THE MCGILL TRIBUNE Published by the Students' Society of McGill University
Tuesday, March 15,1988
Volume 7, Issue 22
Victory for Access, QPIRG; Coté in, Daily will try again by Max Harrold Students last week voted over whelmingly in favour of a temporary $ 2 fee increase to help fund services for McGill’s disabled students. As well, Students’ Sodiety elections held last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday saw the approval of the creation of a Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) at McGill, the first in Quebec, and the election of an entirely new slate of student representatives for 88-89. Stu dents were lukewarm to other ques tions on the ballot though, narrowly defeating an amendment to the Society’s Constitiution affecting graduate students, approving another amendment involving the Judicial
Board and barely passing a Daily Pub lications Society (DPS) amendment about quorum while rejecting a DPS fee increase.
ACCESS McGILL YES; 1945 NO; 290 NO OPINION; 197 “Im overwhelmed by the generosity and compassion” of McGill students, stated Sam Miller, obviously moved. Miller’s Access McGill group - which had pushed for approval of the $ 2 fee increase - will be directly involved in the implementation of improved serv ices for the disabled on campus. These services w i II include an access ramp to the Union Building and possibly a $60,000 van to ease the burden of trans-
E x -a g en t b lasts U .S. by Mike Crawley Philip Agee, a former agent of the CIA, brought his story to McGill last week and gave the over 300 in atten dance exactly what was expected. Agee cited atrocities which the agency has executed around the world, blasted the current Republican administration for its harassment, and added the obligatory Reagan jokes. The CIA first recruited Agee on the campus of Notre Dame, but he did not join until the draft was “breathing down my neck,” as he explained. “I came from a comfortable, conservative background,” stated Agee, adding, “I was your typical fifties youth in the United States - conformist, ambitious and idealistic.” The CIA offered some thing different from the life in business which awaited him, specifically “all those romantic things that are so attrac tive to somebody who’s 21 years old.” “I did fight the holy war against com munism,” the ex-agent admitted some what begrudgingly. In 1969, however, he resigned, and left the U.S. to pen his exposé. He spent much of the next two decades in a state resembling exile: “I had wanted to go back to the United States very much for the promotion of my latest book. My lawyers had always told me.. .that I would be indicted and
prosecuted. The only person who really thought I should come to the United States...was...my publisher.” Agee returned to the U.S. in 1987 and was greeted less than warmly. George Bush described Agee’s deeds as “despicable” and “disgusting”, while his first public interview, on Good Morning America, opened with the question “How does it feel to be a traitor?” The former spy refuted all accusations, stating, “It’s not true that I’m anti-American. If I were...I would be out working...for Bush for presi dent.” continued page 3
portation for disabled students. Of all questions on the ballot. This was approved by the widest margin. Miller said the approval, “a very fine thing”, was the first of its kind in Canada.
PIRG AT McGILL YES; 1435 NO; 799 NO OPINION; 239 To cheers and shouts of euphoria as the final results came in late Friday night, delirious PIRG supporters pre dicted a more socially conscious and active student body beginning as soon as this summer, when an interim board of directors is chosen from PIRG’s more than 250 member organizing club. Happy but tired, organizer Duff Conacher explained that “students were willing to put in the time for something they really believed in.” The reason the measure passed, added Conacher, was that McGill “students made [PIRG] their own.” A similar effort for the establishment of a PIRG at Concordia U. was defeated by ap proximately 200 votes Thursday night, said Conacher.
Winners by a landslide, from right to left: Marc Cameron (VP External), Nancy Coté (President), Amanda Kalhok (VP Internal) and Maria Battaglia (VP University Affairs). THE STUDSOC EXECU TIVE The somewhat uneventlful race for StudSoc President this year turned out as many had predicted, with Nancy Coté winning (1682) over Doug Hodgson (436). Hodgson, who was practically invisible during the cam paign, had apparently intended to run
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Popular education in Nicaragua by Scott McEvoy Illiteracy has been reduced from levels of over fifty percent of the Nica raguan population to about twelve per cent in 1980 according to Angelo Calvo of the Nicaraguan Ministry of Education. Speaking at the Centre for Developing Area Studies last Wednes day, the Ministry official together with Isaura Chavarria-Salgado, a primary
school teacher in Nicaragua, appealed through translation to the audience for support of Nicaragua’s continued ef forts to increase the education levels of its population. With specific reference made to the “imperialist war waged on us by Ronald Reagan”, the Ministry official spoke of the difficulties associated with implementing the popular educa-
Media for the Masses by Leslie Elliott An extraordinary ensemble of some of the “best in the business” gathered Saturday at McGill’s second annual Media Career Day. The event, organ ized by the McGill Film & Communi cations Students’ Committee (MFCSC), brought over sixty promi nent figures in from the Montreal media scene, including representatives from the National Film Board (NFB), the CBC, radio, television, newspaper,
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as a farce among a larger field of candidates. “I assume that he was a joke candidate ... he won’t get reim bursed for his posters,’’said Chief Re turning Officer Christina Sbrocchi, adding that Hodgson ran an illegal campaign because he did not conform to electoral regulations. Coté said she knows she “can work” with her new colleagues.
public relations and video industries. Organizers were extremely pleased with the day’s success. Estimated at tendance was in the 2 0 0 -plus range and seminars were, for the most part, popu lar and well attended. Although the event was oriented toward a better understanding of a ca reer in the media, one seminar ad dressed the issue of Canadian film and the notion of Free Trade. Rob Verrall, a veteran of forty years as a film pro
ducer with the NFB, addressed what he termed the “Mulroney/Reagan Agree ment” by asserting that it is “impos sible to think of the future of Canada’s film industry without considering the implications of Free Trade.” Even though Verrall expressed concern about the prospect of American control of Canadian film screens, he neverthe less was very supportive of federal Communications Minister Flora continued page 3
tion program.Whereas in 1978, before the ‘triumph’, education was limited to about 4000 privileged, today some one million are attending schools. This change has been brought about in spite of an economic blockade by the United States which has limited among other things, school supplies and texts. Attempts at educating have been particularly difficult in those areas most affected by Contra action. In these areas schools have been de stroyed with 120 teachers having bee n killed or kidnapped. One specific inci dent of a pregnant schoolteacher being kidnapped in front of her class was mentioned. The government's stated objectives are to wipe out illiteracy by 1990, to in crease basic popular education, to re view curriculum and to concentrate educational efforts in those areas most needed by the country. Continued ac cess to university education will be facilitated through government subsi dies that pay for room and board and continued page 3
Special Underfunding Feature... pages 8 and 9