The McGill Daily (MD): How long have you been doing this kind of work and how would you describe your style?
The “We Are All Artist” piece was painted over the span of two full years. I started at the TNC Theatre and made my way through different circles to events like McGill’s Nuit Blanche and McGill TalentDrive, as well as places on campus. My collaborative explorations, however, started around five years ago in high school, where I began to explore ways in which I could include “everyday people” in the process.

Aquil Virani (AV): While there are stylistic similarities between pieces, I actually try not to stay within a particular style. Each piece has a unified, singular vision, but if you look in the lounge, you could easily think that each piece was made by a different artist. I keep the variation in my work because I want it to be engaging to people even if they’ve seen some of my work before. I’ll get bored if I make the same stylistic choices over and over again. I love to keep it fresh.

MD: What was your inspiration for your recent show COPYCAT?

AV: COPYCAT explored the idea of imitation in art and every day life. The core of the show included artworks that were based on the creative contribution of hundreds of members of the general public. By taking their drawings and using them as inspirational fuel, I feel that I created something new and original by copying the doodles of other people. That fine line between what is original and what is plagiarism is what inspired the theme

MD; Do you prefer the  experience of collaborating with others rather than working alone?

AV: I prefer collaborating with others because it’s much more fulfilling. I’m a social guy, I love people, and if I can include people in the creation process of the painting and interact with them in an accessible way, that experience is much better than painting alone in my studio and putting up pretty pictures on the wall.

MD: What do you study at McGill and how does that influence your work ( or does it?

AV:My path has been an interesting journey, starting in Science in first year, exploring liberal arts in my second year, working mostly in Philosophy in third year, and focusing on Marketing in my final year. The most influential courses have been those in Management because they help me understand the business of art and what I need to do to be successful in the “real world”. It’s not easy making it as an artist, and the tools of entrepreneurship apply extremely well to artists
MD:You did a live painting for TEDx, could you describe that experience?

AV:The interactive painting project at TEDxMcGill was a great experience where I had nine hours to create a five x seven foot painting from start to finish. I used drawings from audience members as inspiration and also pulled quotes from the “TED Talks” as they were presented to provide a running “visual narration” to the event. This was nerve-racking, in particular, because I had such a limited timeline to not just paint, but to finish a large-scale painting.

COPYCAT opened on Wednesday, February 15th in the AUS Lounge in the basement of the Leacock Building. It will stay up in the student space for three weeks.

The post Drawing inspiration from those around him appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Turner, a biochemistry professor, explained that the technological discovery began as a side project, when the team decided to start researching biofilms naturally occurring in the tailings ponds ecosystem.

“What’s novel about what we’re doing,” Turner said, “is that we are growing these communities as biofilms.”

When explaining the benefit of using biofilms, Turner likens the communities to that of a city.

“We don’t have everyone in a city, every single organism, every human in the city, can do every job.  We have the specialist; we have the plumber; we have the accountant; we have all these specialty organisms within a city community. Every individual species within the biofilm will only be able to degrade a certain amount of one kind of compound,” said Turner.

“As a community, in the biofilm, they are close together like we are in a city,” Turner added. “They can work together to get things done.”

Currently, remediation of tailings ponds occurs in a multi-step process.

“The tailings ponds have a lot of microbial activity. The problem is that, there would be metal contamination such that, with that metabolism, [degradation] happens quite slowly. If you can isolate the community organisms that can process all the organic pollutants as well as deal with the heavy metal components, you’d have a super community, if you will,” Turner explained.

This led Turner to collaborate with Ceri, who has spent much of his career looking at metal tolerance comparison between bacteria growing in a biofilm versus other forms of growth. Together they are trying to develop seed organism inoculants to treat the water layer that could be integrated with traditional water treatment.

The goal, Turner said, is “to create metal resistant bacteria that would lead to better organic, and maybe metal remediation, and be able to generate a water treatment process for remediation.”

Biofilms have been used in water treatment and bioremediation before. Water treatment plants in municipal facilities use some forms of biofilm in treating human waste. Other mining tailings have used biofilms for tailings, such as copper. But while a precedent has been set, biofilms are not widely used in the treatment of tailings.

There are many stakeholders who want to emphasize that the success of treating the tailing ponds doesn’t diminish the negative aspects associated with them.

Ramsey Hart, the Canada Program Coordinator of MiningWatch Canada, stated that while this discovery will improve the situation, it does not significantly alter the argument.

“If the water and sediments in the tar sands tailings ponds could be made environmentally benign then certainly that would improve the situation,” he said.

“However, there are still issues of the amount of land and energy the whole system is using, but storing millions of meters cubed of clean water and sediments would be better than the status quo,” Hart continued.

He also expressed reservations about the large-scale application. “I’m quite skeptical that this could be scaled up, but it’s kind of my job to be skeptical,” he said.

Turner and Ceri are nearly done their portion of the research. Turner said they will soon pass the research over to a team of engineers at the University of Alberta, who will begin testing the biofilms in a water treatment system.

“We gave the project six months to see if it would work,” Turner said in an interview with the Canadian University Press. “I never thought it would work in a lab… Where we are now is where we thought we would be in five years.”

The post New research on biofilms could decontaminate tailings ponds appeared first on The McGill Daily.

The festival runs from October 21-23 in the J.A. de Sève Theater at Concordia University (1453 Mackay, Montreal). Adults: $10 per session, children (12 years and under): $5 per session, VIP Pass: $50. For more information, visit our website: www.stopmotionmontreal.com.

The post Stop motion starts a commotion appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Professor Tim Johns from the McGill School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition hosted the event in association with the African Studies Student Association.

The diplomats – both McGill graduates – discussed the progress of the two countries, as well as Canada’s role in their futures. High Commissioners are senior diplomats who act as ambassadors between Commonwealth countries like Canada, Nigeria, and other former British colonies.

Chris Cooter, the High Commissioner in Nigeria, said that Canada characterizes Nigeria as a “strategic partner.” He praised Nigeria’s economic sector for the progress made outside of the lucrative oil industry.

“The oil sector, you could say, is the drag of the economy,” said Cooter, “It’s corrupted the politically elite [and] its prevented investment in other sectors.”

Last year in new industries, such as information technology, Nigeria saw a 9 per cent economic growth.

Cooter described Nigeria as “a crucible of regional trends,” playing an important role as an indicator in the continent, particularly in terms of urbanization and Muslim-Christian relations.

“It’s the only country I’m aware of where you have an even divide of such large Christian and Muslim populations. The way that they interact and don’t interact is really important beyond Nigeria,” he said.
Regarding the future of Nigeria, Cooter said, “As the World Bank told me the other day, it’s not a question of if, but when, it emerges as an economic and political giant.”

However despite hopes for progress, however, Cooter noted problems that still exist. “Nigeria could be a star that never quite rises,” he said. Cooter discussed the continued impunity of violence and corruption, increasing elements of fundamentalism, some of the worst socioeconomic indicators in Africa, and the existence of a political class “only interested in itself.”
Sigrid Anna Johnson, the Canadian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), focused on a single aspect that could allow the Congo to lift itself out of years of turmoil and civil war.

“Congo has enough arable land to produce for one billion people,” said Johnson, “They are a very powerful country in terms of agri-food yet they’re importing food – they cannot produce enough food for themselves. It’s illogical.”
Johnson emphasized the importance of food production, and building roads. “When you have roads built, you have traffic, you have trade, and you have security,” she said.

Johnson also spoke about the importance of stopping the impunity of rape.

Though the rate of rapes in the country is decreasing – Lieutenant-Colonel Kibibi Mutware and eight Congolese soldiers were sentenced in February for over 60 rapes in the country – the priority towards ending the impunity of rape and violence is at the forefront of Canada’s relationship with the DRC.

“The rapes are not only against women; they are against men, children, the elderly. It’s terrible,” she said, “The Canadian government is very invested in this; they are spending millions.”

Despite facing challenges of various degrees of severity, the DRC has enjoyed recent stability and success in terms of macro-economic progress. Its inflation is under 10 per cent, the country’s exchange rate stabilized, and the central bank was able to build reserve. The International Monetary Fund was “so impressed” by the DRC that in June 2010 the IMF cancelled the country’s debt to commemorate fifty years since colonial rule ended in the country and mark its recent success – though the DRC will still be required to pay interest.

The largest country in the Francophonie, the DRC will host the organization’s summit meeting in 2012, something Johnson identified as “a sign of a country trying to emerge politically, and on the international scene.”

The post Canadian diplomats to African countries talk to McGill students appeared first on The McGill Daily.

The government plans to wait until after the March 1 application deadline to decide how it will address the problem. For now the government has lifted fines for over-enrolment in colleges by up to ten per cent, so that Montreal CEGEPs can cope with the higher demand.

As of last June, the provincial government promised one million dollars to help CEGEPs accommodate students and deal with the lack of space. CEGEPs have been waiting to find out whether the provincial government will continue to facilitate the admittance of more students next August.

Colleges off the island of Montreal, such as Collège Montmorency in Laval, are not included in the agreement to temporarily suspend over-enrolment fines. Many feel that the Quebec government is only focusing on Montreal at their expense, said Johanne Morisette, a spokesperson for Collège Montmorency, in an interview with the Gazette.

“We won’t go out tomorrow with our placard. But we think that probably the ministry didn’t necessarily look at the whole picture when it looked at Montreal Island – it didn’t see that there is Greater Montreal, which has a common reality,” Morissette said.

A report Commissioned by Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ) and the Institut de recherche sur le français en Amérique  (IRFA) released last Thursday shows that the effects of overcrowding may be compounded for English CEGEPs. The report shows that this is partly due to a greater number of francophone applicants.

According to the report, since the end of 1990 less than half of new registered students in English Montreal CEGEPs speak English as their first language. The reasons for this, the report outlines, are numerous, but an increase in the importance of being fully fluent in the English language as well as an increase in the importance of being fluent in English appear to be driving forces.

“A strong majority of French-speaking people intend to work or continue English academic work after CEGEP. A relatively important proportion of students in English CEGEPs also intend to leave Quebec after their collegial studies. The desire to open a greater number of doors seems to be an important variable in the equation of the choice of an English CEGEP,” stated the report.

Despite the emphasis placed on a greater number of francophones choosing English CEGEPs in order to achieve “full fluency,” the report notes that the trend does not extend to native English speakers enrolling in French CEGEPs.

“[With] anglophones, the importance of the linguistic factor is explained mainly by a greater ease with English, or by difficulties with French. Anglophones having attended the French secondary school [still] have more ease [communicating] in English than in French. This result raises important questions,” read the report.

Despite over thirty years of legislation to ensure French language prominence in the province, the report reveals that English continues to be pervasive.

“In the light of the results presented in this report…it appears clear that the linguistic impact of the English CEGEPs is negatively reflected on the objective to make French the common language of Quebeckers,” said the report.
This continues to stoke controversy over language laws in Quebec. This includes implementing strict rules regarding who can attend publicly funded English schools.

Previously, a loophole in provincial Bill 101 allowed students otherwise ineligible to attend English public school if they attended a non-subsidized private English school for one year. The loophole was closed by the passage of Bill 104 in 2002.
Since then, Bill 104 has been deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada.  A proposed law, Bill 103, would allow immigrants to send their children to a public English school after three years of attendance at a non-subsidized English school. Bill 103 is currently moving through the Quebec National Assembly.

Neither Minister of Education Line Beauchamp nor the English Montreal School Board could be reached for comment.

The post Quebec slow to move on CEGEP overcrowding appeared first on The McGill Daily.

The McGill Daily: Could you tell us more about the study? And what were the results?
James Torczyner: The study was a follow-up study to one we did based on the 1996 census. That study showed a great deal of inequality experienced by members of the black community when compared to the non-black community. We decided to replicate that study and go a bit further…and to [see] how what we found out demographically is experienced by members of the black community specifically.

The results indicate that, while economic circumstances improved for everyone in the last 10 years, and they did so for blacks as well as non-blacks, the gap between blacks and non-blacks persists no matter how we looked at it: levels of educational attainment, higher unemployment rates, higher poverty rates, higher single-parent family rates, and less access to higher paid occupations. So for example, if we control for education or age or gender or linguistic ability or the occupation that they’re in, the disparities persisted.

MD: Are these findings what you expected when starting the study? What factors contribute to these disparities?
JT: Well, we wanted to see whether or not there had been particular changes in impact. Ten years is not a very long time period in terms of demographic trends. It’s also accompanied by the fact that the black community continues to grow at a remarkable pace; it grew by 38 per cent in 10 years and immigrants, newer arrivals, tend to have a more difficult time economically when they first get here. So, there are a lot of things that are in flux. What’s clear is that whatever the factors are that account for [the results], there is a very alarming, very widespread, very pervasive problem that needs to be addressed.

MD: There has been a lot of media coverage since the study’s release on March 18. In your experience could this attention change public policy to help reduce inequality? Is that the goal?
JT: My hope [as to] what will come out of this, and the reason why I’ve tried not to be in the forefront of these interviews, is that hopefully this can be a catalyst for the various black communities in the city. Often unilingual blacks can’t speak with other unilingual blacks. That affects about half of the community and they live in different parts of the city because of linguistic ability. All of these communities are distinct [but] the data shows there are some common issues and that is around quality. I think what is needed more than anything else is that those communities get together and harp out an agenda [so that they are] able to speak with one voice and have much more clout than they currently do. Because I think politicians listen when communities are well organized.

MD: So it comes down to community action?
JT: I think that without community action, whatever response there is to the study will probably be short lived. When you have problems that are this persistent in society, it really requires members of that community to advocate and to be important watchdogs to make sure the same rights of full citizenship are as accessible to blacks as they are to non-blacks.

MD: What would you expect to happen if this study was replicated again, say, 10 years from now? Would you expect anything to have changed?
JT: I’m a community organizer and a demographer, not a prophet. You ask me what will happen in the future. What will happen in the future will depend on what people do today.

The post Black Montrealers face steep inequality appeared first on The McGill Daily.