Montreal police intervene during May Day marches

Over 500 protesters marched from McGill College to Square Victoria on May 1 to mark International Workers’ Day, also known as May Day. Similar marches and protests have been held around the city since 1906; this year,  however some encountered heavy police interference.

“I don’t think we can have a better example of police repression; there’s nothing more totalitarian that that, goddamn it, because we went to two different locations, and it hadn’t even begun, and there were already people kettled [. . .],” Maxence, a visibly angered protester, told The Daily in French. “It’s absolutely ridiculous.”

In total, 132 protesters were detained and fined, while four people were taken to hospital following injuries suffered during police interventions.

With files from The McGill Daily

3-D sock keeps hearts healthy

New technology from the University of Alberta is combining socks and smartphones to create a 3D heart sock that can be stretched over the heart muscle to monitor its condition. Patients would be able to use their smartphones to review their heart health using an embedded wireless chip.

“When your heart is unhealthy, there can be a lot of different signals coming from an [electrocardiogram], where the signal is really average,” said Hyun-Joong Chung, assistant professor of engineering at the U of A. “What our sock can give you is a direct, localized signal straight from the heart.

The researchers hope that the 3D heart sock could potentially be used in the future for heat ablation, drug delivery or shock therapy. 

With files from The Gateway

Alleged sexual assault at McMaster

Students perusing the Spotted at Mac Facebook page were in for more than they bargained for early this month when a student posted about an alleged sexual assault.

The girl posted a photo of a man who she claims forced himself on her after they’d had a few drinks at a local bar. The site has been used previously to post pictures of a supposed thief and other foul players.

Jenny McGreal, media relations officer at Hamilton Police Services, applauded this vigilantism, saying, “As difficult as it is, we do need victims to come forward and that’s part of our constant challenge of educating the public, of creating that awareness that we’re here to help.”

With files from The Silhouette