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Published by the Students’ Society of McGill University
t h is w e e k News SSM U debating what to do about Feb 7th Day of Action. Page 3
Science M cG ill engineers display solar car at auto show. Page 1
Popping the p ill: getting the facts on oral contraceptives. Page 9
Entertainment Damn that Chorus Line and leaving the suburbs. Page 12
Sports Martlets basketball extend unbeaten streak to eleven with win over Concordia. Page 16
Colum nists M ila Aung-Thwin........ Page 7 Ted Fran kel........................Page7 Don M cGowan............. Page 7
Departm ents Crossw ord.......................... Page8 O bserver.............................. Page8 What’s O n ................... Page 19
Sexual Assault Centre of M cG ill Student’s Society 398 -2700 Centre Contre l’Agression de l ’Association des Etudiants de L ’Université M cG ill
Volume 15 Issue 16
In Domino Confido
January 2 5rJ, 1996
CASA hit by fraud and theft By Sara J ean G reen Patrick FitzPatrick, the interim national director of the Canadian Alliance of Students’ A ssociatio ns and d irecto r of the C A S A National Conference, was fired January 9 for the alleged fraud, theft and misappropriation of funds. FitzPatrick is the former VP external of the U niversity of New Brunsw ick Student Union and C A SA Atlantic regional director. He took over the position of interim director October 31 when C A SA National Director A lex Usher was forced to take a leave of absence due to illness. When Usher returned to work on January 8, he received a series of allegations from the UNB SU . Apparently, creditors from New Brunswick have also been attempting to get in touch with FitzPatrick. As a result of these alle gations, an internal audit was conducted at the CA SA national office in Ottawa. C A S A Treasurer Robert M illard per formed the internal audit but is currently seek ing an independent firm to do another audit to ensure nothing has been overlooked. “ Theft, fraud and embezzlement are the areas we are looking at,” said M illard. “ [It is] alleged that he blatantly stole from us as well as deceived us. We have a concrete case — there’s a paper trail and a number of witnesses so we are convinced there w ill be a convic tion,” he stated. Usher provided the Tribune with a com plete copy of C A S A ’ s police statement and internal audit. The Ottawa-Carleton Regional Police w ill be investigating but the case has yet to be assigned. “ It w ill probably be a couple of months before we assign the report to an investigator, but I haven’t even got a full report yet,” said Staff Sgt. Tom M cKay.
A p ro je c t to a m a lga te the f o u r M c G ill-a ffilia te d hospitals is in the p la n n in g stages. To get the p r o ’s a n d c o n ’s, see Pa ge 9.
Bright prospects for McGill’s Team Northern Sun’s solar car By Joshua Seib
Power. Currently, the team is building a new veh icle that w ill p o ssib ly put M c G ill among the top teams in the world. Only the mold of their red his year, the M ontreal In te rn a tio n a l A uto ca r w as at the auto show because it is still being com Show featured Team at C an ad air. It w ill, N orthern S u n , a group pleted of M cG ill engineering students however, be ready for its first displaying their solar powered competition at the Canadian S o lar C h allen g e to be held car. between June 23 and 27. S o lar pow er car racin g has a leg acy o f su ccess at Team Northern Sun w ill also Credit card misrepresentation at M c G ill beginning in 1990 com pete at the A u stra lia n with Team Ra Power, a group W o rld S o la r C h allen g e on University o f N ew Brunswick of ten mechanical engineering October 28, the biggest solar When C A S A was o ffic ia lly founded students. The Team Ra Power powered car race in the world. The b asic p rin cip le January 31 of last year, a verbal agreement vehicle emerged as the num was made between the UNB SU and C A SA ; ber one Canadian solar pow behind vehicles of this sort is the Student Union would advance C A S A ered car with its victory at the the conversion o f the sun’ s C an ad ian S o la r energy to e le ctricity via the money in order to upstart the organisation. It 1993 solar c e ll. The sunlight that was agreed that should C A SA require more Challenge. A t that tim e, it was the hits the solar cells charges the than U N B S U ’ s $9,000 membership fee, CA SA would repay the owing balance on the biggest project to be undertak batteries that power the car’ s en by M c G ill’ s F a c u lty o f motor. Team Northern Sun’ s advances. car w ill have 3,500 of these Apparently, FitzPatrick ran up large bills Engineering. solar cells that convert a max Form ed in 1994, Team on the UNB SU ’s credit card which he legiti imum o f 17 per cent o f the Northern Sun has 25 student mately held as V P external. However, he m em bers, a team tw ice the sun’s energy into electricity. “ The pow er from so lar Continued on Page 2 » size o f its p redecessor, R a
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cells is very sm all, equivalent to one or two h a ir-d ry e rs. Essen tially you are trying to power the ve h icle w ith the am ount o f e le c tric ity a hairdryer uses,” said M cG ill engineering professor L a rry Lessard, an advisor for Team Northern Sun. The team is im proving upon the original car design in a number of ways. According to Lessard, the firs t im provem ent is a lig h t w eig ht body made o f advanced composite m ateri als. This modification, howev e r, n ecessitated other improvements. “ A sp ecial rear suspen sion had to be designed by the team to deal with the new car bon fib re stru c tu re ,” said Robert L a b a tta g lia , the U3 m echanical engineering stu dent in charge of mechanical design for the team. This prototype suspension system is a perfect example of
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