TtiE Mc G IL l TR IfiU N f Tuesday, October 20th 1987.
Published by the Students’ Society of McGill University
Volume 7, Issue 7
Turner delivers typical political rhetoric by M ike C raw ley An opinionated, overflowing throng jammed Leacock 132 last Thursday afternoon to see federal Liberal party leader John Turner as he delivered a scathing indictment of the recently negotiated Canada-US Free trade deal. Turner set the tone for his fifteen min ute address with his response to a pre vious comment by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. He glared sternly, gesticulated with his forefinger and emphatically declared “(Canada) may be open for business again, but we’re not up for sale.” Though question period was a vir tual disaster, Turner’s rousing speech was clear, concise and powerfully re cited, starkly in contrast to the stam merring, disconcerted politician of the past few years. Recent reports state that he has quelled much of the dissension in the federal party thanks to more coherent policies. This renewed confi dence and the fact that he had a specific target to attack were likely the reasons for his more effective speaking per formance. The target was free trade and Tumer attacked indiscriminately. “This is not a free trade agreement. There are ex clusions,” he stressed. “It is not an across the board measure with the United States.” This is Turner’s pri mary criticism. Prior to the agreement, critics of the concept stabbed blindly at weak theoretical reasons why it would hurt the country, while Turner seemed to comply in principle with free trade. Now that a concrete proposal can be ex amined, Turner has been able to take a firm stance and say “It is open season on Canadian business. It is takeover unlimited.” “The only rationale was to secure a permanent access into the American market. That’s vital for Canada,” he
T u rn e r S peaks O u t a t M cG ill commented. Proponents of free trade, in Turner’s words, had stated “we have to gain exemption from US trade law,” and he implicitly voiced his agreement, but said such liberty was not achieved by the deal. “We gave away the ability of Cana dian business to control and influence the ecomomic destiny of the country. We gave away...complete access to our service industries. We have allowed our (natural resources) to become part of a continental energy policy.” In Turner’s opinion, none of this is justi fied as he believes the Canadian nego tiating team did not gain exemption from American protectionism nor se cure access to the US market. The forty-five minute question pe riod which followed explored several items directly related to the McGill community. Turner’s replies were generally not as eloquent nor as coher
photo by Bruce West ent as his prepared speech. He often skirted the issue or talked in theoretical circles. When asked by a student what a Liberal government’s position would be regarding defense department spon sorship of military research in relation to the FAE controversy, he first stated
At last Wednesday’s University Senate meeting, the much-awaited “Report of the Joint-Board Senate Committee on Research Contracts Supported by Military Agencies” was presented. Senator Roger Bennett, co-chair man of the committee, said “It was a very dificult report to give, because although the committee agrees on con clusions, they were arrived at through several different routes.” One of the major questions of the committee was “Is there something inherently evil in weapon research?” This could not be answered. Another question was, “What is a weapon?” Ac cording to Bennett, the committee members were also “...extremely wor ried about setting a precedent to stop some types of research...Who was going to decide what was bad weapons research?” Bennett informed the Senate that twenty-one written opinions and a large number of oral opinions were from the university community in or der to “.. .broaden the scope of inquiry.” The majority of the written opinions agreed that McGill could not refuse the government’s requests helped the committee come to an agreement on what to suggest.
Though unable to agree on specific guidelines, the committee recom mended that academic freedom should be the principle criterion in decisions about accepting research contracts. “We must handle this through publishability,” Bennett remarked. The report states that: “It was agreed that the existing policy that forbids secret research in principle should be amended so that the research that is restricted to protect the privacy of indi viduals and private corporations can only be restricted for a stipulated peiod of time.” It was argued that researchers will be more restricted and could have more,’’channels to go through.” The Report was presented to the Board of Governors yesterday and will be on the agenda of the next Senate meeting. The topic of discrimination reared its ugly head in the Senate chamber. Senator Myma Gopnik proposed a motion covering all University busi ness and social affairs being conducted with any enterprise or group which as a discriminates as a matter of policy, Gopnik said that her motion was “ ...intended to include University sponsors.” Senators Shahir Guindi(Law), Wat son, and Mailer brought up technicali ties and possible misinterpretations of the motion. This resulted in Vice-Prin
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Adm issions Getting It Together by Ian H a rro ld Some 150 people never received re plies to their applications for admission to the University last spring and several others received their answers late. Ac cording to senior McGill administra tion officials interviewed last week, the entire admissions process is just now emerging from a long period of ineffi ciency and procedural foul-ups.
Senate: Discrimination and Weapons Research by S h a ro n H ayes
“we believe in our military alliances.” He added, “Our foreign policy and our defense policy is outward looking. W e’re an engaged-involved party. We would therefore encourage military research.” But in order to appear hip to the masses, Turner said the Liberals
“draw the line” at Star Wars and Cana dian nuclear submarines - big deal. “We have a moral obligation to speak up and to react to the abuse of human rights,” said Turner, when questioned about South Africa: In a virtual echo of the PC rhetoric, he pro posed “If there is not meaningful prog ress (to dismantle apartheid) by the end of this calendar year, we should first impose total economic sanctions; sec ond, break off diplomatic relations and attempt to persuade as many other n a -. tions to do the same.” Two questions on university fund ing were posed: one regarding federal budget cuts in science and another concerned with transfer payments for the purposes of post-secondary educa tion. First, Turner attested “This coun try, regardless of any trade policy, has got to be competitive.” The govern ment must therefore direct a higher percentage of funds toward research and development. Turner answered the second query by stating that Ottawa should “set forth general criteria...so that we can ensure that the money dedicated by parliament is spent by provincial governments in
cipal (Academic) Samuel Freedman suggesting an alternate motion which was passed by an overwhelming ma jority of the Senate. Freedman’s motion stated that “...no University business or social event be conducted at any private club or other premise where there exists a policy of discrimination...”, based on race, colour, religion and gender and takes its inspiration from the Quebec Human Rights Charter. Two other topics discussed by the Senate were space allocation and class room overcrowding. At the next meet ing, Freedman will have this year’s statistics, upon the request of Senator Philip Beaumier(Engineering Rep.), on the ratio of Quebec students who applied for residence to those who were accepted in contrast to students outside the province.
Vice-Principal Academic Samuel Freedman, who described admissions as one of the “most important” areas for McGill, said problems began about five years ago. While other universities were beginning to computerize their admissions system, McGill's remained largely manual. Added to that was the growing trend towards applying to several universities simultaneously, causing general applications to soar from about 8,000 to about 14,000 a year. Freedman said the problem was compounded this year by the installa tion of a new telephone system, confus ing and frustrating foreign applicants. As well, the director of Admissions for the past 15 years, Peggy Sheppard, took a leave of absence to complete her Master of Arts degree. She left in the middle of the academic year, and while Freedman “personality” conflicts were involved, other high level sources (who wish to remain anonymous) said Sheppard’s departure was a “sensative area.” With Sheppard’s departure. Regis trar Jean Paul Schuller was appointed Acting Dean of Admissions, in antici pation of the new position of Dean of Admissions, which the Administration wanted to fill in an effort to consolidate the various acivities of the Admissions Office. The seriousness of the situation became more apparent when promo tional blitzes to other cities - usually undertaken by the Liaison Office -
were not taking shape in early 1987. Associate Dean of Science Roger Rigelhof and Associate Dean of Arts Martin Petter said the flow of docu ments was so bad that they realized early on that some admission replies would be late. Rigelhof labeled 150 unanswered applicants a “disaster” situation and said McGill has to re cover quickly if irreparable “damage “ is to be avoided. Political Science Pro fessor Sam Noumoff said the resulting situation was one where McGill had a “smaller pool of students" and possibly a lower caliber of freshmen students. Enter Helen Gougeon. Newly ap pointed Dean of Admissions since September 1st, Gougeon is anxious about the future but has little to say about the past, saying she was unaware of the specifics of the situation. As a former Associate Dean of Students, Gougeon says she is keenly aware of the need to smooth out the whole admissions process “from the time the person picks up an application to the time of his or her first few months” at McGill. The Admissions Office now has Mariela Johansen in th newly created position of manager. Handpicked by Gougeon, Johansen is also the former assistant of VP Academic Freedman and is expected to help restructure the Office, with Dean Gougeon reporting to Freedman.
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Inside: Montréal: city of lights........................... Rprimen heat Oiieens. subdue fans....... Two-thirds of a million march in D.C..............page 7