Concordia employees based on previously published stories:

2007:

Claude Lajeunesse ($1.4 million)

Claude Lajeunesse resigned two years into his five-year contract as Concordia’s president. He had previously served as president at Ryerson University for 10 years. At the time, university spokesperson Chris Mota told The Concordian: “I think the Board wanted change faster on some level,” said Mota. “I have heard discussions on both sides, governors who argue that the strategic plan that we’re working on has not moved fast enough. Other members think it’s right on track.”

 

2009:

Ted Nowak ($605,000) and Saad Zubair ($639,000)

Ted Nowak and Saad Zubair, both former auditors at Concordia, were dismissed in September 2009 after allegedly not disclosing meal expenditures.  

 

Larry English ($332,000)

Larry English announced his resignation in September 2009 after 13 years as the university’s chief financial officer. He received $332,000.  

 

Jean Brisebois ($129,000)

The university’s former security director received $129,000 for his retirement in 2009. Brisebois had been working with the university since 2001 when the announcement was made.

 

2010:

Kathy Assayag ($700,000)

The former vice-president of advancement and alumni affairs left her position for personal reasons in September 2010. Assayag walked away with a severance package of $700,000.

 

2011:

Judith Woodsworth ($703,500)

In 2011, Judith Woodsworth resigned as president of Concordia less than halfway through her five-year term, walking away with $703,500. A member of the Board of Governors at the time told The Concordian in 2011 prior to her resignation she “choose to resign as she could have stood up to the board and stayed if she wanted to.” Woodsworth was the second Concordia president to resign in five years. She later returned to Concordia as a professor in the French department.

Political pressure important tool in fighting pipelines

As the future for the TransCanada pipelines remain up in the air, many environmentalists and First Nations communities worry about the decision the Liberal government will make for this project.

On Feb. 9, the School of Community and Public affairs at Concordia held a panel addressing environmental concerns regarding Canada’s energy sector. The panel included Alex Tyrrell, leader for the Green Party of Quebec and a current Concordia environmental science student; Jen Gobby, the founder of Mud Girls, a natural building collective of women who use local, natural and recycled materials in the west coast of B.C.; and Kristian Gareau, a Concordia graduate student and member of Climate Justice Montreal.

Political science professor Daniel Salée opened the talk by presenting the arguments pro-pipeliners have shared. Pro-pipeline arguments claim the TransCanada pipeline is crucial to transport oil to refineries and markets across the country, insisting this model is the safest transportation system and that the pipelines will benefit the economy through creating jobs.

In contrast, many communities—including those living on Indigenous land—will be affected, and worry about the complications the community may face, including environmental damage.

Gobby said it is vital to take a stand against the threat of environmental degradation imposed by these projects, following in the steps of First Nations who successfully blocked development on their lands under the Harper government because of the environmental risks of the project.

“You can say arguably that many of these pipelines would have been built by now if [environmental activists and First Nations] hadn’t been actively reinhabiting their land and bringing supporters from all over the country and all over the world to stand with them,” Gobby said. “These are ways that … we are seeing the ability for voices to be heard and decisions to be made outside the process.” Gobby hopes these voices will inflict more pressure on the government to develop more concern for the environment.

“There are ample opportunities for people who want to support Indigenous resistance efforts to ally and to support,” she added.

Tyrrell spoke of the progress that has recently been made towards the climate—locally and globally—with some Quebec politicians moving towards environmental change. For example, Tyrrell said Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard hasspoken out against hydraulic fracturing on Anticosti Island, which is located in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence. Recently Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre, along with other mayors in the Montreal area, publicly announced they would reject pipelines.

“Although many people might have said that it’s an issue of Quebec vs. the rest of the country—that’s definitely an argument I can definitely and completely disagree with,” Tyrrell said. “The fact of the matter is that there are people who both support and oppose the Energy East pipelines in all provinces.” The city of Vancouver just recently opposed the Trans Mountain pipeline due to environmental threat, he added.

Tyrrell also discussed his distrust in the government’s ability to handle these issues, saying they have often shown support for the extraction of petroleum. If the government moves forward with the support and development of the pipelines, Tyrrell believes this will cost them the next election. “It’s very important for people to apply political pressure if we want to see environmental change,” he said. “At some point people have to protest, people have to hold the government [accountable] and they need to make sure these priorities are being taken seriously.”

“The fact that any of these mainstream politicians are now paying lip service for the environmental movement and beginning to back some other issues is definitely a good sign,” Tyrrell added, “but if the pressure isn’t maintained they will likely go back to what they were doing before.”

Rebutting the pro-pipelines defence for development to the economy, Tyrrell said that TransCanada has said there would only be 33 permanent jobs after the construction of the pipeline is complete. “Taking those kind of environmental risks to employ a small handful of people is not a very wise decision,” Tyrrell said.

The panel suggested creative ways of generating environmental awareness and opposing risky government fueled projects. “Resistance can be very creative and very fertile,” Gareau said. He added how he had been invited by Climate Justice Montreal to dress up as a TransCanada employee and distribute Climate Justice brochures detailing climate change and the risk of fossil fuel energy. “All the press came … we had the journalists interviewing us and meanwhile Lawrence Cannon, who was at the time working for TransCanada, was fuming in the background,” Gareau said. “So we really managed to rain on their parade and use these innovative tactics to disturb their corporate messaging.”

 

The Concordian previously quoted Kristian Gareau as saying “Resistance can be very creative and very futile,” when in fact he said ““Resistance can be very creative and very fertile.” The misquote has been changed. The Concordian regrets the error.