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Volume 5, Number 23 Photo — Lionel Chow
Tuesday 25 March, 1986
New Daily Regime Coming Soon
Jean C h ré tie n 's o ld “ H o u se o f C o m m o n s ch a rm
Chrétien Focuses on Canadian Identity Crisis
by Bilquisse Visram “Are we w illing to remain Canadian, and pay the price to be Canadian if there is a price to pay?" This was the fundamental question posed by Jean Chrétien to a large crowd at the Fieldhouse Auditorium, last W ednesday evening. If the audience had previously harbored any doubts about their patriotism, by the end of Chrétien's in spring address, these were replaced by the urge to sing "O h Canada^-'. O nly three weeks after his retirement from 23 years in federal politics, Chré tien proved that he hasn't lost his old 'House of Commons charm', keeping the crowd entertained for over an hour. Chrétien spoke mostly of the Cana dian "identity crisis", "W hen I reflect on the Canadian scene today, and where we're going, what I'm a bit sad about is that only three years after we have patriated our constitution, and less than six years after we have won the referendum we don't know yet why we are in Canada." Referring to the Americans as our best friends, Chrétien nonetheless stressed the importance of maintaining an in dependent Canadian identity, despite the "attractive mirage of the United States". He spoke warily of the propos ed free trade agreement with the Americans, "because I see all these businessmen getting very excited about free trade, and not thinking about what might be the consequences for the country....If you have only the dollar sign in your head, you might be all right to think about, 'let's make a deal quick'. But it might be a short deal." Chrétien claimed to be afraid of Mulroney's free trade agreement poin ting out that at present, Canadians en joy a 21 billion dollar trade surplus with
Published by the Students' Society of McGill University
the United States; a fact that would surely give the Americans the upper hand at any trade negotiations. Despite his reservations towards the Conservative trade policy, Chrétien denied allegations of being a protec tionist, claim ing instead that he is an in ternationalist. "I believe very strongly that it is the duty of the developed na tions to help the poor nations to pro gress", said Chrétien to a cheering crowd. In another of the more popular com ments of the evening, Chrétien con tinued in this vein: "Some people com plain in Canada, because we have a too rich welfare system. I'd rather have a too rich welfare system, than a too poor welfare system." There were a few in the audience however, who remained unconvinced by Chrétien's charming disposition and appealing social stand. During the con troversial question period that followed his address, Chrétien was confronted by hostile allegations from a PartiQuébécois member, who claimed that Chrétien's behavior during the 1981 referendum question, "was not an act condusive to Canadian unity". Chrétien displayed his years of question period expertise, angrily countering, "W hat I have done is made sure that Québec was to remain in Canada, and for this I will not apologize to anybody!" Although he came as a non-partisan spear, Chrétien was unable to disguise his partiality, and slyly managed a few good-natured pokes at both the Am erican's and the Conservatives, reminding the audience that, "the little guy from Shawinigan was around long before the little guy from Baie Com eau."
by Adeeb Khalid The entire staff of The M cG ill D aily was impeached last Tuesday as a result of a campus-wide referendum after the D a ily Pub licatio ns Society (DPS) Judicial Committee had finally ruled that the referendum campaign had been fair. The publication schedule of the newspaper, however, was not inter rupted. Five new staff members are ex pected to be appointed soon. The referendum had taken place at the same time as StudSoc elections and referenda to ratify eleven proposed amendments' to the DPS constitution two weeks ago. However, the DPS Board of Directors has impounded the ballots because it considered that the campaign had been conducted unfairly because the YES committee had used epithets such as "racist" and "antisemitic" to describe the newspaper. But last Monday, the DPS Judicial Committee ruled that the campaign had not been unfair, and ordered the ballots counted. The results of the referendum were of ficially received by the Board of Direc tors Tuesday afternoon after the staff had laid out W ednesday's issue of the newspaper. This, the last issue to come out under the ancien régime, was large ly given over to the editorial comment on impeachment. Reaction of the staff was generally bit ter. "I thought witch-burnings ended in the 16th century," wrote Editor-in-Chief Melinda Wittstock. Supplement editor (impeached) M ike C o rd o n waxed poetical: "Roses are red/Tories are blue/McCarthy makes a comeback/with over 1500 of you." Former Senior News Editor Brendan Weston later told the Tribune: "The tolerance (of M cG ill students) for dif ferent ideas was tested and found wan ting."
Asked whether he expected many of the im peached staff to join the newspaper again, he said, "I don't see why they should not join it if they want to." Weston, however, predicted that the staff "will be 'eft-wing again, because people with convictions work harder, and they work without getting paid.” Earlier fears of financial disaster com ing from the suspension of publication were averted, however, as the four stu dent members of the Board of Directors decided to continue publication and to accept advertising. Ken Monteith, chair of the Board of Directors, said "The decision (to con tinue publication) was taken in the best interests of the newspaper as it was felt that suspension of publication was like ly to drive away advertising." He was, however, careful to point out that the four student members of the Board of Directors did not constitute an interim editorial board. Since Tuesday, the D aily has been produced by the employees of the Daily typesetting shop using Canadian University Press copy. Regular features of the newspaper such as "Letters" and "H yde Park" have not been published. These will resume once an interim staff is appointed. The Student Initiated Referendum has given the four elected student represen tatives on the DPS Board of Directors the mandate to appoint a core staff of five members in the event of the im peachment taking place. By the weekend, several applications had been received. According to a letter from the four stu dent members of the Board of Directors published in the newspaper, the new appointments are to be made on the basis of "writing experience, and/or ex perience in the technical aspects of
newspaper production, familiarity with the machinery in the D aily office, and a declaration of intention to abide by the statement of principles" of the DPS. "I hope that people who voted in favour of the impeachment would be willing to come forward to work and change the paper as they wish," said Monteith. Monteith told the Tribune that the appointments would "probably be made by Monday evening." These appointments wouid be to positions without title. O nce five staff are appointed, other students can join them under normal procedures. Meanwhile, the status of elections for positions to next year's editorial board, held only two days before the impeach ment, was rendered murky by the im peachment. The new editorial board was to take office on May 1. Now, however, the validity of the elections is in doubt. Monteith said, "I assume that the elections are invalid unless and until they are ratified by the new staff." Even as it is, graduate student David Schulze is contesting the constitutionali ty of the old staff's granting of voting rights to shop manager Colin Tomlins. Tomlins is not a M cGill student, and Schulze contends that the DPS constitu tion allows only students to have voting rights. "The staff has jurisdiction in matters of procedure but it is always subject to the constitution," Schulze said. Since Tomlins voted in the elections, the status of the entire election would be in jeopardy if his voting rights are found unconstitutional. The Judicial Committee is still con sidering whether the complaint is rele vant anymore, now that the staff has been impeached.
Student Reps Added to CFRM Board by Brian Todd An amendment to be proposed at tonight's Students' Co uncil meeting will effectively put the control of Radio M cG ill's new Board of Directors in stu dent hands. The amendments proposed by Maria Lang, Arts Representative to Council w ill add two students-at-large and reduce the Students' Co uncil represen tation to one member. The Board of Directors will then number twelve. "I wanted to increase the student membership generally to a majority as well as increase the number of studentsat-large relative to the student staffers," explained Lang. "Other councillors may ask for more students-at-large but in c h a ttin g w ith M a rt h a -M a rie Kleinhans, CFRM Station Manager, she expressed some worries about the un wieldiness of the body." Both James Green, President ot Students' Society (StudSoc) and Kleinhans expressed satisfaction with the amendments. Said Green, "W e can change things. The composition of the Board can be changed if councillors want. The whole thing has been blown up to be a bad thing, which it is not.” Said K leinhans, " I am perfectly amenable to Maria's amendment." CFRM 's Board differs radically from that of CR SG , Concordia's student-run station which is also applying for a C R T C license. Their board of directors consists of two students-at-large, two student representatives of the Concor dia University Students' Association (CUSA), the station manager and one university representative. CFRM 's board will consist (if Lang's
amendment passes) of two CFRM staff reps, one student councillor, one representative of the Montreal com munity, two student representatives, the station manager, the Dean of Students or his representative, the Principal or his representative, the StudSoc Executive Director and the Executive Director of the Graduates Society or his represen-^ tative. Kleinhans explained the differences. "W e tried to be really equitable. We started with two staff representatives. Since the staff doesn't hire the station manager, we thought it was essential that they had a voice at the Board. Then we added an equal number of coun cillors and made sure that student in terests were controlling the station. W e have a community radio license, thus someone had to be appointed from the community. "G avin Ross (the Graduates' Society Executive Director) w ill not sit on the Board and he w ill probably appoint an alternate from the community. The
M cG ill reps were added because it is M cG ill's station. They have a lot at stake. The StudSoc Executive Director was added for continuity." Radio M cG ill’s by-laws are modelled after those of the University of Toronto's Varsity Radio which according to Kleinhans are almost identical to CFRM's and CSJW's. (CSJW is the stu dent station in Calgary.) Concordia's board on the other hand closely resembles that the Radio Carleton which is made of two students, two stu dent association representatives and one member of the general public. Radio M cG ill's FM proposal also dif fers from Concordia's in that the station manager is hired by the Board of D irec tors rather than elected by staff. Said Kleinhans, "I don't want the station manager to be the winner of a populari ty contest. I want a manager hired for managerial skills. Continuity is impor tant to the station and an elected station manager does not guarantee that."
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>- Anti-police brutality dem on stration..........pg. 3
IS
Letters to the Trib feature the D a ily ............pg. 4 ASUS Election results are i n .......................... pg. 5 Of Poet Crozier and her erotic veggies............pg. 7 rs "7> Art fo r South Africa and w o m e n .................pg. 8 c Knob Hockey dies aw ful d e a th .................pg. 11