Vol76 Issue15, Jan 24, 2012

page 8-9

the

AQuinian St. Thomas University’s Official Student Paper

Food

January 24, 2012 - Volume 76 Issue 15 Poverty

Tim Hortons goes big - really big

Textbooks or food?

More students using the Fredericton Food Bank, campus food bank Stephanie Kelly The Aquinian

You think this is big? It’s Tim Hortons old extra large cup. The new one came out yesterday and is a whopping 24 oz or 0.7 litres. According to Tim Hortons website, this new size will contain more than 200 mg of caffeine. (Tom Bateman/AQ) First-Person

Fear and vomiting in Victoria

First-year student Andrew Nice doesn’t just worry about his grades — but where his next meal comes from too.

“When my groceries first got drastically low, I found myself eating three peanut butter sandwiches a day and dry cereal. I started to get sick and had to get something else to eat.”

Halfway through first semester, Nice used all the money on his meal card and started buying his own groceries. His wallet ran dry and pretty soon, he was visiting the food bank everyday.

“After a few weeks of it, I realized how expensive they [groceries] are and how quick they go, and I couldn’t keep up.”

Nice isn’t alone.

The number of students using the Fredericton Food Bank has doubled since 2007. This is part of a growing trend of people relying on food banks to put supper on the table.

“Every year there seems to be more [people] and the number of students seems to stay concurrent with that,” said food bank distribution manager Chris Fougere.

But he said students aren’t the only ones finding it hard to make ends meet.

“In this day and age, it’s across the board. A lot of people that would never

have to come to the food bank [now] have to.”

Fougere said people are in a losing battle against the rising cost of living.

“In a lot of cases, rent goes up, utilities go up, but sources of income don’t go up to keep pace with the increases.”

The Fredericton Food Bank provides not only food, but clothing, hygienic items as well as household and school supplies for those who need it.

Last year, they helped an average of 800 families per month.

Fougere said the price of basic food supplies are quickly exceeding some people’s budgets.

“It’s the staples - it’s flour, it’s milk, it’s eggs.”

The Fredericton Food Bank isn’t the only one feeling the pinch.

Campus minister Janice Ryan oversees the campus food bank at St. Thomas and said empty shelves are a sign that more students are using it than in previous years.

“You may go out and purchase a couple hundred dollars worth of food and have nothing left after a weekend.”

The food bank relies heavily on donations to stock their shelves. Trick-orEat, where students go door-to-door on Halloween for non-perishable food items instead of candy, usually brings in enough food to last over three months.

But this year, it was gone in three weeks.

SEE STUDENTS ON PAGE 2

INSIDE

The untold story of how a horrific virus outbreak turned the Canadian University Press conference into the zombie apocalypse Alyssa Mosher The Aquinian

The gala

“Are you guys all feeling okay?”

It was Jason Schreurs, co-coordinator of the conference. He’s always looked a bit older than a university student, but he soon started to sound like it too.

He told us at least 25 conference delegates had come down with some mysterious flu. He said we shouldn’t go to the gala dance that capped off the Canadian University Press conference if we were feeling the slightest bit off.

“Yeah, okay, Dad – sure I won’t go out on the last night of the

conference,” I thought to myself.

In the end, all but one of us ended up not going to the gala, but it wasn’t because of Jason’s warning.

Karissa Donkin, our news editor, texted us on her way back from the gala, only about an hour after she had left the hotel. Apparently, the University of Victoria had kicked them out because everyone was projectile vomiting all over the dance floor.

What the crap? (Oh, and that too.)

In the meantime, people were getting sick on the bus, on the back of people’s heads, out the windows. And then when they got back to the hotel, they were getting sick in rain gutters, stairwells and hallways.

Oh, and our two editors who

“weren’t feeling their best” were also sick.

Zombie apocalypse, anyone?

May Day’s here

What the hell kind of contagious, violent sickness was this? Conference organizers were in touch with Vancouver Island Health who said it might be norovirus, also known as Norwalk. Uh, Nor-who? All we knew was two of our editors were already sick – and they couldn’t stop getting sick.

It was like the beginning of a horror movie when you try to forget about the zombie apocalypse that’s just outside your door. Conference organizers breathed through regulated masks and wore sky-blue surgeon’s gloves.

SEE SURVIVING ON PAGE 13

The AQ previews TST’s production of “Oh What a Lovely War,” which takes to the Black Box Theatre Jan. 25-28. Left to right: Gina Geddes, Nicole Vair, Josie Blackmore and Lexi MacRae (Shane Magee/AQ)

SEE TRAGEDIES ON PAGE 6

From the Editor

Being Charles

He says he was sitting at home with a girl friend Thursday morning when they let themselves into his apartment on Westmorland Street.

A woman addressed him: “Charles, I have a search warrant to enter your residence and search your residence, signed by Judge Mary Jane Richards… and you are under arrest for libel.”

He didn’t understand. Wasn’t libel a civil offence? Why were they taking him away in handcuffs?

He says they confiscated his computer and modem too.

“I guess the blogging is all over,” he said at the end of a YouTube video that was taken after he returned from spending six hours in jail.

He looked defeated, like someone had taken away the only thing that

mattered to him.

Fredericton police couldn’t confirm the arrest of Charles LeBlanc Thursday morning because charges have yet to be made. But police did say they entered a home in the downtown area Thursday morning and arrested one male adult in connection with an ongoing investigation into libel charges.

LeBlanc says they’re against a police officer he can’t name and is scheduled to appear in court April 20.

Many people are speaking up and commenting on LeBlanc’s blog and on online articles and saying police went too far; that least of all, they shouldn’t have taken LeBlanc’s computer.

Are they right? Or was something like this finally necessary? ***

Local blogger Charles LeBlanc is notorious for stirring things up. I first heard about him in my second-year journalism class, when our professor referred to him as a valued news source.

He’s what some would call a citizen journalist, always out looking for social or political things to write about.

Sometimes his material, like the video from the point-and-shoot camera he always has on him, is the only material available. That definitely makes him valuable.

But there are people out there who don’t see LeBlanc that way. Instead, they see him as a loudmouth and a nuisance, only on the scene to cause trouble for the police.

And he has been at the centre of some “trouble.”

LeBlanc has been charged for violating the city’s bylaw that forbids riding a bicycle on the sidewalk; he has also been charged with disturbing the peace after using a bullhorn outside the Fredericton police station. He did time for that one.

He has been banned from the Fredericton legislature’s grounds since June 2006. And was arrested at a business conference in Saint John the same month, a case he ended up winning.

LeBlanc openly calls local politicians fascist and his blog is smeared with comments deeming the members of the Fredericton Police Force “racists.”

Back in October, LeBlanc specifically talks about one police officer, who, according to LeBlanc, wanted to keep him in custody during one of his trials.

“This racist cop has tattoos all over his body,” LeBlanc’s blog reads. “Maybe he has connection in the Jail system to have this Blogger harm???”

LeBlanc says his arrest Thursday was for charges in connection with criminal defamation against a police officer.

What now? *** Defamation – especially the criminal kind – is a serious offense. Next to plagiarism, it’s one of the biggest no-no’s in the journalism world. So one has to wonder: If Charles LeBlanc wants to be

treated like other journalists, how can he get off calling people racist?

But one has to wonder if there’s a certain freedom that comes with being a blogger, especially when it comes to being Charles. He does do some good work, after all. Still, there are defamation laws everyone has to follow.

Calling someone a racist, whether that’s connected to the charge LeBlanc faces on April 20 or not, shouldn’t be taken lightly. Racism is still a very real thing in today’s world and you better have serious grounds before labelling someone racist.

But why now? Why, after all this time, after countless name-calling games, is LeBlanc facing charges of libel? Are there legitimate reasons for taking his computer and modem rather than shutting down his website, or are people just fed up with all the Charles-isms?

Somewhere, buried within the legal and journalistic issues, is a broader one – tolerance. Both Charles and the police need to reflect on that.

Poverty

Students at food bank double since 2007 Continued from page 1

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On top of the economic downturn, students are even more vulnerable to poverty, because of high tuition costs, debt and fluctuating incomes.

St. Thomas University students’ union vice-president education Craig Mazerolle said students often feel guilty about turning to food banks and don’t want to talk about it.

“They feel a lot of shame, because they’re told, ‘You’re a student and you’re in a really privileged position.’

“But at the same time, when they do fall on these very tough economic times, they’re real.”

Mazerolle said this phenomenon isn’t new and that rising tuition costs and cuts to federal government funding in the mid-1990s has led to this financial strain on students.

“Student poverty has become a real issue in the last 10 to 20 years.”

The STU food bank is located behind the chapel in George Martin Hall and the Fredericton food bank is on 860 Grandame St. Both are always open to food or monetary donations.

There are more footprints in the snow around the Fredericton Food Bank lately - the number of students visiting it has doubled. (Cara Smith/AQ)

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Education

Next year’s tuition remains a mystery President Dawn Russell lobbying government to stop underfunding STU Shane Magee The Aquinian

It isn’t just the students’ union that’s left in the dark about funding changes to post-secondary education in New Brunswick.

The St. Thomas University administration also knows little about the details of the four-year funding agreement that will be part of the upcoming provincial budget expected in late March.

Earlier this month, STU students’ union president Mark Livingstone said he was not satisfied with the amount of information given by the government about potential changes.

University spokesperson Jeffrey Carleton said university administrators have been meeting with the New Brunswick government to push STU’s position, but have not been given any specific indication about whether funding to STU will be increased, frozen or cut.

He said the meetings with the province “have been pretty healthy. The channels of communication have certainly been open, similar to what it has been in the past.”

“What’s different now is the very difficult financial circumstances facing the province of New Brunswick. That is certainly a factor in the discussions,” he said.

The provincial government has been trying to cut the deficit, projected to be $545.7 million for the 2011-12 fiscal year.

The university says it is too early to tell

Grants to St. Thomas University from the New Brunswick government have increased in previous years from $9,380,801 to $13,235,861. The data was collected from St. Thomas University financial statements. what impact changes in the budget could have on students, faculty and staff.

While the government deals with the financial issues, Carleton said STU president Dawn Russell has been lobbying to increase funding for STU to levels equal with other universities in the province.

“New Brunswick universities have been underfunded compared to universities across the country. Within New Brunswick, St. Thomas has been underfunded relative to UNB, Mount A. and U de M.

“Our students currently receive only about 83 per cent of the provincial average in terms of the provincial operating grants.”

He said that means STU students pay a higher proportion of the cost of their education than their counterparts.

“We feel that we have very little room for further restraint,” he added.

A presidential advisory committee is starting to work on the next budget for the university. Carleton said they have a tough job since they won’t find out until

late March about any changes to funding levels.

“The committee is aware there is a range of possibilities from the government and they have to consider what those are.”

On Jan. 6, Livingstone met with members of the department of post-secondary education, training, and labour, and a series of funding scenarios were outlined to him and other student leaders.

One scenario would see operating grants, of which STU received $13.2

million in 2010-11, frozen.

The department estimated this would mean a tuition increase of eight to 10 per cent as universities try to cover costs.

Others include increasing grants to match the average four per cent yearly cost increases New Brunswick universities face.

In the 2010 election, Progressive Conservative Premier David Alward promised to create a tuition schedule that he said would show students the cost of tuition over four years.

In the last budget, the province allowed universities to increase tuition by up to $200, which STU did.

The budget also included a two per cent increase in funding for operational costs.

Carleton said universities have given the government a simple message.

“Recognizing the difficult circumstance the province is in, that they see universities as investments in education for the future, the future growth of the province, they see universities as economic generators and that the operating grants and any decisions on tuition or tuition direction will allow the universities to continue to provide the quality programming they will provide.”

A pre-budget consultation meeting will take place at the Maritime Forestry Complex at 6:30 p.m. tonight so the public can provide input on the provincial budget to the government.

Alumni

Former STU president tasked with salvaging art college Daniel O’Brien to help draft plan that will manage the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design’s resources Karissa Donkin The Aquinian

If there’s anything Daniel O’Brien has learned over his career, it’s how to be diplomatic.

Diplomacy has become O’Brien’s strong suit, given that wherever he goes, he seems to leave having made the organization better.

During a 16-year term as president of St. Thomas University, he oversaw a massive campus expansion, adding seven new buildings and more than doubling the university’s enrolment.

His influence on the STU of today is so strong that the study hall in Margaret Norrie McCain Hall bears his name.

But he didn’t stop there.

Since leaving STU in 2006, O’Brien has facilitated the Atlantic School of Theology’s first-ever faculty contract negotiations, chaired a commission that helped the Nova Scotia government balance the supply and demand of teachers and assisted the Canadian Medical Association with revamping its governance structure - to name a few projects.

O’Brien’s been called on to help again and this time, the task in front of him is large.

O’Brien, who now splits his time between Halifax and Chester, N.S., has been asked to advise the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design as it drafts a sustainability plan. His official title is

facilitator and he’ll report monthly to the Nova Scotia government.

The college has been operating beyond its means for years, O’Brien explained.

“NSCAD has hit a classic funding wall.

Expenditures far exceed operational revenues. That’s occurred in three successive years.

“The only reason why they’ve been able to operate as is, [is] because the government has seen fit to essentially infuse more money than their formula would suggest is satisfactory.”

Under O’Brien’s watch, the college has to figure out how to live with what resources it has over the foreseeable future, without the quality of education taking a hit.

The stakes are high and the future of NSCAD rests on the sustainability plan.

“I’m working diligently to help them uncover every possible means of salvaging what is by everyone’s estimation a highly valuable addition to the post-secondary sector,” he said.

“It’s [a] difficult task, but it’s doable.”

O’Brien couldn’t pinpoint a specific experience at STU that prepared him Daniel O’Brien says STU can avoid a problem like NSCAD’s by operating to take on the task. But said he under- within its means. (Submitted) stands the complexity of universities and how change needs to be carried out differently, sometimes slower, in them.

“The government might say, ‘You “You can’t just do that in a university For example, a university still has an should eliminate programs that are un- environment when you’re recruiting obligation to its students, even as it’s der-enrolled or aren’t as robust in terms students a year in advance of their arrivchanging, he said. of financial break even as others.’ al...to participate in specific programs.”

That’s the kind of advice O’Brien has been brought in to offer.

He can’t speak specifically on some of the things he’s working on at NSCAD because they’re still under development. But he can say what he won’t do.

He doesn’t plan on reminding everyone about his success at STU and with other projects. He wants to focus only on the future.

“You can’t constantly be drawing on your own experiences that resulted in [success]. People don’t want to hear about that all the time.”

Even as he’s worked on other projects, O’Brien has kept up with what’s going on at STU. He regularly checks the STU website and attended president Dawn Russell’s installation last fall.

The best advice he can give to STU to avoid a situation like NSCAD’s is for the university to operate within its means.

“That’s the important balance that everyone strives for, to strive for quality, strive for excellence, but do it in a way which does not over extend your resources. It’s a lesson in fiscal balance and moving towards fiscal responsibility.”

It sounds logical enough, but O’Brien warns it’s easy to lose fiscal balance. Any combination of decreasing operating grants from provincial governments, dipping enrolment or contract negotiations could be all it takes.

“It can happen almost overnight. You have to be very vigilant.”

STUSU briefs

Faculty

STUSU has excess cash, looking for ways to spend it

STU prof warns of problems facing farming

Shane Magee The Aquinian

CASA vote

Another step has taken place in the STUSU’s review of membership in the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations.

On Monday, vice-president education Craig Mazerolle sent notification to the organization that the STUSU will hold a vote within 30 days on whether to remain full members or associate members. Last year, the union voted to begin the process of reviewing membership and held information sessions last semester.

STU strategic growth plan

Craig Mazerolle said the university is working on a strategic growth plan for the next four to five years that will help direct decision-making. “This is going to be a really important document, something that is going to lay the ground work for the next couple years at this university.”

He said the university will likely be meeting with a number of different campus groups to get input on the plan.

SUB survey

STU and UNB students will soon be able to voice their opinions about the Student Union Building. The SUB board is putting together a survey and there will be a section for STU students specifically.

STUSU looking to spend money

The union has yet to spend any money from the events budget line and has spent less than 50 per cent from the activities line. STUSU president Mark Livingstone said he wants to hear suggestions from the union about how to spend the money, saying there’s “lots of cash there.”

Susan Machum holds the Canada Research Chair in rural social justice Jackie Muise The Aquinian

Susan Machum grew up on a farm near Oak Point, N.B., one she felt she would be happy to leave behind.

And so she did, travelling, studying and researching.

But the farm refused to leave Machum and with each successive experience, she found herself ever more drawn into the serious problems facing the state of farming, farmers and rural communities in Canada and New Brunswick today.

It has become the focus of her life’s work and, as of this past fall, Machum has been granted a second phase of study as the Canada Research Chair in rural social justice at St. Thomas University.

“Socio-economic problems in the rural setting include a vast range of inter-connected issues - low product return, low wages and inherently high family debt loads often result in an excessive poverty rate,” Machum said.

All three levels of Machum’s graduate and post-graduate research investigated a specific area of women’s work in agriculture.

In 1987, she received her bachelor of arts in sociology from St. Thomas University. She then went on to complete her master’s degree in sociology at Dalhousie University in 1992, and finally attained her PhD, again in sociology, at Edinburgh University in Scotland in 1999.

“Social issues are very often women’s issues, a consequence of the unvalued or undervalued but critical contribution women make towards the family farm and rural life in general.”

Machum’s work also focuses on

Susan Machum grew up on an Oak Point, N.B. farm. She’s since left her family farm, but has spent her career drawing attention to issues facing the state of farming in Canada’s rural communities. (Tom Bateman/AQ) how the health of urban communities depend on the health of rural communities.

Over the last half century, the number of farms in the province has shrunk from approximately 26,500 to under 3,000, she said.

Despite huge tracts of land that are now or once were agriculturally rich in the province, New Brunswick currently imports the vast majority of the food it consumes.

The handful of products that could be produced here are now being supplied more and more from the large “factory farm.”

As a result, rural communities are suffering a slow insidious erosion,

Machum said, and her family is a case in point.

“While they [five generations] built a very prosperous farm, it did not survive into the present day. Instead the land... stands in the middle of CFB Gagetown, one of the largest military bases in Canada, and is accessible to family descendants to visit grave sites one day a year.”

Machum believes current government policy is skewed toward supporting dependence on a global, industrial food system and, as a result, she has joined forces with the New Brunswick Food Security Action Network.

“The global food system emphasizes growing dollars over safe, local and sustainable food sources. This group is

concerned with the environmental and human impacts of industrial food production systems, as well as the maldistribution of food and resources in general.”

Over the next several years, Machum’s research will continue to examine and assess current agricultural and social policies and help to formulate new, sound practices that support a viable local (short chain supply) food market system, one that is balanced and sustainable in the long run.

But more than this, Machum will be striving to find ways to revitalize the integral and vibrant way of life that once was rural New Brunswick, “hopefully before it’s too late.”

Politics

NDP leadership candidates aren’t all the same

It’s no secret that I’m pretty far to the left when it comes to politics. I support increasing taxes on corporations and the rich to pay increased investment in healthcare, education, pensions and affordable housing.

I want a Canada with more social and economic justice – that’s why I’m a member of the New Democratic Party.

But this column isn’t about why I support the NDP (or why I think you should).

What I want to talk about is the analysis and commentary on the NDP leadership race coming from political pundits and many journalists.

If I only read the editorial pages of major papers, it would be easy to think that the people running for the leadership of the NDP agree on everything. Since I haven’t decided who I’ll be supporting as the next leader, I’ve been paying close attention to the leadership race.

From the email updates sent from the candidates and the policies they’ve each put out, I see some pretty diverse

platforms emerging. And in the debates I’ve watched, I certainly haven’t come away with the impression that the candidates agree on everything.

While the Republican debates in the U.S. might be entertaining to watch, I’m sure most people involved in a political party would agree that a nasty leadership race where candidates hurl insults at each other and play dirty isn’t the way to build a party able to work together at the end of the race.

But just because the NDP leadership candidates haven’t been nasty to each other, doesn’t mean they don’t disagree.

In the past, many journalists and prominent political commentators haven’t had to pay much attention to the NDP. Maybe that’s why they can’t pick out the disagreements between leadership candidates.

Here are some issues where I can see substantially different positions between candidates: Israel-Palestine: An issue where there’s an incredibly wide range of positions.

Taxes: Although not all candidates have released their proposals for changes to the taxation, those that have come forward are diverse, with some focusing on income tax, others on sales tax and still others on eliminating corporate tax loopholes.

Co-operating with other political parties: While no one is suggesting a merger, there are a pretty wide range of ideas – from joint nominations with other parties to ways to co-operate in a minority government.

Job creation: All the candidates agree on the need to create jobs (though seriously, what politician disagrees with that?). But they all have different proposals on how to get there.

Tuition fees and student debt: Many candidates have concrete plans to make education more affordable, and this is something that affects us directly.

Of course there are some things the candidates agree on – they are in the same political party, after all. But headlines like “Amid ‘violent’ agreement, NDP excitement’s at a premium,” or “An NDP leadership debate, minus the debate,” are simply a symptom of lazy journalism.

While the National Post might think the eight candidates running for the leadership agree on everything, it’s just not true.

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Internet

STU prof calls American bill “intrusive” SOPA bill postponed indefinitely after popular websites go black in protest; some saw bill as a form of censorship Jordan MacDonald The Aquinian

On Jan. 18, everyone woke up to a similar sight: Some of the most popular websites had nothing on them.

Wikipedia, Reddit, the Cheezburger websites, XKCD and others were all replaced with information on a bill in the American House of Representatives.

The sites went black in protest of SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act. The bill was sold as a way to stop the downloading of pirated movies and music, but some saw it as opening the door to government censorship.

The protest worked, as plans to draft the bill have been postponed.

If the bill passed, the effect would have been a form of censorship, said Shaun Narine, chair of St. Thomas University’s political science department.

From reading he has done, Narine said SOPA seems to be “unnecessarily intrusive and quite ominous.”

“All along the way [if the bill had passed] you would have ended up with people either losing access to websites or you would have people continuously second-guessing things that they can allow links to. Plus you would have people basically being concerned if they

If you used the internet on Jan. 18, you likely saw a lot of this. Popular websites like Wikipedia, XKCD, the Cheezburger websites and many others went black in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

ought to allow links at all.”

Narine said it was amazing how quickly the Senate abandoned the bill after getting complaints.

“All Wikipedia had to do was shut down for a day. And that’s it.,” he said.

“Within a matter of hours, some of the senators who were sponsoring the bill withdrew their sponsorship.”

Education

Daniel Power, a St. Thomas University student, had much stronger words to say about SOPA. “The United States is taking a position where they’re kind of infiltrating people’s personal lives and...it’s kind of going overboard,” said Power. “I feel that the internet is a way to really to express your own views.”

If the bill had passed as it was written, it wouldn’t have just been the Americans who were feeling the blow.

Even though almost every popular website is based in the United States, there would have been other effects for Canadians, said Narine.

“The main impact it would have had on Canada is the fact that the laws are

actually, in some cases, directly against foreign internet service providers and foreign internet websites and so from that point of view, clearly, Canada is a foreign country.

“There are websites based in this country that, in theory, could have ended up with information on them or links on them that...gave access to material that was protected in some way.”

This would have led to the websites being shut out of the American market.

Although this bill has been halted in the Congress, it’s likely that similar legislation will resurface in the future.

“What’s interesting about this case is that the attempts to create this very draconian law which came from these particular companies, the masters of Hollywood basically, and the push back from it came from another money industry, namely the internet industry as based out of Silicon Valley.

“You had money versus money and in this particular moment you had the Silicon Valley people [playing] their hand very well.

“I suspect over the long term you’ll end up with some kind of a compromise that will enable the moneyed interests in Hollywood to get along with the moneyed interests in Silicon Valley.”

Recruitment

On the Rhode to success New aboriginal education initiatives STU’s size doesn’t stop students from winning one of the world’s most prestigious awards to be revealed in fall Sam Laidman The Aquinian

St. Thomas University may be one of the region’s smallest universities, but that hasn’t stopped its students from making big waves.

While STU’s enrolment accounts for less than one per cent of all Canadian university students, STU students have accounted for more than three per cent of Canadian Rhodes Scholars in the past eight years.

The Rhodes Scholarship, a prestigious award for graduate studies at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, valued at more than $100,000, was most recently awarded to MaryDan Johnston.

Johnston, the St. Thomas University students’ union’s vice-president administration, is one of eleven Canadian students to receive the honour this year.

Other St. Thomas graduates granted the prestigious award are Matthew Carpenter-Arevalo in 2003 and Stephen Brosha in 2007.

Both have gone on to be successful in their field; Brosha, becoming a pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force, and Carpenter-Arevalo going on to work for Google in Berkeley, Calif., and then to Geneva, Switzerland, working on the World Economic Forum.

So what is it that makes students from STU so successful in winning the prestigious award?

Johnston says STU’s emphasis on a critical liberal education has helped create graduates who look for the root of a problem, rather than a Band-Aid

solution.

She is also thankful for the professors that led her to become so passionate in community projects and leadership roles.

“I felt like the committee wanted to get to know me, and so I felt really safe to talk about the things that I’m passionate about and explain what it is that I do with my life,” she said of her interview with the Rhodes Scholarship committee.

Some of her causes include furthering access to post-secondary education, particularly for those with disabilities, as well as sustainability and issues of justice and equality.

As an interdisciplinary student, Johnston feels her multitude of different academic experiences has well-prepared her for the transition to Oxford. If anything, she says, she may be unprepared for the culture shock.

Richard Southcott, secretary of the selection committee for the Maritime region, said while the committee is delighted to see a school succeed in the selection process, not one school or teaching method is seen as preferable. It all comes down to the individual.

He said they look for students with intellectual prowess, the ability and energy to lead and use their talents to the fullest, as well as have proven integrity of character in employing their talents towards the betterment of the community.

Johnston will attend Oxford next fall.

She has applied to both the economics and social history program, as well as sociology.

Aboriginal recruitment hard to track on campus Karissa Donkin The Aquinian

It’s been almost exactly two years since Chris George began his three-year term as St. Thomas University’s director of aboriginal initiatives.

Since then, George has familiarized himself with some of the university’s aboriginal students and made contacts with aboriginal communities and organizations around the province.

But many of the fruits of the 1999 STU graduate’s labour will be evident this fall, he said in an interview from his James Dunn Hall office last Friday.

“You’ll start seeing a lot of the initiatives we have in place [in September],” George said.

He can’t say what the initiatives might consist of yet.

“We’re not really sure how far they’ll go and which ones we’re going to pick up and champion.”

George was hired in February 2010 to increase the participation of aboriginal students at STU. At the time, he said his main goal was to improve STU’s aboriginal population and see them through graduation. To do this, he said he would have to break down some of the barriers students face when leaving reserves.

By September, George said it should be easier to tell whether STU’s aboriginal population has increased since his time at STU began.

Until last September, it was difficult to track the number of aboriginal students at STU. Now, there’s a box on the STU application form where someone

can self-identify as aboriginal if they feel comfortable with it, George said.

“It’s a tough thing to ask somebody their ethnicity, religion, those kinds of things, because it is private in nature. It can be used in negative ways.

“We use those numbers for budgeting purposes, tracking numbers of students and showing progress with what we’re doing.”

It won’t be George alone who will decide which initiatives go forward in September.

He’s in the process of setting up an advisory committee of community members, alumni and “other key stakeholders” to ensure there’s transparency with what they’re doing.

In the meantime, George spends much of his time networking, sometimes while travelling with university recruiter Owen Marshall. George will go to schools that have an aboriginal school advisor designated for the school’s aboriginal students.

“It’s important for me to build up a relationship with the aboriginal student advisors at the schools,” he said.

“New Brunswick is small. Most of them I am familiar with. I went to school with some of them, I’m family with some of them. It’s basically just keeping in touch with each other and kind of knowing what’s going on.”

Out of the about 15 aboriginal students George works with at STU, he estimates half of them are straight out of high school, while the other half are mature.

When these students start STU, they’ll often meet Emily Smith, a first-year social

work student who works with George.

She offers seminars to students on things like time management and nutrition, in addition to tutoring and essay reading services.

For many of the first-year aboriginal students George encounters, it’s all about making students comfortable here.

“A lot of it is just overcoming the anxiety of coming to class every day. It’s just basic things that young people face.

Sometimes it’s just a conversation, getting to know someone who’s been through the program.

“It’s all the same stresses that come with coming from a small community, a small town. Fredericton is huge to a lot of people from rural New Brunswick.”

With his term winding down, George said he thinks there’s more support for aboriginal students at STU today than when he was a student.

Most of his support came from the native studies department and Andrea Bear Nicholas, now the endowed chair of the native studies department.

George had only been living in Canada for two years, having moved from the Worchester, Mass. in high school after his parents split up. He didn’t know much about his own Micmac culture, but discovered that at STU. “When I moved to Canada and I moved to a First Nations community, I was immersed in our culture and to what it was.

“Then I came to university and I met the professors and I met other people who had been involved in the political side and the historical side.”

Arts Listings

Campus:

La Mesa Hispana - Practice your Spanish @ JDH, every Wed. at 11:30 a.m.12:30 p.m. until April 4

Gallery: Nathalie Daoust’s Tokyo Hotel Story @ Gallery Connexion, runs until Mar. 2 Printmaking exhibit @ Gallery 78, runs until Feb. 9

Playhouse: Led Zeppelin III @ 7:30 p.m., Jan. 27, regular admission - $40, under 19 - $20, member - $36 Ron Sexsmith @ 8 p.m., Feb. 1, regular - $37, day of show - $42

Film: The NB Film Co-op presents Oranges and Sunshine @ Tilley Hall, UNB Campus, Jan. 30, 8 p.m., member - $4, regular admission - $7 Cinema Politica Fredericton presents A Place called Chiapas @ Conserver House, 180 John St., Jan. 27, 7-9 p.m.

Music: Midnight Ramblers @ Wilser’s Room, Jan. 25, 10 p.m., $5 or free for students Repartee & Friends @ The Capital, Jan. 26, 10:30 p.m., $5

Theatre

Tragedies of war (as told by clowns) Theatre St. Thomas presents Joan Littlewood’s “Oh What a Lovely War” this week Amy MacKenzie The Aquinian

Usually, when you think of someone telling a World War I story, you think of intrepid foreign correspondents or the voice of a valiant veteran. But in, “Oh What a Lovely War,” the tragedies of war are told by clowns.

Theatre St. Thomas will be performing Joan Littlewood’s play at the Black Box Theatre this week. Ilkay Silk, director of drama at St. Thomas University, says she loves the play because of its use of comedy to make serious points about war.

“It’s a bit like Monty Python, which can be very funny, but also has this dark side to it because it’s always making a point,” she said. “It’s satirising characters and through comedy and making fun, there’s a commentary, a very serious commentary being told.”

Silk says the play is sure to be entertaining, with songs from the time period, a live seven-piece band and choreographed dance numbers.

TST last performed “Oh What a Lovely War” in 2000, and Silk is excited to have the theatre company perform it again. She chose the play because of its important social commentary about war, but also because it allows for a large number of students to be involved.

“Students learn a lot from being in this kind of play in the sense that they each play so many different parts,” she said.

Gina Geddes, Josie Blackmore, Nicole Vair and Lexi MacRae rehearse on Sunday in preparation for Theatre St. Thomas’ upcoming show, “Oh What a Lovely War.” The play runs from Jan. 25 until Jan. 28. (Shane Magee/AQ) “They don’t have just one role, and there’s dancing and singing and clowning and it’s a very wonderful piece to have students involved in for performance.”

There are 28 cast members performing in the show, including eight first-year students. Silk says since September, the students have been dedicating 12 hours a week to rehearsals to get this play right.

“Once you get a part in the play you’re expected to take it seriously and these

students have. Last weekend we rehearsed for 22 hours,” she said. “It’s a huge commitment and a commitment that’s important for them. They make friends and it becomes part of their social life.”

Silk says the mixture of comedy and tragedy will make it an entertaining night for the audience.

“The music is fabulous and the choreography is wonderful,” she said. “They’ll laugh and they’ll also be very upset.”

First-Person

Fredericton market turns the Lights up

Juno award-winning artist Lights delights crowd at Fredericton Boyce Farmers Market

Live jazz @ The Cedar Tree Cafe, Thurs. evenings. This week is String Swing with Chris Mercer and Alex Bailey on acoustic guitars and Mark Lulham on upright bass - Jan. 26, 7-9 p.m., open to all ages, no cover Major Rager @ The Phoenix, Jan. 27, 10 p.m., $5 Something Good & Friends @ The Capital, Jan. 27, 10:30 p.m., $5 Motherhood, Kestrels & The Waking Night @ Gallery Connexion, Jan. 27, doors at 7 p.m., show at 8 p.m., $5 for gallery members, $7 for non-members Lonesome Line, Earthbound Trio & Friends @ The Capital, Jan. 28, 10:30 p.m., $5 Pirate Soul, The Ray Finkles & Maiden Names @ Gallery Connexion, Jan. 28, 8 p.m.

The Trews & Poor Young Things @ Capital Exhibit Centre, Jan. 28, doors at 8 p.m., show at 9 p.m., adv. $25 or $30 day of show, all ages

But Silk says the underlying message of the play is what makes it a play people should see.

“We want to move people,” she said.

“We just want people to think about what war really means.”

“Oh What a Lovely War” opens on Jan. 25 and runs until Jan. 28 with a show each evening at 7:30 p.m. and a matinee at 2 p.m. on Saturday. Admission is $5 for students and seniors and $10 for adults.

Canadian singer Lights performed a number of songs from her newest album, Siberia. (Vanessa Cormier/AQ) Vanessa Cormier The Aquinian

The Fredericton Boyce Farmers Market surely wasn’t full of those in search of fresh produce or a homemade pair of wool socks on Thursday.

The venue was packed with Lights fans of all ages.

The Canadian singer first came on the music scene in 2009 when she released her self-titled EP and earned a Juno for Best New Artist.

I was fortunate enough to meet the 24-year-old artist before the concert. I awkwardly shook her hand and posed for a picture, starstruck by the pintsized Toronto native, who said it was

her first time in Fredericton.

Despite the chilling temperature, the city gave her a warm welcome.

A number of fans lined up outside an hour before the doors opened.

Although the show wasn’t sold out, the venue was jam-packed; the wrong dance move could likely give the stranger next to you a black eye.

The concert kicked off with Nightbox, an up-and-coming dance-rock band originally hailing from Ireland.

Their half-hour set was followed by an intensive sound-check which left the crowd antsy.

As each member of Lights’ band took their positions on stage, the crowd roared, awaiting the main attraction.

Lights coyly walked on stage in her plaid shirt and skinny jeans, greeted by shrieking screams.

The artist performed a number of songs from her album Siberia. Her hit singles “Toes,” “Saviour” and “Ice” all received an energetic response from the crowd.

Lights played a few piano ballads showing off her vocal range, but overall her voice was exceptional throughout the concert.

True to her name, the light show was an added perk to her performance.

She played for an hour, thanked the crowd and walked off stage. Moments later the chants began. After a few convincing minutes of crowd persuasion, Lights finished her show with an encore.

When the concert ended, she tweeted: “Great show just went down in Fredericton. Who knew farmers’ markets were so fun?”

Lights was clearly enthused about the venue - without even getting her hands on a samosa. She should really consider coming back on a Saturday.

Profile

Comics

Understanding the material

Occupy Comics document movement frame by frame Project aims to capture and further activist movement, fundraise for demonstrators Miranda Martini

The Ubyssey (University of British Columbia)

“In many ways, my life has been quite blessed,” said Rachel Watters. The 30-year-old has a very rare physical condition called Miller syndrome, a condition that affects the development of limbs and the face. (Kaylee Moore/AQ)

UNB master’s student combines experience with physical disability with interests in photography, the media and women’s studies Amanda Jess The Aquinian

Rachel Watters is animated as she remembers spending time in hospital rooms as a child. Even though she was there for a medical condition, she says she thrived in the spotlight.

“My mother would tell me that I would be dancing around the room, playing with their instruments, telling knock-knock jokes.”

The 30-year-old Fredericton resident has a very rare physical disability called Miller syndrome, a condition that affects the development of limbs and the face. It usually results in shortened limbs, recessed chins and a cleft palate.

“Sometimes I have difficultly with certain doorknobs or there’s certain things I can’t do, but you sort of learn to find a way around them or adapt. In many ways, my life has been quite blessed.”

Watters is combining her experience with physical disability and her interests in photography, the media and women’s studies

for her master’s thesis at the University of New Brunswick. Her project is examining how women with disabilities are portrayed in the media.

“Somebody suggested to me that I should pick a topic that is close to my heart because then you stay involved in it and stay focused on it.”

Watters decided on her thesis topic after an undergraduate degree in photography at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, an attempted master’s degree in women’s studies at Saint Mary’s University, a diploma in graphic design at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design and a year in the Aquinas program at St. Thomas University.

She says only 30 to 40 people around the world have Miller syndrome. The severity of the disorder differs among cases and Watters has a mild to moderate case.

She’s looking for 10 women that are 18 years or older who self-identify as physically disabled, to participate in her thesis, which she hopes to finish by June. So far, she has

three participants confirmed.

Her thesis will include new representations of women with physical disabilities, but she wants to take it one step further.

Following the completion of her thesis, she hopes to create a book of photographs depicting women with physical disabilities in a different way. She is also planning to earn her PhD in interdisciplinary studies.

Watters says her interest in photography sprouts from her father’s love for it, and she attributes her mother for her interest in women’s studies.

“I’ve always been a feminist because my mother is a feminist. I remember as a kid, I used to really love comic books and how I would decide what comic book to buy would be I’d go through the bin of four for a dollar and any that had a woman on the cover, that’s the one I wanted to buy.”

If you would like more information or are interested in participating in Watters’ study, she can be contacted at rachelwatters@ gmail.com.

VANCOUVER (CUP) — In the call for submissions to his latest project back in October, award-winning writer, director and activist Matt Pizzolo wrote, “I think Occupy Wall Street needs art more than it needs a list of demands… I think artists and writers of comic books have a unique ability to evoke broad ideas and ideals in captivating, dramatic ways.”

With that in mind, more than 50 artists and writers agreed to contribute to Occupy Comics: Art and Stories Inspired

by Occupy Wall Street, a unique graphic anthology geared towards capturing the Occupy Wall Street movement as it unfolds. Contributors will include Alan Moore and David Lloyd, Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls and Steve Rolston, Vancouver-based artist and featured illustrator on the Eisner Award-winning series Queen & Country.

The project’s website states that it is intended to be “a time capsule of the passions and emotions driving the movement,” but Pizzolo makes it clear that the project is about activism as much as observation.

While the idea gained steam as professionals and fans began to take notice, Pizzolo wondered if the project might be an opportunity to support Occupy as well as document it.

In the interest of raising funds for the anthology, a Kickstarter campaign was created with a baseline goal of $10,000.

All of those involved in the project, from artists and writers to the publisher, have agreed to donate 100 per cent of the

revenue to the occupiers, which will help to provide heaters, warm clothes and other amenities that will allow the protests to survive the winter.

The campaign received almost double its goal, which may mean additional features in the eventual anthology as well as larger donations for protesters.

Although there are several international contributors, the focus of the project is undoubtedly on Wall Street.

Some, like Rolston, have expressed discomfort with their local movements, though they support the idea of showing solidarity for the protests stateside.

“I feel like the goals of Occupy protests up here have shifted too far from what the focus should be,” said Rolston.

“Fish farming may be worthy of protest but mixing that into the Occupy Vancouver protests distracts from and diffuses the core idea of the Occupy movement.”

Ironically, it is this controversy that gave Occupy Comics the groundswell of media coverage it needed to meet its minimum goal on Kickstarter. “I feel like I should send [Rolston] flowers for putting this project on the map,” said Pizzolo.

Regardless of the direction Occupy takes over the next few months, comic fans can look forward to a project that could change the way art and advocacy intersect, capture a unique moment in the history of activism and maybe even irritate Frank Miller.

Occupy Comics will debut as a rolling series of digital comics early this year, followed by limited edition paper comics. They will then be compiled into a hardbound anthology late in 2012.

Health

Expressing your inner voice through creativity and yoga

Known as ‘The Happy Painter,’ Donna Mulholland combines yoga and written journaling in new class Julia Whalen The Aquinian

Donna Mulholland’s lifelong mantra is: “Do what you love.”

So when she left her job with the provincial government three years ago by choice – something she called “an abrupt leap” – she set out to do just that.

“What I love is to create and to inspire others to be, express and celebrate themselves with creativity, watercolour, art journaling and yoga,” Mulholland said in an email. “I’m especially excited to be offering classes that integrate creativity and yoga.”

Mulholland said she was always singing, dancing and writing stories as a child and teen, but left her creative pursuits behind when she got older. The creative spark was reignited, she said, when she signed up for a watercolour class in 2006.

“I fell in love with it right away, and from there I’ve continued on with painting, art journaling and teaching locally and internationally online.”

Mulholland established Creativity

Matters in 2010, teaching classes in watercolour, art journaling, creativity and yoga. Starting Feb. 5 at the Satori Centre for Well-Being on King St., she’ll be teaching a class combining yoga and journaling.

“There is research reporting the mental health benefits of yoga, particularly for improving low mood, reducing stress and dealing with anxiety,” she said. “Journaling is often cited as a therapeutic tool for depression and stress reduction.”

Mulholland said she’s been doing Julia Cameron-style morning pages for years – a practice named after the artist, who suggested a morning routine of handwriting three pages in a journal each day. Now, Mulholland said, the practice is as essential to her morning routine as making coffee and brushing her teeth.

“The best part is that there is no right Fredericton resident Donna Mulholland is an artist, yoga instructor and or wrong way to do it. All you need is a creativity consultant. “Listening to and expressing your inner voice is pen and some paper, or your computer. what creativity is all about,” she said. (Donna Mulholland) A commitment and some structure, such as taking a class, can be helpful to get are to sign up for a class, workshop or reMulholland said she’s had up to 40 started. Most of us lead such busy lives treat to explore, play and re-ignite your participants in her online classroom, these days that I think the best options creative side.” but limits her local classes from five to

15 participants. Small classes create a warm, relaxed and non-competitive atmosphere, she said, which ensures a good learning environment.

Mulholland said “as hokey as it sounds,” her first yoga class felt like she was coming home to herself. She became intrigued with the relationship and similarities of creativity and yoga and their journeys towards self-discovery and finding one’s inner voice.

“Both practices are transformational.

Listening to and expressing your inner voice is what creativity is all about. I see the relationship between yoga and creativity as a two-way street. With both practices, we learn to stretch ourselves to find that place on the edge of our comfort zone where growth and discovery beckon.”

Mulholland’s Yoga and Journaling class will be held at the Satori Centre for Well-Being, 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. on Sunday mornings, from Feb. 5–26. The fee for the class is $60, and pre-registration is required. Contact donnamu66@yahoo. com to register or for more information.

8

Battle of

Chronicles of a doub

by Shane

I

won’t sugar coat it, I spend a disgusting amount of time in classrooms. I’m trying to finish four majors, spanning two degrees at the same time. In order to pull this off I spend a lot of time dashing up and down the hill between both the University of New Brunswick and St. Thomas. It’s given me a unique point of view that not every person on the hill gets.

I’m not here to pick sides, as I like each university for what it offers, I’m simply pointing out the differences between the two. We all know what’s obvious - UNB’s facilities dwarf STU’s, while STU profs can usually list each of their students by name. I’m well aware that some things can’t compare because they cater to different needs. I go to STU because UNB doesn’t offer journalism. I go to UNB for science because I don’t think there is a microscope at STU. What I am comparing here are the shared experiences that every student must deal with no matter which end of the hill you’re on.

The stereotype for each campus goes as follows: STU students tend to get all dressed up even with no place to go, while UNBers are generally rocking the sweatpants and hoodie combo. Now, I don’t mean to generalize, but you know what? It’s true! I’m not saying one student body is better looking than the other (pauses for joke to settle), but on average STU student dresses like every day is a string of job interviews, while UNB students look ready for a pep rally. And it makes sense. STU students don’t have to walk as far between classes so there’s no need to bundled up. At UNB you could freeze to death on your way from the HIL to the gym.

Also, the luggage my UNB classes demand could cripple a camel. Looking good is hard to do when your back is broken and buried under book bags. A lot of STU professors opt for posting their readings online, or printing them off and handing them out instead of textbooks. This means the green team can skip to class with a pen and smile. However, the freedom STU affords has disadvantages. If you want to wear a skirt in mid-January, by all means go right ahead, but I will look at you like you’re soft in the head. Personally, I love a good UNB high-bun; it means business and dedication. So really the whole ‘who is sexier’ debate is relative. (Not that I use ‘sexier’ and ‘relative’ in the same sentence often.)

The Dress Code

Well, here’s the only non-contest of the whole article. From the classrooms to the hallways to the buildings, the physical argument of which campus presents itself best goes to St. Thomas. It’s size and age gives it distinct advantage, too. Some classrooms are painted in lime greens and yellows to “stimulate learning.” Sounds campy, but I prefer it over the craters in some UNB classrooms where it looks like the ceiling took a dump. Entire buildings at the bottom of the hill can feel that way. I think all of Bailey Hall has been soaked in formaldehyde and a stray match or a strong wind is going to end that place. The atmosphere in some UNB structures can be downright depressing.

While it’s true that some facilities are gorgeous, it highlights the disconnect between the “have’ departments and the “have not’s.” It makes the UNB experience inconsistent.

STU has nailed the concept of community. It’s small and close-knit. I know some UNB students that go to STU to study for the “homey feel” and so they don’t feel isolated. I also know some UNB students that feel claustrophobic on STU grounds. They feel like everyone knows that they don’t go there because of the small campus size. I like being part of a community, but I also go out of my way to do my studying at the UNB libraries so I don’t run into people I know. If only the HIL didn’t feel so old and have an entire floor dedicated to asbestos. (Also, as an aside, STU’s gym managed to spell ‘Centre’ correctly on the outside of the building. Bonus marks for not selling out the English language for a few thousand bucks and one man’s whim. Go arts!)

The Architecture

9

f the Hill

ble-dipping student

Tim Hortons

For years STU boasted the only Tim’s on the hill. Now the SUB has one, and while technically belonging to both campuses, we’ll count it as UNB’s since STU students have to brave the rape trail to get there. UNB’s Tim’s is nice, it works well and offers more products then STU’s. However, the Tim’s staff at the top of the hill are the best in the city.

With military precision, they can destroy a line that goes out the door in the 10 minute gap between class switch-overs. It’s impressive that they’ve built such a triple-A team over the years. Their excellence does not go unnoticed. Plus, the STU Tim’s has Robin.

The Online Experience

Everyone needs a computer to keep up in classes these days. While both schools use WebAdvisor to keep track of grades and courses, that’s where the similarities end.

Both offer different online companion tools for their students; STU has Moodle, while UNB has Blackboard.

I started out using Moodle a few years ago. It works well and does its job of housing all the things that students need to complement their classes. I used to really like Moodle, until I got to know Blackboard. In comparison, STU’s tool is your nice, average, sedan that does the job of getting you where you need to go. Blackboard, on the other hand, is your fully loaded Rolls Royce that not only gets you there, but looks good doing it. It’s cleaner, easier and more enjoyable to use.

Students at UNB don’t need a key from their professors to register into their Blackboard classes and then manually pick their courses like STU students do. If you’re registered in the class, it’s already done for you and chances are you can print out your syllabus days before your first class. This is a godsend when it comes to getting ahead of the lines at the bookstore at the beginning of a semester.

But where UNB really blows STU out of the water is with its ‘myUNB portal.’ It’s this homepage that’s made unique for every student. Logging in once gets you everything at your fingertips. Register or drop classes, check email, see class cancellations. With Blackboard, everything is under one roof. STU asks students to sign into different sites for each individual task. Why they aren’t combined is beyond me. A peeve of mine comes at the end of a semester when I’m hunting for posted grades. STU requires you to go through a major hassle with six different screens, all with different menus, putting in passwords as you go, just to see if a grade has been posted. But don’t lounge around because WebAdvisor will log you out after five minutes, making you go through the whole process again. But the myUNB portal will actually send YOU a notice straight to your homepage saying you’ve got a grade. It also waits a full 30 minutes before logging you out. Genius.

Parking Problems

e Fowler

I used to complain about parking at STU until I tried doing it at UNB. STU’s worst case scenario sees a person having to park on the far side of the Aitken Centre and hoof it for about five minutes through a cleared parking lot. UNB’s worst case scenario sees you having to park at the far side of the Aitkin Centre and then skid down the hill along the iced trails, sidewalks, roadways, and deer paths through the snow. In my opinion, UNB’s parking system is borderline criminal, a license to print money, even before they plopped NBCC down on an already limited resource. To counter this students routinely show up hours before class just so they have the privilege of using the pass they paid for.

Complaining about parking is something everybody does, but in comparison to UNB, STU’s issues here are a delight. UNB does, however, cater to the motorcycle, something I appreciate. I usually drive my bike into early December because the campus has designated spots and it means I don’t have to compete for a spot with the cars and trucks.

STU is missing out on a chance to free up space by putting up to four vehicles in one spot. Get on this STU, it’s just paint.

Photos shot on location at SAF Studios by Tom Bateman The centrespread is managed and edited by Laura Brown If you have a centrespread idea please email business@theaq.net

Commentary

Graphic by first-year STU student Brandon Hicks Human Rights

Music

Post-secondary education: Punishment or prize?

Dear Nickelback

It was the first day of classes of the winter semester of 2012, and her foreboding statement expressed her expectations of the three months ahead.

“It’s going to be hell,” she said.

She was a St. Thomas University student, probably barely recovered from the demands of exams and multiple paper deadlines all coinciding in one or two horrific weeks prior to Christmas break. She was definitely not looking forward to re-living it. I could relate.

As I write this, my neck burns with pain—the result of osteoarthritis, aggravated by way too many hours hunched in front of a computer screen.

The hunching has also led, I’m told, to a weakening of my pectoral muscles and consequent overcompensation by whatever that muscle on top of the shoulder blade is, cramping it and necessitating frequent dates with microwaveable hot packs.

Then there’s the extinction of my social life, family time and even minuscule moments of relaxation. It’s enough to have made me declare last month, “University is inhumane.”

I never expected to feel this way.

Having returned to post-secondary studies after a “sabbatical” that lasted more than two decades, I was overcome by emotion the day I drove up the hill towards campus in September 2009. As I caught sight of the steeple

on George Martin Hall—glowing in the early morning sunlight—my eyes filled with tears. It was really happening. I was being given the opportunity to finish what I’d started so long ago, to earn a university degree.

Fast-forward two-and-a-half years and I’m still occasionally teary-eyed, but usually from being overwhelmed or fatigued or stressed out. I now mutter, under my breath, about deadlines and work load and professors who make students purchase books they never use.

And then, invariably, it happens.

I remember what a luxury books are.

There are people in the world—776 million adults—who can’t even read a book. Millions, too, who could only dream of owning one. They wouldn’t believe tales of literate people who own books they never open.

I’m also reminded of the 75 million children without access to basic education and the 150 million children in classrooms right now who will drop out before finishing their primary schooling, two-thirds of them girls.

Even though the right to education has been a universally recognised fundamental human right since 1948 - and completion of primary schooling for all children is a U.N. Millennium Development Goal (MDG) - the world still faces an education crisis. On its own MDG

website, the U.N. states: “Hope dims for universal education by 2015.”

The sacrifices made by the parents of my friend, Emmanuel, indicate how much some are willing to give up to gain the prize of education. Emmanuel is a young Nigerian with six siblings, whose father sold part of the small family farm (their source of food and income) in order to cover the airfare and visa fees to send him to a European graduate school. Emmanuel’s church will fund his education, but he has to learn a fourth language in order to study in Italy.

My Ugandan friend, Dominic, spent a portion of his vacation last June picking cotton on the border of Uganda and Sudan. He risked snake bites, land mines, rebel attacks and numerous other hazards in order to earn enough to pay for his next semester in university. In spite of their sacrifices, these two young men, like me, are gaining something most people on the planet can only dream about.

These reminders of the value of education reorient my perspective on what university students in the West deem unfair and unbearable. We are among the few in the world who’ll ever have the opportunity to stay up all night writing an academic paper, to take an exam, to earn a degree.

Post-secondary education comes with physical, emotional and financial costs, but costs others would gratefully pay if given the means and the opportunity.

The next time you hear me muttering under my breath, please remind me of that.

You’re about to go on tour; I’m about to blow my lid Brendan Kergin

The Omega (Thompson Rivers University)

KAMLOOPS, B.C. (CUP) — I’ve been able to bottle it up until now. It has been boiling in the background, but I put a lid on it and let it be.

But now — now you’ve done it.

You have, once again, ended up (almost) at the top of U.S. record sales.

Sure, other Canadians have joined you in the Top 10 album sales spotlight — Buble, Drake and Bieber to be specific.

Buble: Great guy, sap music; he’s a wash to me.

Drake: Don’t know him, and that’s enough.

Bieber? Inauthentic bubble-gum crap, but at least we know it.

But you, sirs, of the “our name is the grammatically incorrect way to give change to a customer” tribe, I take issue with. It’s not just that I dislike the music. It’s that the music is almost literally illegal. It’s so similar, the only reason it’s not plagiarizing is that you’re not willing to sue yourselves. It has all the sonic creativity of a muffler.

But okay — so you don’t intend to revolutionize the way music is played. No one is comparing you to, well, any worthwhile musician.

The lyrics I find more offensive.

They’re the WWE of poetry. Half are sappiness repackaged for testosterone-based life forms. The other half seem to be based on a half-dozen KISS songs. Playing Scrabble against

you would be a joy, but would likely lack the mental stimulation of washing dishes.

But the thing that bothers me the most is that you exist. You are proof that marketing is more powerful than culture or taste. You project an idea of masculinity that is not only unhealthy for the individual, but also for society. You’re practically creating an army of unthinking clones who look at your lifestyle and agree that, “Sure, getting drunk off cheap corporate beer and watching guys fight on TV is probably what I want to achieve in my life.” You are seemingly run by marketing executives so morally bankrupt I bet tobacco lobbyists meet up with them to hear tales of the dark side.

And that’s where my anger lies.

Not with the man-children up on stage, reliving fantasies of junior high; it’s the Nickelback that exists in the boardroom.

Adding insult to injury, you just booked a massive, 39-city North American tour for this spring and summer. You are still apparently relevant, what, 10 years after your only real hit? Since then it’s been a constant Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V on album after album.

So where does that leave us? I’m not sure about you, but I’m going to go listen to a three-year-old bang on a pot. Sure, it may not be produced to someone’s idea of sonic perfection, but at least it’s authentic.

Profile

Fredericton Mayor Brad Woodside finally graduates. He recieved his honourary doctorate from St. Thomas University last spring. (Tom Bateman/AQ)

The education of Dr. Brad Woodside As he readies for what should be his final campaign, Fredericton’s mayor reflects on what he has learned and what St. Thomas means to him

The walls of the corner office in Fredericton’s City Hall are surprisingly simple for a room that’s housed the same occupant for 21 years.

For most of that time, only two plaques graced the green walls: an honourary patron of the Royal Canadian Legion certificate and a GED. Both framed and proudly displayed adjacent each other.

Last spring, another plaque was added when Fredericton’s longest serving mayor, Brad Woodside, was presented with an honourary doctorate from St. Thomas University.

We sat down before Christmas like old friends, which, in some ways, we are. For a short time, I lived down the street from Woodside. I knew the mayor, and my sixyear-old self wore it like a badge of honour. Of course, I didn’t know a thing about municipal politics or provincial politics or gay pride. But I knew the mayor and that was enough.

He now wears his T-ring like a badge of honour, which it is. He also wears a STU jacket and has a photo above his doctorate degree of himself in STU colours.

It’s been nearly two decades since he stirred up national headlines with his refusal to proclaim gay pride week – a position that led some on campus to mutter about boycotting spring graduation. And there are signs, in his relatively more deft handling of the Occupy Fredericton decampment, that he has learned a few lessons along the way.

Yet it’s hard not to wonder, why do

these trappings of an educated man mean so much to him? *** Woodside grew up in Devon, one of Fredericton’s rougher areas.

“Some people might have thought that I was born with a silver spoon in my hand and that’s not the case,” Woodside said. “I fought really hard and worked really hard for everything that I had.”

He was raised by a single mother and never had much money.

While at school, Woodside and some friends started a band, The Impala’s, and later The Golden Bel Airs—Woodside was the front man for both.

He said his rock n’ roll days gave him the confidence to later become Canada’s national Toastmaster, but that was after he dropped out of Devon Junior High to join the air force.

“There I was, going out to take on the world with a Grade 8 education,” he said.

After a stint in the air force, which provided Woodside with the discipline he’d been lacking, he returned to New Brunswick and got his GED. He was one of the first in the province to do so.

“But I always felt that there was something missing and I guess what was missing was the thrill of graduating. The thrill of having a graduating class, graduating year—the reunions, the prom—all of those things, and I never experienced any of that.”

A turning point in Woodside’s life came when he was invited to attend a Junior

Chamber of Commerce meeting with a friend.

He remembers the welcoming feeling at his first meeting, a feeling he had known on the stage and in the air force, a feeling he longed for.

He attended a public speaking class put on by the Chamber, which concluded with a speech contest.

“That day I couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep.

I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest. My hands were all sweaty,” Woodside said of the day of the contest.

He had practiced for weeks a speech on foreign investment in Canada. He spent time researching the topic at the University of New Brunswick to make sure his information was right, to make sure his speech was perfect.

“Although, I still could feel my heart racing and all of those things, the one thing

somebody, whether they were good, bad or indifferent, they all had one common denominator: It wasn’t blue eyes, it wasn’t short, it wasn’t tall, it was none of those things, the one common denominator every one of them could share was the ability to communicate.”

So Woodside went on to speak to the world.

The international public speaking competition was held in Cape Cod, Mass., and the young man with the GED from Devon wanted to win. Once again, he prepared a speech, this time on world peace.

For three months he rehearsed it. His delivery was impeccable, but in referencing the Watts Riots, Woodside said they happened in Chicago—Watts is a black section of Los Angeles.

“My heart just sunk,” Woodside said.

Still, he managed first runner-up.

“Some people might have thought that I was born with a silver spoon in my hand and that’s not the case,” - Brad Woodside that I noticed was—for the first time in my life—I am speaking to a group of people who are actually sitting still and listening to me and I’m thinking, ‘This is powerful.’”

Woodside belonged in front of the crowd.

He finished second but was so inspired he went on to compete for the provincial title, the Atlantic title and eventually the Canadian title. But things didn’t end - or even slow down - there.

“I looked back through history and I could see all the people who were

*** He left amateur public speaking for municipal politics, with time spent as a radio personality in between.

Woodside was first elected to Fredericton’s city council in 1981 and became mayor in 1986.

He made headlines as the mayor who said bilingualism was dividing the country and Dr. Henry Mortgantaler wasn’t welcome to set up a clinic in the city. But mostly, Woodside is remembered for his refusal to proclaim gay pride week on behalf of

the LGBT community.

Now, Woodside offers no excuses.

“It was not the right thing to do, but I have since figured out the right thing,” he said.

“I’ve come to appreciate, basically, everybody. That has been a maturing and a growing up and an evolution that has taken place within myself to make me a more rounded, better person.

“I think in order to love other people you have to love yourself and it’s tough to love yourself if you haven’t really gotten into the core of your being and tried to figure these things out.”

Over the years, Woodside says he has and the difference has shown. Before Christmas, Woodside took the gentler approach to remove the Occupy protesters from the base of City Hall. Eventually, he decided they had to go, but they were, at least, asked nicely more than a few times.

This May, he’s heading into his record 10th and last election for mayor. If he pulls off another win, he’ll finish off his career as the president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

Now, he looks older. Not quite the big politician I remember in my childhood, but he still has the same effect. The effect he has on the stage. Now, it rests on more than hard work and charisma; it rests, in some ways, on the third plaque on the wall. It rests on his education, which is so much more than the plaque: It’s life itself.

“The thing about life, is by the time you figure it out, it’s almost over,” he said, and then without hesitation, “That’s an original line.”

Or as the former bread deliverer, the air force fire-fighter, electrician’s helper, welder’s helper, car salesman, pizza deliverer and a labourer told STU’s 2011 grad class: “Today, I belong.”

First-Person

Twenty-one and married with child

Student says goals came faster than expected; reflects on life as an academic, mother and wife

Paige Gallant The Aquinian

Your six-week old baby has been crying since 8 p.m. She’s going through her six-week growth spurt where she needs to be continually feeding – from you, you’re the one with the breasts – and it’s now three in the morning and she’s still hungry, which means she’s still crying for more milk. Meanwhile, you have a midterm that morning and you’ve been trying to study, but feeding, burping, changing and soothing your baby doesn’t leave a lot of time for serious midterm cramming. You also have an essay due the next day and an article due that Friday, where you need to make time to set up interviews and settle your baby down before dragging her along with you to all of them. During the interview, your baby begins to scream, making

your interviewee uncomfortable.

You end up just passing your midterm exam, handing in your English essay late, and throwing together your article just to make the due date. Is it safe to say that I feel divided?

I am 21, married and already have a little one, which were all goals in life, but all came a lot sooner than anticipated. For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted to be a journalist, another goal in my life. When my daughter, Carly, came along, I knew I still needed to go back to school or I would regret not giving it a try.

My schedule for last semester at school worked out to two days a week. If I had classes every day of the week, I couldn’t have gone to school.

Being a mom takes time and concentration away from schoolwork. Either way, I am not putting 100 per cent of

myself into either one.

Tara Hay is another mom who goes to St. Thomas University. She has two daughters and still goes to school full time.

“I am happy to be doing something for me for once,” she said.

Hay’s day starts at 5 a.m. and doesn’t stop until her children go to bed that night.

“We get home at three, but I am busy with them and housework. My kids go to bed at 7 p.m., usually I’m too tired to do school work, but I try to get whatever needs to be done for the next day then.”

She said STU has no support systems or childcare - she really wishes it did.

“There are no programs for a person in my situation. I get a student loan, but that is it.”

The Victoria Order of Nurses (V.O.N.) has a program called

“Healthy Baby and Me” – classes designed to help young mothers develop skills to raise a healthy baby.

It’s a program that also helps young moms not feel alone.

Young moms in Fredericton can also ask public health to send a nurse every two weeks to your home to check up on you and your baby.

Through the New Brunswick government, there are low-income programs designed to help financially, but only as much as $60 a month.

With only my husband working while I attend school, we have taken advantage of all of these programs.

I always want to do what’s best for Carly and my family. When I think about what’s best for the future, it would be going to school and finishing my degree; but when I think about the present it would be staying home with Carly.

For Hay, it’s doing what is best

for her at this point in her life. She needs to finish school so she can feel fulfilled. Hay told me going back to school finally made her happy, making her a better mom, which made her children happier.

As for me, I do wish I could be with my daughter all the time, but I know I want to be able to give Carly a good life. If I can take the next year-and-ahalf and finish school, I can help give her that.

Being a mom and watching my daughter learn and grow every day is one of the most rewarding jobs you can have. I know that if I had to spend any more than two days a week away from her, I wouldn’t be able to do it emotionally. Going to school and being a mom is emotionally and physically draining, but with the right programs, nurses, professors and family helping me out, I know I can do it. I want to finish school for her.

The importance of being foolish Through a legacy of laughter, The AQ’s Karissa Donkin dealt with the loss of a mentor and best friend I wasn’t really sure what to do with myself on move-in day of university.

I was equal parts tired, nervous and excited.

I picked up my welcome week kit from an upper-year student in the cafeteria of my new home. I was proud of the answer I gave the girl in the yellow shirt when she asked how to spell my name.

“Well, it’s like honkin’, but with a D at the beginning!” I explained.

She stared blankly at me. I didn’t get a smile let alone a laugh. She didn’t get it. I had to break it down for her, spell it out letter by letter.

All I can remember at that moment is hoping university wouldn’t be filled with a lot of really serious people. I didn’t grow up with any serious people and given the year I’d just had, they were the last people I wanted to be around. *** My grandfather, Jack Donkin, grew up in working class west Saint John, but built a life on the other side of the bridge in the city’s South End. His mother died after childbirth, leaving him and his siblings to live in an orphanage for part of their lives. His oldest sister, Barbie, who looked just like a Barbie doll, my grandfather said, also died around this time. That’s all he ever told us about the orphanage.

But the stories he shared with me were never tragic. Most of the time, he was making fun of himself.

He had a dent in his forehead and told his grandchildren he was shot in the head. With Papa’s dry delivery, you had to listen closely to figure out whether he was joking. He usually was and it’s a trait my uncles have inherited.

My grandfather was a die-hard hockey and baseball fan and believed in kids being in rinks and on fields rather than the streets. He coached some of the roughest kids in the south end but treated them all the same and would find a

Karissa’s grandfather, Jack Donkin, passed away in December of 2007. He left behind a trail of smiles. (Submitted) way for everyone to play.

He had a lot to complain about but he never did. That didn’t change when he got sick around 1996 and soon had to stop coaching.

Instead, he spent his energy teasing the entire staff of the Saint John Regional Hospital. I think he knew all of the nurses by name.

Papa read the newspaper cover to cover each day. He always saved the funnies in the paper for me, even once I grew old enough to be more interested in the news. I wish he had been alive to see my byline in his morning paper. *** The waiting room outside of the Regional Hospital’s intensive care unit is the most boring place on the planet. I don’t remember there being a TV and if

there were magazines, I don’t think they were very good ones. There definitely weren’t any newspaper comics.

My family spent a lot of time here in the summer of 2007. We could have spent an entire summer waiting for the inevitable and wearing lots of black. We could have spent 11 years like that.

Instead, we amused ourselves and made fun of hospital toilet paper, which is roughly equivalent to cardboard. My uncles managed to sneak a roll of it into my mother’s purse once.

My grandmother, a diabetic and devout Catholic, always took her insulin in the chapel, a process we called shooting up in the church. We shared this phrase with any doctor or nurse asking where she was at any given time. You can only imagine the reactions we got from the

people we didn’t know. *** Papa died on the night of Dec. 2, right before the first big snowfall of the year. It was bloody cold and St. John the Baptist church is like an ice rink in winter.

As we marched solemnly into the church, I almost took the procession out like dominoes when I slipped. I grabbed on to my Uncle Jeff and yelled, “Jesus!” without giving thought to being in a church.

My grandmother was mortified, but we laughed it off and it killed the tension.

A few hours after Papa’s funeral was opening night. I was in my high school’s production of The Importance of Being Earnest, a foolish play, a comedy of errors. I wasn’t sure I had it in me to go

on stage.

At the funeral reception, I sat at a table with Uncle Jeff and two close family friends. I can’t remember what we talked about but I know I laughed harder than I had in a long time.

It helped me get in the mood to act.

But I think it helped in other ways too.

Everyone deals with loss in a different way. For my family, we cope with humour.

I know my heart wasn’t in my performance that night. But it was where Papa would have wanted me to be.

Papa always told me that if you can’t have a good laugh, you might as well give up.

That night, when I stepped on stage, in the face of losing my best friend, I chose to laugh.

First-Person

Surviving the norovirus: Becoming the story Continued from page 1 “It was like they were dealing with an infectious disease that was going to kill,” Matt Tidcombe, our sports editor, told me. He was one of the lucky ones who didn’t get sick. “You would go down to the lobby of the hotel to find it completely empty. It was peaceful, but at the same time, very disturbing.”

After we all decided to go to bed, four of our girls took Gravol to knock themselves out so they could just ignore the virus altogether. After talking to her boyfriend on the phone and reassuring him she was okay, Julia Whalen, our arts editor, brushed her teeth. When she opened the door afterwards, Lauren Bird, our features editor, was hunched over a blue recycling bin.

Slowly, she looked up at Julia.

“May day,” she said.

Death...

By the next morning, six out of 10 of our staff members were sick, including me.

“Why won’t it stop?” I remember thinking as I hunched over the toilet in the boys’ room (also known as “The AQ sick room”), eyes closed, ears plugged.

I was officially one of them.

Man, I felt like death. But that was nothing.

“I remember actually thinking, ‘This is it,’” Lauren recalled a few days after the outbreak.

One editor vomited out of his nose, another had to see paramedics because he was throwing up blood. Amy MacKenzie, a senior writer, held the record for bathroom trips. Ten in five hours. Chest muscles ached because of constant convulsions. People had about six to seven minutes to relax before they either vomited, or, well, you know. So they started making plans.

“We decided all poop matters deserved the toilet, and should that be occupied, the sink and bathtub could be employed (if all the person was throwing up was liquids),” Julia told me. “Otherwise, the recycling bin was to be used.”

Other rooms had code words. Shane Magee and Tom Bateman were pretty proud when they came up with “North” and “South” to describe the violent acts.

Then there were those times when “North” and “South” didn’t quite cut it:

“East! East!” Tom recalled Shane shouting at him.

Shane Fowler, another of our senior writers, decided it would be a great idea to roll around in Shane Magee’s bed after he had spent several sick hours in it.

Shane Fowler got sick 12 hours later.

And then there was Laura Brown, our managing editor. Poor Laura was left to deal with the newspaper we had to get to the printer Sunday night. And she’d agreed to do several interviews with the national and New Brunswick media.

And then it happened.

“We lost Laura,” Shane Fowler said after returning from the so-called healthy room and hearing her curse and shout as that night’s soup came rushing out.

She spoke with CBC’s Newsworld on Skype at 3 a.m. She wasn’t sleeping anyway, so why not? To avoid an accident on live television, she decided to down a bottle of Vitamin Water in order to force herself to throw up before the interview.

Who does that?

...is still Tweet-able

Twitter was our main mode of communication. Whether it was between conference organizers and the sick or the sick and healthy, we lived on Twitter for those few days. Emma Godmere, the national bureau chief for CUP, took on lead contact role; she was in touch with Vancouver Island Health and relayed their information to the rest of us who were stuck in our rooms.

Twitter is how we found out it was probably norovirus and not food poisoning; Twitter is where we heard about potential Gatorade and toast runs by the organizers; Twitter is where media outlets in Fredericton got in touch with staff members for interviews; and Twitter is where CUP delegates – the healthy ones – started doing their own reporting, investigating the sick numbers that seemed too low.

Andy Veilleux, sports editor for The Muse at Memorial University in Newfoundland, is still trying to figure out the final numbers. According to the latest reports he got from 52 papers and CUP staff members, 152 people were sick from norovirus. His initial number Sunday morning was a mere 60. Incredible.

Twitter was also where things like #archipukeago (the theme of the

conference was “Archipelago”) and #norwalkingdead were created.

Zombie apocalypse, anyone?

A healthy ending

Most of us ended up taking the same, long trek we had originally planned.

We’d cab the two blocks from the hotel to the bus station, bus to the ferry terminal, take the ferry to Vancouver, bus to the airport and then hop on another bus to Seattle. Sleep. Then we’d wake up early for our flight to Minneapolis, then to Detroit and then to Bangor. Then we’d sleep some more. Then, finally, on Wednesday, two-and-a-half days later, we’d drive back to Fredericton.

It would be long for everyone who still wasn’t feeling 100 per cent. But it would be especially long for Laura, who had first gotten sick only 12 hours earlier.

“There’s no bathroom on this bus,” I remember her saying as we boarded the one to the Vancouver ferry.

You could say we’re more comfortable with each other now.

The conversations we’ve had are disturbing, to say the least. I’m sure the people travelling around us - and darted their eyes in our direction - really appreciated our choice of words. Describing exactly what was in your vomit?

Really, guys?

Or as Julia said at last week’s story meeting, “None of us can ever date.”

Health officials check rooms of unhealthy occupants. (Tom Bateman/AQ)

The AQ team met CBC’s Anna Maria Tremonti before succumbing to the Norovirus a few days later. From left: Alyssa Mosher, Shane Fowler, Amy MacKenzie, Julia Whalen, Anna Maria Tremonti, Lauren Bird, Shane Magee, Karissa Donkin and Laura Brown. Absent from photo: Tom Bateman and Matt Tidcombe. (Submitted)

Sex

Good sex ain’t for the kids

Some say good sex is all about the size of a penis. One likes them large.

The next one tells you it’s all about girth.

The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Different people like different sizes.

It’s definitely not an issue for our vaginas. They are capable of extending several inches, accommodating almost any length. Of course, nobody likes sex

with a Smitty’s breakfast sausage.

But even a large penis can lead to tears. Too little foreplay or not being used to sex can increase the risk of a painful experience. They even have a name for that: dyspareunia!

I don’t think size alone makes for good sex. It’s performance and charisma that has us whisper your name in bliss. That’s where the real slackers are found.

I’ll always remember the sight of the black, woolly socks. They belonged to a pair of pale, hairy legs that ended in a long, erect penis prodding in my direction.

People keep memories from their past. Like that old, stuffed animal in the corner of your bed; or the video game you keep though it’s long outdated.

I thought Mickey Mouse was part of my ex’s comic book collection. Now the world’s most famous mouse was smiling back at me from the dark pattern covering his wiggling toes.

I never loved feet. They are unattractive and often covered with a thin crust of crumbs and other dust picked up from the floor.

Perhaps I should have felt honored that he meant to save me from an unpleasant sight. Maybe the explanation, “They always get so cold,” should have provided me with more comfort. But Mickey Mouse couldn’t stir my libido.

People blame their trouble in bed on a number of things. Sometimes we’re stressed, sometimes we lack comfort or love. Often we blame our partner’s inability to please us.

But after a while we might wonder if the other person is the cause of the problem.

I would never sleep with someone who can’t stop talking about their sex life in public. How great it is, how well built they are, how often they do it.

The more you talk, the worse you must be at intercourse. It shows how much you compensate for a lack of experience or skill.

Performance does not start in arousal or giving someone an orgasm.

It is the way you act, the way you present yourself and how seriously you can take the other person – before and in bed.

My ex didn’t lack a well-grown penis. Nor do I mind a good portion of humour in the bedroom. Yes, his socks were hilarious – at least to me.

But they also summed up a lack in appeal that grew over time.

How do you sleep with a man that reminds you of a child?

Men’s Hockey

Poor powerplay dooms Tommies against UPEI Tommies blow another lead, but pick up point in shootout loss despite powerplay problems Matt Tidcombe The Aquinian

The Tommies’ lack of depth showed again Friday evening as they dropped their 10th straight regular season game, losing 4-3 to the University of Prince Edward Island in a shootout.

The demise of the Tommies came on the powerplay. They went 0-7 on the man advantage and couldn’t muster up many goal scoring opportunities on four separate five-on-three advantages.

“Every team I’ve coached before has had a first and a second unit, but our team is kind of thin right now. So if we have a first unit and a second unit we’re just going to get in a bad situation right after a powerplay,” Tommies head coach Troy Ryan said.

It showed on the ice. A revolving door of powerplay personnel couldn’t get much to the net and put pressure on UPEI goalie Jhase Sniderman, who made 36 saves on the night.

“We just don’t have the depth to load up any one powerplay and if we do load it up, who are we really loading it up with?” Ryan said.

The game started brightly for the Tommies who took the lead within four minutes thanks to Yuri Chermetiev’s first goal of the season in which he banged the puck in from close range with Randy Cameron and Mike Reich picking up assists.

Chermetiev soon added his second goal of the season at the 8:39 mark.

Cameron added his second assist of the

Charles Lavigne was unable to stop UPEI’s final shootout effort as it slid under his body to give them the win.

(Shane Magee/AQ) game with a brilliant stretch pass that put Chermetiev in one-on-one with Sniderman who was beaten blocker side top shelf by Chermetiev to put the Tommies up 2-0. Christian Morin also got his third assist of the season on the goal.

Chermetiev, who now has five points in 17 games this season, has not been the player Ryan hoped he would be this year, but was pleased with his performance Friday.

“A couple of weeks ago…it was in front of everybody, I called him out

pretty bad…and I think Yuri’s responded and at least he’s competing,” says Ryan. “I saw him chip a couple of pucks and take some hits and Yuri never use to do those sorts of things. He’s actually competing and with his skill he’ll actually manage to score some goals.”

UPEI cut the lead to one when Matt Carter scored glove-side on Tommies goalie Charles Lavigne. Lavigne got a lot of glove on the shot, but it fluttered past him into the goal as the Tommies took a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.

Opinion

STU started the second period strongly with Jonathan Bonneau restoring the Tommies’ two goal lead only 37 seconds into the period, slotting the puck fivehole on Sniderman from the left face-off circle. Sebastien Bernier and Steve Sanza collected helpers on the goal.

UPEI would cut it back to one with two minutes left in the period as Reggie Traccitto scored on a three-on-one opportunity. Lavigne stopped the first shot, but Traccitto pounced on the rebound.

Lavigne picked up a minor penalty on

the goal for tripping, but the powerplay amounted to nothing.

The Tommies had multiple chances in the third period to win the game, but their powerplay failed them.

They went 0-3, including a couple of five-on-three chances and had nine shots, but couldn’t find a way past Sniderman and it would ultimately cost them.

Jared Gomes tied the game for UPEI with 1:54 left in the game with a nifty wrist shot from the slot, beating Lavigne who had preserved the Tommies lead throughout. The Tommies went back to the powerplay right after, but again, couldn’t generate any goal scoring opportunities as the third period concluded.

The Tommies’ had a chance to win the game in overtime on the powerplay as Randy Cameron stared down an open goal, but couldn’t get a good enough shot off as Sniderman came back across the crease to make the save.

The game would ultimately need a shootout and after Felix-Antoine Poulin, Chermetiev and Cameron all missed for the Tommies, Chris Desousa scored the shootout’s only goal to give UPEI the extra point.

Ryan seems to know exactly why the Tommies unit isn’t clicking.

“The old stats are 80 per cent of powerplay goals are scored on rebounds from point shots, but we don’t shoot the puck and we don’t go to the net, so we’re not going to score,” Ryan said.

Men’s Volleyball

A birthday wish for The Champ

If it weren’t for his debilitating disease, Muhammad Ali, who reached the big 7-0 last Tuesday, would be shaking with anger and sadness at what he’s seeing. His legendary mouth would not be mute.

Yes, the sport he took to its cultural zenith is extinct. A Mayweather-Pacquiao fight would only resurrect boxing for a night.

But the biggest fight of his career had nothing to do with Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier or George Foreman. If Ali could stand on a soapbox and talk about civil rights, his change of religion and a war he didn’t believe in and came out lionized, one would think athletes would continue to fly his flag.

Instead, in the 31 years since Trevor Berbick sent The Greatest into retirement, athletes by-and-large have spent their time in the ring with multinational corporations. Other than Jim Brown, Ali’s contemporaries in other sports are more pitchmen than politico.

In some ways, it’s hard to blame

them.

When a young athlete - a large percentage of which grew up poor - is faced with either living with a salary and a voice or a salary, signature shoe and a list of commercials longer than Jack Nicholson’s IMDB, the answer is obvious.

Athletes today are as sophisticated about the four jewels of the celebrity endorsement dollar as Rod Tidwell’s wife Marcee in Jerry Maguire. “Shoe, car, clothing line, soft drink.” Criticizing the auto industry bail-out won’t show me the money.

Former North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms once called the University of North Carolina the “University of Negroes and Communists.” In 1990, Charlotte mayor and African American Harvey Gantt ran against the good ol’ boy for the Senate and would have been the first black Senator from the south since Reconstruction.

The world’s most famous Tar Heel could have stepped up and supported Gantt. Instead, Michael Jordan

famously said, “Republicans buy sneakers, too.” Helms won the election, and His Airness showed the world what he wanted each person to be: a customer.

Sadly, Jordan’s capitalist quote is more prescient today than “No Vietcong ever called me Nigger.”

Athletes are still mimicking Ali. LeBron James can say he wants to be a “global icon” just like him. But The King’s idea of the term is to be immortalized on a poster in every frat house in North America, just like the legendary photo of a brash Cassius Clay screaming over a beaten Liston.

The Champ changed his name from Clay to Ali when joining the Nation of Islam in 1964. Johnson and Artest have become Ochocinco and World Piece and joined the Nation of Idiots instead.

There are those who think that Ali was a product of the 60s. He had Vietnam, civil rights and a politically engaged and active America at his fingers. But we had Iraq, weapons of mass destruction and the Arab Spring.

And the best we got is one pro-life quarterback to show for this?

Once upon a time, this was Muhammad Ali’s world. Now, it’s like he didn’t exist at all.

Time to blow out the candles.

The men’s volleyball team dropped both games this weekend 3-1 to HC and UKC. (Megan Aiken/AQ)

Basketball

Tommies battle the Hurricanes over the weekend Rob Johnson

Women’s Hockey St FX 1 STU 4 Dal 3 STU 2 Women’s Basketball STU 83 NSAC 40 Men’s Basketball STU 66 NSAC 59 Women’s Volleyball HC 0 STU 3 The men’s basketball team held on for a key win Saturday afternoon as they were able to beat Hollands College.

(Megan Aiken/AQ) high 16 points and first year star Brittany Gilliss was named player of the game with 13 points and six rebounds. The Tommies improve their league record to 11-0 heading into the final stretch of games. *** The men followed suit to the women as they wrapped up another victory, beating Holland College 76-52 Saturday afternoon.

STU probably played their best first quarter of the season as they got off to a commanding 22-8 while shooting just

under 50 per cent from the field.

The second quarter was different story for the Tommies as the Hurricanes came out shooting and got off to an 8-2 run to start the period. STU battled back at the end of the second and only lost the quarter by one point. At half time they were up 37-24.

In the second half the Tommies controlled the play the entire time while never giving up the lead once in the game.

Richard Wilkins got hot from behind the arc in the third and ended the game

with a team high 22 points.

It was a real team effort with everyone contributing to the win in all sorts of different ways. Eight different players scored for the Tommies with Nathan Mazurkiewics adding 15 of them and 12 rebounds for his first double double of the season.

The player of the game was first year Tommie Calvin LeBlanc who had a solid game with 11 points and eight rebounds.

The win over the Hurricanes moved the Tommies into second place in the conference.

Men’s Hockey

A taste of success: Making it back to the pros

After playing pro hockey, two university hockey players reflect on hoping to make it back Liam McGuire The Aquinian

Dan LaCosta paces alone around the University of New Brunswick cafeteria.

With a receding hairline and a furrowed face, he looks as well-traveled as his pro resume suggests.

LaCosta knows that playing in goal for UNB will likely be his last shot to showcase his skills, and one day making it back to playing professional hockey.

“At the end of my two years I’ll see what happens, that’s why I came here to see. I still wanted to have the opportunity to play pro.”

LaCosta sits in the same boat as many former professional athletes who desperately want back into the top levels of pro sports. But that dream is one that more often sinks than swims.

Whether LaCosta wants to admit it or not, he knows that the dream of one day making it back to the NHL is unlikely. He is getting older and playing weaker talent now. Drafted in the third round in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft by the Columbus Blue Jackets, the 25-year-old Newfoundland native played four years of pro hockey. After playing his second minor stint in the NHL, LaCosta was soon out of professional hockey all together.

“It was like I went from the highest point of my career to a month later I wasn’t playing in the minors. The thing in that industry, it’s like the business world, you don’t always feel you get what you deserve or you want, but you just got [to] make the most of what you get.”

The life of a fringe minor league

Results Men’s Hockey UNB 5 STU 1

The Aquinian

After coming off a huge home win over the second place Mount Saint Vincent Mystics last weekend, the Tommies had a week off to prepare for Holland College and it showed as they cruised to a 71-29 victory.

The Tommies showed no rust in the opening quarter as they shot over 40 per cent from the field and quickly went up by 10 over the Hurricanes. The second quarter was much of the same thing as Coach Connors continued to rotate players in the game and everyone contributed to the team as they led by 20 heading into the half.

The second half was when the Tommies really started to put the hammer to the Hurricanes and made sure that there was no possible way of a comeback for them. The three point shooting was lights out in final 20 minutes as STU went six for 14 from behind the arc for a very impressive 42 per cent. Renee Leblanc had three out of those six three pointers to lead the charge.

Offense is usually the main discussion point when it comes to the women Tommies, but once again the defense was just as strong if not a little better than the offense. They held the hurricanes to 10 or less points in all four of the quarters and to only 29 points for the game.

In the win, Ashley Bawn had a team

Scoreboard

Dan LaCosta, who played in the NHL with the Columbus Blue Jackets, still hopes to make it back to the pros. (Tom Bateman/AQ) athlete is one that is filled with more downs than ups and more disappointments than successes.

As former Toronto Blue Jays minor leaguer and author Dirk Hayhurst recounts in his book The Bullpen Gospels about what a manager once told him: “It’s a game of luck and opportunity. . .

Call it luck, call it opportunity. The bottom line is you always have a chance if you have a jersey on your back. What you do with that chance, is a different story.”

LaCosta’s voice cracks when he talks about his brief stint in the NHL. He believes he deserved a better shot, but understands that logistically, it comes down to more than just how he played.

“You know I went up there and I don’t

think I could have played better than what I did. But at the same time I understand it’s a business. And I knew that on the terms that in which I got called up on that I was going to be sent down eventually. It’s just the way things worked out when I got sent down back to the minors.”

Chris Morehouse is in a similar situation as LaCosta. His chance to pursue pro hockey ended abruptly.

The 24 year-old Saint John native received an invitation to a St. Louis Blues rookie camp in 2009. He didn’t make the team out of the camp and was sent down two levels in the minors, and ended up playing in Alaska and Cincinnati.

“I was able to experience things that

I wouldn’t have and learned a lot about who I was and what I wanted to do in life.”

After two brief seasons in the East Coast Hockey League, Morehouse realized that hockey may not feasible as a career. He enrolled at St. Thomas University to study journalism while also playing for the Tommies.

“The decision to leave pro hockey and come to St. Thomas wasn’t an easy one but now, looking back, it was the right one. I know now what I want to do and I am ready for school and the challenges that come along with it.”

Morehouse says he doesn’t regret his pursuit and considers himself very blessed to get the opportunity.

“I think that I was so fortunate to have been able to play a sport I love at the professional level and I have no regrets. A lot of people never have the chance to play at the level that I did and I consider myself very lucky.”

Whether or not he plays pro hockey again, Morehouse says if he is given the chance to play pro hockey, he will definitely consider it.

Now in the pursuit of an education, LaCosta and Morehouse both know that being a regular student and not playing professional hockey may be their calling.

But for now, as Morehouse says, neither one of them is quite ready to give up on their fading dreams just yet.

“If the opportunity comes to try and play pro again and I don’t have any real good options, saying no will be really tough.”

Upcoming: Jan. 25 Women’s Basketball STU @ UNBSJ 6 p.m.

Men’s Basketball STU @ UNBSJ 8 p.m.

Jan. 27 Men’s Hockey STU @ SMU 7 p.m.

Jan. 28 Women’s Basketball UKC @ STU South Gym 3 p.m.

Men’s Basketball UKC @ STU 5 p.m.

Women’s Volleyball STU @ HC 6 p.m.

Men’s Volleyball STU @ HC 8 p.m.

Women’s Hockey STU @ MTA 7 p.m.

Men’s Hockey STU @ St. FX 7 p.m.

Jan. 29 Women’s Hockey STU @ UPEI 3 p.m.

Would you like to cover women’s hockey?

Let us know!

sports@theaq.net

There was a great veiw of the Inner Bay in Victoria, BC from our hotel room. I also took shots of the lights that were in focus, but I like the out-of-focus version better.

(Tom Bateman/AQ)

Abnormal Psych Prof: “Of course, what happens when you don’t pay your exorcist? You get repossessed!”

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#CharlesLeBlanc #GoodbyeRickPerry #MinusTwentyDegrees

Mandarin Palace 502 Forest Hill Rd So I thought I would kick off the newest STU Dines with a little bit of controversy.

I have come to hear that some of the norovirus issues from the journalism conference in British Colombia had to do with food. Mandarin Palace has also had their fair share of bad publicity when a health inspector found a rotting bear carcass in the walk-in fridge at the restaurant.

I’ve always heard about this place and I’m a Chatham Hall Alumni - which is quite close by. I had been curious about what it had to offer until this news hit the CBC. What it’s like: This place is actually quite beautiful. I’m not a big fan of Chinese cuisine, but the lighting and table set-up gives the place a good feel.

How it tasted: Holy crap, ladies and gentlemen - we have a winner here.

The spicy fish dish is probably the best Chinese food I have ever tasted in my life. Where did this place come from? I don’t think you should be afraid of eating here, folks.

How I was treated: The truth is, the bad publicity probably had some influence on this place. Everyone was on the go and usually had something to do or good to say. I was in and out before I knew what was happening.

How much: You’re going to have to pay a good $10 to $15 for a meal here, but considering everyone just got their student loans, I suggest all of you Forest Hill residents take a five-minute walk over there for a dinner.

I can only speculate what went wrong with their recent mistakes, but I think this is a lesson that can only strengthen them in the long run. Keep your heads high, Mandarin Palace.

Theater Crasher with Joy Watson

2011: Best and Worst (relatively speaking) The best and worst is a very irresponsible subject for a movie column when, according to some, I haven’t seen the best movies of 2011.

My criminology prof accosted me in the middle of an exam to demand that I see Hugo—I haven’t. The Help was apparently a collective orgasm for the world but it’s still sitting unwatched in my movie queue. So this list is more of a “Best of 2011: According to the Very Lazy Cinephile.” Screw consistency, I’m going rogue.

Those of you who haven’t seen Bridesmaids can go straight to hell - or Jumbo Video, whichever is closer. It’s not fine cinematic art, but it’s genuinely hilarious. From dueling engagement speeches, to Kristin Wiig’s drug-fueled provocations of a snippy flight attendant, each scene is alternatively bawdy, awkward or candidly romantic.

The cast performs together like a rat pack in high heels, but Melissa McCarthy steals the show with her fearless performance as a puppy-stealing broad who has telepathic experiences with dolphins.

Also floating my boat was The Trip: a mockumentary starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon as “themselves.” The two go on a gourmet tour of England, eating steamed snails while they bicker amusingly about who can do a better Michael Caine impression.

Woody Allen is another cantankerous old man who proves he’s still got it with the time-traveling Midnight in Paris. Fans of “A Moveable Feast” can delight in the scenes set in 1920s Paris where a sexy Ernest Hemingway raves about bullfighting and the Fitzgeralds booze ‘til dawn, but Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams are horribly miscast as the leads. Block out their Hollywood toothiness and you’ll see some nostalgic magic happening.

Speaking of magic, our entire generation concluded puberty with the release of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2: Neville Gets Hot. Die-hard Potterheads know that the movies are nothing more than a footnote to the emotional gut-punch of the books, but what the hell. Alan Rickman owns the day and that uncomfortably sexual hug between Draco and Voldemort alone deserves an Oscar forged from phoenix-tears.

On the more serious end there are Beginners and The Descendants. Beginners is a film based on a true story of a man (Christopher Plummer) who comes out of the closet in his eighties with beautiful yet tragic results. George Clooney’s The Descendants is a meandering tale of a father who finds out about his wife’s infidelities after she falls into a coma. Both films broke my heart, but in a good way—like when Kevin left the Backstreet Boys and you realized that he never contributed anything anyway.

Speaking of heartbreaking, there was also some real shit in theatres this year. When trying to recall the foulest movies of 2011, I naturally popped onto IMDB to see what Matthew McConaughey has been up to lately. But he was the least of movie-goers’ problems with train wrecks like Jack and Jill and Transformers vomiting on our I.Q.s. There was also the millionth installment of Twilight; pro-life twaddle disguised as an angsty teen gore-mance. Go to college, Bella!

Overall it was a decent year for film, but not a spectacular one. While there’s nothing wrong with going to the theater to lose oneself in amusing entertainment, I’m looking to have my socks knocked off and this year’s offerings left my woolly argyles immobile. So that’s the challenge I give to the movie makers of 2012: Come at my socks, bro.