VOLUME 38 ISSUE 2 OCTOBER 2017 thelinknewspaper.ca Concordia’s Independent Publication since 1980
THE FUTURE ISSUE Into Uncharted Waters p. 27
THE LINK 3
Table of Contents Volume 38, Issue 2: Future
p. 5 EDITORIAL The future is coming, in case you didn’t know.
p. 6 NO SANCTUARY Montreal promised to become a sanctuary city. It still hasn’t.
p. 12 PATHS OF A STREET ARTIST Naïmo Dupéré paints walls, canvasses, and also beer bottles.
p. 16 CONNECTING THROUGH DIFFERENCE Sundus Abdul Hadi makes radio, art, and empowerment.
p. 19 THE MONTREAL SKATEBOARD CHAMPS These guys never miss a kickflip.
p. 22 SEX ED(ITORIAL): INTERNATIONAL SEXUALITY Learning to love after leaving a hetero homeland.
p. 23 NAHMSAYIN’: AT LEAST ONE PERSON LISTENS TO MEDIEVAL MUSIC And he also wrote about it.
p. 24 COMICS
THE FUTURE SPECIAL ISSUE
p. 29 THE FUTURE OF CONCORDIA
p. 32 THE FUTURE OF LABOUR ORGANIZING
p. 35 THE FUTURE OF WORK
p. 36 THE FUTURE OF SPORTS COACHING
p. 38 THE FUTURE OF URBAN FARMING
p. 42 THE FUTURE OF VIRTUAL REALITY
p. 44 THE FUTURE OF THE ARCTIC
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EDITORIAL The Future Is Scary, So Let’s Get Ready Conversations about the future are often dominated by talk of technological advancements and research: driverless cars, augmented reality, automation of jobs, medical innovation.
But that isn’t the full story about where are adapting, along with technological change in urban centres are encourag- the future is heading. For those of us developments, to the rapidly-changing ing more downtown residents to take who’ve spent their entire adult lives in world in which we live. food production into their own hands, the ongoing post-2008 recession world, In this issue, the Future Issue, we choosing to harvest their own honey, for our minds regularly drift into moods of look at some of the sites where conflict example, or house their own chickens. skepticism and anxiety. Technological is playing out between factions attempt- Increased availability of advanced tech, innovation matters less if the purchasing ing to stake their claims into what the like virtual reality, allow artists to channel power of the majority of the population future will look like. their creativity and reach their audiences continues to shrink. As Concordia strives to produce more in new ways. Hockey coaches are turn- This doesn’t mean we can’t be excited research, the future of our institution— ing to video and technological aid to teach or optimistic. On the contrary, we are of our education—is up in the air. As proper technique on the ice—although the strong at finding the silver lining in a result, the question of how students fact that women’s teams are last to take this glaringly atrocious and contradic- fit into the equation remains unsolved. advantage of the tech says that just because tory world. There should be no doubt There are some ideas as to how that innovations are here, doesn’t mean we’re in our minds that we can handle the can work: incorporate community- at a point of incorporating them equally gargantuan tasks of solving the cli- based research into the classroom, and and sustainably into our daily lives. mate crisis, the exploitation of labour to engage students in experiential learning To fully understand these phenomena, enrich a minority of insane billionaires, that has a real impact. But beyond select we need a complete and accurate picture and the inappropriate distribution and projects, seeing a change like that on a of our current situation. Looking at Lan- ownership of resources, causing the large scale is still ways away. caster Sound in Canada’s North allows us displacement and suffering of millions Similarly, the nature of employment to envision what can become of the Arctic. of people across the globe. is changing. Permanent positions are And grasping what that future means for It sounds weird, doesn’t it? How do becoming increasingly harder to come us, in Montreal, will mean coming to you even begin to conceive of a solution by, and a university degree can no longer terms with how our actions affect both to navigate the multi-verse labyrinth guarantee a job. So in a world where “gig” the climate and the culture of the North. that is our generation’s challenge? If you work is the norm, despite being generally That’s what we’re hoping that this have an answer, then let us know. exploitative and unsustainable, labour issue, the Future Issue, will allow us all One thing is certain, we need to start organizing needs to change to accom- to do. Let’s embrace what’s to come and by working closer to home. The experi- modate those living such a reality—and prepare ourselves by learning, discuss- ence we gain by solving these problems some people are working towards that. ing, and getting involved. will give us the confidence for greater Even the way we eat, the way we enter- The future might seem daunting, but, challenges ahead. For this magazine, tain ourselves, and the way we train for as we go over in this magazine, it remains we took a look in our own backyard, athletic disciplines are changing. An unwritten. Many worlds are possible, and Concordia University and Montreal, to increased desire for food security and the we hope that the words on these pages see how members of our communities understanding of the effects of climate help you to begin building your own.
OCTOBER 2017 6 THE LINK Montreal’s Promise of a Sanctuary City Falls Short Health Care, Education and Work are Still Out of Reach for Non-Status Montrealers
BY MIRIAM LAFONTAINE @MIRILAFONTAINE
THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA CURRENT AFFAIRS 7 Montreal declared itself a sanctuary city in February. As the declaration made headlines around the island, newcomers and other undocumented people were given the hope that they would now be able to live with less fear of deportation.
The city pledged to ensure that mech- DEFINING A SANCTUARY CITY anisms would be put in place to allow The term “sanctuary city” is often a “This policy will undocumented people the freedom to bit of a misnomer, and the definition use the services provided by the city of what it really is depends on who only apply for the without the risk of being reported to you ask. So far, the term carries no immigration services. Other prom- legal definition in Canada. good immigrant, ises were made saying undocumented Despite it’s fluid definition, most people would soon have more access grassroots organizations focused on as though it was so to housing, would be free to call the protecting undocumented people from police when in need of help, and deportation, and researchers interested easy to distinguish that those serving non-status people in the question argue that for a city to would be properly trained on how to be considered “a sanctuary,” the mini- between the two.” work with them. mum requirement is that it makes a Months after the fact, the promises commitment to not collaborate with David Moffette laid out in that declaration have yet to immigration enforcement. unfold. The city says that it’s in the pro- “Immigration still does its work people who don’t have immigration cess of creating an “action plan” with the there, but without the collaboration of warrants could still get reported to the Bureau d’intégration des nouveaux arriv- the police,” explained David Moffette, CBSA by the SPVM. Touchette explained ants à Montréal, le service de la diversité an assistant professor and researcher that undocumented people who have sociale et le service des Finances. from the department of criminology at criminal charges, or who are facing From March to June, 16 different con- the University of Ottawa. security-related charges, will be liable sultations were conducted by the Bureau At the very least, he says it should also to being reported to the CBSA—even if d’intégration des nouveaux arrivants include a “don’t ask, don’t tell” type of the CBSA hasn’t issued a warrant for à Montréal, and other groups. Inter- policy, where “all city services, and all their deportation. nally, consultations were held with the agencies funded by the city refrain from The problem with this, Moffette municipal bodies that provide services asking any information about immigra- says, is that it has the power to create a to non-status people, and with com- tion status. And if they find out, refrain dichotomy between the “good” immi- munity groups in Montreal that focus from passing on this information to any- grant versus the “bad” immigrant. on providing health care, education, body, but especially to the [Canadian “This policy will only apply for the good and other support to non-status people. Border Services Agency].” immigrant,” he says, “as though it was so Other consultations were held with In Montreal, that would mean police easy to distinguish between the two.” ministers on the provincial and fed- ending or limiting their collaboration eral level. Spokesperson for the city, with the CBSA. Doing so would decrease CONTINUED DEPORTATIONS Linda Boutin, said that the discussions the number of undocumented people Although we know that people are still mainly focused on health care, social being deported from Montreal, but it’s being deported as a result of interacting services, housing, and legal rights. unclear to what extent the Montreal with the Montreal police, it’s hard to But for the most part, what’s been police would look to limit that work. determine the exact amount of people done so far remains a secret as the When asked whether the city would currently being deported from the city. city will only reveal the finer details look to end collaboration between the Anecdotally, groups like Solidarity in a public announcement set for an Service de Police de la Ville de Mon- Across Borders, a migrant justice group unknown date. tréal and the CBSA, Boutin declined that focuses on directly giving support to comment. to undocumented people and protect- Attendees held signs which Daniel Touchette, assistant director ing them from deportation, say that read, “Refugees Welcome” at with the SPVM, explained that since they are frequently told stories about the pro-refugee rally held at Canadian police officers are obliged undocumented people being deported the Olympic Stadium on Aug. 6, under federal law to enforce immigra- as a result of minor infractions with the 2017. Roughly 500 people were tion warrants, there are barriers in the police. sheltered at the Big O. extent to which Montreal police can “Not only are there quite common and cease communication with the CBSA. active interactions between the police PHOTOS BRIAN LAPUZ @BRIANLAPUZ Beyond that, some undocumented and the CBSA, but in many ways the
OCTOBER 2017 8 THE LINK police are proactively turning people in within the Montreal police’s jurisdiction legal status in Canada, and therefore based on those interactions,” says Jaggi to ask people about their status. may be of interest to CBSA. Singh, a veteran activist and member of “We’re not going to randomly stop Throughout 2016, Montreal police Solidarity Across Borders. someone on the street, and start inquir- made 2,872 calls to the same centre, and “We hear stories all the time about ing about their status. We can’t do that,” similar to the year before, 83 per cent of people who face deportations,” says notes Touchette. the time, it was to inquire about a per- Stacey Gomez, another member from Data from the past two years shows son’s status. In a follow-up interview the group. otherwise. with The Link, Montreal police reiter- They say that they have heard dozens In an Access to Information Request ated that calls made to the CBSA are only of stories about people being reported to filed by Moffette that was provided supposed to be made if there’s a criminal the CBSA, and then later being deported to The Link, records from the last two investigation in process against a person. as a result of traffic violations, hopping years show that Montreal police fre- Touchette said that while this is the metro turnstiles, and, in one instance, quently collaborated with the CBSA only time Montreal police are supposed for being caught riding a bicycle with- to inquire whether or not someone is to call to check status, the data obtained out a reflector. It’s hard to determine liable for deportation. This collabora- from the CBSA is not detailed enough to whether these events occurred as a tion was often done through phone confirm whether or not this the case. result of those people having warrants calls to the CBSA’s warrant response “They call not to verify an immigra- for their deportation, or as a result of call centre, where Canadian police can tion warrant, which, by law, the police police inquiring about their status. verify whether or not a person has an technically have to enforce,” says Mof- In accordance with the declaration immigration warrant for their arrest by fette, “but in a lot of cases it appears made by the city, Touchette says that the CBSA, or whether they have status. there’s no warrant, and they go out of officers have started referring undocu- In 2015, Montreal police made 2,632 their way to say ‘hey we have someone mented people to immigration lawyers phone calls to that centre. Eighty per over here without status.’” at the Centre d’aide aux victimes d’actes cent of the time, it was to check a So despite it not being within their criminels who can try to help them get person’s status because they had a sus- duties, in the past two years we know legal status. He also says that it’s not picion that the person might not have that Montreal police still made an effort to ask people about their status when they suspected a person may not be here legally. Right now, it’s hard to judge the extent to which this same practice is done by Montreal police in 2017. But if the cul- ture for so long has been to collaborate with the CBSA, is it realistic to think that this would change anytime soon? Some would say no, while others would argue it’s a matter of political will.
REAL SANCTUARY CITIES Because of the continued deportations, Gomez from Solidarity Across Borders argues that Montreal is nowhere close to genuinely being a sanctuary city. Other anti-deportation groups like the Non- Status Women’s Collective of Montreal and the Comité d’action des personnes sans statut also agree. “What a sanctuary city should be is people without status feeling safe, and feeling safe from the risk of being deported. So far, that’s not the reality,” she says. While Solidarity Across Borders says it’s a good step forward to be more open GRAPHIC UNNA REGINO @ANXNU to incoming migrants, they say the decla-
THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA CURRENT AFFAIRS 9
“Not only are there quite common and active interactions between the police and the CBSA, but in many ways the police are proactively turning people in based on those interactions.” Jaggi Singh
ration itself is dangerous because it gives lacking access to many essential services. An activist from the pro-migrant people false hope, and false information. group Solidarity Across Borders They want the SPVM to stop working HERE’S A BREAKDOWN: donning the symbolic white with the CBSA, but that’s not the only Access to Health Care mask, protecting would-be thing they’re asking for. Gomez hopes to First, medical insurance under the Régie undocumented protesters from see an implementation of an official “don’t de l’assurance maladie du Québec isn’t reprisals, on Aug. 6, 2017. ask, don’t tell” policy within the police available to people without status, and force, similar to one found in Toronto. She those in need of care at a hospital will pay also wants to see the end of “double-pun- the same price as a visiting tourist. Hos- ishments,” where undocumented people pital fees double for those not covered by get punished for having criminal charges the RAMQ, and so many without status “People tend to avoid going to hospi- by being reported to the CBSA. can’t afford to pay. Because the RAMQ is tals if it’s not really bad, because they’ve Beyond that, with the philosophy that under provincial jurisdiction, there’s not heard that people have gotten deported no one should be illegal and that there much the city can do on the municipal as a result of going to the hospital. So ought to be no borders nor nations, Soli- level to change it. they’re afraid,” Benoit says. darity Across Borders’ larger aspiration As a result, many non-status people is to see status granted to all migrants have an aversion to going to hospitals, Access to Legal Work who come to live in Canada. explained Magalie Benoit, a migrant Undocumented people don’t have To them, the ideal sanctuary city would health researcher from Université de access to social insurance numbers, and not just give the bare minimum to undoc- Montréal’s institute of public health. as result, cannot work legally. Since umented people, but would also create the Some also avoid hospitals out of fear the federal government rules over this conditions necessary for them to thrive. that it’ll draw attention to their immi- matter, there’s little the city itself can It would allow undocumented people the gration status. While she says it’s rare, do about this, beyond putting pressure ability to access legal work, affordable employees in hospitals occassionally, on the federal government. health care, and to pursue education at although inadvertently, alert immigra- Not having access to legal work all levels. But even if all the promises laid tion of non-status people when they inevitably puts non-status people at a out in the declaration were met, undocu- call immigration services to check if a disadvantage. Often their pay will not mented people in the city would still be patient is applicable for coverage. meet the minimum wage, and they will
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CARTE ÉTUDIANT STUDENT CARD 15%15% DE RABAIS / OFF POUR VOUS FOR YOU Valide jusqu’au 24 octobre, 2017 Valid until October 24, 2017 CURRENT AFFAIRS 11 not be able to make use of labour laws they call a “solidarity city.” that can be used by regular citizens In a solidarity city, a strong sense of when faced with injustices from their community would be shared between employers. neighbours. Neighbours would support each other, especially those in precari- Access to Education ous situations, and would help each When it comes to elementary school and other in their efforts to get access to high school, families without status are essential services, regardless of status often forced to pay high fees if they want or social class. Barriers imposed on to send their children to school, since lower class people because of gentri- children without refugee status, Cana- fication would be looked at as goals to dian citizenship, or permanent addresses overcome, rather than ignore. are exempt from getting free education. “A solidarity city, from my perspec- Those who fall within those categories tive, is trying to change the culture that pay fees in the thousands, with the going we live in,” says Gomez. “It emcom- rate for a year of kindergarten education passes the principal of mutual aid, and for one child being $5,755. For a year of also its different groups in the com- high school, it’s $7,172. munity that are signing the declaration This is in contrast to Ontario where, saying that regardless of what happens regardless of status, anyone aged six to at the municipal level, they’re going to 18 is able to receive free primary and offer their services without asking for secondary education. people’s immigration status.” While school boards can technically Borrowing ideas from anthropologist make exceptions, Steve Baird from the and critical geography professor David Collectif éducation sans frontières—a Harvey’s idea of the right to the city, res- group that gives to support and advice idents in a solidarity city would also focus to non-status families looking to put on collectively shaping their city accord- their children into school—says this is ing to their own needs, rather than being not often the case. at the whim of municipal politicians. “In our experience, people don’t get “The right to the city is far more than told they can make an exception, they the individual liberty to access urban get told, ‘If you don’t have a status, resources: it is a right to change our- this is how much you need to pay,’” selves by changing the city,” writes he explains. Harvey in his 2008 book titled The Right Minister of education Sébastien to the City. “It is, moreover, a common Proulx hopes to see the law changed rather than an individual right since with the adoption of Bill 144, which this transformation inevitably depends would give better access to primary upon the exercise of a collective power and secondary schooling for children to reshape the processes of urbaniza- without status, among other things tion. The freedom to make and remake At the university level, getting in is our cities and ourselves is, I want to comparatively much easier. That being argue, one of the most precious yet said, fees for international students are most neglected of our human rights.” much higher than those for students Singh says that as Montreal con- from Quebec or other provinces, and tinues to makes strides in becoming the high prices may be a deterrent for a sanctuary city, the more likely it is many non-status people already in a that injustices faced by undocumented precarious situation. people will reach the public eye. Currently, he says, these injustices SOLIDARITY AND THE tend to be masked since non-status RIGHT TO THE CITY people are too afraid that being in the The ideal sanctuary city would create public eye and challenging the status quo the conditions necessary for undocu- will lead to them getting expelled from mented people to thrive, but Solidarity the country. But to them, a solidarity city Across Borders hopes to broaden on is essential if we really want to bring to that ideal to turn Montreal into what light the issues non-status people face.
OCTOBER 2017 12 THE LINK
Smiling from Wall to Wall 203 Crew Member Naïmo Dupéré Talks European Tagging, Beer Labels and Artistic Inspiration
BY JAMES BETZ-GRAY @JAMESBETZGRAY Murals, tattoos, drawing, painting and hip-hop— these are all progressive forms of art that stem from a forbidden fruit: Illegal graffiti.
Naïmo Dupéré, 27, is a working freelance still undermine the legal aspects of graffiti. artist, muralist, painter, and part-time “[Working] legally pushes your technical cook. He grew up in the small rural village style more, because you have time. It’s not of Saint-Casimir, an hour West of Quebec about the spot,” he said. “It’s more about City. Moving to Quebec City at age 17 for how far you can push the style.” CEGEP, Dupéré began dabbling in studios Naturally, hip-hop and graffiti went while completing a DEC in fine arts. hand in hand in Dupéré’s adolescence. After meeting members of the graffiti Intrigued by the variety of forms in a crew 203 at an IAM rap show in Quebec culture initially created by rappers, City, he decided to make the move to DJs, and breakdancers, he too took up Montreal, where the crew settled after breakdancing. It completed the culture graduation. for him. Benefitting from graffiti -net His unconventional style of lettering working, he learned that many writers and colour schemes gained attention were also rappers, DJs, and bboys. Col- in the underground art scene through laboration between artists then flowed exhibitions, contracts, and murals. And through live painting events such as the as the 203 artist collective celebrates their Under Pressure International Graffiti ten-year anniversary, Dupéré intends on Festival held in Montreal every summer. Naïmo Dupéré’s colourful pushing the limits of his work again by Last winter, Dupéré was contracted graffiti can be creating murals without prejudice. to draw labels for Les Grands Bois micro- spotted throughout Naïmo chose to use his artist and first brewery. Also from Saint-Casimir, the Plateau-Mont-Royal. name interchangeably, noting that his beer was founded by two people he went PHOTOS JAMES BETZ-GRAY mother gave him a unique name that to highschool with. They contacted him won’t get lost in a saturated social net- for a first label, then a second, and clearly work feed. pleased with the results, they’ve asked “It’s a name nobody has, it’s my real him to do a third: the new Hully Gully “It’s not about name, and it’s also the name I want my Sour Pale Ale beer that they released this art to be known for,” said Dupéré. summer. Their beers are distributed across the spot. It’s Currently living in the Rosemont-La the province. When asked if he’d tried the Petite-Patrie borough, Dupéré’s walls beer, he responded that it was good, but more about how can be spotted in the back alleyways preferred the Gros Tigre Session IPA—a throughout surrounding areas, and is beer for which he also designed the label. far you can push overwhelmingly present in the Plateau- For Dupéré and the 203, it’s no longer Mont-Royal, a renowned artist sanctuary. about representing the crew as one the style.” Dupéré acknowledged that while legal vandal ideology. contracts advertise his artwork, critics “We don’t need to name it as one Naïmo Dupéré
THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA FRINGE ARTS 13
thing, like bikers or whatever,” said legal murals, and drawing professionally. though, I must admit that [Dupéré] has Dupéré. “We can be different and still “We don’t have a rule code or a way of been, and still is, a great graff coach,” be in a crew.” being an artist. We respect each form of said Lyfer, laughing. The 203 crew was started by Arnold art,” explained Dupéré. “It’s about the Dupéré used to be obsessed with his and Boris—pseudonyms—in Sher- acceptance of variety, you know? The creative process, over-thinking the brooke, Que. At the time, graffiti didn’t crew is a platform to push each other in implications of art history. He came to have a much of a presence in Sherbrooke. their different forms of art.” the realization that the pure fun factor of Later on, the pair began developing The persona of this eclectic crew graffiti enabled his creativity to be fluent. absurd and unstructured forms of street is, explicitly, a rubber band of artistic Lyfer suggests Dupéré’s creative art that stood out from the typical “clas- inspiration. Its community members process is influenced by his lifestyle— sic school of graffiti,” Dupéré explained. bounces off one another. graffiti, comics and chilling. “The The artistic abstract direction that the Lyfer, another graff artist who’s a part particular style he is developing influ- crew was known for changed however, of the 203 crew, said that first and fore- ences the figurative elements of his when they initiated a handful of Mon- most, “it’s a family.” work,” added Lyfer. treal graffiti writers who were active in “It really is about being good friends,” For Dupéré, the process of production the streets. The original minds behind said Lyfer. “I mean, we have members is always about having fun—discover- 203 claim they no longer paint graffiti who don’t even write. Some play music, ing your influences and styles come with illegally, and that they’ve moved on to some tattoo, some simply draw, and growth. He gracefully accepts that there other creative avenues such as tattooing, others just drink beer. Professionally is art in everything, and as a result his
OCTOBER 2017 14 THE LINK
inspiration comes from abstract objects just don’t paint there.” and then settled back in Nantes, France and colours. The environment of his era Pushing his levels of style was all part over a two-month period. is what fuels his artistic initiative more of the experience, making the transition The style complexity of the walls there than a museum ever could, he explains. from vandalism to art galleries. was mind-blowing according to the “I’ve been more influenced by The Dupéré explained the old school men- impressionable artist on spray-cation. Simpsons and Dragon Ball Z than I’ve tality of graffiti that he grew up with was “The level of graffiti there is crazy, been influenced by Picasso in my life,” to dip your feet in all of its forms—which man,” said Dupéré. “I’m really shy laughed Dupéré. are all equally important, he added. when I paint there, for real.” It took him five years to appreciate art And even though he’s not regularly Dupéré has short term goals that are, the way he does graffiti. doing throwups anymore—those bub- admittedly, subject to change a year from According to Dupéré, the institutional ble-letter words that make up the basis now. His current objectives are to sell as brainwashing that he faced in art school of any writer’s repertoire—these days, many contract paintings as possible here constrained him within historical styles, he tries to keep in practice. in Canada, then use that money to fund and consequently, his work from CEGEP “As a graffiti artist, if I don’t have a his travels for painting murals abroad. reminds him of a painting from your good throwup, it’s a shame for me!” He talked about the benefits of the long grandmother’s living room. With a deep Dupéré exclaimed. and isolating Canadian winters, since art- inhale and puff off his rolled Parisian cig- Arriving in Sicily about three years ists can produce a large amount of work arette Dupéré exhaled, “I came back to ago, Dupéré travelled throughout Italy, while they’re “snowed in.” Like every- what I did more intuitively before school.” meeting other graffiti writers to paint thing in life, good balance avoids walking Recounting his first big art trip to with. From Naples in the south to Venice, the thin line of sanity. For Dupéré, that Europe, he brought up an interesting and Treviso in the north, after meeting balance relies on producing art, travelling concept: the unwritten rules of legal a few French writers who were painting and having fun throughout. walls in France, also known as chill spots. trains in Italy, he decided to link up with “They call them ‘walls of fame.’ It’s them. Arriving in France, Dupéré’s walls Les Grands Bois Black IPA not everybody that can hit those spots,” began cropping up in Montpellier. He label designed by street artist he said. “If you’re not fresh enough, you went to Barcelona, Amsterdam, Berlin, Naïmo Dupéré.
THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA join us every friday for happy october workshops & discussions @the link office, link @the 1455de maisonneuve blvd., h-649 Managing Editor Helen Evans. workshop changing: the Quebec newsroom with CBC friday, 27,4p.m. oct. @bistro deparis, 4536 st-denis st. musicissue showcase two launch party: friday, 8,7p.m. oct. @the link office, link @the 1455 de maisonneuve blvd., h-649 Current AffairsEditor, and Jon Milton, ManagingEditor. workshop: how to cover protests Link with The friday, nov. 3,4p.m. @the link office. link @the 1455de maisonneuve blvd., h-649 commentator for RDS. broadcasting with Jean colour Gounelle,workshop: soccer sports friday, 20,4p.m. oct. @the link office, link @the 1455de maisonneuve blvd., h-649 with Isabel Macdonald workshop: reporting and illustrating for comics journalism friday, 13,4p.m. oct. ’s Miriam Lafontaine,
16 THE LINK
A Woman of Many Media Meet the Iraqi-Canadian Interdisciplinary Artist and Host of The Groundbreakers
BY AYSHA WHITE Artist, radio host, mother, activist, student, and host of the radio show The Groundbreakers—Sundus Abdul Hadi is all of that and more.
Adbul Hadi is soft-spoken and gentle, but reflected in the common conception “When [Tamara] first showed me also firmly opinionated. She loves being of an artist. She defended her thesis in the series I was like, ‘If you cut out the an artist, and says the best part of it is not mid-September, 15 years after she began background these boys look like they’re having to compromise herself. She radi- studying at Concordia, accumulating a flying!’” Abdul Hadi said. “We worked ates a quiet, intelligent confidence. Her bachelor of fine arts in studio arts and on that concept for a few years. I did a work promotes the importance of self- art history, plus a graduate diploma in love, and how caring for yourself is the first communication studies. step towards caring for your community, At the age of 11, Abdul Hadi moved “It features music, which she considers equally important. from Abu Dhabi Dubai, her home until She is an Iraqi-Canadian interdisci- then, to Montréal with her mother, art, and culture from plinary artist who mixes media such as father, and older sister. painting, sound, and drawing with ink. She says she comes from “a visually- people in the other Using photographs taken by others, she oriented family,” where art was always digitally remasters; cutting and pasting, a part of her life. Her mother is an artist, world, people of superimposing and highlighting until the her father an architect, and her sister final product emerges: a multifaceted, Tamara is a photographer who has been colour, people from textured—sometimes tender, occasion- based in Beirut for the past 10 years. The ally furious—commentary on current sisters have previously collaborated on a diverse communities events in the Middle East. project entitled The Flight Series. The 33-year-old Concordia masters In the series, Abdul Hadi removed with diverse student’s work has been displayed in the background of photos her sister had galleries globally. She provides valuable taken of young boys jumping off cliffs and experiences.” representation to girls of Middle Eastern replaced them with aerial perspectives of descent who don’t often see themselves Cairo, Beirut, Baghdad, Bassa, and Syria. Sundus Abdul Hadi
Rumanna, 2011, mixed-media on canvas from the Flight series, in collaboration with photographer Tamara Abdul Hadi, Sundus’s sister. — COURTESY SUNDUS ABDUL HADI THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA FRINGE ARTS 17 lot of different cities where I would take was excused because we were still department, a positive experience Tamara’s flying boys, and cut out the trying to understand what happened. because of the department’s critical background, take them out of the water It was hard. Some teachers [at Dawson approach to how these representations and replace that with aerial perspectives College] were telling me, ‘You should were affecting people. of major Arab cities.” move away from the subject of Iraq, of Abdul Hadi wrote a semi-autobio- Rather than stare at a blank, blin- war,’” she continued. graphical book on self-care about a girl dingly white canvas, which she says She explains, “Either they thought I named Shams who’s made out of glass. incites a sense of anxiety, Abdul Hadi was a sympathizer, or they didn’t know One day the little girl breaks into a mil- prefers to work with existing images how to articulate [their discomfort]. They lion pieces and has to put herself back which activate her imagination. couldn’t even engage with my work. together again. She says it was a reflec- “I went with collage because it was a They just didn’t want to go there.” tion of the trauma she’s experienced way for me to make sense of the images Abdul Hadi ended up taking classes personally and that’s present in the I was seeing on a daily basis, that I was in Concordia’s communications world around her. being bombarded with,” she said. “Working with existing images gives you the power to manipulate, censor, change, and claim them. Whatever it is you feel the images are doing to you, you can change that relationship. You’re not just a spectator, you’re an active partici- pant in how information gets shown.” Abdul Hadi also becomes an active contributor to the arts scene with her weekly radio show, The Groundbreak- ers, which is broadcasted on CKUT on Wednesdays from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. “It features music, art, and culture from people in the other world, people of colour, people from diverse commu- nities, with diverse experiences,” she explains. “I do a lot of feature interviews with really inspiring artists. I love doing it. If I’m not talking to an artist or musi- cian, I’m playing really dope music.”
INSPIRING POSITIVE CHANGE IN A POST-9/11 WORLD Abdul Hadi thinks positive change needs to be affected in the world—a desire that became more pronounced after the birth of her son Shams and daughter Yusra. Speaking of her desire to make the world a better place for future gen- erations, Abdul Hadi reflected on her own experiences as a young Middle Eastern woman living in a post 9/11 world in Montreal. “I was 17 when 9/11 happened,”Abdul Hadi recalls. “Being a Muslim, Arab-Iraqi student at a time when 9/11 was so fresh in our memories—racist, Islamophobic speech was happening all around us. “It was excused. That kind of speech
Sundus Abdul Hadi promotes self care through multimedia collages. OCTOBER 2017 18 THE LINK
The book eventually became her inspi- Abdul Hadi believes that witnessing acts Abdul Hadi says. “I hate the idea that ration for the subject of her masters of of violence such as police brutality and the we’re voiceless. In fact, we have a super arts degree. lack of rights for Indigenous people have strong voice, we’re super resilient and we Abdul Hadi says, “I decided that the had a negative effect on her psyche. have our own ways of expressing our- best way to continue on this path was “These things affect all of us and it’s a selves, that are unique to us.” to find artists who were doing the same matter of how you transform that feeling Abdul Hadi views it as a continuation thing, other artists that are engaged in of hopelessness into love. Not just care, of work she’d already been doing in her the same kind of concepts and ideas; but love and love for each other. Caring community, allowing her the amazing that we need to take care of ourselves for the community and caring for your- experience of having her academic work and our communities.” self. It all starts with us, if we’re taken intersect with her artwork and existing Abdul Hadi has always approached care of and feel supported and loved then life path. school with the belief that the academic we can do the same for others, and our She wants to highlight transfor- and real world don’t have to be separate. community gets stronger.” mation and intersectionality, both Her philosophy culminated in a She believes the collective other, ever-changing, as well as the idea of week long pop-up exhibition this “meaning people of colour, people in intersectionality as an experience rather July, entitled Take Care of Yourself, general who are difficult to define, [have] than a dry academic term. featuring the work of 28 artists of hyphenated identities,” need to feel more “It takes over this whole idea of colour from all over North America, empowered as a community. Claiming nationalism, that you’re this and I’m including herself. She says the event space for Take Care of Yourself became that and we’re different,” Abdul Hadi became a “temporary safe space an avenue for that. says. “Our differences are what makes where all of our stories of struggle “We don’t really have a space where us beautiful, and the difference is what could be met with empowerment.” we can speak on our own terms yet,” makes us connect.”
Sundus Abdul Hadi sits at her booth during a broadcast of The Ground- breakers, which is broadcasted on CKUT. — PHOTOS EVELYN HANSEN-GILLIS
THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA SPORTS 19
Skateboarder Evan Richardson seen mid-air, doing a a triple flip during the "mystery challenge" at the Dime Glory Challenge at the Taz skatepark on Sept. 9, 2017. — PHOTOS JAMES BETZ-GRAY A Tale of Two Skaters Wade DesArmo and Tiago Lemos Talk Skate Culture, at Home and Abroad BY JAMES BETZ-GRAY @JAMESBETZGRAY Barbecue smoke smothered the air outside of Taz skatepark on Sept. 9 as hundreds of fans huddled in line to see the Dime Glory Challenge.
A school bus jam packed with 50 notori- world-championship game of skate. entire crowd before the infamous Speed ous international skateboarders pulled up. The crowd filled the sides of the course Challenge, during which ahletes must The sound of an oversized garage door and bleachers as pro skateboarders were attempt to land flip tricks while moving rising barreled a wave of excitement led out by the legendary, American- as fast as possible. through the crowd. born, Danny Way. “Speed shades mandatory!” shouted A massive poster for the main event A Dime logo placed on a wall in the MC Conor Neeson. The ramp was then towered above, posing challenger background exploded as Rob “Sluggo” elevated for more speed; Karsten Kleppan Tiago Lemos against two-year reigning Boyce flew in on a board and proceed- and Zered Bassett winning this challenge. champ Wade DesArmo. As the flood- ing to rip his shirt like the Hulk of Red Then there’s the “Gangster Challenge.” gates opened, the atmosphere erupted Dragon Skateboards. Skaters must trick with style over in hype for Brazil versus Canada, in a Speed shades are handed out to the DesArmo’s switch pop shove-it couch,
OCTOBER 2017 20 THE LINK
Skateboarder Tyshawn Jones flying over the gap with precision during the “Valdez Challenge” at the Dime Glory Challenge at the Taz skatepark on Sept. 9, 2017.
imported from Vancouver. Adrian Del in front of all these people. “No one wants to Campo of Spain took the cake in this “No one wants to miss a kickflip,” said challenge. DesArmo. miss a kickflip.” After a short break the crowd sardined They went trick for trick until the back into Taz for the main event—the two-time champ pulled away with a Wade DesArmo world championship game of S.K.A.T.E. In perfect game, taking his third belt and this classic game, two skaters go trick for disappearing into the surrounding mob. trick just like a game of H.O.R.S.E—you “Just to come out of Brazil and be “I didn’t care what anybody else get a letter for every missed trick that the here—we never thought about doing was doing, I compared myself to them opponent set. The hype for this match-up this,” Lemos enthused. and I wanted to be on that level,” is astronomical in the skate world. recalled DesArmo. Two-time reigning champ DesArmo, As DesArmo walked out after a crazy When he decided to make a move in 34, had a promo video of him pulling up day in competition, he talked about the skate scene, he re-located to Vancouver. in a Ferrari, hop-out, 360 flip and then respect he had for Lemos, that whatever “I didn’t want to move to Cali, I wanted take off in a helicopter. the score was, “It was just a blessing to to be Canadian,” he said. Lemos, 26, goes for humble vibes in share the stage with him.” “What they do for skateboarding here his video, with 3-ft. pops and flip tricks The Ottawa-native recalls travelling to is second to none. They really look out at Park Lafontaine. Montreal for the first time at the age of 12. for their community and I wish other Lemos wins the arm wrestle and it’s He and his friends made day trips to the places around the rest of Canada could on: Brazil goes first. city because it was closer than Toronto. do the same.” DesArmo explained that anyone who His pro influences revolved around Tom Spending a substantial amount of thinks this isn’t nerve wracking, should Penny, Eric Koston, Ronnie Creager, Gino time in California, he saw both sides and think about how it feels to try a kickflip Iannucci, and Guy Mariano. developped a different mentality.
THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA SPORTS 21
“I don’t want to say they take it for play hockey with your boys.” Paolo—famous for the Brazilian rodeo. He granted. It’s different coming from He doesn’t skate any other competi- spends the other part of his time in Long a place where you know it’s going to tions, because to him this event isn’t a Beach, California, where he chills with his be 25 degrees every day, and sunny,” competition. Mid-conversation with friend Yuri Fachinni, 21, who is also Brazil- remarked DesArmo. DesArmo, Lemos and Yuri Facchini ian, from a town called Colombo. Here in Canada, we get about six swung by to say what’s up. Lemos was always smiling through- months to skate. The first few months “It’s people that you want to see skate, out the event, and said how excited he are typically spent relearning old tricks, that you don’t get to see skate,” explained was to come back with more time and the next two learning new ones, and the DesArmo, saying that he thinks Lemos to live Montreal, last month is about getting your footage. will go on to win big in the coming year. “That’s what makes this shit fun, In DesArmo’s words, “film what you Lemos, originally from Campinas, nobody gives a fuck!” said Lemos. learn and take it into next year. Then you Brazil, currently lives in Jaguariúna, The Brazilian prodigies knew what they sit back watch the hockey season, and Brazil located about an hour outside of Sao were doing in Montreal that day, “We’ve got to support our family back home. This is the reason we’re doing this.” DesArmos wanted people to know that those who were overconfident in his corner, have “probably never seen [Lemos] skate.” “I don’t know how that’s even possi- ble, the dude’s an animal,” said DesArmo. He talked about Lemos’ trick execu- tion, pop, and technique being the full package. “When the KO video came out in Brazil [Wade was] king!” Lemos said. “I’m telling you man, this generation grew up on you, because you represent Brazil [...] The way you skate, every- thing you do, that’s how Brazilians like it,” said Lemos. DesArmo smiled at the possible skate adventures to come. “That’s humbling man, that means more to me than you’ll ever know in your life,” said DesArmo. As the pros sat back, shooting the shit as if all status blew away, DesArmo blurted out, “Why the fuck haven’t I been to Brazil? I’ve been trying to go out there for 10 years, Jesus Christ!” The circle broke out in laughter for a moment until they realized he was seri- ous, “Let’s make it happen,” assured Facchini. “Make it a homies trip,” added Lemos. DesArmo assured that big things were in the works, a video part with Thrasher dropping within the next few months. “Go down to Cali, skate with my man Lemos, skate with Facchini and skate MCs hype up the “Volcano Challenge” with the boys. Keep it moving, keep flames at the Dime Glory Challenge at the skating, keep having fun,” said DesArmo. Taz skatepark on Sept. 9, 2017. “That’s all it is, it’s not a competition.”
OCTOBER 2017 22 THE LINK Sex Ed(itorial): Sexuality and Oppression The Things We Carry
BY N. SCHEWEIBER Thinking of my past flings with women, I’ve been a complete and utter womanizer, callous, a female fucboi and so forth.
Until recently, I hadn’t given much a literal thought as to why I’ve acted the way I chicken. have. I usually take an ostrich approach Ritual to conflict; the more complicated the poultry problem the deeper I like to dig the hole cleanse? I hide in. That’s for The deepest self-reflection I’ve ever another done merely scratched the surface of article. my damage and resulted in me briefly Any- denying my bisexuality out of shame— ways, he’s because that clearly solved the root of okay with my problem! gay people, It was much easier to say that I was just as long straight than actually figuring out as his daugh- whether I was truly bisexual. It was ter is straight… easier than living in fear of bringing a in Panama at least! So girlfriend or non-binary partner home Clara, that’s why I never called and disrupting my peaceful way of life. you back, okay? I couldn’t bring you It was also easier to say I’m straight home to my parents even if I wanted than having to dismantle and analyze to. I’m sorry for leading you on, but the years of trauma from growing up in silver lining is…you dodged a bullet! Let Panama City, Panama—a Latin femi- me tell you, people in the closet are such nist’s retrogressive nightmare. downers and radiate so much second- I come from a place where a gay hand stress! man will deny dying of AIDs even on I thought about the bigger picture of his deathbed. I come from a place that it all as I was writing this piece. I spoke refuses to implement basic sexual edu- with my Panamanian friend, Cristina, cation and LGBT dialogue in public to talk about our experiences as bisex- schools, out of fear of corrupting the ual women in Panama—it’s a very small youth especially con esas mariconerias, dating pool. Cristina was in denial, then or “that gay shit.” I come from a place she loved and experienced loss. where a pregnant 13-year-old is easier She and I internalized the same Pana- to digest on church Sundays than a gay manian toxicity, and it affected our GRAPHIC OLIVIER ROBIDOUX child. I come from a place where people relationships. She saw the error of her love their gay hairstylists or friends, but ways and has come to a realization that that’s why I was a female fucboi—I was god forbid they actually marry. I’m starting to understand. She told me, uneasy, confused, and I never really I come from a home with a homo- “There’s no greater prison than the one thought about why. phobic father. If I came out, I imagine you build yourself.” I don’t live in Panama anymore and he would say I’m too easily influenced, I think the things we carry, a ball and I don’t ever have to again. I’m learning yell at me until I’m in tears, financially chain of sorts, can be invisible and so to let go of my ball and chain so that I cut me off, and try to ritually cleanse me heavy that it crushes us and then rolls can one day be at peace with myself in of mariconerias, or that gay shit, with onto the people that surround us. I guess Montreal, my new home.
THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA OPINIONS 23 Nahmsayin’? Getting Back to the Old Sound
BY HARRISON MILO-RAHAJASON @HAR_RI_SON “Whan the Aprill with his shoures soote.“ —Geoffrey Chaucer
... Paris is a reasonably pleasant place to be during the summer. There were no Aprill shoures in 2017 though, and Paris was hot as shit. Like, a three shoures per day hot. On one such day as hot as Guy-Con- cordia metro during in July, I lay in bed terrified, knowing that the even tiniest movement would stain my shirt with sweat and make me smelly. I couldn’t just stay in the apartment all day though, no. That would mean wasting the cute outfit I had just put on. “Shit, okay. Time to go outside,” I thought to myself, still terrified. Not even 15 metres into my walk, pita bread-sized stains started to appear on my grey Florida Gators shirt. I was no longer cute, and prob- ably should have gone back inside but I decided to keep walking. It was the best and most influential decision I ever made in my entire life. I caught sight of a metal music store a few blocks away from my apartment, and decided to go check it out. The best place to go when you’re sweating like Robert Hays in Airplane! is a stuffy record store, and I will hear no words to the contrary. GRAPHIC DEANNA HEWITT @DECOMA_ As I entered the shop, “Bleak” by Opeth was playing—and was playing fact that people back then were too self- tribe like the Vandals or Normans or some loud. Finally, things were starting to ish to record their delightful sounds for shit. Unlike Corvus Corax, I am entirely go right for me. posterity. Bands like Corvus Corax need uninterested in doing historical research. As I browsed through stacks of lovely to do lots of research on the instruments If you ever feel like slaying medieval death-metal records, a noise came from and musical tendencies that historians tribes and generally reconnecting with across the sound system. A noise that theorize were popular during the time. the sounds of yore, medieval music may would permanently alter the course of Does your music have historical be what you’re looking for. my very existence. research? Doubt it. If you’re afraid that listening to this I immediately pulled out my phone In that moment, I felt a combination music may eventually infiltrate your to Shazam the shit out of this audible of feelings that I hadn’t felt in at least a vocabulary and, consequently, cause candy. The result came in quick. It read few months. I simultaneously felt like you to accidentally use the word “yore” “Sverker” by Corvus Corax, a band that dancing around the royal court like the on a date and you’ll end up alone for- I soon learned recreates medieval music. court jester that I am, and I also felt like ever—a legitimate concern, I might Much of what is known about medi- throwing on some fucking sweet armour add—stay the fuck away from it. eval music has probably been lost to the and slaying the piss out of some medieval It’s too late for me, so save yourself.
OCTOBER 2017 24 THE LINK COMICS Anonymous by Morag Rahn-Campbell // @madd.egg
The Epic Adventures of Every Man by Every Man
THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA COMICS 25
Hastily Put Together by Theo Radomski // @flannelogue
Caity Comics by Caity Hall // @caityhallart
OCTOBER 2017 26 THE LINK
Dirty Secret by Bronson Smillie // @bronsosaurus
Health is about more than jogging and eating right. It’s a topic that is both deeply personal, and influenced by forces beyond our direct control. How do you relate to your physical and mental health? How is our health affected by the world around us? What would genuine health justice look like?
Next month, The Link will be writing about health. Got something you’d like to write about? Let us know.
THELINKNEWSPAPER.CA THE FUTURE ISSUE
research, teaching, learning p.29 labour organizing p.32 students at work p.37 sports coaching p.38 urban foodmaking p.38 virtual art p.42 the arctic p.44
THE FUTURE : 29 THE “NEXT-GENERATION UNIVERSITY” Concordia’s Goals for Balancing Research, Teaching, and the Student Experience
kelsey litwin @kelseylitwin
oncordia brands itself as a “next- on the list, “Double Our Research,” ad- generation” university. dresses each of those three elements in C While it sounds ambiguous— one way or another. and in many ways, it is—in the past two “Some of what we’re doing to double years, Concordia has taken some steps our research and increase our research to turn the catchphrase into a reality. profile is actual investments in people,” Those steps are what the school calls Carr said. “And some of it is trying to “strategic directions.” imagine and create new ways of making First approved in the summer of 2015 by Concordia research more visible, giving it Senate, Concordia’s highest academic de- a greater impact, and help drive the repu- cision-making body, the strategic direc- tation of the university because of that.” tions are nine buzzword-filled objectives What that impact is, Carr stated, varies that are meant to lead the university’s aca- from department to department, sub- demic priorities for the foreseeable future, ject by subject. He explained that in the with the caveat that there is no specific hard sciences, winning a $3 million grant timeline attached to the directions. could be a sign of success, while Con- The action plan that would see these cordia researchers winning prestigious directions become reality were put in awards can be an equally positive sign in place the following fall, in 2016. other areas of study. This game plan, titled “First Moves,” “It’s easy to go for the numbers as a was more tangible than the strategic proof of something, but there are a lot of direction slogans, which are along the equally important and equally powerful lines of “Embrace the City, Embrace the measures of success that aren’t about the World,” “Teach for Tomorrow,” and “Get numbers, that are about the impact that Your Hands Dirty.” we’re making,” he continued. The game plan tends to centre around And because success looks different, three main themes: recruitment, research Carr explained that the university must and reputation. Items like “Develop spe- look at different ways of funding re- cialized offerings for specific student search in fields, such as social sciences, populations,” “Make ‘jump-start’ faculty that might not have as many dollar signs appointments,” and “Keep up the pace of attached to them. transdisciplinary cluster hiring,” although Cluster hiring, he offered, is one way. vague, highlight the university’s desire to In 2018, Carr said the university will be bring people in as students, researchers, hiring 30 tenure-track professors. The work and professors by creating a seemingly of six of those professors will focus around desirable atmosphere. “smart, sustainable, resilient cities.” But what that means for students in the He explained that after coming to an classroom is still unclear. agreement with the four faculties—Arts and Science, Engineering and Computer researching for the future Science, Fine Arts, and the John Molson Graham Carr, Concordia’s provost, ex- School of Business—they’ve decided to plained that the first strategic direction hire a group of scholars in the field who
“we’re not a research institute. we’re a university.” Graham Carr, Provost 30 : THE FUTURE all come from a variety of disciplines. Part of the motivation, he explained, graphic aiden locke — lockedsgn.net was “because the problems [we’re] facing in the world [are] bigger than any single discipline can answer.” Of the six new hires, three will have hard science backgrounds, one will be coming from Concordia’s phi- losophy department, and another will have a background in real estate management. Another motivator, he said, was the idea to create public interest by focusing on areas that they’ve de- termined they want to become even stronger in, such as sustainability and social economy.
bodies in the classroom, and in the lab When the strategic directions were first announced in 2015, faculty and students alike expressed concern about the impact of these directions. Particularly, some were concerned that the university’s desire to dive into research would be detrimental to the classroom experience, with pro- fessors more focused on conducting research than teaching. Marion Miller, a former student sen- ator, told The Link at the time that it was up to the students to ensure that these directions actually work to cre- ate a better academic experience. At a senate meeting at the time, Vir- ginia Penhune, chair of the psychol- ogy department, was worried that because of the university’s emphasis on research, newly hired full-time faculty perhaps wouldn’t be spending enough time in the classroom. So how will the university ensure that those new hires spend as much time with students as they do with their research? “That’s absolutely a fair question,” said Carr, who took over the role as provost last fall. He first joined the university in 1983 as a professor in the history department, and since becom- ing chair of the department 13 years ago, he has made his way up the ranks to oversee the university’s academics, in both his role as provost and vice- president of academic affairs. “We’re not a research institute. We’re a university, and universities institutionalizing change THE FUTURE : 31 In response to concerns regarding how professors will be able to balance teaching and conducting research, Carr mused, “How can we best use the research skills that faculty members have, and the training skills faculty are involved in both teaching and members have, and channel that into tivism and Research project from the research activity,” said Carr. “The undergraduate education as well?” SdBI as an example. In its first year, ideal faculty member at Concordia Kimberley Manning, principal of 2016-2017, C-FAR conducted consul- is someone who does both of those Concordia’s Simone de Beauvoir In- tations with students about the micro- things extremely well.” stitute, has some ideas. aggressions they face on campus. Even with the first moves under- “The Strategic Directions are really Using the data they’ve collected, way, Carr was unable to provide exciting and very inspiring, but also Manning said that they are engag- concrete examples as to how the potentially contradictory,” said Man- ing the Faculty of Arts and Science university will be able to mandate ning about the university’s ultimate to move forward in taking concrete that professors put enough empha- goal to double their research while steps that will address some of the sis on teaching. He said that bring- maintaining a quality learning experi- issues that came up, such as inequity ing in strong researchers gives the ence. “How do we make these things and a lack of diversity at Concordia. university the opportunity to explore work together?” “Concordia does not exist in a bub- options such as developing new on- To do that, she says the school ble,” said Manning. “The fact that we line classes. Although they haven’t needs to incorporate research into end up with these particular outcomes “deeply reflected on it yet.” course curriculums for all students. in terms of who studies here, who’s However, new faculty members “We’re trying to find ways to add teaching here, who’s heading up the “can’t take a pass on teaching,” he in rather than add on,” she explained, place, who’s making decisions—all of added. Unless they’re both active in arguing that doing so can create in- these are connected to decisions that the classroom and in their research, stitutional change. are being made elsewhere.” “you’re not going to get tenure.” “If you want, think about it as add- With that information, C-FAR is Patrice Blais, vice-president of ing these strategic directions into working on creating projects that grievance and collective agreement our work, but in a way that supports connect the university and students for the Concordia University Part- the development of the other strate- with community partners to under- Time Faculty Association, agreed gic directions,” Manning continued. stand their needs and “create bridges that in order to receive tenure, there Particularly, Manning has her eyes that could inspire diversity.” needs to be a balance between re- set on social action research projects She further explained that pro- search and teaching. that engage the community, drawing grams like C-FAR also allow the “If you don’t publish, if you don’t on the “Embrace the City, Embrace university to explore the option of do research, you’re lowering your the World” direction. finding community partners who are chances of ever getting a tenure- As a university whose student pop- willing to invest in “knowledge cre- track [position] somewhere,” he said, ulation is composed of “a large minor- ation,” so that the research can be particularly for young professors. ity” of student activists, she said that self-sustaining and alleviate the fi- He explained that CUPFA’s latest incorporating this work into classes nancial burden on the university. collective agreement, which was rati- would allow these students to receive “This would become a funded part fied on Aug. 14, will set out guide- course credit and faculty mentorship of our infrastructure that would also lines for how much part-time faculty for work they’re likely already doing. include financial support, potentially, can be paid for their research—some- And it could be beneficial for the from community sources as well,” thing which previous iterations did professors as well, she said. she suggested. not have. He said that that could act “They actually, through engaging Manning explained she hopes that as a motivator for part-time profes- with these projects, will be able to C-FAR can become an active ex- sors to take on more research duties. continue to enhance their own re- ample of how student-engaged re- Although still hesitant—the guide- search, so it’s this adding in idea,” search can contribute to the accom- lines have yet to be put on paper— she elaborated. The students in- plishment of the strategic directions, he said the addition can be positive, volved will be “building core experi- so that “we don’t feel pulled apart.” particularly in terms of the univer- ence and knowledge.” “All of my efforts are going towards sity’s academic goals. She offered the Critical Feminist Ac- how we see this work in such a way “[Part-time faculty] can play a role, that eventually the university will em- and I think this is a win-win-win for brace it in a systemic, holistic way,” everybody,” said Blais. said Manning. “So that [...] this will be- come part of how we do what we do.” 32 : THE FUTURE ORGANIZING FOR TOMORROW Developing Forms of Labour Organization that Respond to the Crisis of Work
jon milton @514jon
his generation is a generation They announced through a press gust last year, the workers, along with of crisis. release in August 2016 that they had other IWW members from across the T It’s grown into a world de- formed a union. They listed a series of city, occupied the restaurant and shut it fined by a series of overlapping crises. demands to their boss, including wage down with banners and noisemakers. By From the permanent economic crash increases, a minimum amount of guaran- the end of the afternoon, the worker had set off in 2008, to the crisis of borders teed hours per week, five sick days per been re-hired. and migration, to the climate crisis, and year, and other basic changes. Around four months after publicly an- beyond. This generation is, in many The union they formed was called nouncing the creation of their union, the ways, defined by its relation to a dying the Syndicat des travailleurs et travail- workers had concluded an agreement order and a changing world. leuses de Frite Alors. It was created as with their boss which saw “significant The effects of these crises can be a branch of the Industrial Workers of the gains” in pay and working conditions. measured on many scales, from the World—a long standing, radical, rank- However, they were required to keep the global down to the individual, and ev- and-file labour union. exact details of the agreement secret. erywhere in between. At the individual Formed in 1905 in Chicago, the IWW— level, these intersecting crises manifest also known as the Wobblies—have al- The IWW isn’t the only group attempt- themselves through a force that every- ways rejected the dominant form of ing to organize workers who have been one must interact with: work. labour unionism. Rather than seeking traditionally ignored by mainstream legal recognition through labour laws, unions. In every field where workers The corner of Rachel and Rivard St. thereby forcing the company to recog- are facing increasing precarity, organi- seems, at first glance, to be a typical cor- nize the union, the Wobblies assert their zations and coalitions are cropping up ner in Montreal’s Plateau neighborhood. existence to the boss directly. to combat it. A long, heavily-used bike path lines “This means that we’re not relying on One of those coalitions is the Comités the north side of Rachel. Rows of old the law,” Martin said. “Because when a unitaire sur le travail étudiant, which is trees cover the north-south streets, hid- unionist relies on the law for advance- comprised of grassroots organizers who ing the old duplexes and triplexes that ments, we’re following the rules of a work to improve the material condition of house the young professionals of the game that one player can change at students, workers, and unpaid interns. gentrified neighborhood. Within walking any time.” Pierre Luc Junet is a fine arts student distance, trendy coffee shops, bars, and “So we’re the ones taking our union, at Concordia who organizes with CUTE restaurants colonize the main arteries of and our struggle, into our own hands.” at the university. For him, organizing the borough. The IWW uses a “paralegal” strategy against unpaid internships is important On the ground floor beneath two sto- based on direct action. This means because it allows students who tradi- ries of apartments on that corner, work- that workers negotiate with bosses, tionally don’t take part in the broader ers in a small diner called Frites Alors and plan out and enact pressure tac- student movement, such as those in serve fast food. Like a rapidly growing tics themselves, rather than working technical fields such as education, so- segment of the working class, they work through professional union negotiators. cial work, or psychology, to take part. in the low-wage service sector. Workplace direct action, Martin said, The idea behind CUTE, Junet says, “The working conditions were very follows an “escalation of tactics” model, is to move the student movement be- low,” said Martin, who worked at Frites allowing for hesitant members to take yond just fighting to preserve historical Alors last year and whose last name has part in ways they feel comfortable. These gains—or, preventing things like tuition been omitted out of concerns for future tactics, he says, can range from “every- increases or budget cuts—and to work employment. “I was on minimum wage, one loudly eating chips in a meeting with towards making new gains. with few to no advantages on the side.” the boss, to refusing to wear the uniform “We don’t know how to make new These types of conditions, he said, are […] to workplace slowdowns and wildcat wins,” Junet says. “We saw that, for typical in the restaurant industry. strikes.” A wildcat strike is when workers internships, there’s an opportunity to Then those workers at Frites Alors spontaneously walk off the job without change that.” decided to do something that isn’t typ- giving prior warning to the boss. Psychology students in Quebec cre- ical in the restaurant industry—at least When one of the organizers was fired ated a precedent for the effectiveness of not yet. They decided to unionize. during the unionization process in Au- action by organized interns, Junet says. THE FUTURE : 33
Psychology students in Quebec must a coordinating body for members across some of the most hardened, exploitative take a two-year PhD program before the province, and in 2016, the interns labour practices in Quebec. He’s seen all they can officially become psycholo- staged a general strike. kinds of illegal practices—stolen wages, gists. During those two years, the stu- After over four months off the job, bosses renting company-owned apart- dents work as interns, putting in 810 the FIDEP managed to negotiate a ments to workers at inflated prices, sex- to 1,600 hours per year, depending on deal with the provincial government. ual harassment, and companies closing their university. This work removes an From then on, interns would be paid temporarily to avoid paying employees. estimated 12,000 patients from waiting $12,500 per semester in bursaries in Belaouni works with migrants, some lists annually. exchange for their work. of the most vulnerable workers in the Like most school internships, they Junet is critical of the deal, point- province. He’s an organizer at a small weren’t paid. Psychology interns in ing out similarities between the deal organization in Montreal called the Im- Quebec are organized in a union called and “workfare,” because the migrant Workers Centre. the Fédération interuniversitaire des interns are not being The IWC was founded in 2000 by Fil- doctorant.e.s en psychologie. The paid directly for their ipino-Canadian union organizers. They FIDEP acted as labour and are “not noticed, at the time, that workplaces fully recognized as that employed large amounts of mi- workers.” Regard- grants often struggled to unionize, fac- less though, he still ing intimidation tactics by bosses. They sees it as victory, opened the Centre as a space where even if not a total workers could discuss their situation, one. and, after unionization, know their own Developing rights rather than leave them in the those types hands of union-hired experts. of net- Today, the IWC provides a wide array works on of services with the goal of empowering a broader migrant workers and protecting them scale, from exploitative practices by bosses. across Free language classes are given on the disci- weekends, and the Centre hosts a legal plines, clinic for workers. They also send rep- is one of the resentatives to host “know your rights” CUTE’s main workshops for newly arrived refugees. goals moving The IWC is divided into two main forward. sections, called La Table and La Tête. La Table is primarily concerned with Since 2010, workers in placement agencies—com- Kader Belaouni panies that find jobs for workers and has been im- make their profit by taking a cut off mersed in their wages. La Tête works with farm
graphic lee mcclure 34 : THE FUTURE the placement agency and the compa- “unionism of experts,” Martin said. It ny they’re hiring for can shift blame to requires unions to send professional the other side. negotiators and lawyers to negotiate Other cases are even more extreme. contracts. The high cost of this model Belaouni said that he has seen, mul- means that unions must prioritize large tiple times, cases of placement agen- shop floors with long term employment. cies withholding pay from up to 100 Jobs with high employee turnover, few workers at a time, closing shop, and workers, and low wages simply don’t fit “we need to redefine opening up with a new company name within unions’ cost-benefit analysis. “down the street.” He said that this “We’re developing a new form of unionism, organization, practice is relatively common, and struggle, a new form of unionism, that agencies are not sufficiently punished fits with these conditions of work that and how we perceive for predatory behaviour. are no longer rare,” Martin said. The IWC is pushing for reforms to the Junet echoed those sentiments in and conceive work.” laws that govern placement agencies. regards to internships. He pointed out He hopes that the government will des- how internships are increasingly the Pierre Luc Junet ignate which side—the agency or the “new reality on campus” all over the company—bears responsibility in the world. He said that he hopes the CUTE case of workplace accidents or other committees can help organize this seg- incidents which could cause workers ment of student-workers who have tra- to take legal action against a compa- ditionally been an afterthought in the ny. The Centre also collaborates with broader student movement. the IWW, which is working to organize He sees the question of unpaid intern- agency workers into a union. ships as a stepping stone to a longer- It is also participating and mobiliz- term goal of having student work itself ing as part of the coalition for a $15 recognized as work. Because school minimum wage. Belaouni said that an work is work, he said, and because uni- increased minimum wage would ben- versity degrees are increasingly seen as workers, especially those in the Tem- efit all workers—but migrant workers in a requirement for entry to the job mar- porary Foreign Workers program. particular, because they disproportion- ket, students deserve a wage. Asked to describe typical problems ately work minimum wage jobs. “We need to redefine unionism, or- faced by migrant workers in Quebec, ganization, and how we perceive and Belaouni spoke of a case that La Tête Work is becoming increasingly precari- conceive work,” he said. handled recently. The boss of a group ous, due to a wide array of structural For Kader Belouini, the future of the of Guatemalan workers had been dock- factors. labour movement includes expanding ing their wages, claiming that the com- Automation has eliminated a signifi- the definition of what constitutes work- pany was using the money to apply for cant amount of the formerly well-pay- place issues. He said that, to achieve work permits. It wasn’t—the company ing factory jobs, and neoliberal glo- justice for workers, cities and regions was just stealing the wages. IWC orga- balization has displaced many more to will need to adopt sanctuary status, al- nizers helped the Guatemalans navi- areas where companies can pay work- lowing migrant workers to access basic gate the labour codes to actually get ers next to nothing. Systematic attacks benefits like unemployment insurance. their work permits. on the labour movement have seen Fighting to gain legal status, he said, will With placement agencies, Belaouni union membership sink to its lowest be a growing issue for migrant workers, said, a wide range of problems and ex- level in generations. As worker produc- and by extension workers in general. ploitative practices exist. tivity increases, wages stagnate, and Over 50 per cent of employers in prices for basic goods increase. The word “crisis” conjures images of Montreal use placement agencies to Martin called this the “new reality of disasters, of collapse, of uncontrolled hire workers, and jobs in placement work,” and believes that rank-and-file change. The word, though, stems from agencies are growing three times organizing by workers themselves can the Greek “krisis,” which simply means faster than overall job growth. These provide a clear way toward a just future the act of making a decision. agencies act as middlemen between a for workers and poor people. These organizers, and the groups they worker and their boss. Migrant workers Traditional labour unions, he said, are represent, all recognize that the crisis of are disproportionately represented in structurally unfit to organize the grow- work represents a turning point, and are placement agencies. ing segment of the working class known taking the decision to steer it in a direc- The problem with these agencies, as the “precariat”—those who work in tion of solidarity, as a defense against Belaouni said, is that it is unclear where part-time, temporary, low-wage jobs. precarity and exploitation. responsibility lies. If a workplace acci- The structure imposed by labour The future, if they have their way, be- dent were to occur, for example, both laws on legally recognized unions is a longs to the rank-and-file. THE FUTURE : 35
n our future vernacular, “career” and “job” will become synony- I mous. This shift in language NO GOOD JOBS may seem distantly utopian, but tech- nology will rapidly narrow the gap. Technology Is the Secret to Self-Actualisation What’s so bad about a job? The answer lies in the origins of the in- arash sharma dustrial economy. getting better. This is what he calls A job is something we endure the paradox of progress—the richer for 40-plus hours a week to earn a we become, the more we can afford wage. This idea originated during the to waste our time. industrialization of the 18th-century, In my view, Graeber underesti- when the word “job” was used by mates the potential for technology to factory workers to describe demean- transform the meaning of work. ing wage work. Indignant about be- Technology is not to blame for the Stanford academic and author ing driven from their traditional work meaningless work. In reality, technol- Jerry Kaplan claims that automation is on the land or in crafts, workers as- ogy is our friend—it is consumerism “blind to the colour of your collar.” cribed “job” to factory labour to ex- that is our foe. In my view, the concerns over ro- press their revulsion. Of course, there is some hypocrisy bots taking over our jobs is largely The foundation of this house of in that statement. Much of our mod- unwarranted. cards begins with Adam Smith’s belief ern technology was developed be- During the Industrial Revolution, that people are naturally lazy and will cause we wanted, and could afford, textile workers protested machines only work for pay. In his 1776 work to consume more. But, that’s beside and steam engines for stealing their The Wealth of Nations, Smith the point. Pondering which sequence livelihoods. What eventually followed writes “It is the interest of every man of ideas led to the creation of mod- however, were more jobs. Econo- to live as much at his ease as he can.” ern technology doesn’t really matter, mist James Bessen reported that in Despite this, Smith recognized that pragmatically speaking. What does 19th-century America, the amount employees would be in dire straits. He matter is that we have it. of coarse cloth a weaver could pro- argued that work forces the worker to What we need to be asking is “now duce increased by a factor of 50, sacrifice “his tranquility, his freedom, what?” How can technology help us and the amount of labour required and his happiness.” find more meaning in our work? dropped by 98 per cent. As a result, A century later, this idea initiated Technological advancements, price per yard of cloth dropped, de- the theory of scientific management. such as automation and artificial in- mand increased, and more weaving The result was a manufacturing sys- telligence will free up more of our jobs were created. In fact, Bessen tem that reduced the need for skill time. Contrary to the myth, automa- reported that the number of weavers and meticulous attention by workers, tion will not mean the death of all quadrupled between 1830 and 1900. instead opting for assembly-lines and human jobs: it will mean the death Jobs for everyone will increase in repetition in the name of efficiency. of unfulfilling jobs. the long-run despite the short-term Since then, work has been a mere In 2013, Carl Benedikt Frey and Mi- disruption. Just as the Internet de- money-making, GDP-generating, chael Osborne analyzed 702 Ameri- mocratized information and allowed chore-like exertion. The remnants of can occupations for the likelihood of many to gain mastery over fields they this history continues to shape our becoming automated. They found had little formal training in, automa- world today. that 47 per cent of American workers tion and machine learning will alle- In his 2013 article “On the Phenom- were at high risk of being replaced viate the burden of working menial enon of Bullshit Jobs,” anthropologist by robots. jobs. This will open up a new world David Graeber notes an important Interestingly, these jobs were not of endless possibilites. prediction by John Maynard Keynes. clustered on the basis of manual la- The future of technology will en- Keynes forecasted that by the end of bour or clerical work. Despite the able us to reach self-actualization, or the century, technology would ad- colour of workers’ collars, the critical at least get closer than we’ve done in vance enough to reduce workloads factor in determining the vulnerability the past. Without the bounds of wage down to 15-hour weeks. Obviously, to automation was whether or not the blackmail, we don’t have to pay for this hasn’t happened. But, why? work involved a predictable routine. our own corporate enslavement. We Graeber argues that technology Some examples include jobs in don’t need to sell our soul to the en- marshalled us to work even more. transport, logistics, office support, and gine of extraction. We ought to save And so, society can afford more sales and services, which are spread it for ourselves. It will pay huge divi- bullshit jobs because our robots are across occupational prestige. In fact, dends. Time will tell. 36 : THE FUTURE TRAINING ISN’T ALL MUSCLES Concordia’s New Video Coordinator Continues Team’s Strong Use of Tech dustin kagan-flemming @dustinkfleming
oncordia’s women’s hockey team will have a full-time C video coordinator for the first time since the program’s incep- tion. Laurent Nguyen is the second year John Molson School of Business student who will be taking on the po- sition and working with the coaches to help analyze the team using video he records from their games. The video coordinator position, last year filled part-time by Concor- dia’s equipment manager and men’s team’s coordinator Christopher Rappel, involves filming and mark- ing key moments happening on the ice during games. Nguyen’s work allows Stingers’ head coach Julie Chu and her staff to effectively break down everything from their power plays and penalty kills to how they break out of their own zone and anything else they want to evaluate. Concordia’s women’s hockey is using video coaching techniques to learn from the past. The footage is primarily reviewed at the team’s weekly video sessions, photos carl bindman @carlbindman hosted by Nguyen. The big innova- tion is that it can also be looked over during an intermission, where coach On Ice Tracker and then whenever a can do his job well with as much Chu and her staff can make critical player jumped on the ice, I selected accuracy as possible. in-game adjustments. their names so that their time on ice Like the team, Nguyen is well aware Everyone on the team under- and minutes were logged automati- of the value of his work. stands just how helpful it will be cally into the system […] It even breaks “What is really nice is that, let's say to have Nguyen working alongside down power play, special teams, and the coach wants to review a play dur- them this season. penalty kills,” said Nguyen. ing the intermission, they can select “It’s always helpful to have a video After seeing his work with the team that certain play and then they can [coordinator] because we need to last year, coach Chu has no worries show it to their player,” explained see what we need to improve on the about Nguyen’s ability to come into a Nguyen. “It's much easier to break ice” said Stingers forward Claudia new position. down video to the players than just Dubois. “It’s always a plus for us.” “He was great and I think he’s go- to tell them.” After training to get a better handle ing to continue bringing a great en- Thanks to Nguyen’s work, Chu and on his new position heading into the ergy and enthusiasm this year,” said her players can not only review what upcoming season, Nguyen is excited Chu. “Whatever learning curve he’s needs to be fixed in game but use to be heading back to the team he got going to need is going to go quickly.” video as a more effective practice tool. to know last year. The business tech- It’s not hard to see why Chu Part of what makes the job enjoyable nology management major spent last thinks so. Nguyen’s passion and ex- for Nguyen is working with people that year volunteering with the Stingers. citement for his work and the team are focused on using all the tools at “I used an application called Time is palpable. He’s eager to show he their disposal to ice a winning team. “I’m definitely grateful. What I’m THE FUTURE : 37 really excited about is that we have an amazing coaching staff [...] I'm re- ally excited to work with them. The [coaches] at Concordia are really technology driven,” said Nguyen. For a student in a program that has a focus on technology, working with such a group is a perfect fit. Nguyen cites software programs like Ste- vapro and Time On Ice Tracker for allowing the team to collect data on players. While their use of technology gives the Stingers a definite boost, they are hardly the only team to take advantage of the new tools that are available to them. technology extends far past video contact sports, like hockey, where The use of technology in sports is and apps, though. “[Technology] damaging impacts can often surprise becoming more prominent. Teams gives you such an edge” said Julia a player, even a split second advan- and athletes are looking for new ways Peress, clinic manager at Neurocir- tage in anticipation makes avoiding a to gain an edge and technology offers cuit, a company that specializes in dangerous hit far more likely. a wealth of advantages for them. concussion treatment and neurologi- Concussions, head traumas and “It’s good. Even with our gear and cal training for athletes. the long-term damage being caused our sticks, everything improves year Peress and Neurocircuit use a kind by sports-related injuries are a major after year,” explained Dubois. “We just of training known as “sports vision” concern in contact sports. Any train- get better with that because technol- which involves using technology to ing that allows athletes to anticipate ogy improves us in many ways. We train athletes’ hand-eye reaction time. and avoid potential injuries has a improve as players with technology.” “It works on peripheral vision train- place in mainstream conversation. The maroon and gold are cer- ing and anticipating movement [...] Despite the benefits, many in the tainly focused on that improvement. training the eyes to see more, see world of sports are wary of the in- Concordia’s training camp featured quicker, respond quicker,” said Kathy creasing role of technology. Some plenty of tech-based tools used to Cohen, the owner of Neurocircuit. believe that the traditional methods prepare players for the upcoming New technology allows the com- of training are sufficient and should Concordia’s women’s hockey is using video coaching techniques to learn from the past. season. The Stingers also use a plat- pany to offer this less traditional be left as they are. To Peress, who form called Vidswap that allows them form of training. It may not involve studied exercise science and played photos carl bindman @carlbindman to view tapes from their opponents’ the weights or drills that many ath- varsity soccer at Concordia, it comes games, and an application called letes are used to, but sports vision down to a lack of education. Coach’s Eye, among other things. technology opens up new avenues “There was a reluctance to hire a An extremely useful tool for coach for training that can bring athletes’ strength trainer, and take [training] Chu, Coach’s Eye allows her to take games to a higher level. off the pitch and do it in the gym and recordings of players running drills, “We’ve learned now that athletics I guess now we’re seeing the same play it side by side with other players is not just from the neck down—it’s thing happen with this,” said Peress. doing the same, alter the video with from the head down. You need to use “Coaches are aware of it but I think diagrams or drawings to bring focus your brain,” said Cohen. “You need [they are] hesitant just because they on minute aspects of the player’s po- to be smarter, faster.” don’t understand it.” sitioning and much more. “It’s not just about how big your For coach Chu, the argument boils For Chu, it’s all about finding the muscles are but how fast you can re- down to using the most effective tools most effective way to educate her act, and how fast you can anticipate,” at her disposal to help her team win, players. she continued. and that she is always aware of what “I think we have so many different Training like Neurocircuit’s tech- those resources are. “We always have types of learners, that’s what’s impor- nology-based sports vision model to be willing to adjust and adapt to tant. You have the visual ones who can also be of use when it comes the changing of the times and to what need to see it in X’s and O’s up on the to a hot button topic in the world of resources are available,” Chu said. board then you have some that just by sports today: safety. “As coaches, our job is to continue talking it out they can pick it up. Most A major component of this training evolving. As we try to challenge our are not that,” said Chu. “[Video]’s a is based on increasing the athlete’s players to get better, we need to get huge resource learning tool for us.” ability to anticipate what’s about to better and technology is just a re- The ever-evolving field of sports happen and react accordingly. In source we can use for that.” 38 : THE FUTURE nity garden, or how to directly engage in helping our seniors eat fresh pro- duce everyday. And, if you’re really inspired, you might realize just how easy it is to buy locally grown, pesti- GREEN CITIES, LITERALLY cide-free organic produce from your neighbourhood café every week. Bringing Agriculture Into the City santropol roulant shannon carranco Non-profits like Santropol Roulant, Santropol Roulant, one of Montreal’s POC, Alvéole, and the Hudson Food larger urban gardening companies, he island of Montreal is a Collective are pioneers in innovative, was started 22 years ago by two jungle of greenery in the sustainable urban agriculture. The price eager young waiters who worked at T summer. From late spring to of food is rising each year, and will only Café Santropol, the beloved Mon- early fall, Montreal is the perfect place continue to rise if we depend on large- treal café located on Saint-Urbain St. for growing food. Every year, more scale commercial farming for the ma- Their vision was to address major so- and more residents are taking an in- jority of our food. Incorporating locally cietal issues found in Montreal, and terest in educating themselves on grown produce into your grocery list is improve them with sustainable food sustainable food production. Whether the first step towards contributing to production, including urban farming it’s getting weekly baskets from your the sustainability of our city. and volunteer-based initiatives. local farm, having beehives and chick- In this article, you’ll discover that According to Santropol Roulant’s ens in your backyard, or volunteering you’re actually surrounded by urban Urban Agriculture Manager Marie- at an urban garden in your neigh- beehives, and if you look over your Anne Viau, at its core, Santropol bourhood, Montrealers are progres- backyard fence you might just see a Roulant is a meals on wheels. sively becoming more in tune with the few chickens. You’ll find out how you “Our goal is to nourish our com- ins and outs of urban farming. can volunteer for your local commu- munity,” Viau said. “But our first goal
photos shannon carranco is to give meals to people with a lack THE FUTURE : 39 of mobility or less autonomy.” Viau explained that most of their 100 daily meals-on-wheels clients are el- derly, and one of their main priorities is getting young people involved with vol- unteering and connecting the two age groups to create community involve- ment. “So our big mission is to break the exclusion of two kinds of communities that we have in our society.” After 22 years of company growth, Santropol Roulant now has four urban green spaces where their produce is grown. The first is their Edible Cam- pus located on the Burnside Plaza at McGill University. Santropol Roulant installed 300 self-watering containers to create an urban art garden, and be- gan to grow produce for their meals on wheels campaign there in 2007. The second is a rooftop green- house where their office is located on Roy St. and Colonial Ave. in the Pla- teau Mont-Royal. Santropol Roulant bought the building seven years ago, and had it completely renovated so it could accommodate the weight of a rooftop garden. They’ve recently cre- ated an outdoor community garden in front of the building where residents of the area can learn about gardening, and pick and eat fresh produce. Now Santropol Roulant relies al- most exclusively on their small farm in Senneville, Que., at the very west- ern end of the island. In 2016, the Santropol Roulant Peri-Urban farm harvested almost 20,000 kilos of produce for their meals-on-wheels. With their small farm growing the majority of their produce, Santrop- ol Roulant is now converting their ber of People’s Potato who manages Loic Freeman Lavoie and Rébecca downtown gardens into educational their kitchen portfolio, said that the Phaneuf-Thibault sell their fresh, or- facilities and teaching their volun- Potato started feeding students out of ganic produce at the Depanneur Café. teers and community the importance a church basement near the downtown of urban agriculture. Concordia campus in 1999. Now the City Farm School, now run out of the “Now I’m showing a lot of people Potato feeds 300 to 400 people every Concordia Greenhouse. The program, how to garden and share the harvest regular school day during Concordia’s which is open to both students and altogether, so it’s bringing food secu- academic calendar. non-students, educates urbanites on rity for other people too,” Viau said. A community garden is located on plant knowledge, organic crop plant- Concordia’s Loyola campus and pro- ing, food politics and sustainability. people’s potato vides the Potato with the essentials “We’re a volunteer-based initiative,” The pay-what-you-can, easy, and that their lunches are made of, like said Iman Khailat, another volunteer at accessible vegan lunches that most potatoes, carrots, and tomatoes. Ac- People’s Potato. “We definitely need Concordia students know as People’s cording to Idemudia, the garden was volunteers, but volunteers also get a Potato is far from a simple operation. started about 14 years ago as a pilot lot out of the experience. Both in the photos shannon carranco Eseosa Idemudia, a collective mem- project that led to the creation of the kitchen and in the garden.” 40 : THE FUTURE
Volunteers who work in the garden throughout the summer can leave with a hefty basket of fresh pro- Fresh tomatoes sit in the duce—whatever is ready for harvest. rooftop greenhouse of And volunteers who make and serve Santropol Roulant. the daily lunches downtown can skip the line and get a free meal. Idemudia explained that urban ag- riculture has become increasingly im- portant for People’s Potato because food prices have been consistently rising since their last fee-levy increase. A fee-levy is a specified portion of student tuition collected by groups on campus, voted on by the student body. “The cost of food keeps rising, and is going to keep rising,” Idemudia said. “So as far as the Potato goes, it’s been challenging to keep our cur- rent budget, and provide the same amount of food, or more, because the need for the service seems to be increasing year by year.” Idemundia hopes to see more green spaces being provided for cityfolk in the future, so people can afford to eat. “Before I started work- ing at the Potato, I had never gar- dened a day in my life. If I can get into gardening anyone can. In my vi- sion of the future, everyone is grow- ing kale on their balcony.” shops. One of our main priorities is one egg a day. This year POC also teaching people about the impor- provided food for the chickens to last poc and alvéole tance of bees and understanding through the summer. With a rise in interest in urban farm- what their role is, because in reality, Backyard chicken farming is only ing in Montreal, non-profits like POC without bees we wouldn’t have any legal in the boroughs of Rosemont-La and Alvéole are pioneers in estab- food on our table.” Petite-Patrie and Mercier-Hochelaga- lishing new and affordable ways for Caron explained that Alvéole bee- Maisonneuve. Each neighbourhood has residents to engage in sustainable keepers visit the beehives between specific chicken coop regulations, so urban agriculture. one and two times a month to make POC has designed their coops to sat- Alvéole is Montreal’s premiere sure the bees are healthy, and that isfy these laws in both neighbourhoods. beehive provider. Started by three they have everything they need. Anne Tremblay, Director of Op- friends, Alexandre McLean, Étienne When the honey is ready for harvest, erations at POC, said that this year Lapierre, and Declan Rankin Jardin the beekeepers take the frames out the startup only had one model for in 2012, Alvéole now has over 500 of the hives and bring them to Alvé- their clients. beehives all over the city. ole headquarters, where the honey “Our offer included the chicken Gabrielle Caron, a beekeeper for Al- is extracted through an intricate coop, the three chickens, the food, véole and past Sustainability Coordi- hands-on process. everything they need for the sum- nator for the Concordia Student Union, POC is in its first year of creation. mer, and the complimentary ser- said that the company has three types A sister company to Alvéole started vice, which altogether costs $1,150,” of clients: regular citizens who want by McLean and Lapierre, POC cre- Tremblay said. “If they want to keep hives on their balconies or rooftops, ates backyard chicken coops that are the chickens in the winter there is a business owners, and schools. built to code under city regulations so winter kit that sells for $300.” “Our primary goal is education,” clients can have fresh eggs through- This year POC had 50 clients and Caron said. “We have a lot of schools out the year. Each coop comes with 150 chickens, which came from a that own hives, and we give work- three young chickens that each lay farm just outside Montreal. “I think chickens are really an an- and another 39 in Hudson. nity Farm will bringTHE FUTUREtheir produce : 41 ti-stress medicine for everybody,” Because it’s their first year, they to the Depanneur Café until the Tremblay said. “It’s a great way to ended up growing more produce beginning of November. They’ll be educate people about where their than they have sold. “The goal for accepting new subscriptions for food comes from. I think it’s a more this farm is to accumulate about weekly vegetable baskets at the De- ethical way to talk about food and 100 members for baskets,” Free- panneur Café until then. talk about animals, when you get man Lavoie said. “That will bring in If you’ve never worked in a gar- people to know the reality of where enough revenue for the project to den, you should try it. It’s hard and their food is actually coming from.” be auto-sustaining the two acres of dirty work, but there is something land, and for the activities we want to very human about planting a seed hudson heartbeet community farm do for social reinsertion or education and watching it grow until it becomes The Hudson Heartbeet Community or community building.” something that can nourish you and Farm was created by Loic Free- This year, the farm has grown 40 your family. Growing your own food, man Lavoie and Rébecca Phaneuf- different vegetables with 80 different or supporting your local farmers, Thibault with the help of the Hudson varieties, which is pretty standard for whether they be on a rooftop or in a Food Collective. After months of a Community Supported Agriculture field, is becoming increasingly impor- planning, Freeman Lavoie, a recent organic farm, according to Freeman tant with the direction in which our Concordia graduate with a bachelor’s Lavoie. CSA, Freeman Lavoie said, fragile environment is going towards. in urban planning, and Phaneuf- was a model that was started in Ja- Bringing nature back into the city, Thibault pitched their idea of starting pan in the 60s and 70s. like POC or Alvéole, is the future of an organic farm to the city of Hudson “CSA farming has been the fron- sustainable agriculture. And you, too, last summer, and were granted a two tier of bringing back organic pro- can contribute to the wellbeing of our acre plot of land owned by the city. duce since the commercial market planet, and grow kale on your balcony. This year, Freeman Lavoie and was uninterested in supporting Phaneuf-Thibault began planting organic or local, because it was a seedlings that they obtained from lot more convenient to have large Santropol Roulant in early April, and scale farms using petrochemicals,” “in my vision of the have been harvesting fresh organic Freeman Lavoie said. vegetables since June. “So the CSA movement was a great future, everyone The young couple have done most way for people that wanted to link up of the labour themselves. Every with their farmers and that wanted is growing kale week, they bring their produce to a to have organic agriculture brought farmers market in Ville St. Laurent. to them directly and have that link on their balcony” They also have 14 clients who have to their health—for economic health signed up for vegetable baskets in and for physical health.” Eseosa Idemudia the Plateau from the Depanneur Café, The Hudson Heartbeet Commu-
Bee hives teeming with bees can be seen on the rooftop of the Depanneur Café 42 : THE FUTURE visceral and emotional reactions,” ex- plains the Phi Centre’s website. “Not everyone has virtual reality gear at home, so we want to be able IS THIS EVEN REAL? to democratize the access to new technology,” said Myriam Achard, the Digital Arts in Montreal measure if a reality is truly immersive Phi Centre’s director of public rela- is, “How close was it to [being] real?” tions and communication. erika morris @thingjpg “Starting in the early 90’s when artists got a hold of the technology casa rara and technoculture, n a memorable Black Mirror to create these immersive environ- arts and games episode, a man tests an im- ments, people started asking if the Casa Rara is a Concordia-based vir- I mersive virtual reality horror goal shouldn’t actually be recreat- tual reality studio as part of a milieux video game that is so believable he ing reality. Maybe the goal should be that does research and creation with dies of fright. In another, soldiers creating new realities, things that we design, art, culture, and technology. have virtual reality chips implanted in can’t actually experience in the real It was founded by Ruben Farrus and their brains that makes them see oth- world,” he said. Tali Goldstein. ers as monsters, allowing them to kill Momentum in the game industry Casa Rara aims to allow artists to without remorse. built for years as developers tried to be able to learn about, explore, and There is a lot of paranoia when it increase graphics power to get clos- create virtual realities on a budget. comes to the future of virtual real- er to reality. The same mentality was Artists, programmers, and designers ity, but luckily for us, the technology applied to immersive environments, use game production engines like hasn’t advanced to that level yet. as the people who were working on Unity 3D and Unreal4 to create fic- In Montreal, there’s a lot of work the technology were mostly coming tional and fantastical worlds. being done in the technology’s devel- from game design backgrounds. This Casa Rara are currently working on opment. Virtual reality, or immersive lead to immersive reality being cre- two projects with the National Film environments, is a technology that ated mostly for games. Board of Canada. The first will be lets a person dive into a new world the Museum of Symmetry. The proj- through a set of glasses coupled with virtual reality in montreal ect is in collaboration with Paloma audio and hand tracking that moni- At the Phi Centre, in a vertigo-inducing Dawkins, an illustrator from Montreal tors your position in a virtual environ- immersive virtual reality experience, who creates colourful and trippy ment. Some haptic controllers extend you can live the life of a tree at the graphic novels and illustrations. the experience by getting the physical Lucid Realities exhibit. In Tree, you “It’s like Alice in Wonderland in feedback into the body. It tricks the get to watch yourself grow, smell the VR,” said Farrus. “It’s a really cool brain into thinking you’re somewhere forest, and feel the wind as you sway visual style.” else and in another world. from side to side in a jungle. Then you The other project is called West- There are two kinds of immersion. can watch yourself die in a forest fire. wind, and is set in a post-apocalyp- First, there’s immersive cinema which That, or you can experience all of tic world. The project was created by comes from cinematographers us- evolution, and go from being a cell Jeff Barnaby, who is making his first ing existing technology. They use a to a cyberman until the world dies. virtual reality film with the NFB and is 360-degree camera and film all direc- The Life of Us is played with producing it through Casa Rara. tions at once, so when you play back two people, and can be interpreted Concordia also has the Techno- the tape the user can look all around as a criticism of humanity’s capitalist culture, Arts and Games Research and isn’t confined to the frame. The obsession with progress despite the Centre, otherwise known as TAG. viewer isn’t on the outside looking fact that we’re killing the planet. In As well as studying and research- through a frame into the world, the one part of the game you’re a mon- ing games and gaming culture, and viewer is the centre of the world. This key wearing a suit rushing through hosting workshops and labs, TAG approach can be seen as solipsistic in the streets of a big city. works with students and faculty to the sense that the self is perceived to You can also choose to wander in be all that there is. space in search of objects in the vir- The other approach is a synthetic tual reality video game Fragments. “we want to be able to environment. These environments This game is over an hour long but the are created from scratch in com- Phi Centre lets you play a seven-min- democratize the access puters with gaming software and ute demo. It’s more about testing the programming. technology than the game itself, they to new technology” According to Jason Lewis, a profes- say, and the goal of the exhibit is to ex- sor of design and computation arts at pose people to situations that tend to Myriam Achard Concordia, the metric that’s used to be inaccessible to us and “elicit more photo illustration THE FUTURE : 43 erika morris and carl bindman @carlbindman
bring digital art projects to life. Virtual reality’s roots in the mili- In a second wave at the end of the Last year Daniel Cross, Benjamin tary received a lot of criticism as it 1990s, companies were selling con- Gattet, and Marco Luna created a vir- was commercialized. One point sumer-grade tools for virtual environ- tual reality game, I AM THE BLUES, that Lewis makes is that VR is ar- ments. However, it quickly flamed out. through TAG. The game was based on gued to be the product of a “particu- Lewis considers us to be in the third the film of the same name directed lar military industrial complex that wave of consumer-grade virtual reali- by Cross. According to the project is dominated by masculine ways of ties and believes that this one will stick, description, users can visit the Blues interacting with the world, in that it’s as the hardware is robust enough, and Front Café, “home [of] the legend- designed to dominate virtual reali- people have an interest in it. But Far- ary Jimmy ‘Duck’ Holmes and ground ties,” rather than being used to cre- rus says the sale numbers are not yet zero for the blues in Mississippi” in the ate and find new and better virtual massive, and so VR still hasn’t reached 3D exploration game. It also says us- worlds that would benefit humans. a significant mass of people. ers can gain information on the char- “It’s still a very new technology and acters through text, images, audio 90s to present lots of companies are using it such as and video clips that are discovered by According to Lewis, we are currently Google, Samsung, and the Oculus Rift, interacting with the environment. in the third wave of commercialized but we’re not sure if it will really take consumer-grade virtual reality. off,” he said. “It’s very expensive and vr’s roots in military development The first wave was in the early 1990s, the content available is still limited.” The first immersive environments after the Virtual Reality Modelling Lan- According to Farrus, there have to convince the eyes and body that guage was introduced in 1994. VRML been concerns that the headsets something is happening were creat- is a text file format for 3D interactive can be harmful to the eyes, with the ed in a military environment, namely vector graphics, specifically with the screens being so close to them, but flight simulations. web in mind behind the design. It was there aren’t any conclusive studies According to Lewis, militaries are eventually replaced by X3D in 2001. on the subject. investing in creating simulators that In 1996, California’s Silicon Graph- “It’s also an expression of a sort of allow a pilot to practice flying in VR, ics manufactured InfiniteReality, a 3D misanthropic tendency to denigrate as opposed to training in an aircraft, graphics architecture and graphic the body—the physical form—and which is time-consuming and expen- system. It was marketed to compa- privilege the cerebral,” Lewis noted. sive. Much of the earliest work came nies for computer simulations and “By going into these worlds you’re out of projects that were funded digital content creation. This marked leaving the real world behind, so by the Defense Advanced Research the beginning of non-industrial vir- what does that mean? It’s escapism Projects Agency in the United States. tual environments. at its heart, and is that okay?” 44 : THE FUTURE
The peaks of Bylot Island as seen from the Devon Island coast, looking south across Tallurutiup Imanga. During the winter, this channel freezes solid. But each summer, the ice gets weaker and more of it melts, opening the Northwest Passage to the ships of the world.
SEA CHANGE carl bindman @carlbindman
ancaster Sound is water. Flowing from massive glaciers into the L Arctic Ocean. Connecting the Davis Straight to the Northwest Passage, which itself connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Freezing and thawing. Giving life to the plankton and fish and whales and birds that in turn feed the Inuit and their culture. Mined, and drilled, and trawled, but also protected. In other words, Lancaster Sound, or Tallurutiup Imanga, is the nexus of the North. What happens there will shape the future of the Canadian Arctic, and will shape the future of the world. The Arctic is where the battles over climate change and colonialism are hardest fought and hardest felt, and Tallurutiup Imanga is at the centre of it all. These photos were taken over a week in August 2017, during the Students on Ice expedition. The reporter participated thanks to a sponsorship from Parks Canada.
Natashia Allakariallak sings during the Tallurutiup Imanga National Marine Conservation Area announcement in Mittimattalik, or Pond Inlet. The exact details of how the massive conservation area will function depend on negotiations between local communities and government to create an Inuit Impact and Benefit Agreement. THE FUTURE : 45 The otherworldly cliffs of Prince Leopold Island, west of Baffin Island. Battered by endless wind for millennia, the cracks and crags of this island house hundreds of thousands of seabirds. Species that are relegated to islands like this are especially vulnerable to habitat change brought on by global warming, which is strongest in the Arctic. The island is also a migratory bird sanctuary, one of several conservation areas whose waters will be wrapped into Tallurutiup Imanga NMCA. 46 : THE FUTURE
Zodiac boats hover on the sea, waiting to bring passengers ashore at Mittimattalik. Zodiacs are small, outboard-driven, utilitarian, ubiquitous rubber boats. There are no ports in Nunavut, so boats like Zodiacs are the only efficient way to get from ship to shore, or to navigate icebound passages. Kayaks, invented by the Inuit, originally filled the same versatile role. The knowledge of kayak construction was largely lost with colonial influence, forced settlement, and residential schooling, but is making a comeback. THE FUTURE : 47
Zodiac boats hover on the sea, waiting to bring passengers ashore at Mittimattalik. Zodiacs are small, outboard-driven, utilitarian, ubiquitous rubber boats. There are no ports in Nunavut, so boats like Zodiacs are the only efficient way to get from ship to shore, or to navigate icebound passages. Kayaks, invented by the Inuit, originally filled the same versatile role. The knowledge of kayak construction was largely lost with colonial influence, forced settlement, and residential schooling, but is making a comeback.
Two residents of Mittimattalik look out their window at the visitors arriving for the Tallurutiup Imanga announcement. Mittimattalik, just south of Bylot Island, is one of three Inuit communities whose waters will be included in the conservation area, along with Resolute and Arctic Bay. The increased resources dedicated to protecting these waters should ensure their health for traditional harvesting. The final Inuit Impact and Benefit Agreement could also give communities more leverage in dealing with big cruise companies and others who increasingly, and wantonly, use Inuit waters. 48 : THE FUTURE
John Amagoalik, known as the “Father of Nunavut,” at the Tal- lurutiup Imanga announcement. Born in Nunavik, Amagoalik’s family was relocated to Reso- lute during the period of forced and coerced Inuit resettlement. Then, as a child, he attended residential schools. Later in life Amagoalik led the creation of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement. That document carved Nunavut out of the N.W.T. and assured self- government. The NLCA is a major step in the continued push for trans-arctic Inuit sovereignty.
Biinia Chemnitz Frederiksen picks a wild blueberry on a hill at Kuukvik, Coutts Inlet, Baffin Island. Chemnitz Frederiksen is a young Greenlandic Inuk. The vast majority of Greenland’s population are Inuk and speak Greenlandic, a language very similar to Inuktitut. Greenland is largely sovereign from its Danish colonizer, controlling almost all policy except for defence. Greenlandic Inuit are working with other Inuit to regain traditions and identities lost over centuries of colonialism. Part of that process is teaching youth to live off the land, like harvesting the abundant edible plants of the Arctic for food and medicine. THE FUTURE : 49
A bear guard and an inuksuk watch over the Croker Bay Glacier on Tallurutti, or Devon Island. Bear guards protect shore parties from polar bears, and protect polar bears from getting too close to groups of humans. Inuksuit have been used for thousands of years as markers of place, presence, and direction by the Inuit. They are still used today, left as reminders of those who walked the land, and staying as messages to those who will pass in the future. 50 THE LINK
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The Link is published every month during the academic year by The Link Publication Society Inc. Content is Volume 38, Issue 2 independent of the university and student associations (ECA, CASA, ASFA, FASA, CSU, AVEQ). Editorial policy Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017 is set by an elected board as provided for in The Link’s constitution. Any student is welcome to work on The Link The Link office: and become a voting staff member. Concordia University Material appearing in The Linkmay not be reproduced without prior written permission from The Link. Hall Building, Room H-649 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters 400 words or less will be published, space permitting. The letters dead- Montreal, Quebec H3G 1M8 line is Fridays at 4:00 p.m. The Link reserves the right to edit letters for clarity and length and refuse those deemed Editor: 514-848-2424 x. 7407 racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, libellous, or otherwise contrary to The Link ’s statement of principles. Arts: 514-848-2424 x. 5813 News: 514-848-2424 x. 8682 Corrections: In the last issue, we mistakenly attributed the graphic for the BOG story to Gabor Bata. It was made Business: 514-848-7406 by Julian Bata. In our explanation of student politics, we reported that FASA does not operate with a council or Advertising: 514-848-7406 Board of Directors. It does. The Link regrets these errors.
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STEMSTEM CELLS CELLS IN INCANCER: CANCER: DODO THEY THEY MATTER? MATTER? science college public lecture series SCIENCE COLLEGE PUBLIC LECTUREBY JOHN SERIES E. DICK Historical studies of cancer frequently view a tumor as composed of cells that are all equally bad. More recent studies reveal that individual cells of a tumour vary in many of the features of cancer. This variation can con- tribute to therapy failure and disease recurrence. A single JOHNtu E.mor DICK can be composed of genetically distinct subclones, PROFESSOReach with OF distinct functional properties. Some subclones MOLECULARcan be sensitiveGENETICS to therapy whereas others are resistant to therapy because they contain genetic mutations. Dr DIRECTORDick’s OF research CANCER has foundSTEM that many tumors are func- tional hierarchies similar to normal tissues such as blood CELL PROGRAMME and skin where rare stem cells support continuous tissue UNIVERSITYregeneration. OF TORONTO In cancer, subpopulations of self-renewing cancer stem cells sustain long-term clonal maintenance of cancer cells. Although these cancer stem cells can be rare yet they possess properties such as dormancy that THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26TH, 2017 provides them with therapy resistance. 8 PM The research emphasizes the fact that therapy can erad- icate the bulk of tumor cells. OSCAR PETERSON CONCERTDr Dick HALL will explain how the discovery of cancer stem cells has laid the foundation for new approaches to can- cer therapy.
CONCORDIAtiMe: UNIVERSITY8:00 p.M. 7141 SHERBROOKEDAte: thursday, ST. W.,october 26th, 2017 plAce: oscar peterson concert Hall MONTREAL concorDiA uniVersitY 7141 sHerbrooke street West, FREE MontreAlADMISSION Free ADMission
INFORMATION: 514-848-2424 EXT. 2595 inForMAtion: 514 - 848 -2424 eXt. 2595 THE SCIENCE COLLEGE OFFERS A PROGRAMME tHe science college oFFers A progrAMMe FOR HIGHLYFor HigHlY MOTIVATED MotiVAteD SCIENCE science STUDENTS. stuDents.
The Science College is part of Concordia University. It offers gifted science undergraduates the opportunity to complement their regular curriculum with interdisciplinary training and early introduction to the methods of scientific research.