The McGill Tribune Vol. 19 Issue 25

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VOLUME 19 ISSUE 25 T u e s d a y , 28 M a r c h 2 0 0 0

M cv.IT ,I, TRIBUNE Published by the Students’ Society of McGill University

Management is cooler than you C ru is in g , b o o z in g a n d s c h m o o z ­ in g a t t h e M a n a g e m e n t fa s h io n s h o w

O N LIN E http://tribune.m cgill.ca

I n t e r v ie w w it h L uWc ie n n e R o b il l a r d page

DARCHE W IN ^ T IO N A L AWARD

N ew a d m in is tra tio n fe e p ro v o k e s d is c u s s io n a t SSM U c o u n c il m e e tin g

page

B y R hea W ong

By Jonathan C olford

p[h]assion: def. 1) to be generally chic-er than the rest o f the world 2) to move in mysterious ways Fully expecting to be disappointed after all the hype, I found that p[h]assion was like your average management student: hip, slick, professional and over the top.

Walking into the old Windsor train station, I was faced with a runway long enough to launch a 747, more electronic equipment and screens than a U2 concert and sufficient quantities of Smirnoff to calm the p[h]assionable masses.

Taking a seat, I found a nice goodie bag chockful of MAC lipstick, a sampler of Diesel perfume and two fashion mags — score. Who ever said you can’t buy me love?

While waiting for the show to begin, I watched svelte, designer-clad students buzzing about. These were the type of people who don’t really exist in the real world: the types who don’t wear grubby clothes, don’t do their own laundry, don’t wake before noon because of the late-night partying and don’t EVER get separated from their cell phones.

The M anagem ent U ndergraduate Society Fashion show has become an institution for fashionphiles and common folk alike. This year the money went to AIDS research at the Farha Foundation and CANFAR. WHAT’S CANFAR? Sponsors put up money from far and wide and I got free stuff. The crowd buzzed as people killed time watching DJ Tiga kill time spinning his little heart out.

The models finally sauntered down the catwalk in cutting edge sportswear and posed and strutted for all they were worth. Many of the moves were chore­ ographed in neo-modernist dance moves and got old after a while. How many beautiful people can you watch decorating the stage, stepping in synch and vogue-ing? On top of that, the models were clearly nervous which wasn’t aided by the precise dance moves. Their impassive blank faces made me want to go up there and tickle them. It’s a student fashion show, kids — Lighten up.

The clothes were a nice mix of the formal and sporty with DKNY, Hugo Boss and Aritmetik. One of the highlights of the show was a men’s-only display of sportswear which gave the guys a chance to loosen up as they ffeestyled down the runway. And, if you ask Students’ Society of McGill University VP Clubs and Services Sam Gross, that segment was the show.

Aside from the overly detailed choreography, the projections on the screens during the interminable breaks confused me. Why did they show a halfnaked blonde woman dancing around with a candle?

And, when did Japanese war propaganda and atomic bombs become entertainment material?

The two hour show could’ve been better stream­ lined by shortening the change time and cutting down on the strut-and-pose. The second half was much bet­ ter with the more relaxed models and Olio sandwich­ es swimming in my tummy — yay, catering.

The final verdict? All in all, a very good show.

There were beautiful people with beautiful bodies showing off the beautiful clothes. Though sometimes C ontinued on page 22

Accessibility or quality?

A proposed new $150 administrative fee was the subject of a spirited discussion held at the end of last Thursday’s Students’ Society of McGill University council meeting.

The fee, announced at council two weeks ago in confidential session by McGill vice­ principals Luc Vinet and Morty Yalovsky, would fund information technology-based stu­ dent services under McGill’s Banner 2000 pro­ ject. These include an online registration sys­ tem and better access to grades on the web.

The debate over the new fee resulted in SSMU council going into committee session.

The discussion’s goal was to come up with an official stance for SSMU over the fee. Little more than half of the SSMU councilors, how­ ever, remained to discuss it. Councilors who spoke were almost evenly divided over whether to accept the new fee.

Engineering representative Phil Gohier expressed worry over the long term implica­ tions of the Student Society’s accepting this fee, arguing that it does not solve M cGill’s funding problems in the long term. Gohier pointed to a study held at the University of Guelph which showed that increases in student fees reduced the number of students applying there.

“I don’t think it’s fair to put the burden on the shoulders of students for tuition,” he said.

“There’s quite simply no logical [reason] for students to have to be responsible for [making up for] the university’s shortfall.”

Supporters claim the fee would allow M cGill to obtain some badly-needed relief from the effects of governmental underfunding of this university, estimated at $23 million according to the Quebec government’s own funding formula. The administrative fee is one way of remedying this, according to SSMU VP University Affairs Xavier Van Chau, who says students “can complain about the quality of [their] education at McGill but if [they] want to see the quality of [their] education improve than [they] have to support the means by which the university can accomplish those goals.”

One effect of this underfunding is that pro­ fessors are less likely to propose certain new ideas because of the potential monetary cost involved. As Van Chau described it, this has resulted in a “degradation of the spirit” among professors who also have to cope with a uni­ versity which is physically decaying.

“Professors at McGill do not have the lux­ ury [of sufficient resources] in order to build new projects...[and] new services, so that lack of initiative translates into the apathy you see all around,” he said.

The rhetoric justifying the fee increase is what concerned SSMU Clubs representative Clare Jennings. She said that were she not graduating, the fee would put too much of a strain on her budget and she would not be able to return to McGill in the fall.

“All the talk that I’ve heard in council this In vogue and out o f this world

Wei LengTay

C ontinued on page 3

Page 2 N e w s

The McGill Tribune, Tuesday, 28 March 2000

US Supreme Court unanimously upholds the constitutionality of Wisconsin student fees B y L ori M o rency

(U-W IRE) W ASHINGTON — The United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled last Wednesday that American public colleges and universities could use money from mandatory student fees to fund cam pus groups that engage in speech others might find objec­ tionable.

The decision in the Board of R egents of the U niversity of W isconsin v. Scott H arold Southw orth et al. m eans that women’s groups expressing their stance on abortion, student papers writing controversial editorials, and groups serving gay and lesbian students can continue to operate while funded by student fees.

The case o riginated when Scott Southworth, along with the original plaintiffs, former UW law students Amy Schoepke, Keith B annach, R ebecca B retz and Rebecka Vander Werf, sued the UW Board of Regents in April 1996. They claim ed mandatory student fees funding private orga­ nizations violated their First

Amendment rights. The funding, which was assessed at $165.75 per student in the academic year the case was filed, was mandatory in the sense that students cannot graduate or receive their grades if they do not pay.

In (October 1998, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an earlier Wisconsin court ruling that the mandatory fees violated the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights by forcing them to support politi­ cal and ideological positions with which they did not agree. The case was then appealed to the Supreme C ourt and heard by the Court November 9, 1999.

Authored by Justice Anthony J. Kennedy, the Supreme Court ruling stated that the First Amendment supports a public uni­ versity charging student fees if the program is “viewpoint neutral.”

The Court raised a question in their decision about one piece of the allocation process called a ref­ erendum mechanism.

The ruling did not sustain UW’s student referendum, “which appears to permit the exaction of

fees in violation of the viewpoint neutrality principle,” according to the ruling. A decision on the refer­ endum mechanism was remanded back to the 7th Circuit Court.

Wednesday’s decision marked the end of discussion at UW that had been especially robust over the past 18 months.

Associate Vice Chancellor for Student A ffairs Roger Howard said the University of Wisconsin is pleased the Court ruled unani­ mously and that the text of the rul­ ing includes positive language about the kind of beneficial impact universities can expect from pro­ gram s that encourage diverse speech.

“It’s a great day at Wisconsin after four years of a hard fought argum ent... on all sides of the issue,” he said.

While waiting for the deci­ sion, the process of allocating UW student fees has been underway, Howard said, although the staff found it im possible to plan for changes had there been an adverse decision.

"We knew enough about the

alternatives to our current fee sys­ tem to know there would be poten­ tially a ton of work involved [if the decision had been upheld],” he said.

•Organizations defending stu­ dent fees celebrated the reversal Wednesday.

M ichael Adams, associate director of the ACLU’s Lesbian and Gay Rights Project called the decision a “great victory” for stu­ dents and student groups.

“This is especially important for lesbian and gay groups because they have been the targets for organized efforts by right wing groups attem pting to de-fund them,” he said.

Adams said the case emerged out of a well-organized legal effort by groups including the Alliance Defense Fund and conservative Christian organizations that tried to discourage participation.

The Student Press Law Center filed a friend-of-the-court brief outlining the potential impact on student media. Mark Goodman, of the SPLC said that the very nature of student media’s political or ide­

ological expression made them easy targets for segregated fund­ ing.

“If the court tolerated a sys­ tem where students could get fund­ ing back because they objected the content, many student papers would cease to exist,” he said.

“This ruling reinforces the notion that student government cannot use the content of a student publi­ cation as justification for punish­ ing them by cutting funding.”

The SPLC receives com ­ plaints from papers whose fees are threatened when a student com­ plains their content is objection­ able. This decision makes it clear student newspapers have the right to express freely without infring­ ing on others constitutional rights, Goodman said.

Any student organization could have been affected if any student had complained, he said.

“Not many organizations on campus that engage in political discussion don’t offend someone,” he said.

Musicfaculty, studentsmakingone morepushfor newbuilding G o v e r n m e n t s u p p o r t la c k in g B y W assam A l -M o n thiry ________

The Faculty of Music’s hope for a new building has been given new wings as a result of a recent m eeting betw een P rincipal Bernard Shapiro, VP Academic Luc V inet and the Quebec Ministry of Education.

The March 23 meeting sought capital funding from the govern­ ment for the project.

W alking through the long hallway of the current Strathcona M usic B uilding, the state of a building in disrepair is evident, with its badly deteriorating floors, barely upright ceilings and broken down steps.

A peek into almost any room in the building reveals that it is being shared by two to three pro­ fessors at a time. Another reveals about thirty people in a room sure­ ly designed for a maximum of twelve.

H opeful projects aim ed at pushing for the proposed amount of $16 million, such as the letter writing campaign set up by the Music Undergraduate Students’ Association, have yielded minimal results. The fight with the govern­ ment of Quebec continues.

“We sent out about 500 post cards, all the students wrote letters and almost all the professors have written letters, all aimed directly at [Quebec Prem ier Lucien] Bouchard,” said MUSA VP exter­ nal Sage Firman. “The only reply that we have is basically that they have been received.”

Students’ Society of McGill U niversity P resident Andrew Tischler spoke very highly of the commitment of the music faculty to this cause. “ I fully support w hat the M usic U ndergraduate Society [Association] is doing, they have really gotten the public on their side,” Tischler explained.

Faculty of Music Associate Dean Don M cLean seem ed to understand why the government had not responded to the Society’s letter writing campaign.

“I do not think that there will be a reply from the government until all the negotiations are over.

Our job right now is to be as sup­ portive as we can and continue to comm unicate our cause to col­ leagues, students and other institu­ tions around Canada.”

L ack o f g o v e rn m e n t su p p o rt But the governm ent’s com ­ mitment to fund the building does not appear on any of its capital projects lists.

“I think this is a full out attack by the government on universities, especially McGill. Once again, they have failed us,” said Tischler.

Firman’s view on the reasons for this lack of government sup­ port for funding the new building stems from McGill’s prominence as an English-speaking university in the heart of Quebec.

“It has a lot to do with the governm ent’s resentm ent of

w h ile

b u ild in g

c r u m b le s a r o u n d

M cG ill’s stance as the English university in Quebec. Compared to places like the University of Laval we get nothing. Things just always happen slower here because of that. History has shown it. This is just another exam ple,” Firman stated. “I do detect that spending on arts is not very popular with the government these days.”

Tischler agreed, expressing great concern for the recent pat­ terns of governm ent education spending.

“I think the M inistry of Education are fools. They have no idea where to put their money when it comes to education, they should keep their hands out.”

T im e t o g o p u b lic ?

MUSA, searching for an answer, has been seeking greater publicity on the issue.

“At first we were w orried about our image, but now it is def-

44 O ur j o b r ig h t n o w is to b e a s s u p p o r tiv e a s w e c a n a n d c o n tin u e to c o m m u n ic a te o u r c a u se to c o lle a g u e s,

s ta ff, s tu d e n ts

initely time. I have learnt that you cannot get anything out of the Quebec government without mak-

44 I th in k th is is a fu ll o u t a tta c k b y th e g o v e r n m e n t o n u n iv e rsitie s, e s p e c ia lly McGill. O n ce a g a in , th e y h a v e fa ile d us.

Andrew Tischler SSMÜ President

ing a scene. Politicians lie, you have to learn to expect it, it is doing som ething about it that m akes the d iffe ren c e,” said Firman.

McLean agreed that drastic measures might have to be taken if the issue is not resolved in the near future.

“There is no question that we are very annoyed and frustrated. I do understand that the government has its priorities in health care and other aspects of education, it has been five years though. If nothing comes out of this m eeting, we have to weigh our options and decide on something else.”

s tu d e n ts , a n d o th e r in s titu ­ tio n s a r o u n d C a n a d a .

Don MacLean Associate Dean of Music

F a te o f t h e f a c u lty As members of the Faculty of Music remain optimistic, most see­

ing a decision in their favour com­ ing in the near future, students fear that one of M cGill’s finest pro­ grams will slowly fall apart with­ out the implementation of this pro­ ject. Sage Firman hopes that the Ministry of Education hears his message loud and clear.

“W hat keeps this faculty together is its teachers. One by one they are all leaving, not because of the money, but due to the fact that this building is simply inadequate for them to do their work. I don’t see this faculty surviving longer than a few more years like this, then McGill and Quebec will lose it and everything wonderful that comes out of it.”

Hey newsies!

Last meeting of the semester Tuesday in the Trib office (Shatner B-01A) Also, look out for a News party... stay tuned for details.

The McG ill Tribune, Tuesdat, 28 March 2000

N e w s Page 3

Same-sex marriage and legalization of marijuana dominate Liberal convention

By K en t G l o w in s k i

Issues surrounding same-sex marriages and the legalization of marijuana were hotly contested during last week’s Liberal Party of Canada biennial convention in O ttaw a. The convention was attended by 1.200 senior delegates and 800 youth delegates.

Most controversial was the resolution to extend spousal bene­ fits and marriage to same-sex cou­ ples. This issue has dogged the Liberals o f late, beginning jts a minor resolution from the Liberal McGill campus association two years ago. but meeting a substantial amount of failure until this year when the Young L iberals of Canada in Quebec decided to throw their weight behind it.

Liberal McGill sent 25 youth delegates to the biennial convention. Due to party rules, Liberal McGill was only allowed to send four delegates as “Liberal McGill” while the other 21 were slotted into ridings such as Frontenac-Mégantic and PapineauSaint-Denis.

“The resolution two years ago was drafted [and spearheaded] by m em bers o f Liberal M cG ill...” explained B rett Carr, a Liberal McGill member.

Voted on last weekend, the tw o part resolution sought to "extend to all spouses same-sex or common law the same rights and obligations as married couples,” and “urge the federal government to extend the right for same-sex

couples to be legally married.”

Since the first h alf of the same-sex resolution had already been adopted as federal govern­ ment policy in bill C-23, which extends federal government bene­ fits to same-sex couples, ratifica­ tion of this half of the resolution was a mere formality and passed easily on the floor.

D iv e rs e m a r r ia g e s s a m e rig h ts ?

The second half of the resolu­ tion, which would extend marriage rights to same-sex couples, howev­ er, sparked heated and emotional debate. The resolution appeared to split the party down generational lines, with young Liberals lining up to speak in support of the resolu­ tion and more senior Liberals speaking against it.

“We are the party of inclusion, not the party of exclusion,” Carr said, as he moved that the resolu­ tion be introduced to the floor for debate.

“We must be the party of social progression, not social con­ servatism,” said Jascha Jabes, a delegate from Queen’s University.

“We must show that Stockwell Day is not going to define the Liberal Party of Canada.”

Brenda Calder, a Liberal dele­ gate from the Ontario riding of W ellington-Dufferin-Peel and a mother, argued that same-sex mar­ riage would undermine the goal of m arriage, which she defined as “procreation”. She claimed that her

opposition was not the product of discrimination, noting that “[homo­ sexuals] are really neat people... I have a lot of gay friends.”

Another vocal opponent of gay marriage was Donald Dolson, a delegate from Parkdale-High Park.

“It’s against the sanctity of God,” Dolson argued.

After lengthy debate, the reso­ lution to legalize same-sex mar­ riages failed by a vote of 468 to 365.

Justice M inister Anne McLellan, speaking after the fail­ ure of the resolution, was happy with the results and restated that her government was still commit­ ted to passing C-23, the same-sex spousal benefits bill. She did, how­ ever, clarify where her government stood on legal gay marriage.

“For us, in this government, marriage is a unique institution,” McLellan explained. “It is one man and woman to the exclusion of all others. That is where this govern­ ment stands. That is where we will continue to stand.”

The Justice Minister did not rule out the possibility of this issue resurfacing again.

“I am sure as long as there are young Liberals and political par­ ties, they will continue to push to the cutting edge, whatever that issue is,” she continued. “When I

was a young Liberal in 1968 it was things like a w om an’s right to choose, it was making sure the death penalty was not reinstated, and today, not only here but around the world, for a lot of young activists of the centre and the left, [legal gay marriage] is an impor­ tant issue.”

A separate issue, the question of legalization of marijuana, drew a cautious approach from Liberal delegates. While voting to desig­ nate the crime of possession of marijuana to “simple possession” status, delegates rejected the out­ right legalization of marijuana.

Liberal M cG ill member Sheriff Abdou was not displeased with the decision.

“I ’m actually happy that it failed,” he said. “I don’t think that we are ready to completely legalize m arijuana. I think it would not exactly be chaotic, but I think peo­ ple would definitely take advantage of the fact. I think we need more of a steady process there as opposed to just ‘bang’ — legalization com­ pletely.”

L i b e r a l M c G i l l 's r o l e Liberal McGill has a history of being at the forefront of controver­ sial issues and involving them ­ selves in politics on a youth level.

As demonstrated by last week’s showing at the Liberal Convention, Liberal McGill is still going strong. “[T]he youth had a very large part in... [a] lot of controversial res­ olutions... especially the same-sex benefits one which has been impor­ tant to M cG ill,” said Liberal M cGill campus association VP external Alana Tiemessen, “It went a little bit farther than we actually expected it was going to.”

Tiemessen went on to argue that the organization has been the breeding grounds of many up and coming politicians.

“Several people that have been previously in Liberal McGill have made it into high ranks. Ayse Dalhi, who was our president two years ago, is on the national execu­ tive for the youth,” explained Tiemessen. “Brett Carr, obviously on same-sex benefits, has played a very important role here, and those are two of the people who have been involved in Liberal for at least the past four years.

Tiem essen later added, “I think w hat’s important to bring back is that youth can get involved in politics at any level and make a difference and put forth resolutions that actually get to the table and voted on. I think that’s the most important thing about the conven­ tion.”

New fee going to IT C on tinu ed from Page 7

year is talk about how we need the money, because the university is falling apart, there’s so much money in deferred maintenance that our libraries need work, all of this needs to be worked on. But when th e VPs cam e here last week and talked about what the monies that they would be raising from this increased student fee w ould be used fo r, it was for things like increased com puter networks and being able to regis­ ter online.”

Jennings criticized the fee increase for not addressing more im p o rtan t co n cern s such as deferred maintenance of universi­ ty buildings.

One student raised the possi­ bility of using McGill’s approxi­ mately $500 million endowment fund in stead o f the $150 fee increase to help improve the uni­ versity’s financial situation. This proposal was quickly turned down in co u n cil. Legal co n stra in ts involved would not allow McGill to draw from the principal of that fund.

F in an cial aid fo r students unable to pay the fee may be a p o ssib ility . SSMU P resident Andrew Tischler told council that he has brought this possibility to

some M cG ill v ic e -p rin c ip a ls’ atten tio n . W hen asked why SSMU was considering support­ ing the fee given the unclear ben­ efits of taking such a position, Tischler criticized the provincial government for downloading the responsibility for collecting rev­ enue from students onto the uni­ versity and “forc[ing] a terrible situation of anim osity on cam ­ pus.”

“The governm ent has no problem increasing fees, it just won’t take the responsibility [to do it itself],” Tischler said.

Gohier suggested that McGill detail the uses for the fee increase for students. The m eeting adjourned without establishing a clear position for SSMU, as coun­ cilors’ positions were diverse.

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a d i e ’s T a b a g ie R e t a il M a n a g e m e n t O p p o r tu n it y

The Students’ Society of McGill University is seeking a student to take on the responsibility for the operation of the Sadie's Tabagie locations on the McGill campus DURING TH E SUMMER M ONTHS (May 1/2000 - Aug. 30/2000).

The ideal candidate will possess experience in retail management including, but not limited to, the control of stock, staffing, accounting principles as well as the ability to develop and coordinate marketing efforts.

This is a full-time position which will require you to assist of a new store. Remuneration consists of a stipen is an asset.

Résumes should be received by the und'

COMP Student's Society of 3600 McTavish St., o m Montréal, Québec H3A 1Y2

hment ualism

N e w s Page 5

The McG ill Tribune, Tuesday, 28 March 2000

If you haven't done soalready, "Discover McGill" this August Despite the all of the useful McGill.”

“It’s M cG ill’s official wel­ information provided in each ses­ What if I get sick... where do I come to first year students,” says sion, Copeland believes that the go? Am I a UO?... What does that Leslie Copeland, first-year coordi­ real asset to new students will be mean? Frank Dawson - who?... nator, and overseer the event. She their “interaction with senior stu­ And where’s his building, anyway? explains that it is designed to be dents.” Because the program calls The same William Shatner from both informative and fun in order for as many student volunteers as to put students at ease in their new possible, incoming students will be Star Trek and Rescue 911?

Being a first-year student at surroundings. “We’re trying to help able to get information from those McGill brings with it days of inse­ them navigate the McGill maze,” already in the know. The advice offered by upperclassm en, curities and months of questions. she adds.

“Discover McGill” provides Copeland explains, “is much more Using the map in the back of the course calendar to navigate through students with five different sessions effective than if it were coming the first day of classes, going as on how to familiarize themselves from the administrators.”

The inform ation overload long as possible without washing with this ‘m aze.’ Activities are offered by the disjointed orienta­ scheduled include: a University and clothes because where to get quar­ tions of the past is essentially what Faculty Orientation, where students ters is still a bit ambiguous, and discovering a cafeteria in Shatner will be welcomed by various pro­ “Discover M cGill” is trying to for the first time in November are fessors, deans, and possibly even avoid. By creating a day, strictly just a few headaches first-year stu­ the Principal; a campus tour and devoted to explaining some of the scavenger hunt, which would give McGill bureaucracy, new students dents of the past have experienced.

The F irst-Y ear O ffice, in students their first glimpse at some will hopefully begin the year cooperation with the office of the of those initially elusive buildings knowing the closest place to get Dean of Students, plans to circum­ like Stuart Bio; a student question quarters or, at the very least, who vent similar woes for the incoming and answer panel, that would offer to ask to find it out. students of 2000. Instead of spread­ individuals advice from a peer per­ “What we’re trying to do here is ing small orientation sessions out spective; and, finally, an introduc­ get the year kicked off on a really over a period of five days, this fall, tion to SSMU and Student positive note for first-year students, the First-Year Office has set aside Services. “Discover McGill” also so that there’s a sense of communi­ just one day to concentrate all of its incorporates a section of free time, ty and a sense of belonging right inform ative efforts. Tuesday, so that students can relax and enjoy away.”

August 29, is the designated day the experience, rather than be for all new students to “Discover stressed by it.

B y N ema Eth eridge

Just as James McGill discovered...

Philip Trippenbach

McGill sees increase in reports of non-academic offences

By B ikalpa K hatiw ada

Reports of incidents of nonacademic offences such as physical abuse, harassment, disruption and dangerous activity are on the rise at McGill, according to a report pre­ sented at Senate last Wednesday.

The annual report from the Committee on Student Discipline reviewed the results of cases where the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures was violat­ ed over a period of 12 months end­ ing the last day of August 1999.

Dean o f Students R osalie Jukier told Senate that 19 such inci­ dents occurred in the last academic year, up from 10 in 1997-98. She noted that so far the trend towards an increase is continuing in 19992000.

“We are indeed distressed [over the increase],” she said. “We have also noticed the trend continu­ ing this year and we are not really sure what we can do.”

What distressed Jukier most is that all nine of the extra cases were Article 8 offences, that is, involv­ ing physical abuses, harassment, and dangerous activity.

Steve Paquin, M anager of Security Services at McGill, asked to comment, said his office sent all incidents that involve students to the office of the Dean of Students and he was not responsible in determining what was an academic or non-academic offence.

When asked whether there has been an increase in the frequency of incidents where security had to be called in, Paquin said the figures were outdated and needed to be updated.

The increased number of nonacademic offences noted in the report surprised some students, including Xavier Van Chau, vicepresident university affairs of the S tudents’ Society of M cGill University.

“It’s weird because I don’t think McGill’s culture is one of violence,” he said. “It would be useful to spread the word so stu­ dents are aware that there is an increase in violence and also allow people in general to be more vocal that this is something that they don’t want to see on their campus.”

44 "We a re in d e e d d is ­ tressed [over the increase]...

We hav e also n o ticed the trend continuing this year [1999-2000] and we are not really sure what we can do."

-Rosalie Jukier Dean of Students

academic integrity, a workgroup was set up.

“The workgroup is set up to examine steps to cut down the lack of integrity,” said Professor Morton J. Mendelson, Associate Dean of Science, group Chair. “The recom­ mendations of the workgroup will be made to the C om m ittee of Student Affairs sometime in May. We still need to meet a couple of times so I don’t want to say exactly what the recommendations will be. “ [Through research its been shown that] the ethos of a universi­

ty is the best predictor of academic integrity,” he added.

Mendelson also felt that more discussions on the topic and stu­ dent involvement would help foster better academic integrity at the University.

P ro c e d u re In all 78 cases the student was suspected to have violated the Code of Conduct and a protocol was follow ed to exam ine if a breach in the code of conduct had

HMIISUBHKHR!

I G e t y o u r g r a d p h o t o ta k e n N O W

■

P la g ia ris m s lig h tly dow n Overall, the report listed 78 cases where suspected violations of the Code were reported to the Office of the Dean of Students. 54 o f these involved academ ic offences such as cheating and pla­ giarism.

The issue of plagiarism spurred discussion as the Senators realized the report examined sever­ al options on how to handle the problem . Jukier defended the approach, arguing that there is no single set penalty for plagiarism.

Admonishing or reprimanding a student are two of the many options available to disciplinary officers and the D iscipline Committee.

“Both intend to say that some­ thing wrong was done but a Reprim and forms a perm anent record on the student’s file,” Jukier said.

In order to address the issue of

occurred. First a disciplinary offi­ cer handles the situation but some­ times cases are referred or appealed to the Com m ittee of Student Discipline.

“The vast majority of the cases were regulated by the disciplinary officers [satisfactorily].” explained Jukier.

Nevertheless the disciplinary officers referred 5 of the 78 cases to the Com m ittee on Student Discipline. The committee then has the task of determining if there has been a violation of the code.

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The McG ill Tribune, Tuesday, 28 March 2000

Voting by the click of a mouse O n l i n e v o t i n g a t M c G ill o n h o l d u n t i l c o m p l e t i o n o f B a n n e r P r o j e c t

By N ilima G ulrajani

An electronic elections revo­ lution is going on at university cam puses across the country, although it may take some time yet to hit McGill.

Q ueen s’ and B rock University are the latest schools to harness the power of networks and the internet to reduce the costs and improve the efficiency of their e le c tio n s’ p ro cedures. The S tu d en ts’ Society of M cGill University is waiting for the com­ pletion o f the B anner 2000 Project, McGill’s revamped infor­ mation system, in order to design a compatible online program.

Procedures for elections and referenda have been drastically modified as student societies intro­ duce online voting and electronic voter identification. Online voting can sharply reduce the tim e required to cast a vote, in addition to being more convenient for stu­ dents. Election results are more quickly tab u lated , and low er labour costs translate into huge savings for the organization run­ ning the election.

“A student can roll out of bed at two in the morning and vote.

[I]t cuts down 60 per cent in terms of m anpower and labour,” said Carol Liao, internal affairs com­ m issioner at the Alm a M ater Society at Queens’ University.

Queens’ first online election will be held in the fall, although test runs are taking place next week to work out the bugs in the operational system . The Alm a Mater Society will be e-mailing a

three-letter code to every eligible voter, which will serve as their online password when they log on to vote. A ccording to Liao, encryption codes and Secure Sockets Layer modular systems will ensure security. She believed voter turnout would most likely increase since the accessibility of the internet exceeds the full-capac­ ity of polling stations, which is 60 per cent of eligible voters.

In recent student elections at Brock University, a computerized voter registration system decreased the time required for students to cast their votes since computer verification eliminated the need for polling clerks to search for a voter’s name on mas­ ter a list. The system was the cre­ ation of a fourth-year computer science student at Brock.

“It’s not extremely complicat­ ed, but it saved a lot of time,” said Kabir Abdurranhman, vice presi­ dent university affairs at the Brock University Student Union. “It’s the first step to online voting, but that will take a little time.

Abudurranham remains some­ what skeptical about the security of online voting although he is not averse to its introduction at Brock.

“Even with security measures, someone could probably break into the system and make the elec­ tions void,” said Abdurranhman.

“I would still like to have the bal­ lot as a back-up.”

Y ea o r n a y o n lin e

2000 Project is fully completed next year. Although SSMU has circulated informal plans for an electro n ic voting procedure according to SSMU C hief Returning Officer Paul Flicker, technology changes induced by the B anner 2000 P roject has deferred the introduction of online voting.

“We were intending to use Saturn, but it won’t exist next year [due to the Banner Project],” said F licker “W ith the expense of putting it all up again next year, it makes sense to wait. I don’t think it’s optimistic to say [online vot­ ing] will begin next year, but if not next year, it will certainly be there the year after.”

Flicker estimated that the cost of setting up an electronic voting system would range from $8,000 to $10,000, although he also pre­ dicted that the elim ination of polling counters would save the SSMU betw een $15,000 to $20,000. Nonetheless, he did not believe electronic voting could increase voter turnout, nor did he believe that a computerized sys­ tem would be more secure than the current checklist-ballot system.

“I don’t think [online] voting is more secure because we already have a very secure system of voter reg istratio n . H opefully it will increase voter turnout, but I’m a little skeptical that if you get rid of poll clerks, it will increase,” said Flicker. “I think they’ll have to come up with some sort of hybrid system.”

Online voting at McGill will only be instituted after the Banner

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED TO M A N A G E T H E M O N T R E A L TERRY FOX R U N

N e w s Page 7

Newsb CR O

A N N O U N C ES NEW

PLANS, IN Q U IR Y

Paul Flicker, Chief Returning Officer of the Students’ Society of McGill University, spoke about new plans for SSMU elections at last Thursday’s council meeting.

F licker also spoke on his decision to accept CBA referen­ dum resu lts despite bilateral infractions of M cGill election bylaws.

The CRO ascribed the deci­ sion both to the fact that neither the ‘Y es’ nor ‘N o’ com m ittees filed reports before the five day repeal period, and due to the lack of seriou s, bylaw violations.

F licker argued that next year, bylaw regulations should be draft­ ed in such a way that such deci­ sions be clearer, and not rest entirely on the shoulders of the CRO. Flicker stated that both parties did break bylaws, but maintained that he did not believe that the infractions adversely affected the referendum.

“N either com m ittee was responsible for large enough breaches of election bylaws that the result was a 600 student No majority,” said the CRO. He further supported his miti­ gated response to the violations, mostly in the form of fines, stating that the outcome of this year’s elections will not in any way set a precedent that opens McGill to negligence of election of bylaws.Flicker will be presenting a report, which includes plans for an on-line voting utility for next year and the possibly of increased privacy in voting through booths, in an Election Inquiry to be con­ ducted by Leeanne B ourrassa, Justice of SSMU Judicial Board.

The inquiry, originally scheduled for last Thursday, was changed as a result of a co n flict with the council meeting.

— By Mike Bargav C o m p S c i s t u d e n t u n io n W ANTS SEAT ON

To raise money for cancer research, and to recognize a

SSM U

Computer Science students want their own voice on the leg­ islative council of the Students’ Society of M cGill U niversity, bringing a motion to this effect to last Thursday’s council meeting.

The School of C om puter S cience, form erly part o f the

great Canadian hero, the SSMU will be organizing the

Montreal Terry Fox Run o n M o u n t R o y a l o n S e p t. 1 7 ,2 0 0 0 .

D edicated vo lu n te e rs are needed over the sum m er m onths.

For fu rth u r in fo rm a tio n contact W o jte k Baraniak, VP Community & Government Affairs at 398-6798 or external@ ssm u.m cgill.ca

S u m m e r C o u n s e lo rs .......,* Great Staff********* *****Great Facilities***** • " “ Great Experience***** N.Y.S. Co-ed Resident Camp, 2 hours NYC, Male Athletic, Rock Climbing, Water Skiing, Boat Driver, Kennybrook- 633 Saw Mill River Road, Ardsley, N.Y. 10502 Fax (914) 693-7678, 1-800-58-Camp2 E-mail: Kennybrook@AOL.com

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department of Engineering and then o f S cience, becam e a “S chool” only two years ago. “ S chool” status* according to SSMU Vice-president University Affairs Xavier Van Chau, is a des­ ignation for a program that “repre­ sents the relationship between two faculties.”

Z ainab A bdurranhm an, Science Undergraduate Society rep resen tativ e, presented the motion. She said that being in a unique program, computer science students had separate needs from o ther science students.

Furthermore, students of any fac­ ulty or school can obtain represen­ tation on SSMU council, except they may not sit on a faculty coun­ cil as well.

The C om puter Science U ndergraduate Society would relinquish its seat on SUS council and also stop receiving funding from it. The CSUS would then presumably collect its own fees off its students.

Van Chau spoke against the motion, saying that schools are not them selves faculties, rendering problematic the election of student senators as these only come from faculties.

The motion was tabled for fu rth er discussion at the next council meeting. It is probable that the matter will be put to referen­ dum in the fall.

M u c h f a it h e x p r e s s e d in

Senato rs

Senate went into confidential session last Wednesday as sena­ tors were asked to view the report of the Committee on the Rights of Senate dealing with Jan u ary ’s breach of confidentiality.

M cGill Principal Bernard Shapiro proposed discussing the report at the next Senate meeting in two week’s time as he felt sena­ tors should have the necessary time to read and think about the contents of the confidential fivepage report.

Senators thus took the report home with them and are trusted not to reveal its contents to any­ one. Normal Senate procedure is that the documents circulate dur­ ing confidential session then are handed back after Senate moves out of confidential session.

The report contains six rec­ ommendations dealing with the individual responsible for the breach of confidentiality. This breach occurred last January when one senator revealed to the McGill Daily that Royal Bank CEO John Cleghom had been considered and turned down for an honorary degree. The senator had also revealed how some members of Senate had voted, including Andrew Tischler and Xavier Van Chau, executives of the Students’ Society of McGill University.

The McG ill Tribune, Tuesday, 28 March 2000

Page 8 O p / E d

Stop

E D I T O R IA L

the

P ress

I DREAM OF GERONTIUS

“The soles of my shoes are clean, from walking in the rain.”

— Jack Kerouac

On Friday March 3, 2000, a large number of McGill music stu­ dents had the pleasure of perform­ ing in or watching a most spectacu­

By Sa n d o n S hogilev lar event; E lg ar’s Dream of G erontius. Both the M ontreal Gazette and La Presse gave the In th e q u ie t and s till a ir o f d e lig h tfu l study reads the performance wonderful (spoken in e n g ra v in g on th e c o n c re te e x te rio r o f M c G ill's d e c a y in g a Prof. Edwards kind of way) Redpath lib ra ry. reviews. Unfortunately our very M o s t m oan at the sig h t o f it; in deed it seems to be lit ­ own McGill Tribune gave a most tle m o re th a n an a n a c h ro n is m — re c a llin g a tim e w h e n disappointing view of the perfor­ sile n c e w as needed to in v o k e th e ro m a n tic is m o f Blake, I mance. I will try not to say any­ thing derogatory towards this stu­ th e e le g a n c e o f F e rm a t, o r th e r e v o lu tio n a r y s p ir it o f dent’s review, although, could it be D a rw in , o r Rousseau, o r E instein. It re ca lls a tim e w h e n possible that she may have been in students so u g h t the c a lm s ile n c e o f lite ra ry texts, h is to ri- ! the wrong church? My mother and cal d o c u m e n ts o r p h ilo s o p h ic a l treatises. girlfriend both had the pleasure of A n d yet, n o w it seems th a t a ll w e hear is silence. viewing the performance and both N o t the S im on and G a rfu n k e l sile n ce o f p o litic a l a pa­ were amazed. My mother drove from Toronto and was overjoyed th y fo r it seems C oke has m ade us speak. N o t th e sile n ce and hugely impressed by the first o f th o se a fra id to la u g h , fo r it seems M o ls o n has le t us McGill concert she had experi­ d rin k . enced. Although the performance Rather, it is a sile n ce , m u ch lik e th a t w h ic h a c c o m p a ­ was not perfect, even those who nies dre a d , o f those w h o are s u d d e n ly fo rc e d to learn. It is knew the work were hard pressed a sile n ce , perhaps o n e th a t is som etim es tem pered w ith a to identify the minor slip ups which may have occurred. 1 would howfo rc e d c h u c k le on th e A rts steps, th a t a c c o m p a n ie s o u r

The sound of silence

r e lu c ta n t m o v e m e n t to w a rd s e x a m s , to w a rd s a s in g le m o m e n t o f ju d g e m e n t.

It is a s ile n c e th a t results fro m a m o re p ro fo u n d m u f­ flin g o f o u r s p ir it to le a rn , th o u g h it is lik e ly o u rse lve s w h o have p la c e d the tape o ve r o u r o w n m o uths.

It seems th a t the p ro v e rb ia l quest fo r k n o w le d g e o n ce associated w ith a u n iv e rs ity has been s u p p la n te d by m ore p ra g m a tic c o n c e rn s ; w e study lo g ic so w e m ay b e co m e law yers, c a lc u lu s , so w e m ay trade d e riva tive s, m a rke tin g so w e may, w e ll, m arke t. Even d is c ip lin e s w h ic h seem to ca rry no p ra c tic a l tra n sfe ra b le v a lu e (read p h ilo s o p h y ) are stud ie d o n ly so th a t th e y m ay e v e n tu a lly be studied m ore.

As beings th a t are d riv e n by ends, w e have the te n d e n cy to o v e rlo o k th e process o f g e ttin g to th a t e n d ; w e a rrive at a fresh sp rin g afte r a w a lk in a desert o n ly to fo rg e t that w e w e re eve r th irs ty . O r w e a rriv e at an exam p e trifie d beca u se w e have fo rg o tte n n o t o n ly w h a t, b u t th a t w e have le arned.

A t th e risk o f s o u n d in g p re a ch y o r d id a c tic , it is m y b e lie f th a t y o u a n d I s h o u ld b o th e n jo y o u r a c a d e m ic w a lk . W e sh o u ld be m o re aw are o f th is s tro ll th a t takes us to la b o ra to rie s and lib ra rie s , c o ffe e shops and c o n c e rt halls. W e sh o u ld read so th a t Aeneas m ay u n fo ld before o u r eyes, read so th a t w e m ay und e rsta n d Keynes, read so th a t o u r p la c id e q u ilib riu m w ill be ever so p u n ctu a te d .

I guess, a ll th a t I am saying is that, in m any ways, the life o f a stu d e n t is a g lo rio u s o n e . G lo rio u s , n o t o n ly in th e places th a t it m ay take us, b u t g lo rio u s in h o w it takes us th e re : th ro u g h a m o s U w o n d e rfu l e x p lo ra tio n a lo n g the h o riz o n o f k n o w le d g e .

T U T ï T I T P F IR I ! T \ ] F 1 l-T liU y itG A jrlljG iU I I Y I D U H L Editor-In-C hief

Paul Conner A ssistant Editor-in-C hief

Rebecca Catching A ssistant Editor-in-ch ief

John Salloum N

a t io n a l

Ed

it o r

Nilima Gulrajani

News Editors Karen Kelly Jonathan Colford Rhea Wong Features Editors Paul Cornett Stephanie Levitz Entertainment Editors Sandon Shogilev Maria Simpson Science Editor Aaron Izenberg

Lo v e

and

s ex n o t m u t u a l l y

Kent Glowinski (21 March 2000) works him self up into a frenzy over the fact that gay men (he talks about “prom iscuous gays” but - typically - seems to be ignoring the position of lesbians) actually have sex with people they’re not in a relationship with.

How dreadful. Why, heterosexuals have only been doing the same thing since the dawn of time.

He points to the dissociation of sex and love as an appalling modernity. If he’d care to investi­ gate the actual history of love and sex, however, he’d find that their conjunction is relatively recent.

Since (straight) sex produces chil­ dren and since men needed a reli­ able way to ensure whose children were whose in order to pass on male property rights, the institu­ tion of marriage was created and sex outside of m arriage was banned. The idea of marriage for love is comparatively recent, dat­ ing back in Western culture no earlier than the Renaissance. In other words, sex meant children meant property meant marriage, which recently came to mean love.

It seen*; appropriate that the rise

is an editorially autonomous newspaper published by the Students'Society of McGill University Sports Editor Christian Lander Assistant Sports Editors Jeremy Kuzmarov The Minh Luong Photo Editors Mike Colwell Wei Leng Tay On-line Editors Andre Nance Mildred Wong

Production Editors Nick Brandon Eric Oest Advertising and Marketing Manager Paul Slachta

ever like to address a few state­ ments made in the Tribune review.

Comments such to the effect “You would expect that a work needing so many performers ...would be able to the shake the rafters.

Unfortunately McGill’s production was surprisingly flat.” This state­ ment is quite simply untrue. The choir fulfilled all that is expected of a choral fortissimo and awed the listeners at the quality of their pianissimos. She goes on to sug­ gest that the church- was too big to fill with sound, this is preposterous.

The work was written to be per­ formed in a church just like the one we performed in, and though the acoustics may make for a lot of echo, in no way did the perfor­ mance lack presence and convic­ tion. Another comment suggesting that there was no climax is again unfounded. There are quite a few different clim axes in the piece including very end of the first half where the choir and orchestra reach great heights in volume and inten­ sity and the demons chorus at the

of sex which cannot produce chil­ dren - such as gay sex - finally broke the tenuous abstraction between sex and love. Sex and love are not in any sense the natur­ al allies he thinks they are, and their separation is therefore ethi­ cally neutral and not to be feared.

He claim s that casual sex “reduce[sj the inherent human worth of a person to a series of orifices.” Indeed, this can be a problem, particularly if you feel, as Mr Glowinski does, that nice girls or boys don’t do that and those who do are not worthy of respect. Those of us who are mature enough to realize that nice boys and girls can and do indeed do that do not have this problem and are perfectly capable of treat­ ing our casual sex partners with the same respect with which we treat anybody else with whom we interact.

He com plains that the gay com m unity has “fo rgotten the importance of values and limits.”

His values and lim its, in other words. For our part, some of us have realized that the rules for sex are no different than for any other interaction. That does not mean we

A l - M o n t h i r y - . M i k e B a r g a v , G r a c e C a r t e l . Ia n D i s e n d , R e b e c c a D o i r o n , N e m a E t h e r i d g e , S . F a r r e l l . K e n t G l o w i n s k i ,

D a v e G o o b l a r , C h r i s H a l f k n i g h t , N a o m i H a m e r . B e n H u n t . B i k a l p a K h a t i w a d a . M . l.a / .a r, A n n a M a t t i u z z i o , A r i a n a M u r a t a , J o h n N a u g h t o n , J o s e p h Q u e s n e l, D u n c a n R e i d , M a r i e - H é l è n e S a v a r d , D a v i d S c h a n z le , D a n W e r b , M o n i q u e W o n g .

t

are w ithout ethics, or that our ethics are valueless. People who can separate sex and love are not necessarily “shallow, morally defi­ cient, and highly irresponsible.” I pride m yself on conducting my entire sex life with a high degree of ethics and personal responsibili­ ty, whether I’m in a relationship or not. No love relationship is neces­ sary to treat another person ethi­ cally - if it were, hum ankind would be in a pretty pass indeed.

I ’m the last to deny that the gay community has severe internal problems. By and large they have to do with unhealthy leftover con­ cepts of normality and deviance, such as body fascism, conformity, and internalized homophobia, as w ell as d ep o liticizatio n and unw illingness to deal with the oppression we still face. They do no't have to do with the separation of sex and love - which were never really linked in the first place.

— Matthew McLauchlin U1 Linguistics

L e tte r s m u s t i n c l u d e a u t h o r 's n a m e , s i g n a t u r e , i d e n t i f i c a t i o n SSM U

(e .g . U 2

B io lo g y

P re s id e n t) a n d t e le p h o n e n u m b e r a n d b e t y p e d d o u b l e -s p a c e d , s u b m itte d

o n d is k in M a c i n t o s h o r I B M

w o rd

p r o c e s s o r f o r m a t , o r s e n t b y e - m a i l . L e tte rs

m o r e t h a n 2 0 0 w o r d s , p ie c e s f o r S t o p t h e P re s s m o r e t h a n 5 0 0 w o r d s , o r s u b m i s s io n s j u d g e d b y t h e E d i t o r - i n - C h i e f t o b e l i b e l l o u s , s e x is t, r a c is t , h o m o p h o b i c , o r s o l e y p r o m o t i o n a l in n a t u r e , w i l l n o t b e p u b l i s h e d . T h e

Tribune w i l l

m a k e a ll re a

s o n a b l e e ffo rts t o p r i n t s u b m i s s io n s p r o v i d e d t h a t s p a c e is a v a i l a b l e , a n d r e s e r v e s t h e r i g h t t o e d i t le tte rs f o r le n g t h . B r i n g s u b m i s s i o n s t o t h e

Tribune o f f ic e ,.

F A X to

3 9 8 -1 7 5 0 o r s e n d to t r ib u n e @ s s m u .m c g ill.c a .

C o l u m n s a p p e a r in g u n d e r 'E d it o r ia l' h e a d in g a re d e c id e d u p o n a n d w ritte n

b y th e e d ito ria l

b y a m e m b e r o f th e e d it o r ia l b o a r d . A l l o t h e r o p in io n s a re

s tric tly th o s e o f th e a u t h o r a n d d o

n o ! n e c e s s a r i l y r e f le c t t h e o p i n i o n s o f

McGill Tribune,

Please recycle this newspaper.

its e d i t o r s o r its sta ff.

The

S u b s c r ip t io n s a re a v a ila b le fo r $ 3 0 .0 0 p e r y e a r.

A

d v e r t is in g

Québec

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f f ic e

H 3A 1Y2

E d it o r ia l O

Staff: W a s s a m

— By Dale Watson U1 Music

EXCLUSIVE

b o a rd

Ad Typesetters Dom Michaud Sean Jordan

beginning of part two which seemed to be the most popular sec­ tion of the piece. Though this work does not end with the typical loud choral ending, but rather fades away, is all part of Elgar’s larger plan. The work is sym bolic of someone dying, and one would not expect a grandiose finale. To give this performance anything but a glow ing review is not only an insult to the near 300 performers who worked so hard to complete such a monumental piece, but to Prof. Edwards who lived and breathed this work, day and night.

It may have been the case that the reviewer did not like the piece as a whole, but to criticize the McGill production, which was clearly a momentous event, is unfair. I will mark Friday March 3rd as my most memorable day as a music student at McGill and again I thank Prof.

Edwards for giving so many of us that experience.

: P a u l S la c th a , 3 6 0 0 T e l:

ru e M c T a v is h , S u ite

(5 1 4 ) 3 9 8 -6 8 0 6

ffic e

University Centre rm B01 A, 3480 rue McTavish

1 2 0 0 , M o n t r é a l,

F a x : (5 1 4 ) 3 9 8 -7 4 9 0

Tel: (514)398-6789 Fax: (514) 398-1750 e-mail: tribune@ssmu.mc.gill.ca Web: http://tribune.rncgill.ca

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O p / E d Page 9

T he M c G ill T ribun e , T uesday , 28 March 2000

S

t o p

the

Pr o t e c t i n g

our

P

autonomy

The latest referendum on the C old B ev erag e A g reem ent should be treated as the swan song of those who tried to shake us out of ov erw h elm ing c o n ­ sum erism . It was a big jo b to o rg a n iz e this ev en t but now, about two weeks later, it is clear that it was a short-lived episode in McGill’s life. It was well pub­ licized in the media but mostly b ec au se o f the p re sen ce o f Naomi Klein, the author of “No Logo.” Her wit and her psycho­ logical approach to dismantling the corporate conspiracy provid­ ed this event with some ideology to m ake it fla sh ie r, but there were no roots for a flourishing m ovem ent later. P eo ple are already wearying of her crusade against the branders’ exploitation of the world, and the direct con­ frontation is only with the corpo­ rations’ facade — not with the m echanisms allowing for their u n co n tro lled ex p an sio n. This lack of a more fundamental fight against the source of the prob­ lem s is lik e K le in ’s f a th e r ’s V ietnam W ar draft-resistance, w hich was m a n ife ste d by a “brav e tr ip ” to C anada som e years ago.

This type of noisy anti-cor­ p o ra te ac tiv ism re sem b le s a toothless barking dog. It is toler­ ated in the m ass-m edia, for it nev er b ites. The m edia are allowed full coverage of sensa­ tionalized current events but are p o litica lly co rrect in keeping alive or burying strategic topics according to the financial elite’s will. So far everybody is happy, as students had a chance to let off steam about their anger with consumerist uniformity, and saw that the public was listening to

I a

Letters

ress in a g l o b a l i z i n g

Be

world

their concerns. At the same time the big financial spheres, which are keeping a firm grip on gov­ ernments and media, are glad not to see a movement aiming direct­ ly at their bloated heads and wal­ lets.

A m uch fu rth e r-re a c h in g hero for today’s young genera­ tion was the USA presidential candidate John McCain, with his fiery talk of breaking the “iron triangle of lobbyists, money and legislation.” Unfortunately it was unacceptable to the establishment and threatened the rank-and-file voters who would rather have the present status quo than threaten the world’s unfettered financial spheres. We must remember that only m arket forces shape the modern w orld’s “ideology” — not by any intellectual concept ex p ressin g our co n sc ie n ce, b eliefs or dream s. It is an extremely ruthless force for the poor and sim ple, but a useful force for the “money smart” and greedy. In the shadow of their pow er the m ajo rity o f us are reduced to being subjects of the “Holy Market” with its growing number of gods each day more strongly marking their logos and brand name territories.

U nfortunately, K lein ’s big job of ridiculing the followers of the art of m arketing is already weakened, as she is now selling h e rse lf by re p eated ly staging spectacular meetings and exploit­ ing confrontations with the large brand names. The same situation holds for our friend McCain in the States, who was so good at inspiring so many young people, but who is not believed by many primary voters to have “served God and country.”

We must understand present social trends better if we want to elim inate the evils reveled by K lein and M cC ain. H ow ever, instead of taking their spectacu­ lar confrontational path, we ordi­ nary people can also be effective.

Right now, we should say no to Ms. Klein’s subtle admiration of the Seattle affair — such con­ frontations boost publicity, while preventing people from thinking fu rth e r. One se n sa tio n a liz e d topic is more difficult to see in a wider perspective, and it hinders rational argumentation, which is so im portant in developing the strength of modem “warriors of a conscience.” People are simply subconsciously preparing them­ selves for the next televised bat­ tle at the next WTO conference, instead of analysing M cC ain’s arguments or reading well-pre­ sented Klein’s conclusions.

So far there have been end­ less, conscious efforts to reduce consumerism. Now, our wonder­ ful spring is com ing! — why don’t we try to refuse the alluring advertisements for the best TV sets and start enjoying the more colourful picture of our beautiful world seen in its true im agina­ tion?

— Slawomir Poplawski, McGill Staff

to

the

ed ito r

proud

In his Gay Pride Week article (March 21, 2000), Kent Glowinski discusses the “depressing underbelly of the gay reality” and questions “what’s there to be proud of?” These comments weren’t the only problem­ atic generalizations we, as three queer students, were subjected to this week. While manning the Pride Week kiosk, we were told by various homophobes and “well-meaning” folk alike that a) gays are moral degenerates, b) queer sexuality rep­ resents arrested development c). homosexuality will lead to the demise of society, and d) queer sex­ uality is sick and wrong. Wliile hurt­ ful, these comments help us to answer Glowinski’s question; what is there for us to be proud of?

We are proud of not letting this crap destroy us, dammit. We are C larification

from

debate

At the debate on March 20 I was accused of making offensive statements about Queer McGill. I wanted to take this opportunity to clarify what it is that I did say.

When asked if I wanted to speak to Queer McGill, I asked the individual what services the AUS could pro­ vide to them.

The SSMU provides funding for Queerline and money for social events and I was unsure exactly what the AUS had to offer. I was asking him that question seriously and I did not say “what the hell can I do for those people.” I think that my question was pertinent and was free of any homophobia. As a religious minority I am very mindful of the concerns of other groups and it is not in my character to ever make such a horrible statement.

I hope that I was able to clarify any misunderstanding and welcome any questions you might have about it.

Greg Aronson AUS Presidential Candidate

proud of ourselves for continuing to simply live our lives in the face of such hatred and ignorance. The world, not just the “gay world” as Glowinski claims, “can be a very sad and sick place.” So here’s to all the brave queer people, some of them even in (gasp!) non-monogamous relationships, who have created posi­ tive change. While Mr. Glowinski is busy “lament[ing] the moral decay of an entire community” we will be out celebrating with our wonderful queer friends.

Meg Hewings, U3 cultural studies Emily Harris-McLeod, U3 social work Sarah Turner, U2 anthropology

■ C

hisler all w r o n g

Contrary to the Sly Chisler’s assertions (“American student killed in America”, March 21, 2000), “home grown militias and sundry other maniacs, armed to the teeth by a fossilised constitutional amend­ ment”, did not bomb the World Trade Centre. Nor were they the ones who killed two CIA agents and wound three in Langley, Virginia on 25, January 1993. Neither did they kill one civillian and wound seven atop the Empire State Building on 23, February 1997.

Funny Chiz should compare the murder rates of Colombia and Washington, DC. Private citizens caught possesing firearms in Colombia are usually shot on the spot — if they’re lucky. You would think this level of gun control would reduce Colombia’s murder rate to that of, say, Costa Rica?

Joe Fernandez Columnist, Chair Shots

Having financial problems getting through this semester? Are you budgeting your money and still coming up short for essentials? Why not contact the McGill Student Aid Centre, at its new location in the William & Mary Brown Student Services Building, and see if we can help. We can offer the following services:

Will hold its annual General Assembly on Friday, March 31 2000 at 12:30 p.m. in room 201 of Chancellor Day Hall (3644 Peel Montreal, Que.). All McGill students are welcome. All McGill students are automatically associate members of the cor­ poration and can vote at the General Assembly.

budget/financial counselling governm ent student loan expertise McGill loans and bursaries SSMU Bursaries (undergraduate) Who needs to be worrying about money when you have papers and exams to complete? Call 398-6013 today or drop by our office to set up an appointment with one of our counsellors.

T ie n d r a s o n A s s e m b l é e g é n é r a l e a n n u e l l e d e s M e m b r e s v e n d r e d i , le 3 1 m a r s 2 0 0 0 à 1 2 h 3 0 , d a n s la s a l l e 2 0 1 d u 3 6 4 4 P e e l ( é d ific e d e C h a n c e llo r D a y H a ll), M o n tr é a l (Q u é b e c ) . é t u d i a n t s d e l 'U n i v e r s i t é M c G ill s o n t le s b i e n v e n u s .

Blouin-M acBain Student Aid Centre W illiam & Mary Brown Student Services Building

T o u s le s T o u s le s

é t u d i a n t s d e l 'U n i v e r s i t é M c G ill s o n t a u t o m a t i q u e m e n t m e m b r e s ° a s s o c i é s d e la C o r p o r a ti o n e t o n t d r o i t d e v o t e lo r s d e

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l 'a s s e m b l é e g é n é r a l e a n n u e l l e .

L

J

The McG ill Tribune, Tuesday, 28 March 2000

Page 10 O p / E d

The First Step Is Knowing The Difference • 24, March 1985; five bikers are gunned down in a clubhouse in the Eastern Townships. The bod­ ies are dum ped in the Saint Lawrence, where police find them sixty-nine days later.

• 6, Decem ber 1989; Marc L epine fires the shots heard around Canada. Fourteen women die.

• Nineteen Canadians die in Yugoslavia between 17, August 1992 and 13, D ecem ber 1999.

Hundreds of Veterans are severely ill after serving in Croatia. With no end in sight, we have not seen the last Canadian casualty of that conflict.

Three of the same. However, you were probably unaware of the first and the third before you read this column.

I do believ e th at violence against women is a serious prob­ lem. That is why I oppose gun control and all its works. Speaking as a male, your capacity to com­ mit sexual assault is significantly

than the Americans because we dispatch the Canadian Forces to every war zone on the planet. Our troops are on the move every time Lloyd Da Noyd (as they calls him in ‘Joysey) notices the starving kids in Kelowna and the massacre of ethnic S arnians in N anaim o, or C h a ir S h o ts wherever CNN is shoot­ J o e F e rn an d e z ing that day.

Tragically, no one has told Ottawa about Tom Berenger’s line ZERO. B ut self-d efen ce does not from Platoon; “Those are OUR extend to tacitly sanctioning mur­ people you’re wasting out there der just because the victims are with your fucked-up fire m is­ different. The popular reaction to sion!” If Canadians applied the the killing of bikers is “Good! reasoning of their anti-gun argu­ They eat meat, ride loud motorcy­ m ents to peacekeeping/nationcles, and some of them live out­ building/world-saving, NATO and side the law. They deserve to die!” the UN w ould be outlaw ed in And we think ourselves better Canada.

Why am I telling you this? than the Americans because we The first step to freedom is know­ don’t have the death penalty.

We do think ourselves better ing the difference between what

degraded when you have a fresh new 9MM navel above the one God gave you. When you’ve been double-tapped (shot twice in the head by someone who is extreme­ ly proficient), your capacity for ANY kind assault drops down to

they tell you and the way it really is.

Those baby-boomistas who protested the Vietnam War are today’s CEOs, Board members and Deans. Through political correctumness, they are snuffing out freedom of speech.

That’s why no one said any­ thing in 1997 when the politicians shut down Operation Sidewinder, the CSIS investigation into the infiltration of our political system and our economy by the Triads and the Beijing régime. The peo­ ple who brought you heroin and Tiananmen now have a say in how Canada is run.

W hat else w ill we lose because we would rather just fol­ low the crowd than think for our­ selves?

In my last hundred words, I want to thank those who helped me roll my bones.

All those writers who inspired me. The people at S o ld ier of

F ortune and S oldiers For The T ruth, B arry S adler, Yves L avigne, B ret H art, Dick Marcinko and Leo Knight.

Paul Conner, my Editor-inChief, merits particular mention. I am the journalistic equivalent of B uh-Buh Ray D udley, which means that Maalox makes record p ro fits when my stu ff is p u b ­ lished. It takes a special person to stomach that. McGill is blessed to have had Paul.

Thanks to Rebecca Catching for introducing me to the joys of copy and paste, and rich text for­ mat.

Lastly, I must thank a lady I never met, VP clubs and services Sam Gross. During last y e a r’s debates, she declared unequivo­ cally her support for freedom of speech. Her bravery does us hon­ our.

ROCK HARD, RIDE FREE!!!

CANADIANS FOREVER, FOREVER CANADIANS!!!

Spring Starts when a Heartbeat's Pounding I couldn’t help it. I know I ’ve already written about the weather, and our national obsession with it, but I am, after all, a Canadian, so what do you expect? It’s the end of rent-a-movie weather, people, and there’s trouble brewing.

Back in the day, when uni­ versities were popping up like the

buds on the tree in front of my house that invariably poke me in the eye every single time I walk dow n my front stairs, Jam es M cGill, in keeping up with his buddies Billy Ray Queens and Frederick of Toronto, decided that school should start in September and end in April. Apparently, he

paid no co n sid eratio n to the weather in this fair city, because if he had, he would have realized that if students were forced to make the choice, the great out­ doors are going to beat out the library any day of the week.

Just think about it: you could sit inside, unable to do anything

Obviously, there’s no choice here, at all.

So, w hat should you do?

How are you going to get over this insurmountable problem, and actually get some work done?

Help me! you cry. W ell, d o n ’t worry, loyal reader, I have the solution. I’ve worked long and

B u rn in g th e S a m b u c a D E P A R T M E N T O F M I C R O B IO L O G Y A N D I M M U N O L O G Y

C hris E sse rt

F A C U L T Y O F M E D IC IN E M c G I L L U N IV E R S IT Y M o n tr e a l, Q u e b e c

WELLCOME LECTURE in th e M ic ro b io lo g ic a l S c ie n c e s

S tr u c tu r e M e e ts F u n c tio n :

A View of TonB-D ependent A ctive Transport

P r o f e s s o r R o b e r t J. K a d n e r

(no drinking, no eating, no talk­ ing, no listening to m usic, for G od’s sake), stressing yourself out about exams that don’t really matter when you think about it, or, you could chill out, have à seat on the Arts steps, look at all the pretty people who’ve broken out those long-lost tank tops, smoke butts, enjoy the view of our beau­ tiful campus (or of the fashion show truck) and im prove your m ental health, som ething that really does matter in the long run.

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Burroughs Wellcome Fund Visiting Professor

hard, for many years, to perfect this strategy, and to lock it tightly into the cramped quarters on the inside of my skull.

Just, chill out, man.

Don’t worry about things, it isn’t worth it.

Stressing yourself out about school definitely isn’t going to make you any better at it — either y o u ’re sm art or y o u ’re stupid, nothing can change that, so why worry? Listen, spring is impor­ tant: it’s one of the nicest times of

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the year, everything and everyone looks so good, everyone is so relaxed, all those problems that seemed so oppressively awful last week suddenly seem practically trivial now, or at least manage­ able.

So get your book, and go out­ side. You can read sitting in the park, or on the steps, or on your favourite terasse. If you have to write a paper, bring your laptop (or a friend’s laptop) outside, and do your work there. Please.

Sorry fo r being like this.

There aren’t many things that I feel strongly enough about to be so preachy, but I hate seeing peo­ ple w aste th eir springs sitting inside, burying themselves under tonnes of books.

If you aren’t willing (or able) to do your work outside, at least do yourself a favour and take a couple breaks, maybe even a D.O. or two, outside. Not only will you benefit directly from spending som e tim e in the w onders of m other nature, but I guarantee you that the work that you will end up doing will be ten times better — it will be your brain’s way of thanking your body for being so nice to it.

So that’s all. That’s my part­ ing advice, to you, loyal reader.

This is, in fact, my last column.

I ’ve really enjoyed writing this column this year, trying to point out some of the odder things that people do (“ B urning the Sam buca”) and I hope y o u ’ve enjoyed reading. Thanks a lot to everybody who’s given me feed­ back, either positive or negative, in person or over email, it was all greatly appreciated.

Good luck on your exams, don’t work too hard.

O p / E d Page 11

The McG ill Tribune, Tuesday, 28 March 2000

S

t o p

the

J urassic C

P

ress

lark

The article on Joe C lark's speech at McGill (Tribune, vol.

19, issue 24, page 2) has made me realize just how contradictory and incompetent Mr. Clark can be. On the subject of Canada’s economy, Mr. Clark suggests the federal governm ent lower taxes, yet it was during his years — sorry — months as Prime Minister when one o f the m ost unfavourable budgets was introduced, which included an alarming eighteencen t in crease in gas taxes.

Granted, the economy was worse back then, and Trudeau's govern­ ment eventually introduced the same gas tax increase, but more gradually over a long period of time rather than immediately and in one shot. Since the voting pub­ lic bo o ted him out of office (faster than expected, thanks to his vote of confidence motion), it was quite obvious that his views did not reflect those of the people.

Now he comes back and accuses the current Liberal government of doing the same: ignoring the pub­ lic. Mr. Clark also points out that "when there is no scrutiny, things go wrong," referring to the need for voters' scrutiny of the govern­ ment. But we don't have to look any fu rth e r than the N ational Assembly to realize that there is a

’f “ r - j T — T

—,

high level of scrutiny against the Bouchard government. Since it is Bouchard's objective to cheat and lie to attain sovereignty, there has been an attempt by the Chretien government to introduce Bill C20 forcing the PQ to ask a clear question rather than confuse the public in future referendum s, which is a big step in terms of democracy. Then in comes Mr. C lark who seem s to think the Bouchard government -the same government who discrim inates,

Double

the

lies, cheats and contradicts itself to attain its goals- is doing a great job in handling matters such as the referen d u m question and rejects the clarity bill. This not only demonstrates incompetence on b eh alf of Mr. C lark, but it show s he is ign o rin g the Canadian public since there is a high level of support for the bill.

Now le t’s stop and think: Mr. Clark is telling us that he is listen­ ing to the people while he scruti­ nizes the very bill that the people support. Sorry but he had his

power

of

your

chance many years ago and he blew it. It has gotten to the point where even his own party has lost faith in him. And he wants be our

KAYMaclVERMEMORIAL PRIZE. f w orth $275, fo r th e best English essay by an undergraduate on a subject in the field o f English C anadian o r French C anadian literature, to be nom inated by (instructors.

CREATIVE WRITING

3NA.AD1LMANPR1ZEINPOETRY, { worth $ 65 0 ~ o r $ 325 fo r tw o students, is open to u n d e rg ra d u a te o r g ra d u a te s tu d e n ts registered in the F a c u lty o f A rts for the best poem or group of poem s Urelating to ecological o r environm ental concerns.

CLARKJ.EW1SAIEMORIALPRIZE, f w orth $250, is open to m a jo r o r h o n o u rs s tu d e n ts

degree

in th e D e p a rtm e n t o f E n g lis h . The prize is aw arded annually o r from tim e to tim e fo r orginal plays .s ta g e d in the course of th e academ ic year.

Learn how to A

TheCHESIERMACNAGHTENPRIZES IMCREATIVE WRITING,_____ _ (two prizes, one of $500 and another of $350) are open to u n d e rg ra d u a te s tu ­ d e n ts o f th e U n iv e rs ity fo r the best piece of creative w riting in English, i.e. a story, a play, a poem , an essay, etc. Printed com positions are ineligible if they have been published before April 15, 2000.

m anage

th e country's g re a te st assets.

PRIZE,......... T..... —— —

~

' worth $1,500, is open to u n d e rg ra d u a te o r g ra d u a te s tu d e n ts re g is te re d in a d e g re e p ro g ra m in the D e p a rtm e n t o f E n g lis h with distinction in English (L ite ra tu re w ho has also show n creative literary ability.

he LIQJNELSHAPIROAWARDS FORCREATIVE WRITING,.... ..............

r's new 12-month post-graduate p ro g ra m in

''Three prizes of $1,000 each, to be distributed if possible am ong the genres of poetry, fiction, screen w riting and playw righting. Each prize to be awarded on th e recom m endation of the D epartm ent of English to students in the fin a l y e a r o f th e B.A . course w ho have dem onstrated outstanding talent. (A note from yo u r academ ic advise r verifying you will have com pleted yo ur program require­ m ents and th e m inim um credits required by the Faculty o f A rts (by A pril 2000) .M U S T accom pany yo ur subm ission.)

lie Administration àtors w ork across all levels of local, provincial, I and federal governments. Humber College's program gives university graduates the knowledge and skills necessary to manage the considerable human, physical Humber and financial resources of the public sector. iQ | <

These com petitions are restricted to students w ho have not previously won th e First Prize.

Form s to be com pleted (for creative writing prizes and aw ards) are available in the D epartm ent of English G eneral O ffice, A rts 155. Subm ission m ust be in d u p lic a te .

Call (416) 675-6622, ext 3226, or fax (416) 252-7573. U V . b u s i n e s s ,

next Prime Minister? I think we deserve better.

— Michael Lancione Ul Architecture

h u m b e r c .

o n

DEADLINE: Thursday, April 13, 2000

S ire -, ”i '■ î.d F T T m t

A t t e n t io n c o l u m n i s t s

M c G IL L T R IB U N E Quest to beat cyber-bate

The Tribune is seeking fo u r O pinion/E ditorial section columnists. The bi-w eekly colum ns w ill appear th ro u g h ­ o u t the 2000 - 2001 school year.

Mol son Stadium to host Alouettes in semi-final

O p /E d

c o lu m n is ts

in t h a t f o r t h e g ra m m a r.

are

e s s e n tia lly

m o s t p a r t, th e y

T hey

ru n

e v e ry

are

e d ite d

o th e r w e e k ,

th e

p ap er

o n ly fo r s p e llin g

an d

re v o lv e

an d

aro u n d

a

th e m e .

A p p lica tio n s sh o u ld be addressed to Paul Conner and su b m itte d by 4:3 0 pm on Frid a y A pril 7 , 2 000 to the T rib une office.

C o lu m n s a r e a b o u t 4 0 0 0 C o m p le te

jo b

to 5 0 0 0

d e s c rip tio n s

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c h a r a c t e r s in l e n g t h . can

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w e b s ite a t h ttp ://tr ib u n e .m c g ill.c a /a p p ly .

T H E M c G IL L T R IB U N E tel 398.6789

in d e p e n d a n t fro m

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fax 398.1750

t r i b u n e ,

•

s h a tn e r u n iv e rs ity c e n tr e ro o m

b O la

• 3 4 8 0 m e ta v is h

email tribune@ssmu.mcgill.ca

m c g i l l . c a / a p p l y

Page 12 O p / E d

The McG ill Tribune, Tuesday, 28 March 2000

T h e T r i b u n e 's m i s h m a s h o f fu n , f a c t a n d fic tio n

9 0 9

B y D ave G o oblar 1

Across I. Rhea Perlman on Cheers 6. Staking a claim, as in "I got ____!"

10. Acid found in urine II. At rest 12. One of Marge's sisters 13. Nigh 14. Incorrect past tense for 'pay'?

15. The Jets or the Sharks 16. "Tristan and____" 18. Wild feline 22. Soothing balm 23. Things 28. Lennon song on Rubber Soul 29. Number of Oscars Nicholson has won 30. Up to no good 31. This year's Best Supporting Actor 32. Minus 33. Back legs?

Down 1. Edge 2. Length times width 3. Lean (on) 4. Corona necessity 5. Former French colony in Eastern Canada 6. "Maybe a ____ate your baby!"

7. The best possible outcome 8. Tasteless

2

3

4

7 5

8

E l l ip s i: Dear S&M 9 9 9

9

6

B y S . Farrell and M . Lazar

10 "

Dear S&M,

12 13 14 " 16 18

19

20

17

21

22

23

28

29

24

25

26

27

30 3’ 33

32 1

Dear Garfield, last week’s answers

9. French singer Gainsbourg 17. Sew 18. Famous Montreal delicacy 19. One of the healthier oils 20. Partner of Natasha 21. Very small rooms 24. Nantha's Kitchen specialty 25. _______ Go Bragh 26. Fix 27. Notices

N e w s p a p e r

s e e k s

M

P A R C

T R A A L S C

c o l u m

G O R G__E_ S H NE S T S A Y GRES G E A S E D S P 1 T O D A R E R T [B _A _B Y A R Y fs L Y ■

p U S

o w E R

n i s t s .

T h e T r i b u n e is l o o k i n g f o r f o u r O p / E d c o l u m n i s t s f o r t h e 2 0 0 0 - 2 0 0 1 sch o o l y e a r.

A p p l i c a t i o n d e a d l i n e is A p r i l 7 t h a t 4 : 3 0 p m in t h e T r i b u n e

o ff ic e ( S h a tn e r B 01 -A ).

A p p lic a n ts s h o u ld s u b m it u p to th r e e s a m p le

c o lu m n s w ith a le tte r o f in te n t.

F o r d e ta ils se e : h ttp ://tr ib u n e .m c g ill.c a /a p p ly

Collectanea

---- COMPILED B Y ERIC O E ST

In an effort to mend a series of relationships gone awry,this week's collectanea offers an inter­ esting and pseudo-historical look into the glorious world of person­ al hygiene. Current worldly con­ ventions suggest that, at the very least, a moderate amount of clean­ liness is required in order to inter­ act with other humans and yet, nobody has ever ventured to answer the question why.

S o a p , g lo rio u s s o a p The story of hygiene begins with water but, this element of hygiene is u b iq u ito us and no innovation was required in order to h arness its cleansing power.

T h erefore, no further discussion is required; the w orld benfits from the universal solvent.

Personal hygiene really began to boom following the invention of soap. This treasure came to be fo llo w in g a large barbecue in some little Phoenician town circa 500 B.C. The poor goat roasting

on the spit deposited its fat on the hot ashes below. Unbeknownst to them , this process (know n as saponification - the mixture of an alkali with a fat), led to the cre­ ation of a slippery and shiny goo.

Apparently, one of the members o f the barbecue (clearly the clev e rest o f the bunch) was intrigued and decided to bathe using this goo as a lather. The rest is history. Today's soaps remain quite similar to the goatfat original only all of the ingredi­ ents are different (today's facto­ ries use bigger goats).

T h e c u rio u s d e v ic e t h a t is t h e t o o t h ­ b ru sh Prior to the Graduate, plas­ tics w ere not really seen as a viable source for any useful items.

As a result, the earliest form of the Western toothbrush was com­ prised of a simple wooden stick and b ristle s m ade o f pig hair (right from their chinny-chinchin). This b ristle brush was probably invented by the Chinese and it slowly found its way into

My girlfriend and / have been seeing each other fo r a few months and we want to move in together next year. The problem is that 1 am allergic to cats and she has three o f them. She refuses to give the cats away and I refuse to live in a place where I will undoubtedly feel sick all the time. What can we do to make this work?

Garfield’s Gotta Go

Europe by the mid-seventeenth century. French dentists began to advocate its widespread use and, since they were regarded as the best dentists of the time, the bris­ tle brush was adopted by much of m ainland Eurrope (Given their som etim es icy history with France, it was no w onder that Britain was more reluctant to heed the French dentists' advice). In an earlier time (when pigs were in shorter supply), many African and Indian cultures used a stick with a mashed end in their attem pt to curb tooth decay and gingivitis.

As testament to the effectiveness of this practice, many cultures still employ this method. In fact, a recent article in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry has found that this practice is, perhaps, more effective than the accepted toothbrush-toothpaste method. The sticks that are used possess a series of antimicrobial agents that act to kill bacteria in the mouth and on the surface of the teeth.

W h e r e w o u l d F ric b e w ith o u t F ra c ?

Follow ing much public uproar and discomfort, the British slowly began to adopt the tooth­

In solving your problem, it is im portant to keep in mind that some people form relationships with pets that are very similar to human relationships. Those of us who are animal lovers know the deep feelings that can grow for a pet. So, although asking your girl­ friend to get rid of her cats may seem like no big deal to you, she will probably feel like you are ask­ ing her to give away some close friends. Obviously, you would never ask her to ditch a friend for you and in turn, it is not fair to ask her to ditch her pets.

However, you should not have to live in a situation in which you are uncomfortable and living with cats is going to be anything but comfortable for you. Obviously, it would be ridiculous if your partner expected you to suffer physically in order to live with her. You two are caught between a cat and hard brush and, w ith the on set of Victorian era, even more attention was given to personal hygiene.

As a response to the grow ing demand for greater hygiene Dr. Washington Wentworth Sheffield, an American Dentist with family from Britain, invented the World's first to o th p aste in 1850. His Creme Dentifice produced such "pleasing results" that he decided to market his product on a larger scale. A round the sam e tim e (c. 1837) Proctor & Gamble Co. of C incinnati was form ed. Their Crest product became one of the dominant toothpastes and remains so even today with total sales in excess of thirty billion dollars.

T o o th p a s te c a se s tu d y Who makes all of that tooth­ paste? If you were a resident of China, the answer would probably be the Shanghai T oothpaste Factory. From a W estern p er­ spective, this company is decided­ ly a very strange one. The compa­ ny web page is rid d led with bizarre translations and features a series of mantras and company slogans.

Their aim/mission statement: "Improve the quality of the tooth­

place.

So the only solution that we at S&M can come up with is that you and your girlfriend figure out a way to separate your living areas so that she can keep her cats and you can keep from sneezing. One option is to try to get a relatively large apartment and keep the cats lim ited to one or two room s.

However, implementing this plan may be pretty difficult and you may find yourself surrounded by cat hair. The best option may be to keep separate apartments. You and your girlfriend could try to find two small apartments in the same building; that way you will be very close to one another and have all of the benefits of living together with­ out any feline interference.

Of course there may be other options that you can consider. For example, if your partner has a rela­ tive nearby who could take the cats for the year, that would alleviate the problem. Or, you could consult doctor about allergy medication and ask around for ways to limit the allergic reaction you have to cats (eg. try a vet or a cat website).

At the very worst, you may have to accept that you and your girlfriend just won’t be able to live together just yet. Although, you may find this a bit disconcerting, try to see the situation from her point of view: if she lives with you she has to give up her cats, but if she lives in her own place she can keep the cats and the relationship with you. So don’t be dismayed if she wants both you and the cats, and keep in mind that you would never want her to ask you to give up something you love. Meow. paste furtherly." The webpage also spoke about the company's employees: "The staff of STOF pay great attention to the quality of the products all the time and have established excellent after­

sales services and scientific man­ agement system in line with the in tern atio n al standard."

Hopefully, this brand of tooth­ paste, with its employees dedicat­ ed to improved quality, will be arriving in Canada sometime in the very near future. Regardless of whether its famed toothpaste ever arrives on our shores, its website can still offer a few min­ utes of entertainment.

Sources: • www.stof.com • hometown.aol.com • www.sheffield-labs.com

F E A T U R E S Mapping the menstrual body: behind the Bloodsisters project T he Mc G ill T ribun e , Tuesday , March 28 2000

B y Naomi H amer

More than four years ago, Bloodsisters began as a “guerrilla girl recyclable pad distribution net­ work” based at Concordia’s Quebec Public Interest Research Group.

Two years later, the creative and hard-working group expanded to McGill’s QPIRG where their mis­ sion continues to raise awareness with regards to the health, environ­ mental and ideological implications of the toxic feminine hygiene indus­ try.

Aimee Darcel (fondly known as A.D.) one of the founders and coordinators of B loodsisters, described their group as “an excit­ ing launching-pad-girl-base fuelling action to combat against the silence surrounding the corporate control of menstruation and women’s bodies in general.” Bloodsisters has jumpstarted an increasing number of cre­ ative projects including: the artistic creation and distribution of afford­ able alternative menstrual products, (the ‘keeper’, a re-usable menstrual cup and a line of re-usable ‘power pads’ available at the W omen’s Union and QPIRG); art shows, workshops, all collecting work done on menstruation.

The main activist aim of the Bloodsisters is to raise awareness about the possible negative health effects of chlorine bleaching and whitening process, used by many major brands of feminine products.

The chemicals and deodorants in tampons are irritants that may effect pH balance of the vaginal walls, increasing risks of TSS, cysts, ulcer­

ation and peeling of the mucous membrane as well as possible links to cervical cancer. Moreover, the excessive packaging and non­

The F e m in in e P ro te c to r

biodegradable quality of disposable tampons and pads may lead to vari­

ous environmental problems effect­ ing landfill, sewage systems, water­ ways and wildlife.

Until recently, the distribution and prom otion of “alternative fem i­ nine protection gear”, namely re ­ usable “power pads,” funky, useful and decorative hand­ made creations often made of tiger-striped flannel and velour, were central to the Bloodsisters activist work. This year sev­ eral new projects have marked the group’s further expansion and evo­ lution.

Sam Semper, one of the coordina­ tors of Bloodsisters McGill explained that “part of the group’s focus from the beginning, has been the creation of a menstrual resource centre. This centre will now be housed at our new Mile-end homebase called elle corazone.” This new location will also provide a base for the two major pro­ jects the group has initiated: an archive and anthology entitled “Mapping the menstrual body.”

“Bloodsisters has always been

a multi-disciplinary project, with different people bringing their own interests to the project. We’ve spent this last year putting together an international call for work. We’re trying to link what seems to be a series of movements surrounding the politics of m enstruation,” Semper explained. “We want to col­ lect everything that is being done — cover the gamut from academic work to personal bedroom rants about cramps... bring it all together so interested people can have access to it and because we want to forge connections between the groups that are doing the work.”

Bloodsisters is interested in the environmental and health issues sur­ rounding feminine products, but also in the politics of menstruation on a more theoretical level in terms of its representation in advertise­ ments and resulting conceptions of the female body.

A particularly unique element of the Bloodsisters is its range of interests — from artistic to academ­ ic to hands-on action and the inte­ gration of these distinct modes into their research and work. “We’re sort of punk rock, anarchist, meets acad­ emic, riot grrl — do-it-yourself,” said Semper. Their poster calling for submissions to The Bloodsisters Project, exemplifies their range of interests in their “inter-disciplinary call for responses to the menstrual body... to draw a map-a constellation-to address and undress... dislo­ cate and approximate-dissect and intersect the landscapes related to the contours of m enstruation.”

Submissions may be in the form of:

Page 13

“research, essays, zines, recipes, musings, images, rantings, journals, memories, teachings, photos, arti­ cles, testimonies, medical knowl­ edge, herbal remedies, grassroots strategies, anxieties, scribbles or your inside stories.” These will go toward what Darcel termed the “destinations” of the “archive, zine, anthology and activism.” All sub­ missions will become a part of the Bloodsisters resource base at elle corazone.

Semper clarified, “Everything submitted will become part of the bloodsisters archive/ resource cen­ tre. If the author of the work is interested their piece can also become part of a pool of submis­ sions for our periodical, Red A lert, an informative and creative zine, as well as for our anthology project.”

Darcel added that “March 31 was the deadline on the poster but there will be a “seam allowance...We made the date to spark action... you know?”

Semper emphasized the oppor­ tunities available in these new pro­ jects particularly the anthology pro­ ject, the culmination of four years work: “We are now in a place where we want a larger more widely dis­ tributed publication and because of the diversity of the work we have received and know is out there we think an anthology is the answer”.

Submissions for the Bloodsister Project and orders for pads and other products: tel#: (514) 273-3933 or email them tatredzone@ bloodsisters. org

Gene therapy, bone marrowtransplants top list for new MS treatments

By A riana M urata

Multiple sclerosis could soon succumb to a barrage of ground­ breaking therapies, whose develop­ ment will involve researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute.

“In a few months, the MNI will be participating in a large study to determine the potential efficacy of intense immuno-suppression fol­ lowed by bone marrow transplants as a therapy for MS,” said Jack Antel, Chair of Neurology and Neurosurgery at the MNI and asso­ ciate member of McGill’s microbi­ ology and immunology department.

Headed by Mark Friedmann, former MNI researcher and present MS program director at the University of Ottawa, the program will involve first destroying the p atien t’s own immune system .

Bone marrow from a healthy donor will then be transplanted into the patient.

Bone marrow produces immune cells. Normally, immune cells protect the body from foreign materials, such as disease-causing bacteria and viruses. When a person has MS, however, their immune cells attack the body’s own tissues.

By replacing the patient’s existing, disease-mediating immune system with healthy bone m arrow, the

researchers are hoping to generate new immune cells which would no longer attack the body.

In t h e g e n e s Gene therapy could also be a possible treatment for MS. “A defi­ nite genetic predisposition for MS has been found,” explained Antel.

“If a person has MS, there is a 1:100 chance rather than a 1:1000 chance that their sibling will have it. [In comparison], in the case of identical twins, there is a 30 per cent chance that the identical twin will also be affected.”

For gene therapy to be a suc­ cess, the mutated gene or genes causing MS first have to be located.

Healthy copies of the gene could then be injected into the body using non-harm ful viruses or even immune cells as transport vehicles.

“Early intervention is the key to successfully treating MS,” said Antel. “If you can stop the disease before it reaches the secondary pro­ gressive MS stage, you could pre­ vent most of the damage from occurring.”

Antel’s own MNI research lab is studying oligodendrocytes, the brain cells that are destroyed during MS by the body’s own “killer” T (immune) cells. Antel and Sandrine

Pouly, a post-doctoral fellow, are trying to determine why oligoden­ drocytes are so susceptible to attack during MS. O ligodendrocytes produce myelin, a fatty substance that sur­ rounds nerves and helps to conduct nerve im pulses with lightning speed. By understanding oligoden­ drocyte biology, Antel foresees a possible future therapy for MS that could involve regeneration of oligo­ dendrocytes, re-m yelination of nerves, and possibly, full restora­ tion of nerve function.

Along with Alex Prat, a neu­ rology resident and winner of the 2000 S. Weir Mitchell Award from the Am erican Academy of Neurology, Antel is also examining how lymphocytes interact with the blood-brain barrier. The lympho­ cytes are transported from the bone marrow (where they are generated) to the brain via the bloodstream. In order to enter the brain, the lym­ phocytes must basically “chew” their way through the blood-brain barrier, using special enzymes known as proteases.

H e lp in g e a s e t h e p a in The most common type of m ultiple sclerosis is relapsingremitting MS. RRMS affects about

100 in every 100,000 Canadians. In RRMS, symptoms such as fatigue, weakness, and trouble with balance will appear for several weeks, then disappear. In between MS attacks, patients will make a full recovery.

Up to 50 per cent of those affected with relapsing-remitting MS will eventually develop sec­ ondary progressive MS. This is typ­ ified by attacks that continually increase in severity. In between attacks, the patient will not recover fully. Serious, permanent disability can result.

At the present, there are two drugs available for treating MS: Interferon- (IFN-) and Copaxone.

They have both been successful at decreasing the number and severity of MS attacks that patients will experience. Before their wide-scale emergence in the early 1990s, there was no effective treatment for MS. “[During MS attacks] I would lose my balance and feel a weak­ ness in my leg s,” said Lise Champagne, a Montreal resident.

“When I tried to speak, my voice would be weak and soft. I couldn’t speak loudly, even when I tried. I would feel very tired.”

Champagne was diagnosed with MS in 1993. She was forced to resign from her job at a glass com­ pany. For many years, she had no

treatment available and would suf­ fer one to two MS attacks each year. A momentous change came into her life last September when she began to take IFN-.

“I find Interferon- terrific,” says Champagne. “I feel less tired and I’ve had no attacks so far. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed.”

Champagne must inject herself with IFN- every two days. When she first started taking IFN-, she experienced flu-like symptoms and would fall asleep at dinnertime. She now takes IFN- in the evening, before bedtim e, and no longer experiences any adverse side effects.

“I used to go to Florida a lot, during the summer and during the winter,” says Champagne, remi­ niscing about her pre-MS days. “I really liked to go swimming there.

Maybe, I could go back some day.”

Dr. Antel’s oligodendrocyte work is being funded by the M edical Research Council of Canada. The Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada is financing his research on the interactions between the immune and nervous systems.

Page 14 F e a t u r e s

T he M c G ill T r ibu n e , T u esd a y , 28

march

2000

Heterogeneity vs homogeneity C h a r le s T a y lo r d is c u s s e s " C a n a d ia n D u a lity : t h e U n r e s o lv e d C o n flic t" B y Joseph Q uesnel

As if issues of clarity over a possible referendum question weren’t enough to occupy our time, C harles T aylor resurrected the whole debate about Quebec’s tradi­ tional demands to be recognized as a distinct society ten days ago. As part of a series of lectures to hon­ our Frank Scott, T ay lor’s talk, “Canadian duality: The Unresolved Conflict,’’ centered on the issue of the place of Canadian duality in Canadian society.

Taylor opened the discussion by exam ining how duality has changed and become more of a problem in Canada. The whole idea of “two nations” he argues, was something that was perceived only in Quebec. The rest of Canada, his­ torically, did not accept this ideal.

English Canada has always insisted on building a more homogenous political nation-state, while respect­ ing, to some degree, special rights for Francophones.

“In Canada, yes we have a minority that deserves respect and rights. But, we are also a political nation that in some cases is striving for homogeneity,” he said.

Taylor argued that the idea of two equal nations operating within one state was not what the framers of Confederation had envisioned.

“Coast-to coast equality was tried. But there was a refusal on the part of the other partner for coastto-coast equality. There has been a brutal suppression of Francophones historically,” he said illustrating how the vision of “deux nations” was not the reality of history.

One of the problem s arose during the 1960s when Quebec began to assert its own “nation­ building role” alongside Ottawa.

The Quiet Revolution saw Quebec develop an activist state role that it never had before. As such, the “problem of co-ordinating two activist states in Quebec City and Ottawa” came to the fore.

and is entrenched at the core of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Official Languages Act. The second meaning is what Taylor refers to as a “created duali­

T w o v is io n s o f d u a lity Taylor also emphasized the uniqueness of Canada among other nations in that it is the “only soci­ ety in the world that is an immi­ grant-receiving society with two languages of reception.”

The sense of duality, he feels, has evolved into two meanings. We have seen duality as the presence of two official language groups in Canada. In this version, there are “equal rights for two groups across the country.” Taylor identified this as the notion that was adopted by Lester Pearson and Pierre Trudeau

T a ly o r o n C a n a d ia n id e n tity

ty” or a duality where an immigrant society has “two foyers of recep­ tions” where immigrants are inte­ grated into either a predominantly Anglophone or Francophone soci­ ety. Problems arise because one of the provinces controls one of the main foyers.

When addressing the point of distinct society, Taylor praised it for its “fuzziness.” Taylor feels that

distinct society is conceptually interesting. “ ‘Distinct society’ is a good term because it does not try to define the rest of Canada,” he said.

The M eech Lake Accord was good because not only did it recognize Q u e b e c ’ s Francophone char­ acter, but it recog­ nized m inority communities across the country .

Alain Gagnon, a political science professor at McGill specializing in Quebec politics and c o n s titu tio n a l issues, stressed the importance of rec­ ognizing duality.

He described A ndre Nance Canadian duality as “An inescapable concept.

“You need it to look back and also to assume the current reali­ ty...” he said. “That is something very disturbing for some people.

But at the same time, it’s some­ thing you cannot do without if we are to remain a united country.”

Gagnon looked to recognizing the changing character of duality

by Canada as key to the success of

Canada. W hile at first religious and later a linguistic, the idea of duality has changed and evolved for Quebec. While “ special status” for Quebec in the 1960s meant a re -d ivisio n o f pow ers, now it means an exp licit recognition of Canada of itself as a multinational state. “ It ’ s not ju s t to have a bit more control over immigration pol­ icy, but it’s much more in terms of the way Quebec asserts itself politi­ ca lly, institutionally, economical­ ly ,” he said. “This is what matters most and this is lost by most peo­ ple. So, I go up w ith Professor Taylo r to a certain point. It is a form of special status but special status in 1960s has a great different connotation than the one that is asked now.”

Gagnon praised Taylor for his w illin g n e ss to acknowledge Canada as a multinational state, but criticize d him for not going far enough with the im plications of that politically. “ Professor T a ylo r, constitu­ tio n a lly , is not w illin g to push enough forward for the expression o f that in stitu tio n ally,” he said.

And like the Meech Lake Accord showed, maybe th at's been the problem all along.

From cola to Kuhner: McGill in the news Every time you open a news­ paper these days, or turn on the news, McGill is front and centre.

What the heck is going on?

Our perspective on all this is obviously not entirely neutral: we are exposed to the Montreal media, who obviously focus more atten­ tion on McGill than other Canadian media will. But our proud institu­ tion has figured prominently across the country, including spots on T V ’s The N ational and in The Globe and Mail. What have they been reporting on? For starters: the Peggy Sheppard preferential-access allegations, the Cleghom honorary degree affair, the excess grant from Jane Stewart’s HRDC, the ColdBeverage Agreement debate, and, most recently, the so-called Kuhner Kontroversy.

Except for the last of these, none have directly attacked McGill. But make no mistake: each one wears down our university’s prestige at a time when McGill is perhaps more vulnerable to criti­ cism than it has ever been before.

And it strikes me that issues that place McGill in the national news attract no attention from anywhere else.

I can think of so many exam­ ples of controversies at other uni­ versities that ju st never quite caught anyone’s attention; the most obvious example of this was the cold-beverage agreement. McGill was one of the last post-secondary institutions in the country to nego­ tiate such a deal, and there have been referendums and hostility at other universities before. But I never saw Peter Mansbridge men­ tion the University of Manitoba or the University of Alberta in that

context, and I ’ve never seen a Globe and Mail editorial advising students how to vote before.

SSMU P resident Andrew Tischler believes that this is a man­ ifestation of what he calls the “tall poppy syndrome,” Tischler-speak for the allegedly Canadian tenden­ cy to undercut greatness. I think

rary replacement in 1998, who is now leaving for more lucrative pas­ tures in the U.S. C learly an admired teacher, many students were upset at his decision to leave, and feel, rightfully, that his depar­ ture reflects a downward trajectory at McGill. But Mr. Kuhner lost all my sympathy with his position in his recent Gazette com­ ment on the False Teeth issue (“Crisis D u n c a n R e id at M cG ill” , March 21).

A fter being he’s partially right. Despite what here for less than three years, he the assorted guidance counsellors was comfortable writing that, at from North Bay and whoever else M cGill, “The rot has set in .” that Maclean’s consults every year, Worse, he believes that the govern­ polls (like one conducted by Gallup ment-funding crisis is only a “sec­ last year) show that McGill is still ondary” problem at McGill, and the most admired Canadian post­ that the deeper issue is that McGill secondary institution. I think should refocus resources on teach­ there’s more to it than that, howev­ ing rather than research. er: for many commentators and Mr. Kuhner is wrong. members of the general public, Government funding is the primary McGill arouses interest because its problem, and as much as I would name still bears connotations of have liked more professorial inter­ wealth and prestige — a view that action in the course of my degree, is at least 25 years out of date.

McGill’s research keeps it in busi­ What a difficult position: per­ ness. If there was no research, ceived as elitist and wealthy by the McGill would not get the kind of general public and governments, international attention that it does thought to be too broke by (as it did recently when a high-pro­ M aclean’s pow ers-that-be and file British researcher emigrated to many prospective students. Talk McGill, publicly stating to an inter­ about a rock and a hard place, and national audience that McGill does I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I some of the most leading-edge feel angry and hurt every time medical research in the world).

McGill takes another unwarranted That reputation attracts and body-blow. keeps the esteemed faculty that we Thus, the “Kuhner retain - they’re certainly not here Kontroversy” troubles me greatly. for the money. Furtherm ore, For those who missed it, Jeffrey McGill relies financially on the Kuhner is a lecturer in the history grants that research brings, with the department, brought here as tempo­ highest dollar value of grants per

professor of any in stitu tio n in Canada, by a considerable margin last time I checked. Those grants keep our professors working, and enable them to stay here. Without them, many more would leave; a teaching-without-research agenda within the university would turn us into another Concordia in a very short space of time.

So to present the issue as research versus teaching is, in my view, simplistic at best And to take such opinions public, to the detri­ ment of M cG ill’s reputation, is irresponsible. It is especially unfor­ tunate because I believe our profes­ sors hold the strongest lever in the public-relations campaign to get more money from the government.

That’s because the media, the pub­ lic, and the government expect to hear cries for more from students and the administration. Anything else would be a surprise.

Academics, however, carry more credibility in this regard, a weight which is bolstered by the fact that they are usually highly-educated, intelligent, and worldly. But it is academics who have been absent from the campaign. As a student and som eone who cares about McGill, I beg our faculty to put aside, for a minute, that they do not get what they deserve, financially, at McGill, and to do something about it. We’re desperate, and the public will listen. * * * No doubt to the delight of some, I will be graduating this June. I’ve been at McGill for more than four years now (not quite the eternity that some paint it as!). As you can hopefully tell, I care very much about McGill and student life

— whether you agree or disagree with what I have done and said as a student leader and colum nist to promote what I see to be in stu­ dents’ best interests.

Bu t I have one fin a l (non­ political!) proposal/request for fel­ low graduates o f ‘00: please, be receptive to your faculty Chairs and representatives in the studentrun Class Action 2000 campaign.

Each faculty is raising money for a cause that w ill directly impact stu­ dents in your faculty for years to come. We have benefited from the generosity of our predecessors, and it ’s time to continue that legacy with a contribution to our succes­ sors.

A ll that being said, I would like to close with wise words from the b rillia n t M c G ill hum orist Stephen Leacock, who said upon his retirement in 1936: “ I can look back now and see things in their proper light. Very often the evening sun, breaking out below the clouds that have obscured the day, affords the best and widest view across the land­ scape, so with our retrospected col­ lege. We can see how little matter the small disputes, the petty quar­ rels of the day or hour, how much the long achievement of a century [or two]. The college lasts longer than we do; no single mind, no sin­ gle life controls it. It represents for each of us, as it were, a part of our­ selves, something greater than the wom body and the troubled mind that is our soul’s companion of the day.”

T he M c G ill T r ibu n e , T u esd a y , 28

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Page 15 F e a t u r e s

2000

Scouting the beautiful strangers

By R hea W ong

"Dun't hate me becauzzah'm

superficial, snotty or even partic­ ularly catty.

Working in this business for a short while has broken down many stereotypes that I’ve once

lighting, professional make-up people and a really good photog­ ra p h er. A lso, the m odels are quite young and act like the next teenager m inus the hefty con­

beeyootiful."

-KellyLe Brock And so it goes. Society’s relationC ship with beautiful peo>— pie and glamorous lives have sined and cosined all over the spectrum . ^ From uber-model fasci­ nation to worldwide vilu lification, one thing is u o abundantly clear: love ‘em or hate ‘em we just can’t get enough.

CD From the very ori­ gins of model-worship ~ 0 f— th ere w ere the bighaired, sm all-v isaged 1 Gibson girls who set the m ode fo r w om en all over the Victorian age. Fast for­ w ard to the s w in g in ’ six tie s where Twiggy upped the bar on skinny. The next high point in m od elin g was the C indy C r a w f o r d / C h r i s t y T u r l i n g t o n / N a o m i C a m p b e ll/L in d a E v a n g e lista crew (see them all in G eorge S eriou s, s c a re d a n d s illy - m o d e ls a r e p e o p le to o Zoë Logan Michael’s Faith video) who were riding on the coattails of the All- held as a p o litic a lly -c o rre c t, tracts and international photo A m erican B rooke S h ie ld s, p seu d o -h ip p y -b red , N orthern sh o o ts. T h e y ’re shy, th e y ’re L au ren H u tto n and C h ristie Californian-born, outspoken and silly , th e y ’re in secu re. They down-to-earth chick. After meet­ w orry about boys and school Brinkley.

Hence the age of the super­ ing a couple of the models at the exams. They’re human, too.

On the outside, approaching model was born complete with agency, I was surprised to learn su p e rb o d ie s, su p e rliv e s and th at m any of them are pretty people who have potential is the super bitchy attitudes (“I don’t instead of drop-dead, chin-to- best and worst part of the job. get out o f bed fo r less than the-ground, cardiac-arrest beauti­ I’ve come to realize that so many $5,000 a d a y .”

-L inda ful. For the most part, a good people in the world do not fit the E v an g e lista”). S uddenly, ju st model has an angular bone struc­ specific criteria it takes to be a w hen the fa sh io n w orld ture which is really only high­ model. Surprise, surprise. Yet, despaired of ever escaping the lighted in photos w ith proper instead of becom ing negative forests of hairsprayed coifs, in waltzed a very thin, very waifish, "ABOUT AS FAR AWAY FROM A HOLLYWOOD FINALE AS YOU CAN GETII" very co n tro v ersial Kate Moss -Marc Horton, The Edmonton Journal who was posted on every Calvin K lein p rin t ad th is side of Timbuktu. Whether praising her b eau ty or co n d em n in g her weight, Kate Moss was known to every man, woman and child in the early ‘90s.

Right now, the age of mod­ eling is a goldmine for women with interesting looks like Alek Wek, Erin O ’Connor and Devon Aoki. Also, the Model has lost her iconoclast status and is sim­ ply a model by trade and profes­ sion (though I dare not presume about extracurricular activities).

A case can also be made for the re tu rn o f the fu lle r-fig u re d , happy m odel in the form of Two strangers find themselves trapped in a thirty year old Brazilian Gisele Bundchen past­ elevator over a long weekend. ed across every ad campaign in p TM N the free world No more of those Pendant deux jours, une dame strung-out, melancholy blues for très agee et un jeune homme se that girl. retrouvent prisonniers d’un ascenceur Why should I care, you ask? qui ne fonctionne plus.

For the sim ple fact th at as a m odeling scout, i t ’s my job to E X C LU S IV E E N G A G E M E N T find girls who are in step with NATIONAL FILM BOARD the current trends.

1564 ST. DENIS STREET Having pursued a job as a 7 P.M. DAILY modeling scout, I can assure you APRIL 1,2, 3, 4 & 8 th at I ’m n e ith e r ev il, to ta lly

fw

I ple

about people’s looks, I ’ve actual­ ly become more sensitive to peo­ ple’s good features. Suddenly, a nice smile, beautiful eyes, or a good jawline becomes as salient as a flashing neon sign in the middle of the Sahara.

As for th e few who have more than ju st a few requisite features plus that certain je ne sais quoi, going up to them is som ewhat nervew racking. The o p en er is the to u g h e st p art because it’s im portant to come off as sincere and above-board.

So m any p eo p le are w ary of scam s that i t ’s o ften a tricky b u sin ess to co n v in ce people y o u ’re legit. A fter that, their faces often transform into a mix­ ture of surprise and pleasure.

Wow, I can hear them think, I can’t believe she thinks I ’m cute enough to model. Yes, we want you. Then, it’s all about making the c o n ta c t and g e ttin g th eir num ber to call them for a test shot. Sometimes, though, you get people who already have an agency, think you’re using some

weird pick-up or are just plain uninterested. So it goes.

So far, I enjoy what I do. I don’t see myself as a cog in the machine 'o r even as an enabler of an evil, advertising system hell-bent on incurring anorexia in preteens and brain-w ashing the masses. Rather, I see myself offering someone fifteen minutes of fame and an interesting story to re la te to th e ir g ran d k id s.

Though that fame may be based on purely superficial reasons, why should physical beauty be any less ce le b ra te d than any other talent or gift? Beyond that, to achieve any real fame in the business, m odels must acquire skill to know how to photograph well and project energy to the picture. Trust me, it takes much more than a trained monkey to do it. All in all, aside from using words like fabulous more often, I ’m the sam e old me. Who knows? You might just meet me around the corner and become the Next Big Thing.

PoetryReading McGill - Queen’s University Press invites you for a celebration of the

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Tim Bowling A l l t h e G o d -S iz e d F r u i t

Shawna Lemay T h e A s p a ra g u s F e a s t

S.P. Zitner C h e s s P ie c e s

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Page 17

U jja l D o s a n jh : B .C /s p i o n e e r p r e m i e r unelected and potentially abbrevi­ ated one, is seen by some as a When Ujjal Dosanjh assumed chance for the party to make a the prem iership of B ritish splash through diversity.

Dosanjh is not the first B.C. Columbia last month, some waves were made. The sleepy term of his prem ier to be born outside of predecessor, interim premier Dan Canada. As recently as the early Miller, had enveloped B.C. politics 1990s, Dutch-born Bill Vander Zalm — whose in a blanket of calm, but term in office one thing ensured that at also ended in least a few pairs of eyes scandal — around the nation would occupied the be w atching the B.C. premier’s chair New Democratic Party’s in Victoria. leadership race at the D o s a n jh , beginning of the year: has made Dosanjh is an Indoinroads into Canadian. involving more Bom to a Sikh fami­ ly in India, Dosanjh D o s a n jh c o m b in e s e th n ic visible minori­ ties in the assumes the NDP reins at id e n tity w ith c iv ilo y a lity political sys­ a time when the party is in a time of crisis. Numerous scan­ tem. Prim arily, he has actively dals during the past administrations recruited members of B.C.’s Sikh of Mike Harcourt and Glen Clark, community to become card-carry­ especially the scandal that forced ing NDPers. It was well publicized the latter to step down in the sum­ in the province that such demo­ mer of 1999 during a crim inal graphic m anoeuvring helped investigation, have left the party Dosanjh pull ahead of competitors with a dw indling credibility. Gordon Wilson and Corky Evans Dosanjh’s term in office, albeit an for party leadership.

B y Ia n M . D isen d

L u c ie n n e

By Kent G lowinski

In a time when many students are cynical that our politicians are unaware of what’s really going on in their constituencies, Federal C abinet M inister Lucienne Robillard, who is also the Member of Parliament for Westmount VilleMarie, the riding which encom­ passes McGill, fielded questions about the needs and concerns of McGill students at last weekend’s Liberal convention.

Tribune: Minister Robillard, how have you found the conven­ tion so far?

Robillard: I think it’s very interesting. We have people from across the country here — forty per cent of the delegates who young people, and that’s very encourag­ ing. It’s very important that young people get involved in politics and in [political] parties because one day they will be there and they will govern.

Tribune: Of those forty per­ cent of youth here, a large portion that comes from Liberal McGill.

How do you feel about that? How do see the impact of Liberal McGill on the conference so far?

Robillard: I ’m very happy.

Even in my own association, I have those students pushing on me all the time and I think it’s very good.

It’s healthy for a member of parlia­ ment to have young people in the association pushing ideas and we don’t agree all the time, but it’s very interesting.

Tribune: What do you see as concerns for McGill students in the year 2000?

Harv Rajwans, president of McGill’s Indo-Canadian Students Association, thinks that for all Dosanjh’s ascension to power did make some headlines—the leader­ ship race was newsworthy in India and B ritain— it did n ’t spur the pomp and circum stance that it could have.

“It hasn’t generated the inter­ est I think it should have,” said R ajwans, a M ontrealer. “The Canadian media is quite large, so things seem to run through the country at the click of a button,” he m entioned, suggesting that Quebec, with its media’s “different mentality,” may miss out on this process.

Rajwans sees a more construc­ tive side, however. “It brings ‘eth­ nic’ people into the political main­ stream,” he said, adding that their issues would be brought “into the political arena.”

But Dosanjh has only one real goal at this point: to be elected. His hesitancy to pressure Clark to step down follow ing ‘C asinogate,’ when Dosanjh was attorney-gener­ al, has tainted him politically.

R o b illa r d

Robillard: The last time I’ve met with the President of the stu­ dents, the main concerns expressed were the quality of the programs in university, linked with the fact that the revenue of the university was cut over the years. So students were very concerned by that and they are aware that universities have some funding problems that they discuss with the provincial government, of course, and also with us. I would say that tuition fees are a concern across the coun­ try, except Quebec, because it’s frozen in Quebec. But they were more concerned about the revenue of the university to keep the quali­ ty of the programs and the quality of the teaching because I think that this is the value of a diploma that a student is looking for, so quality is very important here.

Tribune: What about your views on differential student tuition that the Quebec government has put onto students coming from out­ side of Quebec?

Robillard: What can I say? I think that we have to look at that very closely and to look also at the question of equity and fairness. I’m speaking about the government of Quebec and not about péquiste government here. I think that we have a problem in Quebec about the access to university for young people comparing to other parts of the country and that’s why the gov­ ernment of Quebec always chose in the past to keep the tuition fees low, to have a better access, better loans and grants to students too, to encourage young students to go to university. Now you have a stu­ dent from O ntario com ing to Quebec to study only on the ques­ tion of tuition fees because it’s lower. We have to look at the ques­

Prominent Vancouver media per­ sonality Raif Mair predicted in December 1999 on the pages of Vancouver’s Province newspaper that the scandal “won’t stop him from becoming premier, b u t... will ensure he’s not ever elected by the people as such.”

Rajwans explained that even now, and should he be elected, his presence has had an im pact in Canada.

“Just by [him] being there, it helps a great deal,” Rajwans said.

“Indian culture has always pushed their children toward ... medicine, engineering, et cetera,” he reflect­ ed. Dosanjh’s premiership “shows they can go into other fields.”

If anything, he observed, a lack of focus on his own communi­ ty may prove just as favourable.

Dosanjh will be actively working as a British Columbian politician, dealing with B.C.-related issues.

His work, not just his presence, will serve as a model for the recon­ ciliation of civic life with ethnic identity.

“H e’s not there for show ,” said Rajwans.

w e ll-e d u c a te d

tion of equity here. I love students who come to Quebec to know Quebec, to know the people of Quebec, and I love our students in Quebec who go to BC or anywhere else to know the people of the rest of Canada, I think that we have to encourage that. Now I hope that the tuition fees, that question of tuition fees, won’t discourage people to come to Quebec to study because I think it’s very important.

Tribune: Going back to the issues that you brought up about what concerns McGill students, you talked about the revenue issue.

What are you, as a member of par­ liam ent for W estm ount V illeMarie, and a Minister of the gov­ ernm ent, doing to address that issue?

Robillard: A lot of things.

Everybody speaks about health, but forgets that the CHST includes also post-secondary education. Every time we increase the transfer pay­ ments to the provinces it should help not only the health sector, but also universities, and I think that the proof of that, you saw in the last budget of Mr. Landry, [the Quebec Minister of Finance], he put money into universities. I think that this is one of my duties as member of parliament, to be sure that federal government transfer money to provinces helps not only the health sectors, but universities...

I m ust say that the side of the research at McGill University is important. The federal government is there to help all the research in McGill University and our people in McGill are among the best ones, in medical research, in all fields.

I’m just looking at the grants and contributions coming from the fed­ eral governm ent to M cGill University, I don’t have the last

o n

As a po litical pioneer, Dosanjh is under a microscope as far as premiers go. Rajwans admit­ ted that this could force some over­ compensation in his effort not to look partisan to his ethnic group.

“I could see that happening, simply because I think he’s going to be under a lot of scru tin y ,” Rajwans said. “He’s going to be caught in a comer.”

The possibility of a conserva­ tive backlash against Dosanjh, who has been active in the Vancouver M ulticultural Society and B.C. Civil Liberties Association, is also a latent concern.

“As much as I ’d like to say ‘no,’ it could happen; it’s happened in other areas in the world,” he noted.

An A pril 1999 poll on the B.C. Free Press w ebsite had Dosanjh go voteless as the best NDP candidate to ward o ff the Liberals come next election. But whatever happens, he will never lose his title as the first nonCaucasian premier in Canada.

M c G ill

numbers for the last year, but it’s m illions of d o llars... And that helps, I think, the University, and helps, of course, the students at the same time.

Tribune: Seeing that McGill University is an English-speaking university within the province of Quebec, that the Parti-Quebecois government has treated it unfairly and given it less of its share than French-speaking universities such as UQAM or U niversité de Montréal?

Robillard: No. No. No. My answer is no. I think McGill has its fair share. Many weeks ago I had a discussion with Principal Shapiro. I said to Principal Shapiro, you must go in different regions of Quebec

and let the students of Quebec know that McGill receives fran­ cophone people also, not only anglophone people. Because as you know, if you go in Quebec City, and you speak to young people, they think, as francophones, they cannot go to McGill University, and this is not the reality of McGill.

So I said to Principal Shapiro, you must go all across the province because only the well-informed students know that, but not the vast m ajority of the students, and McGill is open to everyone, and to international students too.

M inister R o b illa rd 's Westmount Ville-Marie office can be reached at (514) 283-2013.

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B Y E B S O N

Page 18

Features

The McG ill Tribune, Tuesday, 28 March 2000

Universal charity is in the political realm F o r m e r M P C la u d e R y a n d e liv e r s t a l k o n t h e im p o r t a n c e o f C h r is t ia n s ' p o lit ic a l in v o lv e m e n t

By Joseph Q uesnel

What can religiously-minded people offer to political debates?

C laude R yan, form er Q uebec Liberal party leader and journalist for Le D evoir, ad dressed this qu estio n am ong others in his closed discussion with Liberal M cG ill m em bers on F riday, March 3 at the Newman Centre.

“A Christian comes into the

world to serve,” he said, starting off a talk that would be animated by the belief that people of faith ought to pay attention to politics.

No stranger to politics, Ryan has spent an entire career involved in p o litics as a M em ber o f the National Assembly and leader of the Quebec Leader Party, leading the No cam paign in the 1980 Quebec referendum as an ardent federalist. Ryan has been called

one of the “most influential intel­ lectual voices behind the Quiet Revolution.”

In the meantime, Ryan has becom e D irector of C atholic Action.

From the beginning of the talk, Ryan was quick to point out the active role of the Church in the international political arena.

In light of the recent papal apologies for the Crusades and the

Inquisition, Ryan described the current Pope as an ac tiv ist in international affairs and a worthy example of Christian involvement in politics including support for the independence movements of all the countries of the form er Yugoslavia.

Ryan also underscored the importance of believers in speak­ ing out for m inority rights. He feels that such concerns are part of

Christian, values. With the recent com m ents by the Pope in his recent trip to Bethlehem in which he ex pressed concern for the plight of the Palestinian people, it seems minority rights are part of the Pope’s agenda.

“W hen the rig h ts of the minority are being debated, it is abso lu tely u n thinkable that a believer not say anything.”

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In regards to the C hurch’s position on nationalism, Ryan out­ lined the statements made by Pope John Paul II. He initially stressed how the Church is conscious of the need to preserve national cul­ tures and cultural distinctiveness around the world.

This seems timely in light of a speech he delivered in a recep­ tion at the Palestinian territories where the Pope said the Vatican always admits to the “right of the Palestinian people to establish a hom eland and to live in peace with other peoples in this region.”

Ryan also noted that the issue of national self-determination is of particular importance to this Pope because of his national origins.

Poland, his country of birth, has beendominated by foreign powers for centuries.

Ryan detailed how national­ ism. although a positive force, could potentially become xeno­ phobic and exclusive of minori­ ties.

“W hen [nationalism ] becomes ideological, or a doc­ trine, it tends to become exclusive and it becomes dangerous and true nationalism has deviated [in some cases] to becom e p erverted nationalism.”

Ryan, how ever, does not believe that explicit religion has a place in the institutions of govern­ ment. When Liberal McGill mem­ ber Annette Fehr asked Ryan what people of faith can explicitly do in politics, Ryan began by stating strongly that “there is no room for explicit religion in Parliament.

The role of Parliament is to orga­ nize temporal life and the con­ cerns of this world.” He does feel, how ever, that there are other means to stand up in politics if one is relig io u s.

M entioning his recent involve­ ment in the crusade to maintain religious instruction in Quebec schools recently and his support for p asto ral assistan ce in the p rison system , R yan d o e sn ’t believe the world of politics is an arena for religious debates.

“Although politics is not the place to discuss religion, one can show their convictions by their stances on the real issu es,” he said.

Ryan aptly ended the discus­ sion quoting Pope Pius XI’s view about the C hurch’s position on politics as a life vocation.

“Serving the people in poli­ tics is the highest form of charity because serving society in the political realm is the most univer­ sal.”

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the it had a b allet f la v o u r , NeddRoderique added a S t r e a m in g o n to the twist to the c la ss i­ P la y e r s ’ Th e atre 's b la ck e n e d c a l d a n c e fo rm . stage in an fre n e tic fla s h o f "Sugar and Spice" b lack and white, the dancers of had so m e stro n g M o s a ic a s till m aintained their p e rfo rm a n c e s b y p r e c is e c h o r e o g r a p h y . T h e N e d d -R o d e r iq u e d ynam ic piece b u ilt in intensi­ and O ri L e n k in sk i ty, fe e d in g fro m the up b eat w h o b o th f u l ly tempo o f the m usic and g iv in g c o m m a n d e d the the a u d ie n c e a ta ste o f the stage in their own w h ir lw in d o f p e rfo rm a n c e s r ig h t .

A n o th e r that la y ahead. anchor piece was “ L a s t T h u rs d a y n ig h t, the A T o u c h o f T im e M c G ill C o n te m p o rary D an ce on S t o n e s ,” p e r ­ E n sem b le presented M o sa ica , fo rm e d b y S a c h a the sole annual dance produc­ C r it t e n d e n an d tio n ch o reo g rap h ed and p er­ M a r in a H i la ir e . fo rm e d b y M c G il l stud e nts.

H ila ir e ’s m u s ic a liT h o u g h last year's production ty, grace and artis­ o f M o s a ic a w as a su cce ss, it tic presence w ere was surpassed in calib er by the riv e tin g , m a k in g S p in n in g is b o th fu n a n d th e ra p e u tic Rebecca Catching h e r a s ta n d o u t even in this year's ensem ble c a s t in g a p a le o ra n g e g lo w , a k a le id o s c o p e o f c o lo u r , M o s a ic a p u s h e s lim it s o f M o s a ic a cam e to an end in a o f accom plished dancers. rh yth m ic burst o f outstanding dance c h o r e o g r a p h y , d a n c in g an d T h e h ig h lig h t p e r f o r ­ M o s a ic a is on a t P la y e rs ’ artistic expression — leaving a m a n ce o f the f ir s t act w as Theatre u n til this Saturday. satisfied audience in its wake. g iv e n righ t before the in ter­ Student tickets are $6 I m issio n . “ A F a m ily A ffa ir ” C a ll 398-6813 p e rfo rm e d by Sacha f o r m ore in fo C ritten d en , P h ilip p a D a v is and L iz G r ie r w as burst­ in g w it h p e r s o n a lit y .

D a v is g ro o v e d an d charm ed the audience, and ju d g in g from the enthusiastic hooting and clapping that fo l­ lo w ed the p erfo rm an ce, the firs t part o f M o s a ic a w as a success.

• D ir e c t o r s * P r A fte r in te rm issio n , w ith l l in t h e I s l a m ic 7 P LA Y S A T M O R R IC j the audiences still prim ed for m ore dancing, M o s a ic a co n­ t T H IS S t u d ie s B u il d in g , E \ F aste r th a n a speeding b u lle t an d , consequently, u n a v a ila b le fo r question ing t in u e d to k e e p the c ro w d entertained. “A a h ...G L O R Y ” w e e k . D o n a t io , T h u rsd a y night debut o f their V a s ilie v ’s co nfid ence as part­ choreographed by L o r i M y le s To S a t , A p à Ê ls r , and “ T sh k o k a M u p fa n a ” latest efforts. F ro m b eg inn ing ner.

A balance, how ever, was ch o re o g ra p h e d b y T a fa d z w a to end, the dancers put out a 8 pm performance that was polished, provided by the piece, “ Sugar S ib y b z e S ib in d i stood out in rh y th m ic and f u lly entertain­ and S p ic e ” choreographed by the second h a lf o f the show.

D ee N ed d -R o d erique. Though T h e movements o f the dancers ing.

• M c G il l B were smooth, controlled and there was not a sign o f sloppy P l a y in g “ P i * feet in sight.

O ne o f the most im pres­

by M u ss sive aspects o f M o s a ic a this Free a d , year w as the rem arkable use o f space b y the d an ce rs. In com parison to last year's pro­ duction, this year's choreog­ raphers pushed the lim its o f • M c G il l S t u d e n t the P la y e rs' T h e a tre venu e.

N o t o n ly is the p ro d u c tio n F e s t iv a l more v isu a lly aggressive and cap tivatin g, but it h ig h lig h ts M o y s e H a ll the im p ro v e m e n t o f the $ 4 f o r 2 , $ 5 FOl d a n c e rs ' s k i l l s . T h is y e a r M o s a ic a h a s d e f in it e ly A p r il 6 , 6 : 3 0 Ph refined itse lf and if T hu rsday n ig h t ’s p e rfo rm a n c e is a n y in d ic a tio n , it's p o ssib le that the p e rfo rm a n c e set a new dancing standard.

U n d e r C h in e s e la n te rn s Do n o t d ro p th e g ir l Rebecca Catching

By A n n a M a t tiu zzo

Both the opening and clo s­ ing pieces o f the evening fea­ tured the e n tire c o m p a n y o f dancers, with the performances in b etw een c o n s is t in g o f an a m a lg a m a tio n o f co n te m p o ­ ra ry and c la s s ic a l ch oreo gra­ phy. T h e pieces in the first part o f theshow had a distinct in flu ­ ence o f ballet w hile the second h a lf o f the show had a m ore experim ental, fun ky tone to it.

T h e undertone o f ballet perme­ ated such pieces as “ S t ill on m y m in d ” and the duet piece entitled, “ Tw enty spaces + 3 ” w h ic h fe a tu re d d a n c e rs M e la n ie L e b r u n a n d B o r is V a s ilie v . B o th a rtists g ave a t e c h n ic a lly an d a r t is t ic a lly so lid perform ance. T h e un ex­ pected pointe w ork showcased Le b ru n ’s precise footwork and

Page 20

Entertainm ent

The McG ill Tribune, Tuesday, 28 March 2000

Russelling up convention and the Canadian establishement G lo b e & M a i l c o l u m n i s t R u s s e l l S m i t h t a l k s a b o u t C a n a d i a n l i t e r a t u r e a n d T o r o n t o c h i c

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“W estw ood b u stle, silv er plastic quilted Miyake—” screams Yummola, a woman with silver d read lo ck s and flared zebra snakeskin jeans, into a phone. A waif-like boy reads a magazine nam ed Random w hile flopped

With a lot of a Canadian fiction there's a problem with deadly seriousness, earnestness...

Shakespeare has humour in the most serious plays down on a fun fur couch. Ambient jungle tunes blare viciously out of the speakers on the w alls.

Meanwhile, no one pays notice to the worried looking twenty-some­ thing writer swathed in a sweaty T-shirt who has just entered the tech n i-co o l hair salon and is standing, scuffling his feet rest­ lessly, obviously in need of atten­ tion.

This is the crazy, hip world of Russell Smith, a culture-wise w eekly Globe and M ail style columnist who visited McGill last week. Smith is a forerunner of a new ilk of Gen-X writers who are

fluid use of satire combined with a lack of the typical landscape scenes that prevail in older nation­ al literature make his writing sur­ prisingly, even painfully unique, in the sober caste of Canadian fic­ tion. He knows it: “With a lot of Canadian fic­ tion there’s a problem with deadly serio u sn ess, earn estn ess...

Shakespeare has humour in the m ost serious plays," he said. ":And it surprises me that there’s so little in Canadian fiction. There is in British fiction, there is in most American fiction. I still find [Canadian literature] a little bit too deadly serious at times.”

Traditionally, Canlit has been associated with the land, with a notion of the north and themes of

redefining C anadian literature both in journalism and the literary world, by resisting some firmly entrenched conventions — name­ ly sobriety, an obsession with space and an inability to have a little bit of fun.

His last book, Noise, is mod­ elled from a series of vignettes overheard in or m odelled on trendy locations — bars, hair­ dressing salons, restaurants — in downtown Toronto. With a blatant lack of recognition for any other region of the country, Sm ith’s book focuses en tirely on the young, urban dem ographic in C anada’s largest city, as if the prairies, the Maritimes, BC and everything th a t’s North did n ’t exist except in flippant, passing reference. And yet, some will ask, this is the guy who is being hailed as one of Canada’s bright stars, the potential apex of fiction of tomorrow? You can’t be serious.

That’s just the thing — he’s not.

Russell Smith really likes the Simpsons, and it’s easy to know why. Both the show and the man are of a rare and precious breed, one that can wholly embody a concept, and utterly mock it at the same time. And while Smith is undeniably cool — replete with souped-up vocabulary, raspberry sorbet-like hue designer shirt and p ersp icacio u s opinions — he knows how to laugh about it. His

I see it becoming 6 6 much more urban based and much more international. It will no longer be about purely Canadian subject matter.

We'll hear about the immi­ grant experience more and more, about many cultures living in one place, and it will no longer be about the win­ ter.

,

I want to be in a • • place where people wear black and grey. I don't want to be in a place where people wear brightly coloured ski jackets. wilderness and survival. While Smith d o esn ’t diss previously w ritten C anadian fictio n — indeed, he is quick to acknowl­ edge that he hasn’t read much of it at all — he envisions thematic changes in the future. “I see it becoming much more urban based and much more international. It will no longer be about purely Canadian subject matter. W e’ll hear about the immigrant experi­ ence more and more, about many cultures living in one place, and it will no longer be about the win­ ter.” (His book, Noise, is firmly set in the muggy heat wave of a city summer.)

He has a point. Increasingly, people live in cities. In 1996, the total percentage of Canadians liv­ ing in urban ra th e r than rural areas was 77.6 per cent, a figure which has been rising annually for most of the last century. In fact, a higher proportion of Canadians than Americans live in civic cen­ tres.

Regardless, some still find fault with Smith, accusing him of Torontocentrism and neglecting to acknowledge a Canada outside of Southern Ontario. In response to such people Smith offers a simple re b u ttal “W herever I am I ’m going to write about where I am.”

For a writer who devotes so much time to acknowledging and describing his metropolitan sur­ roundings, he certainly makes of fun of them. Noise is rife with sharp, w itty irony, am using raillery and caricature.

“But I love it too,” assured Smith. “All satire is like that. It’s written by insiders who are biting the hand that feeds them, who are m aking fun of som ething else they really love and revel in. But I would no more give up going to those w eird hair salons where people talk about Demeulemeester and Marghiella than I would give up m usic. I c o u ld n ’t live in a place th at d id n ’t have those places. I love it. I love to keep in touch with it.”

So is there any chance of Smith moving back to the small tow n from w hence he cam e?

Doesn’t look like it.

“I want to be in a place where people w ear black and grey. I don’t want to be in a place where people wear brightly coloured ski jackets.”

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!

Entertainm ent

The McG ill Tribune, Tuesday, 28 March 2000

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BAFFL and so on. M ovie and star stock prices are calculated with complex formulas, but the bottom line depends, largely, on the figures o f the opening w eekend. F or ex a m p le , E rin Brockovich did well last week­ end, so Julia Roberts’ stock rose by $132.

So w h at’s the point? The website wants you to believe the goal of the game is to have fun.

I ’ve been p la y in g fo r tw o months now and I’m having very little fun, p ro b a b ly b ecause

M arie - H élene Savard

W hen you w ere w atching the O scars Sunday night, you p ro b a b ly had som e fa v o u rite nominees. Maybe you even had 20 d o lla rs rid in g on K evin S p acey . I was so su re th a t American Beauty was going to w in B e st P ic tu re th a t I b et $50,000. I also have half a mil­ lion dollars invested in Bounce, the G w y n eth P altro w m ovie sch ed u led to be re le ased this spring and a thousand dollars in

o f

R i c k y

pie who already know about the Matt Damon movie coming out this sum m er? Can you tell the d iffe re n c e b etw een N as and Mase? If you do, it w on’t help you. An interesting feature o f the gam e is that you can see how you rank compared to every o th e r p la y e r. On the M ovie Market, I’m 400, 149th. Though my ranking doesn’t exactly put me in the big leagues, some of the other traders take the game very seriously. Douglas Scott, an HSX rep, reveals that more than

M

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a r t i n ?

brokerage firm and find a stockbroker who will help you out.

There are more than 40 web sites offering advice on trading stars, the most im portant o f which is the Hollywood Stock Brokerage and R eso u rc e s ite ( w w w .h s b r.n e t). G o to th e ir website even if you don’t need help. It will confirm to you that some people have even less of a life than you do.

3) F in a lly , th is p ie c e o f advice will make you rich: when in do u b t, in v e st in rap sta rs ,

to say how m uch K eanu R eev es is w orth? Y et in the “ re a l” w o rld , M artha Stew art is g ettin g trad ed on the re g u la r sto ck market, along with D av id B ow ie shares. Stars have a lre a d y b eco m e b ra n d s and in Hollywood, art has been re p la ced by profits. So instead

OLLYWOOD STOCK EXCHANGE HOLLYWOOD the X Men movie. No, I ’m not the latest W ho W ants to be a M illio n a ire w in n er. I ’m a H o lly w o o d S to ck E x ch an g e trader.

The H o lly w o o d S tock Exchange (w w w .hsx.com ) is a stock m arket sim ulation game where the com m odities traded through the M ovie and M usic Markets are stars (StarBonds™), m ovies (M o v ieS to cks™ ) and m u sician s (A rtis tS to c k s™ .)

When you sign up, you are given 2 m illion Hollywood dollars to invest in each market in order to build a portfolio. The aim of the game is to earn money by buy­ ing stocks, watching their price rise and then selling them. Each stock is given a ticker symbol, so that Ju lia R oberts becom es JROBE, Ben Affleck is traded as

every stock I pick goes down.

Sure, it’s fake money, but it still feels h o rrib le w hen you lo se $41,000 because D ’A ngelo is getting sued.

I have no interest in the reg­ ular stock exchange. If it weren’t for the HSX, I would have no idea what a ticker is, or what a call option does. The HSX won’t make a real m illionaire out of you, but if you really want to get some financial gain out of it, a reward system is coming. Soon you’ll be able to use your fake money to buy videos and mer­ c h a n d ise o f the m ovies you trade.

I f y o u ’re in te re ste d in becoming a player, here is some advice: 1) Are you one of those peo-

500 traders work directly for the seven major film studios which, m akes for tough com petition.

Strangely enough, people who know very little about music and movies will also do well because whether you’re knowledgeable or not, you have no control over the performance of your portfo­ lio. Last week I got lucky when it was announced Guy Ritchie was the fa th e r o f M ad o n n a’s unborn child. I owned 20,000 shares o f his new project and I made $6,000.

2) If you’re getting tired always being in the red, visit a

o f c o m p la in in g about the state o f commercial music, I’d much rather go w atch B ritn ey S p e a rs ’ sto c k d e p re c ia te . N ot only is it more sat­ is fy in g , it m ay ev en m ake me rich.

DMX, Em inem , M issy E lliott, even Tupac’s stocks are rising.

The Music M arket is regulated by supply and demand. If every trader decides to buy a stock, its p rice rise s. So i f y o u ’re in to obscure alt-country or B ritish ska, then you b e tte r put y o u r preferences aside and invest in what you know will be popular, like some good old B ackstreet Boys.

Sure, there’s something cyn­ ical about transform ing artists into stock. It reduces them to p ro d u c ts , s trip s aw ay th e ir of humanity. After all, who are we

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The Scarlet Key Award recognizes outstanding student leaders who have made a significant contribu­ tion to the McGill community. A Scarlet Key leader is someone who goes beyond the call of duty, is truly committed to McGill, inspires and motivates others, and demonstrates unselfishness, persever­ ance, passion, and creativity. If one can say — without hesitation — that McGill and its students have benefited extraordinarily from this particular person’s presence, he or she fulfills our definition of lead­ ership and is deserving of recognition.

Robyn Baron Robyn is the founder and president of the International Development Studies Students’ Association. Despite innumerable bureaucratic odds, Robyn has turned the IDSSAinto one of the most active student associations on campus and workedtirelesslyto attract universityattention to the burgeoningnewIDS program. Shehas developedtieswithgraduate programsandnon-govemmental organizations in the fieldof International Development.

Marie-Claire Leman Marie-Claire has served as External Coordinator of McGill Nightline and VP Academic of the Law Students’ Association. To keep her peers informed, Marie-Claire took the initiative to write a weekly column dedicated to academic issues thereby ensuring continual communication. Marie-Claire also co-foundedUNICEF McGill.

Jason Chow Perhaps Jason can best be described as ‘the man who brought the Daily back into the spotlight of McGill student life’. Between his role as News Writer, News Editor, and Coordinating Editor, Jason has shown true dedication and leadership to a journal which has a daily (no pun intended) affect on students, and professors alike.

Thomas Park Thomas was elected asSecretary-General ofthe McGill Model UnitedNations Assembly. He raised the standard of the already impressive conference through the creation of the Lester B. Pearson Lectureship Series, designed to attract important keynote speakers. Through much research, dedication and commitment, Thomas founded and coordinated the first McGill International Review. He hopes this bi-annual international affairs journal will bring much prestige to McGill.

Jeffrey Feiner Unique to McGill, and possible around the globe, is theJeffFeiner Leadership, whichhe entitles the “Mary Poppins Paradigm”.Jeffbringshumanism, comedy, and enthusiasm to all his projects and will be remembered at McGill for the initiationofthe AUS&SUSCharity Fair. Most rememberedbystudents isthe “Pie-the-Professor”, which has raised a great deal of moneyfor Centraide.

Danielle Gaudry Through vision, tenacity, and unabating energy, Danielle has accomplished a wide array of projects for the Music Undergraduate Students’ Association (MUSA) in her positions as VP Finance and President. She has successfully implemented the MUSAEndowment Fund, the Peer Advising Program-and the opening of a new Music Student Computer Room. Perhaps her most significant achievement was her reinstatement, despite great odds, of the McGill University Wind Symphony, an important musical outlet for nonperformance majors. Danielle’s leadership has generated student, staff and administrator spirit and pride.

Karen Pelley Probably the hardest question to answer when describing Karen’s involvement at McGill is ‘what has she not done?’. Between Senate, SUS, Walksafe, DriveSafe, SSMU, and MUTT, Karen has had an impact on student life as a whole. It isclear toall those that have workedwithKarenthat she isone ofthe most hard-working, modest, and committed leaders on campus.

Gemma Peralta Gemma is the President of the Student Organization for Alumni Relations (SOAR), andthe Vice President Academicofthe Arts Undergraduate Society.

As President of SOAR, Gemma has initiated the official SOAR alumni newsletter and promotional video while participating in the creation of a MillenniumProposal for the Faculty of Arts.

Nicolai Siggel All present and future science students will benefit enormously from Nic’s innovation, dedication, and unique ability to sleep on cots. He has-brought Jeff Heaton technology—with a great deal ofstyle —to a facultywhich was in dire need It is hard for people not to smile when they hear Jeffsname. Jeffs leadership is of computer facilities. Every student at McGill owes hima great debt for his his infectiousschool spirit. He isknownat Gardner Hall asa crazy, enthusiastic, improvements to the InfoPoints, the initiation of the InfoZone, and his work and friendly Assistant Director and Floorfellow. Receiving the SSMUtitle VP with online lecture materials.

Hockey, Jeff isknownaround campus for the fundraising and promotion of the 24Hour HockeyTournament, aswell as the buildingofthe “Gardner Gardens” Jason Sirros hockey rink, and the mythical spirited Rez Dogs intramural team. With his modest leadership and true dedication, Jeff has both revived old McGill Whileservingaspresident forthe McGill AssociationofMechanical Engineers, Jason increased student participation by introducing a newbuddy programto traditions and invented newones. assist first year students, obtaining newcomputers and promoting the student lounge. Jason is also responsible for introducing live bands and thematic William Hsiao Pubnites.

Will’s style of leadership may be difficult to define but it is most certainly not difficult tofeel. Hispresence withinthe FacultyofScience, andthe Department Abigail Tannebaum of Microbiology and Immunology over the last four years cannot be forgotten.

He seems to carrya magic wand which he waves wherever he goes; bringingto Since 1997, Abigail has founded, organized, coached, captained and played on McGill’sVarsityWomen’s LacrosseClub. Her commitment to McGill and love all the projects he works on passion, commitment, insight, and modesty. of the sport have translated into an impressive series of achievements for both herself and her team. Recognizing the need for a qualified coach, Abigail Clare Jennings became certified, and was also selected as a East Division Women’s Lacrosse As Resources Coordinator and External Coordinator of the Sexual Assault All-Star of the OUA in 1999. She led her teamto win a bronze medal during Center of McGill Students’ Society, Clare has worked tirelessly developing their first season, as has fought to have the McGill lacrosse teamaccepted into workshops, facilitating support groups and coordinating a support network for the nearest lacrosse league, the Ontario Lacrosse Association. volunteers. Clare was also elected as a Clubs and Services Representative to SSMUincreasingcommunication to all clubs and services.

Rhonda Waters Rhonda’ s enthusiasm and passion are evident in all she does. Since 1997, Nasreen Jessani Rhonda has served as the Program Coordinator for the Youth Outreach As President of the McGill International Students’ Network, Nasreen has Program of McGill Students for Literacy. Revamping the entire program, established the Home Hunter Helper Program with a focus on pairing new recruiting and training over fifty volunteers, Rhonda has been the inspiration exchangestudents withvolunteers whowill helpthemfindsatisfactoryhousing. and motivator for this successful program. Not wanting to stay within the Nasreen also introduced MISN’s first newsletter and the idea of an confinesofone McGill club, Rhonda hasdeveloped linkstoother organizations such as Literacy Partners of Quebec, SACOMSS, and Christ Church international movie after each general meeting.

Cathedral.

Gino Lalli Matt Wyndowe After playingforthe Redmensoccer team, Ginaowas forcedtostepoffthefield due to a series of injuries. However, his perseverance led him to his role as Although Matt would both sincerely and violentlyprotest this claim, it isclear manager ofthe women’steamactingas the organizer, motivator, advisor, coach that therehas never beenaSSMUexecutive whohas sogreatlyaffectedstudent and supporter for the McGill Martlets. Gino played a large role in the success life. Whether it be the overwhelmingly successful B.F.T (Big Field Tent), of the women’s teamand tutored some of the players voluntarily.

Snow-AP, the creation of POST, Open Meetings, or simply his enthusiasm, motivation, and ability to communicate; Matt has left future VP Communicationand Events with verybigslippers to fill.

John-John Laxa In addition to an unforgettable name, and personality, John-John has left McGill with an unforgettable legacy of spirit and involvement. He has been involved at all levels of the Engineering Faculty fromMAMEVPExternal, to EUS VP Internal, and fromOAP Manager, to PPO (Plumbers’ Philharmonic Orchestra) Chief. In addition, he has motivated a great number of younger engineering students to follow in his footsteps and to apply for a variety of positions within the faculty.

The E ditor-in-C hief of the Brock Press was fired for giving five of his staff members over $1000 in unnecessary per diems.

David Larkins, editor-in-chief at the Brock Press, was ‘terminat­ ed ’ by the Board of Governors after it was discovered that per diems were distributed to five Press staff members during the Canadian U niversity Press C onference in W innipeg in January. Since meals were includ­ ed in the registration fee for the conference, each staff member received a windfall of $220 cour­ tesy of Larkins.

Larkin’s actions came to light while the Brock University Student Union was investigating his removal for drunkenness and dis­ orderly behaviour at the CUP C onference.-Larkins served as Sports Bureau Chief for CUP but was forced to resign after his con­ duct at the conference. When he returned to Brock, the Press staff voted to put Larkins on probation.

“The Conference was a bit of a debacle,” com m ented Anya Spethmann, one of the Press staff m em bers in attendance at the Conference, now serving as Acting Editor-in-Chief of the Press.

An investigation into Larkins’ behaviour at the Conference by the Brock University Student Union unearthed the mismanagement of the per diems. When Larkins was unable to account for the funds, the case went to the Board of Governors where it was ruled that Larkins could no longer serve as Editor-in-Chief. Staff members in attendance at the Conference were asked to w rite a statem ent of occurrence regarding the money

A U S

E le c tio n

R esu lts

^ ^ P re s id e n t Chase Robinson

^ ^ A c a d e m ic Nick Linardopoulos

d flfrE x te rn a l ^ ^ ^ J e n Sloan

^ ^ In te rn a l Jacqueline Vong

•M a F in a n c e Steven Gold

^ ^ A d m in is tra tio n

they received.

“We didn’t know that the con­ ference was pre-paid, the per diems were never really explained to us. No one was sure whether the meals were included or not,” said Spethmann.

-with files from the Brock Press

D

if f e r e n t ia l t u it io n at

UBC

ON HOLD

A proposal by the administra tion at the University of British Columbia to levy tuition according to a student’s faculty has been tem­ porarily shelved in response to stu­ dent opposition to the plan.

The proposal for differential tuition was to be presented to the UBC Board of G overnors last week for official approval. The Alma Mater Society, the student union at UBC, was opposed to the proposal, and had requested that the university refrain from present­ ing it to the BoG until further con­ sultations with students. In a sur­ prise move, UBC decided to delay sending the issue to the BoG for at least two months to let students voice their opinion on the propos­ al.

The programs that were slated for tuition hikes are still a matter of speculation among students.

“I know at the University of A lberta though, arts ended up being more expensive than com­ merce after differential tuition was introduced,” said Erfan Kazemi, vice president academic and uni­ versity affairs at the AMS. Even if the proposal were to be officially sanctioned by the BoG, differential tuition could not be implemented due to an ongoing tuition freeze in British Columbia.

E U S

E le c tio n

R esu lts

P re s id e n t Anjali Mishra

In te rn a l Martin St-Jean

I S S E x te rn a l Aziz Moussallier

A m i F in a n c e Wesam Khoury

• fliS e rv ic e s Beverly Lai

A c a d e m ic

Laetitia-Laure Deweirdt

A r ts R e p s to S SM U Jen Famery Danielle Lanteigne

A d m in is tr a tio n Sabino DeSimini

Page 22

Entertainm ent

C h a r ity

The McG ill Tribune, Tuesday, 28 March 2000

w o r k

lo o k e d

th is

C ontinued from page 1

the show seemed to overreach the mark from fashion show to d e c o n s tr u c tio n is t-w a n n a b e i Lodern-art, the MUS o u td id them selves from the approprite and fu n k y v en u e to the ; oodie bags to the prolific ad >bs and professional presenta­

n e v e r g o o d

tion. I’ll be gearing up to visit the gym a few more times and concoting my own rendition of a m o d el-tu rn ed -statu e vogue.

Ju ic y , u p sc a le and a BM W load of giggles, see next year’s MUS fashion show . C harity w ork has n e v e r lo o k e d so good.

T r u c k e r c o llid e s w it h c o n s u m e r c u lt u r e c a u s in g t h e d e a t h o f n a iv e c o n s u m e r Ben H u n t

A friend pointed out last December that maybe the Montreal winter we all love to hate is positive in one respect. After all, he said, the fact that no one piddles away count­ less hours at tam-tams, on the Arts steps, or on the myriad patios around this city means that they can devote their time to constructive, creative, or just generally interesting activi­ ties. In Editor, Chris Michael’s case.

to whom Trucker will appeal cannot be pigeonholed quite so precisely.

It does not promote a particular lifestyle and is, in that sense, not tar­ geted at any specific group. It is, however, essential reading for any­ one who is part of contemporary consumer culture, an inexorable label that basically applies to every­ one who is reading this article right now. What Trucker does, emphati­ cally and even forcefully, is ask us to question why it is we do what we

M o d e ls n e e d to k n o w h o w to w a lk b e fo re th e y c a n fly

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diatribe against the “cool-in-a-can image” promoted by the ubiquitous energy drink. At the other end is “I am pro-death,” a deeply disturbing article that takes as its focus a pro­ posed third answer to the dichoto­ mous issue of abortion.

Closer to the stated goal of Trucker are articles that put into per­ spective how absurd advertising has become. There is a brief article about the recent ad campaign of Creamfields (which you may have seen in Mixmag or a similar $10 mag from Britain) that is reminis­ cent of what you might find in the Adbusters magazine. They also get in a word edgewise about what is wrong with rave culture, in the spirit of the original Trucker. In the same vein is “Buy everything you can”, which, in a disjunct, seemingly improvised comical departure which, basically asks some major advertisers just what the hell the

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this creativity manifests itself in Trucker magazine? an original and provocative publication whose first issue was released three weeks ago.

In truth, Trucker first surfaced about a year ago and was. in its orig­ inal form, a tirade against the monot­ ony of what was being offered as contem porary popular culture, choosing as its primary target the rave scenes in Montreal and Toronto. Now, after a year of recon­ sideration, Trucker has expanded the scope of its content, innovated and polished its layout and has devel­ oped into a remarkable publication.

This is now the part of the arti­ cle where you are told that this mag­ azine is for you if you area white male aged 18-45 or if you like drum and bass or if you hate people that eat meat. Unfortunately, the people

do, why we buy what we buy, wear what we we wear and think the way we think.

But this is not what you would expect. Trucker is not an anti-con­ sum er culture magazine. Chris writes in his editorial that “Trucker has embraced materialism... Nobody wants a revolution against materalism, cause then we wouldn’t be allowed to have Pogs. We are just here to ask what you really want, not what you are told to want. We are here to advertise for the other side.”

So what can you expect when you open Trucker? The tone of the articles ranges from hilarious to harshly critical, but the emphasis of the magazine is definitely on making light of the bizarre and manipulative climate of consumer culture. At one end of the spectrum is “Guru me with a spoon”, a long-time-coming

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were thinking when they created their ad campaigns.

Ask Chris w'hat he thinks of the obvious comparison between Trucker and Adbusters and he is quick to point out that the latter magazine is preachier and more seri­ ous. As he notes in his editorial, they have accepted that it is futile to expect a paradigm shift in our con­ sumer culture and, instead of accept­ ing the status quo unequivocally, it is much more important to seek cre­ ativity and novelty and ultimately what it is that you really want. In any case, Trucker may cause you to laugh in a very satisfying, epiphanic way. It also might piss you right off.

What it will do, most importantly, is provoke debate and discussion, which is much more than can be said for the (now mysteriously truant) VICE magazine and the fence-sit­ ting political viewpoints of the usual weekly rags.

Get tru c k e r FREE around McGill and Concordia campuses and in and around random coffee shops on St. Laurent. You are also cordially invited to the release o f the second issue, April 4th at Luba Lounge: Hip-hop and house with DJs Jason Pelletier and TeV.

7:00AMTO5:00PM M ONDAY10FRIDAY! 8:00AM104:10PM SATURDAYANDSUNDAY 9:00AM101:00PM

The McG ill Tribune, Tuesday, 28 March 2000

A r e y o u s e e in g t h e p r o fe s s io n a l?

T h is o n e a c t liv e s u p t o it s t it le

By G race C arter

The Professional, one of the seven plays featured in this year’s McGill Director’s Festival, is a sur­ prisingly wonderful little one act by Eastern European writer Dusan Kovacevic. Set in Yugoslavia in the 1990s under T ito’s communist

W h o w a n ts to g o first?

regime, The Professional is the story of one man’s life as affected by repressed histories and a volatile political temperament.

The central character, Theodore Kry, (convincingly portrayed by Andrew Zadel), is a writer and wellknown radical thinker under surveil­ lance by a Yugoslav government leery of his extremist viewpoints.

For 18 years it has been the sole job of police officer Luke Laban (Amir Nourbakhsh) to track Kry and record his every move.

The play within a play begins with Kry looking back to his 45th birthday, with the ironic prescient promise that this is a tale of untold stories. Over the next hour, all that, Kry, or Teya as he is called by those who know him well, has failed to recount and record in the first half of his life is recovered via a most improbable source.

Director Michael Wheeler, who will attend Harvard as a graduate student in theatre beginning this July, will no doubt quickly rise to auteur status in the world of the stage. Excellent blocking and the integration of a fascinating and vari­ ously textured soundtrack transform a potentially mediocre script into a tasty little morsel of thespianship.

Rarely boring, the play lasts about qn hour and includes a rich array of lighting and sound—bang on cue, thanks to stage manager

Gillian Levene—and some astonish­ ing acting. The players (all volun­ teers) do a stellar job of depicting the inadvertent neurosis which accom­ panies living during any politically charged era, unanimously carrying off their roles with authenticity and conviction.

The dialogue centers predomi'y on the Com­ dex fa th e r/so n :p that is j quickly ap p aren t between Teya and

___ le Luke. _j development ; their liason is .jterrupted at ntervals by the ffective entrances f The Lunatic (a yperactive Ben Sargent), a shady haracter bent on «covering an elu­ sive misplaced anuscript, and Martha (coinci­ Press Shot dentally named Martha Schabas in real life), the doe­ eyed vixen of a secretary who dou­ bles as Teya’s object of desire.

For the most part engaging, there are areas of The Professional which tend to lag slightly, mostly due to redundancies in the script rather than problems related to directing or acting. In addition, there are several rather confusing inci­ dents that occur close the end of the play—such as when Martha passes The Lunatic on the street and she hands him some money—that are left to be puzzling, post perfor­ mance.

However, as Ben Sargent points out, “We don’t necessarily provide the answers. The story is not neces­ sarily designed for a play. The audi­ ence gets to experience the culmina­ tion of people’s lives on the stage.

Maybe the endings are best left ambiguous.”

All in all, the shortcomings are trivial. Exquisitely directed, power­ fully acted, The Professional delivers nothing short of what can be expect­ ed by its grandiose title.

If you haven’t been already, you can catch The Professional on Monday, March 27th or Friday, March 31st, 8p.m. at Morris Hall. Be sure to go a bit early to ensure tick­ ets as the show opened to a full house. Admission for The Professional is by donation.

Entertainm ent

Page 23

Pigeon Hole proves that folk isn't a dirty word Folk Music. The words con­ vey a sense of quiet, mournful solicitude. Or it did, before seeing Pigeon Hole, a self-described folk band, rock a packed crowd at Le Swimming on Thursday night.

Pigeon Hole shouldn’t be, dare I say it, pigeon holed in that way.

The two sets they played were brimming with enough high inten­ sity music that the band overcame any of the limitations some associ­ ate with the genre.

Not that they seem ed to restrict themselves purely to folk.

The four members of the band, bassist Adam Blinick, guitarist

enthusiasm and solid musicianship enabled them to experim ent in many different directions without losing any of their musical cohe­ sion.

Adam Blinick added a nice jazzy flavour on the double bass as well as some comic stylings on the microphone to keep the audience smiling. He was also aided by a solid rhythm section, embodied in the percussive stylings of Wade Manricks. As well, Antoinne from the Potholes added a sense of cohe­ sion to the sets through his soft segways between songs. His spon­ taneous rendition of “Bo Diddley” had the crowd cheering for more.

But Pigeon H ole’s greatest

Natasha Szuber, vocalist Isabelle Fahemy and drum m er Wrade Manricks, plus two guest musicians from the Potholes, another local Montreal band, flowed effortlessly from folk to funk to jazz, while even managing to jam like rock stars throughout the sets. In a lesser band, this could have ended up sounding like mangled musical debris, but the band’s obvious

asset are its amazing frontwomen, (N atasha Szuber and Isabelle Fahemy). Throughout the show, they maintained beautiful vocal harmonies, as well as some kickass, funky guitar work, to keep a nice, tight feel to each song. In the various musical directions that the show took, the two women man­ aged to engage the audience and keep the music solid and melodi-

By D an W erb

cally consistent. At times, one could tell that the band was loving the night as much as the audience, and their onstage banter allowed everyone to feel at ease and com­ fortable, while also showing that the band does have a distinct per­ sonality.

Even while improvising such intentionally goofy tunes as “Smooth Operator”, one never got the sense that the band w asn’t putting in all they had. Their con­ sistency and professionalism , even when assailed by minor tech­ nical problems near the end, kept the audience right with them.

Adam Blinick summed it up best by saying, “W e’re ju st out there having fun, while also trying to make every­ one sm ile.”

Indeed, this is exactly what they did at Le Swimming — while also man­ aging to play some great music. It was a night to sit back and enjoy a band that is definitely going places, especially after their recently recorded CD is released. When I left Le Swimming, I had the feeling that I was a part of one big entertained party and the band left the im pression of being genuinely committed musicians. Who knew folk could be this much fun?

that nutty meg ill bookstore bug .for he on honey-dew hath fed.

And drunk the milk of Paradise

Thank-you, Danielle, for that lovely rendition. And next we have a Mr...

McBugg, who will be performing his own pieces.

RESTASSURED, McBUGGWONTBEREADINGAT NEXT WEEK'S HUGH MacLENNAN POETRY SERIES. NAMEDIN HONOUROFTHEFORMER McGILL PROFESSOR ANDGIANTOF CANADIAN LETTERS. THISRAREANDIMPORTANTLITERARY EVENTWILL BE HELD ON MARCH 30. ATTHE McGILL BOOKSTORE CAFE. REFRESHMENTS WILLBESERVED.

Page 24

Entertainm ent

L ife a s a

The McG ill Tribune, Tuesday, 28 March 2000

s a ilo r is n 't s o

There is a difference between German and American cinema, and in the approach the film mak­ ers take to their movies. American film makers a like heroic stories of

b a d . . . u n l e s s y o u r v e s s e l is a

tively unchallenged in sinking convoys carrying much needed supplies to war-torn England, and tales of a single sub sinking six ships was not unheard of. As “Das

T h e

David

His submarine set was specially built on hydraulic pistons to make the entire structure move like a real ship. During a routine diving drill the men run from the stem of

F i l m

Schanzle

B u f f ....

ch aracters overcom ing great obstacles; even true events in American films are spiced up. On the other hand, the great German film makers treat their subjects more matter of factly, showing the underlying absurdity in their sto­ ries, instead of resorting to hero­ ics. W olfgang P eterso n ’s film “Das Boot” is a perfect example of this d ifference. The story of German submarine U-96 during a patrol in the North Atlantic during World War II, is story not about heroes but about men assigned to do an insane job. Their actions are not about fighting for a greater cause, but out of sheer desperation to save their lives.

“Das B oot” takes place in 1943. This is important historical­ ly because this is when the Allies were finally winning the war in the Atlantic. In the early years of WWII German U-Boats went rela­

Boot” opens the boat is assigned to sink some convoy vessels, but the tide has turned and the chances of U-Boat even surviving a con­

voy attack are slim. 40,000 men crew ed U-Boats during W orld War II, 30,000 never came back.

Peterson hurls the audience into the cramped conditions the crew lives under in the U-Boat.

the boat to the boy to improve trim, a camera man follows them on this run bringing the audience into the tempo of the drills. A great deal of time is spent at the beginning of the film following the crew around the ship familiarizing the audience with the cram ped space and the way the crew uses it. Where they store food, how they do routine diving drills, how the hot bunk sys­ tem works, the detail and research put in the film are amazing.

Long passages show the crew doing nothing, yet it is fascinating to watch boredom so brilliantly captured on film.

This pays off when the boat is in battle. We watch as the captain

A

b o o t

sites the convoy through his clim b aboard as they have no periscope, passing targeting infor­ room for prisoners. As a German m ation to the torpedo men, film the story is told without sugar launching and waiting several ago­ coating the characters, it makes nizing minutes for the torpedoes to them seem more real more identi­ reach their targets, then waiting fiable as they attem pt to apply for the destroyers cruising over logic to war. head to start bouncing sonar pings “Das Boot” is far superior to off the submarine hull. The boat all other World War II naval films is driven to depths it was not ever made. It hum anizes the designed to withstand while depth Germans, showing them as people charges explode all around shak­ fighting for their country like peo­ ing the boat, rivets popping out ple from most other nations do in like rifle bullets. Survival is uncer­ a time of war. The special effects tain, and the scenes are so sus­ are so good as to be invisible, penseful that they seem to last for­ espeically a sequence in which ever, making the audience feel as two U -B oats com m unicate by if they are in the submarine with light during what looks like a full the desperate crew. blown Hurricane. It contains the If this were an American film greatest damage control scene ever there would be a victory, with the filmed as the crew desperately fix fearless captain leading his crew their rapidly flooding submarine through impossible times. In “Das while stranded on a sandbar well Boot” the assistant engineer men­ beyond her operating depth. tally breaks in the middle of an Peterson effectively demonstrates attack and tries to open the main how terrifying war can be. hatch, the captain gets his gun, and the man only lives because his NOTE: Their are two versions fellow crew mates drag him away. of this film usually available. The The Captain is not a bad man but subtitled version in its original is attempting to do his best in a German, and the dubbed version. desperate situation. An American The dubbed version is extremely studio would have been wary well done because Peterson had about such a scene, and even more his entire bilingual cast dub their worried about the scene in which own lines for American release. the captain orders the U-Boat to reverse at away from a sinking tanker so it’s doomed crew can’t

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IN THEATRES M ARCH

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Entertainm ent

The McG ill Tribune, Tuesday, 28 March 2000

T w itc h

C ity

F in a l D e s t in a t io n p r e d ic t a b le ,

r a is e s t h e

b a r f o r C a n a d ia n

b u t w o r t h t h e r id e

T V B y R e be c c a D

B y C h r is H

a l f n ic h t

You don’t often hear about how crappy Canadian television is; it’s a given. No one needs to say it because everyone already know s it. The la st show you watched on CBC was likely the 5:00 pm Simpsons — a brilliant show, mind you, but thoroughly American. Stretch your memory way back to the glory days of Degrassi Junior High or Kids in the Hall and you m ight find a few die-hard fans, but not these days. Canadian television is a veritable wasteland, especially for those of us on the younger end o f the viewer spectrum.

E n ter T w itch C ity.

Sometimes touching, most times fre a k is h and all tim e s dam n funny, this peculiar show is the b ra in c h ild o f u p -an d -co m in g C anadian m edia d arling, Don M cK ellar. The p ro g ram p r e ­ m iered as a o n e-shot six part series two years ago, but has recently returned for a second bout: episodes seven through th irte e n are c u rre n tly a irin g

Wednesday nights on CBC. Twitch City is a sort of mini-saga; it follows the bizarre happenings in the life of its TVadicted agoraphobic p ro tag o ­ nist, Curtis, played by McKellar himself. The show is set in the K e n sin g to n M ark et area o f do w n to w n T o ro n to , but the cam era seldom leaves C u rtis’ a p p a rtm e n t. M c K e lla r, the series writer, deftly overcomes the unique challenge of this lim­ ited set with ou tlan d ish plotlines and a slew of bizarre char­ acters.

M cK e lla r is by no m eans the only notable talent involved with show. The cast and crew list o f T w itch C ity reads like a w ho’s who of the C an ad ia n arts scen e: B ruce M cD onald, who w orked w ith M cK e lla r on th e cu lt hit H ig h w ay 61, p ro d u c e s and directs the show; Molly Parker o f K issed re n o w n , sta rs as C u rtis ’ g irlfrie n d , H ope; and C allu m K eith R en n ie, who sta rre d in H ard C ore L ogo, plays a friend named Newbie. If these nam es m ean as little to you as Milli Vanilli does to kids grow ing up in the year 2000, you’ll at least recognize Kids in th e H all v e te ra n M ark M cK in n ey . He has re c e n tly replaced Bruce M cC ulloch as the host of Curtis’ favourite TV p ro g ram , “The R ex R iley Show.”

The convergence of so

many distinct talents should be enough to p e rsu a d e you to check the show out. If y o u ’re still laughing at the idea of a good C anadian TV pro g ram , then let me try and convince you. There is nothing quite like T w itch C ity — C an ad ia n or A m erican . The se rie s began with C urtis’ roommate heading to jail for accidentally killing a homeless man with a bag of cat food. The ensuing search for a new tenant has borne everything from cartons of hallucinogenic pin eap p le alm ond cookies to homosexual neo-nazis. Amidst all the turmoil lies Curtis — lit­ erally. His hours wither away, m uch lik e his b o d y , as he lounges on his couch and basks in the blue rays of his telly. He swindles Hope into living in a c lo s e t and scam s m e a ls-o n wheels from helpless old ladies; he battles Newbie in a telev i­ sion showdown and communes w ith his cat, L ucky. He is Curtis: a wastrel in a world of pop culture gone awry.

Don McKellar has cre­ ated a program that is a beacon

o f hope in the d riv e l th at escapes the 16-inch fram e of most living rooms. Twitch City blends the morality of Seinfeld and the w itty in sig h t of The Simpsons, with a humble pecu­ lia rity th at is a d is tin c tly Canadian twist. McKellar man­ ages to find the median between artistic creativity and populist a p p e a l, so c ia l c ritiq u é and absurdist humour.

So come Wednesday at 9 pm, do yourself a favour and take a cue from C u rtis: lock your door, unplug your phone, tune into CBC and see what the world has to offer.

Page 25

o ir o n

Do you believe in destiny?

What if your life was already planned out for you? Imagine if your death was pre-determined and scheduled. Would you be able to get

W e t a n d w o u n d e d , o u r h e ro ca rrie s

away with cheating death if you could see it coming for you?

Final destination is an edge-ofyour-seat horror film that plays on this presumption. The film begins with 40 students preparing for their senior class trip to Paris. They are all aboard flight 180, when suddenly one kid has a vision of the plane blowing-up and all aboard perish­ ing. He becomes hysterical and is forced off the plane, along with five other people from his group. The plane takes off without them, and subsequently, as foreseen by this boy, bursts into pieces in midair.

Thus the stage is set for a full length film featuring the grim reaper sys­ tematically, in horribly twisted and dreadful ways, seeking to take back his stolen souls.

Alex Browning, the teen who “saved” the small group (played by Devon Sawa) spends the rest of the movie trying to keep the others from freaky deaths. He is hypersensitive to tiny signs that are apparently prevalent before someone is killed, and has the tenacity to barge in and try to stop “fate” from taking its course. The cops become convinced that he has a role in the fatal “acci­ dents” of his chums. Sawa must keep one step in front of the police, and two giant leaps in front of death, while earning the respect of his remaining chums and winning the girl.

The first half hour is entranc­ ing. The following hour is nerveracking. You can see the inevitable just around the comer and you are captivated to keep watching, while wishing you had bought a ticket for Cider House Rules instead. The graphic and gory plot is not intended for the faint of h e a r t .

Although it has little hope for a best pic­ ture academy award, Final Destination is an entertain­ ing flick.

There are many short­ falls to this movie. The plot is quite on press s h o t simple. The love interest, Clear (Ali Larter) goes

from bawdy to beautiful in a mirac­ ulous ten minutes. The teacher, Ms. Lewton (Kristen Cloke) is a ditz, and acts younger than the pimply kids with which she is entrusted.

Also, the trailer is such a turn off; who would want to see a movie with the slogan, “Friends don’t let friends....DIE!” But, there are also strengths.

The explosions are large in classic blockbuster Hollywood style. The deaths are creative (an understate­ ment), including an unlucky shower scene, flying knives, and a gruesome decapitation. Although you pretty much know what will happen next, the suspense of the movie depends upon that foresight, and still man­ ages to make you jump when the inevitable actually occurs.

Make sure your dates wear long-sleeves or they may be leaving the theatre with deep nail indenta­ tions along their arms. Enthralling and tense, Final Destination is worth the ride.

I

1 l i

1

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1

(CONTEST In te rio r d e s ig n of the Clubs lounge, 4 th floor Shatner. This contest is open to all s tu d e n ts .

W in n e r may have their design implemented over the summer. Recognition given to the 1 st through 4 th place designs.

<2 55

Pick up application at the SSMU front desk beginning Wednesday March 15, 2000.

Submissions are due by April 15, 2000.

Contact SSMU Vice President Clubs and Services, Samantha Gross for more information: 3 9 8 -8 9 4 4

Sports T he M c G

A ll-C a n a d ia n

ill

T r ib u n e , T u e s d a y , 21 M a r c h 2 0 0 0

D a r c h e w in s T S N

R a n d y G re g g

A w a rd

D a r c h e s lig h t e d f o r p la y e r o f t h e y e a r h o n o u r s b u t w in s a w a r d f o r s u c c e s s in a t h le t ic s , a c a d e m ic s a n d c o m m u n it y s e r v ic e B y Jeremy K u z m a r o v

A leader on and off-the ice, Mathieu Darche was honoured with the TSN Randy Gregg award for combining excellence in athletics, academics, and community service this past week-end at the CIAU hock­ ey championships in Saskatoon.

McGill’s captain became the second member of his family to be recognized for being well-rounded.

M athieu’s brother Jean-Philippe received the football equivalent Russ Jackson trophy last season for success in athletics, academics and communi­ ty involvement.

“Its a well deserved honour for Mathieu.” said Redmen assistant coach Kelly Nobes, a teammate of Darche’s in his rookie season. “He’s a quality player and person, and acad­ emically he’s at the top. He’s a leader both on the ice and in the lockerroom and he’ll be missed next sea­ son.”

After leading the Redmen in scoring in the 1998-99 season, Darche eclipsed all expectations this year.

McGill’s captain led the nation in scoring notching 62 points in 26 regular season games, and helped to propel the Redmen to their best record in the team’s 124 year history.

Besides lighting up the scoresheet, Darche provided a strong pres­

M a r tle ts

ence on McGill, and set a tremendous example for the younger players on the team with his intense work-ethic and commitment to the program.

The value of Darche to the Redmen was best expressed in the league finals against UQTR. Injured in game two of the best of three series, Darche courageously provided a big boost to the team by playing in the decisive game three despite a tom medial collateral ligament in his knee.

“Darche is a physically big and talented player but most important he’s an example of hard-work and dedication,” said Redmen head coach Martin Raymond. “Mathieu didn’t take one day off during the season.

He showed up in great shape in train­ ing camp and was a true leader from the beginning.”

Darche’s fierce resolve extends beyond hockey. A Marketing student with a 3.16 grade-point average, Darche’s community involvement includes stints as a hockey and foot­ ball instructor and the organisation of a Redmen team visit to Ste-Justine hospital for sick children. At McGill, Darche also sits in the intercollegiate sports council and is a member of the fund-raising committee for the McGill sports awards gala.

Besides winning the Randy Gregg award, Darche was also named as a first team All-Canadian over the week-end. While thrilled to

e d g e d

be recognized individually, Darche expressed a tinge of regret that his teammates couldn’t be present to share the honour with him.

“It’s nice to be recognized, but I’d trade it all to have the team here competing for the national champi­ onship,” said Darche. “Earning allCanadian status is nice, not just for me but also for my brother. He deserved to be an-all-Canadian but was never recognized. This award is as much for him as it is for me.”

The one let-down of the weekdown for Darche and Redmen sup­ porters was the player of the year honours which went to Alberta’s Russ Hewson. Hewson finished eight points behind Darche in the national scoring race.

“I felt I deserved to win player of the year honours,” said Darche.

“Hewson is a strong candidate though who is deserving as well. He scored the winning goal in double overtime and his team won the championship so obviously he’s a valuable player.

You never know how the voting works.”

Redmen head coach Raymond also felt strongly that Darche deserved to win the award.

“Hewson’s a great player, but we felt this was Darche’s year,” said Raymond via conference call from Medecine Hat where he’s doing some recruiting for next year. “Darche was

a t Q u e b e c

a complete player this year. Point wise he was the leading scorer, and he also killed penalties and scored the big goals for us. He’s a guy touted by

NHL scouts as a great prospect and we expect he’ll be signed to a con­ tract. For me there’s no doubt that he was the player of the year. We felt he was a shoe-in.”

Over the week-end, Redmen

defenceman David Bahl also earned the distinction of being named as an all-Canadian.

Bahl was a key figure in leading McGill’s run and gun offence this season which scored the most goals in all of Canadian university hockey.

Bahl, a smooth skater with tremendous puck­ handling skills was the nation’s top scoring defenceman with 10 goals and 35 points in 26 regular season games.

“Its nice for our program to have two all-Canadians, David Bahl had a great year,” said Raymond. “Last year he showed us he had the skills offen­ sively, but what impressed me most about David was his strong defensive play this season.”

Added Darche: “Bahl quarterbacked our power-play and was an all-around impact player on defence. He’s one of the guys who the torch is being passed to, and he’ll be one of the key team leaders next season.”

In d o o r S o c c e r C h a m p io n s h ip s

O t t a w a d o w n s M c G ill b u t s t r o n g p la y in t o u r n a m e n t s e r v e s a s le a d in t o n e x t y e a r B y T he M

in h

Lu o n g

Looking for another title to add to their trophy case, the McGill Martlets fell one win short at last weekend’s Quebec Student Sport Federation indoor soccer champi­ onships. The reigning champions of QSSF soccer from the fall lost to the Ottawa Gee-Gees 3-2 on penal­ ty kicks in the final of Saturday’s tournament to finish second overall in the league.

“Even though we lost. I thought we played really well,” said McGill captain Eva Melamed.

“It’s the best I’ve seen us play in the indoor season, and a reflection of the hard work we’ve put in dur­ ing the off-season.”

The four-team tournament fea­ tured the top two teams in Quebec, M cGill and Laval, as well as Sherbrooke, and Ontario confer­ ence champions Ottawa.

Even advancing to the final would not prove to be easy for the Martlets, who had to square off against their old rivals Laval in the semi-finals. As in the provincial finals the two teams played in the fall season, M cGill easily out­ played Laval but needed to pull off a comeback to win.

The Rouge et Or opened the scoring in the first half, but follow­ ing the intermission were unable to hold their momentum. The Martlets tied it up shortly after the break

when Melamed, camped in front of target on the smaller net used for the net, knocked in a rebound. the indoor game. Martlet keeper Meghan O’ Reilly then tipped in a Jessica White also had a strong shot past the Laval goalie to give game, making several stops on dan­ the Martlets the lead shortly after. gerous-looking plays including a McGill’s defence then held the fort couple of free kicks. for the rest of the game, enabling After a short overtime period them to come out on top by a 2-1 score.

In the final, McGill faced the GeeGees, who advanced thanks to a 1-0 win over Sherbrooke.

As evi­ denced by the scoreless draw during regula­ tion time, both teams had their “A ” game for the final.

S c o r i n g chances were fairly limited, and were set up more from pin­ point passing plays than from defensive mistakes.

In d o o r soccer h e lp s to re ta in c h a m p io n s h ip fo rm M elamed and Sophie Labrom each had several settled nothing, the teams went to a good chances for M cGill, but sudden-death shootout to decide seemed to have trouble hitting the the title. Ottawa scored on its first

three shots. For McGill, Melamed and O ’ Reilly both scored, but Labrom m issed the net to the goalie|s left on the team ’s third shot, giving Ottawa the indoor title 3-2 on penalty kicks.

After the game, the Martlets’ looked at their perfor­ mance as more of a step­ ping stone for next year than a heartbreaking loss. “(Ottawa) is a tal­ ented team , but they didn’t play a better game than us. They just came out on top in the sh o o to u t,” said Melamed.

“I ’m not too disap­ pointed with this result,” added McGill coach Marc M ounicot. “Our goal is to defend our championship in the out­ door season, and this was ideal competition for the girls to prepare for next year. The indoor season is a good time to practice and to keep the girls together, but it’s not real soccer.”

The indoor season Patrick Fok provided the team ’s numerous rookies who played sparingly last fall with play­ ing time, as many will fill more important roles on the team next

year. Mounicot was impressed by the progress his young players made over the course of the year, and praised the work ethic they showed in the off-season.

“This group is amazing,” said the coach. “T hey’re young and have so much space for improve­ ment.”

The Martlets will have most of their players back next year for a' shot at winning their third straight provincial title, but they’ll have to do it without two students away on exchange, defender Lisa Dutil and all-Canadian Melamed.

“It will be a great experience for me personally, but I had a few reservations about going,” said Melamed, who will be in Israel.

“I ’m going to miss being here next year, but I’m sure we’re going to have a great team anyways.”

Fellow all-star Kiran Nayar is also gone, as are three graduating players, a group which includes Analia Barroetavena, Julie Laurin and Claudia de Paola.'

“It’s a little sad. These two years playing for McGill were the best of my life,” said de Paola, who is interested in coming back next year as a manager. “This year we had a great bunch of players, I’m going to really miss this team. I’ll look forward to playing with the alumni.”

The McG ill Tribune, Tuesday, 28 March 2000

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M c G ill A th le tic s

he murky attendance records plaguing McGill inter­ collegiate events and the Department of Athletics were examined last week in article appearing in this space.

None of the school's traditional 'big four' sports — men's and women's basketball, men's hockey, and men's football — have seen significant increases at the gate in the last several years.

This week, the other half of the department's new mandate, sponsorship, is examined.

T

By Pa u l C o n n e r

U ndergraduates decided to turn away from Coca Cola and corporate culture at McGill three weeks ago. Meanwhile, questions regarding a lack of sponsorship for the Department of Athletics continue to be raised up the hill.

E v ery y ear, p lay ers and coaches must outfit themselves w ith clo th in g , fo o tw e ar, and practice equipm ent. Even in a sport like soccer, often thought of as low on the cost scale, play­ ers may need up to four pairs of cleats based on the playing field and weather conditions. Without sponsorship, as a base, individu­ als and teams are unable to com­ pete in leagues which continue to improve.

In o rd er to a ssist these teams, and to bring cohesion to a fragmented marketing campaign in the department, Athletics hired a m ark etin g and p ro m o tio n s m an ag er 26 m onths ago. The objectives for the position were straightforward but formidable: to increase the sponsorship base acro ss the d ep artm en t and to attract greater attendance at inter­ collegiate events.

Prior to its creation, different teams had various sponsors.

A didas sp o rtsw ea r, for example, had deals with the track & field program, the Martlet bas­ ketball team , and the Redmen soccer team.

Since the transition, howev­ er, sponsorships are no longer the responsibility of the individual team — all major contracts go th ro u g h the M ark etin g and P ro m o tio n s M anager D enis Kotsoros. Kotsoros also noted that his departm ent, while not directly involved with club-level in terco lleg iate sports, tries to assist them.

“What we do with the club teams is we give them an analy­ sis: ‘these are the types of orga­ nizations supporting your type of sport, you should be approaching th e m ,’ ” he said . He cited D ynam ic M utual Funds as an example of a major supporter of rowing in Canada.

D r o p s in s p o n s o r s h ip The first major sponsorship to be re n e g o tia te d through Kotsoros' office was the Adidas deal. Their support was expanded to cover not only the four origi­ nal team s, but also the cross country program, the men's bas­

ketball team, and the women's soccer, squad.

With the transition, however, came some difficulties.

B oth w o m en ’s b ask etb all head coach L isen M oore and Redmen soccer head coach Pat Raimondo noted that their teams lost out in sponsorship.

"T here [have] been som e hardships in the transitions, I ’ll be h o n est w ith you," M oore explained. "Women’s basketball has gone from an almost $6,500 sponsorship with Adidas down to $1,600. And that’s a tough pill to swallow. But I was also one who w anted Adidas to get into the departm ent for the benefits — the women’s basketball team is doing fine." She explained that the additional monies had been spent on rewarding players and co ach es w ith w arm -up su its, shirts, etcetera — accessories which are not necessary to play­ ing the sport but im portant in building spirit.

R aim ondo co nfirm ed Moore’s assessment.

"We w ere w ith A didas before McGill was. The last year we were with them, 1997, they gave us $8,000. Now we have a $2,000 p artial sp o n so rsh ip .

Maybe sponsorship grew overall, but the net value is that w e’ve dropped. M en’s soccer has lost out, but it has been good for the department overall."

Kotsoros denied that such a drop o ccu rred , arg u in g that indeed, in the first year, the department made the mistake of handling the product orders itself instead of going through a retail­ er, but noting that there had been no net loss to individual teams.

"What happened was that we took it upon ourselves to order equipment." he stated. "It wasn’t that there was a loss of product — everybody got more product than they had before — they got it late, which was a problem.”

Raimondo disagreed, argu­ ing that his team in fact received less.

"T hat’s all smoke. I t’s not reality," said Raimondo. "It’s a fact, Redm en soccer gets less than they had b efo re." He exaplained that his statem ents were not a matter of bitterness, only a want to clarify the facts.

Frustration has grown in the d ep artm en t over the last two years. Since the Adidas deal was signed, few other major sponsors have been found who have a

d irec t im p act on team s.

M eanwhile, the school has hosted three efficient, but not outstanding, national cham­ pionships and has yet to reap the b e n e fits. G iven the opportunity to shine in the McGill and M ontreal com ­ m u n ities, the school fell short.

Almost all of the deals follow ing the Adidas con­ tract have benefited individ­ Patrick Fok T h e a d id a s lo g o is lit e r a lly a n d fig u r a tiv e ly b e h in d th e R e d m e n ual teams only indirectly.

T h is, she argued, w ould Last year, for example, the incurred by establishing a mar­ allow teams to find extra funds to departm ent signed a collective keting department. pay their assistant coaches more agreement with a bus company to C oach es, h o w ev er, argue and to play m ore com petitive provide discounted fares across that the net benefits have had teams in exhibition play. In turn, the board. Coaches have argued playing more competitive teams that the savings, while beneficial minimal impact.

Of the other new or expand­ in the preseason would mean a to the department, have as yet not been translated into benefits for ed paijnerships within the depart- better changce of advancing in mqg(* Iflaly the one with Adidas the playoffs. individual teams.

“I’d like to see more [spon­ has had an impact on teams' bot­ D irector of A thletics Bob Dubeau, how ever, argued that tom line budgets, several coaches sorship). I’m a coach who says that w e’re yet not operating at savings will be incurred for both noted.

Redmen football head coach the funding that we need to be the department and the teams.

Part of the problem may be Charlie Baillie, entering his 28th operating at 100 per cent,” said that sp o n so rsh ip inform ation year at the helm, confirmed that Moore. “The things that w e’re m issing [are] not n ecessarily does not flow freely to the coach­ his team hasn't seen much effect. equipment. What we need... is to Other coaches concur. es. Aside from the Adidas con­ “I don’t know who has been bring in dollar value so that we trac t, signed tw o years ago, coaches find it difficult to see brought on and who has benefit­ can pay our assistant coaches e d ,” said track & field coach more money [tol get individuals where impacts have been made..

"1 don’t think any coaches Dennis Barrett. "We haven’t got­ who can give a major com m it­ have seen a sponsorship budget," ten any [new sp o n so rsh ip ]. I ment to us.”

M oore’s statem ents eec o said Raimondo. His statem ents guess there was a perception that throughout the department. Every were confirmed by other coaches. if you bring in marketing there coach has ideas o f how o w ill be a p o sitiv e effec t," he Moreover. Kotsoros’ list of : improve their programs, but ea h added, referring to the opportuni­ 15 sponsors, or partners’ as he calls them, includes some which ty he feels the department had in require money.

- The d ep artm en t’s m ission are neither. Global Television, hosting two consecutive national statem ent is to field nationally according to Dubeau. gives the championships in 1999 and 2000. co m p etitiv e team s. D ubeau "Women’s basketball has not department virtually nothing. The explained that winning national necessarily benefited from the extent of their relationship is free broadcast rights for football last marketing office being in place,” championships is not an explicit seaso n . T he G overnm ent of said M oore. “ I t ’s not a co m ­ g o al set iby the B oard of Quebec, which despite sponsor­ plaint, it’s just reality. Has the A th le tic s, statin g that team s ing the re cen t trac k & field department of athletics benefit­ would continue to exist whether n atio n al ch a m p io n sh ip for ed? Yes. Is our profile higher...? they win titles or not. The main $1,500, will sponsor any nation­ Yes. Is everybody going to be goal of the intercollegeiate pro­ gram, moreover, is to give quali­ al cham pionship, no questions happy with a change? No.” ty student-athletes the opportuni­ asked. ty to improve and grow as a part Dubeau explained that many L o o k in g f o r w a r d of McGill Athletics. of the sponsors with the depart­ Having divided its team clas­ ment do affect teams, but in more Moore com m ented on the sification into three categories, indirect fashions. A deal with the opportunity for improvement.

Grand Bayou cafe, for example, She argued, first, that any level-1 and level-2 funding, and brought money and food to the plan should be given a five-year non-funded, the department set track nationals. Via Rail's deal period to fulfill its entire man­ out its p rio ritie s. But now , a also only affected the nationals date. But moreover, she suggest­ decade later and having accom­ through a number of free train ed that given the breadth of work plished their goal, the objectives tickets. The Royal Bank, a long­ assigned to the marketing depart­ have to change in order to meet time sponsor, gives funds which ment, a line could be drawn to the goal. Having made the proac­ go to what Dubeau called a 'gen­ give coaches some m obility to tive move of creating a market­ eral m arketing fund.' He noted seek sm aller a d v e rtise rs. ing and promotions department, that each year, the departm ent Amounts under $500, she argued, the focus now must be on win­ has to raise half a million dollars might be plausible for coaches to ning championships. Since 1987, to open the doors. The totals a ttra c t as they did b efo re, to only one team has won a title — brought in at this point, however, allow Kotsoros to concentrate on the Redmen soccer team. have yet to cover the expenses the larger deals.

Sports

Sw

The McG ill Tribune, Tuesday, 28 March 2000

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im m in g

T r ib u n e

A th le te

o f th e

Y e a r fin a lis ts

D a v id A lla r d

S a r a h A li- K h a n

The second-year swimmer from Dorval, Quebec was named the province’s swimmer of the year and won a gold medal in the 200 metre individual medley at the CIAU nationals. Last year’s winner of the D. Stuart Forbes trophy as McGill’s Male Athlete of the Year won four gold medals at the QSSF championships and helped the Redmen swim team to a second place finish at the provinicials.

The second-year graduate student was named the CIAU track and field athlete of the year. Ali-Khan’s gold in the 1500 m and silver in the 1000 m helped the Martlets to a surprising 8th place finish at the nationals held three weeks ago at the McGill Fieldhouse. During the fall in cross­ country, she also won a gold at the provincials and was named the conference’s runner of the year, and earned all-Canadian status.

O li v i e r L e f e b v r e

B r ia n n e L a w

V ersatile m iddle-linebacker O llie Lefebvre capped off his outstanding Redmen football career with a remarkable senior season. Lefebvre lead the O-QIFC for the second straight year with 84 tackles. In the process, he snapped J.P Darche’s all time career tackles record of 276. Lefebvre’s best game came on October 8th against Bishop’s when he set the all-time McGill record for tackles in a game with 17.5. The two time McGill Adidas athlete of the week was the conference nominee for the Russ Jackson trophy combining excellence in athletics, academics and community service.

Law, a freshmen skiier, had a tremendous season on the slopes racing for McGill. Law won six races in slalom and giant slalom during the season, and helped propel McGill to its first provincial cham­ pionship since 1994. Law won a gold and silver medal at the provincial championships held at Mont Original, and possesses a good shot of grac­ ing the winners podium at the CIAU champi­ onships at Stoneham near Quebec City this week­ end.

M a t h ie u D a r c h e

E v a M e la m e d

Darche had one of the most memorable seasons in recent McGill athletic history. Darche became only the second Redmen since George Burnett in 1982 to lead the nation in scoring. He tallied 62 points in 26 regular season games. Darche’s value to the Redmen this season goes beyond mere sta­ tistics. The emotional leader of the team with a tremendous work-ethic, Darche displayed great courage in the play-offs by playing against UQTR in the finals with a tom medial collateral ligament in his knee. Darche was recently named as a CIAU all-Canadian, and also won the TSN Randy Gregg Award for combining excellence in athletics, aca­ demics and community service.

A second-year striker and co-captain of the Martlets soccer team, she led the country in scor­ ing and was named a first team all-Canadian. She scored 16 goals in 10 games, and broke the McGill single-season scoring record with 27 in 17 games despite suffering an ankle injury late in the year. In addition to her regular season heroics, Melamed scored three goals at the nationals and was named a tournament all-star.

R e h a n A li

K im S t . P ie r r e

The third-year m idfielder and captain of the Redmen soccer team was the league’s MVP and was a first team All-Canadian. A graduating play­ er from Beaconsfield, Quebec led the Redmen to the provincial championship after being named game MVP in their championship final win over UQAM, and was second in the province in scoring during the regular season with five goals.

St.Pierre had another banner season between the pipes for the Martlets. The sophomore Canadian national team member backstopped the Martlets to their best finish ever - a silver medal at the national championships hosted by Concordia.

During the season, St.Pierre registered a .938 save percentage and a stingy 2.28 goals against average including three shut-outs.

K ir k R e id

J u lia S c r a s e

A second year captain from Chateuguay, Quebec, he was named as a first team QSSF all-star. It was a step up from his second team status of last year. This season he led the team in scoring and was in the top ten in the league. His play and leadership ability was at the heart of the Redmen’s suprise run to game three of the provincial finals against the Concordia Stingers.

The second-year defender was named MVP of the Quebec University Soccer League and was a firstteam all-Canadian. She was the backbone of the defence of the QSSF champion Martlets, and scored two goals including one in the league finals. McGill’s version of Bo Jackson, Scrase also competed with the McGill track and field team during the winter, and won a silver medal with the 4x200 relay team at the provincials.

Vote online at: http://tribune.mcgill.ca

The McG ill Tribune, Tuesday, 28 March 2000

M c G ill f o o t b a ll b a n q u e t c e le b r a te s

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L e f e b v r e r e c o g n iz e d b y t e a m m a t e s a t f o r s e t t in g a ll- t im e M c G ill t a c k l e s r e c o r d Lefebvre wasn’t the only fifth smooth transition from defensive team, led the Redmen this year year senior to be honoured on lineman to offensive guard this with seven knockdowns, and also For five years, Ollie Lefebvre Saturday. Graduating fifth year year. He also scored a memorable tallied 25 tackles, one interception played his heart out for the Redmen linebacker Shawn Koch from touchdown against Windsor a la and a fumble recovery.

Canadian InterB a 1g o n i e , football team.

Collegiate Athletics Fittingly, Lefebvre capped off Saskatchewan was Union second team his university career by being hon­ the recipient of the All-Canadian Randy oured at the 16th annual McGill Northern-Telecom Chevrier was present­ B aillie football banquet held at the Ritz- C harlie ed with the Fred Trophy as the best Carlton Hotel on Saturday night.

W igle M em orial Lefebvre, a second year mas­ team player.

Trophy as most The 23 yearters student in aerospace sportsmanlike player.

Engineering, was aw arded the old physical educa­ C hevrier, the Friends of McGill football trophy tion student had 32 lone returning co-capas the team’s best defensive player. tackles in eight tain next year, was a He was also presented with a spe­ gam es, including dominating force for cial trophy by his teammates for 17 solo, two quar­ McGill in the ‘99 sea­ breaking the all-time Redmen tack­ terback sacks and son, racking up 28 les record. Lefebvre who led three tackles for tackles, including McGill with 84 tackles this season, loss. He was also seven solos, five for a eclipsed former teammate Jean- instrum ental to loss and one sack. He McGill’s success as Philippe Darche’s mark of 276. also served double “ Most of my career I was an inspirational duty as the team ’s overshadowed by Darche. It’s nice leader in the dress­ long snapper on punt­ to be honoured to n ig h t,” said ing room. ing.

“It feels really Lefebvre, the conference nominee “It was unexpect­ for the Russ Jackson Trophy com­ great to win an ed to win the award, bining excellence in athletics, acad­ award here tonight, but it’s nice to be hon­ emics and community service. “It’s the aura of the ban­ oured and recognized extra special to be recognized by quet was something by the team ,” said the players who voted on the special and its great Chevrier who will be awards. I’m really touched by the to be recognized counted on to play a extra award given to me for break­ and part of such a strong leadership role ing the tackles record. The guys on proud trad itio n ,” next season. “Our their own initiative went and got said Koch. “At the team this year showed you the trophy and that really means a beginning character in bouncing come here and lot to me.” back from a tough For Lefebvre, who is graduat­ struggle to find a start. W e’ve got a ing in less than a month, the awards place on the team, good of young banquet was a chance to reflect but i t ’s really all 1 6 t h a n n u a l f o o t b a l l b a n q u e t playersmix and some vet­ nostalgically on his Redmen career. come together for R IT Z CA RLTO N H O TEL, SATURDAY M A R C H 25, 2000 erans like m yself “It’s a really nice evening, and me this year. I have returning. We’ve just its great to share it with the 1950 no regrets. My best got to finish well and win the close team,” said Lefebvre. “The last five memories from university are on William “The Refrigerator” Perry.

Other awards winners on the ones.” years on the team have been the the team, and my best friends are evening included speedy defensive greatest years for me. I’ve made here on the Redmen.”

G raduating senior M artin back Greg Shink, who received the lasting friendships on the team, and L o o k in g a h e a d I know we’ll always keep in touch. Denault was also honoured, receiv­ W illie Lam bert Trophy as the I’m proud of what I accomplished ing the Touchdown trophy as the team’s most dedicated player.

Among those expected to lead Shink, a junior who runs the here, and hope I was a role model team ’s m ost valuable linem an. the way next season will be sopho­ to some of the younger guys who Denault, a 6-foot 2, 277 pound 40 yard dash in 4.3 seconds and more Philippe Couillard, recipient native of Beloeil, Quebec made a also competes for the McGill track will carry on the tradition.” of the newly re-named Vic and Lois Obeck Memorial trophy as the team’s most improved player.

C ouillard, a third stringer entering the season, replaced an injured Josh Sommerfeldt as the Fred Dupre Memorial Trophy - Nick Hoffmann, RB team ’s starting quarterback, and Awarded to the Rookie o f the Year helped engineer several spectacular McGill comebacks, including a last-minute 11-10 victory against Touchdown Trophy - Martin Denault, OG

By Jeremy Kuzmarov

Redmen Football Award Winners

Awarded to the Most Valuable Lineman

Willie Lambert Trophy - Greg Shink, DB Awarded to the Most Dedicated Player

Bishop’s on October 8th.

R unning-back Nick Hoffmann, who was awarded on Saturday with the Fred Dupre memorial Trophy as rookie of the year is another blue-chipper return­ ing next season.

Hoffmann, a 21 year old engi­ neering major, led the team in ‘99 with four touchdowns, and was third in rushing with 302 yards.

Redmen fans are hoping that his 96-yard effort in the play-offs against Ottawa will be a sign of things to come for next season.

“I’m looking forward to next season,” said Hoffmann. “We had a strong rookie class this year, and we’re gonna make an impact in the future.”

The awards banquet on Saturday was also an opportunity for coach Charlie Baillie to show­ case some of the top recruits for next season.

“Last year nine of the nineteen guys showcased at the banquet chose McGill,” said Chevrier. “The best part of the weekend is that the recruits get to meet the whole team.

They stay with players, and get a sense of the tradition of the pro­ gram, and the type of guys they’ll be playing with if they choose to play for McGill.”

While the future of McGill football was on display, ultimately the evening belonged to the seniors. All fourth year players, some returning, some not, were presented with a plaque for their dedication to the program, and all graduating fifth year seniors were given a Red ‘n White jersey to wear.

“Anyone who plays university football for five years deserves a tremendous amount of credit,” said coach Baillie addressing the crowd.

“These guys have been through many early m orning practices, many intense games, and a lot of pressure. They deserve respect for their accomplishments.”

And while sad to leave the program, as Lefebvre, speaking on behalf of all of the seniors attested: “W e’re not football players any­ more, but we’ll be Redmen forev­ er.”

Graduates, O looking for a career £

Vic and Lois Obek Trophy - Philiipe Couillard, GB

Consider Occupational and Public Health

Awarded to the Most Improved Player

2 y e a rs o f stu d y = a ca re e r prom oting h u m an en viro nm en tal

h e alth an d safety

Fred Wigle Memorial Trophy - Randy Chevrier, DL Awarded to the Most Sportsmanlike Player

Northern Telecom Charlie Baillie Trophy - Shawn Koch, LB Awarded to the Best Team Player

Friends of McGill Football Trophy - Olivier Lefebvre, MLB Awarded to the Best Defensive Player

The Students Society Trophy Will be presented to the Most Valuable Player at the Athletics Awards Gala on April 7th.

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E Y E B S O N

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The McG ill Tribune, Tuesday, 28 March 2000

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A f t e r 5 0 y e a r s , f r i e n d s h ip s a n d m e m o r ie s o f f o r m e r R e d m e n s t ill r u n d e e p B y Jeremy K u z m a r o v

As a local high school area football player, McGill head coach Charlie Baillie looked up to the 1949 and 1950 Redmen football teams as role models.

Fifty years later, he had the privilege of recognizing their efforts at the 16th annual Friends of McGill Football Awards banquet held at the Ritz-Carlton hotel last Saturday.

“Shorty” Fairhead, one of the Redmen quarterbacks on the 1949 and 1950 squads addressed the crowd on behalf of his teammates.

“Those were some great times,” said Fairhead, who despite his diminutive stature was an explo­ sive player. “Playing football at McGill was the greatest experience of my life. The memories have last­ ed me a lifetime. There were some real quality people on those teams both as players, and individuals off the field.”

The post-war era of McGill football was a unique time. With veterans from World War II back at home, admissions to McGill sky­ rocketed in the late ‘40s. In 1947, Vic Obeck, a former pro-star with the Chicago Cardinals, was hired as the new football coach. Infusing a great deal of energy into his posi­ tion, Obeck, a US navy veteran, did a great deal to promote the game amongst the student body.

Writing in the McGill News

and holding pep rallies, Obeck sparked huge crowds at Molson Stadium which was renovated to include 2,000 additional bleacher seats.

For the players, playing in front of thousands of fans at a capacity filled Molson Stadium was a major thrill.

The 1949 Redmen, aided by the addition of five former Calgary Stampeders players, provided a great deal of excitement before bowing out in the semi-finals to Western.

Playing in front of 21,000 fans in their home opener in 1950, McGill knocked off the defending champions W estern 22-6. In an emotional play off rematch before 23,000 supporters at Molson stadi­ um. the team was eliminated.

Their struggles in the post-sea­ son don’t diminish the accomplish­ ments of the 1949 and 50 Redmen.

The team produced many league all­ stars, and several players went on to play professionally in the Canadian Football League.

Back together on Saturday for the first time in a half-decade, it was a chance for members of the team to renew old friendships and recount old memories from the “golden era” of McGill football. Reminiscing after the banquet in a separate gettogether, the former Redmen talked about Johnny “W rong W ay” Newman running towards his own

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goal after a key interception in a game against the U niversity of Toronto Varsity Blues. They also recounted stories of Vic Obeck, their late coach, who had a profound influence on many of their lives, and talked about old game memories, their adventures in college, and the whereabouts of those who couldn’t make it to the banquet.

Though looking a little older and more fragile then in their play­ ing days, the former Redmen, most­ ly in their mid-70s, still possess the intensity and sharp-wit of their uni­ versity days.

“It’s really special after all of these years to get together,” said former running-back John Rogers.

“It’s about the whole damn team that came here tonight, and that’s something remarkable. Its a pleasant surprise. It was a different era of football back then. The guys are a lot bigger today, but we were tough, and we had a great time here at McGill.”

For members of the current Redmen football team, having the

old-timers around at the banquet made the importance of the evening seem that much more pronounced.

“The 1950s was a great era of football at McGill, and it’s really something to have all these guys together again at the banquet. It really adds to the aura of the evening, and displays the proud tra­ dition of McGill football,” said McGill co-captain Randy Chevrier.

While there are many striking differences between the brand of football played in the two eras, the huge crowds in 1949 and 1950 are something which Chevrier and his teammates wish could return.

“It must have been something for these guys to have played in front of such big crowds of over 20,000. Its too bad there’s not a lot of awareness of the football team now at McGill because we’ve got a great product,” said Chevrier.

“We’ve played in front of some big crowds on the road, at Queen’s for example, but it would be really great to play in front of a packed Molson Stadium next year.”

Sports

The McG ill Tribune, Tuesday, 28 March 2000

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p e r fe c t b a la n c e

F o r m e r n a t io n a l s k i a c a d e m y m e m b e r s t a r s f o r M c G ill a n d h e lp s s k i t e a m c la im p r o v in c ia l c h a m p io n s h ip B y Je r e m y K u z m a r o v

W hile only a freshm en at McGill, Brianne Law is an experi­ enced veteran on the ski slopes.

A form er m em ber of the N ational Ski A cadem y in Collingwood, Ontario, Law has made her presence felt as a rookie on the university ski circuit this season. Capturing gold and silver medals at the Provincial champi­ onships at Mont Original, Law’s finish helped McGill capture its first league championship in six years. Law was consistent all sea­ son for McGill, winning six races overall in both Slalom and Giant Slalom.

“It was so exciting to win the championship,” exclaimed Law on Friday. “It was awesome for the whole team. When they were announcing the final standings at the h ill, they paused a while before they could o ffic ia lly declare us the winners. The dif­ ference in points between us and l ’U n iv ersite de M ontreal was 49.76 points out of a possible 7,000 which in the larger scheme of things is virtually nothing.”

For Law, success at the uni­ versity level isn’t surprising con­ sidering her background.

Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Law first donned skis as a toddler.

While the range of ski hills near her home-town is lim ited, Law developed her skills on the slopes of New York state where her fam­ ily owned a cottage. By the time

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she was in Grade 11, Law was enrolled in the N ational Ski Academy which produces many of C an ad a’s elite skiers and Olympians.

school for four months in the fall and in the summer. We traveled around com peting all over the place, and often faced Europeans and top junior International com­

“It was a tremendous learning experience for me at the acade­ my,” said Law who competed for Team O ntario at the C anada W inter Games last year. “The training was super-intense. We basically focused on skiing and trained full-time. We only went to

petition. The approximately 30 of us training together developed a strong rapport and became very close.”

While many of her peers con­ tinued with skiing full tim, with aspirations of competing for the Canadian National team , Law, with an eye on the future, decided to enroll at McGill this past fall in the faculty of science.

While skiing is still a major part of her life, it isn’t quite as

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Room to rent, no view, ugly neighbourhood and wicked guard.

Perfect for the summer.

s e

O r ig in a l S h o r t S to ry an d P o etry R e a d in g s

April 2nd, 7-10pm Chapters Bookstore, 1171 St. Catherine West provided by the Students' Society of McGill University

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dominant as when she was train­ ing at the academy.

“Competing at McGill for me is a good way to ease out of the sport,” said Law. “ The training isn’t nearly as intense here as it was at the academy where it was my entire life.

For me this is the perfect balance. I still have a passion for the sport, and love to compete, but I have other interests.”

For Law, the m ost enjoyable aspect of ski­ ing for McGill is the cam a­ raderie aspect on the team.

While ski­ ing is consid­ ered to be an in d i v id u a l sport, Law attrib u tes a key factor to her success this sea­ son, to the support which she has received from her teammates.

“There’s a great team spirit prevalent, and a real team feel­ ing,” said Law. “That’s what has made this year really fun. I have made some really close friends on the team, and as a unit we have bonded and meshed well.

While the thrill of competi­ tion is ultimately what motivates her, the social aspect of skiing is

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for Law one of the underlying benefits of racing competitively..

“Skiing is the best university sport because you actually become friends with your oppo­ nents, not just your teammates.

W hile races on Saturdays and Sundays occupy m ost of the week-end, there’s time for some partying at night,” said Law. “ Its always the same schools compet­ ing. Every week-end we stay in the same hotels with the other team s, and we have gotten to know each other well. While the three english schools - us, Concordia and Bishops have been close from the beginning, I think the barriers are being lifted with the French schools - like S herbrooke, U n iv ersité de Montreal, and Laval.”

With her week-ends extreme­ ly hectic, the most difficult aspect of university life for Law is find­ ing the time to study. With team p ractices taking place on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Law is forced to buckle down and hit the books during most of her spare time during the week.

“Its nearly impossible to get anything done over the week-end with all of the excitement, and weeks fly by, but you find the time,” said Law, “Because you’re always pressed to get things done, you end up being more efficient with your time. It helps that I have my own apartment and have a quiet place to study when I get home. I ’m happy I don’t live in rez.”

Because of her success this year, Law is a virtual lock to be named to the Canadian Team for the World University Games to be held in Poland next February.

While proud of all the individual accolades, Law is currently most focused on helping McGill place well at the Canadian Inter-colle­ giate A thletics Union cham pi­ onships taking place this week­ end at Stoneham near Quebec City.

“I know some of the racers from the Academy and am confi­ dent of my chances.” said Law. “Our team in general is looking good. On the girls side we have three really strong racers includ­ ing Shaunna Burke and Lauren Head and are hoping for a strong showing.”

While some of the top McGill racers w ill be graduating this spring, Law represents the bright future of the M cGill ski team.

With three years left of eligibility, Law is looking forward to contin­ uing to race for McGill and to help the team remain a force on the Quebec university ski circuit.

Having so much fun competing at McGill, Law seems to be making the most of her university experi­ ence. And for that, the McGill ski team, provincial champions, are grateful.

Jane Jacobs will be at the McGill Bookstore Café (2nd floor) Tuesday, April 4th, 6:00pm

IMAGINING BASEBALL

by David McGim psey

BOOK LAUNCH

M cG ill B o o k sto re C a fé W ed n esd a y , A p ril 5th 5 :3 0 p m

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