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Virtually unnoticed by much of the McGill population, there are 650 talented music students that study and perform in a variety of ensembles at the Faculty of Music. One of these ensembles, the McGill Symphony Orchestra, performed its first concert of the 1999-2000 season last Friday at Pollack Hall. This year will be unique for the orchestra because their regular conductor, Timothy Vernon, is on leave for the year. Instead, the group will be led by a series of five guest conductors, the first being Victor Feldbrill. Chris Mayer, the principal bassoonist, is excited about this prospect. “It will give us the opportuni ty to experience different conduct ing styles,” he said. Julie M acLaine, a cellist, enjoyed working with Feldbrill. “He focused as much on the posi tive as the negative,” she explained. “He created a wonder ful, positive environment.” Feldbrill has worked with sev eral prestigious orchestras in the past, including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Luxembourg Radio Orchestra and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Before the concert, Feldbrill had the opportunity to discuss Friday’s program. It consisted of Mozart’s “Overture” to the opera D ie Z auberflote, Edward Elgar’s “Enigma Variations,” and the 9th Symphony of Antonin Dvorak, “From the New World.” These selections are not only guaranteed crowd pleasers, but also offer a pleasing mix of styles and periods. “Two of the works ( ‘The Enigma Variations’ and ‘From the New W orld’ ) are from the
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Sunday in the park
CSIS gets smart with terrorist groups at McGill B y J . K elly N e s t r u c k
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has recently acquired the power to hire inform ers to spy on terrorist activities on university campuses without the approval of the Solicitor General. Various student groups are up in arms about a new policy which allows the CSIS director to direct undercover operations on campus without the prior approval of the Solicitor-General. Eric Abitbol, co-ordinator of Cantilevers, a peace-building group affiliated with the Quebec Public Interest Research Group at McGill, is one of those upset by the recent amend ment to the CSIS Act. “Paying informers in universi ties undermines the possibility of inclusivity and trust,” Abitbol explained. “The whole purpose of a university is for people to get together and to explore all sorts of sources and to consider diverse the ory. To limit that threatens the diversityofsociety.” The C SIS Act has always allowed the use of human sources in certain circumstances. The only
difference now is the decision can be made without consulting a high er authority in the government. Dan Lambert, spokesperson for C SIS, feels that a National Post article on the new policy exagger ated the truth. “There is a strict accountabili ty regime,” he asserted. Lambert confirmed that the CSIS director may now order an undercover operation on a campus without the prior approval of the SolicitorGeneral, but “only in respect to an urgent situation, a very serious threat.” He explained that the CSIS act prohibits the spying on of lawful activist or advocacy groups, as well as protests that are conducted law fully. The spy agency only investi gates the planning of terrorist activ ities involving violence and the leaking of intelligence — not the brain drain, but classified informa tion. “Unless you’re planning on using politically motivated force, there is nothing to worry about,” Lambert said. None o f this, however, assured Abitbol. “There’s the idea
that we’re monitoring the potential for terrorist organization,” he said. “The government’s decided that that’s a priority and that universi ties potentially harbour criminal minds. That sort of thought has been used by the Chinese govern ment. And we’ve seen what that resulted in: Tianneman Square,” he said.
T e a c h e r s a ls o t a r g e t s It is not just student activists who are worried about C S IS ’ s enhanced powers. The Canadian Association of University Teachers has long been involved with block ing C SIS access to campuses. In 1963, CAUT formed an agreement with Canada’ s spy agency on guidelines for C SIS activities on campus, which includ ed the prohibition of general sur veillance of campuses. The recent change allowing undercover sources is seen by the professor’s association as a break with the agreement reached 36 years ago. Jim Turk, executive director of CAUT, has his doubts about whether or not CSIS is holding up
its end of the 1963 agreement up. CAUT ism eeting with CSIS today but has not been granted an interview ith the Solicitor General as of yet. “It appears that this new act would now allow the director of CSIS to engage in these operations [on campus] and tell the Solicitor General after the fact,” said Turk. “If that is the case, then we’re out raged. right now, the Solicitor General refuses to meet with us. He obviously wants to dodge this. CSIS and security forces roaming around on campus can havea really negative impact.” Abitbol feels that CSIS pres ence, even if rarely used, may inhibit students and teachers and keep them from speaking out. “It’s a delicate form of psy chological pressure,” he said. “If you had every student at McGill aware of [the use of human sources], who knows what sort of repercussions that would actually have on the way we’re taught, on the way we’re prepared to engage other people with our thoughts.” Lambert asserted that C SIS is
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