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News

Canadian university policies silent on stealthing

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin

Concordia administration says the practice “hasn’t been an issue” on campus

None of Canada’s 96 universities mention stealthing in their sexual assault policies, according to both a study published in October and independent research by The Concordian.

Stealthing is defined as “nonconsensual condom removal during sexual intercourse” by Alexandra Brodsky, a human rights lawyer who published the first major study on the subject in April.

While there are no clear figures on how prevalent stealthing is, Carleton University graduate and National Our Turn Committee chair Caitlin Salvino said she has encountered many students in her research who have been victims of the practice. The National Our Turn Committee, a student-led sexual assault advocacy group, published Our Turn: A National, Student-Led Action Plan to End Campus Sexual Violence, in October. The study evaluated the sexual assault policies of 14 major Canadian universities, ranked them on a 100-point scale and offered suggestions on how to improve existing policies.

“We met with people who did experience [stealthing] and who talked about how horrifying it was,” Salvino said. However, she said she has never encountered a case where a student reported an incident of stealthing to a university. When asked about the Sexual Assault Resource Centre’s (SARC) awareness of stealthing at Concordia, university spokesperson Mary-Jo Barr said the centre claimed stealthing “hasn’t been an issue.”

Salvino attributed the lack of reported cases of stealthing to the failure of university policies to explicitly condemn the practice. “People will kind of discount their experiences,” she said.

The term “stealthing” first entered common usage when Brodsky published her study “Rape-Adjacent: Imagining Legal Responses to Nonconsensual Condom Removal” in the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law in April. In her study, the human rights lawyer considered the current stance American laws take towards stealthing, and suggested the practice should be more clearly condemned. She also explored the online culture that has sprung up around the practice. She referenced websites and forums which provide men with advice on how to commit stealthing without their partner knowing.

The Concordian reached out to the administrations of the 14 universities analyzed in the Our Turn study, including McGill and Concordia. Of the six that responded, many said their policies are not meant to name every non-consensual sexual act, and that their policies encompass stealthing even if it is not mentioned by name. “The intent of the definition is not to try to provide a specific example of every type of potential sexual assault, but indicate it is a range of behaviours that are unwanted and imposed without consent,” said University of Regina external relations officer Everett Dorma. “Consent is defined in part as ‘the voluntary agreement to engage in the sexual activity in question.’ Thus, the act of stealthing would be considered a sexual assault since such consent would not have been given.”

However, Salvino said the purpose of calling out stealthing in a sexual assault policy is not just to ensure perpetrators are punished, but to ensure victims know that such an act is a form of sexual assault.

She said, when a university calls out stealthing in its sexual assault policy, “it shows that the university recognizes this as a serious form of harm.”

In an email to The Concordian, Memorial University of Newfoundland communications manager David Sorensen said the term is too recent to be mentioned in the school’s sexual assault policy. “As far as we can tell, the term stealthing arose around 2014 and is only recently trending, so it was not part of our drafting discussion and did not get raised during the extended university-wide consultation with students, faculty and staff,” he said. “With regards to including it in the policy, it will be considered and discussed in our next review process, and our Sexual Harassment Office is adding it to our educational materials.”

Of the 14 schools in the Our Turn study, only the University of Winnipeg said it plans to add stealthing to its sexual assault policy. The school’s communications officer Adam Campbell said in an email that “we are in the process of developing our new standalone sexual violence policy which will specifically reference stealthing. The new policy will be finalized in the new year.”

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin

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News

ASFA ratifies sustainability policy

The Arts and Science Federation of Associations (ASFA) ratified its first sustainability policy during a council meeting on Nov. 9. Photo by Mackenzie Lad

Unanimously passed motion outlines guidelines for federation, MAs

The Arts and Science Federation of Associations (ASFA) has just ratified its first sustainability policy.

The policy, which was passed at a regular council meeting on Thursday, Nov. 9, lays out sustainable practice guidelines for the federation and its member associations (MAs). The motion was passed unanimously by the council.

The policy was first drafted in the 2016-17 academic year by interim ASFA president Julia Sutera Sardo, who was vice-president of internal affairs at the time, and Agunik Mamikonyan, the former vice-president of external affairs and sustainability. After being reviewed by ASFA’s policy committee, the policy was ready to be ratified at the federation’s final council meeting of the year in May. However, Sutera Sardo said the ratification process was delayed until this year so it could be approved by the new council and by the interim vice-president of sustainability, Bianca Bruzzese. The policy was also reviewed by ASFA’s sustainability committee before being ratified by council.

The four-page policy defines sustainability as “the process and outcome of achieving social activism, economic equality and environmental health by reducing our ecological footprint and empowering communities to meet their present needs, and then, their future aspirations.” Following this definition, the policy is divided into sections addressing environmental, social and economic sustainability.

The environmental sustainability section includes commitments to minimize material consumption, support environmental justice initiatives on campus and beyond, and establish relationships with Indigenous communities directly affected by resource extraction projects. The social sustainability section includes a commitment to “promote a strong, safe and empowering community by seeking to minimize systemic power imbalances within society and fostering a culture of anti-oppression as well as encouraging a culture of self-care.” The economic sustainability section states that ASFA will, whenever possible, support local businesses, refuse unsustainable corporate sponsorship and advocate for fossil fuel divestment both on and off campus.

The policy includes a number of strategies to encourage MAs to adopt sustainable practices. ASFA will encourage MAs to create their own vice-president of sustainability position; workshops on sustainability will be provided to all ASFA and MA executives by ASFA’s vice-president of sustainability; MAs will be provided with a copy of Sustainable Concordia’s Sustainable Event Guide and encouraged to follow its guidelines; and finally, MAs will need to fill out a sustainability checklist when submitting a cheque requisition to be reimbursed for events.

When asked if MAs could be refused reimbursement for not adopting sustainable practices, Sutera Sardo said this is possible but unlikely because of the importance ASFA places on MA autonomy.

Sustainability Concordia spoke out in favour of the policy. “We’re really glad that ASFA has taken this step,” said Sustainability Concordia’s external and campaigns coordinator Emily Carson-Apstein. “Sustainability is a huge, ongoing discussion in our office and among all the student associations, and it’s really a fluid and changing document. It’s not a one-time thing. This is a great first step, and we’re really excited to see where ASFA takes this and how we can help them.”

Photo by Mackenzie Lad

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Concordia Student Union News

CSU councillor flags potential conflict of interest

The CSU housing project was among the topics discussed at the Nov. 8 council meeting. Photo by Valeria Cori-Manocchio

Council hears update on the union’s housing project; execs to pay union $840 for SUDS

Concordia Student Union (CSU) general coordinator Omar Riaz and finance coordinator Soulaymane El Alaoui will each pay approximately $840 to the union after accepting plane tickets from the CSU’s insurance provider, Alliance pour la Santé Étudiante au Québec (ASEQ), without disclosing the tickets in their executive report on the Student Union Development Summit (SUDS) conference in Vancouver last August.

“Omar and I will each be writing a cheque to the CSU for that amount before the council in December,” said El Alaoui at the CSU meeting on Nov. 8.

As The Concordian reported in September, council motioned that Riaz and El Alaoui had until Dec. 19 to individually pay the CSU the cost of the flight and a meal in Vancouver, as well as issue an apology.

John Molson School of Business councillor Rory James asked that the apology be submitted two to three weeks before the council meeting on Dec. 22, so that councillors could provide their input. El Alaoui said a first draft of the apology would be submitted by Nov. 22 for council members to discuss before publicly releasing the statement.

Potential conflict of interest

James brought up a potential conflict of interest surrounding Riaz and El Alaoui’s role in the Commerce and Administration Students’ Association (CASA) at the Nov. 8 council meeting. Riaz is a chairperson and El Alaoui is an independent director on the CASA board—neither saw a potential conflict of interest.

“As chair on CASA, I don’t have any voting power. I have no operating role,” Riaz said. “I’ve never expressed my opinion on CASA, I’ve never been part of any decision CASA has taken.”

“CASA and the CSU are not affiliated in any way,” El Alaoui added. “When I’m doing CSU stuff, it has nothing to do with CASA stuff.”

James said he was concerned their positions at CASA could conflict with their ability to make unbiased decisions. “This isn’t to say they’ve broken their conflicts, it’s just to say the potential exists,” he said. The existing CSU regulations that executives follow demand they report conflicts of interest. James’s motion, which passed, requires executives to disclose to the CSU any “decisions or involvement with any corporations on which they sit as a director” in their monthly reports.

Moving forward with CSU housing project

Laurent Levesque, the general coordinator of Unité de travail pour l’implantation de logement étudiant (UTILE), presented council and executives with an update about the CSU housing project. The housing project will be located on Papineau Avenue and will offer 150 spots in about 70 units of cooperative housing, costing between $400 to $440 in monthly rent.

According to Levesque, the total cost of the project stands at approximately $14 million. He also confirmed the mortgage insurance certificate was emitted, meaning almost half of the project funding has been confirmed. “Thirteen [million] out of the $14 million of the project costs are confirmed,” he said. “So we are really close to completing the budget.”  Levesque added that the last million is “already in advanced talks” with the last partner to approve the final terms.

“The project has been approved by the borough of Plateau Mont-Royal at the beginning of October,” Levesque said. The current deadline for the project is May 2019, which Levesque pointed out as the “latest time that was allowed in the term sheet.”

James inquired about the project’s risk management plan and budget. Levesque said the scale of the project demands a tight risk-management procedure and the current deadline allows for adjustments if risks or unforeseen factors arise. When councillor James asked: “Why don’t you have a project management professional on staff?” Levesque responded: “The development budget does not allow it […] The truth is everyone [working on the project] is doing risk control.”

Determining the CSU CEO’s pay

Eleven CSU councillors approved a motion to set the union’s CEO pay at a bi-weekly rate of $16.50 per hour and to not exceed $9,000, but not including a bonus for the year.

Thirteen councillors approved the amendment to the previous motion proposed by El Alaoui stating the “finance committee come up with a system to be reviewed by policy committee for implementation and to […] have this same method of payment for the [CSU Deputy Electoral Officer].” Twelve councillors approved the amended motion.

El Alaoui said this would help the finance committee figure out a model policy that the committee could formally implement each year. The total amount that was paid to last year’s CEO was $8,384.28, according to El Alaoui.

Photo by Valeria Cori-Manocchio

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News

Break it down for me: Video games

Carolyn Jong teaches “Video games and/as Literature,” one of the few courses where students look at games from a cultural perspective. Photo by Olivier Sylvestre

Concordia professor says academics need to start paying attention to the growing industry

According to EEDAR, a gaming industry analytics firm, 65 per cent of the United States population played video games in 2016. In 2015, consumers spent a total of $23.5 billion on video game software, hardware and accessories.

The gaming sector is rapidly becoming a juggernaut in the media industry, and academia is starting to pay attention.

Carolyn Jong, a contract instructor and PhD student at Concordia University, designed and teaches “Video games and/as Literature,” one of the few undergraduate courses at Concordia where students look at games from a cultural perspective. The Concordian met with Jong so she could explain why academics should pay attention to the industry.

Why do games matter? Why is it important to study them?

They’re a test case, an example, for where our economy is heading and where our culture is going. You should pay attention to it for the same reason you pay attention to any major medium that plays such a significant role in both our economy and our culture.

Mainly, there are two reasons: one is economic and the other is cultural. Economics and culture are interconnected, and it is really important to look at how they interact with each other in relation to video games.

Let’s start with the economic side.

There is a shift in what we call the “First World” or western developed economies towards a focus on immaterial labour. There is a lot of focus on the cultural industries, on technology, on communications, logistics, all that sort of stuff—and the game industry is obviously part of that. From that, you’re seeing a shift in how work places are being organized and in how and where capital in our society is being invested. It’s important to pay attention to those shifts. A lot of us [in the developed world] are employed in these industries, or want to work in them, so they have big implications for all of us.

Also, video games are always pushing for technological development. It’s sort of an arms race where, between game developers, they are constantly trying to improve the technology, like graphics. The gaming industry pushes for technological improvements. Every year or so, new graphics cards, new processors, new consoles come out. That pushes for the consumption of more hardware, like fancier computers and new consoles. We need to look at how the gaming industry is driving the consumption of computers and other digital technologies and the impact it has on the environment and the people working in those industries.

Can you give us some examples?

A lot of the raw minerals used in computer chips are mined in Africa. For example, the Democratic Republic of Congo is a really well-known supplier of coltan, which is a mineral mostly used for making electronics. The working conditions in most coltan mines are terrible. It’s pretty much slave labour. But a lot of the consumption of electronics isn’t happening in those countries. It is getting shipped out, usually to China or to other manufacturing areas, and then that gets shipped again to wealthy western nations.

Without [the exploitation of these people], there would be no game industry. We wouldn’t have the devices that we need to make video games, let alone play them.

How do video games affect us culturally?

Video games are such a big part of culture that it has an impact on people’s general sense of who we are. It does pay to pay attention to how games might be influencing the way that we think about ourselves. Often, it happens at a subconscious level—it’s not an explicit part of the message that is in the game, but it’s just part of the logic of the game or how the game works. You are not realizing that you are internalizing some of these things, but you learn to take certain things for granted or accept things as normal because you are participating in those games. For example, you can internalize through video games stereotypes about socially-constructed gender roles or racism.

Let’s talk about something we can learn from all that. You did research on “Gamergate,” when prominent female and trans game critics, developers and journalists who wanted change in the industry were harassed by a group of male gamers. There were death threats and rape threats. Is gaming part of an identity that some people are afraid of losing?

In a capitalist system, we are encouraged to identify ourselves through the clothes we wear and through the things we buy—through consumption. If you play games, you are a gamer. That’s part of your identity, right? And you start to be on the defensive if someone is being critical of the thing that you like. For example, if someone is critical of a TV show that you like, it feels almost like a personal attack on you because part of who you identify as comes from your consumption of that thing.

There was a shift in the 80s and 90s in the video game industry to find a target market; it turned out to be young men and teenage boys. It made sense, because they tend to have the most disposable income. But it shaped the culture around games. All of a sudden, publicity only showed white boys and men playing games. For decades, you had women and girls playing games who didn’t really feel it was theirs. They felt it wasn’t something they were supposed to do. It was a boy’s thing. We ended up with a video game culture that, by and large, privileges straight white middle-class cis-men.

That ended up with a toxicity in the culture. There was an understanding from these men of: “we own games” or “games are ours.” It’s not that conscious, but that’s how they think about it. They were hostile to anyone who wasn’t a straight white man. They saw them as outsiders.

You’re doing a PhD on video games at Concordia. How is it going? How is it viewed in the world of academia?

It depends. Right now, there is a lot of focus in the government about promoting video games, because it brings jobs and some other economic benefits. There are huge subsidies in Quebec that go to the major companies in the industry. That’s influencing academia as well; as government policy shifts in that direction, that also means there’s more funding for projects that look at digital stuff in general, and at games in particular.

But it’s still slow. There is a fear in academia that, if there’s money going into studying games, that means there will be less funding for studying literature or for film or for other stuff. But that is just a reflection of the way the institution works. We need to look at what is creating that lack of funding in the first place, instead of fighting each other for what gets studied at the university.

Also, academics are used to being experts. I think it can be scary to be presented with something that you might not be familiar with, and then reject it or not pay attention to it. But again, that’s institutional. In academia, you have to pretend to be an expert because, if you’re not an expert, then what value do you have for the institution?

But with younger people who want to work in the industry and who are coming into university, there is a huge demand to study games. So that change is going to happen, one way or another. I just hope the critical aspect of game studies doesn’t get left behind. A lot of people are coming into it looking for a career in games, and often the programs that are set up to cater to that aren’t about teaching you to be critical of the medium or to think about it deeply or reflect on it. They turn you into a cog inside a machine. You just learn the skills to gain a job in the game industry.

Increasingly, universities are moving in that direction. I’m a bit concerned by that. But that’s not just a problem with games, that’s a problem everywhere. It’s just very obvious with games, because it’s happening very quickly.

“Break it down for me” is a series of articles where The Concordian meets with experts from our university to learn more about pressing issues in our society.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Photo by Olivier Sylvestre

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Student Life

Montreal festival is a vegan’s paradise

The festival promoted a vegan lifestyle, included stands with food, clothing garments, shoes and skincare products. Photo by Elisa Barbier

May contain eggs, milk, butter or gelatin are words that could not be found anywhere at Marché Bonsecours this weekend. Ingredients like soy, nuts, legumes and tofu, on the other hand, were readily available.

On Nov. 4 and 5, vegans from across the country gathered for the fourth edition of Montreal’s Vegan Festival. Conferences, culinary demonstrations, dégustations and over 30 stands introduced aspects of veganism to the public.

In the scenic Old Port, the market was packed to its maximum capacity throughout the weekend. A stage was set up on the lower level to host conferences and culinary demonstrations by vegan cooks, artists, athletes, philosophers, sociologists and bloggers. The upper level offered different options of vegan food, drinks, desserts, skincare products and clothing. Festival goers ranging from toddlers to seniors lined up for free samples of cheesecake or kombucha. Some tried on winter jackets or even got a vegan tattoo.

After five years of experimentation in her kitchen to veganize her favorite comfort food, Sam Turnbull attends Montreal’s vegan festival for the first time. Photo by Elisa Barbier

Among the many people hosting conferences at the festival, Antoine Jolicoeur Desroches, a professional triathlon athlete from Quebec, discussed the health and athletic performance benefits of a vegan diet. Three years ago, Jolicoeur Desroches made the decision to become a vegan after seven years as a vegetarian. “I had always been careful with my impact on the environment, but I had never thought of the impact my eating habits could have,” he said. For Jolicoeur Desroches, his ethics toward the environment were far more important than the effect this new diet could have on his body and practice. Nonetheless, the results were positive and noticeable. “My performance increased. It became easier to recover, and I became able to use all the energy my body was uselessly spending to digest animal products,” he said.

He advised young athletes to make the transition slowly, adding days or meals throughout the week that eliminate animal-based products, such as “meatless Monday.”

“[Veganism] is a lifestyle that must be established for a lifetime through progressive change,” Jolicoeur Desroches said. He added that traveling for competitions has not hindered his eating habits. “There are always local products like fruits, vegetables, pasta, potatoes or rice. Also, having a set of spices is good to diversify seasoning,” he said.

Seasoning is big part of Sam Turnbull’s daily life. The Concordia alumna and author of the blog “It doesn’t taste like chicken” attended the festival to discuss her new book, Fuss-free Vegan, about vegan comfort food.

Unlike Jolicoeur Desroches, Turnbull made the full transition overnight five years ago after watching a documentary on animal cruelty. Growing up in a family of chefs, butchers and hunters, Turnbull loved cheese and meat. “When I made the switch, it is because I knew I should, not because all of a sudden I was obsessed with vegan food,” Turnbull said. “At first, I started looking up vegan recipes, but it was all kale, quinoa and energy bars. So I started my blog because I don’t eat that way,” she said. Turnbull’s blog is unique, as it features recipes focusing mainly on comfort food like pizza, burgers, sandwiches and dessert—foods that people don’t usually associate with veganism.

“It is all with easy-to-find ingredients at local grocery stores, not weird powders or maca root,” Turnbull said with a laugh. She encourages students to follow a vegan lifestyle since foods like cheese and meat can be expensive compared to fruits and vegetables. And diversity in taste is easily achievable using spices. “You can make a delicious meal with beans and rice as long as you have the right spices in it,” Turnbull said.

Vesanto Melina hosted a conference on Saturday afternoon providing nutritional advice for the public and the dietitians assisting the festival. Photo by Elisa Barbier

Beans are also the solution for Vesanto Melina, a dietician and lead author of the book The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Beans represent a source of vegetable protein often forgotten, according to Melina. She was a vegetarian for more than two decades before making the transition to veganism 24 years ago. As a dietician, Melina discussed the dos and don’ts of a vegan diet, but also how to get all the nutrients your body needs.

Learning to add beans, peas and lentils to your recipes as well as acquiring non-dairy sources of calcium in your diet is often forgotten. “Once people have those knacks and they make sure to take vitamin B12, things move along really well,” Melina said. Vitamin B12 is an important nutrient that comes from bacteria often present in meat products.

“Vegans don’t lack nutrients more than anybody else,” Melina said. She emphasised that anybody is at risk of malnutrition in Canada—especially those who lack vitamin D during the long winters. “It is easy to find vegetal proteins or calcium that are more efficient than animal ones,” Melina said.

Photos by Elisa Barbier

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News

Tyler Lemco’s successful defeat

Montreal independent mayoral candidate Tyler Lemco finished last in the election, but victory was always secondary. Photo by Mackenzie Lad

Montreal’s lowest-polling mayoral candidate is a spark of possibility for his supporters

“When I first announced it, I was like, ‘Oh, this will be funny.’” These are not the words a typical mayoral candidate uses to describe his campaign. That’s because Tyler Lemco is not a typical mayoral candidate.

The former Epic Meal Time star and Concordia journalism graduate did not win Montreal’s mayoral election. He didn’t even come close. In fact, it’s unclear whether he wanted to win at all. There were cheers of joy from his Tequila Bar election party when Valérie Plante’s victory was announced on TV. This was not a defeat—not entirely. For Lemco and his supporters, victory was always secondary.

The odyssey of Tyler Lemco started in 2015 during the last federal election. Campaign signs adorned with the YouTube star’s face began popping up all over Montreal. This wasn’t a real bid for office, but it drew considerable attention on social media. “If I accomplished all of that with nothing, let’s see what I can do actually trying something,” Lemco said.

Last February, he met former Mayor Denis Coderre for the first time.

“I jokingly told him I was going to run against him and he laughed,” said Lemco. “So, it was that moment when I said, ‘Alright, I’m in.’”

During the race, Lemco received mixed reactions from his running mates. “Plante has been great,” he said. “I’ve spoken to her probably 15 times. We have this weird mutual respect. Every so often, she’ll ask if I’m endorsing her and I’m like, ‘No, we’re still competition.’”

Lemco never managed to woo his other major opponent. “I’ve tried messaging [Coderre]. Even [after] the diss track, I was hoping he would say something. He’s essentially entirely ignored me.”

The diss track in question is a two and a half minute rap track, accompanied by a music video, posted on Lemco’s Youtube page on Oct. 31 as part of his aggressive social media campaign. “Coderre the unfair mayor, you a chump homie / looking like the white version of Professor Klump, homie,” is just one of the attacks Lemco launched against his then-incumbent opponent.

For three and a half months, Lemco ran his campaign on a razor-thin budget. He estimates that he spent about $500 of his own money, most of it on campaign signs and boosted Facebook posts. Lemco’s signs, which he put up around the city himself, encouraged passersby to vandalize them, which Montrealers responded to with enthusiasm.

In addition to his social media campaign, Lemco embarked on what he called a “bar-to-bar” campaign after struggling to connect with voters in broad daylight. “I go talk to people when they’re their most talkative, when they’ve got a few drinks in them,” he said. According to Lemco, the most common issues on people’s minds are the pit bull ban and Montreal’s expensive 375th anniversary celebrations.

Despite his campaign’s lighthearted beginnings, Lemco said he was shocked into seriousness by the support he received. It was then that he realized, “I can’t make this too much of a joke; I have this responsibility to give this a legitimate shot.”

Lemco did have some ideas for improving the city. He wanted to see heated roads rather than snow plows in the winter. Had he won the race, he would have continued vlogging during his tenure to encourage transparency at city hall. He also would have sought to ban rapper Pitbull from the city. “I’m a fair mayor, and I think the ban on pit bulls is absurd so I’d get rid of that, but I also believe there should be some balance in life,” he said, although he admitted he is a fan of the Miami-based rapper.

Regardless of the odds, there is at least one supporter who will never leave Lemco’s side. “Knowing Tyler, anything he wants to do, he goes at it full force. So, running for mayor or running for city council, I’m behind him 100 per cent,” said his mother, Brenda Lemco.

That’s not to say she wasn’t skeptical about his campaign at first. “Are you kidding? Is this really what you want to do? Are you serious?” she told him when she learned of his candidacy.

“I think the goal of this campaign first and foremost is to do something positive, try to start some important conversations,” Lemco said. He hopes his campaign will inspire others. “Look at me. Look at what I’m doing and I’m not qualified whatsoever,” he said. “If I win as a byproduct of that, then cool.” Although Lemco said it’s too far in the future to know for sure, he is not ruling out a second mayoral campaign.

Anyone with doubts about his plans for the future can consult his rap video: “Ima never stop running / Call me Forrest Gump, homie.”

Photo by Mackenzie Lad

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News

Have you been asked to join Golden Key?

An example of a Golden Key International Honour Society membership letter. Photo by Alex Cole

Questions and answers about Concordia’s chapter of the international honour society

An undergraduate student in actuarial mathematics, Lisa Ho was a bit surprised when she was sent an invitation to join the Golden Key International Honour Society. Nonetheless, she was glad to be “recognized for [her] academic achievement” at the Concordia Golden Key chapter’s New Membership Recognition event on Oct. 27.

Psychology students Maneli Nourzad and Mehrnoosh Pezeshk, who also attended the event, joined the honour society because they believed it would look good on their CVs.

The New Member Recognition event featured student leaders from Concordia’s Golden Key chapter, as well as Montreal-native and director of Golden Key Canada Ian Sankey. Speakers explained membership benefits and awarded honourary memberships to John Molson School of Business (JMSB) professor Karim Boulos and Concordia alumnus and Montreal-born break-dancer Luca Patuelli.

If the Golden Key International Honour Society sounds familiar, it may be because you’ve received a letter inviting you to join as well. According to the co-president of Concordia’s Golden Key chapter, Natasha Sabelli, undergraduate students in the top 15 per cent of their program are invited to join the non-profit organization. This amounts to approximately 1,000 letters being sent out across Concordia’s four faculties each year, according to Sabelli.

How is Concordia’s Golden Key chapter funded?

In an interview with The Concordian, Sabelli said “all the funding comes from members who join.” The chapter does not receive any money from Concordia. As the invitation to join the society discloses, each new member of Golden Key pays a one-time membership fee of $90.

“For every new member that joins the Concordia chapter, we receive $12 towards our chapter funding and $2 goes towards scholarship funding for the chapter,” Sabelli said. The remaining $76 goes to Golden Key’s headquarters to fund the more than $500,000 in scholarships distributed by the organization every year, Sabelli added. Some of that remaining money also goes towards conferences like the Golden Key Canadian Regional Summit (CANCON) which the Concordia chapter will host in Montreal in February 2018.

Of the 1,000 letters sent out to prospective members by the Dean of Students office, Sabelli estimates that 500 Concordia students join Golden Key each year.

Concordia’s chapter was formed in 2001 and averages about 1,000 members at the university in any given year, according to their website. There are over 400 chapters at universities across eight countries.

What does Concordia’s Golden Key chapter do?

According to Sabelli, Concordia’s Golden Key chapter has Chapter Gold Standard. To obtain this level, Sabelli said the chapter must have at least seven officers on the executive team, host a member recognition event and partake in philanthropic events and initiatives.

Brent Pearce, a JMSB professor and the faculty advisor to Concordia’s Golden Key chapter, mentioned the importance of the chapter’s charitable projects. Pearce got the chapter involved with his charity, Christmas 4 A Cause, an organization that provides Christmas gifts and other donations to underprivileged families and children in Montreal. “We put smiles on kids faces,” he said. “We provide Christmas for families in need.”

How does Golden Key obtain student information?

Technically, they don’t, not until students provide it. In an email to The Concordian, university spokesperson Mary-Jo Barr said, “the Dean of Students office identifies students who qualify for admittance to the Golden Key International Honour Society.” This means chosen students are responsible for contacting the organization and providing their personal information if they are interested in joining. “At no time does the university share personal student information with the Golden Key organization,” Barr wrote.

In April 2007, Golden Key was mentioned in a privacy complaint report filed against Ryerson University. A student at the Toronto university contacted the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC)—whose mandate is to promote open government and protect Ontarians’ privacy rights––concerning Golden Key’s access to students’ personal information.

Based on Ontario’s privacy legislation and the Ryerson University Act—which allows the university to collect student information for objectives such as advancements in learning––the investigator determined Ryerson did not reveal “students’ information prior to students’ acceptance of [Golden Key] invitations.”

What comes with joining Golden Key?

According to Pearce, joining Golden Key is a good opportunity for students to give back to the community, build a network of contacts and apply for scholarships and bursaries provided by Concordia’s Golden Key chapter and Golden Key’s International Honour Society.

According to Sabelli, the Concordia chapter gives out two to three scholarships totaling $1,500 to Golden Key members each year. The International Golden Key also awards a $1,500 to $5,000 scholarship to a Concordia chapter member annually, Sabelli added. In 2016, two Concordia students obtained bursaries from the Concordia chapter and one student received a bursary from the international organization, Sabelli said.

To Pearce, joining Golden Key gives members “a ready-made network of well over a million people in the world. […] The International Golden Key is everywhere.”

Photo by Alex Cole

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News

Concordia students react to McGill union vote

Israel on Campus and Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights executives comment on the decision not to ratify McGill student Noah Lew. Photo by Kirubel Mehari

Student group executives comment on decision not to ratify McGill university student Noah Lew

McGill University launched an investigation on Oct. 27 after one of its students, Noah Lew, claimed he was targeted for being Jewish. In a message posted on his Facebook page on Oct. 24, Lew wrote that he was “blocked from participating in student government because of [his] Jewish identity and [his]affiliations with Jewish organizations.”

Lew, a member of the board of directors of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU)—the university’s student union—explained in his Facebook post that “over 100 students” opposed his assent as a director at the SSMU general assembly on Oct. 23.

The McGill student said the reason for the opposition was his support for the ratification of a decision by the SSMU judicial board that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel violated the SSMU constitution.

“I think it’s very sad that a person is discriminated [against] because of his cultural or religious identity,” Amina Chemssy, the Israel on Campus (IOC) Concordia president, told The Concordian.

The BDS movement calls for banks, local councils and other institutions “to withdraw investments from all Israeli companies,” according to the movement’s official website. The movement also calls on governments to “fulfill their legal obligation to hold Israel to account by ending military trade [and] free-trade agreements” and for people and organizations to “withdraw support for Israel and Israeli and international companies that are involved in the violation of Palestinian human rights.”

In December 2014, Concordia Student Union (CSU) members voted in favour of endorsing the BDS movement against Israel. While the CSU’s membership totals approximately 35,000 undergraduate students, only 2,343 students cast a vote.

Following the vote, Concordia president Alan Shepard wrote that the “result of the vote [was independent] of the university.”

Chemssy—a friend of Lew—and her colleague, IOC Concordia vice-president of finance Jonathan Mamane, have been following the situation at McGill closely.

Mamane, who was part of the “Vote no to BDS” campaign at Concordia in 2014, said he was not surprised Lew was not ratified.

At IOC Concordia meetings following the SSMU general assembly’s decision not to ratify Lew, Chemssy said people were shocked. “We thought Concordia was the most turbulent [of the two] campuses,” admitted Chemssy, who ran for an elected position in the March 2017 CSU elections.

“We thought, ‘Oh my God, this is happening next door. How are we supposed to react now?’” she said. According to Chemssy, she and IOC McGill president Grace Miller-Day are currently planning a “fun and non-political” event to bring people from both universities together.

According to Mamane, “there isn’t much of a working relationship” at the moment between IOC Concordia and Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) Concordia—which supported the 2014 BDS vote. “However, some of us interact and engage other members in civil dialogue,” Mamane said.

The Concordian reached out to SPHR president Mustafa Bokesmati who wrote in a text message that his organization “would like to avoid discussing [the situation at McGill] publicly.”

“We have tried to do things with some organizations in the past and I’ll be honest with you, it doesn’t usually work out,” Mamane said.

“There are values on both sides and, if both groups can’t agree to some things, then it doesn’t end up working out so well and sometimes it’s better to just not do things together,” Mamane told The Concordian.

Photo by Kirubel Mehari

A clarification has been added to this article regarding how many CSU members voted in favour of endorsing the BDS movement. The Concordian regrets the misunderstanding.

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Opinions

The Canadian fascination with American politics

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin.

As news consumers, our obsession with entertainment precedes the need to know

President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was indicted on Oct. 30 for 12 charges, including tax fraud, money laundering and conspiracy against the United States, according to Global News. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Even in Canada, it is difficult to find anyone who isn’t talking about this or who isn’t up to date on the drama surrounding the Trump administration. But how many people are talking about the current scandal involving Canadian finance minister Bill Morneau?

The member of Parliament (MP) from Toronto was just fined under the Conflict of Interest Act
for failing to disclose economic ties to his businesses, according to the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner’s website. While it has dominated national news for the last two weeks, all anyone seems to talk about is the dumpster fire of a government currently in place south of the border.

That shouldn’t come as any surprise. According to Abacus Data, a Canadian polling and market research firm, 26 per cent of Canadians get their news directly from social media, while another 14 per cent get theirs online. Given the president’s near constant presence on social media—seemingly more than any other head of state in office—those stories receive more coverage and have more traction online than local stories.

In fact, local media has been hurting in general. According to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), half of all local Canadian TV news stations could close by 2020. This shows a trend toward using national and international news as our source of information, especially regarding politics.

In my opinion, that is because of one simple reason: Canadian politics is boring. In theory, that’s exactly what citizens should want—a boring, stable, scandal-free government. The only problem is that regular, boring local politics now has to compete with daily Washington drama.

I believe the main reason for Canada’s relatively mundane politics is the way we elect our officials. Now this is in no way a piece about election reform, but our first-past-the-post system favours moderate candidates who appeal to the “centre” of their constituencies. That’s also why Canada has so few significantly right- or left-wing MPs. It also makes for (occasionally) bipartisan legislation and, often, a relatively boring, controversy-free House of Commons.
In the United States, however, many states often elect their representatives based solely on party rather than on a candidate’s merit or ideas. In fact, 24 states and the District of Columbia have voted for the same party since 1992, according to the fact-checking website Politifact. This means candidates can be as far-right or as far-left as they want and will likely still get elected by their loyal constituencies.

Since the distance on the political spectrum between Republicans and Democrats is much wider than the Conservative-Liberal divide, arguments and differences in opinion are much more explosive and scandal-prone.
Not to mention President Trump and his staff now give international viewers a daily dose of mishaps, blunders and general incompetence that people just cannot look away from.

We can’t blame the Canadian government for not capturing the public’s attention—our politicians are just doing their job. It does, however, say a lot about our country when our “scandalous” political news stories are about Justin Trudeau pulling someone by the arm or MP Michelle Rempel saying the word “fart” in the House of Commons.

With this contrast in mind, why wouldn’t Canadians prefer to read about the craziness happening in Washington and the Trump administration’s absurdities rather than hear about their own boring local government? It’s like C-SPAN trying to compete with MTV—at the end of the day, people just cannot get enough drama and scandal.

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin

 

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News

Collabra-dabra-tory encourages musical spirit

Sara Shields-Rivard is a Concordia music student, a singer and a Collabra-dabra-tory executive. Photo by Alex Hutchins

Concordia’s musical improvisation club connects, unites and empowers students

“I get out of every session with so much energy and a clear mind. It feels very similar to meditation in that way,” said Concordia music student Sara Shields-Rivard. She achieves this mental clarity through a type of musical therapy—one she strives to share with the Concordia community.

Shields-Rivard is an executive of Collabra-dabra-tory, a club at Concordia that practices musical improvisation. Students from a variety of backgrounds are welcomed to sessions every two weeks to contribute to a musical creation using their voices, instruments provided or instruments of their own.

The sessions are often led by Dr. Irene Feher, a professor who teaches voice at Concordia. Feher helps guide the direction of the improvisation by controlling the flow and allowing people to solo, play all together or pass melodies between participants. Feher and Shields-Rivard came up with the idea for a musical improvisation club together during one of their voice lessons.

“I mentioned something about how the Concordia music department didn’t have enough extra-curricular stuff going on for students. I felt that most people went to class and went home,” Shields-Rivard said. “I also felt that I was becoming too focused on the academics of music rather than the fun parts of it.”

Feher spoke to Shields-Rivard about Music For People, an organization she is a member of, created by Grammy award-winning cellist David Darling, that experiments with musical improvisation. They decided it would be the perfect idea to base a student club off of.

Another one of Feher’s voice students, Olivia Charlebois-Brandvold, is now Shields-Rivard’s co-executive at Collabra-dabra-tory.

“I was feeling a bit down because it was my first year in the music program and I felt like everyone already kind of knew each other, and I hadn’t really made any friends or connections yet,” Charlebois-Brandvold said. She was looking for a way to get more involved at school when she found herself in line at the People’s Potato behind Shields-Rivard, Feher and former club executive Meghan Riley.

Collabra-dabra-tory executive Olivia Charlebois-Brandvold studies classical voice at Concordia. Photo by Alex Hutchins

“Meghan just turned around and said, ‘Hey, we’re in a lot of the same classes together, would you want to run this new club with us?’ And I was like, ‘Hell yeah!’ It was definitely one of those right place, right time moments,” Charlebois-Brandvold said.

A year and a half has passed since Collabra-dabra-tory came to be and it has since developed into much more than the co-executives ever imagined. Shields-Rivard said they started off with an average of 15 people attending each session, but since the beginning of the fall semester this year, they have doubled that number at almost every meeting.

At their bi-weekly sessions, they experiment with new ideas and methods of improvisation. Feher and the executives try to facilitate activities that are accessible to both beginner and advanced musicians and singers.

“Last [session], for example, each group picked a nursery rhyme that they were very familiar with. Each group started off by singing or playing the lullaby as they knew it, but, by the time their time was up, the song had morphed into a whole new song that sounded very different from the original,” Charlebois-Brandvold said. “It was really cool.”

Shields-Rivard said they often practice with the “ABA” structure; starting off with an idea, bringing it to a completely new place and taking back to the original idea again.

“This kind of activity is free and basic enough that it makes it accessible to all levels of musicianship,” Shields-Rivard said. “You can make your improvisation simple or very complex.”

According to the executives, Collabra-dabra-tory is the perfect place for people who are hesitant to try improvisation-based activities. Charlebois-Brandvold said she has a love-hate relationship with it herself.

“Even though it is a musical improv club, every fibre of my being recoils against improvisation. It’s really hard for me to be vulnerable in that way and not care what people think,” she said. “Because of that, the sessions have become very therapeutic for me. I really feel that, with every meeting, I am taking down another brick from this wall that we put up for ourselves.”

Collabra-dabra-tory provides a space to make mistakes—in fact, nothing is considered a mistake during their musical improvisation sessions.

“One of our club mantras is, ‘there are no wrong notes!’ That way there’s no pressure to ‘sound good.’ The focus [is instead] on feeling and intuition. We are often surprised at the beauty and freedom of atonality,” Shields-Rivard said.

For students who love music (whether they play an instrument or not) and are looking to get out of their comfort zone in a safe space that is free of judgement, the executives of Collabra-dabra-tory wait with open arms.

“Musical improv is so therapeutic,” Shields-Rivard said. “The musicians that come are really amazing—not just at their craft but as people. You really get to see everyone’s true colours in that room because of how safe we feel together, but also because of how vulnerable the music makes us. We feel connected, united, empowered.”

Collabra-dabra-tory sessions are held every two weeks on Monday nights from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Their next meeting will be on Nov. 20. For more information, visit their Facebook page or e-mail them at collabra.dabra.tory@gmail.com.

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News

Concordia First Nations advocacy group goes digital

Graphic by Alexa Hawksworth

Indigenous Directions Leadership Group to help students develop business initiatives

As one of the newest members of Concordia’s Indigenous Directions Leadership Group (IDLG), Ronald Abraira hopes to bring his knowledge of business management and entrepreneurship to help the group develop initiatives that benefit Indigenous students at the John Molson School of Business (JMSB).

“I’d like to help the group reach out to First Nations institutions and create a bridging program for [Indigenous] CEGEP students and adult education learners,” said Abraira, a JMSB lecturer. “We’re hoping to create a program that’s like Dragon’s Den […] We’re calling it INSTEP: Indigenous Student Experience.”

This program will give Indigenous students the chance to create and pitch original business ideas in a style similar to the successful CBC television series. Abraira said INSTEP will give students enrolled in CEGEP or adult education programs the opportunity to gain experience in entrepreneurship and help ease their transition into university. He added that the IDLG hopes to launch the program at some point in the next year, but there is currently no set date.

Abraira is one of four new members to join the IDLG this year. The other new members include Vicky Boldo, an interim elder at Concordia’s Aboriginal Student Resource Centre (ASRC), ASRC coordinator Orenda Boucher-Curotte and Karl Hele, an associate professor of First Peoples studies at Concordia. Reporting to the provost and vice-president, all IDLG members contribute to the group’s goal of helping Concordia respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Principles for Reconciliation and Calls to Action. A total of 94 calls to action were released by the TRC in 2015, following a seven-year federally funded investigation of the Canadian residential school system. The calls to action include ensuring Indigenous people have equitable access to jobs, training and education. Another call to action recommended requiring certain academic programs, including history, media studies and journalism, to feature curriculums focused on Indigenous history and issues.

The IDLG aims to improve the university’s responsiveness to the TRC principles by preparing a list of current Concordia First Nations initiatives, designing recommendations to increase Indigenous participation in the academic community, and offering input on Concordia’s approach to Indigenous recruitment and admissions strategies.

In addition to welcoming new members, the IDLG launched an online hub that aims to provide First Nations Concordia students with access to resources and information.

The hub, which was launched in October, features a diverse range of information relevant to First Nations students and faculty, including upcoming IDLG events as well as a list of courses and faculty members in the First People Studies program. There is also a page highlighting Indigenous research and community projects at Concordia.

Some of the featured projects include Acting Out!, a program that offers theatre workshops to Indigenous youth; Nipivut, a bi-weekly Inuktitut radio show; and Journey Women, an art project exploring the theme of healing from the perspective of First Nations women.

According to Abraira, there is no formal application or election process to join the IDLG. The group welcomes Indigenous community members from a wide range of backgrounds.

“This is a group that’s here for all Indigenous students, Indigenous faculty and those interested in outreach to the Indigenous community,” Abraira said.

Graphic by Alexa Hawksworth

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News

Ammonia at Parmalat factory not a concern to Concordia university

The risk of an ammonia leak at Parmalat factory is not a threat to Concordia students, according to the university. Photo by Kirubel Mehari

After deadly leak in British Columbia arena, Loyola assures no risk at Ed Meagher arena

Three arena workers in Fernie, B.C., died after being exposed to ammonia following a leak in October. Ammonia is “very toxic” and “fatal if inhaled,” according to the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety.

As for Concordia’s Ed Meagher Arena, the last ammonia leak dates back to 2005. It was during the month of October, in one of Paul Donovan’s first years as president of Loyola High School.

The leak happened one morning while Donovan and his administrative team—the two vice-principals of academics and the vice-principal of discipline—were across the street at Second Cup, according to a 2014 article in Loyola Today.

Since Loyola High School is located beside the arena, the building was evacuated and students were moved to the nearby St-Ignatius of Loyola Church, with the help of Donovan and his colleagues.

Heather Dubee, the Loyola High School director of communications, confirmed there hasn’t been an ammonia leak at the arena since 2005. According to the school’s building manager, the chemical is no longer used, although there’s still ammonia down the street.

The Parmalat factory at the intersection of Elmhurst Avenue and St-Jacques Street still uses ammonia to cool their products, according to Anita Jarjour, Parmalat Canada’s director of government and industry relations.

“The safest and most efficient way of cooling dairy products and maintaining temperature is the use [of] an ammonia cooling system,” Jarjour wrote in an email to The Concordian.

Two years ago, an ammonia leak happened at a Parmalat factory in Winchester, Ont., according to CBC News. An investigation by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change was launched at the time. The company told the ministry the leak was an “isolated event” and only a litre of ammonia leaked. Nonetheless, a resident who lived close to the factory told CBC News she “couldn’t breathe [the air].”

According to Jarjour, “it is of utmost importance for [Parmalat] to ensure the safety of the community in which our facility is located as well as the safety of our 360 employees working on site.”

In addition, she explained that Parmalat complies “with all applicable safety regulations and safety measures.”

As a precaution, Dubee said the high school ran an ammonia leak drill last year. “Loyola’s procedure is to ensure that all students, faculty and staff remain indoors and the ventilation system is turned off,” she explained.

According to Concordia University spokesperson Mary-Jo Barr, “a very specific weather pattern would need to occur for there to be a threat to the Loyola campus” if an ammonia leak occurred.  “Concordia’s Loyola campus may be affected, but the risk is very low,” she said.

In the event of a leak, Concordia “would work closely with city officials to ensure all of the appropriate measures were implemented,” Barr said. These measures could involve “keeping faculty, staff and students indoors until the situation is resolved.”

Jarjour confirmed that Parmalat would also work with Montreal city officials in the event of a leak.

“We also collaborate with the city of Montreal’s public safety department to test our external siren if there were to be such an incident,” she said, adding that the next siren test will be on Tuesday, Nov. 14 at 2:10 p.m.

Photo by Kirubel Mehari

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